Drunk on Prague
So it's our third country in five days. Some might call this a crazy pace, but we're actually a little concerned because things are slowing down. We don't have that many things to see here in Prague -- we chose to spend extra time here because it was the cheapest destination on our whirlwind tour, so we're trying to think of things to do to pass the time. We considered doing a day trip on the Monday to a castle that's about an hour from Prague, as it would also allow us to maximize the use of our Czech Flexi Pass. However, we were just accosted by a girl in our new hostel (Arpacay Hostel) who wants people to accompany her to visit Kutna Hora, a church made entirely out of bones. It is just weird and creepy enough to entice us, so we're thinking of tagging along and moving our visit to Prague Castle and the Jewish Cemetary to Monday instead. [Note to Fil: See! We have now chatted with four (4!) people, and we're even thinking of daytripping with one of them! Aren't you proud? Also? The keyboard here is exactly like the one we have in North America...]
Anyway, we made it to Berlin Ostbahnhof station with absolutely no problems, now that we have made the metro our bitch. We even managed to find our platform and the place where our car would arrive, without asking for any help (part of this is self-sufficiency, the other is a bit of our anti-social nature, and our fear of speaking to German authority figures... some things never change). Or so we thought... because at 9:40 (our train was due to depart at (9:42), I had the foresight to check the destination announcement on platform 3, only to find that our train was there instead of on platform 2! We scrambled on board (after helping an American family by giving them the head's up), and then struggled to find our streets since they weren't really in numerical order, or in any numbering system we could discern. Then, we essentially settled down for a 5 hour train ride to Prague.
Steph and I slept in shifts (without deciding to do so beforehand, it's just that we are that good at travelling in potentially dangerous situations), although we were both awakened by a screaming baby... thankfully its mother decided to stand between cars rather than annoying our entire (German) car. Then when we reached the German-Czech border, we both received snazzy new stamps in our passports, one from German (why they didn't stamp our passports when we entered, we don't know), and one from the Czech Republic. Man, those border patrole people are scary what with their guns and their clubs.
When we got to Prague, we were harassed by several locals who wanted us to come stay with them for accomodation. We politely but firmly declined as we already had a hostel and are also not stupid. Then we successfully procured money from the ATM, but of course the smallest bills we got were 200 Kc, and it only cost 12 Kc to ride the subway... so we had to buy water to get some smaller coins (since the metro woman with her lazy eye and cigarette did not have any change). We then continued our streak of rocking with foreign public transport by making it to our intended station on the first try... But once we were there, the fun began. I got us lost on the way to our hostel, as we ambled about aimlessly trying to find a bridge crossing the train tracks. At one point, I led us up a steep ramp, only to be almost run over by a car. However, we did find the bridge, and the hostel (although our confirmation email had told us we were staying in the building across the street, and we trekked up 6 flights of stairs only to find out that this was not so). It was ridiculously hot, but then it always seems to be hotter when we're carrying 12+ kg on our backs, and it started to rain a bit, but we finally made it, and none too worse for the wear.
The hostel is really nice here. We're sharing a dorm with about 6 other people, but the room is much larger. We have been given perhaps the world's smallest toilet (there is a door separating it from the sink itself), but it's clean and all the furniture looks new. We even have a kitchen at our disposal. We are very tempted to make use of it because groceries are so cheap here, but it is hardly any more expensive to just go to a restaurant and get a filling meal prepared by someone else. Best of all: Free internet access!
After we had recovered a little, we decided to brave the streets of Prague and get acquainted with it. It turns out that Prague is incredibly beautiful and not at all frightening. Everyone speaks English here, and even tourists from other countries where English is not the main language communicate with the locals in English. The girl working at our hostel told us that there are actually more tourists in Prague than there are people from the Czech republic itself! We took the metro in for 8 Kc (approximately $0.40 Canadian), and then made our way to the old town square. It was so gorgeous, that it almost didn't seem real. Steph later remarked that it looked like something you would expect to see in Disneyland (like that street they have called something like: Main Street, USA), except there is not Mickey or Minnie Mouse wandering around. We just missed the sounding of the hour by the Astronomical Clock, so we ambled away from the main square having been told that it was more expensive to eat around there. We found a side street with a restaurant that seemed to have decent prices, so we decided to be decadent and eat there, even if it was a rip off. It turns out we couldn't have made a better choice! Sure, Steph thinks the place's name makes reference to prostitutes, and there were dirty comics framed and placed all over the walls, but the food was good and cheap. The total price for both of our meals and one Czech beer came to 250 Kc (tip included). That boils down to about $6.25 per person! Our beers were only $1! For half a litre... Bloody hell! I can't believe we each drank half a litre of beer.
After dinner, we strolled over to the Charles Bridge, which was filled with vendors and street performers (a man playing Bach on wine glasses, etc.,). When we got to the end of the bridge, we wandered into a supermarket because it had a huge Absinth display in the window. We were soon enraptured by all of the strange Czech foodstuffs, the most expensive of which seemed to be $2.50... you could buy 1.5L of bottled water for $0.45, or many chocolate bars for $0.35 each! Steph is now covetting an authentic "absinth spoon", and apparently you can get red absinth too! We will be heading back on Monday, if not tomorrow.
The sky was getting cloudy again, and thunder was rolling, so we decided to head back towards the old square to catch the Astronomical Clock ring in 9 pm. A bunch of figures appear from behind these windows, and little skeletons begin to ring bells. It was all very "Pirates of the Carribean", but awesome. We also got to enjoy two scoops of ice cream, our first true food splurge since arriving in Europe. Once the show was done (it really is a show! People gather around just to watch the clock strike the hour, and clap when it's done!), we returned to the hostel. We figure that we don't want to do everything Prague has to offer our first night here, since we're here until Tuesday morning. If we keep going at the pace we have, we'll have to be on a train tomorrow... In fact we might be, to check out that bone castle, but Prague will still be our home base!
That's pretty much it for now. We don't know how to say anything except "please" in Czech, and we can now recognize the word for "exit" (but don't ask us to pronounce it! We like it here, and don't want to incur any ill will!). Maybe if we can successfully upload the pictures from my camera, we'll have a link for you to enjoy them at soon.
Ich bin ein Berliner (aka "I am a jelly donut")!
So, despite our talk yesterday of giving our feet a rest and taking it easy today... we lied. Sure, we bought ourselves the gift of unlimited Metro travel, but even then, there are only stops every so often, so our poor little feet were pounding the pavement once more. We thought we had seen everything Berlin had to offer yesterday, but we definitely had a packed day. Let's begin...
Breakfast was packed with more prepubescent German boys, and the fashion was exceedingly horrendous today. For some reason, European men feel that capris are a uni-sex look, but lest any of you get the idea in your heads as well, let us be frank: they are not. However, we saw a guy at breakfast who made his TIGHT tapered jeans into capris by rolling them up, then we saw a guy at the Reichstag (more about that in a bit) wearing powder-blue ones... will the madness ever end? Then a guy sauntered into the breakfast room wearing a shirt so tight that his very protruding belly strained the seams, and perfectly complimented his acid-wash jeans. He clearly thought he was hot stuff (probably thought it the reason we were averting our eyes), but it made me remark to Laura: How do people get married in this country? Seriously. So unattractive.
We then dashed off to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was bombed during the war and never reconstructed (one of the few genuine buildings in Berlin). Then we had to make some reservations for our train to Prague tomorrow, and with that, we essentially conquered the Berlin Transit System. Take that BVG! I actually used some German today, and both Laura and I have decided that no matter how awkward and bizarre it is to end conversations in English with these people with "danke" we do it anyway if it means they won't yell at us. Also, after we ascertain (in German) that people speak English, we then say everything in English in a meek and apologetic fashion. It seems to work. I think sometimes people say things that are essentially them making fun of us because they know we won't understand, but I guess that's their perogative. ANYWAY, we made our reservations, and then used both the U- & S-bahns heavily today. We had been tipped off that because the Berlin metro system works primarily on the honour system that we really didn´t need to buy tickets, but we saw that the fine for fraud was €40, and thought we would suck it up and be good little tourists. Oh, and how did we get this tip? We made friends with Wayne, the guy in our room who left today. Probably best that he did, because our 2nd stop on the S-bahn was accompanied by a ticket check (although we were a little confused at first because the person conducting it was not dressed in any kind of official outfit... rather, he was in an 1980s acid-wash jean jacket... come to think of it, perhaps acid-wash denim is a Berliner uniform!).
We jetted off to the Reichstag, the home of the German Parliament, and stood in line for quite a while just so that we could go up to the top of its clear glass dome for a panoramic view of the city. It's a shame that it was so hot today, because it really precluded us from spending too much time up there for fear of passing out! Also, we had to stand behind a girl wearing the shortest denim and what looked like scarves skirt ever. It was ruffled! And had cut-off pockets because it was so short! And she was wearing a studded belt! And she was wearing macrame shoes and was 45! What is wrong with these people?
After the Reichstag, we bought the best souvenir one can get in Berlin: a jelly donut keychain, with the words "Ich bin ein Berliner" on the back, to commemorate JFK´s infamous speech. We then went for lunch at a little pub, that we had read about in our Berlin Walks pamphlet (another good reason for the tour!). We chose it because we had read that they served traditional German food -- Laura and I have the goal of eating one traditional meal in each city that we visit -- but more importantly, they provide English menus! We both had parboiled sausages and potatoe salad, both of which were really good, and not all that expensive. Once again, there was some confusion about whether to tip or not, but we just followed what the patrons around us were doing and hightailed it out of there!
Then it was off to the Einstein exhibit, which we thankfully got student prices for. They had these really hightech audio tours that just somehow knew where you were in the exhibit and told you what you needed to know. The best parts were: the tiny room where you could conduct an experiment to experience how sound requires air to travel, and the movies on each floor in which you watched actors embody famous scientists and insult and yell at each other while providing you with backstories about people's theories. The one featuring Plank, Lorentz, and some other guy was so good, we watched it twice. Also, the one involving Niezsche finished with him storming off screen in a fit of rage. Awesome!
To end the day, we took the S-bahn to the very eastern edge of the city to look at the East Wall Gallery. We had heard from people (read: TARYN) that the murals covering the remnants of the Berlin Wall were really cool, but they were all peeling and not interesting enough to make the pain in our feet go away! Seriously though, all the paint was flaking off which made it very hard to appreciate the artistic intent. Our tour guide yesterday told us that the German government really doesn't have the funds to maintain the city, and often it shows. It is also really funny how they have all these impressive looking buildings in very ornate styles, only to find out that the original was destroyed and you are looking at something built under 10 years ago.
We returned to the hostel only to find that our keycards were no longer working, but we got that sorted out. We also have a new roommate, Patrick Dubois, who is from Montreal. I already hate him because he threw my towel which had been drying on my bed, completely defeating the purpose. So, I did the same to his, because it was blocking my ladder up to my bunk. Take that Patrick! I am not above petty warfare! Also, we are leaving for a 9:42 am train tomorrow, and I'll be sure to rock the bed a lot when I get up so as to disturb you as much as possible.
On the way to the internet cafe, we passed a child with a full-blown mullett. A girl child. Who was also wearing one hooped earing in one ear, and a long dangly one in the other. She was maybe 8. I guess you have to get them while they're young. Just thought you would want to know. Also, did you know that Camden, NJ is the most dangerous city? The girl at the other internet terminal felt like sharing that with the entire cafe.
2 days seems to be about the perfect amount of time for this city. We leave seeing everything we planned to, and perhaps most importantly, no longer fear Berlin. Yesterday morning, we never would have been brave enough to venture about on all the various transport options or say a few short phrases to people in their native tongue (the information lady at the train station actually complimented my German... all one sentence of it!). We are truly growing as travellers, as today we didn't make a single navigational error using the map! This was our goal, so it's nice to know we are improving. Also, we are supreme budgeters, as we only spent about €14 yesterday, and we are maybe at €20 today. And people said that to try and make it on less than €40/day was crazy. Take that people!
All right, that's pretty much it for now. We have an early day ahead of us, so we need our rest! Also, our feet hate us and might go on strike unless we placate them. I suppose the next time you hear from us will be when we're in Prague! Bring it on!
Aufwiedersehn!
(Pots)dam you! And: Sarah Saves Berlin!
So, we took the train in from Amsterdam Centraal Station yesterday to Berlin's Zoologischer (?) Station. The train ride was actually quite peaceful, and even though it was the same amount of time as the flight, it seemed to go much quicker (and was far more enjoyable!). We bought good sandwiches at the station prior to departure (Mom, they were just as good as you said they would be), avoided a fellow English-speaker (whatever "Joe" from Idaho, we don't want to know you! Sorry Fil!), successfully got our rail passes validated, and Steph had a mild heartattack when we arrived at Osnabruck station. We were feeling pretty confident when we go to Berlin, but that faded quickly when we realized that Steph's book was lying about a Tourist Info center in the rail station and the police woman that we approached for help was typically German (i.e., TERRIFYING! She seemed to take great pleasure in informing us that there wasn't a tourist center, therefore 'goodbye!'). With no map of the city and no useful German vocabulary to our names, we braved the U-Bahn and actually managed to make it to the hostel (but not before we encountered weird drunken (?) men making chicken calls on the subway, and a traveling accordion band as well. Also, when we reached the hostel, we knew we had to check in across the street, but across the street was a river and then some scary looking thicket (one of the very reasons we did not stay at JetPak hostel! Damn those German forests! We know there is a famous cake named after them... but honestly!). Thankfully (or so we thought at the time) a friendly German man, told us where we needed to go. We were so relieved to have met a friendly German (oxymoron?), but that soon dissipated when we walked into our tiny room only to find that he was our suite (overstatement) mate. In fact, he has the bunk right under me. We are also sharing the very close quarters with 2 German girls, a guy named Wayne (possibly American), and some guy who apparated during the night and sleeps on the sofabed under the window. On the one hand, we have a "private" bathroom (that we only share with those 5 other people), and we have an impetus to get up really early and stay out of the hostel. On the other hand, it's pretty sketch, and save for us & Wayne, everyone else appears to be German. This is very different from Shelter Jordaan in Amsterdam!
One nice thing about the hostel is that it provides a complimentary breakfast, which suits us just fine. We have noticed that not just have we travelled in distance, but also in time... backwards in time, as people in Germany are dressing like it is the 90s. We are talking about Doc Martin boots with tight pants, strange mullety hair, and just mismatching and unflattering cuts. Also, all the guys look to be either 14 or 40. Something must skip a generation.
We have yet to master actually leaving the hostel, as the only door we can find to get out is not the one we use to get in, and leads into an alley, but it does the job. We set off for the Jewish Museum, marvelling at how terrifying we found the city to be. (Note: our map using skills are dramatically improving!). Perhaps the most notable thing about the museum is its architecture; apparently it was designed to look like a lightning bolt. It is very disorienting to walk through, especially the Memory Void which features a modern art exhibit at the end called "Fallen Leaves". It is these little metal faces scattered all over the ground that you are meant to walk over. The Garden of Exile was also niceish (it smelled good!), if not still slanty and terror-inducing with respect to broken ankles. Most freaksome of all was The Holocaust Tower, in which you are thrown into a dark pit with only a tiny sliver of light at the top that you can never reach. Also disturbing (but in a different way), were the 2 men who made it seem as though we had stumbled into the "Barbie Museum" as featured in the movie Rat Race. Oh, and the fact that only 52% of people don't hold a grudge against Jewish people (according to the museum's informal survey). Still, a worthwhile visit and a good way to spend the morning... since it was not the hostel.
Next was the Topography of Terror exhibit which is situated next to the last vestige of the Berlin Wall. This was WRONGLY reccommended to us by Taryn, who said she had to go back twice in order to finish it. The highlight for us was the pink car with pigs stencilled on it, parked out front. We were done pretty much as soon as we started (we clocked it 20 minutes, and that was pushing considering how fricken hot it was outside), so we continued on our way to Hackescher Market where we were meeting a walking tour group at 3 pm. We stumbled our way there, and confusedly walked about the square trying to find something to eat. It's awkward approaching people when you don't speak their language, and even moreso when you want to eat something but don't recognize any of the words on the menu!
The tour was really awesome, and we were relieved that Taryn had finally given us some good advice! Seriously, our tourguide, Sarah, was so good that we forgave her for not being the male British guide we had seen conducting the tour earlier. She even managed to compensate for the horrible other Canadian girl (sadly, Steph snuck a look at her notebook -- which, by the way, who takes detailed notes on walking tours?-- and her name was Stephanie), whom we unaffectionately named "Poodle Girl" due to her unfortunate hair. The tour was 4 hours, which allowed us to take in all of the major sites/sights in the city. We both admitted that we would not have been compelled to walk that much today if we hadn't paid good money to do so. So, the sights that we saw were: Berlin Cathedral, the Museum Island (where all the important museums are that we won't bother seeing (especially the Pergamon... take that Taryn!)), War Memorial, Babelplatz (this was really cool!), a parking lot where a big palace used to be (and is currently hosting a beach volleyball tournament), Hitler's Bunker, Tiergarten, Bradenburg Tor, Reichstag (superficial view, we are going back for the real deal tomorrow), Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt, the Opera House, Humboldt University, and a lot more that we are probably forgetting (good thing we were both taking pictures!).
In Gendarmenmarkt where the tour finished, there were two teens busking for money. The song choices were extremely questionable (as are most things here), being that they were: "I Wanna Be Like You" (from the Jungle Book), "Light My Fire", and "Love Shack". Then a dueling busker appeared on scene, but he only played one song (the one with the words "Now I've gone and ruined it all by saying something stupid like 'I love you'). We decided it was time to leave, so we hobbled off back to the hostel, determined to find Doner kebaps that Taryn (we really need to stop taking her advice.... although she was right about this one) kept babbling about. They were very good, especially for €2,30 and being the first thing we had eaten since breakfast... 12 hours ago... Anyway, we are now on our way back to the hostel, and we thing we have walked about 10 km (at least) today and have potentially broken our feet. All we want now is some water and to lie down!
Tomorrow's agenda: Reichstag (it is free to go up to its glass dome), Kaiser Memorial Church, Einstein exhibit, Victory Column, and the dome in Berlin Cathedral. Maybe we'll take the subway a tad to spare our feet. So, as they say in German: Chuß!
Dust cakes and Apple
Ok, after one thwarted attempt at Shelter Jordaan, we're trying to post again. This time from the lovely Apple store on... some major Dutch street!
As you may have already heard, our flight was delayed by 6 hours, so although we are currently in A-dam, we're going to be leaving it in about, 3 hours. Months of careful planning, but we've learned our lesson: Air Transat is evil. While stranded in Pearson International, we saw many weird people who we hope to never see again. There were several tiny children, who we named thus: "Milk Junkie" (because he was wearing a shirt with that on it), "Ron Weasley" (because he had bright red hair), and Ron's sister "Scooter" (because she would propel herself along the ground with one hand at lightning speed!). There was also "Duty Free Swigger" who, upon hearing we were at Pearson until 9:45 pm, started drinking his whiskey he had purchased.
The plane ride itself was tolerable, although we did not appreciate the staff telling us that we should be thanking them for "sticking around". All right Air Transat, we'll "thank" you once we're back and have your customer service number. Even the free bottles of wine and headsets (saving us a whole dollar!) were not enough to placate us. Although, at least they did not show "Hitch" (they were going to!), but instead switched to "Cellular". Never heard of it? Good. The food was so bad: the cake coated our tongues in dust and tasted as though it had been in an oven... at some point (I exclaimed: It tastes like baked!). The pasta sauce actually managed to remove any flavour whatsoever, no small feat! Thankfully, we managed to get some sleep.
Once we got to A-dam, things went relatively smooth... until Laura got us off the tram one stop too early. It was a bit of a hike to the hostel, but we made it, our backs aching. We ended up missing the bike tour in lieu of showers, but we don't regret it since we ended up going to the Van Gogh museum, and then travelled for dinner at this little place famous for it's apple pie. We were a little unsure about the whole tipping thing, since it varies based on where you are in Europe, but ended up assuming tip was included in the price (along with taxes). We had this "lentil" soup, that was supposed to be curried, but was neither curried nor made of lentils. The bread was ok. However, scrumptious apple pie made up for it. Then it was off to the Anne Frank House, which was really neat, and if any of you ever get to A-dam, make sure you check it out. Surprisingly there were absolutely no lines, and in fact, the city itself wasn't that busy. Later that evening we went off to find the famous "Skinny Bridge" which has an identical bridge cousin that we first mistook for it. Then we found "Bridge with a (not so great) View", and walked back to the hostel (considerably easier when we're not lugging 12-15 kg packs on our backs!).
This morning, we went to the flower market, saw Beguine in the gutter, and the mysterious statue (in the Red Light district... To our fathers: don't worry! We weren't buying (or selling) anything!). Now it's off to try and find some "frites", pick up our bags, and then head back to Centraal Station where we'll depart for Berlin.
Keep the comments coming! We don't know how to say "bye" in Dutch, so: "Laters!"
Free Wheeling!
Ha! Take that Dad! I totally can ride a bike! We have pictures and continued use of my limbs to prove it!
OK, off to the airport.
AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
muuuhuuuhaaaaahaaaa!!! The day has finally arrived and we are off to Europe to start our amazing race! With our break-neck pace we hope we don't actually break our necks! Speaking of which, Steph has to go "practice" "riding" a "bike" (I don't know what all the extra ""s were for), so that we can go on a 4-hour bike tour 5 hours after we get off the plane in Amsterdam (or as they say on Travel Punk, "A-dam"). Don't worry folks, Laura is taking lots of pictures of Steph trying to ride a bike (... into the canal).We leave for the airport in 2hrs & 15mins... Here are the things we look forward to:
airplane meals (ok, that one is just Laura)trashy magazines! (that one's both of that... Finally an excuse to read about Paris Hilton and the "hot feuds" of the summer (do you think they are "icy feuds" in the winter?) and of course, Crazy Tom Cruise, guilt free!)a good "current release" on the plane (wishful thinking... Laura's going to make them turn the plane around if it's Hitch)Europe... I guessCatch you on the other side! (Yes, the trip has turned us into big(ger) dorks)
