I'm alive...
Hey all... I'm currently in the middle of my crazy spring break adventures. I've already done Paris, Budapest, Prague, Colonge, and am finishing up in Berlin. Tomorrow I'll be in Hamburg. I've written two journal entries, which I'll copy and paste below now... I'm also working on some crazy videos which should be available soon. I haven't written anything about my travel in Germany yet, but that's also coming soon.
I hope everyone is enjoying life right now... and oh yeah, my 21st birthday is March 14. :)
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Last night I arrived in Paris after an afternoon of frantically getting ready in Tübingen. I managed to pack for more than a month of traveling with only my smallest suitcase (it is pretty small), an army backpack that I borrowed from Cat, and a very stylish man purse that I bought a few days ago for only 8 euros! I still think I took too much because everything seems pretty heavy after an hour of lugging it around, but oh well. It’s better than having to do laundry every five days. On the plane ride to France, I was so excited that my legs kept jiggling and I think I was annoying the person next to me. It was also really cool, because at the end of the flight I thought to myself, “Paris, here I come! In three…two…one…” And as soon as I counted to one, the plane touched the ground. It was perfect.
On an unrelated note, one sign that you buy too many flights from Germanwings is when you start recognizing the flight attendants.
Anyway, this morning Mary and I got up quite early (by my standards) at 8:15 and ate a pretty decent breakfast at the hotel (the chocolate croissants were ten times better than anything similar that I’ve had in Germany). We were then planning on going to the Port Royal Market in order to experience a typical Parisian Saturday morning market, but instead we accidentally ran into Notre Dame. We went inside, walked around the exterior of the church, and basically remained in awe for about a solid hour or hour and a half.
Afterwards, we finally found a market, although it wasn’t the one we were looking for, and we looked at all the various foods and even bought some fruit. (On a side note, I’ve seen more bananas here than in any other European city, which is really cool since I love bananas so much. One more reason to love Paris.) We then found some cheap bread in a tiny food store and sat on a bench in some kind of mini-park. The weather kind of sucked and it started to rain, but it was all part of the experience of attempting to eat cheap in one of Europe’s most expensive cities.
After lunch, Mary and I took the metro to the Lourve, saw the big glass pyramid outside, and spend some time marveling at how big it is. We didn’t go inside but are planning on doing that tomorrow in order to see the Mona Lisa and whatever other great works of art that happen to make an appearance. After the Lourve, we decided to follow the Champs Elysee road to the Arch of Triumph, which is famous and important because it had something to do with Napoleon and currently with the Toure de France, or something.
We then decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower, and became so engrossed in our conversation about Madonna not wanting to pay driving taxes in London, that the tower suddenly jumped up in front of us unexpectedly, causing a very loud “Oooooo” audible for several hundred feet. As we walked closer and crossed a bridge in order to get to the tower, we noticed some suspicious looking men or Middle-Eastern decent running in the opposite direction as fast as they could. We thought it was strange, and as we walked forward a little more, we noticed a strange metal box connected by a string to another metal box on the other side of the street. We became very scared and ran away, thinking it was a terrorist attack on the Eiffel Tower, but after waiting for a while and seeing that nothing was happening, we decided to go back to the tower. But seriously, in light of all the insanity that’s going on right now, it wasn’t an unreasonable fear, and for a split second, I will really filled with fear and uncertainty.
But we lived to tell the tale! And after the Eiffel Tower, we went to the magnificent dome under which Napoleon is buried, and in front of which stands a very grand military museum. We then took the metro to the Moulin Rouge, which unexpectedly was in the middle of the Paris red light district, although on second thought, maybe it shouldn’t have been so unexpected. After standing in awe in front of my Mecca and taking many pictures, we finally went back home to the room because let’s face it: we walked A LOT and were just pooped.
One thing I’ve noticed is that this crazy stereotype that Americans have of French people is totally wrong. No one has been rude or snobby to us, but on the contrary, we’ve only encountered extremely kind and helpful people. There was even one occasion where someone came up to us and offered us his help because we looked lost… we didn’t even have to ask!
And on that note, I’m really exhausted. Goodnight!
February 25, 2005
Since my last journal entry, I’ve done a lot… Mary and I finished Paris, we flew to Budapest and hung out with Andi in her town of Solznok, and we then took a night train to Prague. I’m now writing this in the Prague airport as I wait for my flight to Cologne. Therefore, since I’ve done so much, I can’t possibly be as detailed as I was in my last entry, but I will attempt to provide a good description of all the amazing things I have done until now.
On our last day in Paris, Mary and I actually went inside of the Louvre and saw a lot of amazing artwork, including the Mona Lisa and Napoleon’s apartment. However, I didn’t really see what the big deal is with Mona. As Mary said, if it wasn’t so popular, people would just breeze past it like they do with so many other works of art in the Louvre. There’s really nothing in it that makes it SO spectacular, other than the mystery of who she really was. After the Louvre (and a confrontation with an angry French woman trying to close the museum while I stood my ground and stubbornly took pictures), we walked around Paris as it got dark, and then returned to the Eiffel Tower to see it light up at night. Mary thought it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, but when the strobe lights started flashing, making it “glimmer”, I thought it looked kind of tacky. Oh well.
The next day, a Monday, Mary and I flew to Budapest, where we then took a train to my friend Andi’s city of Szolnok, where she met us at the train station and took us to her parents’ house. There we enjoyed a traditional Hungarian meal of chicken goulash and some kind of special noodles. After the meal, we hung around for a little bit, and I got a true taste of Hungarian hospitality. Her parents were SO nice, and literally kept putting different kinds of chocolate in front of me the whole night, not to mention a seemingly bottomless glass of wine. Wine and chocolate: you can’t go wrong there.
After this, we went back to Andi’s house, where she and I spent some time looking at pictures and catching up on things since we saw each other last August. We then went to bed and got up as early as we could the next day to catch a train back to Budapest and do some sight-seeing there. I won’t describe everything that we saw in great deal, since I will upload my pictures soon as well as put some totally awesome videos on the internet soon, but to make things short, we walked from the train station all the way to the beautiful bridge, and in between we saw the Hungarian version of the Moulin Rouge (not nearly as cool as the one in Paris), lots of museums that we didn’t have time to go into, lots of beautiful buildings, the Parliament building, the Basilica of St. Stephen, cool parks, and lots of other things. The pictures will explain better than I can. After going over the amazing bridge (the Kettenbrücke in German, I don’t know the English name since my guidebook was in German), we explored the castle complex. And after that, we walked all the way back to the train station and rode back to Andi’s house, where we relaxed for a little while and ate some grub.
After Andi and I completely bored Mary by talking a long time in German again (Andi can’t really speak English), we got ready to go out with some of Andi’s friends. We went to a pretty cool traditional Hungarian pub in the center of her town, and I really think that Mary and I must have been some of the first Americans to ever set foot in there. Again, I got a good taste of Hungarian hospitality as Andi bought me some typical Hungarian beer and a few other Hungarian alcoholic beverages, and she refused all my efforts to pay. After getting a little tipsy, we decided to go home in order to be able to function the next day.
And the next day, after sleeping in, Andi and her friend Tibi drove us back to Budapest so we could climb to the top of the citadel and see some amazing views of the city. We then took a walk in that area of town, and by the time we were done, it was time for Mary and I to go to the train station to catch our night train to Prague. While waiting for the train at the station, I got some suspicious Chinese food (I guess it’s not a good idea to get Chinese in Eastern Europe) that I think was probably cat instead of chicken. But it still tasted all right, so I tried not to think about it. When it was finally time to say goodbye to Andi, I was actually very sad. I had forgotten how much fun we had had together in August, and how it was possible to make such good friends in such a short time. She was so kind to us and provided us with so much. I wish there was a way I could properly thank her for all that she did.
Our night train was ok; I was terrified of getting robbed while we were sleeping so I didn’t let Mary turn off the light in our cabin. Other than ticket collectors and passport controllers coming in to our cabin at all hours of the night, it was decent, and I managed to get a few hours of sleep, although I had some of the strangest dreams. We arrived in Prague a little after 6, and we couldn’t check in to our hostel until 8, so we decided to wait at the train station for a little while. It was very shady, with bullet holes in the glass and lots of homeless people all around us, but I actually found it to be a great place to people watch. I also discovered at this time that apparently in the Czech Republic, it’s socially acceptable to drink a morning beer (or three or four) instead of a morning coffee. Interesting.
Prague was absolutely amazing. Thursday was spent exploring the city on our side of the river: we went to the National Czech Museum, shopped a little on a very awesome pedestrian walkway, and explored the old town and the main city square. Again, videos and pictures can explain better than I can, so expect those shortly. Day two was spent exploring the old Jewish Quarter (it used to be a ghetto, and in the Second World War, Hitler actually preserved it nicely, as it was planned to be a museum of the extinct Jewish race), seeing the famous Charles Bridge, and exploring the castle complex. (I got a pretty awesome video of the changing of the guards, too.) After all this, we walked back to the hostel, rested a little while, and went out again to grab a quick bite to eat. We then came back and almost fell asleep watching the Simpsons on my computer.
Basically, I would say that in one week, Mary and I did a hell of a lot of things. I saw three major European capitols, and in the coming weeks I’ll be seeing two more (in addition to being at the biggest Carnival party in all of Germany in Cologne). I’m really excited to go back to Germany and start seeing more of that country. But this entry has been too long, and I doubt that any of you have read it all the way through, so I will end it now, but expect some updates pretty soon about Germany… CIAO!
I hope everyone is enjoying life right now... and oh yeah, my 21st birthday is March 14. :)
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Last night I arrived in Paris after an afternoon of frantically getting ready in Tübingen. I managed to pack for more than a month of traveling with only my smallest suitcase (it is pretty small), an army backpack that I borrowed from Cat, and a very stylish man purse that I bought a few days ago for only 8 euros! I still think I took too much because everything seems pretty heavy after an hour of lugging it around, but oh well. It’s better than having to do laundry every five days. On the plane ride to France, I was so excited that my legs kept jiggling and I think I was annoying the person next to me. It was also really cool, because at the end of the flight I thought to myself, “Paris, here I come! In three…two…one…” And as soon as I counted to one, the plane touched the ground. It was perfect.
On an unrelated note, one sign that you buy too many flights from Germanwings is when you start recognizing the flight attendants.
Anyway, this morning Mary and I got up quite early (by my standards) at 8:15 and ate a pretty decent breakfast at the hotel (the chocolate croissants were ten times better than anything similar that I’ve had in Germany). We were then planning on going to the Port Royal Market in order to experience a typical Parisian Saturday morning market, but instead we accidentally ran into Notre Dame. We went inside, walked around the exterior of the church, and basically remained in awe for about a solid hour or hour and a half.
Afterwards, we finally found a market, although it wasn’t the one we were looking for, and we looked at all the various foods and even bought some fruit. (On a side note, I’ve seen more bananas here than in any other European city, which is really cool since I love bananas so much. One more reason to love Paris.) We then found some cheap bread in a tiny food store and sat on a bench in some kind of mini-park. The weather kind of sucked and it started to rain, but it was all part of the experience of attempting to eat cheap in one of Europe’s most expensive cities.
After lunch, Mary and I took the metro to the Lourve, saw the big glass pyramid outside, and spend some time marveling at how big it is. We didn’t go inside but are planning on doing that tomorrow in order to see the Mona Lisa and whatever other great works of art that happen to make an appearance. After the Lourve, we decided to follow the Champs Elysee road to the Arch of Triumph, which is famous and important because it had something to do with Napoleon and currently with the Toure de France, or something.
We then decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower, and became so engrossed in our conversation about Madonna not wanting to pay driving taxes in London, that the tower suddenly jumped up in front of us unexpectedly, causing a very loud “Oooooo” audible for several hundred feet. As we walked closer and crossed a bridge in order to get to the tower, we noticed some suspicious looking men or Middle-Eastern decent running in the opposite direction as fast as they could. We thought it was strange, and as we walked forward a little more, we noticed a strange metal box connected by a string to another metal box on the other side of the street. We became very scared and ran away, thinking it was a terrorist attack on the Eiffel Tower, but after waiting for a while and seeing that nothing was happening, we decided to go back to the tower. But seriously, in light of all the insanity that’s going on right now, it wasn’t an unreasonable fear, and for a split second, I will really filled with fear and uncertainty.
But we lived to tell the tale! And after the Eiffel Tower, we went to the magnificent dome under which Napoleon is buried, and in front of which stands a very grand military museum. We then took the metro to the Moulin Rouge, which unexpectedly was in the middle of the Paris red light district, although on second thought, maybe it shouldn’t have been so unexpected. After standing in awe in front of my Mecca and taking many pictures, we finally went back home to the room because let’s face it: we walked A LOT and were just pooped.
One thing I’ve noticed is that this crazy stereotype that Americans have of French people is totally wrong. No one has been rude or snobby to us, but on the contrary, we’ve only encountered extremely kind and helpful people. There was even one occasion where someone came up to us and offered us his help because we looked lost… we didn’t even have to ask!
And on that note, I’m really exhausted. Goodnight!
February 25, 2005
Since my last journal entry, I’ve done a lot… Mary and I finished Paris, we flew to Budapest and hung out with Andi in her town of Solznok, and we then took a night train to Prague. I’m now writing this in the Prague airport as I wait for my flight to Cologne. Therefore, since I’ve done so much, I can’t possibly be as detailed as I was in my last entry, but I will attempt to provide a good description of all the amazing things I have done until now.
On our last day in Paris, Mary and I actually went inside of the Louvre and saw a lot of amazing artwork, including the Mona Lisa and Napoleon’s apartment. However, I didn’t really see what the big deal is with Mona. As Mary said, if it wasn’t so popular, people would just breeze past it like they do with so many other works of art in the Louvre. There’s really nothing in it that makes it SO spectacular, other than the mystery of who she really was. After the Louvre (and a confrontation with an angry French woman trying to close the museum while I stood my ground and stubbornly took pictures), we walked around Paris as it got dark, and then returned to the Eiffel Tower to see it light up at night. Mary thought it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, but when the strobe lights started flashing, making it “glimmer”, I thought it looked kind of tacky. Oh well.
The next day, a Monday, Mary and I flew to Budapest, where we then took a train to my friend Andi’s city of Szolnok, where she met us at the train station and took us to her parents’ house. There we enjoyed a traditional Hungarian meal of chicken goulash and some kind of special noodles. After the meal, we hung around for a little bit, and I got a true taste of Hungarian hospitality. Her parents were SO nice, and literally kept putting different kinds of chocolate in front of me the whole night, not to mention a seemingly bottomless glass of wine. Wine and chocolate: you can’t go wrong there.
After this, we went back to Andi’s house, where she and I spent some time looking at pictures and catching up on things since we saw each other last August. We then went to bed and got up as early as we could the next day to catch a train back to Budapest and do some sight-seeing there. I won’t describe everything that we saw in great deal, since I will upload my pictures soon as well as put some totally awesome videos on the internet soon, but to make things short, we walked from the train station all the way to the beautiful bridge, and in between we saw the Hungarian version of the Moulin Rouge (not nearly as cool as the one in Paris), lots of museums that we didn’t have time to go into, lots of beautiful buildings, the Parliament building, the Basilica of St. Stephen, cool parks, and lots of other things. The pictures will explain better than I can. After going over the amazing bridge (the Kettenbrücke in German, I don’t know the English name since my guidebook was in German), we explored the castle complex. And after that, we walked all the way back to the train station and rode back to Andi’s house, where we relaxed for a little while and ate some grub.
After Andi and I completely bored Mary by talking a long time in German again (Andi can’t really speak English), we got ready to go out with some of Andi’s friends. We went to a pretty cool traditional Hungarian pub in the center of her town, and I really think that Mary and I must have been some of the first Americans to ever set foot in there. Again, I got a good taste of Hungarian hospitality as Andi bought me some typical Hungarian beer and a few other Hungarian alcoholic beverages, and she refused all my efforts to pay. After getting a little tipsy, we decided to go home in order to be able to function the next day.
And the next day, after sleeping in, Andi and her friend Tibi drove us back to Budapest so we could climb to the top of the citadel and see some amazing views of the city. We then took a walk in that area of town, and by the time we were done, it was time for Mary and I to go to the train station to catch our night train to Prague. While waiting for the train at the station, I got some suspicious Chinese food (I guess it’s not a good idea to get Chinese in Eastern Europe) that I think was probably cat instead of chicken. But it still tasted all right, so I tried not to think about it. When it was finally time to say goodbye to Andi, I was actually very sad. I had forgotten how much fun we had had together in August, and how it was possible to make such good friends in such a short time. She was so kind to us and provided us with so much. I wish there was a way I could properly thank her for all that she did.
Our night train was ok; I was terrified of getting robbed while we were sleeping so I didn’t let Mary turn off the light in our cabin. Other than ticket collectors and passport controllers coming in to our cabin at all hours of the night, it was decent, and I managed to get a few hours of sleep, although I had some of the strangest dreams. We arrived in Prague a little after 6, and we couldn’t check in to our hostel until 8, so we decided to wait at the train station for a little while. It was very shady, with bullet holes in the glass and lots of homeless people all around us, but I actually found it to be a great place to people watch. I also discovered at this time that apparently in the Czech Republic, it’s socially acceptable to drink a morning beer (or three or four) instead of a morning coffee. Interesting.
Prague was absolutely amazing. Thursday was spent exploring the city on our side of the river: we went to the National Czech Museum, shopped a little on a very awesome pedestrian walkway, and explored the old town and the main city square. Again, videos and pictures can explain better than I can, so expect those shortly. Day two was spent exploring the old Jewish Quarter (it used to be a ghetto, and in the Second World War, Hitler actually preserved it nicely, as it was planned to be a museum of the extinct Jewish race), seeing the famous Charles Bridge, and exploring the castle complex. (I got a pretty awesome video of the changing of the guards, too.) After all this, we walked back to the hostel, rested a little while, and went out again to grab a quick bite to eat. We then came back and almost fell asleep watching the Simpsons on my computer.
Basically, I would say that in one week, Mary and I did a hell of a lot of things. I saw three major European capitols, and in the coming weeks I’ll be seeing two more (in addition to being at the biggest Carnival party in all of Germany in Cologne). I’m really excited to go back to Germany and start seeing more of that country. But this entry has been too long, and I doubt that any of you have read it all the way through, so I will end it now, but expect some updates pretty soon about Germany… CIAO!