Hello readers!
I left you in Budapest, the Easternmost point of our journey, and the halfway point of the trip timeline. After the day at the baths, we toured "Buda" (Budapest is actually 2 seperate cities), where we got to see some great castle-goodness. There are some good photos up, you can see the incredible blue sky in some- but the polluted haze in others. Overall, Budapest was "nice place to visit, but I wouldn't wanna live there." However, a couple interesting cultural phenomenos there:
1- traffic goes really, really fast, until it approaches where you are waiting near the crosswalk. Cars then (even taxis!!) slam on their brakes and patiently wait for you to cross. Unlike everywhere else, where the crosswalks are generally ignored (including the US).
2- The Budapest train station was the first time I really felt uncomfortable since getting to Europe. Many, many people harassing you immediately upon steppiing out of your train asking if you want a taxi (no!) and constantly being told to double check your change because people will rip you off everywhere.
3- The speedo lives on in the baths of Budapest, especially on the 85 - 90 year old men.
4- Budapest metro trains come every 3 minutes or less all day long. And they go extremely fast, as do the escalators. Maybe the reason that DC metro is always screwed up by people jumping in at the last minute is that people know it could be 15 minutes to the next train...
Overall, Budapest was a good time, but not as great as Prague or Vienna (which were admittedly very hard acts to follow).
We left Budapest for Munich via the night train.... and we made it to Munich at 6 AM, when it was still pitch black outside. You can see a photo of the 3 high bunks on each side in the photostream, but generally, not a good night sleep. Between the rocking of the train (a problem if you are a side sleeper as it constantly pushes you over) and the slight g-forces on your head as you hurtle around corners, as well as the very real threat that someone might try to steal your stuff, not sure there was any point in having a bed. But, luckily our bunkmates were very cool young people, and there were only 4 of us in the 6 bunks.
However, after a nap on the hostel couch (could't check in until 1:00), we rallied and headed out! As you can see from the photos, it was a really beautiful day outside- the trees are putting on their full fall performance here, and the weather was PERFECT (blue skies for most of the day and about 60-65 degrees). The photos from today have comments- look for the river surfing, the glockenspieling, and the beer drinking! Probably one of the greatest days of the vacation so far- especially since we caught a 3 hour afternoon nap in the hostel dorms!!
We have 4 nights here in Munich, and then will head to ROME! Very excited about this week :) Lots of people here celebrating Halloweeen, though we aren't dressing up (big parties seem to be tonight- tons of people out- especially because the time change here is overnight tonight!)
Happy Halloween from Munich!
*Note: I know that I am putting up a lot of photos, but you have no idea how many I'm not putting up. It takes me about an hour to go through them every time I upload to find the best ones to put up, so hopefully you are enjoying them. I love the comments on the photos and on the blog and in my emails, so keep them coming!!!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
a Hungarian Hot Bath
Well, instead of hitting the normal beautiful churches and castle district, today we decided to hang out like someone who actually lives in Budapest! This means that we wandered through the shopping district where I picked up a pretty wrap, looked at the buildings along the river and across into the castle district, and then we headed for the Hot Springs Baths. Where we stayed for 3.5 hours. It was AWESOME. There were probably 10 different steam rooms and saunas- some with aromatherapy, some with changing color lights, and some with just lots and lots of heat. Then there were the indoor pools- varying in temperature from around 20 celsius to 40, some with lots of minerals for skin softening (though smelling slightly of sulfer as they are heated from the underground springs).
And then we discovered...the outside pools! There were 3, of varying warm temperatures, where we spent most of the afternoon. The air was cold (yes, it is late October), but the water had wonderful steam blowing off from the hot springs. A lazy river, a hot tub, and many places where bubbles poured in. I think this is the most relaxed we've been all vacation.
No internet at the apartment we are staying in *which is huge* so keeping this brief and no photos for now. But if you want to check out the baths we were at today, visit http://szechenyibath.com/ where you can see how fab it was.
Tomorrow we spend the day in Budapest and then take night train to Munich, so maybe no post tomorrow either, but think we will have internet in Munich. Till then!
And then we discovered...the outside pools! There were 3, of varying warm temperatures, where we spent most of the afternoon. The air was cold (yes, it is late October), but the water had wonderful steam blowing off from the hot springs. A lazy river, a hot tub, and many places where bubbles poured in. I think this is the most relaxed we've been all vacation.
No internet at the apartment we are staying in *which is huge* so keeping this brief and no photos for now. But if you want to check out the baths we were at today, visit http://szechenyibath.com/ where you can see how fab it was.
Tomorrow we spend the day in Budapest and then take night train to Munich, so maybe no post tomorrow either, but think we will have internet in Munich. Till then!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
In Memoriam
Matt's Grandfather passed away last night. Remember someone special in your life today and enjoy some beautiful photos of Vienna wine country- we took a bus to the top of the hill and then walked downwards for 3 hours- taking time to stop for wine and photos along the way. It was beautiful.
Monday, October 25, 2010
In which we partied with machine guns, Napoleon, and baby Mozart
In case you were worried that last night's ballet made us too soft (oh! the arms and legs made such elegant lines!), we started today with classic rock, beer, and military equipment. Yep, we stumbled upon a large military expo in the middle of Vienna. See the photos :)
After this fun distraction, we headed into the Imperial Palace, where we saw beautiful jewels and "an original piece of the cross" upon which Jesus was crucified and the "spear of longinus" which pierced Christ's side. The reason I put this in quotes is that it was in a case in a room that had many other cases in it. I think if anyone (including the Catholic church) believed this to be a real piece, it would probably have its own section devoted to it. Strange to see these claimed artifacts in a room with other random things... But interesting regardless. When we looked at the crown jewels, it was hard to view them for what they really were, and appreciate thier beauty (and longevity- some from over 500 years ago when Vienna was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire). Mainly, it looked like American costume jewelery worn by children. It was hard to remember this was REAL gold and REAL gemstones, not just glass and plastic. But, really, it was quite pretty.
However, the highlight of the day was Schonbrunn Palace, a bit outside Vienna. The historical significance of this was incredible- any fan of the Tudors would have loved it (you know who you are- though I've never seen it). It was formerly the home of Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, was used by 6 year old Mozart to perform and entertain, and was used as the meeting point for Kennedy and Kruschev. The rooms were decorated in beautiful "Rococo" style- not that I knew what that was before today. Overall it was really stunning and the host to incredible history, and the home of the Hapsburgs for many generations (the rulers of Austria and its former empires. Incredible for one building to be the home/host to so many historical figures who have reached almost legendary status. While we weren't allowed to take any photos inside, if you are curious you can visit http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/
We also managed to cook dinner tonight- a win for the pocketbooks and tummys :)
Tomorrow if the weather clears up a bit, we will head out to "wine country"- if not, we will enjoy just hanging out downtown Vienna in coffeshops! Enjoy the photos (and check out the view from our Prague hostel private balcony!)
After this fun distraction, we headed into the Imperial Palace, where we saw beautiful jewels and "an original piece of the cross" upon which Jesus was crucified and the "spear of longinus" which pierced Christ's side. The reason I put this in quotes is that it was in a case in a room that had many other cases in it. I think if anyone (including the Catholic church) believed this to be a real piece, it would probably have its own section devoted to it. Strange to see these claimed artifacts in a room with other random things... But interesting regardless. When we looked at the crown jewels, it was hard to view them for what they really were, and appreciate thier beauty (and longevity- some from over 500 years ago when Vienna was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire). Mainly, it looked like American costume jewelery worn by children. It was hard to remember this was REAL gold and REAL gemstones, not just glass and plastic. But, really, it was quite pretty.
However, the highlight of the day was Schonbrunn Palace, a bit outside Vienna. The historical significance of this was incredible- any fan of the Tudors would have loved it (you know who you are- though I've never seen it). It was formerly the home of Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, was used by 6 year old Mozart to perform and entertain, and was used as the meeting point for Kennedy and Kruschev. The rooms were decorated in beautiful "Rococo" style- not that I knew what that was before today. Overall it was really stunning and the host to incredible history, and the home of the Hapsburgs for many generations (the rulers of Austria and its former empires. Incredible for one building to be the home/host to so many historical figures who have reached almost legendary status. While we weren't allowed to take any photos inside, if you are curious you can visit http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/
We also managed to cook dinner tonight- a win for the pocketbooks and tummys :)
Tomorrow if the weather clears up a bit, we will head out to "wine country"- if not, we will enjoy just hanging out downtown Vienna in coffeshops! Enjoy the photos (and check out the view from our Prague hostel private balcony!)
Sunday, October 24, 2010
The Hills are Alive...with the sound of protests...
October 24
Vienna, you are memorable already, and yet I have only been here a few hours.
- When we arrived and got to the street where our hostel is, the building looks from the outside for all intents and purposes to be abandoned during large reconstruction. Yet, there is a buzzer with the name of our hostel.... wandering inside the building, it doesn't look any more occupied, but follow the signs upstairs into yet another empty hallway with a door at the end. There, another buzzer...which instead of leading someone to come out to let us in, brings us a voice that tells us to go inside and our keys are on the beds A and A (???). Okayyy.... We open the door to find an amazing hidden hostel, very new, and that our beds are essentially up in a loft that feels like a small child's treehouse... All very, very odd, but quite cute and even though we have yet to meet someone who works here, it seems to be a good place.
-We went to the Opera House this evening for 4 euro standing room only tickets. It turned out to be a premiere of a new ballet, Juwelen der Neuen Welt. We were lucky to get tickets, as all regular seats were sold out. The sound of an orchestra tuning up always brings butterflys for me, and as the curtain went up a gasp throughout the audience at the intense beauty- the costumes were like a watercolor painting brought to life of a ballet school. We had intended to leave the ballet early, but it was so beautiful that we stayed throughout.
-Leaving the ballet we walked back to the U-bahn directly into a very large student protest about government cutbacks to student loans (or something along those lines). There was a large video screen set up which appeared to be showing the national Austrian news, which was going back and forth between a political roundtable and shots of the protest. So we were apparently on the Austrian news tonight! (at least in the background).
I never really got around to writing a real blog about Prague- hopefully you enjoyed the photos- but here are a few random thoughts about Prague, Europe, and life in general:
-We finally got to see an American movie!!! I had been really wanting to go to one, and succeeded in finding Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in English in Prague. Some odd things about seeing a movie in Prague: 1) You have assigned seats in the theater (just like in a performing arts theater). 2) You can purchase bacon-chedder flavored popcorn (and should. It was yummy). 3) You can buy a beer at the theater for under $2.
- Shops close very early here- some grocercy stores close as early as 7 PM....I guess you are SOL if you forgot an ingredient....
-Dog poop is an international problem (we have avoided stepping in any, but it seems to be everywhere around Europe even though there are free little baggies everywhere....)
-Tourists in DC are utterly incompetent at riding the metro. Constantly bags and arms are thrown between the doors to keep them from closing...but they don't actually reopen like elevator doors and can lead to whole cars being unloaded. Tourists across Europe seem to avoid this idiodic behavior...maybe because they know that safety standards are just not that high and there is a fair chance their arm will just get cut off... (just kidding...probably....). Anyway, I am left wondering why we can figure out the subway systems internationally in languages we don't speak, but American tourists are left looking totally lost. Is this a failure of DC signage or just that we are public transit pros (or, is everyone just this stupid in the US??)?
- Much of Europe looks exactly like the American midwest. Except there are wind farms everywhere. Also, how long does a wind turbine need to be operational before it makes enough power to pay for what it took to put it up?
-Riding on trains is far superior to airplanes. I do not mind these 5 hour rides, they are comfortable, and very relaxing. You can buy a beer on board for only a couple bucks and just sit back and relax. In many ways it ends up feeling similar to an afternoon on the beach, as you just sit back, put your feet up, and watch the world go rolling by.
-They sell potato chips in an amazing array of flavors here. Have I just not been paying attention in the US?
- Communists and Nazis build really ugly buildings.
-There are WWII memorials everywhere here. The presence of history of WWII is just so much more present, and many citys are still rebuilding. In the US, WWII feels very far away- we've had Vietnam, Korea, multiple mideast wars, etc. Here, WWII feels like it was only yesterday.
-In some places, WWII (and the Communist results across the continent) really was almost yesterday. Prague is a great example- it was 1989 before the Czek Republic had their "Velvet Revolution" and took back the government (it is called the Velvet Revolution because the power changed without bloodshed...).
-Except, Prague's government didn't really change without bloodshed. The students took to the streets in protest, jangling their keys, in record numbers just before the change after a student was beaten to death during the protests a few days before. But as it turns out, it wasn't a student- it was a setup by the secret police to incite the students to action, and they apparently beat to death one of their own (secret policemen). All this according to our tour guide.... I'm sure Wikipedia can confirm?
-The reason Prague is so historic is sinister - Hitler really liked it so he protected it. He thought it was the Jewel of Europe. But he also intended to create a museum there commemorating the extinct Jewish race (which is why there are so many Jewish artifacts there- he sent everything there to be warehoused until after the war).
-Is the liberal attitude in Europe in part a backlash against Communism and government control? Could this be why beer drinking in the streets is allowed- because people don't want the government telling them what to do?
- Have continued to enjoy street food- Prague had some amazing sausages in the central square being smoked over wood fires, and here in Vienna have already enjoyed chestnuts. Only bad (or just not great) street food is so far in Berlin- Currywurst- essentially a hot dog cut up with ketchup sprinkled with curry powder. Avoid.
-So far Matt says that top 2 cities are Berlin and Prague. He thinks people should not waste their time in London. I think London was especially painful only because we were super jetlagged- will be interesting to see what its like the second time through. Assuming the Paris strikes end eventually and we get to go on our planned route....won't be a problem for another couple weeks.
-Finally, Happy Birthday Sarah!!!!
Vienna, you are memorable already, and yet I have only been here a few hours.
- When we arrived and got to the street where our hostel is, the building looks from the outside for all intents and purposes to be abandoned during large reconstruction. Yet, there is a buzzer with the name of our hostel.... wandering inside the building, it doesn't look any more occupied, but follow the signs upstairs into yet another empty hallway with a door at the end. There, another buzzer...which instead of leading someone to come out to let us in, brings us a voice that tells us to go inside and our keys are on the beds A and A (???). Okayyy.... We open the door to find an amazing hidden hostel, very new, and that our beds are essentially up in a loft that feels like a small child's treehouse... All very, very odd, but quite cute and even though we have yet to meet someone who works here, it seems to be a good place.
-We went to the Opera House this evening for 4 euro standing room only tickets. It turned out to be a premiere of a new ballet, Juwelen der Neuen Welt. We were lucky to get tickets, as all regular seats were sold out. The sound of an orchestra tuning up always brings butterflys for me, and as the curtain went up a gasp throughout the audience at the intense beauty- the costumes were like a watercolor painting brought to life of a ballet school. We had intended to leave the ballet early, but it was so beautiful that we stayed throughout.
-Leaving the ballet we walked back to the U-bahn directly into a very large student protest about government cutbacks to student loans (or something along those lines). There was a large video screen set up which appeared to be showing the national Austrian news, which was going back and forth between a political roundtable and shots of the protest. So we were apparently on the Austrian news tonight! (at least in the background).
I never really got around to writing a real blog about Prague- hopefully you enjoyed the photos- but here are a few random thoughts about Prague, Europe, and life in general:
-We finally got to see an American movie!!! I had been really wanting to go to one, and succeeded in finding Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in English in Prague. Some odd things about seeing a movie in Prague: 1) You have assigned seats in the theater (just like in a performing arts theater). 2) You can purchase bacon-chedder flavored popcorn (and should. It was yummy). 3) You can buy a beer at the theater for under $2.
- Shops close very early here- some grocercy stores close as early as 7 PM....I guess you are SOL if you forgot an ingredient....
-Dog poop is an international problem (we have avoided stepping in any, but it seems to be everywhere around Europe even though there are free little baggies everywhere....)
-Tourists in DC are utterly incompetent at riding the metro. Constantly bags and arms are thrown between the doors to keep them from closing...but they don't actually reopen like elevator doors and can lead to whole cars being unloaded. Tourists across Europe seem to avoid this idiodic behavior...maybe because they know that safety standards are just not that high and there is a fair chance their arm will just get cut off... (just kidding...probably....). Anyway, I am left wondering why we can figure out the subway systems internationally in languages we don't speak, but American tourists are left looking totally lost. Is this a failure of DC signage or just that we are public transit pros (or, is everyone just this stupid in the US??)?
- Much of Europe looks exactly like the American midwest. Except there are wind farms everywhere. Also, how long does a wind turbine need to be operational before it makes enough power to pay for what it took to put it up?
-Riding on trains is far superior to airplanes. I do not mind these 5 hour rides, they are comfortable, and very relaxing. You can buy a beer on board for only a couple bucks and just sit back and relax. In many ways it ends up feeling similar to an afternoon on the beach, as you just sit back, put your feet up, and watch the world go rolling by.
-They sell potato chips in an amazing array of flavors here. Have I just not been paying attention in the US?
- Communists and Nazis build really ugly buildings.
-There are WWII memorials everywhere here. The presence of history of WWII is just so much more present, and many citys are still rebuilding. In the US, WWII feels very far away- we've had Vietnam, Korea, multiple mideast wars, etc. Here, WWII feels like it was only yesterday.
-In some places, WWII (and the Communist results across the continent) really was almost yesterday. Prague is a great example- it was 1989 before the Czek Republic had their "Velvet Revolution" and took back the government (it is called the Velvet Revolution because the power changed without bloodshed...).
-Except, Prague's government didn't really change without bloodshed. The students took to the streets in protest, jangling their keys, in record numbers just before the change after a student was beaten to death during the protests a few days before. But as it turns out, it wasn't a student- it was a setup by the secret police to incite the students to action, and they apparently beat to death one of their own (secret policemen). All this according to our tour guide.... I'm sure Wikipedia can confirm?
-The reason Prague is so historic is sinister - Hitler really liked it so he protected it. He thought it was the Jewel of Europe. But he also intended to create a museum there commemorating the extinct Jewish race (which is why there are so many Jewish artifacts there- he sent everything there to be warehoused until after the war).
-Is the liberal attitude in Europe in part a backlash against Communism and government control? Could this be why beer drinking in the streets is allowed- because people don't want the government telling them what to do?
- Have continued to enjoy street food- Prague had some amazing sausages in the central square being smoked over wood fires, and here in Vienna have already enjoyed chestnuts. Only bad (or just not great) street food is so far in Berlin- Currywurst- essentially a hot dog cut up with ketchup sprinkled with curry powder. Avoid.
-So far Matt says that top 2 cities are Berlin and Prague. He thinks people should not waste their time in London. I think London was especially painful only because we were super jetlagged- will be interesting to see what its like the second time through. Assuming the Paris strikes end eventually and we get to go on our planned route....won't be a problem for another couple weeks.
-Finally, Happy Birthday Sarah!!!!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Prague All Day Tour Photos
too tired from 6+ hours of walking around Prague (did city tour and castle tour) to write a long blog, and will just say that if the main Americans that the rest of the world meets are American students on tour, no wonder everyone hates us and thinks we are very stupid.... (3 very annoying 20 year old girls were on the tours with us). More older Americans (defined as post-college) need to tour...
Anyway, go look at the photos instead! It was an awesome sunny (cold) day, and we had a great time- tomorrow is major off-touring relaxing day of nothing!!
Anyway, go look at the photos instead! It was an awesome sunny (cold) day, and we had a great time- tomorrow is major off-touring relaxing day of nothing!!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Czech In Time
Yes, made it to Prague, Czech Republic (forgive the czech in time pun). The train ride here from Berlin- in a word, beautiful. The train tracks followed the river in a valley for several hours, which swept upwards into large hills (small mountains?) covered in stunning black rock walls and trees with changing leaves. There were even a couple castles along the way.
We're staying in a great B&B/Hostel here, that I think is actually larger than our condo (yeah I know, it's not hard to beat that), with high ceilings and a full kitchen. Very nice though not much furniture :) (see the photo).
We ate traditional Czech food tonight- I had beef goulash (think beef stew but spicy, with dumplings on the side to soak up the sauce) and Matt ordered a crazy beef with cream sauce and whipped cream and rasberry jam (also with dumplings). This sounds insane, but was really good - and who knew that your dinner could also be your dessert???
We also got to wander around after dark, across the "royal road" and toward Prague castle- it looks beautiful, though I'm not sure my photos reflect it- I didn't have my tripod along so it was hard to take good shots. But you can get an idea, and better photos tomorrow.
That's all for now, more (daytime) photos tomorrow :)
We're staying in a great B&B/Hostel here, that I think is actually larger than our condo (yeah I know, it's not hard to beat that), with high ceilings and a full kitchen. Very nice though not much furniture :) (see the photo).
We ate traditional Czech food tonight- I had beef goulash (think beef stew but spicy, with dumplings on the side to soak up the sauce) and Matt ordered a crazy beef with cream sauce and whipped cream and rasberry jam (also with dumplings). This sounds insane, but was really good - and who knew that your dinner could also be your dessert???
We also got to wander around after dark, across the "royal road" and toward Prague castle- it looks beautiful, though I'm not sure my photos reflect it- I didn't have my tripod along so it was hard to take good shots. But you can get an idea, and better photos tomorrow.
That's all for now, more (daytime) photos tomorrow :)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Berlin Touring October 19 and 20th
Between the cold (near freezing in the 30s) and the rain and the walking, Berlin has exhausted me too much for a "good" (aka "organized") post. But, we've been having a very good time.
Monday night we ended up going on an "Alternative 666 Anti-Pub Crawl." Which ended up meaning, "we're just like any other pub crawl but go to cooler bars." Which was good by us :) The most interesting was called Dr. Pong, which was a small dive bar in which a ping pong table was in the middle, which essentially everyone played at once in a round-robin sudden death elimination format - as in, the person in front of you hits the ball, gets out of the way, and you try to return the next ball. Not so easy, but pretty fun/funny.
We also were entertained by going to an absinthe bar, a "goth" bar, and a "hippie" bar- as well as the entertainment provided by some Danish boys doing eyeball shots of vodka and snorting salt before tequillia shots (WHAT???). Overall a fun night, and a good way to see the "real" (?) Berlin.
(As a side note from Matt: Interesting cultural touchstone: Yelling "America" in a certain tone of voice will always (on pub crawl) get the response, "F!!k Yeah!" from at least 3 dudes no matter their nationality. If you haven't seen Team America, you have no idea what this is about, and that's okay.)
The next day we went on a 4 hour city tour with a guide, which was great. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie (too strange to make up: the posing guards now by the checkpoint gate are actually strippers- both male and female- and for 10 euro they will actually give you a lapdance there in the middle of the street), the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (controversial due to its narrow scope), Hitler's underground bunker area (now under a nondescript parking lot) where he committed suicide and then was cremated in a pit nextdoor, Lustgarten (where Nazi marches frequently occured), various segments of the Berlin Wall, and the square of the 1933 book burning (20,000 books were burned- now there is an underground room of empty bookshelves as a memorial at the spot that you can see through the plexiglass area of sidewalk).
One extremely random item of interest is that the Berlin government has numbered with nailed signs each tree in the entire city. Because Germans apparently REALLY like counting. There are 210,000 if you're interested.
After the tour ended, we dragged our soaking wet, freezing selves to the Reichstag (the German parliament building). We got a nice view of the city from the top, but unfortunatly the very top dome was closed for cleaning (you can see a photo of this in the photostream- it was really cool architecture).
Don't worry though- when we finally got home, we had some comfort food at a place called "White Trash Fast Food" (actually a very large resturant with pretty good food), and then availed ourselves of some rum-spiked hot chocolate.
Today, the 20th, we toured the German history museum most of the day- it went from around 2000 BC to the present. It was quite interesting, and since I never took European history, filled in some major knoweldge gaps, especially related to how WWII evolved.
We spent the rest of the evening in a German shopping area (Alexanderplatz).
On our minds tonight is Matt's father's father, who was diagnosed with untreatable lung cancer yesterday. If you are of the praying persuasion, please send extras his way.
Tomorrow we head to Prague, which should be a pretty journey as the leaves are beginning to change here. They are not on the Euro, so perhaps everyday things will be even cheaper than they are here in Berlin (which is much cheaper than anywhere else we've been), though since Prague is once again more of a tourist town, maybe not. Have enjoyed Berlin, but ready to head onward to a place perhaps more accostomed to American tourists who don't speak the language -everyone here assumes we are German and speaks to us in German- and then are highly disappointed when we reveal we are, in fact, not. But, at least we apparently don't look like American tourists!
Monday night we ended up going on an "Alternative 666 Anti-Pub Crawl." Which ended up meaning, "we're just like any other pub crawl but go to cooler bars." Which was good by us :) The most interesting was called Dr. Pong, which was a small dive bar in which a ping pong table was in the middle, which essentially everyone played at once in a round-robin sudden death elimination format - as in, the person in front of you hits the ball, gets out of the way, and you try to return the next ball. Not so easy, but pretty fun/funny.
We also were entertained by going to an absinthe bar, a "goth" bar, and a "hippie" bar- as well as the entertainment provided by some Danish boys doing eyeball shots of vodka and snorting salt before tequillia shots (WHAT???). Overall a fun night, and a good way to see the "real" (?) Berlin.
(As a side note from Matt: Interesting cultural touchstone: Yelling "America" in a certain tone of voice will always (on pub crawl) get the response, "F!!k Yeah!" from at least 3 dudes no matter their nationality. If you haven't seen Team America, you have no idea what this is about, and that's okay.)
The next day we went on a 4 hour city tour with a guide, which was great. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie (too strange to make up: the posing guards now by the checkpoint gate are actually strippers- both male and female- and for 10 euro they will actually give you a lapdance there in the middle of the street), the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (controversial due to its narrow scope), Hitler's underground bunker area (now under a nondescript parking lot) where he committed suicide and then was cremated in a pit nextdoor, Lustgarten (where Nazi marches frequently occured), various segments of the Berlin Wall, and the square of the 1933 book burning (20,000 books were burned- now there is an underground room of empty bookshelves as a memorial at the spot that you can see through the plexiglass area of sidewalk).
One extremely random item of interest is that the Berlin government has numbered with nailed signs each tree in the entire city. Because Germans apparently REALLY like counting. There are 210,000 if you're interested.
After the tour ended, we dragged our soaking wet, freezing selves to the Reichstag (the German parliament building). We got a nice view of the city from the top, but unfortunatly the very top dome was closed for cleaning (you can see a photo of this in the photostream- it was really cool architecture).
Don't worry though- when we finally got home, we had some comfort food at a place called "White Trash Fast Food" (actually a very large resturant with pretty good food), and then availed ourselves of some rum-spiked hot chocolate.
Today, the 20th, we toured the German history museum most of the day- it went from around 2000 BC to the present. It was quite interesting, and since I never took European history, filled in some major knoweldge gaps, especially related to how WWII evolved.
We spent the rest of the evening in a German shopping area (Alexanderplatz).
On our minds tonight is Matt's father's father, who was diagnosed with untreatable lung cancer yesterday. If you are of the praying persuasion, please send extras his way.
Tomorrow we head to Prague, which should be a pretty journey as the leaves are beginning to change here. They are not on the Euro, so perhaps everyday things will be even cheaper than they are here in Berlin (which is much cheaper than anywhere else we've been), though since Prague is once again more of a tourist town, maybe not. Have enjoyed Berlin, but ready to head onward to a place perhaps more accostomed to American tourists who don't speak the language -everyone here assumes we are German and speaks to us in German- and then are highly disappointed when we reveal we are, in fact, not. But, at least we apparently don't look like American tourists!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Made it to Berlin!!
This city is HUGE! And there is no English (combined with the first time we have encountered people working in the tourist industry, including at the ticket counter in train station) making it very overwhelming. Tomorrow we are going on a city tour, and probably to a few museums.
Randomly, train strikes are going on throughout France and Belgium. This made our 6 hour train ride very full, though still better than flying, because everyone had to change plans to leave Amsterdaam to either of those locations, which are major destinations from there. In any case, we have been quite lucky to not get stuck anywhere without public transit yet, as there were also strikes in London the day before we arrived. Hope to stay on the right side of this luck.... :)
Also the z and y are in the opposite places on the keyboard making it verz annozing to type.... so thats it for now!!!
Randomly, train strikes are going on throughout France and Belgium. This made our 6 hour train ride very full, though still better than flying, because everyone had to change plans to leave Amsterdaam to either of those locations, which are major destinations from there. In any case, we have been quite lucky to not get stuck anywhere without public transit yet, as there were also strikes in London the day before we arrived. Hope to stay on the right side of this luck.... :)
Also the z and y are in the opposite places on the keyboard making it verz annozing to type.... so thats it for now!!!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Amsterdam- in which we ate raw herring (on purpose)
After our big pub crawl, we have taken the rest of the time in Amsterdam to relax and enjoy the city and being on vacation.
The one additional real "tourist" thing we did was the Bols headquarters tour. Bols makes all kinds of different liquors including "Geniver" (which they invented and still make today, was the precurser to Gin), and were once part of the West India Trading company- the largest company in the world for quite a long time. In addition to learning those facts, this was a great tour that really let you play- as you will see in the photos, they have a whole room set up with each of their flavors of liquor where you can smell each scent. They also have a "taste experience" where you are given a flavor strip and watch a video for 30 seconds, which shows all kinds of different fruits- it's not until the fruits finish flashing that you can successfully identify the flavor as vanilla (thus indicating the very strong link between sight and taste). At the end of the tour, we got to sample the products- always the best part. ;)
To continue the taste adventure as we left the tour I got a type of street food you probably only find in Amsterdam- a raw herring sandwich. Served on bread, with pickles and onions. Sounds terrible, but was actually very good- I managed to get Matt to try a bite, and even he said it was much better than he expected.
Today we finally got to rent bikes, as the rain stopped! We took a quick ferry across to Northern Amsterdam and rode for a couple hours through parks, along canals, dikes, and a windmill. It was a beautiful ride, and even stopped in the middle for a mini-picnic, and played on a very small footbridge over a creek (see the photos- I think this was probably intended as playground equipment for kids, but we enjoyed it too!)
We sampled an Indonesian feast for dinner, called a "rijsttafel" (rice table), which included 10 different small plates of vegetables, eggs, fish, shrimp, chicken and beef- it was well worth the splurge- there is a photo of this as well :)
Early tomorrow morning we head to Berlin on a 6 hour train ride, so auf wiedersehen for now!
Don't forget that you can get to the photos by clicking any photo posted- it will take you to a page where you can click to see the rest of the photostream. The blog is now set so that you can comment without logging into anything (I think) so comment away if you want!
The one additional real "tourist" thing we did was the Bols headquarters tour. Bols makes all kinds of different liquors including "Geniver" (which they invented and still make today, was the precurser to Gin), and were once part of the West India Trading company- the largest company in the world for quite a long time. In addition to learning those facts, this was a great tour that really let you play- as you will see in the photos, they have a whole room set up with each of their flavors of liquor where you can smell each scent. They also have a "taste experience" where you are given a flavor strip and watch a video for 30 seconds, which shows all kinds of different fruits- it's not until the fruits finish flashing that you can successfully identify the flavor as vanilla (thus indicating the very strong link between sight and taste). At the end of the tour, we got to sample the products- always the best part. ;)
To continue the taste adventure as we left the tour I got a type of street food you probably only find in Amsterdam- a raw herring sandwich. Served on bread, with pickles and onions. Sounds terrible, but was actually very good- I managed to get Matt to try a bite, and even he said it was much better than he expected.
Today we finally got to rent bikes, as the rain stopped! We took a quick ferry across to Northern Amsterdam and rode for a couple hours through parks, along canals, dikes, and a windmill. It was a beautiful ride, and even stopped in the middle for a mini-picnic, and played on a very small footbridge over a creek (see the photos- I think this was probably intended as playground equipment for kids, but we enjoyed it too!)
We sampled an Indonesian feast for dinner, called a "rijsttafel" (rice table), which included 10 different small plates of vegetables, eggs, fish, shrimp, chicken and beef- it was well worth the splurge- there is a photo of this as well :)
Early tomorrow morning we head to Berlin on a 6 hour train ride, so auf wiedersehen for now!
Don't forget that you can get to the photos by clicking any photo posted- it will take you to a page where you can click to see the rest of the photostream. The blog is now set so that you can comment without logging into anything (I think) so comment away if you want!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Hello from Amsterdam!
Just a quick post today, as we are off to see a museum or two this afternoon. We are staying in a great B&B here in Amsterdam- our room is huge, with a high ceiling and in suite bathroom - a really nice break from bunk beds in shared rooms, and in a great location just outside of the red light district. In fact, there are some very friendly (though barely dressed) ladies in the windows just next door!!! There is also an exceptionally high number of "coffeeshops" with their immediately recognizable smoke blowing down the street. Truly though where we are staying is a great area and good walking distance to all the museums and whatnot.
Yesterday we toured the Anne Frank house, which was incredibly moving and sad. The space they hid in was actually quite a bit bigger than I had always imagined, and really interesting to see. The foundation that runs the house has also taken on the mission of looking forward to end discrimination around the world, which I think is a great way to continue the message.
To shake off a bit of the gloomy depression of the house, we then went on a pub crawl tour through the red light district! We met some hilarious Irish boys from Belfast who kept us in stitches the whole evening- everytime we would get seperated for a few minutes, and one saw us again, they would shout "AMERICANSSS!!!!" and come running up with big hugs (they had been drinking since noon....and this was around 10 PM). Anyway, it was good fun.
Not many photos to post yet because it was raining all day, but it looks sunny out so maybe some better ones later or tomorrow.
Proost!
Yesterday we toured the Anne Frank house, which was incredibly moving and sad. The space they hid in was actually quite a bit bigger than I had always imagined, and really interesting to see. The foundation that runs the house has also taken on the mission of looking forward to end discrimination around the world, which I think is a great way to continue the message.
To shake off a bit of the gloomy depression of the house, we then went on a pub crawl tour through the red light district! We met some hilarious Irish boys from Belfast who kept us in stitches the whole evening- everytime we would get seperated for a few minutes, and one saw us again, they would shout "AMERICANSSS!!!!" and come running up with big hugs (they had been drinking since noon....and this was around 10 PM). Anyway, it was good fun.
Not many photos to post yet because it was raining all day, but it looks sunny out so maybe some better ones later or tomorrow.
Proost!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Giant naked man!!!
October 14, Brugge (this is how they spell it themselves. You know it better as Bruges.)
Taken together, the Mannekin Pis in Brussels, the mermaid spraying water from her nipples in Brugge, and the giant inflatable naked man across the square, can only mean one thing: Belgium loves naked people. However, it is much too cold to test this out ourselves! hahaha... :) In case you are wondering about the giant inflatable man, it is apparently a self portrait, which is part of kicking off a few months of cultural events here. It is pretty funny to walk into a 500 year old square and see full frontal parade sized balloon nudity, so at the very least it is drawing attention to the festival and making some Americans giggle.
What we did instead was what I have deemed the "Brugge Stairmaster." 366 steps up to the top of the Tower in market square (as depicted in the movie, In Bruges). From there, a bell tower around 500 years old, you have a beautiful panoramic view of the city, as you can see in the photos. But don't worry- in order to build up energy for such a feat of strength and endurance, we first had french fries with sweet and spicy sauce on the square. Apparently french fries are the item of secondary fame in Belgium (next to its waffles). They were good- but so are most fresh french fries- these in particular were made from fresh potatoes which probably contributes.
As if 366 very tightly wound steep stairs made for much smaller feet from 500 years ago weren't enough, we also toured the De Halve Mann brewery and walked its over 200 steps. (For those keeping track, that's around 500+ stairs for today- 1000 if you count back down, which as they are extremely narrow for much smaller feet, quite trecherous both directions). De Halve Maan is the last remaining brewery here in Brugge, from the original 36(!!!). It was actually a very interesting tour- we saw the mash happening (that's the stage where the grains are mixed with hot water to extract the sugars before yeast is added), and the whole place smelled like an amazing bakery. In addition, because the brewery is now in its 6th generation of family ownership, the original brewing equipment from the mid-1800s was still present in addition to the newer machinery. It was an interesting look at not only old brewing techniques, but new as well.
We also took a lovely boat tour of the city through the canals- it was beautiful, and really amazing to see the architecture at work to make these canals work. Incredible to think of stepping out your kitchen door directly into the river, with nothing in between. There was also a large group of swans enjoying the day, though it was a bit cold and misty for us. (I did wear long underwear for the first time in my adult life- perhaps not the best choice on a day we did 500 stairs....but they kept me happily warm the rest of the day).
If this doesn't seem like enough for one day, we also saw the Michaelangelo Maddonna and Child marble sculpture in a beautiful cathedral, said to be the only Michaelangelo to have left Italy during his lifetime. It was beautiful and intricate- the Maddonna was amazingly lifelike (for marble), and overall I found the experience to be (suprisingly) moving.
Overall, a very busy day- and yet we still had time for a 2 hour nap :) (this should give you an idea how very small the city is!)
Tomorrow we head to Amsterdam! Should be an excellent contrast to Brugge... but a few random thoughts to leave you with:
- We had Chinese for dinner here, and realized that in Europe (based on the 2 we have been in), they don't even bother putting out the chopsticks. Funny how this has developed as an American custom to reflect the Chinese culture but is not bothered with here!!!
- Interesting brewery observation- at this point, basically no breweries do their own malting anymore, though they used to. This is done by allowing the grains to germinate, and then heating to whatever the approrpriate roasting temperature is for the particular brew being made. One possible advance to the "microbrew revolution" could be taking on this process again at a brewery level- though it is very hard, hot work (think giant room-sized oven in which a person must occasionally enter to turn the grains- though I am sure the industrial centers that do this now must have it mechanized).
- Funny story from the airport the other day in Dublin- someone was looking at a Guinness keychain/bottle opener with a small button on the side. Thinking it was a flashlight, the button was pushed a few times. Confused why no light was coming out, held it up to their eye- at which point flame shot out! Not only did this almost singe the eyebrows, but also cannot believe they are selling lighters in airports past security....
-Last night after dinner we ducked into a small bar with a nice smoldering fireplace, where I had my first hot red wine with lemon, sugar, and cloves (they call it hot wine here- I am not sure if it is any different than Mulled Wine...will let you know when we get to Germany?)
-Belgium beer is awesome (so many varieties and all so deeply flavorful). Belgium waffles are heavenly (so light and fluffy and sweet). Belgium chocolate is breathtaking (so rich and smooth). Belgium fries are lovely (so salty crisp and fresh). But what we cannot report on is Mulles and Frites- Mussels and Fries- only because something we can get in DC and Baltimore for under $10 is just not worth 20 euro a plate here (approximately $30).
-What I get for trying to wear clean clothing- we did the laundry yesterday, and as you can see in one of the photos, something bad must have been left in the wash by the last person, because my brown pants are now covered in white waxy material that won't come out even after 2 washes and trying to razor it off. Not happy....down to 2 pairs of pants until Thanksgiving- will see if I can pick up some new ones in Berlin.
-This is getting expensive, did not plan on having to pay for basically every single thing we do. But, we are headed away from the SUPER touristy places, and towards more "real" cities where there will be cheaper food and maybe more free museums.
-Please forgive the massive number of photos- I am doing my best to only post the best ones, but on a small netbook it is hard to see sometimes, and it takes FOREVER to go through them all...
-Please also forgive misspellings- the spell check integrated here thinks that I have misspelled everything because it is calibrated to Dutch and not English, and I haven't figured out how to tell it otherwise as we travel (it was fine in Dublin and London, so clearly its pulling based on ISP).
Taken together, the Mannekin Pis in Brussels, the mermaid spraying water from her nipples in Brugge, and the giant inflatable naked man across the square, can only mean one thing: Belgium loves naked people. However, it is much too cold to test this out ourselves! hahaha... :) In case you are wondering about the giant inflatable man, it is apparently a self portrait, which is part of kicking off a few months of cultural events here. It is pretty funny to walk into a 500 year old square and see full frontal parade sized balloon nudity, so at the very least it is drawing attention to the festival and making some Americans giggle.
What we did instead was what I have deemed the "Brugge Stairmaster." 366 steps up to the top of the Tower in market square (as depicted in the movie, In Bruges). From there, a bell tower around 500 years old, you have a beautiful panoramic view of the city, as you can see in the photos. But don't worry- in order to build up energy for such a feat of strength and endurance, we first had french fries with sweet and spicy sauce on the square. Apparently french fries are the item of secondary fame in Belgium (next to its waffles). They were good- but so are most fresh french fries- these in particular were made from fresh potatoes which probably contributes.
As if 366 very tightly wound steep stairs made for much smaller feet from 500 years ago weren't enough, we also toured the De Halve Mann brewery and walked its over 200 steps. (For those keeping track, that's around 500+ stairs for today- 1000 if you count back down, which as they are extremely narrow for much smaller feet, quite trecherous both directions). De Halve Maan is the last remaining brewery here in Brugge, from the original 36(!!!). It was actually a very interesting tour- we saw the mash happening (that's the stage where the grains are mixed with hot water to extract the sugars before yeast is added), and the whole place smelled like an amazing bakery. In addition, because the brewery is now in its 6th generation of family ownership, the original brewing equipment from the mid-1800s was still present in addition to the newer machinery. It was an interesting look at not only old brewing techniques, but new as well.
We also took a lovely boat tour of the city through the canals- it was beautiful, and really amazing to see the architecture at work to make these canals work. Incredible to think of stepping out your kitchen door directly into the river, with nothing in between. There was also a large group of swans enjoying the day, though it was a bit cold and misty for us. (I did wear long underwear for the first time in my adult life- perhaps not the best choice on a day we did 500 stairs....but they kept me happily warm the rest of the day).
If this doesn't seem like enough for one day, we also saw the Michaelangelo Maddonna and Child marble sculpture in a beautiful cathedral, said to be the only Michaelangelo to have left Italy during his lifetime. It was beautiful and intricate- the Maddonna was amazingly lifelike (for marble), and overall I found the experience to be (suprisingly) moving.
Overall, a very busy day- and yet we still had time for a 2 hour nap :) (this should give you an idea how very small the city is!)
Tomorrow we head to Amsterdam! Should be an excellent contrast to Brugge... but a few random thoughts to leave you with:
- We had Chinese for dinner here, and realized that in Europe (based on the 2 we have been in), they don't even bother putting out the chopsticks. Funny how this has developed as an American custom to reflect the Chinese culture but is not bothered with here!!!
- Interesting brewery observation- at this point, basically no breweries do their own malting anymore, though they used to. This is done by allowing the grains to germinate, and then heating to whatever the approrpriate roasting temperature is for the particular brew being made. One possible advance to the "microbrew revolution" could be taking on this process again at a brewery level- though it is very hard, hot work (think giant room-sized oven in which a person must occasionally enter to turn the grains- though I am sure the industrial centers that do this now must have it mechanized).
- Funny story from the airport the other day in Dublin- someone was looking at a Guinness keychain/bottle opener with a small button on the side. Thinking it was a flashlight, the button was pushed a few times. Confused why no light was coming out, held it up to their eye- at which point flame shot out! Not only did this almost singe the eyebrows, but also cannot believe they are selling lighters in airports past security....
-Last night after dinner we ducked into a small bar with a nice smoldering fireplace, where I had my first hot red wine with lemon, sugar, and cloves (they call it hot wine here- I am not sure if it is any different than Mulled Wine...will let you know when we get to Germany?)
-Belgium beer is awesome (so many varieties and all so deeply flavorful). Belgium waffles are heavenly (so light and fluffy and sweet). Belgium chocolate is breathtaking (so rich and smooth). Belgium fries are lovely (so salty crisp and fresh). But what we cannot report on is Mulles and Frites- Mussels and Fries- only because something we can get in DC and Baltimore for under $10 is just not worth 20 euro a plate here (approximately $30).
-What I get for trying to wear clean clothing- we did the laundry yesterday, and as you can see in one of the photos, something bad must have been left in the wash by the last person, because my brown pants are now covered in white waxy material that won't come out even after 2 washes and trying to razor it off. Not happy....down to 2 pairs of pants until Thanksgiving- will see if I can pick up some new ones in Berlin.
-This is getting expensive, did not plan on having to pay for basically every single thing we do. But, we are headed away from the SUPER touristy places, and towards more "real" cities where there will be cheaper food and maybe more free museums.
-Please forgive the massive number of photos- I am doing my best to only post the best ones, but on a small netbook it is hard to see sometimes, and it takes FOREVER to go through them all...
-Please also forgive misspellings- the spell check integrated here thinks that I have misspelled everything because it is calibrated to Dutch and not English, and I haven't figured out how to tell it otherwise as we travel (it was fine in Dublin and London, so clearly its pulling based on ISP).
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Pee, waffle, and a flag.
October 12- Dublin to Brussels
We flew from Dublin to Brussels via Aer Lingus, which had the same sales strategy as Ryan air- pretty funny to see, and wonder if all European airlines do this or if it is just the discount flights? The flight was okay, though we were delayed about an hour after we were onboard because of some problem with the water pressure on board- they expected it to take 2-3 minutes to fix....60 minutes later we took off! But, we got there safely, so can't really complain. Matt was a little extra miserable on the flight though, as he has gotten a mild cold- the pressure changes on the sinuses are never fun when you are congested. But he's hanging tough and doesn't seem to be very impacted overall.
When we were at last in central Brussels, after taking a quick train from the airport, it was already pushing 10:00 PM- and thinking the last check-in at the already paid for hostel was 10:30, we were on the fly out of the train station. With no map. And no real directions to where we needed to be, other than knowing it was south and behind a mall. But, taking a guess that South from the North train station must be toward the "center" sign (all in German and French), we headed out into the night. And miraculously stumbled upon the mall we were trying to find within 15 minutes of walking blindly south. And happend to immediately take the right turn to find the "back" of the mall, arriving in a panic at the hostel as it was pushing 10:30. Finding it, we hurried inside- where we learned that check in was 24 hours. :) In any case, once again, blind luck and a little bit of information coaligned to get us where we needed to be!
We then set out to find dinner, and stumbled upon a bar that was still serving dinner (now post 11 PM), but only Spaghetti.(As it happened, this bar was called The Raven- a callback to a DC haunt.) Just happy to have found somewhere open, we ordered 2 bowls, and were shocked when they came out- the two biggest bowls of spaghetti either of us have ever seen! As hungry as we were, only made it through about 1/2 of either (though it was very good).
We then headed back to the hostel, which was not too bad- in room sink, and 2 beds each built into the wall (like a dorm).
Oct 13: Brussels to Brugge
We wandered around Brussels for a few hours, including seeing the Mannequin Pis (a small statue of a peeing boy), which is the biggest "tourist attraction" in Brussels (funny for a city of over a million people). As you will see in the photos, quite a large tourist industry has captured its popularity, and there are replicas all over, in all sizes. the only real disappointment is that the little boy was not in costume today- generally he wears different costumes changed frequently, but I suppose the upside is we saw him as intended originally :)
We also went to the Belgium Beer Museum, which is in the middle of Grand Place (the big square with beautiful buildings from late 1600s). This was pretty interesting, as it covered a variety of beers that are made only in Belgium, including Gueuze, Lambic and Kriek, which all use spontaneous fermentation (much like American sourdough). We also learned that there are actually only 6 Trappist monestarys in the world, 5 of which are here in Belgium (though there are many more "abby beers", which are just generally associated with churches and not brewed by the actual monks themselves). It was good fun, and ended with a included beer. I had the Kriek, which tasted quite a bit like American cough syrup... but hey, it's traditional!
We then caught a train to Brugge, which we are in now- doing laundry, drinking a beer, and updating this blog in the hostel all at the same time- quite productive :) Haven't seen the city at all yet, but have all day tomorrow and it is quite small, plus we will venture out after the much needed laundry finishes!
Some random thoughts for you:
-Regardless of the bad Kriek, the other Belgium beers we have had are quite good. Love the Whitbeer (White Beer- eg, Leffe Blonde, which many of you have had in the US).
-We lost another hour, so now we are 7 hours ahead of DC.
-On the way to the airport in Dublin, we met Andy's Irish twin- very similar hilarious sense of humor, kept doing goofy voices from all over the world, and never shut up for one second of the ride :)
-Matt shaved his travel beard. He no longer looks like a hobo. Back to 17 year old instead.
-One funny contrast that is already nice about Belgium compared to UK or Ireland, the sinks here seem to all have adjustable temperatures- I am sure this relates more than anything to the age the faucets were installed (or reinstalled), but its nice to be able to wash your hands again without either scalding them (so hot the mirror immediately fogs up) or freezing them. Another random note about the plumbing, because I know it is your top topic of interest, all the toilets have dual flushing modes- big and small. Nice way to save water, and something I've only seen once in the US (at a friend's house that was very recently built in DC). Wonder if this will catch on?
-People in Brussels drink beer while doing their morning (okay, 11:30) crosswords! Love it.
-it's getting cold here.
-Have been enjoying more international food- had shwarma for lunch, and the best waffle ever for breakfast from a street vendor. The waffle was very sweet, with sugar inside somehow, so you didn't need syrup or anything additional and could easily eat it while walking down the street. (We took a couple photos of tourist waffles covered in toppings but didn't try one...yet).
-This is the first time I have ever been unable to read anything on a menu. A bit intimidating...luckily many of them have photos so you can sort of point and smile. The waiters are used to tourists, so even if they don't speak any English and you speak no French or German, you can end up with something yummy!
Laundry is calling, and dinner soon- hopefully cute photos of Brugge tomorrow!
We flew from Dublin to Brussels via Aer Lingus, which had the same sales strategy as Ryan air- pretty funny to see, and wonder if all European airlines do this or if it is just the discount flights? The flight was okay, though we were delayed about an hour after we were onboard because of some problem with the water pressure on board- they expected it to take 2-3 minutes to fix....60 minutes later we took off! But, we got there safely, so can't really complain. Matt was a little extra miserable on the flight though, as he has gotten a mild cold- the pressure changes on the sinuses are never fun when you are congested. But he's hanging tough and doesn't seem to be very impacted overall.
When we were at last in central Brussels, after taking a quick train from the airport, it was already pushing 10:00 PM- and thinking the last check-in at the already paid for hostel was 10:30, we were on the fly out of the train station. With no map. And no real directions to where we needed to be, other than knowing it was south and behind a mall. But, taking a guess that South from the North train station must be toward the "center" sign (all in German and French), we headed out into the night. And miraculously stumbled upon the mall we were trying to find within 15 minutes of walking blindly south. And happend to immediately take the right turn to find the "back" of the mall, arriving in a panic at the hostel as it was pushing 10:30. Finding it, we hurried inside- where we learned that check in was 24 hours. :) In any case, once again, blind luck and a little bit of information coaligned to get us where we needed to be!
We then set out to find dinner, and stumbled upon a bar that was still serving dinner (now post 11 PM), but only Spaghetti.(As it happened, this bar was called The Raven- a callback to a DC haunt.) Just happy to have found somewhere open, we ordered 2 bowls, and were shocked when they came out- the two biggest bowls of spaghetti either of us have ever seen! As hungry as we were, only made it through about 1/2 of either (though it was very good).
We then headed back to the hostel, which was not too bad- in room sink, and 2 beds each built into the wall (like a dorm).
Oct 13: Brussels to Brugge
We wandered around Brussels for a few hours, including seeing the Mannequin Pis (a small statue of a peeing boy), which is the biggest "tourist attraction" in Brussels (funny for a city of over a million people). As you will see in the photos, quite a large tourist industry has captured its popularity, and there are replicas all over, in all sizes. the only real disappointment is that the little boy was not in costume today- generally he wears different costumes changed frequently, but I suppose the upside is we saw him as intended originally :)
We also went to the Belgium Beer Museum, which is in the middle of Grand Place (the big square with beautiful buildings from late 1600s). This was pretty interesting, as it covered a variety of beers that are made only in Belgium, including Gueuze, Lambic and Kriek, which all use spontaneous fermentation (much like American sourdough). We also learned that there are actually only 6 Trappist monestarys in the world, 5 of which are here in Belgium (though there are many more "abby beers", which are just generally associated with churches and not brewed by the actual monks themselves). It was good fun, and ended with a included beer. I had the Kriek, which tasted quite a bit like American cough syrup... but hey, it's traditional!
We then caught a train to Brugge, which we are in now- doing laundry, drinking a beer, and updating this blog in the hostel all at the same time- quite productive :) Haven't seen the city at all yet, but have all day tomorrow and it is quite small, plus we will venture out after the much needed laundry finishes!
Some random thoughts for you:
-Regardless of the bad Kriek, the other Belgium beers we have had are quite good. Love the Whitbeer (White Beer- eg, Leffe Blonde, which many of you have had in the US).
-We lost another hour, so now we are 7 hours ahead of DC.
-On the way to the airport in Dublin, we met Andy's Irish twin- very similar hilarious sense of humor, kept doing goofy voices from all over the world, and never shut up for one second of the ride :)
-Matt shaved his travel beard. He no longer looks like a hobo. Back to 17 year old instead.
-One funny contrast that is already nice about Belgium compared to UK or Ireland, the sinks here seem to all have adjustable temperatures- I am sure this relates more than anything to the age the faucets were installed (or reinstalled), but its nice to be able to wash your hands again without either scalding them (so hot the mirror immediately fogs up) or freezing them. Another random note about the plumbing, because I know it is your top topic of interest, all the toilets have dual flushing modes- big and small. Nice way to save water, and something I've only seen once in the US (at a friend's house that was very recently built in DC). Wonder if this will catch on?
-People in Brussels drink beer while doing their morning (okay, 11:30) crosswords! Love it.
-it's getting cold here.
-Have been enjoying more international food- had shwarma for lunch, and the best waffle ever for breakfast from a street vendor. The waffle was very sweet, with sugar inside somehow, so you didn't need syrup or anything additional and could easily eat it while walking down the street. (We took a couple photos of tourist waffles covered in toppings but didn't try one...yet).
-This is the first time I have ever been unable to read anything on a menu. A bit intimidating...luckily many of them have photos so you can sort of point and smile. The waiters are used to tourists, so even if they don't speak any English and you speak no French or German, you can end up with something yummy!
Laundry is calling, and dinner soon- hopefully cute photos of Brugge tomorrow!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Go see the photos.
But read the blog below for details on what you are looking at. The pictures are amazing (not due to my skill, the scenery is just stunning).
Dingle October 9-11
Hello readers, sorry to have left you hanging, but had no Internet at the B&B.
We left Dublin for Dingle on the morning of October 9, taking a tram to the train, to another train, to a bus, and ending with a walk up a country road. While it may not be the easiest place in Ireland to get to, it was worth every minute. As you will see in the photos, the scenery was beautiful the entire route- a sea of green in as many shades as there are blues in the ocean. Passing cows and sheep and wildflowers with "mountains" in the background (they just aren't very tall). Eventually on the bus adding the ocean to the set, and it could not have been more beautiful. I don't think we will have better scenery for the rest of the trip, though the Swiss alps and Cinque Terre Italy may compete.
At the bus station in Tra Lee we met Thomas, a native of Norway living in Geneva for the past 30 years, with a strong French accent. Dingle is quite a small town, so as you will see in the rest of the post, we ran into him several times!
The B&B we stayed at, O'Shea's, was up a small road called Conner's Pass- no sidewalks, and posted speed limit of 80 km/hr (so the few cars the went by did so very rapidly!). A bit scary, but we got to pet a beautiful friendly horse who came right up to the gate as we went by. The sheep and goats didn't even notice us. As you can see in the photos, our window looked out onto fields, with the little Dingle town in the background, mountains to the sides, and the ocean in the distance. Beautiful and quiet, perfect for a couple days away to relax. Dingle itself is very quiet as well- apparently this is very much the off-season, and much was closed. The town is painted in pastels, and echoes small American beach towns.
In the evening we went to a pub to take in traditional Irish music (flute and guitar and fiddle/violin), where we again ran into Thomas. We shared stories over Guinness (which wasn't quite as good as it was at the factory in Dublin), and as they say here in Gaelic, the "Craick" (pronounced crack, meaning hearty conversation) was entertaining. (And don't worry, we took a cab home up the road at night- a $4 Euro 5 minute journey well worth it).
The next day, October 10, we found that so much of the town is shut down that no tours were running (it was a Sunday) except for the tour into the harbour to see the local dolphin 'Fungie'! Finding the $18 euro per person cost to go see a dolphin not smart enough to live in warm water, we passed on the tour. We were also unable to rent bicycles as the shops closed on the weekend in off season, so we ended up calling a taxi to take us to Slea Head. As we were waiting on the taxi, Thomas wandered up and was excited to come along. The timing was perfect and it was nice to have another companion for conversation as well as splitting the $36 Euro ride. The taxi driver gave us an excellent overview of the area and its history before dropping us off. As it turned out, we were glad to not have been able to rent the bicycles- getting out of town would have been somewhat trecherous.
We were dropped off at the 'Clochain' or Beehive Forts, which were built around 2000 BC- that's around 4000 years ago! Apparently they were resettled around 500 BC, which were the current buildings. These had the appearance of an igloo made of rock. They were much bigger than we had expected, and had multiple rooms connecting to each other.
We then continued to walk along the coast, where we had stunning views of Slea Head, the westernmost point of Europe (they say "The next parish is Boston"), where the waves constantly crashed into jagged black rock cliffs. I tried to narrow down my photos of this, but still ended up posting quite a few in an attempt to capture the power of the area. We followed the road for a couple hours to where there was a small sandy beach- as you can see, we went ankle deep in the freezing water- where a couple brave/stupid surfers wore wetsuits, seemingly not noticing the cold. The cab then came to pick us back up, and we headed back to Dingle. From the beach we had beautiful views of the Great Blasket Islands, uninhabited since 1950s. These are now an ecological preserve that boats run tours around during the summer.
A few more random thoughts, as I am currently in an Internet cafe and trying to keep the minutes down:
-Matt travels like Puddy (from Seinfeld), he needs his sit and stare time. Watching this as I glance up from my book (finished the new Jack Reacher- excellent) is pretty entertaining.
-The first night in Dingle we went to a small Chinese place run by a very nice man from Hong Kong- what I had was very good (it was beef and mushrooms and came out in a sizzling bowl not too different from the way fajitas are served in the US), but Matt ordered the General Tso's chicken- an American Chinese dish that was not very good here... the next night he ordered chicken nuggets and french fries.... and before we left Dublin he had chicken wings... I must work on convincing him to get outside the American fried chicken box :)
-We finally got the classic English/Irish breakfast at our B&B, and it was fantastic- egg over medium, "bacon" (more like pan fried thick ham), sausages, pan grilled tomatoes, fresh fruit, cereal, coffee, juice, toast, and cheeses. One does not need a lunch after a breakfast like this.
-After our walking tour we popped into the grocery store to get lunch- ended up at the deli counter. Have never ordered a roasted ham hock before. Thought it was mostly bone and we ordered 2 (they were around $1 each so I figured that to be that cheap there must not be much meat on them). Ummm....yeah. Ham hocks are big and very meaty as it turned out. Ended up having to throw basically a full one away.
-The pubs here keep the lights on very bright. This was a strange contrast to the typical American pub where you can only read the menu by your cell phone light.
-We washed some socks in the sink, thinking they would be dry by the next morning. Wrong. It is very humid here...and now we are travelling back to Dublin with a sack of wet socks... Ooops!
-In my "tourist things I like to look at calculus from my last post, I realized there is something I like even more than architecture- nature. The cliffs going into the sea with black rocks with rolling green mountains covered in sheep could keep me entertained all day long.
-Here the mountain grazing is called "commonage" which means anyone can use the land for their sheep. In order to keep track of which sheep is yours easily (without checking their barcode, which they also have), the farmers paint them funny bright neon colors on their backs. This is quite entertaining to see a field of sheep with neon pink wool.
-Guinness has branded every product with their logo, but we thought of a new one for them since they seem to brand everything already- a home pregnancy test which, if negative, could read "Negative, enjoy a Guinness!" If positive, "9 months to next Guinness!" I think people would buy this!
-Why people would pay $18 Euro each to go see Fungie the dolphin is beyond my comprehension...
-The signs here are in Gaelic and English, and say things like Ionad Chnoc Bhreanainn (The Great Blasket Centre). Glad the English is present...
-Irish accents here are much thicker and harder to understand than in Dublin, but most are used to dealing with tourists and can get their point across eventually.
-Dingle is such a small town that there are no street addresses, only street names. This makes it a little challenging to find things when you have first arrived in town...
-As we went to the westernmost point of Europe yesterday, we must be headed East now- touch down in Brussels tomorrow evening. Very much looking forward to not having any more planes to catch, and can travel at whatever intervals we please :) Next post will probably be from there!
We left Dublin for Dingle on the morning of October 9, taking a tram to the train, to another train, to a bus, and ending with a walk up a country road. While it may not be the easiest place in Ireland to get to, it was worth every minute. As you will see in the photos, the scenery was beautiful the entire route- a sea of green in as many shades as there are blues in the ocean. Passing cows and sheep and wildflowers with "mountains" in the background (they just aren't very tall). Eventually on the bus adding the ocean to the set, and it could not have been more beautiful. I don't think we will have better scenery for the rest of the trip, though the Swiss alps and Cinque Terre Italy may compete.
At the bus station in Tra Lee we met Thomas, a native of Norway living in Geneva for the past 30 years, with a strong French accent. Dingle is quite a small town, so as you will see in the rest of the post, we ran into him several times!
The B&B we stayed at, O'Shea's, was up a small road called Conner's Pass- no sidewalks, and posted speed limit of 80 km/hr (so the few cars the went by did so very rapidly!). A bit scary, but we got to pet a beautiful friendly horse who came right up to the gate as we went by. The sheep and goats didn't even notice us. As you can see in the photos, our window looked out onto fields, with the little Dingle town in the background, mountains to the sides, and the ocean in the distance. Beautiful and quiet, perfect for a couple days away to relax. Dingle itself is very quiet as well- apparently this is very much the off-season, and much was closed. The town is painted in pastels, and echoes small American beach towns.
In the evening we went to a pub to take in traditional Irish music (flute and guitar and fiddle/violin), where we again ran into Thomas. We shared stories over Guinness (which wasn't quite as good as it was at the factory in Dublin), and as they say here in Gaelic, the "Craick" (pronounced crack, meaning hearty conversation) was entertaining. (And don't worry, we took a cab home up the road at night- a $4 Euro 5 minute journey well worth it).
The next day, October 10, we found that so much of the town is shut down that no tours were running (it was a Sunday) except for the tour into the harbour to see the local dolphin 'Fungie'! Finding the $18 euro per person cost to go see a dolphin not smart enough to live in warm water, we passed on the tour. We were also unable to rent bicycles as the shops closed on the weekend in off season, so we ended up calling a taxi to take us to Slea Head. As we were waiting on the taxi, Thomas wandered up and was excited to come along. The timing was perfect and it was nice to have another companion for conversation as well as splitting the $36 Euro ride. The taxi driver gave us an excellent overview of the area and its history before dropping us off. As it turned out, we were glad to not have been able to rent the bicycles- getting out of town would have been somewhat trecherous.
We were dropped off at the 'Clochain' or Beehive Forts, which were built around 2000 BC- that's around 4000 years ago! Apparently they were resettled around 500 BC, which were the current buildings. These had the appearance of an igloo made of rock. They were much bigger than we had expected, and had multiple rooms connecting to each other.
We then continued to walk along the coast, where we had stunning views of Slea Head, the westernmost point of Europe (they say "The next parish is Boston"), where the waves constantly crashed into jagged black rock cliffs. I tried to narrow down my photos of this, but still ended up posting quite a few in an attempt to capture the power of the area. We followed the road for a couple hours to where there was a small sandy beach- as you can see, we went ankle deep in the freezing water- where a couple brave/stupid surfers wore wetsuits, seemingly not noticing the cold. The cab then came to pick us back up, and we headed back to Dingle. From the beach we had beautiful views of the Great Blasket Islands, uninhabited since 1950s. These are now an ecological preserve that boats run tours around during the summer.
A few more random thoughts, as I am currently in an Internet cafe and trying to keep the minutes down:
-Matt travels like Puddy (from Seinfeld), he needs his sit and stare time. Watching this as I glance up from my book (finished the new Jack Reacher- excellent) is pretty entertaining.
-The first night in Dingle we went to a small Chinese place run by a very nice man from Hong Kong- what I had was very good (it was beef and mushrooms and came out in a sizzling bowl not too different from the way fajitas are served in the US), but Matt ordered the General Tso's chicken- an American Chinese dish that was not very good here... the next night he ordered chicken nuggets and french fries.... and before we left Dublin he had chicken wings... I must work on convincing him to get outside the American fried chicken box :)
-We finally got the classic English/Irish breakfast at our B&B, and it was fantastic- egg over medium, "bacon" (more like pan fried thick ham), sausages, pan grilled tomatoes, fresh fruit, cereal, coffee, juice, toast, and cheeses. One does not need a lunch after a breakfast like this.
-After our walking tour we popped into the grocery store to get lunch- ended up at the deli counter. Have never ordered a roasted ham hock before. Thought it was mostly bone and we ordered 2 (they were around $1 each so I figured that to be that cheap there must not be much meat on them). Ummm....yeah. Ham hocks are big and very meaty as it turned out. Ended up having to throw basically a full one away.
-The pubs here keep the lights on very bright. This was a strange contrast to the typical American pub where you can only read the menu by your cell phone light.
-We washed some socks in the sink, thinking they would be dry by the next morning. Wrong. It is very humid here...and now we are travelling back to Dublin with a sack of wet socks... Ooops!
-In my "tourist things I like to look at calculus from my last post, I realized there is something I like even more than architecture- nature. The cliffs going into the sea with black rocks with rolling green mountains covered in sheep could keep me entertained all day long.
-Here the mountain grazing is called "commonage" which means anyone can use the land for their sheep. In order to keep track of which sheep is yours easily (without checking their barcode, which they also have), the farmers paint them funny bright neon colors on their backs. This is quite entertaining to see a field of sheep with neon pink wool.
-Guinness has branded every product with their logo, but we thought of a new one for them since they seem to brand everything already- a home pregnancy test which, if negative, could read "Negative, enjoy a Guinness!" If positive, "9 months to next Guinness!" I think people would buy this!
-Why people would pay $18 Euro each to go see Fungie the dolphin is beyond my comprehension...
-The signs here are in Gaelic and English, and say things like Ionad Chnoc Bhreanainn (The Great Blasket Centre). Glad the English is present...
-Irish accents here are much thicker and harder to understand than in Dublin, but most are used to dealing with tourists and can get their point across eventually.
-Dingle is such a small town that there are no street addresses, only street names. This makes it a little challenging to find things when you have first arrived in town...
-As we went to the westernmost point of Europe yesterday, we must be headed East now- touch down in Brussels tomorrow evening. Very much looking forward to not having any more planes to catch, and can travel at whatever intervals we please :) Next post will probably be from there!
Friday, October 8, 2010
All Universities look the same?
October 8, Dublin
Today just a quick post of things I jotted down during the day, as it's about time to head to a pub for a pint :)
We visited Trinity College today to see the Book of Kells, one of the top attractions in Dublin- an illustrated book of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from around 800 AD. It was pretty interesting as an exhibit, as there were many quotes from the transcribers (or other transcribers around the same time) discussing the process of writing. Some quotes were celebrating the process of creation, while others were mourning the crushing work of it (which one imagines was pretty difficult work, calligraphy by candlelight). I thought this was an interesting contrast, and something that has persisted even to today's writing process even by computer! Visiting Trinity College was also entertaining as it looks just like the American colleges- large white marble buildings and open greenspaces. The difference being that Trinity is 500 years old, while somewhere like Mizzou is only around 170. Apparently the American college architects are taking their cues from the old European universities. Also interesting- It was a cardinal sin for Catholics to attend Trinity until the 1960s, when the ban was lifted. One might have thought education not to be a cardinal sin wherever it was obtained, but hey, telling people to not go to school somewhere is clearly the most pressing issue of the day.
While we enjoyed the exhibit, it was a good contrast to the great museums we have free in the US- paying $9 Euro each for the exhibit seemed particularly expensive compared to the Library of Congress free exhibits!
Another observation as we walked around town is that there are many markers that say things like "nearby was the site of an old stone that marked the port for 800 years." We really don't have these type of notes in the US, because nothing is nearly that old and most noteworthy sites still have some remnants of whatever was there in the first place!
A couple funny things from yesterday that I forgot about in my lack of sleep (finally got caught up last night- we slept for close to 12 hours). When I was making Matt look at historic things before the Guinness tour, he observed that I actually looked like a Guinness- had on dark pants, a slightly lighter sweater, and my blonde(ish) hair- apparently to his Guinness starved mind this looked like the fade of the beer as it settles before drinking! :) Also, my brand new $20 sunglasses I picked up the day we left DC already broke- one of the earpieces broke in half while we were sitting at a cafe...must now acquire more...
We also went to a couple free museums today- saw works by Carvaggio and his contemporaries at the National Gallery and then also visited the National History and Archeology Museum, which I found much more interesting (including the mummified human remains from sacrificial sites 2000 years ago...pretty amazing though disturbing). This series of museums today cast a bit of light on the type of touring we like to do- architecture is more interesting to us than human history museums which are more interesting than art galleries (even the funny little Finnish black and white contemporary film gallery we popped our heads into playing strange cartoons made of altered photographs- somewhat dark and creepy...).
Tomorrow we head to Dingle, and not sure what the Internet situation will be there, but I am sure to have some great photos to upload when I can. Don't forget to click the photo to the side to see the photos from today, though there are only a few since much of the day was spent in museums where no photography was allowed!
Hope you enjoy, and now off to a pub :)
Today just a quick post of things I jotted down during the day, as it's about time to head to a pub for a pint :)
We visited Trinity College today to see the Book of Kells, one of the top attractions in Dublin- an illustrated book of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from around 800 AD. It was pretty interesting as an exhibit, as there were many quotes from the transcribers (or other transcribers around the same time) discussing the process of writing. Some quotes were celebrating the process of creation, while others were mourning the crushing work of it (which one imagines was pretty difficult work, calligraphy by candlelight). I thought this was an interesting contrast, and something that has persisted even to today's writing process even by computer! Visiting Trinity College was also entertaining as it looks just like the American colleges- large white marble buildings and open greenspaces. The difference being that Trinity is 500 years old, while somewhere like Mizzou is only around 170. Apparently the American college architects are taking their cues from the old European universities. Also interesting- It was a cardinal sin for Catholics to attend Trinity until the 1960s, when the ban was lifted. One might have thought education not to be a cardinal sin wherever it was obtained, but hey, telling people to not go to school somewhere is clearly the most pressing issue of the day.
While we enjoyed the exhibit, it was a good contrast to the great museums we have free in the US- paying $9 Euro each for the exhibit seemed particularly expensive compared to the Library of Congress free exhibits!
Another observation as we walked around town is that there are many markers that say things like "nearby was the site of an old stone that marked the port for 800 years." We really don't have these type of notes in the US, because nothing is nearly that old and most noteworthy sites still have some remnants of whatever was there in the first place!
A couple funny things from yesterday that I forgot about in my lack of sleep (finally got caught up last night- we slept for close to 12 hours). When I was making Matt look at historic things before the Guinness tour, he observed that I actually looked like a Guinness- had on dark pants, a slightly lighter sweater, and my blonde(ish) hair- apparently to his Guinness starved mind this looked like the fade of the beer as it settles before drinking! :) Also, my brand new $20 sunglasses I picked up the day we left DC already broke- one of the earpieces broke in half while we were sitting at a cafe...must now acquire more...
We also went to a couple free museums today- saw works by Carvaggio and his contemporaries at the National Gallery and then also visited the National History and Archeology Museum, which I found much more interesting (including the mummified human remains from sacrificial sites 2000 years ago...pretty amazing though disturbing). This series of museums today cast a bit of light on the type of touring we like to do- architecture is more interesting to us than human history museums which are more interesting than art galleries (even the funny little Finnish black and white contemporary film gallery we popped our heads into playing strange cartoons made of altered photographs- somewhat dark and creepy...).
Tomorrow we head to Dingle, and not sure what the Internet situation will be there, but I am sure to have some great photos to upload when I can. Don't forget to click the photo to the side to see the photos from today, though there are only a few since much of the day was spent in museums where no photography was allowed!
Hope you enjoy, and now off to a pub :)
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Matt is sad because I am making him look at historical things.
In addition to reading about our day (below), check it out in the photostream by clicking on the picture :)
Days 2 and 3- London to Dublin
Yesterday we travelled from London to Dublin, and arrived at the second hostel of the trip. Before the flight we had a relaxing morning of hanging around in a coffee shop and then wandering around the "neighborhood" section of London near Victoria Station. It was a beautiful area with lots of different little restaurants. We happened upon Ian Flemming's house (the author of James Bond), which was pretty funny as we weren't really out to see anything specific.
Some random thoughts from last night that we wrote down in the journal when we didn't feel like actual writing that I am still too tired to put together into paragraphs:
- Pub food is not good. In fact, it is bad. Do not let your love for mashed potatoes to cloud your judgement and lead you to order some kind of beef and potato dish. It will likely disappoint.
- People RUN in London and Dublin while on their way to work. I can't remember seeing anyone run downtown DC other than in running clothing other than to catch a bus half a block down. Perhaps this is an extension of the DC "Southern Efficiency."
-London is exceptionally international, even compared to DC and NYC. I suppose this is a result of geographic closeness to Europe, but for some reason had not been expecting it.
- The first hostel we stayed in (in London) was much less fun than the one here in Dublin. In London, the hostel had a feeling of a storage facility for sleeping humans, versus here in Dublin people are much more friendly. I wonder how much of this is driven by the following facts: In London the bunks are stacked 3 high, here they are only 2 high. In London there are privacy sheets that can be pulled across the bunk when sleeping. The result of this is people are just not as interested in talking to people? Also in Dublin Matt and I are much more the average age of other hostelers.
-There are SO MANY Australians here on vacation! And they are all travelling for 7-12 months. It's amazing...
-Flying out of Gatwick was very odd for the following reasons: 1) You don't have to remove your shoes for the metal detectors. I had no idea that was just what we do in the US. 2) Gatwick doesn't announce the gates until just before boarding, so you are forced to wait in the big shopping area. If this was not odd enough, they are also giving out samples of vodka in the middle of the waiting area. 3) Flying RyanAir is like being inside the shopping network channel where stuff is being sold to you constantly, including lottery tickets and children's toys.
-Our first real train line journey illustrated how the train splits and that it is important to pay attention to what car you are getting on, even though it didn't split until after we got to the airport.
-When we got to Dublin we took a Double-Decker bus from the airport to the hotel. It was highly entertaining riding on the upper level- first time for both Matt and I on that type of bus. It holds so many more people, I wonder why they don't run these as the public bus system in DC?
-Had some microbrew at Mssrs. Maguire which was very good and pretty cheap after we ate at a cute Italian place for dinner- discovered the best way to pick a dinner location is to look for where there are lots of locals, not a place in the tourist guidebook!!
Day 3, October 7
Today we went on our own tour of the city, as well as the Jameson Distillery Tour and the Guinness Tour. Both were quite entertaining- the Guinness tour concluded with a free beer at the top of the 7th floor, from which we could look out on the entire city in a 360 degree windowed room. It was really beautiful, and we could see the hills off in the distance. The Jameson tour was more like Disney World, with model versions of various parts of the brewing process. This was somewhat odd, especially since it was taking place in the building that had been the distillery since the 1700s. I managed to get selected to be a "whisky tester" at the end, in which we compared Jameson, Jack Daniels, and 12 year old Scotch. I found for the first time that, given the right type, I will in fact actually drink whisky- something I had not previously enjoyed! My favorite turned out to be the Jack, and I also discovered that mixing whisky with cranberry juice (how they drink it here in Dublin) is really quite good!
In addition to those tours, we saw Temple bar district (the area of all the bars you see on TV), Dublin Castle and St. Patrick's Cathedral, and other parts of "old Dublin". It is really amazing how old everything here is. The oldest buildings in the United States don't even warrant a mention when compared to the history in these cities.
By the end of the day (now) we are once again exhausted. Must stop trying to see entire cities by foot in one day... Part of the problem is that we don't really know how to "be tourists" yet. How to decide what all do to, and as importantly what not to do is somewhat challenging. We are having a great time already, even though we are wearing ourselves out. Hopefully later this week when we get to Dingle we will be able to settle into a better rhythm (as there isn't much to do there anyway).
Don't forget to check out the photostream!
Some random thoughts from last night that we wrote down in the journal when we didn't feel like actual writing that I am still too tired to put together into paragraphs:
- Pub food is not good. In fact, it is bad. Do not let your love for mashed potatoes to cloud your judgement and lead you to order some kind of beef and potato dish. It will likely disappoint.
- People RUN in London and Dublin while on their way to work. I can't remember seeing anyone run downtown DC other than in running clothing other than to catch a bus half a block down. Perhaps this is an extension of the DC "Southern Efficiency."
-London is exceptionally international, even compared to DC and NYC. I suppose this is a result of geographic closeness to Europe, but for some reason had not been expecting it.
- The first hostel we stayed in (in London) was much less fun than the one here in Dublin. In London, the hostel had a feeling of a storage facility for sleeping humans, versus here in Dublin people are much more friendly. I wonder how much of this is driven by the following facts: In London the bunks are stacked 3 high, here they are only 2 high. In London there are privacy sheets that can be pulled across the bunk when sleeping. The result of this is people are just not as interested in talking to people? Also in Dublin Matt and I are much more the average age of other hostelers.
-There are SO MANY Australians here on vacation! And they are all travelling for 7-12 months. It's amazing...
-Flying out of Gatwick was very odd for the following reasons: 1) You don't have to remove your shoes for the metal detectors. I had no idea that was just what we do in the US. 2) Gatwick doesn't announce the gates until just before boarding, so you are forced to wait in the big shopping area. If this was not odd enough, they are also giving out samples of vodka in the middle of the waiting area. 3) Flying RyanAir is like being inside the shopping network channel where stuff is being sold to you constantly, including lottery tickets and children's toys.
-Our first real train line journey illustrated how the train splits and that it is important to pay attention to what car you are getting on, even though it didn't split until after we got to the airport.
-When we got to Dublin we took a Double-Decker bus from the airport to the hotel. It was highly entertaining riding on the upper level- first time for both Matt and I on that type of bus. It holds so many more people, I wonder why they don't run these as the public bus system in DC?
-Had some microbrew at Mssrs. Maguire which was very good and pretty cheap after we ate at a cute Italian place for dinner- discovered the best way to pick a dinner location is to look for where there are lots of locals, not a place in the tourist guidebook!!
Day 3, October 7
Today we went on our own tour of the city, as well as the Jameson Distillery Tour and the Guinness Tour. Both were quite entertaining- the Guinness tour concluded with a free beer at the top of the 7th floor, from which we could look out on the entire city in a 360 degree windowed room. It was really beautiful, and we could see the hills off in the distance. The Jameson tour was more like Disney World, with model versions of various parts of the brewing process. This was somewhat odd, especially since it was taking place in the building that had been the distillery since the 1700s. I managed to get selected to be a "whisky tester" at the end, in which we compared Jameson, Jack Daniels, and 12 year old Scotch. I found for the first time that, given the right type, I will in fact actually drink whisky- something I had not previously enjoyed! My favorite turned out to be the Jack, and I also discovered that mixing whisky with cranberry juice (how they drink it here in Dublin) is really quite good!
In addition to those tours, we saw Temple bar district (the area of all the bars you see on TV), Dublin Castle and St. Patrick's Cathedral, and other parts of "old Dublin". It is really amazing how old everything here is. The oldest buildings in the United States don't even warrant a mention when compared to the history in these cities.
By the end of the day (now) we are once again exhausted. Must stop trying to see entire cities by foot in one day... Part of the problem is that we don't really know how to "be tourists" yet. How to decide what all do to, and as importantly what not to do is somewhat challenging. We are having a great time already, even though we are wearing ourselves out. Hopefully later this week when we get to Dingle we will be able to settle into a better rhythm (as there isn't much to do there anyway).
Don't forget to check out the photostream!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Matt and Big Ben
just uploaded a few photos today, here is one, check the rest out in the photostream :)
We.Tour.Hard.
Well, the whirlwind has begun. We took off last night from DC at 6:00 PM, on a 6 hour flight arriving in London at 6:00 AM. With little sleep on the plane, we whirled through customs, got on the London Underground, and arrived at our Russell Square Hostel by around 8:30. We couldn't really check in until 11, but dropped off our bags and charged off into the city, with little more than a map and a camera. With only a short 45 minute nap around 1:00PM, we managed to walk a huge portion of the city. This is a day that only an insane person would take on. I blame it on my Dad's habit for the same breakneck pace. Anyway, here is what we did:
For those of you familiar with London, we walked the following: Russell Square to Thames, down Fleet Street, all the way to London Bridge, across to the Globe Theater (where we took a tour), back across Millennium Bridge to "The Monument" (which depicts the fire that burned most of the city to the ground in 1600s), and then headed back via the tube to officially check in.
We were shown to our room, where there are 24 beds stacked as 3 high bunks- people in the room ranging from probably around 15 years old to around 60. It's a very strange experience, as our first in a hostel. It is sort of like camping- luckily we are so exhausted sleep won't be a problem.
After our quick nap, we grabbed some "traditional" British pub fare including fish and chips for me and a beef roast with potatoes and gravy for Matt...I will say, the food today lived up to its underwhelming reputation. In addition to these two mediocre plates, we ended up having a "Jacket Potato and Beans and Cheese" for lunch, which is apparently very popular here, for no known reason (think baked potato + baked beans +cheese....)
Ready to tackle one last section of the city, we headed out to Westminster Abby, where we saw Big Ben ring, and then walked to Buckingham Palace (which was really beautiful, especially the surrounding park). From there, we headed to Hyde Park Corner, where we jumped back on the tube and stumbled exhausted in the door to our hostel, from which I send this update.
I apologize for the bland run down, but with only a couple hours of sleep in the last 1 (2?) days, it's all I can manage for now. It was very interesting and strange walking around all day though, as the city seemed "familiar" in a way I wasn't expecting. Between the enormous buildings made of similar looking rock as those all over downtown DC and the wide green spaces, there were many times I felt like I could have been a tourist downtown DC. On the other hand, when you catch a glimpse of Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, and hear the chimes of Big Ben, you couldn't be anywhere else in the world. :)
Tomorrow we will have a few more hours to run around, and then in the afternoon head to Dublin. Hopefully we will slow down somewhat- cannot keep up this pace for long!!!
Edit: One funny thing that did happen today when we were trying to get back to the hostel mid-afternoon, we somehow got on what appeared to be a local commuter train instead of the underground. As it turned out, it worked perfectly and apparently was still an acceptable use of our day pass for the tube, but have no idea how that happened. Blind luck during blind exhaustion trumps skill and competency, once again :)
For those of you familiar with London, we walked the following: Russell Square to Thames, down Fleet Street, all the way to London Bridge, across to the Globe Theater (where we took a tour), back across Millennium Bridge to "The Monument" (which depicts the fire that burned most of the city to the ground in 1600s), and then headed back via the tube to officially check in.
We were shown to our room, where there are 24 beds stacked as 3 high bunks- people in the room ranging from probably around 15 years old to around 60. It's a very strange experience, as our first in a hostel. It is sort of like camping- luckily we are so exhausted sleep won't be a problem.
After our quick nap, we grabbed some "traditional" British pub fare including fish and chips for me and a beef roast with potatoes and gravy for Matt...I will say, the food today lived up to its underwhelming reputation. In addition to these two mediocre plates, we ended up having a "Jacket Potato and Beans and Cheese" for lunch, which is apparently very popular here, for no known reason (think baked potato + baked beans +cheese....)
Ready to tackle one last section of the city, we headed out to Westminster Abby, where we saw Big Ben ring, and then walked to Buckingham Palace (which was really beautiful, especially the surrounding park). From there, we headed to Hyde Park Corner, where we jumped back on the tube and stumbled exhausted in the door to our hostel, from which I send this update.
I apologize for the bland run down, but with only a couple hours of sleep in the last 1 (2?) days, it's all I can manage for now. It was very interesting and strange walking around all day though, as the city seemed "familiar" in a way I wasn't expecting. Between the enormous buildings made of similar looking rock as those all over downtown DC and the wide green spaces, there were many times I felt like I could have been a tourist downtown DC. On the other hand, when you catch a glimpse of Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, and hear the chimes of Big Ben, you couldn't be anywhere else in the world. :)
Tomorrow we will have a few more hours to run around, and then in the afternoon head to Dublin. Hopefully we will slow down somewhat- cannot keep up this pace for long!!!
Edit: One funny thing that did happen today when we were trying to get back to the hostel mid-afternoon, we somehow got on what appeared to be a local commuter train instead of the underground. As it turned out, it worked perfectly and apparently was still an acceptable use of our day pass for the tube, but have no idea how that happened. Blind luck during blind exhaustion trumps skill and competency, once again :)
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