Today was an interesting day in Prague. Interesting and exciting! I started the day a little later than I had hoped, seeing as how the girls I am sharing a room with kept me up fairly late into the morning, getting in around 5am. I went to bed a little late after booking my hostel in Krakow and my flight from Krakow to Milan. (Milan was not my desired destination, but it is pretty close to Rome. At least it is in the same country.). And the flight didn't cost me too terribly much, thanks RyanAir!
By the time I did get a start on my day, I was feeling quite energetic. I only had two goals for the day: find an art supply store to by a smudging stick so I don't have to use my finger any more, and meet up with Jules, the girl I traveled with in Vienna and Warsaw. She arrived in Prague late last night, is staying in a different hostel, and today is her birthday, so we tried to arrange a place and time to meet up and hang out. Jules had a couple of other friends visiting Prague so I was going to meet them as well. On my way to the center of town, I stopped at the train station and got a reservation to Krakow for tomorrow, so I didn't need to worry about getting to the station extremely early, just early enough so that I don't miss my train, again!
After an hour or so of walking around the Old Town looking for an art store and keeping my eyes and ears open for Jules, I ran into the girls I am sharing a room with. They asked what I was up to and recommended I go across the river since they had seen some art stores in that area. One exclaimed, "They had everything including colored pencils." Well Wal-mart has colored pencils, but I thought, I am not having any luck here, so what would it hurt to cross the bridge. This is when my day took an exciting turn.
I was just about a block from the Charles Bridge when I looked across the street and recognized a face in the crowed. Jules you might ask, no, in fact it was a fella I shared a room with in Vienna, Andrew. He was with another girl I knew from Vienna, Sophie, and two friends they had made on a pub crawl in Prague the night before. I crossed the street and surprised them to death. I do believe I was the last person they expected to see in Prague, since I certainly wasn't expecting to run into them there. After Vienna, Sophie went to Budapest, and Andrew went to Venice (and apparently the rest of Italy). We all had a good laugh about the odds of running into each other, and I was introduced to Tiffany from Melbourne, and Jacob from Sweden. The four of them were headed across the bridge as well, so I decided to walk with them for a bit. I filled them in on a few of the interesting tidbits I had learned on my walking tour, trying not to sound too know-it-all-ish, and they asked me to join them as their tour guide. I did my best.
The five of us spent the afternoon together, walking around Prague, and I took them to a fun restaurant that I had been to the night before that served cheap Czech cuisine. I didn't remember the portions being as large as they were, but the night before I had eaten conservative old chicken pasta, while tonight I had Pork neck (which is excellent). It was a great meal, and we all lost total track of time. Around 7:30 when we had finished and paid our tab (848 Crowns/ appx. $45 for the five of us) we headed on the metro to their hostel for an after dinner drink.
Of course, one after dinner drink turned into a couple, and I ended up leaving at around 1:30am after a stop at McDonalds with the gang for a late night snack. This is when the story gets a bit interesting. I didn't have a map all day, so before leaving their hostel, I picked one up so I could find my way home. After consulting the wise map, I realized I was just due south of my hostel and made a rough route home. Well, about a third of the way home, I realized I had dropped the map somewhere along my route and was without map. And the only "address" I had for my hostel was "It is on the street that looks kind of like 'chimichanga.'" Needless to say I got a bit worried, and realized I had two choices: turn back and get another map (which I would then staple to my body) or keep going. I chose the latter. I sort of knew where I was, I had a major landmark in vision, and I knew the direction to head. I walked in this manner for about 15 minutes, making it several more blocks, when I saw another hostel. I now view hostels as the all-knowing location of information. I tried pulling on the door and of course it was locked being almost 2am, but as I was walking off, I heard the sound of buzzing, meaning the door had been buzzed open. I walked in, told the guy I was a bit lost, and asked if he had a map. Well of course he did, an identical replacement to the one I had lost. Once I had it in my hands and figured out my location on it, I realized I was 3 blocks from my hostel. Incredible I would say. From there it was an easy walk home, but there were those 20 minutes where I was scared (pardon my french) shitless, yet I just kept walking. So when in a foreign country alone, keep dozens of maps on you as well as dozens of the hotel's business cards on you, so you don't have that situation (unless you enjoy living on the edge while a little drunk).
All in all it was a wonderful and surprising day, and I am not in the least bit disappointed that I did not in any way shape or form achieve any of the two goals I started my day with. I would have loved to see Jules on her birthday, but I am sure we both had a good day regardless. I say, live for days like this one, when nothing goes as planned, but everything goes right!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Another day in Prague
Well the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square goes off every hour from 9am to 9pm, which it has been doing for the past 700 years. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT 700 YEARS!!! They say that when you stand and watch the clock chime that you should shake your head, "no," because the 3 chaps on the clock with Death are saying "no it is not time for death" by shaking their heads, so if you do it to you will live forever. I tried it, but it is a long time to shake your head and not look crazy, so I failed at sustaining it.
I tried to save some money today, after spending way more than I anticipated yesterday by just strolling around the city and stopping to sketch whenever I felt compelled to do so. It was a lovely way to spend the day, especially after doing 7 hours of tours yesterday. This way I could go at my own pace. A lot of the architecture in the city reminds me of the buildings in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, so I found myself doodling Malificent at one point. I ended up going out for a bit last night, and that's when the spending hit the fan for me. I really am holding true to my belief that the more you like a city, the more money you spend there. Prague is fairly cheap, but there is just so much to do, that I tried to do it all yesterday (unsuccessfully of course, but I made a dent in it). So I have put myself on a very strict budget for the next week or so to recoup some of my loses. (It sounds as though I was gambling when I say it like that, if only I had had the opportunity or possibility of winning my money back.) I thought I might look up ways I could work on the black market selling fake passports, or fake designer handbags, but then I realized I have a few morals left, they may not be many, but they're there. I say sticking to a little bit tighter budget will do the job, maybe not as quickly, though, and without the awesome stories that start, "Well, when I was working on the
black market..."
I think Prague is a must see city. With the fall of communism so recent, all of the people here really understand what the word "freedom" means, making them extremely friendly and more than willing to lend a helping hand. The architecture is exquisite, the streets are full of poetic justice, and you never know when you are going to stumble on a bullet hole or two left by the Russians. (The huge museum in New Town is covered in them.)
We will see what tomorrow has in store for me. Hopefully something cheap, or even better FREE!
I tried to save some money today, after spending way more than I anticipated yesterday by just strolling around the city and stopping to sketch whenever I felt compelled to do so. It was a lovely way to spend the day, especially after doing 7 hours of tours yesterday. This way I could go at my own pace. A lot of the architecture in the city reminds me of the buildings in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, so I found myself doodling Malificent at one point. I ended up going out for a bit last night, and that's when the spending hit the fan for me. I really am holding true to my belief that the more you like a city, the more money you spend there. Prague is fairly cheap, but there is just so much to do, that I tried to do it all yesterday (unsuccessfully of course, but I made a dent in it). So I have put myself on a very strict budget for the next week or so to recoup some of my loses. (It sounds as though I was gambling when I say it like that, if only I had had the opportunity or possibility of winning my money back.) I thought I might look up ways I could work on the black market selling fake passports, or fake designer handbags, but then I realized I have a few morals left, they may not be many, but they're there. I say sticking to a little bit tighter budget will do the job, maybe not as quickly, though, and without the awesome stories that start, "Well, when I was working on the
black market..."
I think Prague is a must see city. With the fall of communism so recent, all of the people here really understand what the word "freedom" means, making them extremely friendly and more than willing to lend a helping hand. The architecture is exquisite, the streets are full of poetic justice, and you never know when you are going to stumble on a bullet hole or two left by the Russians. (The huge museum in New Town is covered in them.)
We will see what tomorrow has in store for me. Hopefully something cheap, or even better FREE!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Prague, Czech
I made it to Prague yesterday evening, after a long train ride (9 hours) from Warsaw. I am learning quickly that long days of traveling mean long hours of recovery, so once I found my hostel (without a map or directions, only the memory of briefly seeing its location on google maps) I decided to have a calm quite night in. I took that time to plan for the day ahead. I have begun to see why Lonely Planet guides are so popular; it is nice to have a little bit of research done on a city before one gets there. The hostel (run by two Canadian friends, who decided one day to pick up and leave Canada to open a hostel in Prague) was full of information on tours, sights, and events.
Today I ended up taking "The Ultimate Tour" of Prague. It was a little more than what I would normally spend on a tour, $65, but it came highly recommended by the guy from the hostel, and seemed to include lots of different tour types. The tour lasted 6 hours (twice that of Gilligan's Tour) and included walking tours, a boat tour on the Vltava River, and a tram tour to the Prague Castle (The Guinness Book for largest Castle in the world). The tour included lunch and a free pass to come back to do their Ghost Trail Tour, so I thought that $65 was quite a steal. I learned loads about the city over the 6 hours, had some great food, meet some fun people, and developed an overall love of Prague.
Even though the map of Prague is quite big, it is really an easy city to walk. (Except for this one intersection near my hostel that gets a little tricky). Our guide actually had his degree in history and up until 4 years ago, all tour guides in the city had to take an exam in order to legally work as a tour guide, so he knew loads. Per his advice I think I am going to go see Rigoletto at the National Opera tomorrow night.
Once the tour was over I decided to take in a few more sights around the main part of Prague while I waited for the Ghost Trail tour to start at 8:30. This is just a beautiful city, and it makes me laugh how the communist buildings stick out like sore thumbs. (After seeing what Europeans refer to as a "Communist Buildings," which I know were in fact built by communists, I marvel at how all contemporary American architecture looks "Communist". Does that mean something about all of our architects in the States? Do they all have some sort of hidden Communist agenda? LOL).
The Ghost Trail was great, just 5 of us on the tour. I believe it was a small group because of the rain, but the wet weather added to the charm of starting all the stories with "It was a dark and stormy night." Most of the tour was just legends, although we did get a little Czech history mixed in, and every once in a while a guy dressed in costume would jump out at us from behind a corner scaring us to death. Well worth it. The Czech accent made the stories especially creepy, and when I couldn't understand her I would just insert horrible, gruesome words that probably made the stories way scarier than what she was actually telling. I think I also taught her a few slang terms for the word "prostitute" because in one of the stories she said "prostitute" a dozen times, so I thought she might like to spice it up by saying things like: "streetwalker", "hooker", "wench", "lady of the night", and of course "whore." That way she wouldn't have to say prostitute" so many times in such a strange accent.
After such a long day of touring, in the rain, I think I am going to spend a nice night indoors, relaxing and planning for tomorrow. I did skip out on the Pub Crawl that a bunch of other people were going on, but I really prefer walking. Crawling is hard on my old knees.
Today I ended up taking "The Ultimate Tour" of Prague. It was a little more than what I would normally spend on a tour, $65, but it came highly recommended by the guy from the hostel, and seemed to include lots of different tour types. The tour lasted 6 hours (twice that of Gilligan's Tour) and included walking tours, a boat tour on the Vltava River, and a tram tour to the Prague Castle (The Guinness Book for largest Castle in the world). The tour included lunch and a free pass to come back to do their Ghost Trail Tour, so I thought that $65 was quite a steal. I learned loads about the city over the 6 hours, had some great food, meet some fun people, and developed an overall love of Prague.
Even though the map of Prague is quite big, it is really an easy city to walk. (Except for this one intersection near my hostel that gets a little tricky). Our guide actually had his degree in history and up until 4 years ago, all tour guides in the city had to take an exam in order to legally work as a tour guide, so he knew loads. Per his advice I think I am going to go see Rigoletto at the National Opera tomorrow night.
Once the tour was over I decided to take in a few more sights around the main part of Prague while I waited for the Ghost Trail tour to start at 8:30. This is just a beautiful city, and it makes me laugh how the communist buildings stick out like sore thumbs. (After seeing what Europeans refer to as a "Communist Buildings," which I know were in fact built by communists, I marvel at how all contemporary American architecture looks "Communist". Does that mean something about all of our architects in the States? Do they all have some sort of hidden Communist agenda? LOL).
The Ghost Trail was great, just 5 of us on the tour. I believe it was a small group because of the rain, but the wet weather added to the charm of starting all the stories with "It was a dark and stormy night." Most of the tour was just legends, although we did get a little Czech history mixed in, and every once in a while a guy dressed in costume would jump out at us from behind a corner scaring us to death. Well worth it. The Czech accent made the stories especially creepy, and when I couldn't understand her I would just insert horrible, gruesome words that probably made the stories way scarier than what she was actually telling. I think I also taught her a few slang terms for the word "prostitute" because in one of the stories she said "prostitute" a dozen times, so I thought she might like to spice it up by saying things like: "streetwalker", "hooker", "wench", "lady of the night", and of course "whore." That way she wouldn't have to say prostitute" so many times in such a strange accent.
After such a long day of touring, in the rain, I think I am going to spend a nice night indoors, relaxing and planning for tomorrow. I did skip out on the Pub Crawl that a bunch of other people were going on, but I really prefer walking. Crawling is hard on my old knees.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw has been an interesting experience. The weather here hasn't been great which I think has added a bit to the less than stellar experience I have had here. (A sea of white in the sky all day when you are sight seeing tends to make it a little slower paced. Plus with the low cloud cover it gets difficult to see the tops of the taller buildings.) I can deal with a little overcast weather, but I think Poland would be a much different experience in the summer.
It was also a little weird because the woman at the tourist information desk at the train station was a little off with some of her advice. She got a little crazy with her ball-point pen and our map of the city. She circled a bunch of areas and made some illegible notes on it that covered a good portion of the map I had. On the first day Jules and I were here, we walked to the historic old town and Jewish district (where they forced all the Jews to live during WWII, behind these huge brick walls).
We decided to get a bite to eat and headed to an area circled on our map thinking it was a place that the woman at the tourist desk suggested as a good place to eat. Well, I don't think we actually saw a single restaurant in the entire area, so we walked across the river to the west side of the city where the woman said there was a large arts community that had made the area really trendy. We thought, "artists need to eat, I bet we can find food there." At first when we were walking around we kept thinking, "maybe this is 'Polish Trendy,'" since the stores were nothing impressive and there was no real arts influence visible. Finally, we stumbled on this small hole in the wall place that had a limited menu, but we were starving, and I would have eaten dog or cat as long as it came with something to dip it in. The menu did include Kielbasa which I knew was some sort of sausage and since it was Poland we both thought sausage was appropriate. However, we did also get a plate of spaghetti because it is hard to mess up spaghetti, a safe bet.
After dinner, Jules and I continued to walk around the 'trendy' part of Warsaw, but only stumbled on a Mall, where she bought a much needed SIM Card. The mall was really the arty-est thing we saw... LOL. But after the long train ride and a day of walking, we were both very tired so we went back to the hostel to regroup for the next day.
Today we went back to the Old Town, in order to see it during the daytime. It was really impressive and beautiful, and the Jewish section was just incredible. It was powerful to see the walls that segregated all of the Jews into an area where they would be starved and shot by the Nazis. Now they have turned most of the area into a park, but there is an enormous monument in honor of the Jewish Community. After walking there, we decided to go to an area not circled on our map by the woman at the tourist desk. It ended up being GREAT. Filled with life, shopping, restaurants, and nightlife. We learned, don't go to anywhere circled on the map in black pen. We walked around, did some window shopping, and ended up seeing "The Women" in a movie theater. It was not dubbed, so I was able to understand what was going on, and it was nice to just sit and relax after a full day of walking.
All in all, Warsaw was not terrible. I just wish we had gotten a little better info at the train station. Jules and I would probably not have wasted an entire day walking around "dead" areas. I also learned to trust the LonelyPlanet when it says "that area is not very popular with tourists" generally means, nothing to do.
Tomorrow I am heading to Prague. My friend, Shelley from Webster, is going to be in Krakow on Saturday, so I think I will head back to Krakow to meet up with her, and we can see Auschwitz together, which means I leave Jules tomorrow. It was fun getting to know someone, and travel a bit with them, but at the same time, it will be nice to get back to my solo lifestyle. I have slowly learned to love being out on my own.
It was also a little weird because the woman at the tourist information desk at the train station was a little off with some of her advice. She got a little crazy with her ball-point pen and our map of the city. She circled a bunch of areas and made some illegible notes on it that covered a good portion of the map I had. On the first day Jules and I were here, we walked to the historic old town and Jewish district (where they forced all the Jews to live during WWII, behind these huge brick walls).
We decided to get a bite to eat and headed to an area circled on our map thinking it was a place that the woman at the tourist desk suggested as a good place to eat. Well, I don't think we actually saw a single restaurant in the entire area, so we walked across the river to the west side of the city where the woman said there was a large arts community that had made the area really trendy. We thought, "artists need to eat, I bet we can find food there." At first when we were walking around we kept thinking, "maybe this is 'Polish Trendy,'" since the stores were nothing impressive and there was no real arts influence visible. Finally, we stumbled on this small hole in the wall place that had a limited menu, but we were starving, and I would have eaten dog or cat as long as it came with something to dip it in. The menu did include Kielbasa which I knew was some sort of sausage and since it was Poland we both thought sausage was appropriate. However, we did also get a plate of spaghetti because it is hard to mess up spaghetti, a safe bet.
After dinner, Jules and I continued to walk around the 'trendy' part of Warsaw, but only stumbled on a Mall, where she bought a much needed SIM Card. The mall was really the arty-est thing we saw... LOL. But after the long train ride and a day of walking, we were both very tired so we went back to the hostel to regroup for the next day.
Today we went back to the Old Town, in order to see it during the daytime. It was really impressive and beautiful, and the Jewish section was just incredible. It was powerful to see the walls that segregated all of the Jews into an area where they would be starved and shot by the Nazis. Now they have turned most of the area into a park, but there is an enormous monument in honor of the Jewish Community. After walking there, we decided to go to an area not circled on our map by the woman at the tourist desk. It ended up being GREAT. Filled with life, shopping, restaurants, and nightlife. We learned, don't go to anywhere circled on the map in black pen. We walked around, did some window shopping, and ended up seeing "The Women" in a movie theater. It was not dubbed, so I was able to understand what was going on, and it was nice to just sit and relax after a full day of walking.
All in all, Warsaw was not terrible. I just wish we had gotten a little better info at the train station. Jules and I would probably not have wasted an entire day walking around "dead" areas. I also learned to trust the LonelyPlanet when it says "that area is not very popular with tourists" generally means, nothing to do.
Tomorrow I am heading to Prague. My friend, Shelley from Webster, is going to be in Krakow on Saturday, so I think I will head back to Krakow to meet up with her, and we can see Auschwitz together, which means I leave Jules tomorrow. It was fun getting to know someone, and travel a bit with them, but at the same time, it will be nice to get back to my solo lifestyle. I have slowly learned to love being out on my own.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Vienna to Warsaw
Trains seem to always end in a funny story, especially if you miss them!
Julianne, the girl from Brisbane whom I have been hanging out with the past couple of days, and I were going to go to Czesky Krumlov in the Czech Rep last night, but the train out of Vienna departed from the minor station that was a bit difficult to get to, and by a bit difficult I mean: we took the metro, in order to catch a tram, so we could catch a bus. Well the metro took longer than expected, we couldn't find the tram, and then once we finally found the bus we got on it going the wrong direction. So we jumped off the bus as soon as we realized, hailed a cab and prayed we could make it to the station in 10 minutes. If you are not at the station at least 15 minutes before your train leaves, I would say, "don't even waste your time," unless it is Spain or Italy where trains are always running late. Finally we were sitting in the cab looking at our watches going, "this is not going to happen. Where else can we get to tonight? Lets look in my train schedule. Oh, look at that, we could go to Poland on an overnight train. That sounds fun!"
That is the basic stream of consciousness when one misses a train, but still wants to leave where they are. I mean it takes so much effort to pack in 5 minutes. You really don't want to have to do it all over again the next day unless you are doing it in another country. So, we hoped on an overnight train to Warsaw Poland. Poland wasn't even on my radar as a destination, so it was fun to completely veer off my path. Plus this way I get to make it to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. And got to do my first sleeper couchette, which was so much better than trying to sleep sitting up.
Vienna was a blast! I did so much, and loved every minute of it. Met a bunch of great people, and did some rare tourist activities. After doing the "War and Peace" of walking tours, Julianne and I decided to go to the Royal Viennese Opera and see the ballet that was playing that night, so we got the 3 euro 'standing room only' tickets and stood in the Alps watching a wonderful ballet. It was so much fun seeing a classical ballet in such a fantastic venue, while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans. (FYI... If you do standing room seats at the opera, there is no dress code. So you can basically walk off the street and see the performance. No need to bathe!!!)
The next day we spent going to a couple of museums, seeing the largest single collection of Klimt artwork at the Leopold Museum, and went out to dinner at this awesome wine bar. The Wine Bar was formerly the wine cellar of the Royal Family, with tunnels connecting many noble establishments in Vienna, so it is HUGE. The food is really cheap, you can buy wine by the liter, it is not too touristy, and it is supremely historic. The Austrians are known for their pork, so the two of us got deep fried pork chops and a liter of fine to split. Finally Sunday morning, I went to mass at the private Royal Chapel to see the Viennese Boys Choir perform. They perform every Sunday at the "Catholic Light" mass. It is incredible, but buy tickets early if you want to see them in Vienna (if you ever go) because the Chapel is REALLY SMALL, and tickets go quickly, but the music is wonderful, and you can take pictures with the little boys in the courtyard afterwards.
Vienna is a wonderful destination. I would highly recommend it to anyone. There is so much to do, and (for the most part) it is reasonably cheap. I can tell if a city is cheap based on how much I pay to use a W.C. In Vienna, if you had to pay, it was only 50 cents. Quite a respectable sum for the privilege of relieving yourself.
I have attached a couple of pictures from Jule's and my night at the ballet.
Those Webster dance classes paid off!
Julianne, the girl from Brisbane whom I have been hanging out with the past couple of days, and I were going to go to Czesky Krumlov in the Czech Rep last night, but the train out of Vienna departed from the minor station that was a bit difficult to get to, and by a bit difficult I mean: we took the metro, in order to catch a tram, so we could catch a bus. Well the metro took longer than expected, we couldn't find the tram, and then once we finally found the bus we got on it going the wrong direction. So we jumped off the bus as soon as we realized, hailed a cab and prayed we could make it to the station in 10 minutes. If you are not at the station at least 15 minutes before your train leaves, I would say, "don't even waste your time," unless it is Spain or Italy where trains are always running late. Finally we were sitting in the cab looking at our watches going, "this is not going to happen. Where else can we get to tonight? Lets look in my train schedule. Oh, look at that, we could go to Poland on an overnight train. That sounds fun!"
That is the basic stream of consciousness when one misses a train, but still wants to leave where they are. I mean it takes so much effort to pack in 5 minutes. You really don't want to have to do it all over again the next day unless you are doing it in another country. So, we hoped on an overnight train to Warsaw Poland. Poland wasn't even on my radar as a destination, so it was fun to completely veer off my path. Plus this way I get to make it to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. And got to do my first sleeper couchette, which was so much better than trying to sleep sitting up.
Vienna was a blast! I did so much, and loved every minute of it. Met a bunch of great people, and did some rare tourist activities. After doing the "War and Peace" of walking tours, Julianne and I decided to go to the Royal Viennese Opera and see the ballet that was playing that night, so we got the 3 euro 'standing room only' tickets and stood in the Alps watching a wonderful ballet. It was so much fun seeing a classical ballet in such a fantastic venue, while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans. (FYI... If you do standing room seats at the opera, there is no dress code. So you can basically walk off the street and see the performance. No need to bathe!!!)
The next day we spent going to a couple of museums, seeing the largest single collection of Klimt artwork at the Leopold Museum, and went out to dinner at this awesome wine bar. The Wine Bar was formerly the wine cellar of the Royal Family, with tunnels connecting many noble establishments in Vienna, so it is HUGE. The food is really cheap, you can buy wine by the liter, it is not too touristy, and it is supremely historic. The Austrians are known for their pork, so the two of us got deep fried pork chops and a liter of fine to split. Finally Sunday morning, I went to mass at the private Royal Chapel to see the Viennese Boys Choir perform. They perform every Sunday at the "Catholic Light" mass. It is incredible, but buy tickets early if you want to see them in Vienna (if you ever go) because the Chapel is REALLY SMALL, and tickets go quickly, but the music is wonderful, and you can take pictures with the little boys in the courtyard afterwards.
Vienna is a wonderful destination. I would highly recommend it to anyone. There is so much to do, and (for the most part) it is reasonably cheap. I can tell if a city is cheap based on how much I pay to use a W.C. In Vienna, if you had to pay, it was only 50 cents. Quite a respectable sum for the privilege of relieving yourself.
I have attached a couple of pictures from Jule's and my night at the ballet.
Those Webster dance classes paid off!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Vienna, Austria
I made it to Vienna today and am having a great time. The city is so clean and beautiful. It reminds me a bit of a modern-day fairy tale. The hostel I am staying in is very near the train station that I came into, so it was a nice easy walk from the train station to my hostel.
The only complaint I have so far with the city is that the tourist map you are given by the Info Center requires the vision of a young Clark Kent to read. The city is quite large, and has a lot of small streets, but there could be some way of them having larger maps of each district or something. When I was walking around today, I had to strain my eyes and my navigation skills to read the 1:50 scale map. I think the biggest problem with the map is not the size of the streets listed on it, but all of the street names are really long German words, so everything on the map is abbreviated or too small to read. I am sure I will learn to deal with it.
Got in contact with my Webster friends studying here, so I think I am going to try to meet up with them tomorrow and figure out where in the world the campus is.
A word of advice, make certain in Budapest that you: a) have a valid ticket for the metro, and b) if you are going to have to change metro trains, buy a transfer ticket. I bought a three day metro pass while I was in Budapest so I could ride as much as I needed to and not worry about the transfer pass. I thought that the three day pass was actually a 72 hour pass. I was wrong. Also, when you are getting on the train they are pretty lax about checking your ticket. There are no turnstiles or gates to go through, you just hold out your ticket and the guy smiles and waves you past. Well, today when I was headed to the train station from my hostel, I had to take the metro. I had out my ticket, showed it to the guy at the station near the hostel, and was on my way to Keleti Station. But, and that’s a big but (figuratively not literally, well maybe the woman at the metro station did have a big butt, but I wasn't going to point that out) when I got off the metro and was walking to the exit, there was a group of metro officials checking the tickets of people exiting, the first I had seen this. Well I pulled out my ticket, showed it to the lady and was nearly through, until she looked at the date on my ticket, the very small fine print date. Apparently, what I thought was a valid ticket, was not, so her supervisor approached and demanded I pay the 6000 forint fine. Well I certainly didn't have that much money on me since I certainly didn't need forints in Vienna. He walked with me all the way to the ATM at the train station so I could withdraw the cash to cover the fine. Let me remind you 3000 forints is a nice sized meal for me, so because I was without a valid ticket I had to sacrifice two days of good food. Guess it will be another day of stale bread smeared in Nutella. The guy was nice, but it was just his job to enforce the rules, so I knew arguing to him would make no difference. So heed my warning... take a tram instead of the metro in Budapest, no people monitoring the validity of tickets on the trams. It might be slower, but if you are discreet, it is free.
The only complaint I have so far with the city is that the tourist map you are given by the Info Center requires the vision of a young Clark Kent to read. The city is quite large, and has a lot of small streets, but there could be some way of them having larger maps of each district or something. When I was walking around today, I had to strain my eyes and my navigation skills to read the 1:50 scale map. I think the biggest problem with the map is not the size of the streets listed on it, but all of the street names are really long German words, so everything on the map is abbreviated or too small to read. I am sure I will learn to deal with it.
Got in contact with my Webster friends studying here, so I think I am going to try to meet up with them tomorrow and figure out where in the world the campus is.
A word of advice, make certain in Budapest that you: a) have a valid ticket for the metro, and b) if you are going to have to change metro trains, buy a transfer ticket. I bought a three day metro pass while I was in Budapest so I could ride as much as I needed to and not worry about the transfer pass. I thought that the three day pass was actually a 72 hour pass. I was wrong. Also, when you are getting on the train they are pretty lax about checking your ticket. There are no turnstiles or gates to go through, you just hold out your ticket and the guy smiles and waves you past. Well, today when I was headed to the train station from my hostel, I had to take the metro. I had out my ticket, showed it to the guy at the station near the hostel, and was on my way to Keleti Station. But, and that’s a big but (figuratively not literally, well maybe the woman at the metro station did have a big butt, but I wasn't going to point that out) when I got off the metro and was walking to the exit, there was a group of metro officials checking the tickets of people exiting, the first I had seen this. Well I pulled out my ticket, showed it to the lady and was nearly through, until she looked at the date on my ticket, the very small fine print date. Apparently, what I thought was a valid ticket, was not, so her supervisor approached and demanded I pay the 6000 forint fine. Well I certainly didn't have that much money on me since I certainly didn't need forints in Vienna. He walked with me all the way to the ATM at the train station so I could withdraw the cash to cover the fine. Let me remind you 3000 forints is a nice sized meal for me, so because I was without a valid ticket I had to sacrifice two days of good food. Guess it will be another day of stale bread smeared in Nutella. The guy was nice, but it was just his job to enforce the rules, so I knew arguing to him would make no difference. So heed my warning... take a tram instead of the metro in Budapest, no people monitoring the validity of tickets on the trams. It might be slower, but if you are discreet, it is free.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Sunday in Budapest with Mark
BUDAPEST IS INCREDIBLE! This is probably the first city I have been to on my trip where I feel I could spend all 5 months. (But that would be silly to do, seeing is how I will probably feel the same way about some of the other cities I go to, and why miss them because I like this one so much).
I had a bit of a rough night. I went out for a bit after I got here, just to do a bit of walking in the city at night and stretch my legs. I also hoped that doing a bit of walking would help me sleep better that night. Well I think I ate something before going to bed that just didn't totally agree with my system. I don't think I ate anything bad, but maybe had a little too much sugar, seeing as how I ate three pieces of what I can only describe as the Hungarian equivalent to Boston Cream Pie. But I woke up in the middle of the night nauseated and just plain uncomfortable (I don't think the incredibly fragrant fabric softener that the hostel uses helped either. So I slept in a little late, but felt fine when I finally decided to roll off my bed.
Once I was up and moving around I decided to do a little walking tour of Budapest. Wow, the architecture here is amazing. Every single building is ornamented with dazzling carvings, egg and dart molding, and massive sweeping curves. It is known to many as the "Paris of Eastern Europe." If Paris is the "City of Lights," Budapest is the city of "Copper and Gold." Many of the buildings have beautiful Art Nouveau mosaics gilded in gold leaf, and the majority of domes and sculptures have been cast out of copper. It made me think, "When did we lose this architectural attention to detail and love of opulence?" I assume it was when contractors started charging so much to hang drywall. It did remind me of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The older parts of the Temple in Barcelona are expertly carved and ornately decorated, while the newer parts are much more plain and linear. The bike tour guide made a joke about how the original craftsmen had much more sophisticated tools, but went on to say it was a sacrifice to the almighty dollar. Cheaper to build minimal and fast than complex and slow, I guess. That seems like a cop out to me. Maybe this could solve the employment problem in the US. Start building these huge, complicated structures that take armies of men to complete and everyone that wants a job, and a good workout, will have the opportunity. Oh wait, us white folk are too good for that; we would just get a couple of Illegal Mexican Aliens to do all the manual labor... LOL.
I walked all around the city, in both Buda and Pest. (They were originally two cities separated by the Danube River, but merged in 1872. Actually it was three cities, but no one ever talks about Old Buda). I think I have developed a talent for getting to cities during their annual marathon, because, like Zagreb, today was Budapest's Marathon, so I was forced to navigate around the runners. I made it to The Hero's square in the City Park, the Royal Palace with its lovely views of Budapest, the National Opera, and The Citadell (the largest hill in Buda right on the Danube overlooking the entire city), plus all of the sights in between. The Citadell and the Heroes Square are at opposite ends of the map I have, so it was cool to do those because now when put pins in the map indicating places I have been the map will actually stay up on the wall. Because it was Sunday there wasn't a whole lot of "stuff" to do, and what there was didn't stay open very long, so it was the perfect day to walk a bit.
One of the most popular things to do in Budapest is go to one of its many Thermal Bathhouses. The entire city was built on a natural hot spring, so several large (and when I say large, the one I walked around in the City Park today took me 15 minutes to get all the way around) bathhouses have been constructed. They are some of the most beautiful buildings in all of Budapest, and still remain extremely popular with the locals. Maybe I will do one tomorrow, once I get tired enough to need a good relaxing dip in a hot spring.
Lots of tours available here, and things happening all the time, so I think I am going to really enjoy me time here.
I had a bit of a rough night. I went out for a bit after I got here, just to do a bit of walking in the city at night and stretch my legs. I also hoped that doing a bit of walking would help me sleep better that night. Well I think I ate something before going to bed that just didn't totally agree with my system. I don't think I ate anything bad, but maybe had a little too much sugar, seeing as how I ate three pieces of what I can only describe as the Hungarian equivalent to Boston Cream Pie. But I woke up in the middle of the night nauseated and just plain uncomfortable (I don't think the incredibly fragrant fabric softener that the hostel uses helped either. So I slept in a little late, but felt fine when I finally decided to roll off my bed.
Once I was up and moving around I decided to do a little walking tour of Budapest. Wow, the architecture here is amazing. Every single building is ornamented with dazzling carvings, egg and dart molding, and massive sweeping curves. It is known to many as the "Paris of Eastern Europe." If Paris is the "City of Lights," Budapest is the city of "Copper and Gold." Many of the buildings have beautiful Art Nouveau mosaics gilded in gold leaf, and the majority of domes and sculptures have been cast out of copper. It made me think, "When did we lose this architectural attention to detail and love of opulence?" I assume it was when contractors started charging so much to hang drywall. It did remind me of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The older parts of the Temple in Barcelona are expertly carved and ornately decorated, while the newer parts are much more plain and linear. The bike tour guide made a joke about how the original craftsmen had much more sophisticated tools, but went on to say it was a sacrifice to the almighty dollar. Cheaper to build minimal and fast than complex and slow, I guess. That seems like a cop out to me. Maybe this could solve the employment problem in the US. Start building these huge, complicated structures that take armies of men to complete and everyone that wants a job, and a good workout, will have the opportunity. Oh wait, us white folk are too good for that; we would just get a couple of Illegal Mexican Aliens to do all the manual labor... LOL.
I walked all around the city, in both Buda and Pest. (They were originally two cities separated by the Danube River, but merged in 1872. Actually it was three cities, but no one ever talks about Old Buda). I think I have developed a talent for getting to cities during their annual marathon, because, like Zagreb, today was Budapest's Marathon, so I was forced to navigate around the runners. I made it to The Hero's square in the City Park, the Royal Palace with its lovely views of Budapest, the National Opera, and The Citadell (the largest hill in Buda right on the Danube overlooking the entire city), plus all of the sights in between. The Citadell and the Heroes Square are at opposite ends of the map I have, so it was cool to do those because now when put pins in the map indicating places I have been the map will actually stay up on the wall. Because it was Sunday there wasn't a whole lot of "stuff" to do, and what there was didn't stay open very long, so it was the perfect day to walk a bit.
One of the most popular things to do in Budapest is go to one of its many Thermal Bathhouses. The entire city was built on a natural hot spring, so several large (and when I say large, the one I walked around in the City Park today took me 15 minutes to get all the way around) bathhouses have been constructed. They are some of the most beautiful buildings in all of Budapest, and still remain extremely popular with the locals. Maybe I will do one tomorrow, once I get tired enough to need a good relaxing dip in a hot spring.
Lots of tours available here, and things happening all the time, so I think I am going to really enjoy me time here.
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