The cities we are in just keep getting prettier and prettier. We absolutely loved Stockholm, with its network of islands, then we arrived in Copenhagen and were blown away again, finding it even prettier. Now we are in Amsterdam, and it has taken it up another step. Part of Copenhagen is called "little Amsterdam", and now we see why. Miles and miles of serene canals, lined with tall gabled houses, brick or painted glossy black. There seems almost no part of it that is not quaintly pretty. Copenhagen is not quite the same, but has an immensely liveable feel to it - wide streets, relaxed atmosphere, nice buildings, and of course some canals as well. And our Australian princess lives nearby too, of course.
What I liked about Stockholm was the slight wild edge to it. The landscape under and around the city is islands of granite and fir trees. You still feel like you are quite far north, and only inches from wilderness. We took a ferry out to a small island on the closest edge of the archipelago (which stretches for tens of kilometres, and on that could almost imagine we were miles from anywhere. You could walk around the whole place in ten minutes, and there were a few cafes and so on, but on parts of it you could stand among stunted trees growing straight from the rock and look out towards heavily forested larger islands, with not a building in sight. We sat on a rock by the edge of the water and watched the sunset - only enhanced by the huge apartment building in the distance towards the west.
In Copenhagen we were totally back in civilisation. It did not at all feel like we were surrounded by dangerous wilderness. It was tamed and artificial, but not in a bad way. It suffered several bad fires in the 18th century, so most of the city dates from then, and of course this provided the opportunity of a rebuild. Hence the roads are wide and straight, with heaps of bike paths. There were nearly as many bikes there as here in Amsterdam, and we got a couple of free ones thanks to a scheme being run by the council and rode around the city for a couple of hours, seeing among other things the "Little Mermaid", a famous statue of a Hans Christian Anderson character. Afterwards we took to the water on a tour boat, which took us around many of the canals of the city, some of which are lined with very expensive-looking yachts - these canals have access to the sea.
Amsterdam of course is even less isolated than Copenhagen, and is dense and lively and gorgeous. In the old centre the streets are often tiny and twisty, and there are canals absolutely everywhere. They are covered in the evening with people out on little boats, leaisurely cruising and having dips and wine. The streets are jammed with people on bikes, all of whom look very cruisy, and there are bikes chained to every pole and fence. I have no idea how the place can be so busy all the time, even during weekdays, but it must have something to do with the tourists - the museums here all have huge queues, unlike anywhere else we've been. At night it seems everyone heads to the red light district, where there are many good bars and pubs, as well as the uniquely Amsterdam establishments; the "coffee" houses. It's not as seedy as I expected, which may have something to do with the beautiful canals running through it, and the fact that people still seem to live there as well.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
A catch-up
I realise that I am incredibly far behind, so rather than go into huge detail about each place, I will just do a quick run-through to get up to the current point - Stockholm, where we don´t have easy internet access and also no time to waste. I will fill in more details at a later date for anyone who is interested.
So after Klaipeda we woke early for the bus to Riga. There we stayed in a hostel in part of a hotel, with a great view over the Opera House and a park, in a private room. We made all our own food, as everything was suddenly expensive and there was a good kitchen. The old town of Riga is very nice, and there´s a great few streets in the slightly less old town with amazing art-nouveau architecture. We walked around alot, and only went to a couple of museums, the highlight of which was the occupation museum - not the lightest topic but very informative and moving, covering both the Nazi and Russian occupations. We also went to the cinema to watch Harry Potter, not the most "authentic" Latvian experience, but fun nevertheless.
From Riga we took a one-night trip to Sigulda, a little resort town to the east. There we ate mostly sandwiches, but also ate at a cafeteria-like place which was ok. Margot braved the cable-car across the gorge and we saw some ruiny ruins and took a long walk through a forest which endowed me with around fourteen thousand mozzie bites. There are lots of "adventury" type things in the town, and we took a sort of toboggan mounted on a rail down a steep hill, which was awesome. On the second day we hire bikes for an hour, for which it poured with rain, I mean really the heavens opened, and stopped as soon as we returned the bikes. There were also some more awesome ruins of a slightly less ruined castle.
Back to Riga for a few hours, we snuck back into the unattended hostel to use the internet and the bathroom, very sneaky. Then it was a bus to Tallinn. First impressions of Tallinn is a super modern city with crazy awesome architecture. Our hostel was in a redeveloped industrial area just outside the old town, and feels like a giant modern art installation. The old town is absolutely stunning and amazing and awesome and I couldn´t get enough of it. There are tons of restored mediaeval houses, and the oldest pharmacy in the world, from which we bought panadol and passed on the dried toad. We ate lots and lots of pancakes. There is alot of town wall left and it looks very photogenic. We saw a really cool art museum a bit out of town in a posh park. Partway through we had to change hostels, because everything was suddenly booked out and one and a half times the price. This was apparently due to a Madonna concert, which infuriated me - we were getting free saunas at our hostel. In the new hostel though we made friends with a german guy. We went to dinner in the "oldest pub in Tallinn", then took some horrible drink he´d bought in Riga to a spot on Toompea overlooking the rest of the old town. All in all, I like Tallinn very much.
After Tallinn we took a "ferry", really a bunch of restaurants and bars that happens to float, over to Helsinki. We stayed in a hostel in the old Olympic stadium, which was the only place we could afford. Helsinki feels totally different to the baltic cities - in fact it feels a little like Melbourne, in that Melbourne feels a tiny bit European. We went out on a ferry to Suomelinna, a sea-fort on 5 islands built by the Swedes when they owned Finland. It is very picture-skew, and has people living on it, as well as a bunch of too-expensive museums. The prime noticeable thing about Helsinki is that it is really really expensive. We couldn´t buy anything at all. I checked, and a big mac is 6 euros. So, we walked around alot. But it´s a nice city and feels very cosmopolitan, if not as interesting as Tallinn - it was burnt down and rebuilt in the 18th century.
From Helsinki we also went to a town called Porvoo, a view of more traditional Finnish life. It has cobbled streets combined with painted wooden houses, which is a very pretty effect. We took lunch with us, of course, and spent a lot of time wandering around and poking into little souvenir shops, and taking photos.
After Helsinki, we took the worlds most partying ferry overnight to Stockholm. I won´t regale you with the sordid details of our tax-free wine purchasing activities on board, but suffice to say it was alot of fun. Arrival in Stockholm was marred slightly by the awful hostel, and the price of everything (and no kitchen this time, so´more difficult to feed ourselves). However, after a walk around, we realised that this is probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Not only does it have a nice old town, which I always like, it is built across a number of islands, and nestled in an archipelago, so there are channels and canals everywhere and constant water vistas. It´s like Sydney Harbour only flatter and with a fascinating 19th century city build all around it. We met up with an old friend of mine who was studying at Sydney Uni a number of years ago, and he took us on an unparallelled guided tour of the whole city, including a bar at the top of one of the only skyscrapers, with an incredible 360 degree view of the city.
So we´re up to today. We went to a modern art museum, and then my favourite museum that I have ever seen, the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is a huge warship built in 1628, which on its maiden voyage tipped over and sank after 25 minutes. It was preserved for 350 years at the bottom of the sea, almost intact, and they´ve salvaged it and restored and preserved it. It is sitting inside the museum, which is interesting in itself, but every time you turn around and there is this huge black warship that looks like something out of a pirate movie looming over you, and your head just explodes. I don´t think I´ve ever wanted to leave a museum less.
So that´s us up to date. I´m sitting in a 7eleven typing this, so now you know where we are and what we´re doing! I´ll hopefully write more in depth stuff soon, but it will probably wait until I´m back in the UK, judging from past performance.
So after Klaipeda we woke early for the bus to Riga. There we stayed in a hostel in part of a hotel, with a great view over the Opera House and a park, in a private room. We made all our own food, as everything was suddenly expensive and there was a good kitchen. The old town of Riga is very nice, and there´s a great few streets in the slightly less old town with amazing art-nouveau architecture. We walked around alot, and only went to a couple of museums, the highlight of which was the occupation museum - not the lightest topic but very informative and moving, covering both the Nazi and Russian occupations. We also went to the cinema to watch Harry Potter, not the most "authentic" Latvian experience, but fun nevertheless.
From Riga we took a one-night trip to Sigulda, a little resort town to the east. There we ate mostly sandwiches, but also ate at a cafeteria-like place which was ok. Margot braved the cable-car across the gorge and we saw some ruiny ruins and took a long walk through a forest which endowed me with around fourteen thousand mozzie bites. There are lots of "adventury" type things in the town, and we took a sort of toboggan mounted on a rail down a steep hill, which was awesome. On the second day we hire bikes for an hour, for which it poured with rain, I mean really the heavens opened, and stopped as soon as we returned the bikes. There were also some more awesome ruins of a slightly less ruined castle.
Back to Riga for a few hours, we snuck back into the unattended hostel to use the internet and the bathroom, very sneaky. Then it was a bus to Tallinn. First impressions of Tallinn is a super modern city with crazy awesome architecture. Our hostel was in a redeveloped industrial area just outside the old town, and feels like a giant modern art installation. The old town is absolutely stunning and amazing and awesome and I couldn´t get enough of it. There are tons of restored mediaeval houses, and the oldest pharmacy in the world, from which we bought panadol and passed on the dried toad. We ate lots and lots of pancakes. There is alot of town wall left and it looks very photogenic. We saw a really cool art museum a bit out of town in a posh park. Partway through we had to change hostels, because everything was suddenly booked out and one and a half times the price. This was apparently due to a Madonna concert, which infuriated me - we were getting free saunas at our hostel. In the new hostel though we made friends with a german guy. We went to dinner in the "oldest pub in Tallinn", then took some horrible drink he´d bought in Riga to a spot on Toompea overlooking the rest of the old town. All in all, I like Tallinn very much.
After Tallinn we took a "ferry", really a bunch of restaurants and bars that happens to float, over to Helsinki. We stayed in a hostel in the old Olympic stadium, which was the only place we could afford. Helsinki feels totally different to the baltic cities - in fact it feels a little like Melbourne, in that Melbourne feels a tiny bit European. We went out on a ferry to Suomelinna, a sea-fort on 5 islands built by the Swedes when they owned Finland. It is very picture-skew, and has people living on it, as well as a bunch of too-expensive museums. The prime noticeable thing about Helsinki is that it is really really expensive. We couldn´t buy anything at all. I checked, and a big mac is 6 euros. So, we walked around alot. But it´s a nice city and feels very cosmopolitan, if not as interesting as Tallinn - it was burnt down and rebuilt in the 18th century.
From Helsinki we also went to a town called Porvoo, a view of more traditional Finnish life. It has cobbled streets combined with painted wooden houses, which is a very pretty effect. We took lunch with us, of course, and spent a lot of time wandering around and poking into little souvenir shops, and taking photos.
After Helsinki, we took the worlds most partying ferry overnight to Stockholm. I won´t regale you with the sordid details of our tax-free wine purchasing activities on board, but suffice to say it was alot of fun. Arrival in Stockholm was marred slightly by the awful hostel, and the price of everything (and no kitchen this time, so´more difficult to feed ourselves). However, after a walk around, we realised that this is probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Not only does it have a nice old town, which I always like, it is built across a number of islands, and nestled in an archipelago, so there are channels and canals everywhere and constant water vistas. It´s like Sydney Harbour only flatter and with a fascinating 19th century city build all around it. We met up with an old friend of mine who was studying at Sydney Uni a number of years ago, and he took us on an unparallelled guided tour of the whole city, including a bar at the top of one of the only skyscrapers, with an incredible 360 degree view of the city.
So we´re up to today. We went to a modern art museum, and then my favourite museum that I have ever seen, the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is a huge warship built in 1628, which on its maiden voyage tipped over and sank after 25 minutes. It was preserved for 350 years at the bottom of the sea, almost intact, and they´ve salvaged it and restored and preserved it. It is sitting inside the museum, which is interesting in itself, but every time you turn around and there is this huge black warship that looks like something out of a pirate movie looming over you, and your head just explodes. I don´t think I´ve ever wanted to leave a museum less.
So that´s us up to date. I´m sitting in a 7eleven typing this, so now you know where we are and what we´re doing! I´ll hopefully write more in depth stuff soon, but it will probably wait until I´m back in the UK, judging from past performance.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Nida
On Friday morning (the 24th) we crept out of our dorm nice and early, and headed for the bus station. It's always strange to see that there are people up and about at 6.30 in the morning, when we, at least, are in the habit of sleeping in. Anyway, our bus came, to take us to the edge of the Baltic. The trip was perfectly pleasant, other than the horrible squat toilets at the one stop, and having reached Klaipeda, the bus trundled onto a ferry to cross to the spit, a long piece of land stretching down the coast, enclosing a lagoon. It is forested with conifer and moss, on sandy soil. You'll remember we had headed out here without booking accommodation, which was making M a little nervous. On arriving in Nida, after stops at some other tiny fishing villages, we headed straight for the tourist information office, where we'd heard they could find rooms. However before we even got inside, a tiny woman asked us if we wanted accommodation, and we said yes. She spoke no english, and just a tiny bit of german, but she led us past some dodgy-looking apartment buildings to a very nice new building, and up to a very new apartment. Our room was huge and comfortable, and only 100 litas a night. Which is about 50 bucks, for the two of us. We were pretty happy.
Having settled in, we went to explore the town. It is super-cute. Rows of brown and blue painted cottages, and nice gardens. A nice little harbour (the town is on the lagoon side), and paths through the forest up to the enormous sand dune. We walked up it, and the view was wonderful - we could see Russia. That's the bit of Russia tucked in between Lithuania and Poland, and cut off from the rest of the country. I can't really remember what we did for the rest of the day. We went to the supermarket at some point and bought food, and wandered around a bit looking at the village. We went for dinner at CiliPica, the local mass eatery type place on the harbour, which has decent cheap food. Oh, we had lunch at a nice little cafe recommended by the guide book.
The next day we hired bikes and rode for a long way through the forest up the spit, then across to the baltic side to the beach. Then back to town for some lunch at the same cafe, then we rode to Russia. We couldn´t go in, obviously, and couldn´t really even get close - there was a big no-man´s land between the customs houses on each side. But we took some forbidden photos and sort of milled about a bit. Then we rode to the proper beach, where all the people were. Very popular, despite the rather bracing water. We had dinner again at the same place, then took a beer and went up the sand dune to drink it overlooking the town as darkness descended. Very pretty.
The next day we were to leave, and had seen everything, so spent the day cafe-hopping, having a small beer and a snack in each one. We were quite sleepy by the time the bus came to take us back to the mainland, and Margot almost fell asleep on someone - the bus was absolutely packed full. Our hostel in Klaipeda was horrible and small and dirty and the mattresses were more like a bunch of rocks in a sheet, but it was right next to the bus station for the next morning, and in that was totally ok.
Having settled in, we went to explore the town. It is super-cute. Rows of brown and blue painted cottages, and nice gardens. A nice little harbour (the town is on the lagoon side), and paths through the forest up to the enormous sand dune. We walked up it, and the view was wonderful - we could see Russia. That's the bit of Russia tucked in between Lithuania and Poland, and cut off from the rest of the country. I can't really remember what we did for the rest of the day. We went to the supermarket at some point and bought food, and wandered around a bit looking at the village. We went for dinner at CiliPica, the local mass eatery type place on the harbour, which has decent cheap food. Oh, we had lunch at a nice little cafe recommended by the guide book.
The next day we hired bikes and rode for a long way through the forest up the spit, then across to the baltic side to the beach. Then back to town for some lunch at the same cafe, then we rode to Russia. We couldn´t go in, obviously, and couldn´t really even get close - there was a big no-man´s land between the customs houses on each side. But we took some forbidden photos and sort of milled about a bit. Then we rode to the proper beach, where all the people were. Very popular, despite the rather bracing water. We had dinner again at the same place, then took a beer and went up the sand dune to drink it overlooking the town as darkness descended. Very pretty.
The next day we were to leave, and had seen everything, so spent the day cafe-hopping, having a small beer and a snack in each one. We were quite sleepy by the time the bus came to take us back to the mainland, and Margot almost fell asleep on someone - the bus was absolutely packed full. Our hostel in Klaipeda was horrible and small and dirty and the mattresses were more like a bunch of rocks in a sheet, but it was right next to the bus station for the next morning, and in that was totally ok.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Vilnius
So after our extremely short flirtation with Warsaw, we were on our way out of Poland on the seven o'clock train. This time it was more how we like it - sharing a compartment with only one other person. It was a very comfortable trip, and we snoozed and played cards and ate bread and cheese and read and looked out the window throughout Eastern Poland. Despite the undeniable picture-postcard beauty of Bavaustria, I think this area was my favourite train-scenery so far. We spent a long time travelling through thick pine forests (I saw a deer at the side of the track), then emerged into rolling farmland, dotted with cows chained to stakes. There were lots of storks, on high nests, and a number of hawks. All very idyllic and fertile. Eventually we reached Sestokai, just over the border in Lithuania, where we changed trains to a local, and sped towards Vilnius, arriving only nine hours or so after leaving Warsaw. Thanks to everyone speaking english, as usual, we found our hostel (getting there via trolley-bus), which turned out to be our own little studio apartment opening right onto the street, in a really good location. We spent the evening doing our usual wander around.
On Tuesday morning (21st) it took us a while to get organised, as we slept in a fair bit, and also there was a flat screen tv in our flat. We were waiting, as well, for the girl to come and collect our clothes, which she did without any evident distress, despite the smell. Freed, we went to visit the cathedral, which was ok, and then had some mexican food at a little place run by a very friendly mexican guy who had a chat to us. After lunch we walked off the burritos by climbing to the top of the hill to the upper castle, or what's left of it. They have reconstructed one tower, which contains a very small museum, and grants a wonderful 360 degree view of the city. Then we took the tiny funicular to the bottom of the other side of the hill, to go to the prehistory museum, which was pretty rad. We walked back around the hill to the old town, then stumbled across a Thai massage place, which gave Margot an idea. Which was to get a massage. So I went off by myself for an explore, after pilfering some of the ginger biscuits in the waiting room. I basically just saw lots of churches, but also the only remaining synagogue (there used to be 100), which was closed. There are some really cool churches, my favourite being a baroque one in an enclosed courtyard. It was totally run down and shut, but the whole space had a very cool dilapidated feel. Anyway I went and picked up a battered Margot, and we wandered around again for an hour or so before heading back to our little flat, to make dinner and drink beer. We'd finally found some Czech beer, after craving it since Prague.
Wednesday morning, changeable again. Clouds move really really fast in Europe for some reason. We got up fairly early and went to the bus station to sort out our transport for the next couple of cities, then hopped on a bus to Trakai, which we'd heard had a castle in the middle of a lake. We heard right, it was super-amazing! After lunching on some traditional Karaim food (they were a sect, some of which were brought from the Crimea in the Middle Ages to serve as guards for the local bigwig), which was basically a pastie, we walked through the cute painted wooden cottages to the water's edge. Picturesque, let me tell you. From the town, there is a wooden bridge across to a little island, and from the other side of that island another wooden bridge across to another little island, which is taken up almost entirely by a brick castle. The scene is set of with gently whispering reeds, and tourists pedalling around in stupid dolphin-shaped boats. The whole effect is quite photo-worthy. The castle is mostly reconstructed, having been destroyed a number of different times, but the foundations are original, and they've done a very good job with the rest. There was a random exhibition of porcelain, pipes and whatnot in the main part of the castle, but after you crossed the drawbridge into the keep and climbed rickety stairs into the upper floors, there was a very good little local history museum.
After exhausting the potential photographic opportunities offered by the castle, we headed to the other castle, which was much closer to its ruined state, being, in point of fact, just some ruins. However, it was very nice, and there were some people doing traditional type things inside. Pottery and so on. Anyway we had seen a fancy chocolate place on our way from the bus station, so we headed back there and each had two fancy chocolates for afternoon tea. And the fist unburnt coffee that I've tasted so far on this trip. Then back to the bus, and back to Vilnius, then made another huge dinner (I'm not good at judging amounts of uncooked pasta), accompanied by Zlaty Bazant, my favourite Slovakian beer.
Thursday dawned to pouring rain, which is no fun. We watched some cartoons for a bit, and cleaned up and repacked, as we had to change hostels. Thanks to the vagaries of pricing, we had to tramp for twenty minutes through the rain so that we could sleep in a six-bed dorm for the same price as our little studio apartment. It being horrible weather, we dumped our stuff and tried out the local contemporary art gallery, which turned out to be very good. Then for lunch we sat in a chain cafe and were ignored by the waitress. I gorged myself on herring, which wasn't the smartest thing ever. To walk it off, we went back to the bus station to sort out some more reservations, then back again to go to the internet cafe, where we discovered that pretty much everything is booked out in scandinavia, and it all costs two or three times as much as anywhere else. So that wasn't fun, but we made what bookings we could, though we'll have to be in large and sometimes seperate dorms. Then we had another walk around, then had dinner and more beer, and then did more walking around. I really like Vilnius, it's got a huge old town centre which all looks gorgeous, but doesn't feel as touristy as alot of other cities. It feels very much like a functioning city centre, populated more by locals than by tourists.
On Tuesday morning (21st) it took us a while to get organised, as we slept in a fair bit, and also there was a flat screen tv in our flat. We were waiting, as well, for the girl to come and collect our clothes, which she did without any evident distress, despite the smell. Freed, we went to visit the cathedral, which was ok, and then had some mexican food at a little place run by a very friendly mexican guy who had a chat to us. After lunch we walked off the burritos by climbing to the top of the hill to the upper castle, or what's left of it. They have reconstructed one tower, which contains a very small museum, and grants a wonderful 360 degree view of the city. Then we took the tiny funicular to the bottom of the other side of the hill, to go to the prehistory museum, which was pretty rad. We walked back around the hill to the old town, then stumbled across a Thai massage place, which gave Margot an idea. Which was to get a massage. So I went off by myself for an explore, after pilfering some of the ginger biscuits in the waiting room. I basically just saw lots of churches, but also the only remaining synagogue (there used to be 100), which was closed. There are some really cool churches, my favourite being a baroque one in an enclosed courtyard. It was totally run down and shut, but the whole space had a very cool dilapidated feel. Anyway I went and picked up a battered Margot, and we wandered around again for an hour or so before heading back to our little flat, to make dinner and drink beer. We'd finally found some Czech beer, after craving it since Prague.
Wednesday morning, changeable again. Clouds move really really fast in Europe for some reason. We got up fairly early and went to the bus station to sort out our transport for the next couple of cities, then hopped on a bus to Trakai, which we'd heard had a castle in the middle of a lake. We heard right, it was super-amazing! After lunching on some traditional Karaim food (they were a sect, some of which were brought from the Crimea in the Middle Ages to serve as guards for the local bigwig), which was basically a pastie, we walked through the cute painted wooden cottages to the water's edge. Picturesque, let me tell you. From the town, there is a wooden bridge across to a little island, and from the other side of that island another wooden bridge across to another little island, which is taken up almost entirely by a brick castle. The scene is set of with gently whispering reeds, and tourists pedalling around in stupid dolphin-shaped boats. The whole effect is quite photo-worthy. The castle is mostly reconstructed, having been destroyed a number of different times, but the foundations are original, and they've done a very good job with the rest. There was a random exhibition of porcelain, pipes and whatnot in the main part of the castle, but after you crossed the drawbridge into the keep and climbed rickety stairs into the upper floors, there was a very good little local history museum.
After exhausting the potential photographic opportunities offered by the castle, we headed to the other castle, which was much closer to its ruined state, being, in point of fact, just some ruins. However, it was very nice, and there were some people doing traditional type things inside. Pottery and so on. Anyway we had seen a fancy chocolate place on our way from the bus station, so we headed back there and each had two fancy chocolates for afternoon tea. And the fist unburnt coffee that I've tasted so far on this trip. Then back to the bus, and back to Vilnius, then made another huge dinner (I'm not good at judging amounts of uncooked pasta), accompanied by Zlaty Bazant, my favourite Slovakian beer.
Thursday dawned to pouring rain, which is no fun. We watched some cartoons for a bit, and cleaned up and repacked, as we had to change hostels. Thanks to the vagaries of pricing, we had to tramp for twenty minutes through the rain so that we could sleep in a six-bed dorm for the same price as our little studio apartment. It being horrible weather, we dumped our stuff and tried out the local contemporary art gallery, which turned out to be very good. Then for lunch we sat in a chain cafe and were ignored by the waitress. I gorged myself on herring, which wasn't the smartest thing ever. To walk it off, we went back to the bus station to sort out some more reservations, then back again to go to the internet cafe, where we discovered that pretty much everything is booked out in scandinavia, and it all costs two or three times as much as anywhere else. So that wasn't fun, but we made what bookings we could, though we'll have to be in large and sometimes seperate dorms. Then we had another walk around, then had dinner and more beer, and then did more walking around. I really like Vilnius, it's got a huge old town centre which all looks gorgeous, but doesn't feel as touristy as alot of other cities. It feels very much like a functioning city centre, populated more by locals than by tourists.
Monday, July 27, 2009
North Pole-land
On Friday morning the 17th, we had an absolutely thrilling day of travel. Checking out of our hostel (in Krakow), we headed to the train station bright-eyed, ready to venture north. The main train station is a bit of a dump, and despite having the train timetable information printed on small yellow posters, they never display it on the boards until about 5 minutes before the train arrives, so you've no idea what's going on, especially when the train is late, as ours was. But it came, and we hopped on. The journey to Warsaw took about 5 hours, and we had a connecting train 10 minutes later. As our train was running 10 minutes late, you can imagine that I was keen to leap off and find our train as soon as we got there. However, such was not to be. It was all far too confusing - a warren of concrete tunnels lined with gaudy stalls. So, we had to wait for 2 hours for the next train, which we did with the help of a beer at a nearby cafe. When the train did arrive, it was chaos; hundreds of people pushing their way through the tiny corridor at the side of the carriage, fighting for seats. We ended up standing for the first 5 or ten minutes until it sorted itself out a bit and we crammed into a compartment with six other people.
After that the ride was perfectly pleasant - complete with helpful english-speaking Polish man - and we arrived in Torun, the birthplace of Nicholas Copernicus, without any more drama. After consulting a map, we decided to walk to our hotel, which didn't look far. More fool us. The bridge over the river is nearly two kilometres long, stretching for ages over wetland first. We made it, with beautiful views of the town as we crossed, comforted that there was a nice hotel room waiting for us. But, alas, apparently our booking had never occurred. Whether the fault was with the booking website or the hotel, I've no idea, but we convinced the receptionist to house us, insisting that we pay only the price we had been quoted on the hostel site. Having achieved that, we were satisfied, as the room was really very nice. It was late and we were tired, so we did not explore the town that evening.
The next morning, though, we set off refreshed to see Torun. It was very, very hot, and we walked the streets of the mediaeval town sweating like knights in plate armour. In a street near the cathedral is the house where Copernicus was (probably) born, and there was a very boring museum in the attached building. The house itself was fascinating - a 14th century merchant's house, with huge dark beams on the ceilings, and disconcertingly few rooms. Heading back into the heat, we discovered the ruins of the Teutonic castle in one corner of the town, torn down after the townspeople somehow captured it and got rid of the knights, possibly not in the nicest possible way. It was quite a structure in its day, made of red brick, and there were interesting mannequins in the crypt, and poor displays of mediaeval fighting going on above ground. It was absolutely scorching in the uncovered ruins, though, so we headed to a big gothic building that was a palace and a granary, but I can't remember in which order. It housed an exhibition of oriental weaponry, which I thought was very cool, despite the lack of information in english. There was also an exhibition about Torun, which was incomprehensible.
After lunch, we walked north, just outside the border of the old town, to the outdoor Ethnographic Museum they have erected in a park. I like that sort of thing, and soon we were poking our noses into reconstructed farmhouses, mills, and smithies, imagining what life would have been like for the poor sods who occupied them. This was hot business, the sun didn't let up all day, and we had to force ourselves to see the last couple of things before retiring for a drink. We were pretty wiped out after walking around in the heat all day, so we went back to the hotel and had a bit of a nanna-nap until it cooled down, then wandered around looking at all the pretty lights, and had the old staple of pizza and pasta for dinner. We got back to our room just in time, before a storm wiped away the last of the heat, and flooded the street in front of the hotel, great sheets of water gusting sideways and lightning lighting the sky.
On Sunday we had to check out, despite the rain, but to Goretex, rain is as nothing, so we were able to wander around a bit more with no difficulty. We finally went into the old town hall in the main square, where there was an art deco exhibit that was mildly interesting, and various galleries of ho-hum paintings. Despite the Goretex, we welched on the long walk back to the station, and got ourselves driven there by the least emotional taxi driver in the world. The train back to Warsaw was just as full as the train to it, and this time we weren't lucky enough to get a seat, and had to stand in the tiny corridor the whole three hours. The two compartments near us were full of drunk people, one of whom thought that the corridor was outside, and lit up cigarette after cigarette, so all in all a good time was had by all. But we arrived eventually, and made our way to our hostel, housed in the old Department of Sugar Distribution (or something) building. Checking train times for the morrow, we quickly realised that there was only one train a day to Vilnius, our next stop, and that it left at 7am. So it was back to the station to buy the tickets, then basically straight to bed, and as it was fairly late, did not get a huge amount of sleep. But that story's for next time!
After that the ride was perfectly pleasant - complete with helpful english-speaking Polish man - and we arrived in Torun, the birthplace of Nicholas Copernicus, without any more drama. After consulting a map, we decided to walk to our hotel, which didn't look far. More fool us. The bridge over the river is nearly two kilometres long, stretching for ages over wetland first. We made it, with beautiful views of the town as we crossed, comforted that there was a nice hotel room waiting for us. But, alas, apparently our booking had never occurred. Whether the fault was with the booking website or the hotel, I've no idea, but we convinced the receptionist to house us, insisting that we pay only the price we had been quoted on the hostel site. Having achieved that, we were satisfied, as the room was really very nice. It was late and we were tired, so we did not explore the town that evening.
The next morning, though, we set off refreshed to see Torun. It was very, very hot, and we walked the streets of the mediaeval town sweating like knights in plate armour. In a street near the cathedral is the house where Copernicus was (probably) born, and there was a very boring museum in the attached building. The house itself was fascinating - a 14th century merchant's house, with huge dark beams on the ceilings, and disconcertingly few rooms. Heading back into the heat, we discovered the ruins of the Teutonic castle in one corner of the town, torn down after the townspeople somehow captured it and got rid of the knights, possibly not in the nicest possible way. It was quite a structure in its day, made of red brick, and there were interesting mannequins in the crypt, and poor displays of mediaeval fighting going on above ground. It was absolutely scorching in the uncovered ruins, though, so we headed to a big gothic building that was a palace and a granary, but I can't remember in which order. It housed an exhibition of oriental weaponry, which I thought was very cool, despite the lack of information in english. There was also an exhibition about Torun, which was incomprehensible.
After lunch, we walked north, just outside the border of the old town, to the outdoor Ethnographic Museum they have erected in a park. I like that sort of thing, and soon we were poking our noses into reconstructed farmhouses, mills, and smithies, imagining what life would have been like for the poor sods who occupied them. This was hot business, the sun didn't let up all day, and we had to force ourselves to see the last couple of things before retiring for a drink. We were pretty wiped out after walking around in the heat all day, so we went back to the hotel and had a bit of a nanna-nap until it cooled down, then wandered around looking at all the pretty lights, and had the old staple of pizza and pasta for dinner. We got back to our room just in time, before a storm wiped away the last of the heat, and flooded the street in front of the hotel, great sheets of water gusting sideways and lightning lighting the sky.
On Sunday we had to check out, despite the rain, but to Goretex, rain is as nothing, so we were able to wander around a bit more with no difficulty. We finally went into the old town hall in the main square, where there was an art deco exhibit that was mildly interesting, and various galleries of ho-hum paintings. Despite the Goretex, we welched on the long walk back to the station, and got ourselves driven there by the least emotional taxi driver in the world. The train back to Warsaw was just as full as the train to it, and this time we weren't lucky enough to get a seat, and had to stand in the tiny corridor the whole three hours. The two compartments near us were full of drunk people, one of whom thought that the corridor was outside, and lit up cigarette after cigarette, so all in all a good time was had by all. But we arrived eventually, and made our way to our hostel, housed in the old Department of Sugar Distribution (or something) building. Checking train times for the morrow, we quickly realised that there was only one train a day to Vilnius, our next stop, and that it left at 7am. So it was back to the station to buy the tickets, then basically straight to bed, and as it was fairly late, did not get a huge amount of sleep. But that story's for next time!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Krakow
On Tuesday the 14th, our first morning in Krakow, we did the obvious thing and wandered into the old town. The central square was the biggest in mediaeval Eastern Europe, and it's easy to see why - the centre of it is taken up by an arcaded covered market, and there is still enough room on every side to fit in any other town square we've seen. There is also a free-standing tower which is all that remains of the old town hall, and a very wee church. In the next corner from this cute little building is something a little more impressive - St. Mary's cathdral. It is a huge brick gothic church, with two asymmetrical towers, from the top of which, each hour (or day, I forget) some firemen play a tune on a trumpet, cutting off mid-bar in memory of a trumpeter who was shot trying to warn the city of invaders in the middle ages. It's the inside of the cathedral which is the most interesting, however. Like a cathedral would have been, it is completely painted inside, and the effect is astonishing. The vaulted ceiling is painted dark blue and covered with gold stars, and the walls and columns are coloured in bright patterns. It's definitely my favourite so far.
Seeking something a little less devout, we headed to Collegius Maius, the original college of the University, with a museum holding great treasures including some of the instruments Copernicus, who was a student of the university, used when developing his heliocentric theory. He didn't develop them while at this university, but it was amazing to see the actual instruments he used. After being led at breakneck pace through thousands of other items in the museum, we headed to Wawel Castle. It holds a very imposing position on what appears to be the only hill in Krakow. It became very very run down under the Hapsburgs, and was in fact used as the army barracks, but they've done a great job restoring it, and we went through the old State Rooms. I can't tell you much about them, as there was no useful information provided at all, but I can tell you that some of them had a sort of wallpaper made out of leather. So that was pretty gross. After the castle we headed back to the hostel for dinner, sticking our noses into a couple of other churches on the way.
The next morning we got up nice and early, were picked up in a van/minibus, and driven to Auschwitz by a very angry Polish man. The weather was scorching hot, which probably made the impact of the camp stronger, as we were able to picture prisoners standing or working in the heat, and how weakening that would have been. On the other hand the bright sunlight seemed almost incongruous with the dark history of the place, but I think despite the huge crowds, everyone was very sombre. We were led through some of the buildings in which prisoners lived, and shown punishment cells and execution places, as well as the poor conditions in the living quarters. There were extremely disturbing displays of personal items, the pile of shoes of children sent straight to the gas chambers being probably the hardest to see, as well as actual hair taken from the bodies of victims before cremation. We also went to Birkenau, which had the remains of hundreds of horrible wooden barns, where prisoners were made to sleep packed together in horrible conditions, and the platform and tracks were people were unloaded and sorted into people who were made to work, and people who were sent straight to the gas chambers to be murdered.
So not the most cheerful start to the day. But it's something which I think we had to do, while here. The holocaust may not have much to do with me personally, but it is a huge event in our cultural history, and therefore a part of my history. So I'm glad we went.
Afterwards we were a bit exhausted and dehydrated, so we went back to the hostel for a bit of a nap, before heading out again. We had dinner at a cafe on the small town square (right near the big one), including some traditional polish dumplings, which were delicious. After dinner we went to a nearby bar for a drink. At about a quarter past nine, an absolutely beautiful thunderstorm swept overhead, which was wonderful for us visually, but not so great for the organisers of the animation festival taking place in the square. However, the rain was light, and the festival started on time at 21:30, with us in the audience. We watched a few of the films, which weren't too bad, and then home to bed.
Thursday morning promised another hot day, which was duly delivered. We made use of the internet in the hostel to Skype parents, then went back into the old town to go to a gallery the name of which I can't remember. It contains a very famous painting but Leonardo da Vinci which I'd never heard of, called "Lady with Ermine", which Margot was hanging out for. I have to admit I myself was more impressed with the armoury, a gallery of weapons containing a lot of very impressive swords.
Escaping back into the heat, we decided cleverly to do a touristic walk of the old Jewish quarter, including the old synagogue which has some surviving bits of city walls attached to it. There is a lovely square near it with Jewish restaurants and so on, and an old Jewish cemetery, which was shut. The main square in this part of town (Kazimierz, originally a different city) has some very cool little bars around it, so we sat in one and had some vodkas. After a while we moved on to the bar we'd gone to the night before, then went home to make ourselves a late dinner. After dinner we went out for a walk around the nightlife, and watched some more animation in the small square. All in all not a bad day.
Seeking something a little less devout, we headed to Collegius Maius, the original college of the University, with a museum holding great treasures including some of the instruments Copernicus, who was a student of the university, used when developing his heliocentric theory. He didn't develop them while at this university, but it was amazing to see the actual instruments he used. After being led at breakneck pace through thousands of other items in the museum, we headed to Wawel Castle. It holds a very imposing position on what appears to be the only hill in Krakow. It became very very run down under the Hapsburgs, and was in fact used as the army barracks, but they've done a great job restoring it, and we went through the old State Rooms. I can't tell you much about them, as there was no useful information provided at all, but I can tell you that some of them had a sort of wallpaper made out of leather. So that was pretty gross. After the castle we headed back to the hostel for dinner, sticking our noses into a couple of other churches on the way.
The next morning we got up nice and early, were picked up in a van/minibus, and driven to Auschwitz by a very angry Polish man. The weather was scorching hot, which probably made the impact of the camp stronger, as we were able to picture prisoners standing or working in the heat, and how weakening that would have been. On the other hand the bright sunlight seemed almost incongruous with the dark history of the place, but I think despite the huge crowds, everyone was very sombre. We were led through some of the buildings in which prisoners lived, and shown punishment cells and execution places, as well as the poor conditions in the living quarters. There were extremely disturbing displays of personal items, the pile of shoes of children sent straight to the gas chambers being probably the hardest to see, as well as actual hair taken from the bodies of victims before cremation. We also went to Birkenau, which had the remains of hundreds of horrible wooden barns, where prisoners were made to sleep packed together in horrible conditions, and the platform and tracks were people were unloaded and sorted into people who were made to work, and people who were sent straight to the gas chambers to be murdered.
So not the most cheerful start to the day. But it's something which I think we had to do, while here. The holocaust may not have much to do with me personally, but it is a huge event in our cultural history, and therefore a part of my history. So I'm glad we went.
Afterwards we were a bit exhausted and dehydrated, so we went back to the hostel for a bit of a nap, before heading out again. We had dinner at a cafe on the small town square (right near the big one), including some traditional polish dumplings, which were delicious. After dinner we went to a nearby bar for a drink. At about a quarter past nine, an absolutely beautiful thunderstorm swept overhead, which was wonderful for us visually, but not so great for the organisers of the animation festival taking place in the square. However, the rain was light, and the festival started on time at 21:30, with us in the audience. We watched a few of the films, which weren't too bad, and then home to bed.
Thursday morning promised another hot day, which was duly delivered. We made use of the internet in the hostel to Skype parents, then went back into the old town to go to a gallery the name of which I can't remember. It contains a very famous painting but Leonardo da Vinci which I'd never heard of, called "Lady with Ermine", which Margot was hanging out for. I have to admit I myself was more impressed with the armoury, a gallery of weapons containing a lot of very impressive swords.
Escaping back into the heat, we decided cleverly to do a touristic walk of the old Jewish quarter, including the old synagogue which has some surviving bits of city walls attached to it. There is a lovely square near it with Jewish restaurants and so on, and an old Jewish cemetery, which was shut. The main square in this part of town (Kazimierz, originally a different city) has some very cool little bars around it, so we sat in one and had some vodkas. After a while we moved on to the bar we'd gone to the night before, then went home to make ourselves a late dinner. After dinner we went out for a walk around the nightlife, and watched some more animation in the small square. All in all not a bad day.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Cesky Krumlov, and beyond!
Our train to Cesky Krumlov was nice at first, then we changed at Ceske Budejovice to a tiny shuttle train packed to the gills with backpackers. That was ok - we were quickly there, and made our way down the hill towards the town. Not having a map, and the directions to the hostel assuming we had arrived at the bus station, we were quickly lost. Luckily, we discovered some people speaking english (not, as we found out soon enough, a very uncommon thing), and they helped direct us. Margot was very keen to get there and check in, but my mind was exploding as we walked through the town, and I was trying to photograph everything at once. Cesky Krumlov is more awesome than any town has a right to be. It is obscenely pretty, and it is not fair that I don't live there. Not that anyone else does either - every building that isn't a shop is a hotel or pension. Our hostel was very nice and quirky, in a 250 year old building that used to be a bakery. The managers there were a couple of Australians, who'd gone travelling a couple of years ago and never gone home again. It had a very nice relaxed atmosphere. However, we just dumped our bags and went out to explore the town. I think I took about three or four hundred photos in Cesky Krumlov. We had dinner at a restaurant with tables right down at the water level of the dangerously swollen and terrifically fast-flowing Vlatava. The dinner was fantastic - a feast of potato related bohemian things, as well as smoked meat and rabbit (chicken for Margot). After dinner we had a hot spiced mead. Delicious. Then a walk around the town in the dark, including up to the castle (the second biggest in CZ, after Prague), where we discovered that they keep bears in the moat.
In the morning we had breakfast at a nice cafe, which was seemingly full of Australians, then went up to the Castle and did a tour with about 15 thousand other people. You can't learn much in a group that size, but the tourguide was lovely. The castle is just amazing - built as a continuation of a cliff above the Vlatava, started in the 14th century and added to and changed over the years. The few days we were there I just never got over it. After the tour we went back to the hostel for some lunch, then went out to go on a trail ride, which was one of the activities suggested in the guidebook. I was looking forward to it, and it was kind of fun, but very boring as we never went above a walk, although I held my horse back a couple of times then made her trot to catch up. After the ride we went back into town and wandered around in awe for a while, then had dinner at the Two Mary's, the same place as the night before, only I had the pheasant rather than the rabbit this time. Awesome. Then we spent the evening wandering around town, including going for another stickybeak at the bears. I could walk around this town forever. It has been so beautifully restored, and every building is newly rendered and painted, making it feel much as it must have done in its heyday (only with way more hotels and tourists).
On Sunday morning (only yesterday!) we had one last long explore, walking around the other side of the old town, and seeing some lovely parts we hadn't previously, as well as getting different views of the castle and the cathedral. There is a huge mansion for sale on a hillside on the other side of the town from the castle, and we both agreed that that is the house we will buy. We said our goodbyes, hoping we'd be back, then almost didn't leave when our taxi inexplicably didn't show up. Eventually the manager of the hostel called a different company, so we just made it to our train back to Prague. We arrived latish, checked into the hostel that we'd accidentally gone to the first time we'd arrived in Prague, then spent a quiet evening with some takeaway chinese food and a cutthroat game of Gin played with our Mucha cards.
After an uncomfortable sleep (they really don't know how to do pillows in hostels), we awoke early this morning, packed, and went to the train station to head east. Waving goodbye to Prague, we spent the next 8 hours on the train, broken only by a stop in a frankly horrible train station in Katowice, where we had to change trains. The train for the remainder of the journey had no WC, so at the end of the two hour leg, we were in no position to have no local money, no idea how to get anywhere, and to be late to check in to our hostel. However, it worked itself out, with the help of a man working behind a hostel-booking desk, and we found our way here. So here we are. We have seen only as much of Krakow as we could see from the rickety old tram. Our hostel is lovely - a private room with a balcony overlooking a park, lots of space, nice kitchen, and most importantly free internet, which is why I have spent the evening getting this blog up to date rather that wandering around outside.
In the morning we had breakfast at a nice cafe, which was seemingly full of Australians, then went up to the Castle and did a tour with about 15 thousand other people. You can't learn much in a group that size, but the tourguide was lovely. The castle is just amazing - built as a continuation of a cliff above the Vlatava, started in the 14th century and added to and changed over the years. The few days we were there I just never got over it. After the tour we went back to the hostel for some lunch, then went out to go on a trail ride, which was one of the activities suggested in the guidebook. I was looking forward to it, and it was kind of fun, but very boring as we never went above a walk, although I held my horse back a couple of times then made her trot to catch up. After the ride we went back into town and wandered around in awe for a while, then had dinner at the Two Mary's, the same place as the night before, only I had the pheasant rather than the rabbit this time. Awesome. Then we spent the evening wandering around town, including going for another stickybeak at the bears. I could walk around this town forever. It has been so beautifully restored, and every building is newly rendered and painted, making it feel much as it must have done in its heyday (only with way more hotels and tourists).
On Sunday morning (only yesterday!) we had one last long explore, walking around the other side of the old town, and seeing some lovely parts we hadn't previously, as well as getting different views of the castle and the cathedral. There is a huge mansion for sale on a hillside on the other side of the town from the castle, and we both agreed that that is the house we will buy. We said our goodbyes, hoping we'd be back, then almost didn't leave when our taxi inexplicably didn't show up. Eventually the manager of the hostel called a different company, so we just made it to our train back to Prague. We arrived latish, checked into the hostel that we'd accidentally gone to the first time we'd arrived in Prague, then spent a quiet evening with some takeaway chinese food and a cutthroat game of Gin played with our Mucha cards.
After an uncomfortable sleep (they really don't know how to do pillows in hostels), we awoke early this morning, packed, and went to the train station to head east. Waving goodbye to Prague, we spent the next 8 hours on the train, broken only by a stop in a frankly horrible train station in Katowice, where we had to change trains. The train for the remainder of the journey had no WC, so at the end of the two hour leg, we were in no position to have no local money, no idea how to get anywhere, and to be late to check in to our hostel. However, it worked itself out, with the help of a man working behind a hostel-booking desk, and we found our way here. So here we are. We have seen only as much of Krakow as we could see from the rickety old tram. Our hostel is lovely - a private room with a balcony overlooking a park, lots of space, nice kitchen, and most importantly free internet, which is why I have spent the evening getting this blog up to date rather that wandering around outside.
Prague
Arriving in Prague, we were met by a very rushed Raph. He had planned dinner and a tour for us, and we were running late. To make matters worse, I stuffed up the hostel reservations, taking us to the hostel that we actually only had one night in at a later date, Margot's time was chewed up negotiating with the owner - at this point we thought he had it wrong, so were pretty annoyed. Boy was my face red when we realised what I'd done, a bit later in the evening. After a very rushed but nice dinner, we joined the tour, which consisted of being driven around the town in a van, while a woman in the front seat delivered a relentless speech about the sights, none of which we took in. The tour ended with a trip to a very bizarre "singing fountain", which seemed to go on forever. All very incongruously awesome.
The next morning we very embarassedly moved to the correct hostel, which was in a very central location off Wenceslas Platz. While M napped, I went to reconnoitre the town with Raph. We poked our noses in a lot of churches, took lots of photos, and saw quite a lot or the old city. Eventually we met up with Margot again and walked across the Charles Bridge, at which point it started to rain. Undaunted, we bravely found a pub and retired for a couple of beers - even Margot drinks the beer in Prague! Afterwards M and I went back to the hostel for dinner, before heading out to Raph's old haunt on the other side of the river to meet up with him and some of his old AIESEC buddies for some drinks.
On Tuesday morning we were pretty lazy, and got going quite late. Again we met the Raphscallion, and this time went up to Prague Castle. We convinced him to actually pay to go inside, which he'd never done, and I have to say it was pretty awesome. Very mediaeval feeling, unlike the lovely 18th and 19th century palaces I was starting to think were all that was left. There was a huge stone hall which used to be used for indoor jousting contests, and we also saw the windows out of which some heretics were thrown. My favourite bit was St. George's Basilica, parts of which date back to the 9th century. Golden Lane was a bit odd - tiny tiny houses built originally for soldiers, then used by goldsmiths in the 16th century, but now restored or rebuilt, and painted by an animator. They look like a fake disneyland street, and are now trinket shops. On our way down M and I stopped to look at a restaurant, and Raph went on to meet Michela. However after making it across the bridge, Michela and her friend went off to rest, so Raph and we went to get dinner, eventually finding one at a cute little underground place called the Fat Mouse, where Raph had taken Westgarth while he was here. After dinner we retired to Raph and Michela's small hotel room and enjoyed great company and conversation until past 1am.
The next morning we slept in, of course, then went to the main square and looked at the Mucha museum. Alfons Mucha was a Czech graphic artist, whose images are iconic of the Art Nouveau style - look him up, it's all floaty beauties surrounded by blossoms, and that sort of thing. We bought a pack of cards with alot of his images on them. Heading back outside to the square, we met Raph again, and walked across the river to take the funicular up to the top of the hill with the mini Eiffel Tower on it. I've already forgotten the name. We wandered around the gardens up there, and looked at the view, and found lots of ourselves in the very cute little mirror maze, set up in a little fake castle, presumably at the same world fair for which the tower and the funicular were built. We took the long way down again, and went to a brewery, the name of which I can't remember, to try some local delicacies. We had some very nice beer - again Margot found one she liked - and I finally tried pivny syr, which was as strong as Raph had promised me - it's basically cheese and pepper and chilli and stuff all mixed up with a little beer. Pungent. We spent the evening walking around the old town.
On Thursday we met Raph again (you can see a pattern emerging here), and we went to the supermarket and stocked up for a picnic. The beer here is amazing. You can get a half litre bottle of very excellent beer for 10 crowns, which is about 75 cents or something like that. We took our stash and walked along the river to Vysehrad - the smaller castle, or what's left of it. There is a nice park on top of the hill there, and there were lots of wedding photos going on all around us as we sat on the grass and feasted on meat, cheese, bread and beer. It was a wonderful lazy afternoon. Afterwards we parted, and M and I returned to the hostel. After a rest, we headed out again, through a sudden torrential rainstorm, to the restaurant we'd espied the other day, on the hill under the castle. Courtesy of Bill, I had some money to take us out to a birthday dinner, so we'd chosen this restaurant, with tables on a terrace overlooking Prague, set in the site of King Wenceslas' old vineyard. Thanks to the rain, their was a terrific rainbow, and the sun came out again and we had a brilliant view, and it was all very romantic. Prague really is a beautiful city.
On Friday morning, after checking out, I determined to climb the tower of the old town hall. And boy was it worth 100 crowns. Not only was there an elevator the whole way, but the view from the top was unparalleled, granting a total 360 degree panorama of Prague, from a point at its centre. Also it was built in the early 15th century, and I'm a major sucker for old stuff. After descending, we met Raph again - for the final time! - and went for a coffee, before saying farewell to him and to Michela, and making our way to the Hlavni Nadrazi for our train to Cesky Krumlov.
The next morning we very embarassedly moved to the correct hostel, which was in a very central location off Wenceslas Platz. While M napped, I went to reconnoitre the town with Raph. We poked our noses in a lot of churches, took lots of photos, and saw quite a lot or the old city. Eventually we met up with Margot again and walked across the Charles Bridge, at which point it started to rain. Undaunted, we bravely found a pub and retired for a couple of beers - even Margot drinks the beer in Prague! Afterwards M and I went back to the hostel for dinner, before heading out to Raph's old haunt on the other side of the river to meet up with him and some of his old AIESEC buddies for some drinks.
On Tuesday morning we were pretty lazy, and got going quite late. Again we met the Raphscallion, and this time went up to Prague Castle. We convinced him to actually pay to go inside, which he'd never done, and I have to say it was pretty awesome. Very mediaeval feeling, unlike the lovely 18th and 19th century palaces I was starting to think were all that was left. There was a huge stone hall which used to be used for indoor jousting contests, and we also saw the windows out of which some heretics were thrown. My favourite bit was St. George's Basilica, parts of which date back to the 9th century. Golden Lane was a bit odd - tiny tiny houses built originally for soldiers, then used by goldsmiths in the 16th century, but now restored or rebuilt, and painted by an animator. They look like a fake disneyland street, and are now trinket shops. On our way down M and I stopped to look at a restaurant, and Raph went on to meet Michela. However after making it across the bridge, Michela and her friend went off to rest, so Raph and we went to get dinner, eventually finding one at a cute little underground place called the Fat Mouse, where Raph had taken Westgarth while he was here. After dinner we retired to Raph and Michela's small hotel room and enjoyed great company and conversation until past 1am.
The next morning we slept in, of course, then went to the main square and looked at the Mucha museum. Alfons Mucha was a Czech graphic artist, whose images are iconic of the Art Nouveau style - look him up, it's all floaty beauties surrounded by blossoms, and that sort of thing. We bought a pack of cards with alot of his images on them. Heading back outside to the square, we met Raph again, and walked across the river to take the funicular up to the top of the hill with the mini Eiffel Tower on it. I've already forgotten the name. We wandered around the gardens up there, and looked at the view, and found lots of ourselves in the very cute little mirror maze, set up in a little fake castle, presumably at the same world fair for which the tower and the funicular were built. We took the long way down again, and went to a brewery, the name of which I can't remember, to try some local delicacies. We had some very nice beer - again Margot found one she liked - and I finally tried pivny syr, which was as strong as Raph had promised me - it's basically cheese and pepper and chilli and stuff all mixed up with a little beer. Pungent. We spent the evening walking around the old town.
On Thursday we met Raph again (you can see a pattern emerging here), and we went to the supermarket and stocked up for a picnic. The beer here is amazing. You can get a half litre bottle of very excellent beer for 10 crowns, which is about 75 cents or something like that. We took our stash and walked along the river to Vysehrad - the smaller castle, or what's left of it. There is a nice park on top of the hill there, and there were lots of wedding photos going on all around us as we sat on the grass and feasted on meat, cheese, bread and beer. It was a wonderful lazy afternoon. Afterwards we parted, and M and I returned to the hostel. After a rest, we headed out again, through a sudden torrential rainstorm, to the restaurant we'd espied the other day, on the hill under the castle. Courtesy of Bill, I had some money to take us out to a birthday dinner, so we'd chosen this restaurant, with tables on a terrace overlooking Prague, set in the site of King Wenceslas' old vineyard. Thanks to the rain, their was a terrific rainbow, and the sun came out again and we had a brilliant view, and it was all very romantic. Prague really is a beautiful city.
On Friday morning, after checking out, I determined to climb the tower of the old town hall. And boy was it worth 100 crowns. Not only was there an elevator the whole way, but the view from the top was unparalleled, granting a total 360 degree panorama of Prague, from a point at its centre. Also it was built in the early 15th century, and I'm a major sucker for old stuff. After descending, we met Raph again - for the final time! - and went for a coffee, before saying farewell to him and to Michela, and making our way to the Hlavni Nadrazi for our train to Cesky Krumlov.
Vienna
I am going to have to put my brains over a rack for this one, it has been a long time since my last confession.
Our arrival in Vienna was marked by a sudden rainstorm, conveniently. We made our way to the hostel, which was in disarray. It is student accommodation during the uni year, and this was the first day of hostel operations for the summer. The key system was stupid - one key per room. So if you left the room you had to give the key to reception in case your roommates wanted it. Very inefficient. Never mind, we had lovely roommates, and made ourselves a dinner of a can of goulash -type stuff that we'd been carrying around since Budapest. Spent most of the evening doing laundry.
Thursday morning, though, Vienna began for properly. After a healthy bowl of muesli we walked into the centre of town along Mariahilferstrasse. Vienna is a very wealthy looking city, lots of expensive shops and cars, and well-dressed people. In the centre of town is St Stephens, a huge gothic cathedral that is dirtier than the mind of a heathen. They do seem to be making an effort to clean it, though, and it will look amazing once they're done. Further into the town we came on the Jesuit church, the name of which escapes me, with a much less exciting exterior. The interior, though, was far and away the most lavish I have ever seen - and I've seen a lot of churches in the last month. The columns were a red and green swirly stone, and were not straight but spiralled. There was not an inch of bare stone. There was gold and marble and lavish paintings over every inch. This is a rich order of monks. Past this church, on the outside of the old city walls (which no longer exist at all), was the MAK museum, a very enjoyable museum about functional design, in which each room is curated by a different artist. It was full of beautiful articles of furniture, as well as a bunch of other stuff. After this we went to a slightly less light-hearted museum at Judenplatz. This commemorated the history of the Jewish community in Mediaeval Vienna, and had an amazing archeological dig of the foundations of the old synagogue, destroyed in 1421, entombed within it.
I had had enough of museums for the day, but Margot went into the Hofburg museum, which she told me later was wonderful. I spent the time visiting a few more churches, my favourite of which was St. Michael's, and wandered around the city a bit. I found a house where Beethoven had lived and written some of his famous music, and scouted out the Rathausplatz where it seemed there was a film festival. I then waited for M on the grass in the park behind the Hofburg. When she was done, we walked around a bit more, went back to the hostel for some pasta, and then headed to Rathausplatz to watch a film of a concert of Strauss, Haydn, and another guy. Of course it rained on us, but we were prepared, and had a wonderful time.
The next morning we tried to leave early, but somehow got started late. We went straight out to Schonbrunn Palace, which was absolutely amazing, despite the lacklustre audioguide. It was strange to walk through these opulent apartments where an actual emperor had lived and worked only less than a hundred years ago. And we stood in the room where Mozart had given his first performance, at the age of six, to the empress. Very cool. The grounds of the palace are also beautiful, and include some hilarious fake roman ruins. After drinking our fill, we went back into the city on the U, and went to search for tickets to see the Spanish Riding School, eventually finding them after some false starts. I'm afraid to say we stooped to McDonald's as we were desperately hungry by this point, but it's not as cheap over here, despite tasting the same, i.e. terrible. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the Albertina museum - it is supposed to hold photography and graphic art, but for some reason holds a collection of modern art. It did however have a very nice royal apartment which we looked through a couple of times. We spent the evening, after another home-cooked meal, wandering along the extremely dodgy looking canal, and through some very nice parts of the old town.
On Saturday morning we went to the Spanish Riding school, something I've always wanted to see. Unfortunately the proper show was on holiday, so there was just a display of some young stallions, some foals, and some carriage driving. A bit disappointing really but cheap at the price, and it's still nice to say I've been there. After that we negotiated the wasteland that is Sudbahnhof to buy our ticket for the next day, then made our way to the Belvedere. This is a palace built buy a prince and then bought by Maria Theresa for use as an art gallery. It contains some very famous artworks, inlcuding Jacques Louis-David's Napoleon, and a collection of Gustave Klimt, the most famous of course being "The Kiss", images of which are to be found plastering tote bags and coffee mugs in every second shop in Vienna. After exhausting the gallery's possibilities, I went on a mission to find a swiss army knife, which was successful. Now we won't have to cut salami and cheese with only our teeth! We spent the evening, I'm afraid to say, watching movies, in english. It was great.
In the morning, we took a last look around Vienna, and checked out the oldest church in the city, Ruprechtskirche, parts of which date back to 720. The majority of it is still 11th century, so very very old. Then, alas, our time in beautiful, expensive Vienna was at an end, and we had to board the train for Prague.
Our arrival in Vienna was marked by a sudden rainstorm, conveniently. We made our way to the hostel, which was in disarray. It is student accommodation during the uni year, and this was the first day of hostel operations for the summer. The key system was stupid - one key per room. So if you left the room you had to give the key to reception in case your roommates wanted it. Very inefficient. Never mind, we had lovely roommates, and made ourselves a dinner of a can of goulash -type stuff that we'd been carrying around since Budapest. Spent most of the evening doing laundry.
Thursday morning, though, Vienna began for properly. After a healthy bowl of muesli we walked into the centre of town along Mariahilferstrasse. Vienna is a very wealthy looking city, lots of expensive shops and cars, and well-dressed people. In the centre of town is St Stephens, a huge gothic cathedral that is dirtier than the mind of a heathen. They do seem to be making an effort to clean it, though, and it will look amazing once they're done. Further into the town we came on the Jesuit church, the name of which escapes me, with a much less exciting exterior. The interior, though, was far and away the most lavish I have ever seen - and I've seen a lot of churches in the last month. The columns were a red and green swirly stone, and were not straight but spiralled. There was not an inch of bare stone. There was gold and marble and lavish paintings over every inch. This is a rich order of monks. Past this church, on the outside of the old city walls (which no longer exist at all), was the MAK museum, a very enjoyable museum about functional design, in which each room is curated by a different artist. It was full of beautiful articles of furniture, as well as a bunch of other stuff. After this we went to a slightly less light-hearted museum at Judenplatz. This commemorated the history of the Jewish community in Mediaeval Vienna, and had an amazing archeological dig of the foundations of the old synagogue, destroyed in 1421, entombed within it.
I had had enough of museums for the day, but Margot went into the Hofburg museum, which she told me later was wonderful. I spent the time visiting a few more churches, my favourite of which was St. Michael's, and wandered around the city a bit. I found a house where Beethoven had lived and written some of his famous music, and scouted out the Rathausplatz where it seemed there was a film festival. I then waited for M on the grass in the park behind the Hofburg. When she was done, we walked around a bit more, went back to the hostel for some pasta, and then headed to Rathausplatz to watch a film of a concert of Strauss, Haydn, and another guy. Of course it rained on us, but we were prepared, and had a wonderful time.
The next morning we tried to leave early, but somehow got started late. We went straight out to Schonbrunn Palace, which was absolutely amazing, despite the lacklustre audioguide. It was strange to walk through these opulent apartments where an actual emperor had lived and worked only less than a hundred years ago. And we stood in the room where Mozart had given his first performance, at the age of six, to the empress. Very cool. The grounds of the palace are also beautiful, and include some hilarious fake roman ruins. After drinking our fill, we went back into the city on the U, and went to search for tickets to see the Spanish Riding School, eventually finding them after some false starts. I'm afraid to say we stooped to McDonald's as we were desperately hungry by this point, but it's not as cheap over here, despite tasting the same, i.e. terrible. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the Albertina museum - it is supposed to hold photography and graphic art, but for some reason holds a collection of modern art. It did however have a very nice royal apartment which we looked through a couple of times. We spent the evening, after another home-cooked meal, wandering along the extremely dodgy looking canal, and through some very nice parts of the old town.
On Saturday morning we went to the Spanish Riding school, something I've always wanted to see. Unfortunately the proper show was on holiday, so there was just a display of some young stallions, some foals, and some carriage driving. A bit disappointing really but cheap at the price, and it's still nice to say I've been there. After that we negotiated the wasteland that is Sudbahnhof to buy our ticket for the next day, then made our way to the Belvedere. This is a palace built buy a prince and then bought by Maria Theresa for use as an art gallery. It contains some very famous artworks, inlcuding Jacques Louis-David's Napoleon, and a collection of Gustave Klimt, the most famous of course being "The Kiss", images of which are to be found plastering tote bags and coffee mugs in every second shop in Vienna. After exhausting the gallery's possibilities, I went on a mission to find a swiss army knife, which was successful. Now we won't have to cut salami and cheese with only our teeth! We spent the evening, I'm afraid to say, watching movies, in english. It was great.
In the morning, we took a last look around Vienna, and checked out the oldest church in the city, Ruprechtskirche, parts of which date back to 720. The majority of it is still 11th century, so very very old. Then, alas, our time in beautiful, expensive Vienna was at an end, and we had to board the train for Prague.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Munich
The train from Bratislava travels through what I have named Bavaustria, and just as the makers of the Sound of Music - which I have never seen - knew, it is really really gorgeous. It makes you feel like you,re in a postcard. Best train journey yet, I think. On arrival we negotiated the S-bahn, unnecessarily, to get to our hostel, then went to meet Alli, Gerard, Brendan and Carl who we had timed our visit with. It was a bit surreal walking along the street in Munich going to get a beer. We went to one of the beer gardens for dinner- a hugely overpriced way of getting genuine Bavarian food and beer - in litres, mind you - but very atmospheric. After soaking it up, Carl and a local fried of his took us out to a very cheesy local bar, where we had a couple of drinks and listened to an inordinate amount of Michael Jackson, as everyone is being forced to do at the moment.
The following day, Sunday, was my birthday! Happy birthday to me. In the morning we all met up again and wandered around Munich, we saw a square I can't remember the name of where Hitler had done a lot of rallies, and book burnings. It was a very strange feeling standing where the Nazi party had gotten started. Leaving that behind, we went to a huge design and modern art museum, which was pretty cool. Then we went to another of the major beer gardens for lunch. This one is in a park, and had a great open atmosphere. I had litre steins of weissbeer, as usual, and a huge plate of ribs. To make my Bavarian experience complete, I was presented with my birthday present - a very swish pair of genuine lederhosen. They are very nice - soft leather and skilled embroidery. Expect to see them at the next Bavarian-themed party that occurs.
After lunch we went to Schloss something or other, the summer palace of the Bavarian monarchy. It's a lovely place, with wings from either side of it spreading in a great circle and containing houses for the king's pet nobles to stay in, at beck and call. The gardens are beautiful as well, and we saw the most amazing hunting lodge - Small and simple, but the rooms where decorated in an incredibly over the top rococco style, with mirrors, gold and silver everywhere. There was also a dutch style kitchen, with the walls and floor covered in hand-painted tiles. We all agreed that being the king of the Bavaria would be ok.
After the palace we walked to an english language cinema to see what was on, and decided to see transformers, thoguh Brendan and Carl bowed out. Before the movie, though, we went to get some dinner at a really cool little underground jazz bar - or it used to be a jazz bar, I'm not sure. Anyway there was good food and unusually good service. After dinner we rushed back up to the cinema, and were as disappointed as Brendan and Carl may have told us we would be. I don't know what Michael Day was thinking, or if he was thinking at all, but seriously. The world would be a better place if this movie had never been made. Terrible.
On Monday morning Margot and I went into the old town of Munich, which isn't really original, as Munich has been a city on the grow for a long time. And it was also bombed quite alot. It's a big shopping district now, basically, although with lots of churches and so on. We climbed to the top of Frauenkirche, which gave a great view - and Margot liked it because the top was enclosed with windows rather than just a railing. Descending again, we went to see the glockenspiel clock on the Neu Rathaus, which is ironically the older Rathaus, as the older one was destroyed in WW2 and rebuilt. We joined a 'free' walking tour (you pay in tips) for a little while, and saw a few interesting things, including an awesome rococco chapel built by these two wealthy brothers who got sick of waiting for a committee to agree to anything about the church they wanted to build. Also our tour guide told us that the Old Rathaus in the town square was were Kristalnacht was declared, which again gave that eerie feeling. Hearing about these things takes on a different shade when you are standing where they happened.
Partway through the tour we bowed out and joined Alli and Gerard, with whom we made our way to the beer garden next to the Chinese tower in the English garden, where we spent most of the rest of the afternoon. This would have had the best atmosphere of all of them, had it not been for the rowdytourist groups, who we were laughing about until they did a round of "Aussie aussie aussie, oi oi oi", and we hid our faces in our steins in embarrassment. It was a nice place to spend the afternoon though, and afterwards we wandered through the cardens, which are huge, and then through the city to a cheap italian place for some dinner. I was a bit the worse for wear though, as I'd gotten quite sunburnt, and sunburn combined with beer does not lead to feelings of happiness. Nevertheless, we went back to Alli and Gerard's room for a bit, then home to bed.
On Tuesday we went to the Residenz - the main palace of the Bavarian monarchy, right in the heart of town. It is absolutely ridiculously huge, and unfortunately is almost a complete reconstruction, as the original was bombed heavily in the 40s. We wandered through the treasure collection, which contained some amazing pieces, as well as lots of boring religious icons and whatnot. Each piece had comprehensive commentary in the audioguide, so we had to skip alot as it got a bit tedious. We walked through the palace aparments as well, which of course are reconstructions, so not as cool as they might be. There are bits and pieces that are original though, and they have done an incredible job of reconstructing the rest. It must cost an absolute fortune. Afterwards we walked through the old town, shared an overpriced dish at a street cafe at which people kept sitting down and ordering pizza only to be told there wasn't any. Take the sign down, people, seriously. After lunch we went to the Neu Pinakothek to try and see some art, but against all prior experience and expectation, this is the one gallery in Europe which is closed on Tuesdays rather than Mondays. After being chatted up by an old lady on the tram, we spent the rest of the day basically relaxing, and had dinner at the train station. Strange, I know, but we'd seen a place serving Thai food and we were having major cravings. Objectively the foodthere wasn't that great, but it hit the spot.
Next stop, Vienna.
The following day, Sunday, was my birthday! Happy birthday to me. In the morning we all met up again and wandered around Munich, we saw a square I can't remember the name of where Hitler had done a lot of rallies, and book burnings. It was a very strange feeling standing where the Nazi party had gotten started. Leaving that behind, we went to a huge design and modern art museum, which was pretty cool. Then we went to another of the major beer gardens for lunch. This one is in a park, and had a great open atmosphere. I had litre steins of weissbeer, as usual, and a huge plate of ribs. To make my Bavarian experience complete, I was presented with my birthday present - a very swish pair of genuine lederhosen. They are very nice - soft leather and skilled embroidery. Expect to see them at the next Bavarian-themed party that occurs.
After lunch we went to Schloss something or other, the summer palace of the Bavarian monarchy. It's a lovely place, with wings from either side of it spreading in a great circle and containing houses for the king's pet nobles to stay in, at beck and call. The gardens are beautiful as well, and we saw the most amazing hunting lodge - Small and simple, but the rooms where decorated in an incredibly over the top rococco style, with mirrors, gold and silver everywhere. There was also a dutch style kitchen, with the walls and floor covered in hand-painted tiles. We all agreed that being the king of the Bavaria would be ok.
After the palace we walked to an english language cinema to see what was on, and decided to see transformers, thoguh Brendan and Carl bowed out. Before the movie, though, we went to get some dinner at a really cool little underground jazz bar - or it used to be a jazz bar, I'm not sure. Anyway there was good food and unusually good service. After dinner we rushed back up to the cinema, and were as disappointed as Brendan and Carl may have told us we would be. I don't know what Michael Day was thinking, or if he was thinking at all, but seriously. The world would be a better place if this movie had never been made. Terrible.
On Monday morning Margot and I went into the old town of Munich, which isn't really original, as Munich has been a city on the grow for a long time. And it was also bombed quite alot. It's a big shopping district now, basically, although with lots of churches and so on. We climbed to the top of Frauenkirche, which gave a great view - and Margot liked it because the top was enclosed with windows rather than just a railing. Descending again, we went to see the glockenspiel clock on the Neu Rathaus, which is ironically the older Rathaus, as the older one was destroyed in WW2 and rebuilt. We joined a 'free' walking tour (you pay in tips) for a little while, and saw a few interesting things, including an awesome rococco chapel built by these two wealthy brothers who got sick of waiting for a committee to agree to anything about the church they wanted to build. Also our tour guide told us that the Old Rathaus in the town square was were Kristalnacht was declared, which again gave that eerie feeling. Hearing about these things takes on a different shade when you are standing where they happened.
Partway through the tour we bowed out and joined Alli and Gerard, with whom we made our way to the beer garden next to the Chinese tower in the English garden, where we spent most of the rest of the afternoon. This would have had the best atmosphere of all of them, had it not been for the rowdytourist groups, who we were laughing about until they did a round of "Aussie aussie aussie, oi oi oi", and we hid our faces in our steins in embarrassment. It was a nice place to spend the afternoon though, and afterwards we wandered through the cardens, which are huge, and then through the city to a cheap italian place for some dinner. I was a bit the worse for wear though, as I'd gotten quite sunburnt, and sunburn combined with beer does not lead to feelings of happiness. Nevertheless, we went back to Alli and Gerard's room for a bit, then home to bed.
On Tuesday we went to the Residenz - the main palace of the Bavarian monarchy, right in the heart of town. It is absolutely ridiculously huge, and unfortunately is almost a complete reconstruction, as the original was bombed heavily in the 40s. We wandered through the treasure collection, which contained some amazing pieces, as well as lots of boring religious icons and whatnot. Each piece had comprehensive commentary in the audioguide, so we had to skip alot as it got a bit tedious. We walked through the palace aparments as well, which of course are reconstructions, so not as cool as they might be. There are bits and pieces that are original though, and they have done an incredible job of reconstructing the rest. It must cost an absolute fortune. Afterwards we walked through the old town, shared an overpriced dish at a street cafe at which people kept sitting down and ordering pizza only to be told there wasn't any. Take the sign down, people, seriously. After lunch we went to the Neu Pinakothek to try and see some art, but against all prior experience and expectation, this is the one gallery in Europe which is closed on Tuesdays rather than Mondays. After being chatted up by an old lady on the tram, we spent the rest of the day basically relaxing, and had dinner at the train station. Strange, I know, but we'd seen a place serving Thai food and we were having major cravings. Objectively the foodthere wasn't that great, but it hit the spot.
Next stop, Vienna.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Slovakia
Our train trip to Kosice, in the East of Slovakia, was boring but relaxing - we had a compartment to ourselves the whole way, but it was raining and we couldn't really see anything out of the window. We arrived at the main station of Kosice with nothing more than the address of the hostel (well done me), but managed to find it with the help of locals (who say they don't speak english, but what they mean is that they couldn't write in it at a univeristy level. Modest, that's them). It was actually more of a hotel, and most of the places we've stayed, strangely empty. Kosice is a very nice town - a few beautiful streets of old town, dominated by an enormous cathedral, surrounded by vast swathes of soviet apartment blocks. Very much like every other town in this part of the world. We spent some time walking around though, and in the evening had a beer at tables on the street, while a weird, incomprehensible street theatre performance went on next to the church. It seems a very lively place.
On Wednesday the weather was still awful, and we pottered about, using the internet and finding lunch, until it was time to go and pick up our rental car. Totally unable to decipher the ticket machine, we bought a ticket of some kind, and got on the bus to the airport. This turned out to be our undoing. Partway through the journey, we were accosted by an alleged ticket inspector. He was a fat, greasy man wearing a grey tracksuit and a smirk, and, through the interpretation of a (very charming lady) bystander, explained that we'd bought a 4 stop ticket, but we were going six stops, and therefore had to pay him 55 euros each. We fought this, naturally, but he took petty delight in insisting we pay the fine, all the time smirking and with a smug gleam in his piggy little eyes. At the airport, he only let Margot off the bus, and I had to wait while she went to get cash. I'm sure he was just pocketing it, and I was furious, especially as he wouldn't even meet my eye. Anyway, the whole experience soured Kosice for us a little.
Nevertheless, we got the car - a little black Fiat Punto - including the GPS system, thank god, and headed gingerly off into oncoming traffic. Not really, but it felt like it. It is very nervewracking driving on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road. But there were no accidents, and we made our way through the countryside to Levoca. We passed through a particular town where there were many gypsies standing by the side of the road, making no effort to sell berries. At first I thought they were about to throw a bucket of stones onto the car, but we passed more and more of them, all just holding buckets of berries. Marketing skills were conspicuous in their absence. As they clustered thicker and thicker, we passed a shanty town, covering a hillside like something out of a nightmare - dirty shacks and tracks, with fires belching smoke and dirty children running in the dirt with mangy dogs. It looked totally out of place. The GPS then took us across country for some reason, on a tiny little road over rolling hills of farmland. Very lovely. Levoca was reached at some point, and we checked into our hotel, which was very very nice, and only 37 euros for the night! That's not each, either. We spent the evening wandering around Levoca, which is so pretty I almost died. Dinner was cheese, salami and bread on a bench in the square, watching gypsy children play.
On Thursday morning we breakfasted well, it being included in the room price, then hauled off again to trust ourselves to the GPS. We drove in a curve to the north, skirting the High Tatras, which are magnificent. We drove through beautiful country, up windy mountain roads and through picturesque valleys. Although there is a fair bit of logging going on, this is some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen, like something out of a fairytale. This is why I wanted to drive through Slovakia - to get off the public transport track a bit and see the rural areas. I wasn't disappointed. It was magiacal all the way to our destination, Banska Stiavnica, in the south. This was an old german mining town from the middle ages, built on a very steep hill, with a huge castle at the top. We had a great room again, huge and super cheap, but on a street which was closed, so the GPS then took us down the most terrifying, tiny winding steep cobbled "street", which was barely wider than the car. I managed to get through with only a bit of a scrape on one hubcap. The town is all like that, though - tiny steep mediaeval streets. It was beautiful - houses over several hillsides looking over the central town as well, and quite heavily forested. We took many photos, and shared a pizza at a local cafe. Zlaty Bazant is 83 euro cents for half a litre here.
This morning (I'm catching up!) we had another free breakfast, then took a torturous route out of town trying to avoid the closed street. Our GPS kept up its usual delightful habit of taking us a scenic back road through the mountains. This one was narrow and incredibly windy (the bendy kind, not the blowy kind), but luckily I was starting to get the hang of the car. Once we were out of the mountains and onto the freeway towards Bratislava, things got more boring. The landscape was mostly flat, and there were roadworks every three metres with insane speed limit changes. Incidentally, there are hardly any speed limit signs in this country, so it's a miracle I didn't get a ticket. I generally erred on the side of slow, especially as we were sightseeing anyway. I found out when we dropped the car off that the limit on freeways is 140, but is there a sign telling you that? No there isn't, is the answer to that question. Anyway, we made it, handed over the keys, then got a bus (with the correct ticket, thankyou another kind lady on the bus) to the main train station. Thence a tram into the city, then following wrong directions, getting lost, and finally making our way to the faded soviet glory of our hotel. We are in a tiny brown room on the 14th floor of a hideous block of a building. Actually it looks a bit like Fisher library.
We threw ourselves into Bratislava with the energy of invading Turks, charging around the old city seeing everything. We went into the Primate's Palace where Napolean signed the Treaty of something-or-other, we walked around the old town, we went up to the castle and saw the panorama in the rain. Which has been profuse. The Danube has flooded a little bit, and is flowing fast and strong. There are images of terrible flooding on the news, though we can't understand what the descriptions are. Speaking of news, Michael Jackson died! There is a CNN channel in the hotel and we sat and ate bread and cheese and watched endless coverage of MJ-related stuff. Just this afternoon in the car, listening to MJ on the radio, I was talking about how he's managed to become a superstar without having to die at the peak of his career. Little did I know he was already dead. Anyway, despite our terrible sadness, we left the terrifying 14th floor open window of our cell and ventured out into the clearing night. In the main square of the old town was a jazz concert, Scott Hamilton and the All Swing Trio, or something like that, and we sat and listened to them as the sun went down and the lights on the palaces and in the fountain came up.
And that's me up to date! I'm sure I've missed things, and I always miss thoughts and musings as there isn't really room (or rather I don't have time to write it all). Unfortunately this is my journal as well as my communiqué, so hopefully it's enough.
Tomorrow, Munich!
On Wednesday the weather was still awful, and we pottered about, using the internet and finding lunch, until it was time to go and pick up our rental car. Totally unable to decipher the ticket machine, we bought a ticket of some kind, and got on the bus to the airport. This turned out to be our undoing. Partway through the journey, we were accosted by an alleged ticket inspector. He was a fat, greasy man wearing a grey tracksuit and a smirk, and, through the interpretation of a (very charming lady) bystander, explained that we'd bought a 4 stop ticket, but we were going six stops, and therefore had to pay him 55 euros each. We fought this, naturally, but he took petty delight in insisting we pay the fine, all the time smirking and with a smug gleam in his piggy little eyes. At the airport, he only let Margot off the bus, and I had to wait while she went to get cash. I'm sure he was just pocketing it, and I was furious, especially as he wouldn't even meet my eye. Anyway, the whole experience soured Kosice for us a little.
Nevertheless, we got the car - a little black Fiat Punto - including the GPS system, thank god, and headed gingerly off into oncoming traffic. Not really, but it felt like it. It is very nervewracking driving on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road. But there were no accidents, and we made our way through the countryside to Levoca. We passed through a particular town where there were many gypsies standing by the side of the road, making no effort to sell berries. At first I thought they were about to throw a bucket of stones onto the car, but we passed more and more of them, all just holding buckets of berries. Marketing skills were conspicuous in their absence. As they clustered thicker and thicker, we passed a shanty town, covering a hillside like something out of a nightmare - dirty shacks and tracks, with fires belching smoke and dirty children running in the dirt with mangy dogs. It looked totally out of place. The GPS then took us across country for some reason, on a tiny little road over rolling hills of farmland. Very lovely. Levoca was reached at some point, and we checked into our hotel, which was very very nice, and only 37 euros for the night! That's not each, either. We spent the evening wandering around Levoca, which is so pretty I almost died. Dinner was cheese, salami and bread on a bench in the square, watching gypsy children play.
On Thursday morning we breakfasted well, it being included in the room price, then hauled off again to trust ourselves to the GPS. We drove in a curve to the north, skirting the High Tatras, which are magnificent. We drove through beautiful country, up windy mountain roads and through picturesque valleys. Although there is a fair bit of logging going on, this is some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen, like something out of a fairytale. This is why I wanted to drive through Slovakia - to get off the public transport track a bit and see the rural areas. I wasn't disappointed. It was magiacal all the way to our destination, Banska Stiavnica, in the south. This was an old german mining town from the middle ages, built on a very steep hill, with a huge castle at the top. We had a great room again, huge and super cheap, but on a street which was closed, so the GPS then took us down the most terrifying, tiny winding steep cobbled "street", which was barely wider than the car. I managed to get through with only a bit of a scrape on one hubcap. The town is all like that, though - tiny steep mediaeval streets. It was beautiful - houses over several hillsides looking over the central town as well, and quite heavily forested. We took many photos, and shared a pizza at a local cafe. Zlaty Bazant is 83 euro cents for half a litre here.
This morning (I'm catching up!) we had another free breakfast, then took a torturous route out of town trying to avoid the closed street. Our GPS kept up its usual delightful habit of taking us a scenic back road through the mountains. This one was narrow and incredibly windy (the bendy kind, not the blowy kind), but luckily I was starting to get the hang of the car. Once we were out of the mountains and onto the freeway towards Bratislava, things got more boring. The landscape was mostly flat, and there were roadworks every three metres with insane speed limit changes. Incidentally, there are hardly any speed limit signs in this country, so it's a miracle I didn't get a ticket. I generally erred on the side of slow, especially as we were sightseeing anyway. I found out when we dropped the car off that the limit on freeways is 140, but is there a sign telling you that? No there isn't, is the answer to that question. Anyway, we made it, handed over the keys, then got a bus (with the correct ticket, thankyou another kind lady on the bus) to the main train station. Thence a tram into the city, then following wrong directions, getting lost, and finally making our way to the faded soviet glory of our hotel. We are in a tiny brown room on the 14th floor of a hideous block of a building. Actually it looks a bit like Fisher library.
We threw ourselves into Bratislava with the energy of invading Turks, charging around the old city seeing everything. We went into the Primate's Palace where Napolean signed the Treaty of something-or-other, we walked around the old town, we went up to the castle and saw the panorama in the rain. Which has been profuse. The Danube has flooded a little bit, and is flowing fast and strong. There are images of terrible flooding on the news, though we can't understand what the descriptions are. Speaking of news, Michael Jackson died! There is a CNN channel in the hotel and we sat and ate bread and cheese and watched endless coverage of MJ-related stuff. Just this afternoon in the car, listening to MJ on the radio, I was talking about how he's managed to become a superstar without having to die at the peak of his career. Little did I know he was already dead. Anyway, despite our terrible sadness, we left the terrifying 14th floor open window of our cell and ventured out into the clearing night. In the main square of the old town was a jazz concert, Scott Hamilton and the All Swing Trio, or something like that, and we sat and listened to them as the sun went down and the lights on the palaces and in the fountain came up.
And that's me up to date! I'm sure I've missed things, and I always miss thoughts and musings as there isn't really room (or rather I don't have time to write it all). Unfortunately this is my journal as well as my communiqué, so hopefully it's enough.
Tomorrow, Munich!
Budapest
Trains over here are confusing - one half of the train goes to one destination, the other half goes somewhere wlse entirely. Luckily we were helped by a guard, and managed to get on the half going to Budapest. The train journey was very pretty - Hungary is a very very green and pretty place. We arrived, and instantly felt lost. Hungarian is the weirdest language ever, and is not related to anything we recognise. Richard Dreyfuss helped us buy our onward ticket to Slovakia (always be prepared), then we somehow managed to find our way to the hostel. Which turned out to be an apartment occupied by a fatalistic Chicago man named Jimmy, who instilled in us an irrational fear of strangers, and pointed out the people "trapped forever, screaming in pain" in the sculpture on the outside of many of the buildings. We were given our own room in a huge apartment in a 19th century building, run down like all the others in the street, with an internal courtyard and ceilings 15 feet high. It was late, but we ventured nervously out, clutching our valuables, and wandered around the darkened city until bed time.
In the morning, we went to St Stephen's Basilica, a huge church with an incredibly ornate marble and gold interior. I climbed the many twisting stairs to the top, only to find I could have taken an elevator. The view was worth it though. Descending, I rejoined M and we made our way across the Chain Bridge, a stately 19th century suspension bridge across the Danube to Buda, the side of the city with the palace and so on. This was on top of a steep hill, up which we were hauled by the coolest funicular I have ever seen. It was practically steampunk - like something out of Jules Verne. I think it was built in 1844, but can't quite remember. At the top, we were accosted by a friendly-seeming tour guide, trying to sell his tour. He was a nice looking old chap with a glorious moustache, but when I tried to say we weren't interested he flipped and grabbed the front of his head, yelling "don't interrupt me, let me finish my sentence". We let him finish and then walked away, slightly shaken. The top of the hill in buda is lovely - we walked over Fishermen's Bastion, with a lovely view over to the parliament, had a too expensive lunch (1200 forints for a very meagre sandwich), then wandered over to the palace, which now houses an art gallery. After gorging on art, we managed to find a supermarket buried in the bowels of the biggest mall in the universe, then went home for dinner. Accompanied by a very drinkable 500 forint bottle of wine. After dinner we went to a very cool little bar that Jimmy had recommended, and tried some of the local brandy. Or possibly it was metho, it was hard to tell.
The next day was the end of hot weather, and the start of rain. We went to the undercover market hall, and wandered around lost in a sea of meats of all kinds, fresh fruit and veg, sweets (some of which we bought, very cheap, and made ourselves slightly ill), and spices. Upstairs is all manner of souvenirs, tacky and otherwise, and food and bars. Apparently you can get a drinkable glass of wine for 80 forints. That's about 50 cents in real money. After sampling that, we went up the road to the National Museum, ate our lunch on the steps, then went inside and explored the history! Then returned home for dinner, and out again for the festival. This was a huge event - the metro stations had little music groups playing in them, all the museums had live events, either usic or dancing or medieval reenactments. We went back to the palace, via the funicular, where they were playing classical music of various types in the art gallery, and finished with a ska concert in the forecourt. Budapest is magical at night.
On Sunday we got up earlyish and went down to the river to catch a ferry upstream to a little town called Szentendre. It was cool and drizzly, but the ride was fun, and the town was just gorgeous. It was very touristy, but in an upmarket way, and it felt very posh. Beautifully restored, it ranged over a hill next to the river, and was all twisty cobblestone streets and nineteenth century buildings. We went to a very cool contemporary art space in an old mill, and had sandwiches on the banks of the Danube. I found the shop of a family knife company I'd seen in the market hall in Budapest, and drooled for a while. They are all handmade traditional shepherd's knives, and the family has been making them for over 200 years. Walnut handles, brass, silver and bone decoration, and hardened stell blades...but I digress. There was also a marzipan museum in the town, which was sort of horribly fascinating. The trip back to Budapest took half the time.
On Monday morning we trekked across town with a garbage bag full of clothes, in the rain, to the only laundrette in Budapest. It advertised itself as "self service", but the lady working there did it all for us, and we just paid her. Quite alot, too. We went and sat in a cafe while we waited, and the rain did clear up a little. After that we went back to the market hall for a hearty cheap lunch, and I caved and bought one of those knives, but M made me ship it back to the UK in case there was a repeat of my Eurostar security incident. There have been countless times since then that it would have been invaluable, but there you are. In the afternoon, we went to the Szechenyi public baths, in the city park. This is a huge complex, with outdoor pools of different temperatures, and indoor mineral pools of everything from 20 to 40 degrees, in wonderful ornate surroundings. There is also a sauna with a 16 degree plunge pool. We spent 3 hours just turning into prunes, and alternately baking and freezing ourselves. After that we were so clean and invigorated that we went home, ate dinner, and totally crashed.
Tuesday morning we bid adieu to Budapest, and set off for Slovakia.
In the morning, we went to St Stephen's Basilica, a huge church with an incredibly ornate marble and gold interior. I climbed the many twisting stairs to the top, only to find I could have taken an elevator. The view was worth it though. Descending, I rejoined M and we made our way across the Chain Bridge, a stately 19th century suspension bridge across the Danube to Buda, the side of the city with the palace and so on. This was on top of a steep hill, up which we were hauled by the coolest funicular I have ever seen. It was practically steampunk - like something out of Jules Verne. I think it was built in 1844, but can't quite remember. At the top, we were accosted by a friendly-seeming tour guide, trying to sell his tour. He was a nice looking old chap with a glorious moustache, but when I tried to say we weren't interested he flipped and grabbed the front of his head, yelling "don't interrupt me, let me finish my sentence". We let him finish and then walked away, slightly shaken. The top of the hill in buda is lovely - we walked over Fishermen's Bastion, with a lovely view over to the parliament, had a too expensive lunch (1200 forints for a very meagre sandwich), then wandered over to the palace, which now houses an art gallery. After gorging on art, we managed to find a supermarket buried in the bowels of the biggest mall in the universe, then went home for dinner. Accompanied by a very drinkable 500 forint bottle of wine. After dinner we went to a very cool little bar that Jimmy had recommended, and tried some of the local brandy. Or possibly it was metho, it was hard to tell.
The next day was the end of hot weather, and the start of rain. We went to the undercover market hall, and wandered around lost in a sea of meats of all kinds, fresh fruit and veg, sweets (some of which we bought, very cheap, and made ourselves slightly ill), and spices. Upstairs is all manner of souvenirs, tacky and otherwise, and food and bars. Apparently you can get a drinkable glass of wine for 80 forints. That's about 50 cents in real money. After sampling that, we went up the road to the National Museum, ate our lunch on the steps, then went inside and explored the history! Then returned home for dinner, and out again for the festival. This was a huge event - the metro stations had little music groups playing in them, all the museums had live events, either usic or dancing or medieval reenactments. We went back to the palace, via the funicular, where they were playing classical music of various types in the art gallery, and finished with a ska concert in the forecourt. Budapest is magical at night.
On Sunday we got up earlyish and went down to the river to catch a ferry upstream to a little town called Szentendre. It was cool and drizzly, but the ride was fun, and the town was just gorgeous. It was very touristy, but in an upmarket way, and it felt very posh. Beautifully restored, it ranged over a hill next to the river, and was all twisty cobblestone streets and nineteenth century buildings. We went to a very cool contemporary art space in an old mill, and had sandwiches on the banks of the Danube. I found the shop of a family knife company I'd seen in the market hall in Budapest, and drooled for a while. They are all handmade traditional shepherd's knives, and the family has been making them for over 200 years. Walnut handles, brass, silver and bone decoration, and hardened stell blades...but I digress. There was also a marzipan museum in the town, which was sort of horribly fascinating. The trip back to Budapest took half the time.
On Monday morning we trekked across town with a garbage bag full of clothes, in the rain, to the only laundrette in Budapest. It advertised itself as "self service", but the lady working there did it all for us, and we just paid her. Quite alot, too. We went and sat in a cafe while we waited, and the rain did clear up a little. After that we went back to the market hall for a hearty cheap lunch, and I caved and bought one of those knives, but M made me ship it back to the UK in case there was a repeat of my Eurostar security incident. There have been countless times since then that it would have been invaluable, but there you are. In the afternoon, we went to the Szechenyi public baths, in the city park. This is a huge complex, with outdoor pools of different temperatures, and indoor mineral pools of everything from 20 to 40 degrees, in wonderful ornate surroundings. There is also a sauna with a 16 degree plunge pool. We spent 3 hours just turning into prunes, and alternately baking and freezing ourselves. After that we were so clean and invigorated that we went home, ate dinner, and totally crashed.
Tuesday morning we bid adieu to Budapest, and set off for Slovakia.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Zagreb
I'm running a little behind now, but to fill in on Zagreb at least:
On Tuesday morning we met up with the guy we had met on Hvar. He took us to his office and showed us the applications he builds, and gave us lots of samples. It really is pretty amazing stuff. In the afternoon we went to a couple of museums, and then had dinner at an awesome cafe with tables filling up an old cobbled street. It was cheap, great food, and we gorged.
On Wednesday we went to the city museum of Zagreb, which was vaguely interesting, and then to the archaeology museum, which was awesome. It was really really hot, so we were glad of being in airconditioned buildings for the day.
As I've said, I really like this city. All the buildings are actually made of brick, but rendered to look like they are solid stone, and painted all different colours. It's all wide and open and lovely (at least in the city centre), and all the lamp posts have flower boxes on them. Very picture-skew.
We had dinner at Nokturno again (the little street cafe), as it was the best deal we had found.
Sleeping in Zagreb was not so easy, as we were in a dorm which was sort of also a corridor, and there were various snorers, talkers, and early-risers. Also, despite the hostel being quite clean, there was a bit of a bed-bug scare, which stressed us out more than I can say. Thankfully, we seem to have shaken the curse and gotten away with nothing more than a bit of itching. It wasn't enough to put us off being in love with Croatia.
On the Thursday we took a very pretty train journey (though entirely unairconditioned and very breathless) to Budapest, of which I will write later, as I have a train to catch.
On Tuesday morning we met up with the guy we had met on Hvar. He took us to his office and showed us the applications he builds, and gave us lots of samples. It really is pretty amazing stuff. In the afternoon we went to a couple of museums, and then had dinner at an awesome cafe with tables filling up an old cobbled street. It was cheap, great food, and we gorged.
On Wednesday we went to the city museum of Zagreb, which was vaguely interesting, and then to the archaeology museum, which was awesome. It was really really hot, so we were glad of being in airconditioned buildings for the day.
As I've said, I really like this city. All the buildings are actually made of brick, but rendered to look like they are solid stone, and painted all different colours. It's all wide and open and lovely (at least in the city centre), and all the lamp posts have flower boxes on them. Very picture-skew.
We had dinner at Nokturno again (the little street cafe), as it was the best deal we had found.
Sleeping in Zagreb was not so easy, as we were in a dorm which was sort of also a corridor, and there were various snorers, talkers, and early-risers. Also, despite the hostel being quite clean, there was a bit of a bed-bug scare, which stressed us out more than I can say. Thankfully, we seem to have shaken the curse and gotten away with nothing more than a bit of itching. It wasn't enough to put us off being in love with Croatia.
On the Thursday we took a very pretty train journey (though entirely unairconditioned and very breathless) to Budapest, of which I will write later, as I have a train to catch.
Monday, June 15, 2009
The metropolis of Zagreb
We have come to our final city in Croatia, Zagreb, the capital. After the mediaeval towns and brilliant waters of the coast, I wasn't expecting much, but Zagreb has cast aside my mean prejudices and leapt into my affections. I am finding it hard to imagine encountering a country that I like more than Croatia. It's capital is a light, open city of grand nineteenth century buildings, thanks to the Austro-Hungarian empire and it's draconian city planning rules. It is full of green spaces, grand avenues, and museums. There is a comprehensive network of clean modern trams which are quiet and easy to use. It is not remotely crowded, though there are people, and they are all laid back and wealthy looking. I have no idea how they do it, it doesn't seem quite real. It presents as just about the most liveable city I've ever seen.
We arrived on the train in the afternoon, and checked into Fulir hostel, run by an extremely character-filled local. Dorm room, this time - it's a great atmosphere here, though not if you just want restful sleep at whatever time you choose. We headed straight out to a free concert that was on in a park behind the beautiful neo-gothic cathedral - see what I mean about Zagreb? Apparently there's free stuff like this on all the time all through summer. And summer it is - we slept sweating, in our upstairs, barely-ventilated dorm. This morning we ventured out to find some museums - it was already nearly 30 degrees when we left - only to find that, being Monday, everything is shut, for some reason. The only thorn in an otherwise rosy town, I guess. We have spent the day doing a couple of self-guided walking tours (which, as they'd run out of english, we had to do using the french, which was poorly translated on the run by yours truly), and going to, of all places, the zoo, which had a distressing lack of any sort of staff.
We're tired, and hot, and we've got a lot of museuming to catch up on. Goodnight.
We arrived on the train in the afternoon, and checked into Fulir hostel, run by an extremely character-filled local. Dorm room, this time - it's a great atmosphere here, though not if you just want restful sleep at whatever time you choose. We headed straight out to a free concert that was on in a park behind the beautiful neo-gothic cathedral - see what I mean about Zagreb? Apparently there's free stuff like this on all the time all through summer. And summer it is - we slept sweating, in our upstairs, barely-ventilated dorm. This morning we ventured out to find some museums - it was already nearly 30 degrees when we left - only to find that, being Monday, everything is shut, for some reason. The only thorn in an otherwise rosy town, I guess. We have spent the day doing a couple of self-guided walking tours (which, as they'd run out of english, we had to do using the french, which was poorly translated on the run by yours truly), and going to, of all places, the zoo, which had a distressing lack of any sort of staff.
We're tired, and hot, and we've got a lot of museuming to catch up on. Goodnight.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Adventures on an island
Yesterday we decided to head out from Split on the ferry to the island of Hvar, which has a beautiful fortress, city walls etc. The ferry ride took nearly two hours, and we were sunburnt again, proving my theory that the fancy shmancy cosmetics-brand sunscreen we bought is totally useless. Anyway, on arrival we jumped on the bus to the city of Hvar (yes, it´s confusing), which the guidebook said was 4km away, but was actually 22 or something. Yes.
So, no sooner had we arrived, but I realised I had left my camera on the bus. Again. Panic panic panic. The people in the tourist information office tried to call the bus office, and told us that the bus would have gone back to the depot in Stari Grad, which is where the ferry had originally dropped us. They deposited us in the care of a man who as far as we could tell had no connection to the office, saying he would take us to the bus depot. Impressed as we were with people´s friendliness, we had, as yet, no idea. This guy, Ervin, runs a multimedia company which develops interactive tours for museums, allowing you to virtually visit them, zoom down into the artworks and so on. He is, as Margot says, ¨the coolest guy in the world¨ - vegetarian, doesn´t drink, does transcendental meditation, has a journalist wife, and all his friends seem to be movie directors. He proceeded to find the buses (I got my camera back), take us to lunch, and drive us to another small town, Jelsa, where he had a meeting. He has proposed that as we are heading to Zagreb, we go to see him in his office and he can show us the software and try to recruit Margot. Getting in at the ground floor, so to speak, so that as she embarks on her career in museums, she may provide business opportunities for his company.
So losing my camera turned out to have a silver lining, especially since I got it back. We finally have an awesome crazy travel story, and Margot may have made an awesome contact. All in all a great day.
So, no sooner had we arrived, but I realised I had left my camera on the bus. Again. Panic panic panic. The people in the tourist information office tried to call the bus office, and told us that the bus would have gone back to the depot in Stari Grad, which is where the ferry had originally dropped us. They deposited us in the care of a man who as far as we could tell had no connection to the office, saying he would take us to the bus depot. Impressed as we were with people´s friendliness, we had, as yet, no idea. This guy, Ervin, runs a multimedia company which develops interactive tours for museums, allowing you to virtually visit them, zoom down into the artworks and so on. He is, as Margot says, ¨the coolest guy in the world¨ - vegetarian, doesn´t drink, does transcendental meditation, has a journalist wife, and all his friends seem to be movie directors. He proceeded to find the buses (I got my camera back), take us to lunch, and drive us to another small town, Jelsa, where he had a meeting. He has proposed that as we are heading to Zagreb, we go to see him in his office and he can show us the software and try to recruit Margot. Getting in at the ground floor, so to speak, so that as she embarks on her career in museums, she may provide business opportunities for his company.
So losing my camera turned out to have a silver lining, especially since I got it back. We finally have an awesome crazy travel story, and Margot may have made an awesome contact. All in all a great day.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Some photos
I have put up a couple of photos to give an idea of where we've been. I have many more, of course, but to see a very small selection click here.
Split - We have a very nice room, basically in a lady's apartment. She's a bit of a character. Oh, Croatians are a bit funny about letting you do your own washing for some reason. They will do it for you, though. Maybe they don't trust you not to break their washing machines.
I somehow lost confirmation of the hostel I thought I'd booked for Split, so we booked this place. At about 10pm we got a call from the other place wondering where we were, so it looks like we're paying for two hostels, at least for one night. Also I think she may have cried, though she could have been laughing, it was hard to tell.
Diocletian's palace is awesome - a huge roman palace that has been built in and changed and lived on for 1700 years. Just a sort of mish-mash of old stone buildings that has been essentially turned into a big outdoor shopping centre, though there are still people living in precarious looking apartment buildings throughout.
More later.
Split - We have a very nice room, basically in a lady's apartment. She's a bit of a character. Oh, Croatians are a bit funny about letting you do your own washing for some reason. They will do it for you, though. Maybe they don't trust you not to break their washing machines.
I somehow lost confirmation of the hostel I thought I'd booked for Split, so we booked this place. At about 10pm we got a call from the other place wondering where we were, so it looks like we're paying for two hostels, at least for one night. Also I think she may have cried, though she could have been laughing, it was hard to tell.
Diocletian's palace is awesome - a huge roman palace that has been built in and changed and lived on for 1700 years. Just a sort of mish-mash of old stone buildings that has been essentially turned into a big outdoor shopping centre, though there are still people living in precarious looking apartment buildings throughout.
More later.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
In love with Dubrovnik
After a night in what indeed turned out to be a very nice hotel somehow booked at hostel prices, we headed south to Bari. The train was half an hour late or so, but we counted ourselves lucky, as most of the trains were three hours late. Ours was pretty modern and nice, except there was no canteen, so we were on a 6 hour trip with only what we had brought with us. Arrival was marked with a reasonably thrilling cab ride to the port, check-in, dinner, then waiting for hours and hours in the wind and rain with many other travellers, as the time of departure came and went with no sign of the ship, no announcements or communication, etc. We eventually boarded two hours late, found our windowless cabin at the end of a terrifying maze of tiny corridors, and went straight to sleep to the sound of the engine and the waves, and the rocking of the boat.
We arrived excited and slightly woozy, and were met by Zeljka, the woman who runs the guesthouse - really just an extra part of her house that she rents out in summer. She is lovely; full of shy overexcitement and generosity. She took us on a little sightseeing drive, then back to the guesthouse for coffee and biscuits. Our room has a view like you wouldn't believe, out over the main port to the islands. After coffee we headed into the old town, and I fell absolutely head over heels. I had been looking forward to it so much, and it surpassed expectations. Huge limestone walls encircle a town made entirely of stone, half of it in winding mediaeval alleys, and half rebuilt in the 17th century after a major earthquake. The air is full of swallows swooping and twisting like insects, and there are cats everywhere, sunning themselves in various picturesque spots. It is surrounded on two sides with the ayure waters of the Adriatic, which is dotted with sailboats, cruise ships, and little tourist vessels.
We ventured into numerous museums - the Franciscan and Dominican monastaries each have one, in rooms off their gorgeous cloisters. We had lunch at a restaurant on the old port - huge servings of excellent seafood - and tried some of a local homemade myrtle brandy. Despite it being Sunday, we stuck our noses in a few churches as well - there are alot of them for a reasonably small city. Croatia is 90 percent Roman Catholic, so I suppose there is heaps of demand for praying space. We went looking for some memory cards, as Margot had used hers up already and mine was almost full. Every touristy shop seemed to sell them, but for around 450 kuna for a 4 gigabyte card. That is 112 dollars, so I was a bit furious. We eventually found a shop selling them for 105 kuna, though, so no problem. Bizarre difference in price though - I would have thought the competition of that shop would drive the others' prices down.
After some dinner pizza slices, we got home and collapsed exhausted. In the morning we headed off early, and got a ferry accross to Lokrum, a small island opposite the old city. There is an old monastary which was turned into a villa by an Austro-Hungarian prince, abandoned, ruined, then turned into a restaurant. I forced Margot to find the fortress which was apparently at the top of the island, which we eventually did, and I thought the views were worth the hard slog. Besides, it earned us a swim. And what a swim it was. I desperately want to show a photo, but I have yet again forgotten my cable. The water here is so incredible. Just crystal clear and clean. It is so calm, too, not a wave; which was good as the "beach" was some steps off the rocks.
Returning to the mainland, we paid our 50 kuna for access to the city walls, and did the full circuit, taking about ten thousand photographs. The city was heavily shelled in 1991 during the war with Serbia, and manq of the original roofs were destroyed. They have been replaced with a different colour - a vibrant terracotta - part of an ongoing (almost finished) restoration project. Dinner on Monday was cooked at home, and Zeljka told us she'd made us pancakes for breakfast but we'd left before whe could bring them. We were crushed, it's like kicking a puppy. I don't mean to be patronising, she's just so sweet.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we went on an island cruise, which we were talked into by a charismatic local man with only half his teeth. His character alone convinced us, but it was good value - 250 kuna including lunch. No one really talked much on the boat, which was weird, but the scenery was amazing, and it was a beautiful day. The first island was a bit disappointing, not least because it was covered with Croatian teenagers (nothing against Croatian teenagers in particular, just tennagers in general. I'm getting old), but the water was nice and we finally saw some of the spiny sea urchins everyone has told us about. The second island was perfect - super picturesque, with a tiny stone town and old church, and we went for a swim off the docks, after waiting for a middle aged german couple to unload a dog in a life jacket from their inflatable boat.
We had lunch on the boat there, and it was delicious - a whole barbecued fish of some kind, bread, salad, wine. Brilliant. The third island killed the joy - a horrible slog over the spine of the (admittedly gorgeous) island - to a nice beach where we swam again, and had an ice cream. All our swimming has had to be one at a time, because we're paranoid about leaving our belongings for any amount of time. On the way back to the boat, tired, thirsty, sunburnt, and facing a hill, we caved and paid for a man in a golf cart to ferry us back. On the boat back to the mainland we just stared blankly at the passing vista, then caught the bus back to the guesthouse, had some dinner, and died.
So that's up to date. This morning we did administrative stuff, then went into the old town for some lunch - the food here is great, by the way - and to finish off the last couple of museums. It really doesn't get old. Every time we go to the old city, my mouth falls open and I go into a fit of photography, trying to take it all in. It kills me that I can't come here every day. It is honestly the most beautiful thing ever, and I want it.
We arrived excited and slightly woozy, and were met by Zeljka, the woman who runs the guesthouse - really just an extra part of her house that she rents out in summer. She is lovely; full of shy overexcitement and generosity. She took us on a little sightseeing drive, then back to the guesthouse for coffee and biscuits. Our room has a view like you wouldn't believe, out over the main port to the islands. After coffee we headed into the old town, and I fell absolutely head over heels. I had been looking forward to it so much, and it surpassed expectations. Huge limestone walls encircle a town made entirely of stone, half of it in winding mediaeval alleys, and half rebuilt in the 17th century after a major earthquake. The air is full of swallows swooping and twisting like insects, and there are cats everywhere, sunning themselves in various picturesque spots. It is surrounded on two sides with the ayure waters of the Adriatic, which is dotted with sailboats, cruise ships, and little tourist vessels.
We ventured into numerous museums - the Franciscan and Dominican monastaries each have one, in rooms off their gorgeous cloisters. We had lunch at a restaurant on the old port - huge servings of excellent seafood - and tried some of a local homemade myrtle brandy. Despite it being Sunday, we stuck our noses in a few churches as well - there are alot of them for a reasonably small city. Croatia is 90 percent Roman Catholic, so I suppose there is heaps of demand for praying space. We went looking for some memory cards, as Margot had used hers up already and mine was almost full. Every touristy shop seemed to sell them, but for around 450 kuna for a 4 gigabyte card. That is 112 dollars, so I was a bit furious. We eventually found a shop selling them for 105 kuna, though, so no problem. Bizarre difference in price though - I would have thought the competition of that shop would drive the others' prices down.
After some dinner pizza slices, we got home and collapsed exhausted. In the morning we headed off early, and got a ferry accross to Lokrum, a small island opposite the old city. There is an old monastary which was turned into a villa by an Austro-Hungarian prince, abandoned, ruined, then turned into a restaurant. I forced Margot to find the fortress which was apparently at the top of the island, which we eventually did, and I thought the views were worth the hard slog. Besides, it earned us a swim. And what a swim it was. I desperately want to show a photo, but I have yet again forgotten my cable. The water here is so incredible. Just crystal clear and clean. It is so calm, too, not a wave; which was good as the "beach" was some steps off the rocks.
Returning to the mainland, we paid our 50 kuna for access to the city walls, and did the full circuit, taking about ten thousand photographs. The city was heavily shelled in 1991 during the war with Serbia, and manq of the original roofs were destroyed. They have been replaced with a different colour - a vibrant terracotta - part of an ongoing (almost finished) restoration project. Dinner on Monday was cooked at home, and Zeljka told us she'd made us pancakes for breakfast but we'd left before whe could bring them. We were crushed, it's like kicking a puppy. I don't mean to be patronising, she's just so sweet.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we went on an island cruise, which we were talked into by a charismatic local man with only half his teeth. His character alone convinced us, but it was good value - 250 kuna including lunch. No one really talked much on the boat, which was weird, but the scenery was amazing, and it was a beautiful day. The first island was a bit disappointing, not least because it was covered with Croatian teenagers (nothing against Croatian teenagers in particular, just tennagers in general. I'm getting old), but the water was nice and we finally saw some of the spiny sea urchins everyone has told us about. The second island was perfect - super picturesque, with a tiny stone town and old church, and we went for a swim off the docks, after waiting for a middle aged german couple to unload a dog in a life jacket from their inflatable boat.
We had lunch on the boat there, and it was delicious - a whole barbecued fish of some kind, bread, salad, wine. Brilliant. The third island killed the joy - a horrible slog over the spine of the (admittedly gorgeous) island - to a nice beach where we swam again, and had an ice cream. All our swimming has had to be one at a time, because we're paranoid about leaving our belongings for any amount of time. On the way back to the boat, tired, thirsty, sunburnt, and facing a hill, we caved and paid for a man in a golf cart to ferry us back. On the boat back to the mainland we just stared blankly at the passing vista, then caught the bus back to the guesthouse, had some dinner, and died.
So that's up to date. This morning we did administrative stuff, then went into the old town for some lunch - the food here is great, by the way - and to finish off the last couple of museums. It really doesn't get old. Every time we go to the old city, my mouth falls open and I go into a fit of photography, trying to take it all in. It kills me that I can't come here every day. It is honestly the most beautiful thing ever, and I want it.
Friday, June 5, 2009
I am so tired
We have had a very, very busy couple of days. Our first full day in Paris we almost killed ourselves, and we didn't really let up after that. Not having alot of time there, we were keen to do as much as possible, but I'm not exactly wearing the most comfortable shoes, and we didn't get the hang of eating cheaply until Tuesday, so Monday was sort of spent walking around feeling hungry. Nevertheless, amazing - we were so busy we hardly noticed.
So, Monday morning we had breakfast at the hostel, then set off for the centre of town. We walked to Les Abbesses, which is I think the best example of the Art Nouveau metro stations, and caught the train in to Les Halles, which is right in the middle of things. It was a public holiday, which was actually great because there weren't huge crowds and it was very peaceful. We walked from there to the Centre Pompidou, which is a big hideous building covered in coloured pipes, and houses the modern art gallery. Then we made our way through back streets into Le Marais and to the Place des Vosges, where Victor Hugo used to live - a big square of mansions built in, um, I think the 17th century or maybe the 18th, enclosing a central garden square. After that we visited Notre Dame, where my camera ran out of batteries, which made me mad because I had spare batteries I had bought for just such an eventuality, but had left them at the hostel.
Anyway, we continued walking all the way down the river to the Louvre, and spent a good amount of the afternoon walking around its endless - I mean that, it's stupidly huge - galleries. We saw all the big ones, of course; the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, etc. But Margot is also scarily knowledgable about everything else, and was able to give me a running commentary, which I listened to carefully and promptly forgot. I was able to provide us with yet another camera incident, as I somehow lost Margot's camera. Luckily, the very nice gallery attendant had spotted it and it was returned no fuss. After all of this excitement, we collapsed exhausted in the closest end of the Tuilerie gardens, then I somehow persuaded Margot to walk to the Eiffel Tower. That almost killed us, and we jumped on the nearest metro and went back to the hostel, went out for a meal in which the conversation consisted mostly of blank tired stares (very nice little restaurant though, right up in the famous square next to the Sacre Coeur), and went to bed.
OK, still with me? Tuesday. Still exhausted from the previous day, we set off for Versailles. i had been a couple of times before, but it's something that Margot's always wanted to do, and I could go hundreds of times. The palace is just spectacular. Built mostly by Louis XIV, it is a monument to the glory of the french monarchy (deceased). Some of it would seem overwhelmingly tasteless if you tried to decorate in a similar way today - lots and lots and lots of gilded everything - but here it works. It took us several hours to get through the palace, even without fully utilising the audio guide, after which we sat on the back steps of the palace and had our lunch, which mostly consisted of mini baguettes, melted butter, and jam; stolen from our free breakfast. I know, classy. Afer lunch we took the outrageously expensive "train" to the Trianons - Grand and Petit - and wandered around thinking what nice little summer houses they would make. And they wouldnàt be complete without Marie-Antoinette's amazingly Disneylandesque "peasant village". All of this took us eight hours or so, and we returned totally, totally exhausted.
Wednesday. In the morning we climbed up to the dome in the Sacre Coeur - the highest point in Paris, and an amazing view. I couldn't find where I wrote my name there last time - I think they may clean it every so often then let it fill up again. Keeping the theme of steps (sigh), we headed to the Arc de Triomphe, and paid a ridiculous amount of money for the privilege of going to the top. I probably wouldn't have bothered, but you have to, don't you, and it's the only thing I hadn't done before. Following the Champs-Elysées downhill, our next stop was the Musée d'Orsay, which made Margot's head explode. After an overload of art, we retreated, and went home. Only to go out again, to meet up with my friend Scott from high school and his partner, who have been living in Paris for nearly a year. We drank a little bit more wine than our worn-out bodies could really handle, but it was a great evening. I always regretted not keeping in contact with Scott, but it was great to find he hadn't changed - other than being ravaged by time, of course, but who among us hasn't been?
Almost there now, keep going. Thursday was a quitish day; a peaceful river cruise on the Bateaux-Mouches, followed by another stroll up to the Eiffel Tower, then back to the hostel to pick up our bags and go to the train station. The train to Bologna was pretty horrible, I have to say. Amazingly uncomfortable "beds", carriages in not the best state of repair, and fellow passengers we had to basically kick out of our compartment so we could set up the beds, and who stood talking directly outside for another couple of hours. But, we made it, and found our hostel. I say hostel, but it is basically a gorgeous little boutique hotel. We dropped our bags there and were invited to the full buffet breakfast (oh my god) for 5 euros, which I presume is charged to our room even though we haven't checked in yet. Now, I am fully prepared for them to tell me it costs 100 euros each or something, because we paid 42 euros altogether, which really seems suspicious for such a nice, three star hotel. We shall see. In the meantime we've wandered to the centre of Bologna, found the tourist information centre (not as easy as it sounds), and bought a guidebook to replace the one that I for some reason did not bring with me. Bologna is a medieval town, with ancient palaces and churches everywhere, as well as its own leaning tower (which is nine hundred years old, no less). But honestly, we're just here for a day off.
Right, that's me done. Not up to the standard I'd like, but there was too much to get through. If we keep up this pace I'm going to have to do an entry every day. I'll try and get a couple of photos up at some point, too.
So, Monday morning we had breakfast at the hostel, then set off for the centre of town. We walked to Les Abbesses, which is I think the best example of the Art Nouveau metro stations, and caught the train in to Les Halles, which is right in the middle of things. It was a public holiday, which was actually great because there weren't huge crowds and it was very peaceful. We walked from there to the Centre Pompidou, which is a big hideous building covered in coloured pipes, and houses the modern art gallery. Then we made our way through back streets into Le Marais and to the Place des Vosges, where Victor Hugo used to live - a big square of mansions built in, um, I think the 17th century or maybe the 18th, enclosing a central garden square. After that we visited Notre Dame, where my camera ran out of batteries, which made me mad because I had spare batteries I had bought for just such an eventuality, but had left them at the hostel.
Anyway, we continued walking all the way down the river to the Louvre, and spent a good amount of the afternoon walking around its endless - I mean that, it's stupidly huge - galleries. We saw all the big ones, of course; the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, etc. But Margot is also scarily knowledgable about everything else, and was able to give me a running commentary, which I listened to carefully and promptly forgot. I was able to provide us with yet another camera incident, as I somehow lost Margot's camera. Luckily, the very nice gallery attendant had spotted it and it was returned no fuss. After all of this excitement, we collapsed exhausted in the closest end of the Tuilerie gardens, then I somehow persuaded Margot to walk to the Eiffel Tower. That almost killed us, and we jumped on the nearest metro and went back to the hostel, went out for a meal in which the conversation consisted mostly of blank tired stares (very nice little restaurant though, right up in the famous square next to the Sacre Coeur), and went to bed.
OK, still with me? Tuesday. Still exhausted from the previous day, we set off for Versailles. i had been a couple of times before, but it's something that Margot's always wanted to do, and I could go hundreds of times. The palace is just spectacular. Built mostly by Louis XIV, it is a monument to the glory of the french monarchy (deceased). Some of it would seem overwhelmingly tasteless if you tried to decorate in a similar way today - lots and lots and lots of gilded everything - but here it works. It took us several hours to get through the palace, even without fully utilising the audio guide, after which we sat on the back steps of the palace and had our lunch, which mostly consisted of mini baguettes, melted butter, and jam; stolen from our free breakfast. I know, classy. Afer lunch we took the outrageously expensive "train" to the Trianons - Grand and Petit - and wandered around thinking what nice little summer houses they would make. And they wouldnàt be complete without Marie-Antoinette's amazingly Disneylandesque "peasant village". All of this took us eight hours or so, and we returned totally, totally exhausted.
Wednesday. In the morning we climbed up to the dome in the Sacre Coeur - the highest point in Paris, and an amazing view. I couldn't find where I wrote my name there last time - I think they may clean it every so often then let it fill up again. Keeping the theme of steps (sigh), we headed to the Arc de Triomphe, and paid a ridiculous amount of money for the privilege of going to the top. I probably wouldn't have bothered, but you have to, don't you, and it's the only thing I hadn't done before. Following the Champs-Elysées downhill, our next stop was the Musée d'Orsay, which made Margot's head explode. After an overload of art, we retreated, and went home. Only to go out again, to meet up with my friend Scott from high school and his partner, who have been living in Paris for nearly a year. We drank a little bit more wine than our worn-out bodies could really handle, but it was a great evening. I always regretted not keeping in contact with Scott, but it was great to find he hadn't changed - other than being ravaged by time, of course, but who among us hasn't been?
Almost there now, keep going. Thursday was a quitish day; a peaceful river cruise on the Bateaux-Mouches, followed by another stroll up to the Eiffel Tower, then back to the hostel to pick up our bags and go to the train station. The train to Bologna was pretty horrible, I have to say. Amazingly uncomfortable "beds", carriages in not the best state of repair, and fellow passengers we had to basically kick out of our compartment so we could set up the beds, and who stood talking directly outside for another couple of hours. But, we made it, and found our hostel. I say hostel, but it is basically a gorgeous little boutique hotel. We dropped our bags there and were invited to the full buffet breakfast (oh my god) for 5 euros, which I presume is charged to our room even though we haven't checked in yet. Now, I am fully prepared for them to tell me it costs 100 euros each or something, because we paid 42 euros altogether, which really seems suspicious for such a nice, three star hotel. We shall see. In the meantime we've wandered to the centre of Bologna, found the tourist information centre (not as easy as it sounds), and bought a guidebook to replace the one that I for some reason did not bring with me. Bologna is a medieval town, with ancient palaces and churches everywhere, as well as its own leaning tower (which is nine hundred years old, no less). But honestly, we're just here for a day off.
Right, that's me done. Not up to the standard I'd like, but there was too much to get through. If we keep up this pace I'm going to have to do an entry every day. I'll try and get a couple of photos up at some point, too.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Arrival in Paris!
At my last update, I was hooning around Northern Ireland in 12 degree weather. I am now wandering around Paris and baking in the heat. Comparatively.
I arrived home on the Tuesday night, and spent Wednesday reasonably relaxed - taking my Nan out to the park, etc. On Thursday I went to have dinner with Margot and her flatmates, and due to to much good conversation, and a bit of wine, ended up crashing and struggling home in the morning. Margot followed me to the north, and I took her to Kenwood House, which is one of my favourite spots - a historic house on beautiful grounds adjoining Hampstead Heath. It has been turned into an art gallery, with some (I'm told) very important works in it. There was a portrait by Rembrandt that I recognised, but it's the house and grounds I'm really interested in. We were lucky to have a glorious day, too, which made it even better.
Friday night we went to meet my cousin Mark for dinner, which was delicious, then he somehow managed to convince me to go out to the corniest club in London. Mercifully for her, Margot escaped and went home to bed, but I was forced to endure incredibly corny music and the sight of drunk English people playing tonsil hockey relay. I somehow managed to enjoy myself, of course, though I think once is probably enough for that particular establishment. I slept on the floor of a very lovely friend of Mark's, and struggled home again, by this time incredibly tired.
Despite this, I managed to mow the lawn, pack, drive through London to pick up Margot and all her stuff, and go out to dinner with my family. No, really, I'd like my medal now please.
Waking this morning, the mood was all excitment. Off to Paris! Everything was easy and on time, and we walked into St. Pancras feeling fresh and anticipatory. That, of course, should have warned us that something was going to go wrong. I, foolishly thinking that international travel on the Eurostar would be something like on a plane, packed my swiss army knife, which is always my companion when I travel - knife, corkscrew, bottle opener. Apparently, though, knives with blades that lock open are illegal. Why they are more dangerous, I can't imagine, but my knife was confiscated anyway. What's more, I somehow lost the £30 credit voucher for my phone in the confusion. So now I'm in France with no credit on my phone, and minus one knife (a 21st present, no less). On top of which, before we'd even hit the hostel, Margot had lost her cardigan thing.
So, that's three things, which hopefully means the bad run is over. Certainly the rest of the day has been wonderful. We had booked for an 8 bed dorm, and on arrival were given a private twin room, which put us in a good mood instantly. The hostel is in Montmarte, very close to the Sacre Coeur, and we've spent the afternoon wandering around the little streets, walking around the Sacre Coeur itself - which was shut as there was a mass in progress - and getting our bearings. We saw the Moulin Rouge, after walking past numerous "adult" shops; you wouldn't believe what they think is suitable for a window display in this city. We visited the cemetery, which is a little haven of trees and mausoleums in all the chaos, and had a sandwich for dinner, it being the only thing that we could afford (even a coffee from a hole in the wall place here costs 2.50, or five dollars) .
So that's everything up to date. I am absolutely dropping, so it's off for a last stroll and then bed - lots to do tomorrow!
I arrived home on the Tuesday night, and spent Wednesday reasonably relaxed - taking my Nan out to the park, etc. On Thursday I went to have dinner with Margot and her flatmates, and due to to much good conversation, and a bit of wine, ended up crashing and struggling home in the morning. Margot followed me to the north, and I took her to Kenwood House, which is one of my favourite spots - a historic house on beautiful grounds adjoining Hampstead Heath. It has been turned into an art gallery, with some (I'm told) very important works in it. There was a portrait by Rembrandt that I recognised, but it's the house and grounds I'm really interested in. We were lucky to have a glorious day, too, which made it even better.
Friday night we went to meet my cousin Mark for dinner, which was delicious, then he somehow managed to convince me to go out to the corniest club in London. Mercifully for her, Margot escaped and went home to bed, but I was forced to endure incredibly corny music and the sight of drunk English people playing tonsil hockey relay. I somehow managed to enjoy myself, of course, though I think once is probably enough for that particular establishment. I slept on the floor of a very lovely friend of Mark's, and struggled home again, by this time incredibly tired.
Despite this, I managed to mow the lawn, pack, drive through London to pick up Margot and all her stuff, and go out to dinner with my family. No, really, I'd like my medal now please.
Waking this morning, the mood was all excitment. Off to Paris! Everything was easy and on time, and we walked into St. Pancras feeling fresh and anticipatory. That, of course, should have warned us that something was going to go wrong. I, foolishly thinking that international travel on the Eurostar would be something like on a plane, packed my swiss army knife, which is always my companion when I travel - knife, corkscrew, bottle opener. Apparently, though, knives with blades that lock open are illegal. Why they are more dangerous, I can't imagine, but my knife was confiscated anyway. What's more, I somehow lost the £30 credit voucher for my phone in the confusion. So now I'm in France with no credit on my phone, and minus one knife (a 21st present, no less). On top of which, before we'd even hit the hostel, Margot had lost her cardigan thing.
So, that's three things, which hopefully means the bad run is over. Certainly the rest of the day has been wonderful. We had booked for an 8 bed dorm, and on arrival were given a private twin room, which put us in a good mood instantly. The hostel is in Montmarte, very close to the Sacre Coeur, and we've spent the afternoon wandering around the little streets, walking around the Sacre Coeur itself - which was shut as there was a mass in progress - and getting our bearings. We saw the Moulin Rouge, after walking past numerous "adult" shops; you wouldn't believe what they think is suitable for a window display in this city. We visited the cemetery, which is a little haven of trees and mausoleums in all the chaos, and had a sandwich for dinner, it being the only thing that we could afford (even a coffee from a hole in the wall place here costs 2.50, or five dollars) .
So that's everything up to date. I am absolutely dropping, so it's off for a last stroll and then bed - lots to do tomorrow!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Down in County Down
Today's photo is a map. Click here to see a map of the route I was driven through County Down, the particulars of which I will describe forthwith.
All my mornings in NI were started reasonably late, as I generally slept in due to the abundance of wine, good conversation, whiskey, etc. that had been consumed the previous night. Truly, the Irish are the most hospitable people in the world, and the most friendly. They are constantly bantering with strangers they meet through the day; always cheerful and humorous. I was surrounded by smiles the whole time I was there, it was wonderful.
E and E graciously drove me all over the countryside every day, which I'm sure was far more interesting for me than it was for them. On Monday we did a tour of County Down, driving first south beside the lough, and stopping in Killyleagh, where at the top of the hill in town there is a tremendous castle, about which I have very little information, other than it looked really really cool. It's apparently privately owned, by someone obviously hugely rich. It is supposed to be the official residence of the Duke of York, who is also Lord Killyleagh.
Obviously we couldn't go in, so we hopped back into the car and went to Downpatrick. In the old gaol there, they have made a very nice little museum, charting the history of the area from the dinosaur age all the way through to the Irish Troubles. They have some lovely artefacts and very well put together displays, as well as some extremely creepy mannequins in the old gaol cells. As usual, we stopped in at the cafe to give Ena her tea fix for the hour, then went up the road to Downpatrick cathedral. The particular claim to fame of this cathedral is in the attached graveyard; the final resting place of St. Patrick. He died in the 5th century, of course, but in the 12th century John de Courcy disinterred him and brought him here. There is a bloody great slab of granite on top with the original inscription still visible. We hadn't brought any green beer with us, alas, but we sat on the headstone and had our photo taken - the sun came out for the only time that day just for the one minute we were on the grave; make of that what you will. Nothing, probably.
Fleeing Downpatrick, our next stop was Dundrum Castle, overlooking Dundrum bay and much else besides. This was my highlight, I think. It was begun in 1177, and finished by John de Courcy a little later. Busy bee, wasn't he? It's a wonderful castle; a huge round tower on the top of a hill, with 360 degree views and a steep approach. The tower is within a curtain wall, and itself has walls 2 metres thick of solid stone. I have a bit of a thing for old ruined castles (this one, by the way, was ruined only a hundred years or so later, though there was nothing to tell you how or why), and I spent a fruitful half an hour pretending to shoot out of arrow-slits and pour boiling oil onto filthy peasants. Wonderful.
Yes, there is a Newcastle in Norther Ireland as well, and we went there next. It is at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, where they "sweep down to the sea", and is a bit of a seaside resort; lots of amusement arcades and the like, very quaint. We promenaded along the promenade, and had an icecream despite the weather, followed by a lovely trip home through Ballynahinch, Saintfield and Ballygowan, over rolling hill and dale, through green fields and whatnot. Truly gorgeous countryside.
So that was that. The next day I was taken to see my great-aunt Jean, then I was able to visit and put flowers on my grandad's grave in Dundonald cemetery before the flight home to London. I had a wonderful few days, and really can't wait to go back.
All my mornings in NI were started reasonably late, as I generally slept in due to the abundance of wine, good conversation, whiskey, etc. that had been consumed the previous night. Truly, the Irish are the most hospitable people in the world, and the most friendly. They are constantly bantering with strangers they meet through the day; always cheerful and humorous. I was surrounded by smiles the whole time I was there, it was wonderful.
E and E graciously drove me all over the countryside every day, which I'm sure was far more interesting for me than it was for them. On Monday we did a tour of County Down, driving first south beside the lough, and stopping in Killyleagh, where at the top of the hill in town there is a tremendous castle, about which I have very little information, other than it looked really really cool. It's apparently privately owned, by someone obviously hugely rich. It is supposed to be the official residence of the Duke of York, who is also Lord Killyleagh.
Obviously we couldn't go in, so we hopped back into the car and went to Downpatrick. In the old gaol there, they have made a very nice little museum, charting the history of the area from the dinosaur age all the way through to the Irish Troubles. They have some lovely artefacts and very well put together displays, as well as some extremely creepy mannequins in the old gaol cells. As usual, we stopped in at the cafe to give Ena her tea fix for the hour, then went up the road to Downpatrick cathedral. The particular claim to fame of this cathedral is in the attached graveyard; the final resting place of St. Patrick. He died in the 5th century, of course, but in the 12th century John de Courcy disinterred him and brought him here. There is a bloody great slab of granite on top with the original inscription still visible. We hadn't brought any green beer with us, alas, but we sat on the headstone and had our photo taken - the sun came out for the only time that day just for the one minute we were on the grave; make of that what you will. Nothing, probably.
Fleeing Downpatrick, our next stop was Dundrum Castle, overlooking Dundrum bay and much else besides. This was my highlight, I think. It was begun in 1177, and finished by John de Courcy a little later. Busy bee, wasn't he? It's a wonderful castle; a huge round tower on the top of a hill, with 360 degree views and a steep approach. The tower is within a curtain wall, and itself has walls 2 metres thick of solid stone. I have a bit of a thing for old ruined castles (this one, by the way, was ruined only a hundred years or so later, though there was nothing to tell you how or why), and I spent a fruitful half an hour pretending to shoot out of arrow-slits and pour boiling oil onto filthy peasants. Wonderful.
Yes, there is a Newcastle in Norther Ireland as well, and we went there next. It is at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, where they "sweep down to the sea", and is a bit of a seaside resort; lots of amusement arcades and the like, very quaint. We promenaded along the promenade, and had an icecream despite the weather, followed by a lovely trip home through Ballynahinch, Saintfield and Ballygowan, over rolling hill and dale, through green fields and whatnot. Truly gorgeous countryside.
So that was that. The next day I was taken to see my great-aunt Jean, then I was able to visit and put flowers on my grandad's grave in Dundonald cemetery before the flight home to London. I had a wonderful few days, and really can't wait to go back.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I'm a bit in love with Ireland
Today I was afforded a glimpse into an idealised, romantic, possibly patronising version of Ireland, conjured by the weather, my surroundings, and my own imagination.
I was taken today to the Ulster Folk Museum - compared by the man at the information desk to Sovereign Hill in Victoria. I like this one much better. They have literally transplanted examples of old houses, churches, and so on from wherever they had been standing across Ulster. Stone by stone. The result is a little town that you would think had always been there, with pokey houses burning peat in the fireplaces, and workshops that look as though the owner had just stepped out for a smoke.
There was also a rural area, and it is this that I liked the most. Winding lanes through fields marked by hedgerows or stone walls, and old farmhouses and tiny one-roomed cottiers houses scattered about. The sun was out for some of this, and walking alone up an isolated lane, with black-headed sheep cropping the grass, rabbits running through the fields, butterflys dancing in the hedgerows, and a couple of goats sitting in the lane, I fell head over heels. Possibly my brain had been being seeped in history for a few hours, but there is something just so humanly beautiful about this place. Like I was saying in reference to England yesterday - every inch of the land has been worked on and changed and lived with, for millenia. If sublimity is beauty that makes you insignificant and awestruck, then this is the opposite - beauty that feels like an extension of yourself.
There is plenty here not to like, too, of course. Not everyone is as stupidly romantic and nostalgic as I am. Everywhere there are reminders of the dificulties that have been faced in Northern Ireland, and coming up to the 12th of July the fervour only increases - we saw a bunch of lads with a big Ulster flag outside a pub, yelling profanities at passing traffic. Unfortunately people forget that they no longer have to live in a horrible tiny stone room with a smelly fire against one wall and no electricity or running water, and try to make life miserable for each other for no better reason than that that's what their parents did. Call me naive if you like, but I think the world may be a slightly nicer place if more people were romantic nostalgics like I am.
This chap has it all sorted out, I reckon:
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Belfast
Where I left off last I was in Kew, having lunch. This was followed by dinner at a very nice local - I had roast guinea fowl, which isn't something I try every day, followed by a late train home. The next day saw the attempted reenactment of a scene Hamish would recognise - cheese and wine in Hyde park - this time accompanied by extremely tame squirrels, as follows:
Unfortunately the weather was a bit gloomy. Nevertheless, wine cures all, and I was a little later to bed than I intended, given that I had to get up at 5 the next morning. I did manage to get up though, and endured an uninspiring trip to Heathrow.
A patchwork of land that has been cultivated and tamed for centuries. Very picture-skew.
Belfast of course was grey and cold. The greeting I received was of course colourful and warm. My cousin Eric and his wife Ena are as hospitable as anyone could be, and they took me to a nice warm house to compose myself, followed by a drive around the local area. There is a wonderful Norman watchtower nearby which we'll visit tomorrow, but we did manage to work up the courage to have a pint in Ireland's oldest pub.
I do admit to the possibility that this area is more interesting to me than it is to you, due to the family history - we passed where my grandparents used to rent a little cabin in the summers, a little fisherman's house by the sea that my great great aunt lived in, that sort of stuff - but anyone would agree the country is gorgeous. Green and rolling and full of little villages.
Unfortunately the weather was a bit gloomy. Nevertheless, wine cures all, and I was a little later to bed than I intended, given that I had to get up at 5 the next morning. I did manage to get up though, and endured an uninspiring trip to Heathrow.Security at Heathrow is beyond anything that any sane person would think is reasonable. After checking in to my flight, I had to stand in a queue then show my boarding pass and passport and be photographed, followed by another queue for the privilege of taking off my shoes and belt and jacket in case they were harbouring dangerous criminals. I saw one man be forced to try each and every one of the containers of baby food he was carrying for his young children. Thinking it was all over, I wandered toward my gate, only to be put through another winding path of tape at the end of which I had to show my boarding pass again, and be matched against the photo they'd taken of me five minutes earlier. I was then given a full medical CAT scan in case I had replaced my blood with dangerous explosive. OK I made that one up. But seriously.
After all of that, the flight was delayed, then the actual flying time was about fourteen and a half seconds. Here is England from the air:
A patchwork of land that has been cultivated and tamed for centuries. Very picture-skew.Belfast of course was grey and cold. The greeting I received was of course colourful and warm. My cousin Eric and his wife Ena are as hospitable as anyone could be, and they took me to a nice warm house to compose myself, followed by a drive around the local area. There is a wonderful Norman watchtower nearby which we'll visit tomorrow, but we did manage to work up the courage to have a pint in Ireland's oldest pub.
I do admit to the possibility that this area is more interesting to me than it is to you, due to the family history - we passed where my grandparents used to rent a little cabin in the summers, a little fisherman's house by the sea that my great great aunt lived in, that sort of stuff - but anyone would agree the country is gorgeous. Green and rolling and full of little villages.
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