Our last full day in the city was the only one that we had real sightseeing plans and they mainly involved a walking tour of the city at 2:30. Until then, we just walked around and had coffee and waffles. We had actually managed to see most of the main sights around Brussels by ourselves already but really wanted to take the tour to learn the history of what we had been admiring from afar for the past few days. Before the tour we bought more chocolate (shock!) and actually found a new part of town that we hadn't walked in yet. It seemed like a more affluent area with lots of high end artifact stores (the city seemed overly found of African carvings, Asian bowls and any stuffed game animal) chocolatiers and flower shops. We walked though an antique market that was full of all the aforementioned interesting collectors items plus china dishes, clocks, a horse skeleton, two replicas of "David", a zebra skin, and chandeliers galore.
The walking tour came around and of course, it started raining harder than it had all day. The next four hours (four hours! It was such a long time.) we're spent listening to n interesting man talk about Brussels and how it became a country, beer, chocolate, French fries, wars, and lots of important guys named Leopold. At 6:30, we were exhausted, thoroughly damp and chilled to the bone, so we ran into the first restaurant we saw with two girls we met on the tour for a traditional Belgian meal and Belgian beer. The meal was meatballs with apple syrup sauce and the beer was something I can't pronounce but very tasty (not as good as German beer though. German beer will be hard to top I think). Katlin had a beer called Kriek, a cherry beer that is a class all it's own for good reason, since it tasted like a bit of cherry heaven. After dinner, waffles followed (of course) and we eventually said goodbye to our new friends, although they are both going to be in Amsterdam when we are going to be, so we hope to meet up with them again. Brussels may not have made it quite to the top of the list as a city with Prague, Florence and Barcelona but it definitely has some parts that have made it to my "best of" list, like best food that wasn't a real meal (chocolate, waffles, French fries) and best city square (the grand place, where the flower carpet happens every few years, is a open square surrounded by gilded buildings and grand halls, coffee and waffle shops, museums and city buildings). Brussels certainly gets a thumbs up (mostly a sincere thumbs up, but sometimes, like when we finally found the little peeing man, it was a sarcastic thumbs up) from me!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Easter in Brussels
After spreading all of my bag out in the hotel room (and not caring about it because we don't have roommates!) we ventured out for the city center without any real plans in mind accept to find a waffle. We managed to make it down to what seemed like the main part of town, and eventually found a waffle stand where we got a waffle with hot chocolate sauce on it! There was a chocolate shop next to the waffle stand (we had no idea at this point how many chocolate shops there were in Brussels) do of course we had to go in. The next few hours are blur of streets, markets, chocolate shops (every shop gives you free samples...did I mention that?) and french fry stands. When we felt like we had covered enough ground to justify going home, we went back to the hotel to relax before deciding what to do for dinner.
Turns out we didn't want to venture far from our hotel room (I'm ashamed how much I enjoyed laying on a bed in front of a tv for a while) so we went across the street to a grocery market thing where we got salami, cheese, a loaf of bread, chips, waffles, the most delicious spread in the world called speculous spread (like spice cookies all mashed up in a peanut butter consistency. It would make week old stale bread wonderful), and a coke. We gathered our supplies and had a picnic on the floor of the room while watching some American show that had been dubbed over in French and went to bed happy campers at 11.
The next morning was Easter Sunday and so we wanted to get out and attend a service at one of the churched in town. It was such a wonderful way to spend the morning and even though the service was in French and Dutch, it was still comforting and calming. The only word in English the whole time were "Christ has risen" and "happy Easter " but those are about all you need I suppose. My favorite part was when you turn and greet your neighbor. It was a joyful few minutes, turning this way and that to say hello and shake hands with everyone around us, all strangers of different languages but united by the place we were in and the holiday we were celebrating.
After service, we wandered around some more in search of the famous Mannekin Pis, the small statue of a peeing boy. At the time, we didn't know why he was famous but we knew we should probably find him and see what the fuss was all about. Turns out, the fuss is over nothing. The boy is about a meter tall and its just on a corner in a touristy neighborhood. A national landmark? Maybe. Interesting? No so much. We aimed to soothe our disappointment in chocolate and it was precisely what we did. It may say a lot about what I really associate with Easter, but the chocolate stores smelled just like Easter, even at home. It was uncanny. The chocolate tasted a hundred times better though. They say it's from the fact that they only melt the coco butter and chocolate once but whatever it is, the Belgians do it right. Dark, milk, white. Mixed with nuts, carmel, cookies, fruit. Pralines, truffles, Squares. In the shape of bunnies, chicks, eggs. If its Belgian, I will eat it. Nom. Nom. Nom.
Bags of chocolate in hand, we went out to find another Belgian tressure: french fries. It sounds strange, but the French fry was invented here and then in the first world war when Americans were here and first tasted the snack, they were mostly sold by frenchmen in Belgium, ergo, the "French" fry. Here they are special because they are still fried in animal fat and fried twice! The first time is at some lower temperature and then renee you order them, they fry them again to make them extra crispy and addicting. They serve them in a paper cone if you are taking them to go, or in a paper boat with a teeny tiny fork if you are eating at the stand. The cherry on top is actually the sauce. Normal ketchup will just not do, so there are about 8 different options, all mayonnaise based. We ask for a recommendation and got the "kind of spicy" one and it was scrumptious. After more sightseeing (or looking at the outside of things since most places we closed) we went back to the hotel and again settled in for a picnic and a little bit of tv watching (BBC nature documentaries mostly) before another great night of warm, soft, uninterrupted sleep.
Turns out we didn't want to venture far from our hotel room (I'm ashamed how much I enjoyed laying on a bed in front of a tv for a while) so we went across the street to a grocery market thing where we got salami, cheese, a loaf of bread, chips, waffles, the most delicious spread in the world called speculous spread (like spice cookies all mashed up in a peanut butter consistency. It would make week old stale bread wonderful), and a coke. We gathered our supplies and had a picnic on the floor of the room while watching some American show that had been dubbed over in French and went to bed happy campers at 11.
The next morning was Easter Sunday and so we wanted to get out and attend a service at one of the churched in town. It was such a wonderful way to spend the morning and even though the service was in French and Dutch, it was still comforting and calming. The only word in English the whole time were "Christ has risen" and "happy Easter " but those are about all you need I suppose. My favorite part was when you turn and greet your neighbor. It was a joyful few minutes, turning this way and that to say hello and shake hands with everyone around us, all strangers of different languages but united by the place we were in and the holiday we were celebrating.
After service, we wandered around some more in search of the famous Mannekin Pis, the small statue of a peeing boy. At the time, we didn't know why he was famous but we knew we should probably find him and see what the fuss was all about. Turns out, the fuss is over nothing. The boy is about a meter tall and its just on a corner in a touristy neighborhood. A national landmark? Maybe. Interesting? No so much. We aimed to soothe our disappointment in chocolate and it was precisely what we did. It may say a lot about what I really associate with Easter, but the chocolate stores smelled just like Easter, even at home. It was uncanny. The chocolate tasted a hundred times better though. They say it's from the fact that they only melt the coco butter and chocolate once but whatever it is, the Belgians do it right. Dark, milk, white. Mixed with nuts, carmel, cookies, fruit. Pralines, truffles, Squares. In the shape of bunnies, chicks, eggs. If its Belgian, I will eat it. Nom. Nom. Nom.
Bags of chocolate in hand, we went out to find another Belgian tressure: french fries. It sounds strange, but the French fry was invented here and then in the first world war when Americans were here and first tasted the snack, they were mostly sold by frenchmen in Belgium, ergo, the "French" fry. Here they are special because they are still fried in animal fat and fried twice! The first time is at some lower temperature and then renee you order them, they fry them again to make them extra crispy and addicting. They serve them in a paper cone if you are taking them to go, or in a paper boat with a teeny tiny fork if you are eating at the stand. The cherry on top is actually the sauce. Normal ketchup will just not do, so there are about 8 different options, all mayonnaise based. We ask for a recommendation and got the "kind of spicy" one and it was scrumptious. After more sightseeing (or looking at the outside of things since most places we closed) we went back to the hotel and again settled in for a picnic and a little bit of tv watching (BBC nature documentaries mostly) before another great night of warm, soft, uninterrupted sleep.
Almost
After we got back from Dachau, we were exhausted and didn't want to do much of anything, but we still needed to pick up a few things in town before heading back to the hostel. Turns out, everything in Munich closes for Easter. Everything. Most restaurants, all the little shops that have great German made things, clothing stores, even the McDonald's. All closed. So we were a little concerned and off put because we couldn't get the things that we had planned on buying and we were worried that nothing would be open for dinner. We headed back to the hostel and decided to put a load of laundry in the smaller washer we had ever seen and catch up on emails and whatnot. After the wash was done and we put it in the smallest dryer ever (seriously, this is a hostel with probably 300 people in it and the washer/dryer was the size of a 5 gallon bucket. Poor planning!) and ran out to get some dinner (a "kebab", which is actually a sandwich made from meat that they shave off of a huge chunk rotating on a stick. Weird but so very tasty). Not wanting to be terribly anti social, we down in the common area to eat and met three girls that had just gotten into town. We exchanged our life stories in about half and hour before they needed to go to dinner, so we suggested Augustiners and we ended up deciding to go with them to get a beer and hang out.
Here is the first "almost" of the next twenty four hours. Since it was raining, we had to run upstairs to get our jackets and on the way up, I happened to remember our laundry that had finished drying about fifteen minutes ago. We grabbed it, spread it on the bed to finish drying (shocker...the small dryer wasn't good at drying clothes!) and had a good laugh. What if we had left the next morning without all of our socks and underwear? Haha!
After a beer and more pretzels, we said our goodbyes and went back to pack since we had a 6:45am train to catch to Brussels. Skip to 6:00 the next morning and me groggily waking up, checking my watch, checking it again, counting the place where the six hand should be and finally realizing that it really was 6:00 and that I should probably wake Katlin. I leaned over my top bunk into hers and we had this conversation.
J: Katlin...Katlin..psstt...Katlin!
K: Whatt?
J: what time is it? (you see, I was really paranoid that I was so sleepy I was unable to read time and it was really like 4:00or something and I says panicking for nothing)
K: 6:00.
J: isn't our train at 6:45?
K: yes Jordan, it is.
J:but its 6:00 now?
K: yes. Oh..oh! Crap!
Que frantic last packing, and running downstairs to turn in keys, and more sprinting through the streets the three block to the station. ( We had guys out in the street that we're cheering us on!) we get to the station and our train is not on the big board of departures. It's now 6:18. More frantic running to find a info stations. We find one, ask the guy why our train isn't up there and he says we have to board one that is going to Frankfurt, then transfer. Ok, we say, what train it that? He says, well there is one leaving from platform 2 at 6:22. We look down at our watch...it was literally 6:21. We (again) sprint t o the train and jump on as the conductor is blowing his whistle and the doors shut about 10 seconds after our bags clear the threshold. (two things about trains. Yes, a conductor really does blow a whistle before the doors close and they leave exactly when they says they are going to, not a minute later).
Great, we think! We made it! We have a great laugh about the morning that we have had, one of those laughs that is only possible because you are where you need to be. Its only funny because we made the train after having an alarm clock mishap! Haha! Yay for us! We almost didn't make it! W assay a quick thanks to the travel gods and settle in for the next six hours on a train, thankful that the way to the hotel in Brussels is just a hop on the metro.
Skip to getting off the train in Brussels and heading to the metro gate. We find it, but strange thing is, the metal door is pulled down and there is a line of police offers blocking it. I immediately just know, there is a strike going on. A strike! What luck we have! The whole public transportation system is on strike after a workers death that morning. We shake it off and go to an info station to find about other options, which there are none. A taxi it is then! We go outside to hail one, but they are all full. We walk around to where they are coming from and there is a line about thirty people deep, waiting for taxis, in the cold drizzly rain. Oh joy. We eventually get in a taxi and make it to our hotel, but the ride was not a comfortable one (the idea of a taxi in general make me nervous...you don't know where you are, where you are going, in this case we don't really speak the same language. Not a fun situation).
Anyways, it was a travel day from hell. But, we can look at it now and laugh because we made it safe and sound to our hotel (an elevator! Comfy beds! Doors that lock! A shower without shower shoes! A real pillow!). That hole day again reinforced that we are actually great travelers and that we have learned to adapt more than I thought we ever would. It also should be said that we got through that whole day with not one short word with each other, even though it was the most stressful day that we have she yet. Huzzah!
Here is the first "almost" of the next twenty four hours. Since it was raining, we had to run upstairs to get our jackets and on the way up, I happened to remember our laundry that had finished drying about fifteen minutes ago. We grabbed it, spread it on the bed to finish drying (shocker...the small dryer wasn't good at drying clothes!) and had a good laugh. What if we had left the next morning without all of our socks and underwear? Haha!
After a beer and more pretzels, we said our goodbyes and went back to pack since we had a 6:45am train to catch to Brussels. Skip to 6:00 the next morning and me groggily waking up, checking my watch, checking it again, counting the place where the six hand should be and finally realizing that it really was 6:00 and that I should probably wake Katlin. I leaned over my top bunk into hers and we had this conversation.
J: Katlin...Katlin..psstt...Katlin!
K: Whatt?
J: what time is it? (you see, I was really paranoid that I was so sleepy I was unable to read time and it was really like 4:00or something and I says panicking for nothing)
K: 6:00.
J: isn't our train at 6:45?
K: yes Jordan, it is.
J:but its 6:00 now?
K: yes. Oh..oh! Crap!
Que frantic last packing, and running downstairs to turn in keys, and more sprinting through the streets the three block to the station. ( We had guys out in the street that we're cheering us on!) we get to the station and our train is not on the big board of departures. It's now 6:18. More frantic running to find a info stations. We find one, ask the guy why our train isn't up there and he says we have to board one that is going to Frankfurt, then transfer. Ok, we say, what train it that? He says, well there is one leaving from platform 2 at 6:22. We look down at our watch...it was literally 6:21. We (again) sprint t o the train and jump on as the conductor is blowing his whistle and the doors shut about 10 seconds after our bags clear the threshold. (two things about trains. Yes, a conductor really does blow a whistle before the doors close and they leave exactly when they says they are going to, not a minute later).
Great, we think! We made it! We have a great laugh about the morning that we have had, one of those laughs that is only possible because you are where you need to be. Its only funny because we made the train after having an alarm clock mishap! Haha! Yay for us! We almost didn't make it! W assay a quick thanks to the travel gods and settle in for the next six hours on a train, thankful that the way to the hotel in Brussels is just a hop on the metro.
Skip to getting off the train in Brussels and heading to the metro gate. We find it, but strange thing is, the metal door is pulled down and there is a line of police offers blocking it. I immediately just know, there is a strike going on. A strike! What luck we have! The whole public transportation system is on strike after a workers death that morning. We shake it off and go to an info station to find about other options, which there are none. A taxi it is then! We go outside to hail one, but they are all full. We walk around to where they are coming from and there is a line about thirty people deep, waiting for taxis, in the cold drizzly rain. Oh joy. We eventually get in a taxi and make it to our hotel, but the ride was not a comfortable one (the idea of a taxi in general make me nervous...you don't know where you are, where you are going, in this case we don't really speak the same language. Not a fun situation).
Anyways, it was a travel day from hell. But, we can look at it now and laugh because we made it safe and sound to our hotel (an elevator! Comfy beds! Doors that lock! A shower without shower shoes! A real pillow!). That hole day again reinforced that we are actually great travelers and that we have learned to adapt more than I thought we ever would. It also should be said that we got through that whole day with not one short word with each other, even though it was the most stressful day that we have she yet. Huzzah!
Dachau
One of our reasons for switching from Berlin to Munich was the proximity to Dachau, the first concentration camp that was put into use by the nazis in 1933. We felt like it was something that we had a duty to go see while we were here, and espcaially after tourning the city and seeing the places that Hitler and the SS staged speechs or forced citizens to salute to his riegn, we wanted to travel the path that the history of Munich and countless Cather cities followed. After some debate, we decided to head out by ourselves instead of with a tour group since it was a pretty straightforward trip out there and we could take a guided tour with the staff there without fear of being rushed back by the tour guide. With that decided, we planned to go out by train to transfer to a bus to get to the remains of the camp that have been preserved and transformed into memorial site and museum. The disire to go out is hard to describe, because we knew what we would see and we were by no means looking forward to it, but we owe it to those who suffered to learn about the past as much as we can to insure that it never happens again.
So we woke up to an appropriately cold and rainy morning and made the hour journey to the now suburb city of Dachau. After registering for the guided tour, we leafed through the bookstore and read snips of the histories of those who left behind diaries in the camps or while hiding in attics, or of those who were liberated and wrote memoirs of their experiences. The tour was to go around the grounds, into the administration building now museum, the reconstructed barracks and the crematorium and give us information about the history of concentration camps in general, Dachau, Hitler's rise to power and of the lives of the people that were imprisoned there I've the 12 years that it was in use.
I think I'm still processing what we saw and learned yesterday. I went in thinking it was a place that was predominately Populated by Jews, but that wasn't the case in Dachau. Because it was the first camp to be built and used, it mostly held prisoners that opposed the SS for political or religious reasons or those that were deemed socially unexceptable by Hitler (the homeless, the social outcasts, the physically or mentally disabled). I had never viewed the camps as prisons either, but that is what they were. There may not have been bars on every door but they were trapped, oppressed, beaten and tourchered bySS officers and even sometimes fellow prisoners. The information given by our guide and in the museum was terrible. Unbelievable. Unfathomable. Overwhelming. Painful. To imagine what those sent to Dachau experience, to walk though the blocks that they were held in, stand under the places where they were hung and beaten, see the fence that some ran to, just to end their suffering, it's impossible. And to think that Dachau was a concentration camp, not a death camp or extermination camp as others were, to know that what happened here was multiplied by thousand elsewhere, it's depressing. You just get lost in the darkness. Going there was a painful necessity though. To go is to admit that it happened, to acknowledge that evil exists and sometimes it is found in another human being, capable of murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people for a senseless cause. To see and learn is to honor the memory of those we lost. It's to honor the dead and remind the living. To trace how it happened to see that what we do shapes the future for us and the history for the generations that come after us. The memorial says it best:
"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933 and 1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect of their fellow man."
So we woke up to an appropriately cold and rainy morning and made the hour journey to the now suburb city of Dachau. After registering for the guided tour, we leafed through the bookstore and read snips of the histories of those who left behind diaries in the camps or while hiding in attics, or of those who were liberated and wrote memoirs of their experiences. The tour was to go around the grounds, into the administration building now museum, the reconstructed barracks and the crematorium and give us information about the history of concentration camps in general, Dachau, Hitler's rise to power and of the lives of the people that were imprisoned there I've the 12 years that it was in use.
I think I'm still processing what we saw and learned yesterday. I went in thinking it was a place that was predominately Populated by Jews, but that wasn't the case in Dachau. Because it was the first camp to be built and used, it mostly held prisoners that opposed the SS for political or religious reasons or those that were deemed socially unexceptable by Hitler (the homeless, the social outcasts, the physically or mentally disabled). I had never viewed the camps as prisons either, but that is what they were. There may not have been bars on every door but they were trapped, oppressed, beaten and tourchered bySS officers and even sometimes fellow prisoners. The information given by our guide and in the museum was terrible. Unbelievable. Unfathomable. Overwhelming. Painful. To imagine what those sent to Dachau experience, to walk though the blocks that they were held in, stand under the places where they were hung and beaten, see the fence that some ran to, just to end their suffering, it's impossible. And to think that Dachau was a concentration camp, not a death camp or extermination camp as others were, to know that what happened here was multiplied by thousand elsewhere, it's depressing. You just get lost in the darkness. Going there was a painful necessity though. To go is to admit that it happened, to acknowledge that evil exists and sometimes it is found in another human being, capable of murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people for a senseless cause. To see and learn is to honor the memory of those we lost. It's to honor the dead and remind the living. To trace how it happened to see that what we do shapes the future for us and the history for the generations that come after us. The memorial says it best:
"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933 and 1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect of their fellow man."
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Munich!
After getting and being pleasantly surprised at how close our hostel was from the train station (a whopping three blocks, tops) we dropped our bags off, ran into Jimma and Teri (the Australian sisters) and met with Alex and Scott to get me jacket back, and finally ventured out into the city to grab a bite to eat. On the recommendation of the hostel staff for a good beer hall, we walked to a place called Augustine's that has been brewing beer and serving bavarian deliciousness since 1381. If you have never been in a beer hall, let me break it down for you, it is one of the most intimidating places that I've ever walked in because there are literally rows and rows of wooden tables in a large room with traditionally dressed waitstaff running around with a minimum of 4 half liter beer glasses in hand at all times. We had no idea what to do so we found a waiter and conveyed that we wanted food and he showed us to our own small table in a back room where we saw the most heavenly sight....baskets of fresh, salty pretzels! I ordered honestly the tastiest beer that I've ever had to go along with my meatballs and potato salad (and by meatballs they mean small burger sized patties of melt in your mouth meat and by potato salad they mean potatoes and cucumbers mixed up in the strangest and most perfect way ever). Eventually we got sat with a group of people in an EF tour like the ones we first came abroad with, so that was a fun little coincidence since we are now abroad on our own, exploring without the help of Mr and Mrs Knape.
After dinner we went back and explored the hostel bar but went to bed to get a good nights sleep so we could be ready to take on the site the next day. We've decided that if it possible, we should always take a guided walking tour the first day that we are in a place to get our bearing, so that was the first order of business on Thursday. We went with the New Europe free tours again and guess who showed up? Alex and Scott, of course. The tour was great and took us all around the city while learning about the history of Bavaria, the nazi party and the third reich and the rich history of German beer making. After the tour, pour guide so kindly led us to a favorite beer hall of his where we had a beer that was described as "fireworks in your mouth" ( he said that first, but it was actually on the menu as the description haha) and lunch of tasty meat and potato pancakes.
Our bellies full and satisfied, we walked around the local market that had all minds of veggies, sweets, breads and Easter decorations in it before going back to the hostel to relax, close our eyes for a minute and prepare our stomachs for more beer and food later. You may have noticed that a solid portion of this blog and of our days are situated around food, and you would be right! The food in all the difference countries has been a great way to get into the culture a little more and it's been so fun to ask recommendations forum locals in where to go and what to get. To our giddy surprise, even though we eat a lot of heavy food (especially in the last three countries where its been meat and potatoes) and a lot of it, we never feel like disgusting full feeling like I do in the states. We think it's because the food, while not necessarily healthier calorie wise, is far fresher and less processed than what we get in the states. Likewise, the wine doesn't give me a headache because there is (in general) less sulfates and I actually enjoy drinking a beer with dinner, which doesn't ever really happen at home.
Anyways, we went back to Augustine's to drink a liter of beer (think glass mug the size of my head or half a two liter bottle of soda...its a little bit of a rite of passage here) and split a plate of sausages since we were still full from lunch. Then we returned to the hostel, played a little pool with some new hostel friends (a boy from Texas studying in Belgium and another guy traveling from Chile) and had another beer at a smaller pub around the corner. All in all, it was a really good day for Munich! We wished we had more time in the city because the next day we had dedicated to spending at Dachau, the concentration camp outside of town. It was also raining, but it did not dampen our day nearly as much as it has in other cities sometimes. We just wished it had been slightly nicer so we could have enjoyed the gardens and the the river surfing that Munich has to offer. It's just yet another place that we out on the list to come back to!
After dinner we went back and explored the hostel bar but went to bed to get a good nights sleep so we could be ready to take on the site the next day. We've decided that if it possible, we should always take a guided walking tour the first day that we are in a place to get our bearing, so that was the first order of business on Thursday. We went with the New Europe free tours again and guess who showed up? Alex and Scott, of course. The tour was great and took us all around the city while learning about the history of Bavaria, the nazi party and the third reich and the rich history of German beer making. After the tour, pour guide so kindly led us to a favorite beer hall of his where we had a beer that was described as "fireworks in your mouth" ( he said that first, but it was actually on the menu as the description haha) and lunch of tasty meat and potato pancakes.
Our bellies full and satisfied, we walked around the local market that had all minds of veggies, sweets, breads and Easter decorations in it before going back to the hostel to relax, close our eyes for a minute and prepare our stomachs for more beer and food later. You may have noticed that a solid portion of this blog and of our days are situated around food, and you would be right! The food in all the difference countries has been a great way to get into the culture a little more and it's been so fun to ask recommendations forum locals in where to go and what to get. To our giddy surprise, even though we eat a lot of heavy food (especially in the last three countries where its been meat and potatoes) and a lot of it, we never feel like disgusting full feeling like I do in the states. We think it's because the food, while not necessarily healthier calorie wise, is far fresher and less processed than what we get in the states. Likewise, the wine doesn't give me a headache because there is (in general) less sulfates and I actually enjoy drinking a beer with dinner, which doesn't ever really happen at home.
Anyways, we went back to Augustine's to drink a liter of beer (think glass mug the size of my head or half a two liter bottle of soda...its a little bit of a rite of passage here) and split a plate of sausages since we were still full from lunch. Then we returned to the hostel, played a little pool with some new hostel friends (a boy from Texas studying in Belgium and another guy traveling from Chile) and had another beer at a smaller pub around the corner. All in all, it was a really good day for Munich! We wished we had more time in the city because the next day we had dedicated to spending at Dachau, the concentration camp outside of town. It was also raining, but it did not dampen our day nearly as much as it has in other cities sometimes. We just wished it had been slightly nicer so we could have enjoyed the gardens and the the river surfing that Munich has to offer. It's just yet another place that we out on the list to come back to!
Coincidence?
Before I get into Munich though...you know that age old saying "it's a small world"? Turns out thats true, even in Europe. Yesterday alone, we ran into three different groups of people that we met in three different cities in the past two weeks. Crazy! The first was on the train from Prague to Munich: as we were getting on the train and trying to figure our where to sit, a couple that we met on the train from Vienna to Prague saw us and came to say hi. They are our parents age, from the midwest and are traveling around for a bit after the guy had a conference in Prague. They were great train company on the way over and we were happy to see them again.
The second was a planned meeting, but still random: a few days ago I got an email from the hostel we stayed at in Vienna saying that one if the guys in our room had accidentally taken my rain jacket and wanted to get in touch with me to return it, so I email him and incredibly we were planning on arriving in Munich the same afternoon and staying in neighboring hostels (you also have to remember that we changed our plans from Berlin to Munich two days before we got there). So nice they got in by train they swung by to give my jacket back, which was so nice to have since it rained in Munich (honestly I hadn't really noticed it missing before he emailed me, it had be so nice in Prague!). The third run in was with two sisters that we met in Rome who are traveling around together: they were checking out of our hostel in Munich as we were checking in. Its too bad because they were quite funny (they are from Australia and as a general rule, we've found Australians to be hilarious) and we would have loved to hang out in Munich with them.
Anyways, we thought that all of that was worth mentioning. But really, how strange is it that we managed to see all of them within one afternoon? I would say the chances are pretty slim, especially since we weren't going to even be there in the first place. Honestly, it made us feel pretty well connected and popular in a silly way. We managed to meet three very different pairs of people that all liked us enough to either go out of their way to just say hi or do me a favor (did I mention Munich was about 48 and rainy? Brrrr. I don't know what I would have done without that jacket!) and the other pair was genuinely sorry to be leaving, just as we were sorry to see them go. It's like that awkward middle school feeling where you realize that people actually want to be your friend and that you fit in!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Since I can't make pictures work...
Despite my best intentions, I still can't make pictures pop up on this blog. I can give you this link though, which is to my YouTube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/JordanZentmeyer?feature=mhee
Recently I started taking a few short videos of neat places and things that we see, so hopefully these will tide you over until I can show you the ridiculous number of pictures that I've been taking!
Pra-ha!
With a satisfyingly structured day of sightseeing behind us, we set out on day two in Prague with less plans and open minds about wandering around the city all day. Our guide yesterday did say the the secret to Prague was to turn 3 corners and you are suddenly away from tourists or turn 3 corners and you might get lost but that's ok. We wanted to go back to the Jewish Quarter of the city for the first part of the morning, so we left the hostel, found a delicious pastry shop (it's a good thing we probably walk on average about 8 hours a day because I literally eat croissants and cappuccinos for breakfast every morning) and made our way into town. The Jewish quarter of Prague is the area of Prague where while under anti-semantic rule, all the Jews we forced to live in a walled off portion of the city. This confinement lasted for hundreds of years: whole generations knew nothing but life within the walls where poverty and disease spread from one crowed home to the next. Because of the confinement, the one cemetery in town that could comfortably hold a few thousand people is the finally resting place of an estimated 100,00 people, buried in 10 to 12 layers. Because the space was so limited and burial is an integral part of the Jewish faith, the coffins were just stacked on top of one another and the headstones places together. The effect now is staggering. 12,000 Headstones of all shapes and sizes on slightly uneven, hilly ground. Twisted and turned this way and that. Some fallen, some still standing. All in some stage of decay but still worthy of honor and respect.
The graveyard is part of a synagogue turned memorial to the unimaginable number of Jews that were ripped from their home and deported to ghettos, concentration and death camps during the holocaust. Prague once held the third highest population of Jews in Europe, and now most of those name are on the walls on the synagogue as lives lost to a senseless reign. You may wonder, as we did, if Prague has such a strong Jewish population, why wasn't it bomber and destroyed by Hitlers army? There are two reasons: the first is that Hitler loved the city of Pragu, so he wanted to keep it looking nice. The second, if you can believe it, is that Hitler wanted to preserve the Jewish Quarter to eventually use is as an "open air museum to an extinguished race". Let that sink in. A museum...for a race that would no longer exist...because he killed them all. The museum now seems so much more important because his idea almost came true, but for a much greater and purer purpose: to ensure that people are educated about his terrible wills and actions so they never happen again. It was hard going through the museum, to see wall and after wall with name after name, but it is a necessary hardship and I think a duty that we have. We owe it to those people to learn about what happened, and even though learning does not make up for suffering, it feels like it is the beginning to heal some wounds. The Jewish Quarter was also an introduction to what we will see in a few days when we go to Dachau outside of Munich.
With slightly heavy hearts we went back into the Easter market to get lunch (a tasty vanilla sugar bread baked on a rotating stick over open coals and potatoes with ham and cabbage) and then to go across the Charles Bridge and up a very large hill to get the best view of the city. Turns out the top of the hill is surrounded by trees and a large stone wall so the best view is actually from a tower that you have to pay to get up in, but we still enjoyed the hike and got great views on the way up and down. Being in some sort of nature was also a huge plus. En route back to the city center, we stopped by what is known just a the Lennon Wall. I don't know hope it started, but now it is a colorful, happy wall of song lyrics (some Beatles, but also other artist too), graffiti art and memorials to Lennon himself that you could stare at for days and still find new things to read. All the hopeful messages about peace and love seemed to be fitting after the sadness that we experienced that morning. Seeing the words "All you need is love" and "You may say that I'm a dreamer..." were comforting and helped to restore my faith in humanity as a whole a little bit.
We had high hopes to grab some discounted last minute tickets to the ballet that night, but alas it was not meant to be and they were sold out. Instead we turned a few corners and found a nice restaurant to have Katlin's birthday meal at. I'm so glad that I could celebrate her birthday in Prague with her! Not everyone has such a good friend to travel and experience all of what the world has to offer with. Prague was an especially good place to have a birthday too. In terms of the city, we think that it surpassed Barcelona to the top spot of favorite places so far. It just had so much to offer for everyone. The history, the culture, the energy and atmosphere...anyone could find something that they wanted to do here. And the attitude of the country was refreshing. They just separated from Slovakia and gained independence as a country less than a decade ago. They have done all of these amazing things, invented household items (is anyone drinking a pilsner right now? Wearing soft contact lens? Using a microwave? You should thank the Czechs) and not to be forgotten...they picked themselves up invasion after invasion, ever hopeful to one day become a country of their own. But they have not really be given the respect they deserve until recently. It is up and coming town rooted in history and it has paved a special place in our travel hearts.
For all the real Jay-Z fans out there, please enjoy this ending quote, as someone so poetically put on the Lennon wallI...I think it sums up our trip in Prague and the attitude of the city as a whole: " I got 99 Praguelems but Prague ain't one." If you're not quite familiar with that particular song of his, here's what it might mean. You are probably always going to have problems, but at least your city, your beloved Prague is not one of them.
With slightly heavy hearts we went back into the Easter market to get lunch (a tasty vanilla sugar bread baked on a rotating stick over open coals and potatoes with ham and cabbage) and then to go across the Charles Bridge and up a very large hill to get the best view of the city. Turns out the top of the hill is surrounded by trees and a large stone wall so the best view is actually from a tower that you have to pay to get up in, but we still enjoyed the hike and got great views on the way up and down. Being in some sort of nature was also a huge plus. En route back to the city center, we stopped by what is known just a the Lennon Wall. I don't know hope it started, but now it is a colorful, happy wall of song lyrics (some Beatles, but also other artist too), graffiti art and memorials to Lennon himself that you could stare at for days and still find new things to read. All the hopeful messages about peace and love seemed to be fitting after the sadness that we experienced that morning. Seeing the words "All you need is love" and "You may say that I'm a dreamer..." were comforting and helped to restore my faith in humanity as a whole a little bit.
We had high hopes to grab some discounted last minute tickets to the ballet that night, but alas it was not meant to be and they were sold out. Instead we turned a few corners and found a nice restaurant to have Katlin's birthday meal at. I'm so glad that I could celebrate her birthday in Prague with her! Not everyone has such a good friend to travel and experience all of what the world has to offer with. Prague was an especially good place to have a birthday too. In terms of the city, we think that it surpassed Barcelona to the top spot of favorite places so far. It just had so much to offer for everyone. The history, the culture, the energy and atmosphere...anyone could find something that they wanted to do here. And the attitude of the country was refreshing. They just separated from Slovakia and gained independence as a country less than a decade ago. They have done all of these amazing things, invented household items (is anyone drinking a pilsner right now? Wearing soft contact lens? Using a microwave? You should thank the Czechs) and not to be forgotten...they picked themselves up invasion after invasion, ever hopeful to one day become a country of their own. But they have not really be given the respect they deserve until recently. It is up and coming town rooted in history and it has paved a special place in our travel hearts.
For all the real Jay-Z fans out there, please enjoy this ending quote, as someone so poetically put on the Lennon wallI...I think it sums up our trip in Prague and the attitude of the city as a whole: " I got 99 Praguelems but Prague ain't one." If you're not quite familiar with that particular song of his, here's what it might mean. You are probably always going to have problems, but at least your city, your beloved Prague is not one of them.
Czech it out!
Disclaimer: The puns that can be made about Prague are bountiful and I'm going to apologize in advance for using them in this post. It's Praha-bably going to get a bit annoying, but just bear with me.
After not connecting well to Vienna, I have to admit that I was a bit concerned about getting excited about Prague. We had heard such great things! People love the city! The culture is fun! There's the biggest castle complex in the world! What can be bad about it? The answer, we would come to find out, is nothing. Prague completely lived up to what we hoped it would be and far more. Hooray for the Czech Republic! For a land that has been invaded and forcefully overcome by other countries for the past 600 years, Prague has managed to retain a wonderful, gentle sense of pride for what they are now. Although they do not force the traditions and history that they held on to through the rein of foreign nations, angry dictators and communism upon you, I feel like everyone that comes is welcomed in and invited to explore their past, and that's exactly what we did.
Our first day in Prague began with a three hour guided tour of the important parts of the city, which is basically everywhere. The best part about the tour set up is the company that runs the tour called New Europe. Their founding principle is that everyone should be able to experience a city to its fullest, despite their budget, so you can join a tour in about 10 cities across Europe for no charge. The guides don't get paid for the basic city tour (although they do have paid tours in other parts of the city) and simply work for tips. It's neat because you then get to decide what you think the tour was worth or what youwould have paid for the tour and then tip that much. It works for us because it is a heck of a lot cheaper than other tours and the guides work a lot harder to make them tour fun and interesting because they will make more money if we enjoy it. Anyways, our tour was Czech-ceptional and I don't think that I have ever learned so much applied history and culture in 3 hours before. The other good thing about such a comprehensive tour is that we get to see a bit of everything and decide at we want to come back and explore more. After the tour, we went up the the Prague Castle, which is still the home of the president of Prague whose name I don't remember but I do know he stole a pen from the Chilean president (it's a funny story, you should google it). The castle has an impressive cathedral (really any church in Europe is incredible), grand views of the river, a prison/dungeon, an alley of really tiny houses and other cool castle-y things. It's strange to think that someone still lives there...I don't know that I would want to though. The sweet views don't quite overcome the damp, stone feeling that is everywhere in the place. My cold bloodedness wouldn't do well there.
On the way back down from the castle and after a czech dinner, we stopped in one of the Easter Markets that popped up everywhere in the city for the upcoming holiday. Think really small scale state fair, but with less farm animals and vegetables (eastern Europe hasn't really caught on to that whole fresh produce trend yet) but still with meat on a stick, wonderful sticky sweet bread treats, knickknacks and entertaining performances (Czech dancing probably trumps country singing in this case though). After a stroll around the square, we went back to the hostel, found our roommates (Americans studying in Madrid and on holiday in Prague) and went out for a beer. The beer was much needed because in the time between getting back to hostel and dinner, we went to book out next hostel in either Berlin or Munich (we hadn't quite decided yet) only to find that Easter in Europe is about as popular as St. Patrick's day in Dublin and there were only really expensive and really icky rooms left to be had. After about a half an hour of slight panic, we decided to go to A: go to Munich instead of Berlin and B: go ahead and book a hotel (yes, I did mean hotel instead of hostel) for our first night in Brussels, which is the Saturday before Easter. We decided on a hotel because the other options were to save 5 dollars and stay in a 40 or 50 bed dorm in a less than well rated hostel or find a bar that is open all night. Since neither of those were valid, we embraced the idea of having at least one night of solid rest with a nice bed, two fluffy pillows (hostels only give you one...it makes my neck sad), a tv (we don't really miss watching tv per say, but we could use a lazy night in) and the grand finale for me...a bathtub! I'm so looking forward to a nice soak in a hot bath, it's hard to describe. So anyways, our panic subsided and now we are happy campers excited about our hotel and being in Brussels, the chocolate capital of the world during Easter so we can eat lots of delicious Easter bunnies.
It was also a nice Pra-ha! moment (another pun...I do apologize but they are such fun) when we realized that even though we made a slight error in planning, we did not freak out and we figured it out. I think this trip has really given us a chance to develop skills that we wouldnt really ever get back home, like making friends out of little or no connection, planning out day after day of what we want to do (I know it doesnt sounds tough, but we have to make a conscious decision every minute about what we are doing and are going to do next. It can get a bit exhausting sometimes). We are also much better at weighing options and cost/benefit analysis (sometimes when it comes to trains, it really is worth 10 euros for an extra 2 hours in a city) and then adapting to changes when circumstances beyond our control. It was then that I reallz realized...we are growing up! And we are learning about ourselves as well as other cultures on this trip. We are just expanding our boundaries left and right. Still, we still cant forget the dumb, blind faith that got us here and continues to help everything work out for us. I think this may be how real life is...a lot of hard work, thinking on your feet, and also having faith that things will probably work out, because they usually do. It was a Pra-ha! moment indeed.
Our first day in Prague began with a three hour guided tour of the important parts of the city, which is basically everywhere. The best part about the tour set up is the company that runs the tour called New Europe. Their founding principle is that everyone should be able to experience a city to its fullest, despite their budget, so you can join a tour in about 10 cities across Europe for no charge. The guides don't get paid for the basic city tour (although they do have paid tours in other parts of the city) and simply work for tips. It's neat because you then get to decide what you think the tour was worth or what youwould have paid for the tour and then tip that much. It works for us because it is a heck of a lot cheaper than other tours and the guides work a lot harder to make them tour fun and interesting because they will make more money if we enjoy it. Anyways, our tour was Czech-ceptional and I don't think that I have ever learned so much applied history and culture in 3 hours before. The other good thing about such a comprehensive tour is that we get to see a bit of everything and decide at we want to come back and explore more. After the tour, we went up the the Prague Castle, which is still the home of the president of Prague whose name I don't remember but I do know he stole a pen from the Chilean president (it's a funny story, you should google it). The castle has an impressive cathedral (really any church in Europe is incredible), grand views of the river, a prison/dungeon, an alley of really tiny houses and other cool castle-y things. It's strange to think that someone still lives there...I don't know that I would want to though. The sweet views don't quite overcome the damp, stone feeling that is everywhere in the place. My cold bloodedness wouldn't do well there.
On the way back down from the castle and after a czech dinner, we stopped in one of the Easter Markets that popped up everywhere in the city for the upcoming holiday. Think really small scale state fair, but with less farm animals and vegetables (eastern Europe hasn't really caught on to that whole fresh produce trend yet) but still with meat on a stick, wonderful sticky sweet bread treats, knickknacks and entertaining performances (Czech dancing probably trumps country singing in this case though). After a stroll around the square, we went back to the hostel, found our roommates (Americans studying in Madrid and on holiday in Prague) and went out for a beer. The beer was much needed because in the time between getting back to hostel and dinner, we went to book out next hostel in either Berlin or Munich (we hadn't quite decided yet) only to find that Easter in Europe is about as popular as St. Patrick's day in Dublin and there were only really expensive and really icky rooms left to be had. After about a half an hour of slight panic, we decided to go to A: go to Munich instead of Berlin and B: go ahead and book a hotel (yes, I did mean hotel instead of hostel) for our first night in Brussels, which is the Saturday before Easter. We decided on a hotel because the other options were to save 5 dollars and stay in a 40 or 50 bed dorm in a less than well rated hostel or find a bar that is open all night. Since neither of those were valid, we embraced the idea of having at least one night of solid rest with a nice bed, two fluffy pillows (hostels only give you one...it makes my neck sad), a tv (we don't really miss watching tv per say, but we could use a lazy night in) and the grand finale for me...a bathtub! I'm so looking forward to a nice soak in a hot bath, it's hard to describe. So anyways, our panic subsided and now we are happy campers excited about our hotel and being in Brussels, the chocolate capital of the world during Easter so we can eat lots of delicious Easter bunnies.
It was also a nice Pra-ha! moment (another pun...I do apologize but they are such fun) when we realized that even though we made a slight error in planning, we did not freak out and we figured it out. I think this trip has really given us a chance to develop skills that we wouldnt really ever get back home, like making friends out of little or no connection, planning out day after day of what we want to do (I know it doesnt sounds tough, but we have to make a conscious decision every minute about what we are doing and are going to do next. It can get a bit exhausting sometimes). We are also much better at weighing options and cost/benefit analysis (sometimes when it comes to trains, it really is worth 10 euros for an extra 2 hours in a city) and then adapting to changes when circumstances beyond our control. It was then that I reallz realized...we are growing up! And we are learning about ourselves as well as other cultures on this trip. We are just expanding our boundaries left and right. Still, we still cant forget the dumb, blind faith that got us here and continues to help everything work out for us. I think this may be how real life is...a lot of hard work, thinking on your feet, and also having faith that things will probably work out, because they usually do. It was a Pra-ha! moment indeed.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Silly Putty In A City
To paraphrase little oprhan Annie, tomorrow is only a day away and when in Vienna, it will be better! After our not so fun day, we were relieved that at least our room was big and the pillows were fluffy, so we got a great night sleep and woke up to wind but no rain! After breakfast at the hostel (not free but they had a cappuccino machine so it was totally worth three euros) we went to see the Spanish riding school's morning workout. The school is all about incredible moves with Lippizaner horses and highly trained riders set to music. It's like dressage riding, but a class of its own and it was very cool to see. We explored around a bit in the sun to try to find our bearings better than yesterday and settled into a cafe to have cake and coffee for lunch before going back to the Spanish riding school for a guided tour of the stables and grounds of the school, which was really interesting. We figured we should probably find out a bit about theist story of the city we were in, so we went to the Wien museum after the tour and then grabbed dinner before one of the most exciting parts of Vienna...the opera! Apparently its one of the best opera houses in the world and we heard that you can get standing room tickets for 3 euros by standing in line 90 minutes before a show, so that's exactly what we did. So for less than the price of a glass of wine in the theatre, we got to see l'exlixer d'amore. The spelling is probably wrong but it's a fun Italian opera about, you guessed it, unrequited love. Even though we were the second to last row in the place, the sound was amazing and the actors were obviously having fun on stage, plus the atmosphere is so cultured that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Overall, the day went much more smoothly than yesterday. The weather still wasnt fully cooperating (wind replaced the rain), but we felt like we took in more that the city had to give than we did yesterday and we could recognize why people really liked Vienna. Our final morning (this morning) was quite interesting. Even though the ease of the hostel breakfast was appealing, we planned to find another authentic cafe in the large, lively market outside the hostel. Well, turns out that the market is most active on Saturdays and completely dead on Sundays (of course) so we had to make other plans. After asking the front desk for a recommendation, we made our way out to find pastries and coffee. When we get there, we open the door, only to be abruptly ushered out because they do not open at a normal hour on Sundays, they wait until eleven, as does the entire city, apparently. Since they were closed, we decided to walk around little bit and only use the hostel breakfast as a last resort. Finally we found a bakery that was authentic enough for our cold, hungry bodies (it was a chain but one that started in Vienna and hasn't spread very far out) and ducked in. While we were enjoying pastries and cappuccinos, it started snowing outside! Snow in Vienna was not on the forecast at all, but not much surprises us anymore, so we just went with it. After breakfast we walked around a little bit more, only to find that we were in the city center already. Turns out that all of Vienna that we had been seeing was about a ten minute walk from our hostel but he had no idea because we had such a time orientating ourselves (we still are blaming the weather, our terrible map and the less than helpful hostel staff). But really, why didn't the staff tell us that we could walk to all the things that we had been taking the metro to? Ah! We had a good chuckle and then quickly found our bearings that had eluded us the past 48 hours.
Since we got more acclimated to the city layout in the last hour than the rest of our stay combined, it's hard to say exactly how Vienna was. The city is full of art and music and history, which is classy and cultured, but I think we need better weather to soak it all in. Having a city talked up also gives it big shoes to fill, and I think that hurt us a bit too. The hostel being a party hostel didn't help either. Individually everything we did was really nice and enjoyable; the horses were very cool, the opera for 3 euros is a once in a lifetime opportunity that worked out for us, the museums were great collections, the food was really tasty. It just didn't feel like successful city as Barcelona or Florence did. When we first get into a new place, I always feel like we are kind of blobs that fall on top of the buildings, like if you rolled out silly putty and laid it on a model city. If we are able to get a feel for the city quickly, our blobs start to warm up and sink down into all the side streets and corners filled with the best of the culture, the hidden gems that not everyone sees. If we stay rigid for some reason, we only see down into the main parts and watch from above, not fully immersed in the people and the place. Since we didn't start to warm up until today, I feel like even though we hit almost all the high points, we really didn't experience Vienna like it deserves. I think that we will just have to give it another shot during a warmer and less rainy season!
Overall, the day went much more smoothly than yesterday. The weather still wasnt fully cooperating (wind replaced the rain), but we felt like we took in more that the city had to give than we did yesterday and we could recognize why people really liked Vienna. Our final morning (this morning) was quite interesting. Even though the ease of the hostel breakfast was appealing, we planned to find another authentic cafe in the large, lively market outside the hostel. Well, turns out that the market is most active on Saturdays and completely dead on Sundays (of course) so we had to make other plans. After asking the front desk for a recommendation, we made our way out to find pastries and coffee. When we get there, we open the door, only to be abruptly ushered out because they do not open at a normal hour on Sundays, they wait until eleven, as does the entire city, apparently. Since they were closed, we decided to walk around little bit and only use the hostel breakfast as a last resort. Finally we found a bakery that was authentic enough for our cold, hungry bodies (it was a chain but one that started in Vienna and hasn't spread very far out) and ducked in. While we were enjoying pastries and cappuccinos, it started snowing outside! Snow in Vienna was not on the forecast at all, but not much surprises us anymore, so we just went with it. After breakfast we walked around a little bit more, only to find that we were in the city center already. Turns out that all of Vienna that we had been seeing was about a ten minute walk from our hostel but he had no idea because we had such a time orientating ourselves (we still are blaming the weather, our terrible map and the less than helpful hostel staff). But really, why didn't the staff tell us that we could walk to all the things that we had been taking the metro to? Ah! We had a good chuckle and then quickly found our bearings that had eluded us the past 48 hours.
Since we got more acclimated to the city layout in the last hour than the rest of our stay combined, it's hard to say exactly how Vienna was. The city is full of art and music and history, which is classy and cultured, but I think we need better weather to soak it all in. Having a city talked up also gives it big shoes to fill, and I think that hurt us a bit too. The hostel being a party hostel didn't help either. Individually everything we did was really nice and enjoyable; the horses were very cool, the opera for 3 euros is a once in a lifetime opportunity that worked out for us, the museums were great collections, the food was really tasty. It just didn't feel like successful city as Barcelona or Florence did. When we first get into a new place, I always feel like we are kind of blobs that fall on top of the buildings, like if you rolled out silly putty and laid it on a model city. If we are able to get a feel for the city quickly, our blobs start to warm up and sink down into all the side streets and corners filled with the best of the culture, the hidden gems that not everyone sees. If we stay rigid for some reason, we only see down into the main parts and watch from above, not fully immersed in the people and the place. Since we didn't start to warm up until today, I feel like even though we hit almost all the high points, we really didn't experience Vienna like it deserves. I think that we will just have to give it another shot during a warmer and less rainy season!
Good faith, bad map
When we came into the city, we were rolling off of a strange trip in a night train. The car that we were in had two triple bunk beds where katlin and I were on the third bunk on both sides. After climbing over the luggage of the two men already on the bottom two beds and getting our packs up, we discovered that our next twelve hours were to be spent horizontally since there was not even enough head room to sit up straight. On top of the small space, the car felt like an oven and there was no room to change out of my jeans and into pajamas (getting down to the bathroom was just not worth it). I also managed to anger the man below me because my water bottle stared leaking on him of course, but I couldn't understand what he was gesturing/saying in german. Once I stopped the leaking and tried to convey my apologies, I accepted that this was to be a highly uncomfortable night and tried to get some sleep. When we finally got to stand up straight the next morning, we pretty much immediately had to put the children on and get on a metro to find our hostel. After getting directions from a kind Austrian since in my haze that morning had omitted a line from my directions off the hostel website, we emerged from the metro to cold, cold rain. Luckily the hostel was only about a two minute walk from the metro stop and so we got inside before we froze. Not so lucky, it was only 10 in the morning so our room wasn't ready and we had to storage our luggage and head out without properly unpacking.
We decided to go to St. Stephens church, the biggest landmark in town and then to lunch before buying tickets the see the Spanish riding school's public workout for the next day. The church was impressive but cold and damp, while lunch was a very welcomed break of good luck. We found an authentic looking restaurant and Katlin managed to find schnitzel, warm sourkraute and potatoes on a very intimidating menu. Thank goodness she did. Not only was I starving, but it was, we decided, like Austrian comfort food. Back home, it may have been ham with collards and mashed potatoes but either way it was a meat, soft potatoes and stewed, salty vegetable and it was just what we needed. The bad weather greatly influenced our decision to get on a tram that made a circle around the important buildings of the city, and after that we went to the art museum. The time to actually check into our hostel finally rolled around so we went back to transfer our bags and unpack as much as we can. We also tried to plan out of next day a bit better, since we felt like we came in pretty unprepared for the city. You see, we had heard so many good things about Venna that i think we just expected to get in and walk into the heart of town and be drawn in to things to do, but that wasn't quite the case for many reasons. First, the weather really was terrible and gloomy. It's hard to be excited about just walking around when it's nasty outside. Secondly, the map that the hostel gave us was ridiculously bad. It was of the entire city, which in theory is helpful but not when they sacrifice street names for size. Third, the reception wasn't exactly very helpful with telling us what to do either. Normally when we check into a hostel, this is about what happens: the staff is overly excited to see you and give you a handy map with almost comically blown up tourist sites on it. They then circle everything good about the city and tell you where the metro is and what ticket to buy, or that you don't need a metro ticket at all. Our hostel, besides handing us a map, did none of this. The map makers obviously do not spend time wandering a city with their maps either, because if they did, they would realize that their map sucks. Besides the lack of street names, the size makes it incredibly cumbersome and hard to fold back. Its so large that it basically acted as a sail in the gusting winds. Honestly, it did. We really really hated that map.
Despite our good intentions to find bratwurst for dinner, we got a bit turned around in in the cold rain and ended up at a tasty, trendy Mediterranean restaurant where we saw fresh vegetables for the first time in ages. (A crisp cucumber slice? What's that? Refreshing and delicious with hummus and falafel is what is was.) We went back to the hostel with no real plan for the night in mind but ended up meeting our roommates and going down to the bar in the hostel (yes, there was a bar in the hostel, if that gives you an idea of what most people in the hostel were there to do) to check it out. After a game of pool and our small free drink, we turned in for the night with the hopes that tomorrow would be better (read drier, more navigable, less dreary).
We decided to go to St. Stephens church, the biggest landmark in town and then to lunch before buying tickets the see the Spanish riding school's public workout for the next day. The church was impressive but cold and damp, while lunch was a very welcomed break of good luck. We found an authentic looking restaurant and Katlin managed to find schnitzel, warm sourkraute and potatoes on a very intimidating menu. Thank goodness she did. Not only was I starving, but it was, we decided, like Austrian comfort food. Back home, it may have been ham with collards and mashed potatoes but either way it was a meat, soft potatoes and stewed, salty vegetable and it was just what we needed. The bad weather greatly influenced our decision to get on a tram that made a circle around the important buildings of the city, and after that we went to the art museum. The time to actually check into our hostel finally rolled around so we went back to transfer our bags and unpack as much as we can. We also tried to plan out of next day a bit better, since we felt like we came in pretty unprepared for the city. You see, we had heard so many good things about Venna that i think we just expected to get in and walk into the heart of town and be drawn in to things to do, but that wasn't quite the case for many reasons. First, the weather really was terrible and gloomy. It's hard to be excited about just walking around when it's nasty outside. Secondly, the map that the hostel gave us was ridiculously bad. It was of the entire city, which in theory is helpful but not when they sacrifice street names for size. Third, the reception wasn't exactly very helpful with telling us what to do either. Normally when we check into a hostel, this is about what happens: the staff is overly excited to see you and give you a handy map with almost comically blown up tourist sites on it. They then circle everything good about the city and tell you where the metro is and what ticket to buy, or that you don't need a metro ticket at all. Our hostel, besides handing us a map, did none of this. The map makers obviously do not spend time wandering a city with their maps either, because if they did, they would realize that their map sucks. Besides the lack of street names, the size makes it incredibly cumbersome and hard to fold back. Its so large that it basically acted as a sail in the gusting winds. Honestly, it did. We really really hated that map.
Despite our good intentions to find bratwurst for dinner, we got a bit turned around in in the cold rain and ended up at a tasty, trendy Mediterranean restaurant where we saw fresh vegetables for the first time in ages. (A crisp cucumber slice? What's that? Refreshing and delicious with hummus and falafel is what is was.) We went back to the hostel with no real plan for the night in mind but ended up meeting our roommates and going down to the bar in the hostel (yes, there was a bar in the hostel, if that gives you an idea of what most people in the hostel were there to do) to check it out. After a game of pool and our small free drink, we turned in for the night with the hopes that tomorrow would be better (read drier, more navigable, less dreary).
The best bike ride ever
Oh the bike tour! We met at the office bright and early to get a can out of town and to their office out in the country. After getting our bikes and helmets we were off! Our guide's name was Joseph, an 29 year old Australian that has lived in Italy for the past two years, and he was a spectacular guide. The tour was set up so you rode around to different checkpoints where everyone would stop to admire the view or monument and Joseph would then tell us things about the land or the families that go out and pick the olive trees and press them for oil together during the harvesting season. It was a great mix of freedom and information, and even though we were together with Joseph the whole time, we still felt like it was relaxed and un-touristy. We also got to ride out at our own pace most of the time, so we could enjoy views of the countryside or pick up speed and just have fun riding down hills.
After about 2 hours of riding and stops, we arrived at the Corsini estate who have an impressive vineyard and olive grove where they produce Corti wine and olive oil. We toured the oak cellars and the fermenting vats before sitting down to a tree course meal with two of there red wines. The first course of polenta suofle with yellow curry sauce was delicious and not expected, while the soup (chickpeas and other beans and veggies in broth) tasted like hearty Italy. The pasta course was spaghetti with anchovies, which no one really enjoyed unfortunately. I think anchovies are an acquired taste, one that we do not have yet aquired (our chosen adjective to describe it was "icky"... I think we may need to aquire a few more years to have more refined levels of taste and maturity). The wine was top notch, probably the best chianti I've ever had. Quick wine lesson, wine that is called chianti is only actual chianti if it is grown within a certain region of Tuscany in very strict guidelines about soil, harvest time, composition of grapes, and of course, taste. Any wine to pass the Chianti board (yes, it is a board of old men who drink wine for a living, if you were wondering) then gets a thin pink label around the neck of the bottle with a number on it that you can plug into their database to find out when and where it was made. Any other chianti without that label is probably still made in that region, but it is not true Chianti. After lunch, we cycled (our bottoms were very, very sore after getting un- accustomed to the hard seats during lunch) to a local gelato shop and grabbed a treat before heading back down to town. The last stop was a little overlook of the Florence skyline where we took pictures with Joseph and our friends before cruising down the final hill.
The whole tour was a great get away from the hustle of the city and something that I would recommend to anyone (we went with Florencetown, if you ever are in the area) and definitely do again. After the tour we went back to the hostel (most hostels have luggage storage if you have checked out but aren't leaving the city yet) to freshen up and grab a bite to eat in town before hopping on our night train out to Viennna. It was a long but incredible day...I'm so glad we switched our tour to do it with our hostel friends. Meeting new people and using our friend making skills has been an really amazing part of this whole trip. It's neat because with hostel friends, you get to skip the slightly awkward part where you don't know if they want to be friends or not and since no one is really in their element, everyone bonds quickly. It's also hard though, because you spend two or three days with a great group of people like Jon, Fiona and Molly and then you just split off. These friends will definitely be friends that we remember though, that's for sure.
After about 2 hours of riding and stops, we arrived at the Corsini estate who have an impressive vineyard and olive grove where they produce Corti wine and olive oil. We toured the oak cellars and the fermenting vats before sitting down to a tree course meal with two of there red wines. The first course of polenta suofle with yellow curry sauce was delicious and not expected, while the soup (chickpeas and other beans and veggies in broth) tasted like hearty Italy. The pasta course was spaghetti with anchovies, which no one really enjoyed unfortunately. I think anchovies are an acquired taste, one that we do not have yet aquired (our chosen adjective to describe it was "icky"... I think we may need to aquire a few more years to have more refined levels of taste and maturity). The wine was top notch, probably the best chianti I've ever had. Quick wine lesson, wine that is called chianti is only actual chianti if it is grown within a certain region of Tuscany in very strict guidelines about soil, harvest time, composition of grapes, and of course, taste. Any wine to pass the Chianti board (yes, it is a board of old men who drink wine for a living, if you were wondering) then gets a thin pink label around the neck of the bottle with a number on it that you can plug into their database to find out when and where it was made. Any other chianti without that label is probably still made in that region, but it is not true Chianti. After lunch, we cycled (our bottoms were very, very sore after getting un- accustomed to the hard seats during lunch) to a local gelato shop and grabbed a treat before heading back down to town. The last stop was a little overlook of the Florence skyline where we took pictures with Joseph and our friends before cruising down the final hill.
The whole tour was a great get away from the hustle of the city and something that I would recommend to anyone (we went with Florencetown, if you ever are in the area) and definitely do again. After the tour we went back to the hostel (most hostels have luggage storage if you have checked out but aren't leaving the city yet) to freshen up and grab a bite to eat in town before hopping on our night train out to Viennna. It was a long but incredible day...I'm so glad we switched our tour to do it with our hostel friends. Meeting new people and using our friend making skills has been an really amazing part of this whole trip. It's neat because with hostel friends, you get to skip the slightly awkward part where you don't know if they want to be friends or not and since no one is really in their element, everyone bonds quickly. It's also hard though, because you spend two or three days with a great group of people like Jon, Fiona and Molly and then you just split off. These friends will definitely be friends that we remember though, that's for sure.
Florence part two
Even though we were really excited to be going on the bike tour on Wednesday, we actually delayed it by one day so our friends ( Jon from Chicago, Fiona from Canada and Molly from South Carolina) could join us. You see, we actually scored a pretty great deal on the trip by going to a little side stand of the company and since we wanted to leave the next day, they sell spots for half price just to fill them. Our friends unfortunately couldn't by the tickets at half price at the official office but got them for cheap the next day instead, and we just pushed our reservation back a day. Instead, we wandered around the city doing some necessary errands like buying our train ticket for the next day and stopping by the one euro store (think dollar store in America, but a little bit nicer). After that, we enjoyed the great weather and had pizza for lunch outside the Duomo with our friends. Not wanting to go inside for much of anything, we went over the the Santa maria novel and sat outside for a bit, marveling at the impressive church facade that looks unified but was actually constructed in two levels, one before the plague hit Florence and one a few years after. We found an old pharmacy shop that is being redone for the it's 400 anniversary celebration that a guide told us about...they sell all the something's that they did in the past, specifically loose tea, soaps, perfumes, lotions, and oils, all made the old fashioned way. An afternoon treat of gelato cooled us off before we went back to the hostel to relax, eat dinner and pack.
In an effort to experience Florence nightlife while still getting rest for our bike trip the day after, we went out with Jon, Molly, Fiona and their two other hostel roommates to an Irish pub down the street for a beer. It was nice to sit outside and relax with our new friends and just talk about our travels and life in general. Katlin actually pointed out that the pub was a wonderful combination of our whole trip thus far: we were in Florence at an Irish pub where the local men had gathered to watch the soccer match between Milan and Barcelona, drinking carlsberg, an English beer. It seems like the travel gods were smiling down on us and giving us a pat on the back for a travel job well done so far. Did I mention how we love those hostel gods? They have been good to us, especially when I accidentally booked the wrong room in Florence...I didn't notice that I selected a private 4 bed room instead of a normal mixed bed dorm. In hostel terms, private means that no one else can stay in the room and you pay for every bed in there, so instead of having 2 beds, I had essentially booked us 4. Luckily, the hostel was very accommodating and kind; they opened the room up and found two other girls that took the other beds. We toasted the hostel gods that night for sure.
In an effort to experience Florence nightlife while still getting rest for our bike trip the day after, we went out with Jon, Molly, Fiona and their two other hostel roommates to an Irish pub down the street for a beer. It was nice to sit outside and relax with our new friends and just talk about our travels and life in general. Katlin actually pointed out that the pub was a wonderful combination of our whole trip thus far: we were in Florence at an Irish pub where the local men had gathered to watch the soccer match between Milan and Barcelona, drinking carlsberg, an English beer. It seems like the travel gods were smiling down on us and giving us a pat on the back for a travel job well done so far. Did I mention how we love those hostel gods? They have been good to us, especially when I accidentally booked the wrong room in Florence...I didn't notice that I selected a private 4 bed room instead of a normal mixed bed dorm. In hostel terms, private means that no one else can stay in the room and you pay for every bed in there, so instead of having 2 beds, I had essentially booked us 4. Luckily, the hostel was very accommodating and kind; they opened the room up and found two other girls that took the other beds. We toasted the hostel gods that night for sure.
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