his morning was the earliest of the entire trip, with the ever-frightening reveille at 5:45 ante meridiem. We packed our bags and navigated our way through the treacherous jungle that stood between us and the train station. Well, jungle is a bit of a misnomer; it was actually a straight clear paved road, but at 6:30 it feels like a wild Amazonian rainforest, complete with scalawag river pirates and dinner-plate-sized spiders. We trudged over to Westbahnhof the Elder, which is a different train station than Westbahnhof the Younger. The Elder is a high-speed long-distance rail station; the Younger is a metro/bus station. They are directly across the street from one another but mixing up the two would be a fatal mistake. Luckily for us, we had been through that intersection so many times that we knew exactly where to go. We took our bags up to the large rail platform and found our train on the departure board: Railjet 160 departing from platform 7 at 7:20. We wanted to eat some kind of breakfast and find good seats on the train before 7:00, so we pit-stopped at some bahnhof (German for train station) bakery and grabbed a nibble or two.
Cédric, being the travel genius that he is, had had the foresight to reserve seats on the train because if worst had come to worst and there was competition for seats on the train, we could not afford to lose the fight for seats. This concept does not really exist in American transportation, so allow me to explain. In most European rail travel, you must purchase a train pass that allows you access to certain trains. Depending on your pass, you are free to pick any train you want to ride, so long as your pass is valid. There is no limit as to how many people are eligible for a particular route other than seat availability on the train. For a popular route like Berlin to Vienna, there is a train leaving once every 2 hours in either direction, and thus if you lose the seat competition (which rarely matters; we've been in train stations at the busiest rush hours and I have yet to see a completely full train), it's only a 2 hour delay. But, if you have a connection to make or urgent plans at your destination, you can purchase a seat reservation in advance for 12 euros per seat. Not only are you guaranteed a seat, you get to pick which one you want. Then, when you get on board the train, there is a little ticket on your seat that says "reserved" with your name on it and the train station that you are getting off at. Since the Vienna to Zurich route was not a frequent route, we gladly forked over 60 euros to prevent a five-plus hour delay in our travel plans, which would have put us into Strasbourg near midnight. Not. Fun.
We quickly found our reserved seats on the train; however, soon thereafter we found an open unreserved table next to our seats. So, we forfeited our reservations and threw a raging party at the table, and Henry stepped up to be the hype man and invite other (mostly female) passengers on the train to join our party. By the time the train had actually left the station, our Railjet Rave had amassed over half the train's passengers, including Beyoncé, Ellen DeGeneres, Nick Cannon, Mary J. Blige, Hannah Hempel, Usher, and Dr. Chase. Much to the dismay of the food service staff, we served our own variety of free refreshments to the party guests as the 2€30 thimble of tea rode by in the snack cart. Usher was particularly fond of the pistachios.
The train ride from Vienna to Zurich lasted over 8 hours, but it passed through some drop-dead gorgeous countryside. That single train passed from Austria to Germany to Liechtenstein before finally stopping in Switzerland. We spent most of the train ride blogging, sleeping, and telling ridiculous stories (among those who were awake at any given time). It was such a beautiful thing, and I must say that Railjet was far and away the nicest train that we have ridden. And of course our favorite part was the fact that the overhead screens showed the train speed and the map. My inner speed demon wanted to push 200 km/h whenever possible, and Cédric was absolutely overjoyed when the map showed that we would be passing through Liechtenstein (although not actually stopping).
Upon arrival in Zurich right at 4:00 (30 minutes late), our first mission was to find our connection train to Strasbourg and figure out how much snack time we had. The humongous board of departures showed us that we would be taking a 4:27 TGV from platform 17. I went straight to platform 17, eager to get rid of my luggage, only to find that the previous train had not yet left the station, and thus I was doomed to carry my bags to the snack spot of my choosing. To my great delight and fortune, there was a nice Swiss coffeehouse not far from platform 17, and thus I made camp there, eating raspberry yogurt and hot chocolate in a seat where I could directly see both the track and the overhead departure board. Hot chocolate is so much tastier when you're not stressed. Our train soon arrived and once again we found our reservations (TGV is special in that reservations are mandatory), and to our surprise we had reserved a table to start with! What luck! We settled in and threw our bags above our heads, ready for only 3 more hours of train travel.
The TGV went very smoothly, with only a minor hiccup when we had to stop for 20 unexpected minutes due to "security reasons" at some random train station not far from Zurich. Parker and Cedric finished up the final touches of their blogs, and the three of us watched an episode of Chuck while Henry read his book and Christian slept WAAAAAY out in dada-land. We can only guess what he was dreaming of, but it was so good that he didn't even flinch when we asked if he wanted to watch Chuck with us. Let me take this opportunity to recall the opening lyrics to a song from a quintessential American film in which one of the lead male actors ponders the contents of nocturnal visions of tigers. He sings,
"What do tigers dream of
when they take their little tiger snooze?
Do they dream of mauling zebras,
or Halle Berry in her Catwoman suit?"
I suspect that dearest Christian was dreaming of ice cream and Porsche. Nothing else could possibly have kept him asnooze whilst the others watched his beloved Chuck. All I know is that I switched his iPod back and forth from pause to play, and the unnatural stopping of his favorite music did not cause even the slightest twitch. I was slightly afraid of how still he was. It was almost as if he was secretly awake the whole time and just waiting for me to do something stupid, at which point he would spring from his slumber and stone me with a bag of Cocoa Puffs hidden under his chair. It never happened.
We arrived in Strasbourg around 7:15, and as soon as we stepped off the train, we were greeted by the warm smiling faces of Cédric's aunt and cousin who are hosting us during our stay in Strasbourg. The French custom of the two-cheek bisous caught some of us off-guard, but we all remembered quickly, and immediately we made our way back to La Maison de Heckel, our wonderful home in Strasbourg where dinner depended on our safe arrival. We finally set our bags down upstairs in the two rooms that used to be the brothers' rooms, but they are now out of college and thus the rooms were available. Marie, the college-age baby sister, is still in the house, and she was a huge help showing us around the house and making us comfortable in her own home.
Dinner consisted of spaghetti, cheese, and meat sauce, and boy oh boy was it the best I've ever had. The great thing about France is that even the cheese they put on spaghetti is never just shredded parmesan; there are a variety of options. I selected a grated goat cheese (chèvre), which melted really well into the meat sauce. The Heckels also had this amazing exotic fruit drink that was a combo of orange, mango, and passionfruit. SO. TASTY. The madame of the household, Sophie, had purchased three fresh baguettes that morning, and we enjoyed the baguette as well. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something unmistakably better about French baguette compared to all other baguette in America and in Europe. It's the most heavenly balance between crunchy outside and soft inside.
After dinner we sat down in the living room, where Jean-Phillipe (the father) offered to show us some home videos of Cédric from when he was a very little boy in France in the summers. The four of us immediately jumped on the opportunity to witness historical footage of our curly-haired companion while he slunked in fearful anticipation of what awkward moments of youth would be cast before the eyes of his very best friends. Jean-Phillipe uncovered a massive storage box of tapes, and with Marie's help, he sifted through the tapes until he found one that was labeled "Cédric & Céline visit". Before the tape even started, we imagined all the wild impossibilities as to what exactly would be on this tape. Perhaps Cédric had chopped down a tree with his toothbrush and killed three people. Or perhaps Cédric had staged a cage fight between an unconsenting Céline and a squirrel. Our imaginations ran wildly as Cédric evaluated the plausibility of each conjecture. He had to think awhile on the cage fight.
Jean-Phillipe pressed play and…..it didn't work. We tried a few other tapes, but none of them featured our dear friend in a starring roles. We saw glimpses of a blonder summertime 'fro on the young lad, and also of a Lance Armstrong doppelganger in his father Dr. Jones on a bicycle somewhere in Morzine. It was also good to hear the voice of Cédric's late mother Régine for the first time in my life. None of us four ever had the good fortune to meet Cédric's mother, but to see her on camera and hear her voice was a great opportunity. I instantly recognized the relation between Cédric and Régine, and I must say that the two bear much resemblance. After our home video session, the parents went to bed, and Marie gave us a quick tutorial on how to work the DVD player. We put in more episodes of Chuck, and Marie went off to bed as well. As we sat there laughing endlessly at the smart humor, I couldn't help but think how refreshing it was to enjoy ourselves and not have a super busy schedule the next day. A day of sleeping in and traveling slowly. I think we hit our train hours quota for quite a few days!
From Strasbourg,
Sam
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Sam #6: Carlos
In his exquisite recount of the events of May 29, Professor Henry made a brief reference to a loaf of bread that Christian purchased shortly after breakfast. Although this bread did not directly affect the events of the day (and thus was not mentioned further), I assure you that it was a major part of our day. Let's begin.
Following a ripoff breakfast on Mariahilfer Straße next to the restaurant that did not exist with the waitress who acted more like Jon Voight's interpretation of Mr. Sir, Stanley Yelnats (aka Christian) was not satisfied with his "omelette" and wanted more to eat. We began walking back towards our hostel and lo and behold, Zero's bakery appeared not 3 shops down from Camp Greenlake. We mulled over the myriad of breads and pastries with varying degrees of shopping legitimacy, oohing and ahhing at every tart, fluff, and puff. In the aside that will forever be mainstage, Christian quipped, "Man, some time I wish I could just eat one of those entire loafs whole!" Upon hearing this, I sensed a distance between Christian's dream and the reality of his purchase of a family loaf for individual consumption. How to close this gap? Why of course a friendly little wager. Thus, I responded to his quip, "I'll buy the loaf if you eat it all by yourself in an hour."
The look on his face was exactly what I had hoped for. It was immediately obvious that Christian was analyzing the offer, weighing his hunger against the bread set before him in a most appealing display. In a great display of liberty and independence from the cat food given him earlier, he offered me my choice of loaf. This decision set up hours of laughter to come. I pointed to the biggest, fattest circular loaf of rye bread, measuring at least a foot in diameter and weighing well over a kilogram (2.2 pounds). He asked for the one next to it that was equally gargantuan but "it looked tastier," in the words of our dearest Takeru Kobayashi. Still in disbelief that Christian had taken my offer, I consented with a resounding yes, and the official terms of the deal were set. Christian purchased the loaf at 11:06am for 2€69, and I set my phone alarm for 12:06pm. He proclaimed, "I can eat this whole thing all by myself!" and the race was on.
Within the first five minutes, Christian had worked his way through the first 25% of the diameter with ease. All five of us were giggling the whole time watching Christian rip chunks of rye bread out of the loaf and devour them with an impetus not previously witnessed. He let us feel the loaf for weight and size, and we realized just how dense rye bread is. Upon holding the loaf in my arms, I upped the offer to 5 euros and Christian continued to shred loaf. A few times he taunted me, showing me his horizontal progress and trying to make me nervous while we all continued to giggle. I kept my calm in remembrance of one very important fact about spherical objects: the first third of the loaf by diameter does not hold a third of the loaf by weight. By rough guestimation (aided by being versed in integral calculus), the vast majority of the weight (>60%) of the loaf is contained in the middle third of the diameter, which Christian had only begun to touch.
Due to lapses in planning for the day, we had to walk back to the hostel to find our train ticket and then walk back to Westbahnhof. Christian reveled in this walking, as he was burning calories and making room for more rye bread. He walked with a pride and manliness that even Bear Grylls would be jealous of. When we returned to the station with tickets in hand, Christian had reached the halfway mark in the loaf, which was beyond my expectations. Now I was beginning to get nervous, as the principle of spherical weight distribution now worked in his favor instead of mine. The 4-way mental warfare between me, Christian, the loaf, and the clock was pure entertainment for the other three who took full pleasure in the spectacular display of Y chromosome at its finest. Christian and I also found great humor in the situation, but I must say the others had it best. When we got back to the train station, it was 11:40, and Christian only had 26 minutes to finish 50% of a rye loaf. Shortly thereafter, a game-changer came soaring out of Christian's mouth.
No, it wasn't an undigested piece of rye bread launched back screaming from the damnation of hydrochloric acid and gastric amylase. It was a simple phrase, free of food. "I think it's gonna defeat me." In a most boastful and triumphant display, I pulled a €5 bill out of my wallet and waved it all over the bread, much to the Romanesque delight of the others. We egged him on, and we also gave him tender comfort by reassuring him that if he did in fact bring back the rye bread, he would not be disqualified from the money. However, by the time we had arrived at the tour bus headquarters in advance of our 12:00 tour, Christian had officially surrendered defeat by loaf, leaving at least 45% of it for the rest of us to try. I admitted (in the past and still now to you) that I was very impressed by an effort that was as valiant as it was entertaining. Although Christian did not win the €5, he won so much more in man points.
The story does not end there. We passed the loaf around for the other 4 to try, and as it turns out, it was quite tasty, but at the same time very filling. We brought it on the bus tour with us, giving it its own seat on the tour bus and its own pair of headphones. By this point we lovingly referred to the loaf as "the baby", and the baby listened to the bus tour in Japanese. He kept quiet and did not move or cry for the duration of the bus tour. About 30 minutes into the tour, we got off for the mandatory 20-minute stop at Hundertwasser Village and took turns holding the baby and gently ripping off pieces of the baby to eat. We took him everywhere in Hundertwasser Village, making sure that he stayed swaddled in his white paper bag.
After the bus tour, we walked through Stephansplatz to find a nearby lunch spot which we had seen on the bus tour. We sat down at a goulash restaurant at a table of six, giving the baby the sixth seat. We enjoyed a delicious meal as the baby slept soundly in his chair. After lunch we strolled over to an amazing ice cream place near the restaurant, but in the interest of the baby's safety, we did not stay out in the sweltering sun (which for Austria is 75° F) too long and brought him back inside.
It was during the consumption of ice cream when the baby was finally given the name Carlos. Our love for him was renewed and strengthened as we recalled the fond memories of only a few hours ago, much to our entertainment, while Christian grinned a great grin of glory for inspiring this entire escapade. At that point it was not just Christian but all five of us who had been defeated by the great Carlos. Nobody could convince anybody else to take another bite, and we simply carried him around to see the sights of Vienna. When we went to Schonbrunn that afternoon, we realized that our time with Carlos was coming to an end, as no outside food or drink was allowed inside the palace. Thus, in a touching moment, we elected to give Carlos a proper burial instead of allowing the palace police to rip him from our loving grip. We took pictures with him, and we even recruited a kind stranger to take a picture of the six of us in front of Schonbrunn. After the picture, we paid our last respects, shared another hilarious round of memories, and at 4:09pm, softly deposited him into a small metal trash can near the entrance.
His life of 5 hours and 3 minutes was short but sweet. Actually, sweet isn't really the correct adjective for rye bread. His life was short and spicy. Yeah, I like spicy, because the name Carlos conjures up images of a tall, dark-eyed Puerto Rican salsa dancer swaying sensually to the soft bossa nova backbeat of mariachi band with his beloved señorita matching his every step in spicy calypso time. Carlos was a spicy baby, and to this day his spirit is reincarnated in other large tasty food items that we encounter along the way. Carlos, you are dearly missed.
RIP Carlos
May 29, 2010
11:06-16:09
"Variety is the spice of life, but so is Ricky Martin"
Following a ripoff breakfast on Mariahilfer Straße next to the restaurant that did not exist with the waitress who acted more like Jon Voight's interpretation of Mr. Sir, Stanley Yelnats (aka Christian) was not satisfied with his "omelette" and wanted more to eat. We began walking back towards our hostel and lo and behold, Zero's bakery appeared not 3 shops down from Camp Greenlake. We mulled over the myriad of breads and pastries with varying degrees of shopping legitimacy, oohing and ahhing at every tart, fluff, and puff. In the aside that will forever be mainstage, Christian quipped, "Man, some time I wish I could just eat one of those entire loafs whole!" Upon hearing this, I sensed a distance between Christian's dream and the reality of his purchase of a family loaf for individual consumption. How to close this gap? Why of course a friendly little wager. Thus, I responded to his quip, "I'll buy the loaf if you eat it all by yourself in an hour."
The look on his face was exactly what I had hoped for. It was immediately obvious that Christian was analyzing the offer, weighing his hunger against the bread set before him in a most appealing display. In a great display of liberty and independence from the cat food given him earlier, he offered me my choice of loaf. This decision set up hours of laughter to come. I pointed to the biggest, fattest circular loaf of rye bread, measuring at least a foot in diameter and weighing well over a kilogram (2.2 pounds). He asked for the one next to it that was equally gargantuan but "it looked tastier," in the words of our dearest Takeru Kobayashi. Still in disbelief that Christian had taken my offer, I consented with a resounding yes, and the official terms of the deal were set. Christian purchased the loaf at 11:06am for 2€69, and I set my phone alarm for 12:06pm. He proclaimed, "I can eat this whole thing all by myself!" and the race was on.
Within the first five minutes, Christian had worked his way through the first 25% of the diameter with ease. All five of us were giggling the whole time watching Christian rip chunks of rye bread out of the loaf and devour them with an impetus not previously witnessed. He let us feel the loaf for weight and size, and we realized just how dense rye bread is. Upon holding the loaf in my arms, I upped the offer to 5 euros and Christian continued to shred loaf. A few times he taunted me, showing me his horizontal progress and trying to make me nervous while we all continued to giggle. I kept my calm in remembrance of one very important fact about spherical objects: the first third of the loaf by diameter does not hold a third of the loaf by weight. By rough guestimation (aided by being versed in integral calculus), the vast majority of the weight (>60%) of the loaf is contained in the middle third of the diameter, which Christian had only begun to touch.
Due to lapses in planning for the day, we had to walk back to the hostel to find our train ticket and then walk back to Westbahnhof. Christian reveled in this walking, as he was burning calories and making room for more rye bread. He walked with a pride and manliness that even Bear Grylls would be jealous of. When we returned to the station with tickets in hand, Christian had reached the halfway mark in the loaf, which was beyond my expectations. Now I was beginning to get nervous, as the principle of spherical weight distribution now worked in his favor instead of mine. The 4-way mental warfare between me, Christian, the loaf, and the clock was pure entertainment for the other three who took full pleasure in the spectacular display of Y chromosome at its finest. Christian and I also found great humor in the situation, but I must say the others had it best. When we got back to the train station, it was 11:40, and Christian only had 26 minutes to finish 50% of a rye loaf. Shortly thereafter, a game-changer came soaring out of Christian's mouth.
No, it wasn't an undigested piece of rye bread launched back screaming from the damnation of hydrochloric acid and gastric amylase. It was a simple phrase, free of food. "I think it's gonna defeat me." In a most boastful and triumphant display, I pulled a €5 bill out of my wallet and waved it all over the bread, much to the Romanesque delight of the others. We egged him on, and we also gave him tender comfort by reassuring him that if he did in fact bring back the rye bread, he would not be disqualified from the money. However, by the time we had arrived at the tour bus headquarters in advance of our 12:00 tour, Christian had officially surrendered defeat by loaf, leaving at least 45% of it for the rest of us to try. I admitted (in the past and still now to you) that I was very impressed by an effort that was as valiant as it was entertaining. Although Christian did not win the €5, he won so much more in man points.
The story does not end there. We passed the loaf around for the other 4 to try, and as it turns out, it was quite tasty, but at the same time very filling. We brought it on the bus tour with us, giving it its own seat on the tour bus and its own pair of headphones. By this point we lovingly referred to the loaf as "the baby", and the baby listened to the bus tour in Japanese. He kept quiet and did not move or cry for the duration of the bus tour. About 30 minutes into the tour, we got off for the mandatory 20-minute stop at Hundertwasser Village and took turns holding the baby and gently ripping off pieces of the baby to eat. We took him everywhere in Hundertwasser Village, making sure that he stayed swaddled in his white paper bag.
After the bus tour, we walked through Stephansplatz to find a nearby lunch spot which we had seen on the bus tour. We sat down at a goulash restaurant at a table of six, giving the baby the sixth seat. We enjoyed a delicious meal as the baby slept soundly in his chair. After lunch we strolled over to an amazing ice cream place near the restaurant, but in the interest of the baby's safety, we did not stay out in the sweltering sun (which for Austria is 75° F) too long and brought him back inside.
It was during the consumption of ice cream when the baby was finally given the name Carlos. Our love for him was renewed and strengthened as we recalled the fond memories of only a few hours ago, much to our entertainment, while Christian grinned a great grin of glory for inspiring this entire escapade. At that point it was not just Christian but all five of us who had been defeated by the great Carlos. Nobody could convince anybody else to take another bite, and we simply carried him around to see the sights of Vienna. When we went to Schonbrunn that afternoon, we realized that our time with Carlos was coming to an end, as no outside food or drink was allowed inside the palace. Thus, in a touching moment, we elected to give Carlos a proper burial instead of allowing the palace police to rip him from our loving grip. We took pictures with him, and we even recruited a kind stranger to take a picture of the six of us in front of Schonbrunn. After the picture, we paid our last respects, shared another hilarious round of memories, and at 4:09pm, softly deposited him into a small metal trash can near the entrance.
His life of 5 hours and 3 minutes was short but sweet. Actually, sweet isn't really the correct adjective for rye bread. His life was short and spicy. Yeah, I like spicy, because the name Carlos conjures up images of a tall, dark-eyed Puerto Rican salsa dancer swaying sensually to the soft bossa nova backbeat of mariachi band with his beloved señorita matching his every step in spicy calypso time. Carlos was a spicy baby, and to this day his spirit is reincarnated in other large tasty food items that we encounter along the way. Carlos, you are dearly missed.
RIP Carlos
May 29, 2010
11:06-16:09
"Variety is the spice of life, but so is Ricky Martin"
Parker #4: May 31
As promised, we all woke up at 8:30 to start our last full day in Vienna, or as Sam prefers, Wien. There are however, a few technicalities. True, I woke up at 8:30, but whoever wrote the definition of "wake up" failed to specify that one must exit their bed directly upon being startled awake by Sam's alarm that I swear makes me feel like a soldier waking up in the middle of Pearl Harbor under the code red or whatever the worst case scenario alarm is. Anyway after being "gently" forced up at 8:45 I took my morning shower and we made it out only 8 minutes late. (For those of you keeping score at home that's 15 min of extra sleep for Parker and the group only behind schedule by 8 minutes. Totally a net positive…at least for me). As a side note our Hostel's hot water heater is an epic fail and todays shower was the most miserable experience eva.
The rest of the day wasn't really exciting so thats pretty much it. Hope you enjoyed my blog and see ya sometime in Strasbourg.
Update: Sam told me (in words that I wont repeat here) that my wonderfully accurate and concise piece of literature above wasn't quite long enough. He told me to write at least 1500 words so here it is, 1500 WORDS. What now?!
Okay, I'm back again and this time have specific instructions and writing parameters to fulfill in order to be allowed to sleep in the same room as the group for the rest of the trip. Clearly they lack my level of comic genius and great sense of humor. Their loss.
Lets continue…After getting everyone out the door (don't you hate waiting on those slow and lazy people who pull everyone else down) we had a quick breakfast at the local bakery for a second day in a row. We then marched off to see our second palace in Wien, Belvedere: the former Palace for the Prince of Savoy. (Cédric's brief history on the aforementioned prince: "A famous general of Savoy (which is now a region in France where I've been skiing) who helped defeat the Ottoman Turks in the late 17th century" The palace was of course beautiful, although I must admit it was not quite on the scale of Versailles or Schonbrunn. The real attraction was the art held within the palace since it has recently been turned into an art museum. Although I was hopeful to see another amazing palace, the art turned out to be really cool and it was one of Cédric's favorite museums. The highlights for me were the following: A very famous portrait of Napoleon charging uphill that I "remember" studying back in AP Euro. Another was a portrait of a naval battle along with one of a stormy sea that reminded me of my love of water, and finally, The Kiss; a fabulous portrait made of gold and one that Austrians apparently have lots of pride in because the security protecting it was about 500x better than that of the monstrous hunk of gold we saw yesterday.
Normally I would say that our morning at the palace was great and then we moved on to the next part of our day, lunch; however, I instead have a fantastic story to recount. To be fair though, as I said about the club in Praha, it is a story that is better in person but still hilarious. So…….As we were walking back to the metro station, a friendly-enough guy approached us and began speaking in German (Not sure if we've said this yet or not but German is the official language of Austria). We were fully prepared to ignore yet another native trying to sell things to tourists like ourselves but something did seem different; I think it was probably because this gentleman was much older, in a tie, and had the kindly face of a grandfather. Luckily he spoke English quite fluently and once he figured out we were Americans, he explained what he wanted: nothing more than a push for his car which had a dead battery. On the short walk over to his car we discussed our great hometown of Atlanta which he had visited back in 1965 and he thanked us profusely for our help with his car. We happily obliged and gave the tiny European two-door a good shove down a huge hill which he used to get it started. He then drove a few hundred meters, turned around and drove past us with a big wave and smile on his face.
That should have been the last we saw of our improvised friend but to our surprise we ran into him again at the top of the very same hill we had just pushed him down. As we got within a reasonable distance we could see that his car was dead in the middle of a humongous intersection and that he had taken the liberty to step out and give it a good glare. Then, to our shock and infinite delight he said the funniest thing I have heard the entire trip. In the middle of this Viennese intersection the friendly old man shouted at the top of his lungs in perfect English, "My f****** s*** car broke down again!!!!!" I don't think I stopped laughing for at least ten minutes! We pushed him down the hill once more but his beloved car never got started again and he eventually told us to give up. I wish I had a video of the moment because I think for all of us who heard his declaration it was the single-most unexpected and hilarious comment ever!
For lunch we went to Naschmarkt, a giant famous market in downtown Wien. The food was pretty good but not quite filling enough so afterwards we all stopped by the bakery and got, you guessed it, lots more bread. We spent the next 30 or 40 minutes wandering through the market and looking at all the awesome goods. My favorites were things that you could find in America or sometimes even American flags; it just seemed ironic, but most of the market was full of local foods anyway. Both Cédric and Christian got a half-kilo of strawberries and once again it turned out that Christian's eyes were bigger than his stomach (RIP Carlos). Finally, before leaving the market, we got our daily (and often 2x daily) ice cream which was of course fantastic.
After our several courses of lunch in Naschmarkt we then went to the Wien TV Tower which at first seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. We took the metro across the Danube and once we got off basically just walked towards the really, really tall tower. It was much farther than it looked but we did eventually get there safe and sound (although the cross-country slackers did require carrying part of the way) and the tower wasn't actually in the middle of a random forest but in fact in a beautiful city park. After purchasing tickets we then took the super-fast time-warp elevator up to the 165m revolving café and had some way overpriced sodas (at least by US standards). Hopefully this won't scare the parents too much but…..we also walked along the outer platform and contemplated doing their amazingly high bungee jump. The high winds scared all of us away except Sam of course. I never knew his voice could go quite that high but I think he ended up having a blast. Just kidding; no Samuels were hurt or pushed off 165m towers in the writing of this blog.
After going to the tower we finally got to go to a supermarket because everything in Wien is apparently closed on Sundays and by 18:00 every other day. We bought all kinds of chocolate, pretzels, chocolate milk, chocolate, candies, smarties (european M&Ms), waters, and chocolate. We then brought our stockpiles back to the hostel for safekeeping until the 12hr train ride tomorrow and prepared to head out for Henry's long awaited birthday dinner.
After some brainstorming we elected to go to Stephansplatz (a very nice downtown area) and let Henry pick any restaurant he wanted. He chose a fabulous pizza place and we all enjoyed our dinner immensely! Our waiter was awesome and quite funny so in our high spirits we left him a nice tip at the end of our long meal and headed out to get….ICE CREAM! (I think we are going to need ice cream rehab immediately upon arriving home but it is so so so so delicious). In our defense however this instance was not our fault; at least not entirely anyway. We were merely window-shopping when the aggressive lady behind the counter began asking us if we wanted a cup or a cone. Personally I don't remember asking for either but it was clear her patience was wearing thin so we gave in and started ordering before she had a heart attack. As I said before it was delicious though and a great ending to our time in downtown Wien.
Next, at around 21:00 we went back to our Hostel to wrap up our last day here. Now I don't want anyone going "Wait, 21:00, thats only 9:00! Those losers are in Europe and going to bed at 9:00!" so hold your horses because we had good reason. After catching up on facebook, blogging, phone calls, and emails we were just about done for the day, especially since we must get up at 5:45 to catch our train to Strasbourg tomorrow morning.
The last thing that happened before lights out though was way more than I needed right before trying to go to bed. Now for my own safety, I am obligated to give a disclaimer. WARNING: the following story is from the perspective of myself, Parker Leinbach, and may or may not bear any relevance on the truth.
It all started like this. Throughout the entire trip I have been teamed up on by the Wahoos (Cédric and for some reason Christian) just for my being a Hokie. Now I know this may upset some of you at home but I assure you it is all in good fun and Wahoos are too dumb to know better anyway. The arguments and bickering came to a climax at today's end probably because I chose to hide a worthless and meaningless possession of Cédric's: his UVa sweatshirt. We then continued battling (as I'm sure many of you have seen before) until the others were tired of it all. I want it noted that in all instances I am a victim and either Cedge or Xian are the instigators. The turning point was a particularly vicious comment on my stature. Here is the real story; they will concur that this part at least is true.
Preface: Cédric steals my jacket and I climb down from my top bunk to retrieve it.
Christian: "Who do you think you are? Justice riding in on your high horse?"
Parker: "Yes in fact I AM justice riding in on a noble white stallion"
Christian: "Don't you mean a white pony?"
Okay laugh all you want—they certainly did—but for the record, Christian is only about 1 inch taller than me, and we are all average height or higher anyway…whatever; the others get lots of entertainment from their jokes so I'll let it slide. The night ended quite nicely actually with the French Horn Accordances of Vienna, stating that Virginia is in fact the best state for all institutions of higher education and that FHD is a truly symbolic characteristic of life. Exact terms to follow.
Peace and love from Wien, Parker
The rest of the day wasn't really exciting so thats pretty much it. Hope you enjoyed my blog and see ya sometime in Strasbourg.
Update: Sam told me (in words that I wont repeat here) that my wonderfully accurate and concise piece of literature above wasn't quite long enough. He told me to write at least 1500 words so here it is, 1500 WORDS. What now?!
Okay, I'm back again and this time have specific instructions and writing parameters to fulfill in order to be allowed to sleep in the same room as the group for the rest of the trip. Clearly they lack my level of comic genius and great sense of humor. Their loss.
Lets continue…After getting everyone out the door (don't you hate waiting on those slow and lazy people who pull everyone else down) we had a quick breakfast at the local bakery for a second day in a row. We then marched off to see our second palace in Wien, Belvedere: the former Palace for the Prince of Savoy. (Cédric's brief history on the aforementioned prince: "A famous general of Savoy (which is now a region in France where I've been skiing) who helped defeat the Ottoman Turks in the late 17th century" The palace was of course beautiful, although I must admit it was not quite on the scale of Versailles or Schonbrunn. The real attraction was the art held within the palace since it has recently been turned into an art museum. Although I was hopeful to see another amazing palace, the art turned out to be really cool and it was one of Cédric's favorite museums. The highlights for me were the following: A very famous portrait of Napoleon charging uphill that I "remember" studying back in AP Euro. Another was a portrait of a naval battle along with one of a stormy sea that reminded me of my love of water, and finally, The Kiss; a fabulous portrait made of gold and one that Austrians apparently have lots of pride in because the security protecting it was about 500x better than that of the monstrous hunk of gold we saw yesterday.
Normally I would say that our morning at the palace was great and then we moved on to the next part of our day, lunch; however, I instead have a fantastic story to recount. To be fair though, as I said about the club in Praha, it is a story that is better in person but still hilarious. So…….As we were walking back to the metro station, a friendly-enough guy approached us and began speaking in German (Not sure if we've said this yet or not but German is the official language of Austria). We were fully prepared to ignore yet another native trying to sell things to tourists like ourselves but something did seem different; I think it was probably because this gentleman was much older, in a tie, and had the kindly face of a grandfather. Luckily he spoke English quite fluently and once he figured out we were Americans, he explained what he wanted: nothing more than a push for his car which had a dead battery. On the short walk over to his car we discussed our great hometown of Atlanta which he had visited back in 1965 and he thanked us profusely for our help with his car. We happily obliged and gave the tiny European two-door a good shove down a huge hill which he used to get it started. He then drove a few hundred meters, turned around and drove past us with a big wave and smile on his face.
That should have been the last we saw of our improvised friend but to our surprise we ran into him again at the top of the very same hill we had just pushed him down. As we got within a reasonable distance we could see that his car was dead in the middle of a humongous intersection and that he had taken the liberty to step out and give it a good glare. Then, to our shock and infinite delight he said the funniest thing I have heard the entire trip. In the middle of this Viennese intersection the friendly old man shouted at the top of his lungs in perfect English, "My f****** s*** car broke down again!!!!!" I don't think I stopped laughing for at least ten minutes! We pushed him down the hill once more but his beloved car never got started again and he eventually told us to give up. I wish I had a video of the moment because I think for all of us who heard his declaration it was the single-most unexpected and hilarious comment ever!
For lunch we went to Naschmarkt, a giant famous market in downtown Wien. The food was pretty good but not quite filling enough so afterwards we all stopped by the bakery and got, you guessed it, lots more bread. We spent the next 30 or 40 minutes wandering through the market and looking at all the awesome goods. My favorites were things that you could find in America or sometimes even American flags; it just seemed ironic, but most of the market was full of local foods anyway. Both Cédric and Christian got a half-kilo of strawberries and once again it turned out that Christian's eyes were bigger than his stomach (RIP Carlos). Finally, before leaving the market, we got our daily (and often 2x daily) ice cream which was of course fantastic.
After our several courses of lunch in Naschmarkt we then went to the Wien TV Tower which at first seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. We took the metro across the Danube and once we got off basically just walked towards the really, really tall tower. It was much farther than it looked but we did eventually get there safe and sound (although the cross-country slackers did require carrying part of the way) and the tower wasn't actually in the middle of a random forest but in fact in a beautiful city park. After purchasing tickets we then took the super-fast time-warp elevator up to the 165m revolving café and had some way overpriced sodas (at least by US standards). Hopefully this won't scare the parents too much but…..we also walked along the outer platform and contemplated doing their amazingly high bungee jump. The high winds scared all of us away except Sam of course. I never knew his voice could go quite that high but I think he ended up having a blast. Just kidding; no Samuels were hurt or pushed off 165m towers in the writing of this blog.
After going to the tower we finally got to go to a supermarket because everything in Wien is apparently closed on Sundays and by 18:00 every other day. We bought all kinds of chocolate, pretzels, chocolate milk, chocolate, candies, smarties (european M&Ms), waters, and chocolate. We then brought our stockpiles back to the hostel for safekeeping until the 12hr train ride tomorrow and prepared to head out for Henry's long awaited birthday dinner.
After some brainstorming we elected to go to Stephansplatz (a very nice downtown area) and let Henry pick any restaurant he wanted. He chose a fabulous pizza place and we all enjoyed our dinner immensely! Our waiter was awesome and quite funny so in our high spirits we left him a nice tip at the end of our long meal and headed out to get….ICE CREAM! (I think we are going to need ice cream rehab immediately upon arriving home but it is so so so so delicious). In our defense however this instance was not our fault; at least not entirely anyway. We were merely window-shopping when the aggressive lady behind the counter began asking us if we wanted a cup or a cone. Personally I don't remember asking for either but it was clear her patience was wearing thin so we gave in and started ordering before she had a heart attack. As I said before it was delicious though and a great ending to our time in downtown Wien.
Next, at around 21:00 we went back to our Hostel to wrap up our last day here. Now I don't want anyone going "Wait, 21:00, thats only 9:00! Those losers are in Europe and going to bed at 9:00!" so hold your horses because we had good reason. After catching up on facebook, blogging, phone calls, and emails we were just about done for the day, especially since we must get up at 5:45 to catch our train to Strasbourg tomorrow morning.
The last thing that happened before lights out though was way more than I needed right before trying to go to bed. Now for my own safety, I am obligated to give a disclaimer. WARNING: the following story is from the perspective of myself, Parker Leinbach, and may or may not bear any relevance on the truth.
It all started like this. Throughout the entire trip I have been teamed up on by the Wahoos (Cédric and for some reason Christian) just for my being a Hokie. Now I know this may upset some of you at home but I assure you it is all in good fun and Wahoos are too dumb to know better anyway. The arguments and bickering came to a climax at today's end probably because I chose to hide a worthless and meaningless possession of Cédric's: his UVa sweatshirt. We then continued battling (as I'm sure many of you have seen before) until the others were tired of it all. I want it noted that in all instances I am a victim and either Cedge or Xian are the instigators. The turning point was a particularly vicious comment on my stature. Here is the real story; they will concur that this part at least is true.
Preface: Cédric steals my jacket and I climb down from my top bunk to retrieve it.
Christian: "Who do you think you are? Justice riding in on your high horse?"
Parker: "Yes in fact I AM justice riding in on a noble white stallion"
Christian: "Don't you mean a white pony?"
Okay laugh all you want—they certainly did—but for the record, Christian is only about 1 inch taller than me, and we are all average height or higher anyway…whatever; the others get lots of entertainment from their jokes so I'll let it slide. The night ended quite nicely actually with the French Horn Accordances of Vienna, stating that Virginia is in fact the best state for all institutions of higher education and that FHD is a truly symbolic characteristic of life. Exact terms to follow.
Peace and love from Wien, Parker
Cedric #3: May 30
We had a hard time getting up this morning, but after some pillow smashes the last person (a particular Hokie) got up. We were out of the door by 9:15; very impressive for our group. After yesterday's hour long breakfast fiasco, we decided to make a quick stop at a bakery in the metro station instead. Metro stations in Europe are very fancy. Especially in Berlin and Vienna where there are shops, supermarkets…
Let me go off on a little tangent about supermarkets. At most restaurants in Europe bottled water is usually more expensive that other drinks (including bubble water, of which I'm the only consumer in our group). In addition, sometimes restaurants (Prague, and Vienna so far…) don't have tap water (yea right…) and in Berlin supposedly its rude to ask for tap water. A half liter is anywhere from 3 to 5 euros! Therefore we've developed a system to bypass the money drain. To be polite, we buy the cheapest water and split it, but after the meal we go to the nearest supermarket (usually in a metro station) and each buy all the water we want. A liter and a half can cost about 70 cents! Quite a bargain. Now back to Sunday morning…
After a quick (and in my opinion disappointing) breakfast we were off for a fifteen minute ride (much shorter than Versailles and Potsdam) to Schloß Schonbrunn (or as we know it, Schonbrunn Palace), home of the Habsburgs.
Construction began in 1696. Built to rival Versailes, I must say the Austrians did a good job. Even though the palace is not as large and elaborate (on the outside) and doesn't have such gigantic gardens as Versailles, it definitely has a certain charm. At first I was disgusted by the yellow-orange (or as Sam describes, "a mix between greasy popcorn and unripened orange") of the palace's exterior; however, after the initial shock I slowly began to appreciate its color and even grew to enjoy it. Upon arrival at the palace, we bought a discounted (because we were all 18 and younger) Classic Pass. The first destination would be the palace itself.
The interior was stunning. Unlike Versailles, Schonbrunn was the Imperial family's residence until 1918 (the end of World War I); therefore, the artwork, furniture, and china were much more modern. Maria Theresia, ruler of Austria in the mid 1700s, seemed to have redone much of the palace because her lavish influence was apparent in most of the rooms. According to the audioguide, she was one of Austria's most beloved Empresses. It turns out she was the mother of Marie Antoinette who was guillotined in the French Revolution. A few generations later, Franz Joseph I was a much more simple (yet still elegant) ruler who considered himself a servant to the state. As a group of 5 rings, we admired him the most (of course based off limited information). Ironically, he was Austria's last legit Emperor (he died in 1916, in the middle of World War I. The Habsburgs would lose the throne two years later and Austria would become a Republic).
After finishing the audiotour, our ticket allowed us (unlike some others who were kicked out) to see a ten minute show of how to make Apple Strudel. After tasting a small yet scrumptious sample, we watched with wide eyes as the black-haired cook churned out an apple strudel in lightning speed while cracking many hilarious jokes.
Next, we went to the gardens. First section, the Privy Gardens, a "small" private garden for the Imperial family. It was quite nice, with an overlook with a beautiful view on the side of the Palace. In the middle were orange and lemon trees with some of the biggest lemons I've ever seen!
In the back of the gardens was a maze!! Parker and I loved the maze more than anything else at the palace! At first I thought it would be worthless, but it was pretty legit. Christian was the first to the raised platform in the middle where he mocked us and took sneaky pictures of us finding our way (we just wanted to make sure we saw every corner of that maze because we'd only be there once!) Then while Sam, Christian, and Henry went to frolic in the small kiddy playground, Parker and I completed/sprinted through the two other mazes which included a small mirror maze, bridges, a math riddle (which we really wanted to complete but we didn't have enough time to because the others were waiting…), and twelve foot poles that you need to climb up to ring a bell on top. We had a blast.
By then, a rapidly approaching line of pitch-black clouds was making its way across the horizon towards us. We decided to quickly visit the last part of the gardens, a large fancy what would come to be rain shelter on the top of a large hill (called the Gloriette). Parker and I took "quickly" to heart and jogged up the hill, making it under the shelter with a spectacular view before the pouring rains arrived. Sam, Christian, and Henry were not so fortunate and received a nice shower (luckily they had rain coats) by the time they joined us. After huddling under a ledge, trying to stay dry, the rain abated and we quickly escaped from the Palace grounds back to the metro. Overall, I loved Schloß Schonbrunn.
After a quick stop by the hostel, we had lunch around 1:30 (quite early for us…). We ate at a different bakery with delicious paninis inside a metro station. Very quick, cheap, and satisfying.
By 2 o'clock we were at our next attraction for the day, the modern art museum Albertina. Not being a fan of modern art, I wasn't particularly excited about it but I was pleasantly surprised because there were some interesting and good pieces. I especially enjoyed the Impressionist art. Professor Henry had not studied much of the art, but he did recognize many of the artists. Sam said it was his favorite art museum of the trip so far.
After several hours of walking through never ending galleries, we took the metro to another recommended museum, the Secession. However, after looking at the prices and being honestly weary of art, we decided to skip this one. Instead, we enthusiastically went to the Natural History Museum in the Museum Quarter.
With an hour and a half left before the museum closed, we quickly raced through as much as we could. The first many rooms were dedicated to various rocks, including a 68.86kg (2.7 million dollar) chunk of gold which we wanted to add to our art collection. However, after due consideration, we decided to leave it behind and add its more portable 46.57 kg (1.8 million dollar) neighbor to our collection instead. Needless to say, we enjoyed dinner that evening. We also saw some minerals from Georgia (and as Parker really wants me to add, Texas), USA!
After the rocks, Sam nearly wet his pants when seeing a giant chloroplast model on the ceiling. Parker and I entertained ourselves for several minutes in front of a thermal imaging camera. The next exhibit contained a black box in the middle with security cameras floating around. Anxious to see the prize inside, we rush in and its Henry's turn to jump in excitement: the Fat Goddess!! (or as Henry enlightened us, it is properly called the Venus of Willendorf). Henry enthusiastically educated us about its meaning and origin as we analyzed one of the oldest statuettes in human history.
Next was the Darwin exhibit, with awesome 3D pictures and a section full of skulls of human evolution. It was interesting to see how small the first ones were and how they slowly progressed to the modern human skull.
The last exhibit we were able to see before being kicked out once again from a museum was the stuffed animal section. No, it was not full of teddy bears, but there was a section of monkeys that Parker wanted to join.
At 6:30 we were forced to exit the museum so we turned our focus on the most important aspect of traveling: food. We ate at a nice restaurant not to far away and I got to finally taste wiener schnitzel, a Viennese speciality of breaded veal.
Luckily for us, streetcar number 49 passed a block away from the restaurant and went right next to our hostel. So we got on our first Viennese streetcar and luckily it stopped right in front of an ice cream shop! We got off and each of us bought large, tasty, and surprisingly cheap (for the amount given) ice cream and milkshakes. Paradise.
After dessert, we returned to our hostel for an "early" night. Sam blogged and Henry took a shower while Christian, Parker, and I began an intense game of Risk (the amazing hostel had a shelf full of board games). Midway through the game, Henry came asking for rescue: he had dropped the key to his locker down the drain of the sink! We don't know how, but Henry magically managed to get the key wedged perfectly horizontally three or four inches down. We jumped to the rescue. I rushed to get a paperclip which Christian daring and carefully guided to try and hook the evasive key. Clatter!! The key fell deeper out of sight deep into the murky depths. Uh oh… Henry's heart was about to stop when Parker proposed to dismantle the drain.
Before I continue the story, I would just like to warn parents about some future bills coming in the mail…
We quickly crouched down and unscrewed the drain… and water started spraying everywhere! We jumped back in surprise and before we could do anything, the bathroom was already soaked. Christian put his hand over the pipe to try to stop the gushing water but to no avail; it just sprayed through his hand and he got completely soaked. Not knowing what to do, we rushed out of the bathroom. There was already a crowd of people gathering to watch…
Just kidding. Once the pipe was unscrewed, out came Henry's key. Whew! Sigh of relief. We just screwed the drain back on and all was well.
Nothing much happened after that adrenaline rush. We talked a bit with a couple from Detroit and Ireland, Henry blogged, and the rest of us got ready for bed. Lights out around 12:30, and we dozed off each into our various wonderlands.
Let me go off on a little tangent about supermarkets. At most restaurants in Europe bottled water is usually more expensive that other drinks (including bubble water, of which I'm the only consumer in our group). In addition, sometimes restaurants (Prague, and Vienna so far…) don't have tap water (yea right…) and in Berlin supposedly its rude to ask for tap water. A half liter is anywhere from 3 to 5 euros! Therefore we've developed a system to bypass the money drain. To be polite, we buy the cheapest water and split it, but after the meal we go to the nearest supermarket (usually in a metro station) and each buy all the water we want. A liter and a half can cost about 70 cents! Quite a bargain. Now back to Sunday morning…
After a quick (and in my opinion disappointing) breakfast we were off for a fifteen minute ride (much shorter than Versailles and Potsdam) to Schloß Schonbrunn (or as we know it, Schonbrunn Palace), home of the Habsburgs.
Construction began in 1696. Built to rival Versailes, I must say the Austrians did a good job. Even though the palace is not as large and elaborate (on the outside) and doesn't have such gigantic gardens as Versailles, it definitely has a certain charm. At first I was disgusted by the yellow-orange (or as Sam describes, "a mix between greasy popcorn and unripened orange") of the palace's exterior; however, after the initial shock I slowly began to appreciate its color and even grew to enjoy it. Upon arrival at the palace, we bought a discounted (because we were all 18 and younger) Classic Pass. The first destination would be the palace itself.
The interior was stunning. Unlike Versailles, Schonbrunn was the Imperial family's residence until 1918 (the end of World War I); therefore, the artwork, furniture, and china were much more modern. Maria Theresia, ruler of Austria in the mid 1700s, seemed to have redone much of the palace because her lavish influence was apparent in most of the rooms. According to the audioguide, she was one of Austria's most beloved Empresses. It turns out she was the mother of Marie Antoinette who was guillotined in the French Revolution. A few generations later, Franz Joseph I was a much more simple (yet still elegant) ruler who considered himself a servant to the state. As a group of 5 rings, we admired him the most (of course based off limited information). Ironically, he was Austria's last legit Emperor (he died in 1916, in the middle of World War I. The Habsburgs would lose the throne two years later and Austria would become a Republic).
After finishing the audiotour, our ticket allowed us (unlike some others who were kicked out) to see a ten minute show of how to make Apple Strudel. After tasting a small yet scrumptious sample, we watched with wide eyes as the black-haired cook churned out an apple strudel in lightning speed while cracking many hilarious jokes.
Next, we went to the gardens. First section, the Privy Gardens, a "small" private garden for the Imperial family. It was quite nice, with an overlook with a beautiful view on the side of the Palace. In the middle were orange and lemon trees with some of the biggest lemons I've ever seen!
In the back of the gardens was a maze!! Parker and I loved the maze more than anything else at the palace! At first I thought it would be worthless, but it was pretty legit. Christian was the first to the raised platform in the middle where he mocked us and took sneaky pictures of us finding our way (we just wanted to make sure we saw every corner of that maze because we'd only be there once!) Then while Sam, Christian, and Henry went to frolic in the small kiddy playground, Parker and I completed/sprinted through the two other mazes which included a small mirror maze, bridges, a math riddle (which we really wanted to complete but we didn't have enough time to because the others were waiting…), and twelve foot poles that you need to climb up to ring a bell on top. We had a blast.
By then, a rapidly approaching line of pitch-black clouds was making its way across the horizon towards us. We decided to quickly visit the last part of the gardens, a large fancy what would come to be rain shelter on the top of a large hill (called the Gloriette). Parker and I took "quickly" to heart and jogged up the hill, making it under the shelter with a spectacular view before the pouring rains arrived. Sam, Christian, and Henry were not so fortunate and received a nice shower (luckily they had rain coats) by the time they joined us. After huddling under a ledge, trying to stay dry, the rain abated and we quickly escaped from the Palace grounds back to the metro. Overall, I loved Schloß Schonbrunn.
After a quick stop by the hostel, we had lunch around 1:30 (quite early for us…). We ate at a different bakery with delicious paninis inside a metro station. Very quick, cheap, and satisfying.
By 2 o'clock we were at our next attraction for the day, the modern art museum Albertina. Not being a fan of modern art, I wasn't particularly excited about it but I was pleasantly surprised because there were some interesting and good pieces. I especially enjoyed the Impressionist art. Professor Henry had not studied much of the art, but he did recognize many of the artists. Sam said it was his favorite art museum of the trip so far.
After several hours of walking through never ending galleries, we took the metro to another recommended museum, the Secession. However, after looking at the prices and being honestly weary of art, we decided to skip this one. Instead, we enthusiastically went to the Natural History Museum in the Museum Quarter.
With an hour and a half left before the museum closed, we quickly raced through as much as we could. The first many rooms were dedicated to various rocks, including a 68.86kg (2.7 million dollar) chunk of gold which we wanted to add to our art collection. However, after due consideration, we decided to leave it behind and add its more portable 46.57 kg (1.8 million dollar) neighbor to our collection instead. Needless to say, we enjoyed dinner that evening. We also saw some minerals from Georgia (and as Parker really wants me to add, Texas), USA!
After the rocks, Sam nearly wet his pants when seeing a giant chloroplast model on the ceiling. Parker and I entertained ourselves for several minutes in front of a thermal imaging camera. The next exhibit contained a black box in the middle with security cameras floating around. Anxious to see the prize inside, we rush in and its Henry's turn to jump in excitement: the Fat Goddess!! (or as Henry enlightened us, it is properly called the Venus of Willendorf). Henry enthusiastically educated us about its meaning and origin as we analyzed one of the oldest statuettes in human history.
Next was the Darwin exhibit, with awesome 3D pictures and a section full of skulls of human evolution. It was interesting to see how small the first ones were and how they slowly progressed to the modern human skull.
The last exhibit we were able to see before being kicked out once again from a museum was the stuffed animal section. No, it was not full of teddy bears, but there was a section of monkeys that Parker wanted to join.
At 6:30 we were forced to exit the museum so we turned our focus on the most important aspect of traveling: food. We ate at a nice restaurant not to far away and I got to finally taste wiener schnitzel, a Viennese speciality of breaded veal.
Luckily for us, streetcar number 49 passed a block away from the restaurant and went right next to our hostel. So we got on our first Viennese streetcar and luckily it stopped right in front of an ice cream shop! We got off and each of us bought large, tasty, and surprisingly cheap (for the amount given) ice cream and milkshakes. Paradise.
After dessert, we returned to our hostel for an "early" night. Sam blogged and Henry took a shower while Christian, Parker, and I began an intense game of Risk (the amazing hostel had a shelf full of board games). Midway through the game, Henry came asking for rescue: he had dropped the key to his locker down the drain of the sink! We don't know how, but Henry magically managed to get the key wedged perfectly horizontally three or four inches down. We jumped to the rescue. I rushed to get a paperclip which Christian daring and carefully guided to try and hook the evasive key. Clatter!! The key fell deeper out of sight deep into the murky depths. Uh oh… Henry's heart was about to stop when Parker proposed to dismantle the drain.
Before I continue the story, I would just like to warn parents about some future bills coming in the mail…
We quickly crouched down and unscrewed the drain… and water started spraying everywhere! We jumped back in surprise and before we could do anything, the bathroom was already soaked. Christian put his hand over the pipe to try to stop the gushing water but to no avail; it just sprayed through his hand and he got completely soaked. Not knowing what to do, we rushed out of the bathroom. There was already a crowd of people gathering to watch…
Just kidding. Once the pipe was unscrewed, out came Henry's key. Whew! Sigh of relief. We just screwed the drain back on and all was well.
Nothing much happened after that adrenaline rush. We talked a bit with a couple from Detroit and Ireland, Henry blogged, and the rest of us got ready for bed. Lights out around 12:30, and we dozed off each into our various wonderlands.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Henry #3: May 29
We could not have asked for a better first full day in Vienna. We got up at nine and consulted the front desk of our hostel for some good breakfast restaurants. The lady kindly gave us the name of a place on one of the main streets near the hostel. Unfortunately for us, when we arrived at the supposed address of the restaurant all we saw was a boarded up window, which indicated that the restaurant clearly did not exist. We didn't let this faze us and went directly to a nice looking bakery next door. We sat down at our table and were quickly rushed to order by our incredibly impatient waitress. When Cedric and Christian did not immediately know what they wanted, she stormed off in a hurry to her next table. She did not return for another ten minutes and then finally took their orders. Since Parker, Sam and I ordered earlier, we got our food first and had finished eating entirely by the time Cedric and Christian's food arrived. Frustrated by the impatience of our waitress, we decided not to tip her, which is not unusual in Austria. After we had all finished, Cedric and Christian were still hungry, so they went to another bakery. Cedric bought a Pain au Chocolat and Christian bought a giant loaf of bread that would later be named Carlos. Finally satisfied by our breakfast meals, we made our way to the metro station, only to find that we had left our tickets at the hostel. We ran back to the hostel, got the tickets, and headed straight back to the train station in order to catch our bus tour at noon.
Upon arrival at the bus stop from which our tour would be leaving, we realized that this bus tour was a little bit more upscale than our previous ones. All of the seats had nice leather and we each had our own individual headsets. As we waited for the bus to leave, we listened to Mozart and other pieces performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra over our headsets. There was not a cloud in the sky as our bus left the station, and it was clear that many of us had a new favorite city in Europe - Vienna. Our tour started in the area around the historic center of Vienna, allowing us to see landmarks such as the Albertina Museum, the Secession Building, and the Museum Quarter. After seeing much of historic Vienna, our bus took a twenty minute break at Hundertwasser Village. The village was an apartment complex oriented around souvenir shops and a bar with a stream flowing through it. After looking around for about fifteen minutes in this unique area, we headed back to the bus. Our tour then headed across the vast Danube River, which starts in Germany and ends in the Black Sea, and into the modern center of the city. One of the most dominating landmarks of the horizon is the TV Tower, similar to that of Berlin. However, the unique thing about this tower is the fact that it has a bungee jumping platform for the dare devils who visit the city. After crossing into the modern center, we quickly turned back around and headed back across the river and into the historic sector of town. Our tour bus took us up narrow streets, showing us various well hidden spots for lunch and dinner. After spending some time on this less travelled roads, we made our way back to where we started and completed the tour.
It was about 1:30 when the tour was over and we were all hungry for lunch. having just been informed of some secret restaurants, we decided to eat at a place known for its goulash. Goulash is a beef stew type meal that is recognized as an Austro-Hungarian specialty. Everyone was satisfied with their meals, especially the bread we got on the side. As usual, many of us were not completely full after lunch, so we decided to go to Stephansplatz for some ice cream. We immediately found what we were looking for, as we ate some of the best ice cream I have ever had in my life. The two most popular flavors were chocolate and nougat, both of which were AMAZING. After we finished our ice cream, we decided to head out to Schonbrunn Palace, the home of the Habsburg family. When we got there we went straight to the ticket counter to find out how much longer the museum would be open. Unfortunately, palace was going to close at six, which did not give us nearly enough time to see all that we wanted.
After our failed attempt at seeing the Schonbrunn Palace, we decided to head back to the Museum Quarter to see the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The Kunsthistorisches Museum houses many famous artists' paintings, including the works of Caravaggio, Durer, and Van Eyck to name a few. Luckily for us, admission to the museum was free for students, so we quickly made our way throughout the museum in the remaining hour we had before it closed. It was very exciting for me to see many of the works I had learned about in Art History. One of my favorite paintings that we saw was Breugel's Hunters in the Snow, a painting which records the immense perseverance of the working class during one of the coldest and snowiest winters in European history. Breugel was known for painting works that praised the quiet dignity of the working class, and it was really exciting to see one of his works in person. We continued through the museum, looking through sketches by Durer and paintings by Steen until we were basically asked to leave by the intercom.
We then made our way to the Austrian Parliament Building, a Neoclassical form of architecture constructed to recall the great powers of Democracy used by the Greeks. In front of the building is a large statue of the Greek Goddess Athena, symbolizing victory. As we were sitting in front of the building, Cedric and Christian quickly erupted into an argument over GDP as Sam, Parker, and I chuckled as we listened.
Having had a day full of touring, we decided to head to dinner at another place our hostel had recommended. When we arrived, we realized that the restaurant was far too fancy for our liking, so we decided to go to Galaxie, the same restaurant we had eaten at yesterday for lunch. Our meals were incredible, but as usual, we were still craving more after dinner, so we headed out to the local convenience store to look for some ice cream. After finishing our ice cream, we went back to our hostel to get our laundry that was in desperate need of being washed. We went to a traveller's bar that apparently had a washing machine, but they then redirected us to another hostel that had multiple washers that we could use. We arrived at the other hostel at ten and began our laundry, which would take about two hours. While we were waiting, we blogged and planned out our day for tomorrow. When our laundry was done, we went back to our hostel and slept well, knowing we had clean clothes awaiting us the next morning.
Upon arrival at the bus stop from which our tour would be leaving, we realized that this bus tour was a little bit more upscale than our previous ones. All of the seats had nice leather and we each had our own individual headsets. As we waited for the bus to leave, we listened to Mozart and other pieces performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra over our headsets. There was not a cloud in the sky as our bus left the station, and it was clear that many of us had a new favorite city in Europe - Vienna. Our tour started in the area around the historic center of Vienna, allowing us to see landmarks such as the Albertina Museum, the Secession Building, and the Museum Quarter. After seeing much of historic Vienna, our bus took a twenty minute break at Hundertwasser Village. The village was an apartment complex oriented around souvenir shops and a bar with a stream flowing through it. After looking around for about fifteen minutes in this unique area, we headed back to the bus. Our tour then headed across the vast Danube River, which starts in Germany and ends in the Black Sea, and into the modern center of the city. One of the most dominating landmarks of the horizon is the TV Tower, similar to that of Berlin. However, the unique thing about this tower is the fact that it has a bungee jumping platform for the dare devils who visit the city. After crossing into the modern center, we quickly turned back around and headed back across the river and into the historic sector of town. Our tour bus took us up narrow streets, showing us various well hidden spots for lunch and dinner. After spending some time on this less travelled roads, we made our way back to where we started and completed the tour.
It was about 1:30 when the tour was over and we were all hungry for lunch. having just been informed of some secret restaurants, we decided to eat at a place known for its goulash. Goulash is a beef stew type meal that is recognized as an Austro-Hungarian specialty. Everyone was satisfied with their meals, especially the bread we got on the side. As usual, many of us were not completely full after lunch, so we decided to go to Stephansplatz for some ice cream. We immediately found what we were looking for, as we ate some of the best ice cream I have ever had in my life. The two most popular flavors were chocolate and nougat, both of which were AMAZING. After we finished our ice cream, we decided to head out to Schonbrunn Palace, the home of the Habsburg family. When we got there we went straight to the ticket counter to find out how much longer the museum would be open. Unfortunately, palace was going to close at six, which did not give us nearly enough time to see all that we wanted.
After our failed attempt at seeing the Schonbrunn Palace, we decided to head back to the Museum Quarter to see the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The Kunsthistorisches Museum houses many famous artists' paintings, including the works of Caravaggio, Durer, and Van Eyck to name a few. Luckily for us, admission to the museum was free for students, so we quickly made our way throughout the museum in the remaining hour we had before it closed. It was very exciting for me to see many of the works I had learned about in Art History. One of my favorite paintings that we saw was Breugel's Hunters in the Snow, a painting which records the immense perseverance of the working class during one of the coldest and snowiest winters in European history. Breugel was known for painting works that praised the quiet dignity of the working class, and it was really exciting to see one of his works in person. We continued through the museum, looking through sketches by Durer and paintings by Steen until we were basically asked to leave by the intercom.
We then made our way to the Austrian Parliament Building, a Neoclassical form of architecture constructed to recall the great powers of Democracy used by the Greeks. In front of the building is a large statue of the Greek Goddess Athena, symbolizing victory. As we were sitting in front of the building, Cedric and Christian quickly erupted into an argument over GDP as Sam, Parker, and I chuckled as we listened.
Having had a day full of touring, we decided to head to dinner at another place our hostel had recommended. When we arrived, we realized that the restaurant was far too fancy for our liking, so we decided to go to Galaxie, the same restaurant we had eaten at yesterday for lunch. Our meals were incredible, but as usual, we were still craving more after dinner, so we headed out to the local convenience store to look for some ice cream. After finishing our ice cream, we went back to our hostel to get our laundry that was in desperate need of being washed. We went to a traveller's bar that apparently had a washing machine, but they then redirected us to another hostel that had multiple washers that we could use. We arrived at the other hostel at ten and began our laundry, which would take about two hours. While we were waiting, we blogged and planned out our day for tomorrow. When our laundry was done, we went back to our hostel and slept well, knowing we had clean clothes awaiting us the next morning.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sam #5: May 28
This morning started with my horrendously obnoxious code-red sci-fi phone alarm going off at 6:30am after a late night at the club. It can wake me from the deepest of snoozes, and this morning was no exception. I snapped up and leapt across the bed, through the sheets, past the bridge, over the rainbow, down the yellow brick road, above the rim, and under the sea to reach my phone and turn off the alarm. I was quite alert at this point, but I could feel that I was going to be in that strange state of mind all day where you're tired but a squinty-eyed Clint Eastwood sense of badass keeps you awake. I woke my equally-weary roommate Parker and we got ready for a 7:15 departure to the train station. Parker was quite organized, but my things were spread all over the room as if Jackson Pollock himself had splatter-painted the room with my dirty clothes, my chapstick, and my krona coins. Finally zipping my bag shut was quite the pleasant surprise for the morning.
We metro-surfed our way to the train station, and since we were at least an hour early, we headed first for the bakery/Burger King combo shop and waited in line for croissants. While in line for this traveler's mecca, we spotted the departures board. At the time of manna purchase, our train had not yet been assigned a platform, and thus some of us waited in purgatory, some of us went to find cheap water and snack food, and some went to rid their souls of the ever-scarring Czech krona in exchange for the mighty euro, which breathed a fresh breath of Herman Van Rompuy into our wallets. By the time we had all reunited, the 8:39 to Wien had been assigned to platform 9 3/4, and there we marched with haste.
We found a lovely block of unreserved seats on the train, and we quickly claimed them. The seats were comfortable and elegant, and of course the seatmates were world-class. Once the train was in motion, we knew that we had to write some blogs, and Christian was first in line to write. I knew that he was not super stoked to blog when he went and found a new seat on the other side of the train, but I chased him down and gave him the encouragement that only the blogger-in-chief could give, and in the end he wrote a beautiful blog (as you all have already read). While he was diligently performing the duties of daily scribe, the other 4 of us discussed geography, history, and politics to everyone's delight. However, one of the highlights of the morning was when Bohemian drank lady rolled her snack-filled crunk cart through the aisle with the hippest selection of tea, coffee, and other groovy fare. Shawty copped me an earl grey and a hella dank chocolate croissant for a Flo-Rida low price of 2 euros. The four lazy bum non-scribes continued our small talk of rivers and trains for awhile, and we napped a little bit too. Later in the train ride, we continued historical discussion (largely grounded in Cedric's AP Euro textbook from 10th grade) when to my most delightful surprise, Snack Cart Sister returned for an encore performance, and out of appreciation, loyalty, and sheer awe, I paid up again for another hot tea. It was even more refreshing and pee-inducing than the one before it. Shortly after snacks round 2, the train made a stop at an intermediate station, and a 4-seat table opened up. My eyes like softballs, I levitated across the cabin and put down my jacket, my ipod, my headphones, and my backpack in the 4 different seats in order to ensure our claim over this newfound district. As it is, a table seat is hard to come by, so having all 4 people in the same gang claim all four seats is rarer than hen's teeth.
The rest of our train ride was fantastic, and we arrived in Wien around 1:15, which was about 20 minutes earlier than schedule. I like that. We arrived in a station called Meidling, which isn't that close to our hostel. Truth be told, there is a different station called Westbahnhof (West Train Station in English) that is two blocks from our hostel, but the Prague trains on our pass don't run there. Alas, we were forced to navigate another metro system in order to get to our hostel. I must say that each new one gets easier as we learn the different elements of European light rail. We arrived at the Westbahnhof station, and from there Henry had been given directions to the hostel. All we had to do was walk out of the train station, turn left, and walk two blocks. We walked three blocks, still didn't see the hostel, and decided to consult Sir Charles, my beloved CrackBerry, for wisdom, counsel, and geographic orientation. As it turned out, we had gone out the wrong side of the train station, and we needed to walk back up the hill to the train station, turn left, and then walk two blocks perpendicular to our route. With large suitcases. The prospect of walking uphill for nearly a kilometer vanished all traces of patience, and incidentally we hoofed it up that hill. I swear I was angry enough (not at Henry - we were all frustrated with the whole situation) to bite someone's ear off à la Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
We FINALLY arrived at the hostel and checked in with little hiccup. In fact they were quite nice, offering us free drinks and free wifi. I was in no mood to communicate with the outside world, and we took our bags and headed to the room, which turned out to be down the street another block. The hostel is in a separate building from the hotel, which made for a cozier setting for our room, but to use the internet or talk to the front desk, we had to walk back the block. We got into the room (which is phenomenal) and set up camp there. The sheets they provided were unbelievably comfortable, and by the time we were ready to head out for lunch, it was almost 4:00. We headed over to a hip little spot called Galaxie, which was just down the street with a variety of fare. The fact that they were serving food at 4pm is not common, and we pounced on the opportunity to eat something; anything. Other than a misinterpretation of "rice" and "fries" (they sound very similar), our meal was good. Recharged and reloaded, we headed into the heart of the city (via metro) and elected to wander through a section chock full of interesting-looking buildings.
Our adventures led us to three churches, only one of which was actually a church. We saw Parliament, the Volkspark, the Volksopera, City Hall, and other interesting things. Unfortunately, when I say we "saw" them, I literally mean that we only saw them. Nothing was really open. Evidently, things in Vienna do not stay open as late as things do in Atlanta. At the train station, some lady recommended that we try to take a bus tour of the city to see everything. Well as it turned out, the bus tours were also closed for the evening, so by that point (7:00ish), we elected to scrap all other plans of touring places, and instead our focus turned to dinner. We wandered around Stephensplatz (the city center and giant shopping/dining/clubbing destination) until settling on a Turkish restaurant that was the Turkish equivalent of Houston's. Our service was good and our food was better, so after a long afternoon of frustrating misses, the five of us were all greatly satisfied and relieved at having finally done something right in this new city of Wien.
Upon arrival at the hostel, our next priority was laundry. The clean side of my duffel bag was going the way of the Greek economy (a hot topic in over yonder), while the dirty clothes were growing like Maury Ballstein's prostate gland. Sir Charles helped me find a laundromat nearby, and so we gathered up all of our dirties and set out on the metro once again in search of cars, money, and Tide Color-Safe Bleach. Having been led true once more by Sir Charles, we happened upon a beautiful laundromat, only to find it closed for the weekend. The concept of the late-night laundromat party with the iPod speakers is obviously unheard of in this city. Dejected and odorous like no other, we wandered into a convenience store and bought The Notebook in Turkish and 5 quarts of Ben & Jerry's to nurse our battle scars with. We retreated to the basement lair and struggled to find another dimension in which to flip our underwear and socks, because inside out and inside in had already been used up.
We finished up the day with some blog-writing in the kitchen/lounge outside our room and Cuarenta lessons. For the uninitiated and un-Ecuafied, Cuarenta is a traditional Ecuadorian card game with 40 cards that scores points for various victories until one squad reaches the vaunted cuarenta mark. Christian and I were in the international brotherhood, and tonight we introduced Henry and Parker to the smash hit phenomenon that is single-handedly responsible for every one of Simon Bolivar's conquests of liberation in the 1820's. Most history books write that Bolivar used an army to conquer Spanish forces stationed in Gran Colombia. Not so. In truth, Bolivar and his lifelong Cuarenta partner Karl-os Malone challenged each general (and the partner of his choosing) to a Cuarenta showdown. Between Bolivar's uncanny ability to get rondas and Malone's fierce intimidation skills (later adapted by 21st century professor and expert Nelson Ruiz), they were simply unstoppable. The Spanish, embarrassed by their losses, claimed military losses to the court, and it was never questioned.
History lessons aside, we played a sleepy teaching round, and then Christian and Parker prevailed over me and Henry in a 40-12 blowout. Exhausted, we headed quickly to bed, ready for another day of surprises from the great city of Wien.
Yours Truly,
John Not-ckton
We metro-surfed our way to the train station, and since we were at least an hour early, we headed first for the bakery/Burger King combo shop and waited in line for croissants. While in line for this traveler's mecca, we spotted the departures board. At the time of manna purchase, our train had not yet been assigned a platform, and thus some of us waited in purgatory, some of us went to find cheap water and snack food, and some went to rid their souls of the ever-scarring Czech krona in exchange for the mighty euro, which breathed a fresh breath of Herman Van Rompuy into our wallets. By the time we had all reunited, the 8:39 to Wien had been assigned to platform 9 3/4, and there we marched with haste.
We found a lovely block of unreserved seats on the train, and we quickly claimed them. The seats were comfortable and elegant, and of course the seatmates were world-class. Once the train was in motion, we knew that we had to write some blogs, and Christian was first in line to write. I knew that he was not super stoked to blog when he went and found a new seat on the other side of the train, but I chased him down and gave him the encouragement that only the blogger-in-chief could give, and in the end he wrote a beautiful blog (as you all have already read). While he was diligently performing the duties of daily scribe, the other 4 of us discussed geography, history, and politics to everyone's delight. However, one of the highlights of the morning was when Bohemian drank lady rolled her snack-filled crunk cart through the aisle with the hippest selection of tea, coffee, and other groovy fare. Shawty copped me an earl grey and a hella dank chocolate croissant for a Flo-Rida low price of 2 euros. The four lazy bum non-scribes continued our small talk of rivers and trains for awhile, and we napped a little bit too. Later in the train ride, we continued historical discussion (largely grounded in Cedric's AP Euro textbook from 10th grade) when to my most delightful surprise, Snack Cart Sister returned for an encore performance, and out of appreciation, loyalty, and sheer awe, I paid up again for another hot tea. It was even more refreshing and pee-inducing than the one before it. Shortly after snacks round 2, the train made a stop at an intermediate station, and a 4-seat table opened up. My eyes like softballs, I levitated across the cabin and put down my jacket, my ipod, my headphones, and my backpack in the 4 different seats in order to ensure our claim over this newfound district. As it is, a table seat is hard to come by, so having all 4 people in the same gang claim all four seats is rarer than hen's teeth.
The rest of our train ride was fantastic, and we arrived in Wien around 1:15, which was about 20 minutes earlier than schedule. I like that. We arrived in a station called Meidling, which isn't that close to our hostel. Truth be told, there is a different station called Westbahnhof (West Train Station in English) that is two blocks from our hostel, but the Prague trains on our pass don't run there. Alas, we were forced to navigate another metro system in order to get to our hostel. I must say that each new one gets easier as we learn the different elements of European light rail. We arrived at the Westbahnhof station, and from there Henry had been given directions to the hostel. All we had to do was walk out of the train station, turn left, and walk two blocks. We walked three blocks, still didn't see the hostel, and decided to consult Sir Charles, my beloved CrackBerry, for wisdom, counsel, and geographic orientation. As it turned out, we had gone out the wrong side of the train station, and we needed to walk back up the hill to the train station, turn left, and then walk two blocks perpendicular to our route. With large suitcases. The prospect of walking uphill for nearly a kilometer vanished all traces of patience, and incidentally we hoofed it up that hill. I swear I was angry enough (not at Henry - we were all frustrated with the whole situation) to bite someone's ear off à la Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
We FINALLY arrived at the hostel and checked in with little hiccup. In fact they were quite nice, offering us free drinks and free wifi. I was in no mood to communicate with the outside world, and we took our bags and headed to the room, which turned out to be down the street another block. The hostel is in a separate building from the hotel, which made for a cozier setting for our room, but to use the internet or talk to the front desk, we had to walk back the block. We got into the room (which is phenomenal) and set up camp there. The sheets they provided were unbelievably comfortable, and by the time we were ready to head out for lunch, it was almost 4:00. We headed over to a hip little spot called Galaxie, which was just down the street with a variety of fare. The fact that they were serving food at 4pm is not common, and we pounced on the opportunity to eat something; anything. Other than a misinterpretation of "rice" and "fries" (they sound very similar), our meal was good. Recharged and reloaded, we headed into the heart of the city (via metro) and elected to wander through a section chock full of interesting-looking buildings.
Our adventures led us to three churches, only one of which was actually a church. We saw Parliament, the Volkspark, the Volksopera, City Hall, and other interesting things. Unfortunately, when I say we "saw" them, I literally mean that we only saw them. Nothing was really open. Evidently, things in Vienna do not stay open as late as things do in Atlanta. At the train station, some lady recommended that we try to take a bus tour of the city to see everything. Well as it turned out, the bus tours were also closed for the evening, so by that point (7:00ish), we elected to scrap all other plans of touring places, and instead our focus turned to dinner. We wandered around Stephensplatz (the city center and giant shopping/dining/clubbing destination) until settling on a Turkish restaurant that was the Turkish equivalent of Houston's. Our service was good and our food was better, so after a long afternoon of frustrating misses, the five of us were all greatly satisfied and relieved at having finally done something right in this new city of Wien.
Upon arrival at the hostel, our next priority was laundry. The clean side of my duffel bag was going the way of the Greek economy (a hot topic in over yonder), while the dirty clothes were growing like Maury Ballstein's prostate gland. Sir Charles helped me find a laundromat nearby, and so we gathered up all of our dirties and set out on the metro once again in search of cars, money, and Tide Color-Safe Bleach. Having been led true once more by Sir Charles, we happened upon a beautiful laundromat, only to find it closed for the weekend. The concept of the late-night laundromat party with the iPod speakers is obviously unheard of in this city. Dejected and odorous like no other, we wandered into a convenience store and bought The Notebook in Turkish and 5 quarts of Ben & Jerry's to nurse our battle scars with. We retreated to the basement lair and struggled to find another dimension in which to flip our underwear and socks, because inside out and inside in had already been used up.
We finished up the day with some blog-writing in the kitchen/lounge outside our room and Cuarenta lessons. For the uninitiated and un-Ecuafied, Cuarenta is a traditional Ecuadorian card game with 40 cards that scores points for various victories until one squad reaches the vaunted cuarenta mark. Christian and I were in the international brotherhood, and tonight we introduced Henry and Parker to the smash hit phenomenon that is single-handedly responsible for every one of Simon Bolivar's conquests of liberation in the 1820's. Most history books write that Bolivar used an army to conquer Spanish forces stationed in Gran Colombia. Not so. In truth, Bolivar and his lifelong Cuarenta partner Karl-os Malone challenged each general (and the partner of his choosing) to a Cuarenta showdown. Between Bolivar's uncanny ability to get rondas and Malone's fierce intimidation skills (later adapted by 21st century professor and expert Nelson Ruiz), they were simply unstoppable. The Spanish, embarrassed by their losses, claimed military losses to the court, and it was never questioned.
History lessons aside, we played a sleepy teaching round, and then Christian and Parker prevailed over me and Henry in a 40-12 blowout. Exhausted, we headed quickly to bed, ready for another day of surprises from the great city of Wien.
Yours Truly,
John Not-ckton
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Parker #3: May 27
May 27th is a day that will go down in history. We were super busy all day and have soooo many great stories to share, so here is my advice: Don't be debbie downer, read this ENTIRE blog because it is way more than worth it. Promise, cross my heart, pinky swear etc. First though, I must share a true and terrifying story of Praha's history.
Although not common in North America, there is in fact a rare species of dragon that is native to the mountains in and around Praha. These dragons are almost entirely extinct (there is only one known right now) but trust me his presence in Praha does not go unnoticed. You see, the dragon is the reason that all ATMs in Praha insist on giving us our money in denominations of thousands (or stacks for those of you in the A). Let me explain. As I'm sure you already know from reading our blogs, kronas (1 USD= 20.9 kronas) are the Czech currency and the bane of my existence. They are a pain to deal with but honestly wouldn't be so bad if we had krona coins to use. Whether it is some sick ongoing joke, or the dragon just has an obsession with shiny things is irrelevant, but the truth of the matter is that he has taken 96.58% of Praha's coins to the hoard in his 3-million-dollar villa just outside the city. All of this lands me attempting to buy 20 krona sodas with 2000 krona bills. Really?!?! Not funny dragon. Not funny.
As usual, I was (to my grudging appreciation) awakened today by Cédric and pushed out the door so that our day would start at a reasonable hour. We hiked maybe a mile in a half from our hostel to breakfast near the Praha castle. It was AWESOME! Fantastic bagels and service and if you ever go to Praha, ask us because this place is totally great. But enough about food. (haha yeah right. Food is pretty much a 24 hour obsession for us but I'll try to spare too many details).
After breakfast we went the rest of the way up the massive hill (located across Charles Bridge and on the other side of the Vltava River) to Praha castle. Praha Castle was awesome and I have many more details following, though to preface these I have to say that it is not really a castle; at least not anymore. Praha castle was really a village with massive fortifications and the Palace and Cathedral inside. Anyway, in order to enter the Castle grounds we needed to buy tickets. Being cheap, we all got the lowest ticket and opted to skip on the audio-guides; all of us except Sam that is. Poor, poor Sam was suckered into buying the 500 krona guide and in addition (because he forgot his student ID) a 375 ticket. So pretty much 875 kronas compared to our 175. Sam was fine with this though because he was proud of his choice to get an audio-guide. They had told him that there were no English signs in the castle, it was a pass to the front of lines, and that he could keep it until six. Haha not really; basically this was one giant scam and Sam fell for it 100%! His speaker didn't really work, it did not get him to the front of a single line, almost every single sign in the castle was in English, and they automatically "upgraded" his rental from 2hrs to all day for a difference of only 300 kronas. What a deal! (yes, that is most definitely sarcasm).
The Castle was awesome however and made all the hassle worth it. We started with Powder tower, a museum of the Czech army's uniforms and weapons. Next was the Convent of St. George, an art museum, though in our opinions not as good as the many others we've seen so far. Then we toured the Basilica of St. George (a "small" church aside from the main cathedral) and a tiny part of the Palace. Neither of which, as Mr. Buczek might say, blew anyone's skirt up. I'm not saying it was bad, because it was really pretty cool, it's just…well….don't expect all churches in Europe to match up to Notre Dame. We next headed over to the Cathedral (probably my favorite part of the Castle) and enjoyed more beautiful stained glass and architecture. Finally, (ha not done with Praha castle yet this is just the last stop before a really, really late lunch) we went through a museum for the history of Praha Castle. I think we all loved this (especially Cédric) and our favorites were the many scale models of the castle and its surroundings.
For lunch we went back into town a little and had a decent low-key-kinda meal. I had some rock'n goulash which is a traditional Hungarian dish. (yes I am aware that Praha aka Prague is not in Hungary but it was tasty okay!)
After lunch we returned to finish the remaining parts of the Castle; there is a LOT to do at Praha Castle. We first went to the Crown Jewels of Bohemia exhibit, but the jewels were not at all the coolest part. Not even the AMAZING i mean truly SPECTACULAR view over Praha was the best part. By surprise we stumbled upon THE Window of the Defenestration of Prague!!!!!!!! For those of you who don't know here's a short history lesson… which Cédric enthusiastically shared…the Defenestration of Prague was the act of angry protestant rioters throwing catholic diplomats out the window of a castle tower sparking the Thirty Years War. Ouch! Since I've now seen the exact window myself I can honestly say it is quite a fall, though the men did survive because they apparently fell in some fortunately placed horse poop (or hay; historians aren't sure but I know which one I'd rather fall in). After spending the better part of our day at Praha Castle we finally enjoyed one last view over the city and took the old castle stairs down to the river.
Once at the bottom of the hill/mountain we took a metro over to the Jewish Quarter which honestly wasn't anything too special. Next we walked a couple of blocks over to old Praha square to see another cathedral and the famous astrological clock. The clock was just as beautiful as in pictures and really quite a marvel. It is basically an iClock several hundred years ahead of its time because it tells you the time (no way), date, month, saints day, moon and sun's positions, and which sign of the Zodiac we're in. We enjoyed a quick ice cream break from a convenience store and were serenaded by an amazing trumpet player in a medieval fashion from the top of the clock tower. We then went by the hostel to drop off our pillaged goods (not really but who doesn't love pirates) from the store. On the way we got to walk through the New Town square were we saw a few minutes of a really cool concert that was apparently set up and sponsored by the city. Upon our quick return from the hostel to the main part of downtown we found a pizza spot and had the best pizza in all of the Czech Republic!
After our fairly early dinner we went back to our hostel (or as we called it, the palace) to rest and prepare for our exciting plans for the night. (just wait and keep reading). We entertained ourselves by listening to music on my ipod speakers and writing the Bernelle's postcard. Sam also made a facebook video to cheer up his sis, Hannah, who had just gotten her wisdom teeth out. Told yeah, we just rested for maybe an hour but after that Sam, I, Henry and Cédric left for THE Club.
First, for all the concerned parents and/or friends/family at home, let me say that our "discotequing" (thats the cool european word for clubbing) was just an adventure in the GREAT sport of people watching. Remember parents that you trusted us to go to Europe for three weeks so believe me when I say that spectating was all the fun we needed in this amazing five-story, music-pounding, and laser-light-filled mega-club. (I believe the biggest in Central Europe). Our first experience in clubbing was of course being patted down and inspected by the club's two bouncers. We all made it in after a short fiasco in which we forced Henry to relinquish his Glock 18, hunting knife and Uzis, but thats another story. Next we crossed through the threshold and into the unknown…
On the first floor we passed an enormous but vacant bar (in was only 11:30 and the club is open until 5) and found a dance floor in the back. We observed from above several girls dancing and of course the proverbial sketchy old guy dancing by himself but clearly hoping to make his way into the young women's good graces. Nothing more was good there so we headed to the next floor which was even less busy although still really, really cool. The third floor was the more of same but the forth or black-light floor was where the party was at. After finding the perfect couches to people-watch from we settled in and began our studies. Basically there were lots of hilarious people dancing (or trying to dance which made me feel better about few dancing skills) so i'll give you some highlights from the night. 1.) Everyone was dressy-casual as in jeans and a nice shirt and maybe a few dresses except for one dude. This guy wore the head of a horse costume around the entire time and it was simply spectacularly funny to watch. 2.) UGA Housing called Sam and he didn't know who it was so he answered, freaked out and promptly hung-up. Don't worry, we figured out it was a recorded message. 3.) Next it must be noted that everyone was between the age of about 16 to 25, except for the super sketchy man and two others: The random 50 year old couple who decided to hang out at the discotheque…um okay… 4.) At about 12:10 a random girl rushed into the club and mad a beeline for our dear friend Cédric. I think we were all confused and secretly hoping she was gonna ask him to dance but instead she glared at him and said in (most likely) Italian "cigaretto?" With nothing to do but shrug and say no we sent her on her way to ask the next person. By the way that was one tremendous downside to the club: almost everyone was smoking and only the lively atmosphere pulled us through. My last highlight is the guy with the peacock hairdo. We tried to get a picture of it for you but it was basically a circular mohawk on the back of his head (which was died pink) and I'm sure he is somehow related to a peacock because it was that impressive. All in all the 5-story club was amazing and so much fun because it was soooooo funny to watch everyone interacting (or failing to). There were lots of crazy people and dancing and we made up all kinds of fun guessing games as to who was thinking what but simply observing was the best part. I think it's really an in person kind of experience but hopefully these stories can give you an idea of just how hilarious and fun our night at the club was. Thats it for Praha, tomorrow we're getting up early (sleeping/blogging lots on the 5hr train ride) and heading to Wien (Vienna)!
Although not common in North America, there is in fact a rare species of dragon that is native to the mountains in and around Praha. These dragons are almost entirely extinct (there is only one known right now) but trust me his presence in Praha does not go unnoticed. You see, the dragon is the reason that all ATMs in Praha insist on giving us our money in denominations of thousands (or stacks for those of you in the A). Let me explain. As I'm sure you already know from reading our blogs, kronas (1 USD= 20.9 kronas) are the Czech currency and the bane of my existence. They are a pain to deal with but honestly wouldn't be so bad if we had krona coins to use. Whether it is some sick ongoing joke, or the dragon just has an obsession with shiny things is irrelevant, but the truth of the matter is that he has taken 96.58% of Praha's coins to the hoard in his 3-million-dollar villa just outside the city. All of this lands me attempting to buy 20 krona sodas with 2000 krona bills. Really?!?! Not funny dragon. Not funny.
As usual, I was (to my grudging appreciation) awakened today by Cédric and pushed out the door so that our day would start at a reasonable hour. We hiked maybe a mile in a half from our hostel to breakfast near the Praha castle. It was AWESOME! Fantastic bagels and service and if you ever go to Praha, ask us because this place is totally great. But enough about food. (haha yeah right. Food is pretty much a 24 hour obsession for us but I'll try to spare too many details).
After breakfast we went the rest of the way up the massive hill (located across Charles Bridge and on the other side of the Vltava River) to Praha castle. Praha Castle was awesome and I have many more details following, though to preface these I have to say that it is not really a castle; at least not anymore. Praha castle was really a village with massive fortifications and the Palace and Cathedral inside. Anyway, in order to enter the Castle grounds we needed to buy tickets. Being cheap, we all got the lowest ticket and opted to skip on the audio-guides; all of us except Sam that is. Poor, poor Sam was suckered into buying the 500 krona guide and in addition (because he forgot his student ID) a 375 ticket. So pretty much 875 kronas compared to our 175. Sam was fine with this though because he was proud of his choice to get an audio-guide. They had told him that there were no English signs in the castle, it was a pass to the front of lines, and that he could keep it until six. Haha not really; basically this was one giant scam and Sam fell for it 100%! His speaker didn't really work, it did not get him to the front of a single line, almost every single sign in the castle was in English, and they automatically "upgraded" his rental from 2hrs to all day for a difference of only 300 kronas. What a deal! (yes, that is most definitely sarcasm).
The Castle was awesome however and made all the hassle worth it. We started with Powder tower, a museum of the Czech army's uniforms and weapons. Next was the Convent of St. George, an art museum, though in our opinions not as good as the many others we've seen so far. Then we toured the Basilica of St. George (a "small" church aside from the main cathedral) and a tiny part of the Palace. Neither of which, as Mr. Buczek might say, blew anyone's skirt up. I'm not saying it was bad, because it was really pretty cool, it's just…well….don't expect all churches in Europe to match up to Notre Dame. We next headed over to the Cathedral (probably my favorite part of the Castle) and enjoyed more beautiful stained glass and architecture. Finally, (ha not done with Praha castle yet this is just the last stop before a really, really late lunch) we went through a museum for the history of Praha Castle. I think we all loved this (especially Cédric) and our favorites were the many scale models of the castle and its surroundings.
For lunch we went back into town a little and had a decent low-key-kinda meal. I had some rock'n goulash which is a traditional Hungarian dish. (yes I am aware that Praha aka Prague is not in Hungary but it was tasty okay!)
After lunch we returned to finish the remaining parts of the Castle; there is a LOT to do at Praha Castle. We first went to the Crown Jewels of Bohemia exhibit, but the jewels were not at all the coolest part. Not even the AMAZING i mean truly SPECTACULAR view over Praha was the best part. By surprise we stumbled upon THE Window of the Defenestration of Prague!!!!!!!! For those of you who don't know here's a short history lesson… which Cédric enthusiastically shared…the Defenestration of Prague was the act of angry protestant rioters throwing catholic diplomats out the window of a castle tower sparking the Thirty Years War. Ouch! Since I've now seen the exact window myself I can honestly say it is quite a fall, though the men did survive because they apparently fell in some fortunately placed horse poop (or hay; historians aren't sure but I know which one I'd rather fall in). After spending the better part of our day at Praha Castle we finally enjoyed one last view over the city and took the old castle stairs down to the river.
Once at the bottom of the hill/mountain we took a metro over to the Jewish Quarter which honestly wasn't anything too special. Next we walked a couple of blocks over to old Praha square to see another cathedral and the famous astrological clock. The clock was just as beautiful as in pictures and really quite a marvel. It is basically an iClock several hundred years ahead of its time because it tells you the time (no way), date, month, saints day, moon and sun's positions, and which sign of the Zodiac we're in. We enjoyed a quick ice cream break from a convenience store and were serenaded by an amazing trumpet player in a medieval fashion from the top of the clock tower. We then went by the hostel to drop off our pillaged goods (not really but who doesn't love pirates) from the store. On the way we got to walk through the New Town square were we saw a few minutes of a really cool concert that was apparently set up and sponsored by the city. Upon our quick return from the hostel to the main part of downtown we found a pizza spot and had the best pizza in all of the Czech Republic!
After our fairly early dinner we went back to our hostel (or as we called it, the palace) to rest and prepare for our exciting plans for the night. (just wait and keep reading). We entertained ourselves by listening to music on my ipod speakers and writing the Bernelle's postcard. Sam also made a facebook video to cheer up his sis, Hannah, who had just gotten her wisdom teeth out. Told yeah, we just rested for maybe an hour but after that Sam, I, Henry and Cédric left for THE Club.
First, for all the concerned parents and/or friends/family at home, let me say that our "discotequing" (thats the cool european word for clubbing) was just an adventure in the GREAT sport of people watching. Remember parents that you trusted us to go to Europe for three weeks so believe me when I say that spectating was all the fun we needed in this amazing five-story, music-pounding, and laser-light-filled mega-club. (I believe the biggest in Central Europe). Our first experience in clubbing was of course being patted down and inspected by the club's two bouncers. We all made it in after a short fiasco in which we forced Henry to relinquish his Glock 18, hunting knife and Uzis, but thats another story. Next we crossed through the threshold and into the unknown…
On the first floor we passed an enormous but vacant bar (in was only 11:30 and the club is open until 5) and found a dance floor in the back. We observed from above several girls dancing and of course the proverbial sketchy old guy dancing by himself but clearly hoping to make his way into the young women's good graces. Nothing more was good there so we headed to the next floor which was even less busy although still really, really cool. The third floor was the more of same but the forth or black-light floor was where the party was at. After finding the perfect couches to people-watch from we settled in and began our studies. Basically there were lots of hilarious people dancing (or trying to dance which made me feel better about few dancing skills) so i'll give you some highlights from the night. 1.) Everyone was dressy-casual as in jeans and a nice shirt and maybe a few dresses except for one dude. This guy wore the head of a horse costume around the entire time and it was simply spectacularly funny to watch. 2.) UGA Housing called Sam and he didn't know who it was so he answered, freaked out and promptly hung-up. Don't worry, we figured out it was a recorded message. 3.) Next it must be noted that everyone was between the age of about 16 to 25, except for the super sketchy man and two others: The random 50 year old couple who decided to hang out at the discotheque…um okay… 4.) At about 12:10 a random girl rushed into the club and mad a beeline for our dear friend Cédric. I think we were all confused and secretly hoping she was gonna ask him to dance but instead she glared at him and said in (most likely) Italian "cigaretto?" With nothing to do but shrug and say no we sent her on her way to ask the next person. By the way that was one tremendous downside to the club: almost everyone was smoking and only the lively atmosphere pulled us through. My last highlight is the guy with the peacock hairdo. We tried to get a picture of it for you but it was basically a circular mohawk on the back of his head (which was died pink) and I'm sure he is somehow related to a peacock because it was that impressive. All in all the 5-story club was amazing and so much fun because it was soooooo funny to watch everyone interacting (or failing to). There were lots of crazy people and dancing and we made up all kinds of fun guessing games as to who was thinking what but simply observing was the best part. I think it's really an in person kind of experience but hopefully these stories can give you an idea of just how hilarious and fun our night at the club was. Thats it for Praha, tomorrow we're getting up early (sleeping/blogging lots on the 5hr train ride) and heading to Wien (Vienna)!
Cedric #2: May 26
We needed to catch an early train (departure at 8:36) to make our way to our next destination of our journey: Prague. We decided that we wanted to get to the train station at least 30 min early in case of problems, and that worked perfectly. Everyone was up, showered, and ready to leave by 7:30 and we were out the door to a quick breakfast at a nearby bakery before taking the U and S bahn to the main train station of Berlin: Hbf. Luckily, after a small debate, we decided to buy the metro tickets for 2 euros. The debate sparked because in Berlin, you can just walk onto all public transportation without anyone or anything checking your ticket. Instead, the Germans will have random ticket checkers on the trains and ask for tickets. In our previous few days in Berlin we had not seen one ticket checker so some of us thought we should just wing it that morning because we were only on the metro for 3 stops. Nonetheless, the prevalent idea was to be safer than sorry so we bought the tickets. Right after leaving the metro station two men disguised in civilian clothes pulled out ID's and asked random people for their tickets. We were not asked for our tickets (because they started further down in the train and went in the opposite direction) but there was still that feeling of relief that we could have shown our tickets.
We arrived at the platform (it was deserted) by 8:00 so we sat and waited for the train. People slowly trickled in until by 8:36, when the train arrived, there was a whole crowd of eager passengers waiting to charge onto the train and claim seats (for it was a first on first serve basis). Luckily, a door on the train stopped precisely in front of us and we got good seats together. Ten minutes later the train started moving; good bye Berlin!
The train ride was 6 hours of Saxon and Bohemian scenery: very beautiful. For the first hour or so the land was mostly flat farm land which slowly gave way to Eastern European forests of lush green trees and pines. Then, after stopping in Dresden, Germany for five minutes, we followed the Elbe river and a tributary (the Vltava) all the way to Prague. The border of the Czech Republic was quite hilly, with small cliffs on either side. Henry said the scenery looked very similar to driving through New Hampshire.
On the train, we tried to catch up on blogging which had been building up over the last few days. The problem was we arrived at the hostel fairly late every night and after walking all day we were quite tired. Also, some of us (no names…) kept putting back their blogs which backlogged the others. Nonetheless, everything worked out and three blogs were typed that day (though not all were posted for we wanted to post them in order). I caught up on Czech history to prepare for our next day and a half of touring. Czech history is very fascinating. Here is a quick summary of its highlights. It was a very important city in the Holy Roman Empire; with influential Kings from around the 10th to 15th century (when it fell under rule of the Austrian Habsburgs). It was also where the 30 Years War broke out in 1618 with the Defenestration of Prague (when the Protestant Czechs threw some Catholic diplomats out of a 70 foot high window). The Czechs lost early in the war and remained under the Austrian rule until the end of World War I. Unluckily for them, they were once again taken by the Nazis before WWII officially started. Then they ended up behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. In 1968 Czech students revolted (but were crushed) in what became known as Prague Spring (that was where the yellow smiley faces comes from).
Around 13:30 we arrived in Prague, which is a fairly small city. We jumped off the train desperate for food. But first we had to get the metro tickets and get our first kronors, which would turned out to be such a pain!! 20 kronors (or krona in English, we think) equals about 1 dollar. The machine was awful, when we asked for 2000 kronas we got one 2000-krona bill! And for some reason the machine didn't like numbers that were not divisible by 1000, so no matter what we received large bills.
So after getting some dough, we walked out of the station and tried to find a restaurant. Finally, after walking for what felt like ages (but was probably only 5 minutes) we stopped at the first place we saw that served food: what a mistake. It was a Czech "café" that had three food items on its menu: a cheese sandwich, a ham and cheese sandwich, and a slice of what turned out to be terrible pizza. The only positive aspect of the place was that it was cheap.
So after suffering through an interesting meal (we vowed to be more careful next time, even if we were desperate) we left to find the hostel and drop our luggage. We took the metro (which only has three lines compared to like twenty or more for Paris and Berlin) which was at least 100 feet underground. There was a super long, steep, and very fast escalator down to the metro, which turned out to accelerate very suddenly, causing some of us to lose our balance (but no wipe outs!). After three stops we were off the metro into the side streets of Prague. We really liked everything that we had seen up to that point. The buildings were very pretty and colorful and there were plenty of Medieval towers around.
The hostel turned out to be AMAZING! Even better than the Paris one in my opinion. We had two rooms (one with four singles and one with a queen sized ben), a small kitchen with a fridge and microwave, and a private bathroom. The only minus was the the floors were a little dirty and dusty. We set our stuff down and, around four o'clock, took out a map to pick our first destination: Charles Bridge. The bridge turned out to be only a ten minute walk away. Before crossing the bridge, we peaked in the bridge's museum and decided it wasn't worth the kronas. After a twenty minute walk through the free part of the museum, we crossed the bridge. It was beautiful and looked very medieval, with statues of old Kings in armor with many coat of arms and other statues with religious themes. This was very different from Paris where most of the architecture was from after the Renaissance. Across the river was a huge hill with Prague Castle on top. Prague Castle doesn't really look much like a castle anymore. Instead its a complex of tall buildings and palaces with a huge cathedral inside. After crossing the bridge and going under an awesome gate, we started walking up the big hill towards the castle. Once on the top, we looked down upon the city. What a wonderful view.
After admiring the view for a few minutes, we walked back down and crossed the bridge to a local Czech restaurant we had passed by earlier. The restaurant was on a floating platform on a small side river/canal, and it was delicious. We each tried a different local plate and tasted each other's foods, including potato pancakes, bread dumplings, various meat dishes, and melted Bohemian cheese (as a shared appetizer) which did not last long in front of us five guys. After stuffing our faces with delicious Czech food, we once again faced the challenges of Czech money. Paying for the bill that night turned out to be quite a challenge since we each had large bills and very few coins. So we finally devised a system using Sam's blackberry to record each other's loans.
During dinner it started raining so once we had paid we returned to the hostel to catch up on rest after many days of intense touring. But before that, we had to stop by the supermarket to get water and ICE CREAM! However, the guy at the counter was a complete jerk. He demanded the exact price in coins, which we couldn't give him because we didn't have any. So after much muttering and angry waves he finally caved in and accepted our 50 and 100 krona bills (about $2.5 and $5)! Well, at least the ice cream was tasty. So we returned to the hostel, wrote postcards, took showers, watched a bit of Czech TV, blogged, and went to bed early to prepare to tomorrow's early awaking and late night…
Another long, eventful, and fun day over. Good night!
We arrived at the platform (it was deserted) by 8:00 so we sat and waited for the train. People slowly trickled in until by 8:36, when the train arrived, there was a whole crowd of eager passengers waiting to charge onto the train and claim seats (for it was a first on first serve basis). Luckily, a door on the train stopped precisely in front of us and we got good seats together. Ten minutes later the train started moving; good bye Berlin!
The train ride was 6 hours of Saxon and Bohemian scenery: very beautiful. For the first hour or so the land was mostly flat farm land which slowly gave way to Eastern European forests of lush green trees and pines. Then, after stopping in Dresden, Germany for five minutes, we followed the Elbe river and a tributary (the Vltava) all the way to Prague. The border of the Czech Republic was quite hilly, with small cliffs on either side. Henry said the scenery looked very similar to driving through New Hampshire.
On the train, we tried to catch up on blogging which had been building up over the last few days. The problem was we arrived at the hostel fairly late every night and after walking all day we were quite tired. Also, some of us (no names…) kept putting back their blogs which backlogged the others. Nonetheless, everything worked out and three blogs were typed that day (though not all were posted for we wanted to post them in order). I caught up on Czech history to prepare for our next day and a half of touring. Czech history is very fascinating. Here is a quick summary of its highlights. It was a very important city in the Holy Roman Empire; with influential Kings from around the 10th to 15th century (when it fell under rule of the Austrian Habsburgs). It was also where the 30 Years War broke out in 1618 with the Defenestration of Prague (when the Protestant Czechs threw some Catholic diplomats out of a 70 foot high window). The Czechs lost early in the war and remained under the Austrian rule until the end of World War I. Unluckily for them, they were once again taken by the Nazis before WWII officially started. Then they ended up behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. In 1968 Czech students revolted (but were crushed) in what became known as Prague Spring (that was where the yellow smiley faces comes from).
Around 13:30 we arrived in Prague, which is a fairly small city. We jumped off the train desperate for food. But first we had to get the metro tickets and get our first kronors, which would turned out to be such a pain!! 20 kronors (or krona in English, we think) equals about 1 dollar. The machine was awful, when we asked for 2000 kronas we got one 2000-krona bill! And for some reason the machine didn't like numbers that were not divisible by 1000, so no matter what we received large bills.
So after getting some dough, we walked out of the station and tried to find a restaurant. Finally, after walking for what felt like ages (but was probably only 5 minutes) we stopped at the first place we saw that served food: what a mistake. It was a Czech "café" that had three food items on its menu: a cheese sandwich, a ham and cheese sandwich, and a slice of what turned out to be terrible pizza. The only positive aspect of the place was that it was cheap.
So after suffering through an interesting meal (we vowed to be more careful next time, even if we were desperate) we left to find the hostel and drop our luggage. We took the metro (which only has three lines compared to like twenty or more for Paris and Berlin) which was at least 100 feet underground. There was a super long, steep, and very fast escalator down to the metro, which turned out to accelerate very suddenly, causing some of us to lose our balance (but no wipe outs!). After three stops we were off the metro into the side streets of Prague. We really liked everything that we had seen up to that point. The buildings were very pretty and colorful and there were plenty of Medieval towers around.
The hostel turned out to be AMAZING! Even better than the Paris one in my opinion. We had two rooms (one with four singles and one with a queen sized ben), a small kitchen with a fridge and microwave, and a private bathroom. The only minus was the the floors were a little dirty and dusty. We set our stuff down and, around four o'clock, took out a map to pick our first destination: Charles Bridge. The bridge turned out to be only a ten minute walk away. Before crossing the bridge, we peaked in the bridge's museum and decided it wasn't worth the kronas. After a twenty minute walk through the free part of the museum, we crossed the bridge. It was beautiful and looked very medieval, with statues of old Kings in armor with many coat of arms and other statues with religious themes. This was very different from Paris where most of the architecture was from after the Renaissance. Across the river was a huge hill with Prague Castle on top. Prague Castle doesn't really look much like a castle anymore. Instead its a complex of tall buildings and palaces with a huge cathedral inside. After crossing the bridge and going under an awesome gate, we started walking up the big hill towards the castle. Once on the top, we looked down upon the city. What a wonderful view.
After admiring the view for a few minutes, we walked back down and crossed the bridge to a local Czech restaurant we had passed by earlier. The restaurant was on a floating platform on a small side river/canal, and it was delicious. We each tried a different local plate and tasted each other's foods, including potato pancakes, bread dumplings, various meat dishes, and melted Bohemian cheese (as a shared appetizer) which did not last long in front of us five guys. After stuffing our faces with delicious Czech food, we once again faced the challenges of Czech money. Paying for the bill that night turned out to be quite a challenge since we each had large bills and very few coins. So we finally devised a system using Sam's blackberry to record each other's loans.
During dinner it started raining so once we had paid we returned to the hostel to catch up on rest after many days of intense touring. But before that, we had to stop by the supermarket to get water and ICE CREAM! However, the guy at the counter was a complete jerk. He demanded the exact price in coins, which we couldn't give him because we didn't have any. So after much muttering and angry waves he finally caved in and accepted our 50 and 100 krona bills (about $2.5 and $5)! Well, at least the ice cream was tasty. So we returned to the hostel, wrote postcards, took showers, watched a bit of Czech TV, blogged, and went to bed early to prepare to tomorrow's early awaking and late night…
Another long, eventful, and fun day over. Good night!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Henry #2: May 25
Sadly, today was our last day in Berlin. We got up at 9:30 and went to a bakery across the street from our hostel for breakfast. After filling up on delicious pastries, we decided we wanted to go to Potsdam, or as we like to call it, the "Buckhead" of Berlin. We headed to the metro station and bought our new train tickets that would enable us to take the 45 minute ride to Potsdam. Once we arrived, we headed immediately to the tourist office for some guidance on what we should see. The tourist associate told us that the best way to become acquainted with Potsdam was to take a bus tour. The bus touring business is clearly an area of intense competition in Potsdam; the minute we stepped out of the train station we were bombarded by representatives from each of the respective bus touring representatives. Cedric was holding the brochures of each of the companies, and when he pulled out the one we had decided on, a huge smile came across the representative's face while her competitors grumbled in frustration.
While we were waiting for our bus to arrive, we took a quick walk up to the river to pass the time. Unfortunately, we didn't stay at the river for long because it was freezing and windy. Apparently Atlanta's winter weather is equivalent to that of Berlin's late spring. We returned to the bus station and saw our ride pulling up. We got on and went right up to the second floor (it was a double decker). From here, we began our tour of Potsdam. Our tour guide spoke in both German and English, which was particularly helpful. Our first stop was historic Potsdam, and while we did not get off, we flagged it on our mental maps as a great spot to stop for lunch. Our next stop was Potsdam's Brandenburg Gate, which actually predates Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. The bus continued down the streets of Potsdam until we arrived at the historic bridge that had served as the border between Potsdam (East Germany) and West Berlin. The bridge even changed colors discretely to mark the divide. While we were on the bridge, a vast lake stretched out beneath us. There were a few boats out on the lake, but the most noticeable elements were the few grand houses and palaces situated along the shore. After visiting the bridge, we turned around and headed back towards Potsdam. The bus took us down treelined cobblestone streets graced by quaint cottages that house many notable people, including the ambassador of Venezuela. Our tour guide told us that space in a certain apartment building in the area was worth 2,000 euros per square meter, hence the tagging of Potsdam as the "Buckhead" of Berlin. The next stop was Sanssouci, and we decided to get off our tour bus and take a look around. Sanssouci was the summer palace in which Frederick the Great resided during his rule of Prussia. The yellow palace was situated up on a hill, overlooking vast geometrically crafted gardens. Everything about the palace was symmetrical, including the layers of earth that came together to form the hill up to the palace. After we felt satisfied that we had seen all of the palace that we needed to see, we headed back to the bus stop, only to find that we had missed our tour bus. We decided that since it was well past our usual lunch time, we ought to get on a city bus and head back into historic Potsdam.
We got off the bus and headed down the quaint streets of central Potsdam. It did not take us long to find a place to eat as we quickly settled down at a small restaurant that specialized in delicious bagels. Most of us got bagel sandwiches, either salami or ham. While our meals were delicious, they were not particularly filling. Luckily, as we made our way towards the train station, we came across a farmers market where we found a bratwurst stand. All of us got a brat except Sam, and it was not until we finished them that we were completely satisfied and full. We continued towards the train station, eager to return to Berlin to get some last minute photos and gifts.
When we got back to central Berlin, we went straight to the TV tower the see if we could confirm my birthday dinner reservations. However, for some reason the reservation did not go through when we made it online, so we decided we would come back later to go up to the top and get one last look at Berlin before dark. We then headed straight for the Brandenburg Gate to get a picture, having previously forgotten to take one. After we had taken enough pictures, we went to Checkpoint Charlie for a quick re-visit to look for postcards and souvenirs. We then remembered that we had still not seen the Jewish Memorial park that we had driven by on our first day in Berlin. We tried to find by reading street signs and trying to guess which of the phrases meant "Jewish Memorial." Luckily, a very nice Berliner saw that we were lost and came to our aid, guiding us to the metro station that would lead us to the Memorial. The memorial is extremely pleasing to the eye; it is a sloping plaza with giant blocks of cement that all come together to form some sort of optical illusion. After we had had enough time at the Jewish Memorial, we decided to head back to our hostel to freshen up before dinner.
We stayed a the hostel for about an hour and met our new roommate who had just arrived. He and Parker immediately struck up conversation because he was an engineering student at Virginia Tech. Since our original dinner plans failed, we decided to eat at Oranium, a restaurant just around the corner from our hostel. Much to our dismay, Sam, Christian, and I accidentally ordered sparkling water instead of flat water. This error was quickly made up for by the delicious food we got. Sam and I both got Pizzas with toppings ranging from lettuce to salmon. Christian and Parker both got some sort of meat combo-platter that had liver, sausage, and blood sausage. After Cedric had finished his sausage plate, he gladly ate Christian and Parker's blood sausage, to everyone else's disgust.
After dinner, we headed back to the TV Tower, hoping to make it up to the top to see Berlin from above. Finally, this being our third try, we got tickets to ride the elevator to the top! The elevator was extremely fast, moving people up and down the tower at a rate of six meters per second. When we got to the top, we saw Berlin sprawling out in every direction beneath us. We were really glad that we got to do this after touring Berlin because we were able to track everywhere we had been from above. We were lucky enough to see the sun set, and after we felt we had gotten our money's worth of views, we headed back down to tower to make our daily trip to the grocery store for dessert.
When we got to the grocery store, we went directly to the ice cream section to decide which Magnum bars we should get. Cedric, Parker, and I decided on a six pack of bars so that we could each have two. This proved to be a great decision because the bars were amazing. After we were full from all the chocolate and caramel, we returned to our hostel and settled in the lobby area to do some long overdue blogging. After Sam was satisfied with the day's blogging, we went to sleep, excited leave for Prague in the morning.
While we were waiting for our bus to arrive, we took a quick walk up to the river to pass the time. Unfortunately, we didn't stay at the river for long because it was freezing and windy. Apparently Atlanta's winter weather is equivalent to that of Berlin's late spring. We returned to the bus station and saw our ride pulling up. We got on and went right up to the second floor (it was a double decker). From here, we began our tour of Potsdam. Our tour guide spoke in both German and English, which was particularly helpful. Our first stop was historic Potsdam, and while we did not get off, we flagged it on our mental maps as a great spot to stop for lunch. Our next stop was Potsdam's Brandenburg Gate, which actually predates Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. The bus continued down the streets of Potsdam until we arrived at the historic bridge that had served as the border between Potsdam (East Germany) and West Berlin. The bridge even changed colors discretely to mark the divide. While we were on the bridge, a vast lake stretched out beneath us. There were a few boats out on the lake, but the most noticeable elements were the few grand houses and palaces situated along the shore. After visiting the bridge, we turned around and headed back towards Potsdam. The bus took us down treelined cobblestone streets graced by quaint cottages that house many notable people, including the ambassador of Venezuela. Our tour guide told us that space in a certain apartment building in the area was worth 2,000 euros per square meter, hence the tagging of Potsdam as the "Buckhead" of Berlin. The next stop was Sanssouci, and we decided to get off our tour bus and take a look around. Sanssouci was the summer palace in which Frederick the Great resided during his rule of Prussia. The yellow palace was situated up on a hill, overlooking vast geometrically crafted gardens. Everything about the palace was symmetrical, including the layers of earth that came together to form the hill up to the palace. After we felt satisfied that we had seen all of the palace that we needed to see, we headed back to the bus stop, only to find that we had missed our tour bus. We decided that since it was well past our usual lunch time, we ought to get on a city bus and head back into historic Potsdam.
We got off the bus and headed down the quaint streets of central Potsdam. It did not take us long to find a place to eat as we quickly settled down at a small restaurant that specialized in delicious bagels. Most of us got bagel sandwiches, either salami or ham. While our meals were delicious, they were not particularly filling. Luckily, as we made our way towards the train station, we came across a farmers market where we found a bratwurst stand. All of us got a brat except Sam, and it was not until we finished them that we were completely satisfied and full. We continued towards the train station, eager to return to Berlin to get some last minute photos and gifts.
When we got back to central Berlin, we went straight to the TV tower the see if we could confirm my birthday dinner reservations. However, for some reason the reservation did not go through when we made it online, so we decided we would come back later to go up to the top and get one last look at Berlin before dark. We then headed straight for the Brandenburg Gate to get a picture, having previously forgotten to take one. After we had taken enough pictures, we went to Checkpoint Charlie for a quick re-visit to look for postcards and souvenirs. We then remembered that we had still not seen the Jewish Memorial park that we had driven by on our first day in Berlin. We tried to find by reading street signs and trying to guess which of the phrases meant "Jewish Memorial." Luckily, a very nice Berliner saw that we were lost and came to our aid, guiding us to the metro station that would lead us to the Memorial. The memorial is extremely pleasing to the eye; it is a sloping plaza with giant blocks of cement that all come together to form some sort of optical illusion. After we had had enough time at the Jewish Memorial, we decided to head back to our hostel to freshen up before dinner.
We stayed a the hostel for about an hour and met our new roommate who had just arrived. He and Parker immediately struck up conversation because he was an engineering student at Virginia Tech. Since our original dinner plans failed, we decided to eat at Oranium, a restaurant just around the corner from our hostel. Much to our dismay, Sam, Christian, and I accidentally ordered sparkling water instead of flat water. This error was quickly made up for by the delicious food we got. Sam and I both got Pizzas with toppings ranging from lettuce to salmon. Christian and Parker both got some sort of meat combo-platter that had liver, sausage, and blood sausage. After Cedric had finished his sausage plate, he gladly ate Christian and Parker's blood sausage, to everyone else's disgust.
After dinner, we headed back to the TV Tower, hoping to make it up to the top to see Berlin from above. Finally, this being our third try, we got tickets to ride the elevator to the top! The elevator was extremely fast, moving people up and down the tower at a rate of six meters per second. When we got to the top, we saw Berlin sprawling out in every direction beneath us. We were really glad that we got to do this after touring Berlin because we were able to track everywhere we had been from above. We were lucky enough to see the sun set, and after we felt we had gotten our money's worth of views, we headed back down to tower to make our daily trip to the grocery store for dessert.
When we got to the grocery store, we went directly to the ice cream section to decide which Magnum bars we should get. Cedric, Parker, and I decided on a six pack of bars so that we could each have two. This proved to be a great decision because the bars were amazing. After we were full from all the chocolate and caramel, we returned to our hostel and settled in the lobby area to do some long overdue blogging. After Sam was satisfied with the day's blogging, we went to sleep, excited leave for Prague in the morning.
Christian #4: May 24
Today we went saw a few of the World War II and Cold War historical sights in Berlin, of which there are many. We started off at Checkpoint Charlie, the American checkpoint at the Berlin Wall and access point between East and West Berlin. During the Cold War, Soviet and American tanks were lined up on both sides aiming at each other, ready for a Cold War to go hot. This was one of the real front lines in the Cold War and remains an iconic symbol of that conflict, showing up in many documentaries and spy movies. It was an incredible place to visit.
After Checkpoint Charlie, we headed to another symbol of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Constructed by the Soviets in 1961 to supposedly "protect East German citizens from radical fascism", it kept East Berliners from emigrating and divided the city. Again, a powerful symbol of a Cold War and literal "Iron Curtain" that permeated and defined so much of American and Soviet culture for so many years. Right next door was a terrific museum that we went to called Topography of Terror. It was located on the old site of the SS, Nazis secret police, headquarters during their reign in Germany. Called the "Darkest Time" in German history, the museum walks you through the steps and different stages that Hitler and the Nazis used to gain control of the government and create the Third Reich dictatorship that was so powerful and dangerous. I would highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Berlin.
We had lunch near the Sony Center, which is one of the largest buildings in Berlin and has an interesting architecture. It is a large circular building with the center taken and replaced with a plaza. But what makes the Sony Center so unique is that its roof is made out of sections of a cloth like material stretched between wires spaced out with gaps in between so that it looks like a turbo jet fan of gigantic proportions. Its a neat building and we spent some time relaxing in the central plaza area.
Next stop was a trip to Museum Island near the Reichstag to visit the Pergamon Museum. In the 19/20th century, the city of Pergamon was discovered in modern day Turkey by a German archeologist. It was a large city part of the Greek Empire, but allied with Rome. They established a dig and helped to preserve many of the artifacts. The Pergamon Museum displays many of their finds and replicas with some of the actual structures integrated in. One of the most significant finds was of the alter at Pergamon. The replica takes up a large room roughly the size of half a football field and looks very much like the temples of Rome built to honor the gods with its many columns and angular construction. It would be an imposing structure anywhere, but especially in the ancient world and was interesting monument to visit. The Pergamon also house a replica of the grates of Babylon and many of surrounding pieces of art. These gates led to the great city of Babylon, that once was the seat of power in the Middle East, but then rapidly declined. A magnificent accomplishment anywhere, again especially impressive for the ancient world. The gates were lined with lions they said to honor their god of Earth, but I think they were preemptively praising the great work and pride that Lovett Lions represent and had been foretold would come.
For dinner, Sam had been and is still obsessed with going to places that have live jazz music. He found a spot that looked good and we decided we would try it. It was pretty far out of the center of town and turned out to be in a rather interesting part of town. Thanks to Sam's Blackberry, we have been able to have a constant English-speaking safety net to help us out. But this time Google Maps had this place in the wrong place and so we wondered around in this area trying to find this fabled spot. After a while, we finally stubbled upon the spot. So glad we did; the food was excellent! We tried some local beverages, had great sausage, and a wonderfully helpful and funny waitress.
We headed back to the hostel for a little to get ready to head out and go to a club, for Berlin is the nightlife capital of Europe. Whether it was because it was Pentacost (although no flames of fire came down and let us understand German, but maybe next year), it was a Monday night, the city has been incorrectly crowned, or we simply missed where the party was, Berlin was dead that night. We spent more time walking around sketchy neighborhoods trying to find where we were going and eventually found the intended "club". This place had all of ten people in it. After an excellent fake emergency exit strategy, which fooled the rest of us, failed, we left the "club" and went to the train station. There some of us got McFlurries and were walking along, when trouble made a beeline for us. Two teenagers, probably drunk, came up and starting harassing us. We ignored them and they eventually left, but not before coming up behind Sam and batting his McFlurry away. After that we all went home, not defeated but to regroup for our next day's assault on Berlin.
-Christian
After Checkpoint Charlie, we headed to another symbol of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Constructed by the Soviets in 1961 to supposedly "protect East German citizens from radical fascism", it kept East Berliners from emigrating and divided the city. Again, a powerful symbol of a Cold War and literal "Iron Curtain" that permeated and defined so much of American and Soviet culture for so many years. Right next door was a terrific museum that we went to called Topography of Terror. It was located on the old site of the SS, Nazis secret police, headquarters during their reign in Germany. Called the "Darkest Time" in German history, the museum walks you through the steps and different stages that Hitler and the Nazis used to gain control of the government and create the Third Reich dictatorship that was so powerful and dangerous. I would highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Berlin.
We had lunch near the Sony Center, which is one of the largest buildings in Berlin and has an interesting architecture. It is a large circular building with the center taken and replaced with a plaza. But what makes the Sony Center so unique is that its roof is made out of sections of a cloth like material stretched between wires spaced out with gaps in between so that it looks like a turbo jet fan of gigantic proportions. Its a neat building and we spent some time relaxing in the central plaza area.
Next stop was a trip to Museum Island near the Reichstag to visit the Pergamon Museum. In the 19/20th century, the city of Pergamon was discovered in modern day Turkey by a German archeologist. It was a large city part of the Greek Empire, but allied with Rome. They established a dig and helped to preserve many of the artifacts. The Pergamon Museum displays many of their finds and replicas with some of the actual structures integrated in. One of the most significant finds was of the alter at Pergamon. The replica takes up a large room roughly the size of half a football field and looks very much like the temples of Rome built to honor the gods with its many columns and angular construction. It would be an imposing structure anywhere, but especially in the ancient world and was interesting monument to visit. The Pergamon also house a replica of the grates of Babylon and many of surrounding pieces of art. These gates led to the great city of Babylon, that once was the seat of power in the Middle East, but then rapidly declined. A magnificent accomplishment anywhere, again especially impressive for the ancient world. The gates were lined with lions they said to honor their god of Earth, but I think they were preemptively praising the great work and pride that Lovett Lions represent and had been foretold would come.
For dinner, Sam had been and is still obsessed with going to places that have live jazz music. He found a spot that looked good and we decided we would try it. It was pretty far out of the center of town and turned out to be in a rather interesting part of town. Thanks to Sam's Blackberry, we have been able to have a constant English-speaking safety net to help us out. But this time Google Maps had this place in the wrong place and so we wondered around in this area trying to find this fabled spot. After a while, we finally stubbled upon the spot. So glad we did; the food was excellent! We tried some local beverages, had great sausage, and a wonderfully helpful and funny waitress.
We headed back to the hostel for a little to get ready to head out and go to a club, for Berlin is the nightlife capital of Europe. Whether it was because it was Pentacost (although no flames of fire came down and let us understand German, but maybe next year), it was a Monday night, the city has been incorrectly crowned, or we simply missed where the party was, Berlin was dead that night. We spent more time walking around sketchy neighborhoods trying to find where we were going and eventually found the intended "club". This place had all of ten people in it. After an excellent fake emergency exit strategy, which fooled the rest of us, failed, we left the "club" and went to the train station. There some of us got McFlurries and were walking along, when trouble made a beeline for us. Two teenagers, probably drunk, came up and starting harassing us. We ignored them and they eventually left, but not before coming up behind Sam and batting his McFlurry away. After that we all went home, not defeated but to regroup for our next day's assault on Berlin.
-Christian
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Sam #4: May 23
This morning was unlike any other thus far on the trip. I woke up, looked out the window, and discovered that the world I had so lovingly known in Paris had passed me by and was many hours long gone. Instead of seeing the adorable little house cats of our proprietor Fred patrol the 100 square foot kitschy garden, I saw the lush German countryside flying by the window at 80-something miles per hour. My bunk on the night train had served surprisingly well as a facilitator of rest, and the soft lulling of the engine several cars up was very relaxing as well. The soothing side-to-side swaying of the traincar seemed to defy the laws of physics, combining the sheer unbridled horsepower of a monster train engine with the delicate, sensual grooves of a sultry jazz club singer. The beautiful clash of two forces so inherently opposite was breath-taking, romantic, and elegant. Time stopped around me, and the train seemed to move in a most perfect cadenza, cutting iron brushstrokes across the delicate rolling hills and dabbing a touch of civilization on uninhabited grasslands; the sun's warm embrace deftly moved through the veneer curtains that stood in my window. Quite frankly, the curtains were a nuisance, but my other bunkmates were still under the spell of the train's mechanical Ambien, so instead I moved to the hallway and watched life out the great glass window. The occasional cow slapped the silliest grin across my face while I stood there, enjoying the simplistic peace that the cow enjoys on a regular basis. Our trip to this point had been extremely fast-paced and it was a breath of new life to slow down and enjoy the mesmerizing aura of the night train. I realized that I had 2 more hours of sleeping time left so I took advantage of that and lulled peacefully back to sleep.
My morning of wisdom and meditation came to an abrupt halt when my 8:30 alarm went off and all 5 of us had to pack our bags and be ready for an 8:49 departure from the train. We hustled to clean up food crumbs, repack overnight accessories, and mentally accept the fact that sleep was over. This last item was quite difficult as it seems my fellow bunkmates had shared common sentiments about the traincar sleep. We got our bags to the door of the train as the train pulled into one Berlin station; however, we were unsure of what exactly was going on. Just as we were opening the door to get out of the train, I saw the tracks beginning to move underneath me, and I quickly shut the door and we immediately accepted the fact that wherever we stopped next would be our exit no matter what. As it turns out, this was a lucky break, and we ended up just a few U-Bahn stops away from our hostel.
We got off the U-Bahn near our hostel, only to discover that we still had to walk across a bridge with our bags and down some street. The first thing that is immediately obvious about German is that there are very very few cognates, and the rules of grammar are indiscernible to an American. We lugged our baggage to the hostel, got them stored behind the desk until the rooms were open, and headed to a cafe one block from our hostel that we had seen on the way in. We all ordered fantastic breakfasts, none of which were immediately derived from American culture, so we were able to defend our totally-not-tourists-at-all status, despite the disproportionate ratio of cameras present in the group.
From breakfast, we decided to start our stay in Berlin with a guided bus tour in English, which turned out to be a brilliant strategy (that will be repeated in future cities) for two reasons. 1) We saw a large number of city landmarks, and we were able to decide which ones were high priority and which ones were sauerkraut. The bus tour drove us by many international embassies, but as any other member of the group can tell you, I am obsessed with the American embassy everywhere we go. The one in Berlin is a brand-spanking new symbol of American pride, complete with the highest security measures in all of Berlin, as well as a gorgeous 50-starred flag waving in the wind with bold colors and shiny new stars. This gave me new motivation to see the Brandenburg Gates - they were right next to the US Embassy. This brings me to my second point. 2) The bus tour is a great way to get a sense of absolute and relative orientation in the city. When we were given a map of the city by a touristy office, the unfamiliar layout confused me to no end. However, with the bus tour, Cedric was able to orient himself to the map, and the other 4 of us simply tagged along to Cedric's boy scout instincts.
Once the lively prerecorded tour was complete, we decided to browse the mostly-destroyed cathedral a stone's throw from the bus stop. This cathedral, which was built in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm I, had been reduced to a single tower, and was clearly war-torn (as is a lot of Berlin). The facade was a blackened, charred dark grey color, which I found much less appealing that the faint heavenly grey of the Notre Dame in Paris. However, the inside was quite pretty, and it rendered a sense of imagined regret in me because I wished that I had been able to see the original cathedral in its entire grandeur. Here I must also interject my suspicion of a cathedral built in honor of the kaiser. As I see it, any church is built in honor of God, so why it should be dedicated to the kaiser instead is not immediately certain to me. Perhaps a years-long publicity stunt by his PR people? Most likely the doing of Gloria Allred.
After an interesting buffet lunch near the cathedral, we returned to the hostel to stow our bags in the proper room and get our things situated. We were placed in a room of eight bunks, only 3 of which had fresh clean sheets for us. Cedric and Henry took it upon themselves to ask the front desk for more sheets, which turned out to be a frustrating exercise in customer noservice. I never understood the issue completely, but apparently the hostel said that there already were clean sheets when there clearly wasn't, and some people had left stuff in the room and we had no idea who they belonged to. The desk guy told us they belonged to some Australian women, but they weren't there at the moment, so we decided to keep touring and deal with the issue later.
We took the U-Bahn to the Brandenburg Gates, which is the famous passageway that used to be one of many gates into the city of Berlin in the 18th and 19th centuries. Between the sheer size of the columns and the intimidating bronze statue on top, it's clear why this is such a hot attraction. The area in front of the gate is filled with American military actors, street musicians, international super-strict embassy police, and gypsy women who always ask "Speak English?" in the exact same tone of voice. We're currently debating what would be a funny but not rude response to these women, who according to travel sources are actually sneaky pickpockets who distract you with an index card. From the gates we walked over to the Reichstag, which is the present-day national parliament of Germany. On top of the building there is a glass copula, which is accessible to the public most of the day. The copula offers a great view for a small price, so we figured it was worth checking out. Unfortunately it did not seem worth the 75-minute wait to get inside, and thus upon seeing the line run down the Reichstag steps and through the courtyard we bolted for different entertainment.
As usual with this motley crew, we tackled dinner with a stumble-upon approach, and thus we started walking towards a district with lots of people and lots of lights. On the way there, we made a most beautiful discovery: a Bugatti Veyron dealership on the street. For the uninitiated, the Bugatti Veyron is the world's baddest production car. And when I say bad I mean baaaaaaaaaaad. All of us could instantly rattle off a few key numbers. 1,001 horsepower. 253 mph (407 km/h) top speed. W16 engine. Burns an entire tank of gas in 12 minutes at top speed. $1.2 million purchase price (not sure what the European chiffre is these days). Simply seeing it through the window on the street was most certainly an out-of-body experience. I'm 95% sure there were fireworks and backup dancers for Shakira that appeared from heaven. Our hunger was immediately forgotten about and we went inside to watch it turn behind a glass railing on a beautiful turn table. Barack Obama was sitting in the driver's seat and Megan Fox was sitting in the passenger seat. Michelle and the girls were off serving the poor in Africa for the evening, but Booman assured us that they would return for breakfast with us.
Our bodies came back down to Earth from the Plane of Enlightenment and we walked on solid ground over to some really traditional German restaurant. It was near Checkpoint Charlie, and it was the first place that we were able to order legit German sausage in Germany. Once we got there, it was pretty good fare, but the whole stumbling upon process is not nearly as laissez-faire as you might think. We're a very democratic and politically-oriented group; thus, making a decision as important as a dinner restaurant is never a simple "Let's eat here!" We walked around the square and saw 4 different restaurants. For each one, we stopped to read the menu, analyze prices, judge the legitimacy of the German cuisine and environment, and determine a cost-benefit analysis of each locale. I won't be surprised if big scary words like "standard deviation", "chi-square test", and "Scoville rating" enter the conversation later in the trip.
From dinner we rode the U-Bahn home to find yet more "interestingness" going on at the hostel. Of the 3 mystery roommates (who unfortunately were not single Australian women), only one was at the hostel when we returned around 8pm. He was a dapper young chap from Sheffield, England, with a prep/grunge/disheveled dress style that came off as the classier side of Brad Pitt post-Fight Club. He was quiet and reserved, and we never actually caught his name. Thus I shall heretofore refer to him as He-Who-Might-Not-Be-Named (or HWMNBN, as his mates call him). HWMNBN is an avid reader, and spent much time in his bunk reading. He enjoys short walks on the beach, Nic Cage movies, and light green ballpoint pens from Morocco. He claims to have slayed four dragons last week, though I think he's blowing smoke - he only had three crystal dragon teeth on his necklace. HWMNBN had a celebrity crush on Janet Reno in the 7th grade, and swears his life on PG Tips. He is currently dating six women, two of which have business connections to Atlanta, and another one whose previous romantic entanglement is the subject of a yet-unpublished Nicholas Sparks manuscript called Christian the Lion plays a Harpsichord.
Later in the evening, a young Italian couple stopped by our room to get their stuff. Apparently, they stayed in room 213 (our room) last night, but the hostlier decided to move them to another room tonight, so they came and grabbed two bags, a white sweater, and a red unidentified garment. I kid you not about the red thing - it was far too big to be an intimate item, and it did not resemble a top or a bottom. Perhaps it was an avant-garde shawl. They took their things and went elsewhere; in the meantime Henry and Cedric had received two pairs of clean sheets in addition to the dirty sheets that still remained. We started to make up our beds, and not five minutes later the Italians returned, looking equally flustered as before. The hostlier had re-re-assigned them back to our room, and they set up their beds again. We were finally able to get cleaned up and ready for bed, and then around 11:58pm, Parker and I decided that we wanted to watch a movie, so he and I watched Crash on my bunk with a headphone splitter. I've always heard great things about it, but until then had never seen it. It was even better than my expectations, and I highly recommend it to anybody seeking an emotionally mature, intense movie that will restore your faith in humanity and your faith in God. Be sure to pay attention though, because if not you'll miss a lot of connections in the movie. As soon as the movie was over, he and I immediately went to bed.
That's all for now. Blogger-in-Chief will be cracking down on late blogging with threats of baguette deprivation. You readers are my reason for writing and I deeply wish you continued enjoyment of the blog.
Yours Truly,
Samuel Johnstone
My morning of wisdom and meditation came to an abrupt halt when my 8:30 alarm went off and all 5 of us had to pack our bags and be ready for an 8:49 departure from the train. We hustled to clean up food crumbs, repack overnight accessories, and mentally accept the fact that sleep was over. This last item was quite difficult as it seems my fellow bunkmates had shared common sentiments about the traincar sleep. We got our bags to the door of the train as the train pulled into one Berlin station; however, we were unsure of what exactly was going on. Just as we were opening the door to get out of the train, I saw the tracks beginning to move underneath me, and I quickly shut the door and we immediately accepted the fact that wherever we stopped next would be our exit no matter what. As it turns out, this was a lucky break, and we ended up just a few U-Bahn stops away from our hostel.
We got off the U-Bahn near our hostel, only to discover that we still had to walk across a bridge with our bags and down some street. The first thing that is immediately obvious about German is that there are very very few cognates, and the rules of grammar are indiscernible to an American. We lugged our baggage to the hostel, got them stored behind the desk until the rooms were open, and headed to a cafe one block from our hostel that we had seen on the way in. We all ordered fantastic breakfasts, none of which were immediately derived from American culture, so we were able to defend our totally-not-tourists-at-all status, despite the disproportionate ratio of cameras present in the group.
From breakfast, we decided to start our stay in Berlin with a guided bus tour in English, which turned out to be a brilliant strategy (that will be repeated in future cities) for two reasons. 1) We saw a large number of city landmarks, and we were able to decide which ones were high priority and which ones were sauerkraut. The bus tour drove us by many international embassies, but as any other member of the group can tell you, I am obsessed with the American embassy everywhere we go. The one in Berlin is a brand-spanking new symbol of American pride, complete with the highest security measures in all of Berlin, as well as a gorgeous 50-starred flag waving in the wind with bold colors and shiny new stars. This gave me new motivation to see the Brandenburg Gates - they were right next to the US Embassy. This brings me to my second point. 2) The bus tour is a great way to get a sense of absolute and relative orientation in the city. When we were given a map of the city by a touristy office, the unfamiliar layout confused me to no end. However, with the bus tour, Cedric was able to orient himself to the map, and the other 4 of us simply tagged along to Cedric's boy scout instincts.
Once the lively prerecorded tour was complete, we decided to browse the mostly-destroyed cathedral a stone's throw from the bus stop. This cathedral, which was built in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm I, had been reduced to a single tower, and was clearly war-torn (as is a lot of Berlin). The facade was a blackened, charred dark grey color, which I found much less appealing that the faint heavenly grey of the Notre Dame in Paris. However, the inside was quite pretty, and it rendered a sense of imagined regret in me because I wished that I had been able to see the original cathedral in its entire grandeur. Here I must also interject my suspicion of a cathedral built in honor of the kaiser. As I see it, any church is built in honor of God, so why it should be dedicated to the kaiser instead is not immediately certain to me. Perhaps a years-long publicity stunt by his PR people? Most likely the doing of Gloria Allred.
After an interesting buffet lunch near the cathedral, we returned to the hostel to stow our bags in the proper room and get our things situated. We were placed in a room of eight bunks, only 3 of which had fresh clean sheets for us. Cedric and Henry took it upon themselves to ask the front desk for more sheets, which turned out to be a frustrating exercise in customer noservice. I never understood the issue completely, but apparently the hostel said that there already were clean sheets when there clearly wasn't, and some people had left stuff in the room and we had no idea who they belonged to. The desk guy told us they belonged to some Australian women, but they weren't there at the moment, so we decided to keep touring and deal with the issue later.
We took the U-Bahn to the Brandenburg Gates, which is the famous passageway that used to be one of many gates into the city of Berlin in the 18th and 19th centuries. Between the sheer size of the columns and the intimidating bronze statue on top, it's clear why this is such a hot attraction. The area in front of the gate is filled with American military actors, street musicians, international super-strict embassy police, and gypsy women who always ask "Speak English?" in the exact same tone of voice. We're currently debating what would be a funny but not rude response to these women, who according to travel sources are actually sneaky pickpockets who distract you with an index card. From the gates we walked over to the Reichstag, which is the present-day national parliament of Germany. On top of the building there is a glass copula, which is accessible to the public most of the day. The copula offers a great view for a small price, so we figured it was worth checking out. Unfortunately it did not seem worth the 75-minute wait to get inside, and thus upon seeing the line run down the Reichstag steps and through the courtyard we bolted for different entertainment.
As usual with this motley crew, we tackled dinner with a stumble-upon approach, and thus we started walking towards a district with lots of people and lots of lights. On the way there, we made a most beautiful discovery: a Bugatti Veyron dealership on the street. For the uninitiated, the Bugatti Veyron is the world's baddest production car. And when I say bad I mean baaaaaaaaaaad. All of us could instantly rattle off a few key numbers. 1,001 horsepower. 253 mph (407 km/h) top speed. W16 engine. Burns an entire tank of gas in 12 minutes at top speed. $1.2 million purchase price (not sure what the European chiffre is these days). Simply seeing it through the window on the street was most certainly an out-of-body experience. I'm 95% sure there were fireworks and backup dancers for Shakira that appeared from heaven. Our hunger was immediately forgotten about and we went inside to watch it turn behind a glass railing on a beautiful turn table. Barack Obama was sitting in the driver's seat and Megan Fox was sitting in the passenger seat. Michelle and the girls were off serving the poor in Africa for the evening, but Booman assured us that they would return for breakfast with us.
Our bodies came back down to Earth from the Plane of Enlightenment and we walked on solid ground over to some really traditional German restaurant. It was near Checkpoint Charlie, and it was the first place that we were able to order legit German sausage in Germany. Once we got there, it was pretty good fare, but the whole stumbling upon process is not nearly as laissez-faire as you might think. We're a very democratic and politically-oriented group; thus, making a decision as important as a dinner restaurant is never a simple "Let's eat here!" We walked around the square and saw 4 different restaurants. For each one, we stopped to read the menu, analyze prices, judge the legitimacy of the German cuisine and environment, and determine a cost-benefit analysis of each locale. I won't be surprised if big scary words like "standard deviation", "chi-square test", and "Scoville rating" enter the conversation later in the trip.
From dinner we rode the U-Bahn home to find yet more "interestingness" going on at the hostel. Of the 3 mystery roommates (who unfortunately were not single Australian women), only one was at the hostel when we returned around 8pm. He was a dapper young chap from Sheffield, England, with a prep/grunge/disheveled dress style that came off as the classier side of Brad Pitt post-Fight Club. He was quiet and reserved, and we never actually caught his name. Thus I shall heretofore refer to him as He-Who-Might-Not-Be-Named (or HWMNBN, as his mates call him). HWMNBN is an avid reader, and spent much time in his bunk reading. He enjoys short walks on the beach, Nic Cage movies, and light green ballpoint pens from Morocco. He claims to have slayed four dragons last week, though I think he's blowing smoke - he only had three crystal dragon teeth on his necklace. HWMNBN had a celebrity crush on Janet Reno in the 7th grade, and swears his life on PG Tips. He is currently dating six women, two of which have business connections to Atlanta, and another one whose previous romantic entanglement is the subject of a yet-unpublished Nicholas Sparks manuscript called Christian the Lion plays a Harpsichord.
Later in the evening, a young Italian couple stopped by our room to get their stuff. Apparently, they stayed in room 213 (our room) last night, but the hostlier decided to move them to another room tonight, so they came and grabbed two bags, a white sweater, and a red unidentified garment. I kid you not about the red thing - it was far too big to be an intimate item, and it did not resemble a top or a bottom. Perhaps it was an avant-garde shawl. They took their things and went elsewhere; in the meantime Henry and Cedric had received two pairs of clean sheets in addition to the dirty sheets that still remained. We started to make up our beds, and not five minutes later the Italians returned, looking equally flustered as before. The hostlier had re-re-assigned them back to our room, and they set up their beds again. We were finally able to get cleaned up and ready for bed, and then around 11:58pm, Parker and I decided that we wanted to watch a movie, so he and I watched Crash on my bunk with a headphone splitter. I've always heard great things about it, but until then had never seen it. It was even better than my expectations, and I highly recommend it to anybody seeking an emotionally mature, intense movie that will restore your faith in humanity and your faith in God. Be sure to pay attention though, because if not you'll miss a lot of connections in the movie. As soon as the movie was over, he and I immediately went to bed.
That's all for now. Blogger-in-Chief will be cracking down on late blogging with threats of baguette deprivation. You readers are my reason for writing and I deeply wish you continued enjoyment of the blog.
Yours Truly,
Samuel Johnstone
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