Finally: Paris.
From about the minute we got to the castle, this weekend was circled. Easter in Paris. Where better? Nowhere. My travel guide (thank you, Aunt Louise!) told me to avoid Paris on Easter, as it would be crowded, but it didn’t say when Paris isn’t crowded, because it never isn’t. We went, we saw and we conquered Paris.
But not from the start.
Friday / Vencredi
Right away, upon our arrival, I had to find an internet café for a phone interview I had arranged with the Boston Globe for a summer internship. (Because a late train and a subsequently missed connection, we arrived 90 minutes later than expected. My original plan was to use WiFi at the hostel.)
After my interview, we went to our hostel, but they didn’t have any open beds.
I have a reservation, though.
Booking ends at 6 p.m.
I booked it in February.
There are no open beds.
What about my reservation?
We stop booking at 6 p.m.
What do you expect me to do, leave? We came from the Netherlands. We can’t just go back home. It’s
Easter in Paris. It’s crowded. Where will we sleep?
Not here. We’re full.
Damnit. Fine. Refund my deposit.
You’ll have to talk to my boss tomorrow. I can’t refund your deposit.
But you can overbook when I have a reservation?
You’ll have to come back tomorrow.
Is this a real business, or is this just a way for you to sit here and scam everyone?
It was actually much more heated than that, but the essence remains: we’d made a reservation, they wouldn’t accept it, and I‘m out on my $35 deposit (I’m going to fight that, but I don’t think it’ll work). Some charitable Canadians gave us the phone number of a hostel/budget dormitory hotel that isn’t listed on the major hostel booking websites. We went back to the same internet café once more, and found a hostel that had empty beds. By then, it was freezing rain outside, and we could barely see. We finally got to the place around 11, and then passed out. Sometimes, things just don’t go your way. But we moved on, and by the next day it was nearly forgotten.
Saturday / Samedi
The good thing about the hostel thing is that I saved some money over the per night cost, and they had a good free breakfast, featuring cheese, Frosted Flakes and croissants. After breakfast, Ben (whom I was traveling with) went out to really introduce ourselves to Paris.
We started at the Ile de la Cite and Notre Dame. It was like 40F with fairly heavy rain and wind, and the line was terribly long, so we decided to do a lap around the cathedral and check that off the list. We were in no mood to stand in an outside line and catch pneumonia (though I don‘t know if I‘m ever in that mood).
We walked along and crossed la Seine. It was time to go to the Louvre. Before we saw any art, we purchased 2-day Paris museum passes, which ended up being a very wise investment. We looked at French sculpture for about an hour and French medieval painting for about another hour (this was a lot of time to spend on such small divisions of art, but the place is just as huge and impossible-to-take-on-in-one-trip as you hear about) before heading to the Italian Renaissance wing. La Jaconde—the Mona Lisa—looks just like it looks everywhere else, and it was a circus getting to a point where I could see and enjoy it (of course everyone had to have their photo of the thing). I’ll remember the pushing and shoving and desperation displayed by museum-goers more than the painting itself, but it was worth it. Not just from a “I’ve seen it” perspective, but as a piece of art, it shouldn’t be missed.
We walked down the mall to the obelisk at Concorde and then across to L’Hotel Des Invalides, the military museum. Our decision to go there was pretty much all you need to know about why Ben and I travel so well together…
Ben: What’s that?
Chris: Umm, let me find it here.
B: Let’s go to it.
C: Yah, it looks cool.
B: What is it?
C: Let’s go! Oh, yah. What is it. Let me look again
It was cool. They had really big cannons. Like, cannons that launched 600 pound balls-big cannons. And a lot of guns and swords. It was a very masculine museum, and that was welcome. After the museum, we went to Napoleon’s tomb, which is in the gold dome of L’Hotel Des Invalides. This was my favorite church (there were no pews, but it was sort of a church) I’d yet seen on the trip. There were stained glass windows of all-yellow and all -blue glass, which had such a cool effect. Napoleon also had (I’m sure he oversaw it all) different hues of marble and granite used to build it. Dude had good taste.
After that, it started to pour, so we retreated underground to the metro. We had seen a KFC the night before and hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we decided it was a wonderful time to gorge ourselves on fried chicken. Bon appetite!
We went back to the hostel to call Alex and Marita, our friends who were also in Paris for the weekend, and met up with our them at Le Centre Pompidou—Paris’ main modern art museum. As can be expected with modern art, a lot of it was artistically inaccessible or just plain wacky, but it was all fun to look at, and, sometimes, make fun of.
We bid goodbye to the girls and proceeded to L’Arc De Triomphe. The arch stands in the middle of a massive, 8-land rotary, and it was fun to watch the traffic from the top of the arch. The view of Paris by night from the top was spectacular. We even saw the L’Tour Eiffel light show while we were up there! One thing we didn’t know that there’s an underground footbridge going to the arch, so we ran across the rotary to get there. Whoops. It’d been a full day, so we returned to the hostel and passed out.
Sunday / Diamanche
Easter morning, we got up early and went to Montmartre to see Sacre-Coeur, which unseated Napoleon’s tomb as my favorite basilica of the trip. The white granite is so beautiful. To get to the Sacre Coeur we had to climb a big hill (the highest point in Paris) and dodge the gauntlet of African bracelet harassers scattered around the hill. I’ll explain. At Paris’ biggest attractions—Le Tour Eiffel, Le Louvre, Sacre-Coeur—bands of men would try to tie a bracelet around your wrist and demand a donation to their cause (which I’m pretty sure was them).
Wow. It’s raining really hard. I’m on a train from Paris to a city in Northern Belgium, and I’m lucky I’m on it. My reservation (which are required for high speed trains) was for 6:55 p.m., but after trying 3 different ticket agents at customer service, I was able to alter my reservation to the 4:25 train. I had seen all I wanted to see and wanted to get home before midnight.
Anyway, Sacre-Coeur was amazing. We met up with Alex there and after going to the top, Alex and Ben departed to go back to the castle. I really wanted to stay in the city, so I did. I was at Sacre-Coeur on Easter morning, so I thought it was pretty perfect and pretty obvious: I should go to mass! Even though I could only pick up every few words (the mass was in French), I was able to sing along with the Latin and some of the chants were the same and the order of the mass was the same. I read the readings somewhat proficiently (although I had read the Gospel reading in English a short time ago). I had to stand in the back, but that was fine. I hadn’t been to a service since I left America, and I really wanted to go to one on Easter. I miss everyone back home, and it was a wonderful blessing to be able to go.
After the service, I walked around Montmartre and bought a baguette and some cheese from a store there. I walked around and took the Metro to L’Ile de la Cite again, to try my luck at Notre Dame once more. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it, but there was an Easter mass going on, so instead, I bought a meringue puff from a patisserie and visited Sainte-Chappelle, a beautiful, 12-century church with unbelievable stained glass artisanry. All of the walls were covered with stained glass which depict Biblical scenes. The church was built to house the supposed relics of Christ, which prompted some to call Paris “New Jerusalem.” It was amazing.
I then walked along the Seine to the Musee D’Orsay, Paris’ impressionism hub. It’s my favorite artistic era, and I really enjoyed the museum. It closed at six, so I could only spend two hours there. I could’ve spent more.
I got on the Metro once again (I bought day passes for a paltry 3E20 on Sunday and Monday) to visit La Bastille. Once I got there, a monument gently reminded me that the Bastille no longer exists. The “storming of the Bastille” did a pretty thorough job making sure of that. The neighborhood, though, was my favorite in Paris. I bought a slice of strawberry cake from a patisserie (it sounded better than dinner at the time and I don’t regret the decision) and found a copy of A Farewell to Arms written in French. It was only 1E50 and I had finished that same book (and loved it) exactly seven days prior, so I figured it was a sign. A Hemingway is a ma souvenir Parisienne.
It was approaching nightfall, and I jumped on the metro to go to La Defense, a high-rise district outside Paris’ city limits. The futuristic architecture was the most impressive I’ve ever seen. It looked like a movie set. There’s a huge arch there that looks like L’Arc de Triomphe, except it’s bigger, plainer and contains an office building. I was really glad I made the trip out, and I took the RER (faster and more sprawling than the metro) back in to save myself some time. At this point, I was exhausted, so I did some Interneting back at the hostel, showered and went to sleep.
Monday / Lundi
Because I went to bed pretty early, I woke up at 7:30 a.m., almost like a real person. I ate breakfast, stashed my backpack in the luggage room and set off for the Eiffel Tower. I walked up the first two levels, but I didn’t go up to the top. I had seen the views from atop L’Arc and Sacre-Coeur, so I don’t feel remiss. The tower is really, really big. Really big. Not like tall, but big. Wide. The legs are horrifying. It was like the Death Star or something.
After the Eiffel Tower, I felt like anything that followed would be a letdown. I went to the Bois De Boulogne, Paris’ largest park, but after a few minutes of being completely exposed in the bitter wind I decided to scurry back into the neighborhood, where I had the protection of the buildings around me, at least. I happened upon an outdoor market, where I bought veggies and hummus, which I had been wanting for a while. I browsed the area a little bit and then went to the Latin Quarter.
The Latin Quarter was sometimes loud and touristy, but it had personality nonetheless. The streets were so tight and the shops so small, it reminded me of Prague. I ate un Croque-Monsieur, which I wanted to do while I was in Paris.
And that’s pretty much it. I went back to the hostel, registered for my classes online, found the times for trains earlier than my reservation and hi-tailed it on the Metro and RER to Station Du Nord. Because I had to rush to make the train, I didn’t get to buy a French food product (I was thinking some sort of cookies and/or wine, which is very cheap) to bring home. Oh well. Sometimes, things just don’t go your way. But this is petty compared to almost having to sleep in the metro on Friday night. I’ll just buy wine in Italy.
I did just buy a (made in) Belgium chocolate bar when I switched trains. Actually, I bought two so I could eat one.
On Friday, we leave for our second required travel break: Croatia! We were going to go to Prague, but they joined the Schengen immigration zone, so we had to travel outside of it (the London trips serve the same purpose). I’m very excited to go. Dubrovnik is a resort town, and hopefully it’ll be warm. The excursion includes a day to Bosnia, which I'm really excited about! On the second half of the trip, we’re going to Barcelona, where we’ll be able to relax on the beach and spend a lot of time not spending money. It may be two weeks or so until I write again, but it could be less! Au revoir, for now!
(I really did write this last night on the train. I just didn't get around to posting it till now.)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Munchen, Schloss Neuschwanstein, Dachau and Berlin
This weekend rocked. We saw so many cool things, but still kept things really chill. It was just my friend Meg and I, which was a boon (waiting for a gaggle of 5 other people can be extremely frustrating). Looking back, I can't believe we fit in everything we did!
We left on Thursday afternoon and got into Munich around 9 or so. In the middle of our ride we caught a good glimpse of the Frankfurt skyline, which was very modern and architecturally striking. You don't skylines like that in many European cities, and some cities (like Paris) have building height restrictions to preserve the formability of the Old-world buildings that currently dominate their skylines.
When we got into Munich, we went to our hostel, which was all of 5 minutes from the train station. We dropped off our stuff and went out to walk around and soak up the Bavarian mood.
We felt like we were in Epcot. We couldn't believe people walked the Marienplatz (Marien Street, or something) and went in these unbelievable gothic buildings every day. It all seemed so old but at the same time so modern, so anachronistic but so cutting-edge. Worldwide-known brands were juxtaposed with centuries-old cathedrals, meeting halls and fountains. This oldness felt different from the oldness of Prague, which was more weathered and generally more out-of-date in the present. Munich's old buildings still have a niche. They fit right in.
We went to a beer hall, and since I don't like beer, I got Munich's regional pseudo-beer offering: Radler, a half-lemonade, half-beer blend. It was delicious. There are beer halls throughout Munich, and the one we went to Thursday was pretty quiet (maybe because it was a Thursday). The halls are not stratified by demographics--there is no 20s beer hall, no singles beer hall, no older professionals beer hall, no gay beer hall. Everyone goes to the same place. It's so cool. The halls were very well-lit and filled with long tables and servers in traditional Bavarian dress. It was such a friendly atmosphere, and we drank it up.
We got up early Friday morning (7) to catch a train to Schloss Neuschwanstein, or King Ludwig's Castle. Google Image Search that shiz. Incredible.
The most surprising thing about the castle is that it was built in the 1860s. At that point, people didn't do the castle thing anymore, or at least they didn't do the new, huge-beyond-huge, castle in the German Alps thing anymore. King Ludwig II, who commissioned the castle, was forced to relinquish his rule it was found he was mentally ill. He must've been mentally ill, because some things about the castle were really weird. It was like that house in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, except Narnia was in the frigging castle, not in Narnia. There were swans all over the place (Swan Lake was written at the lake at the foot of the castle) and Wagner, the prolific German composer, was enshrined in multiple locations. Meg said it was every little girl's ideal doll house.
The castle was difficult to get to (more than 5 hours of traveling, round-trip), but so worth it. In Fussen, the small town we went through to get to Neuschwanstein, there was a great little bakery which we patronized (twice, actually). There, I got a traditional Bavarian pretzel and a rasberry crumble danish thing for 1.50 Euro! Hooray for a reprieve from city prices!
That night, we met up with another Emerson student (he was traveling on his own, which is not a bad idea if you want to see the things you want to see). We went out to dinner at a Tahitian chain restaurant (it was reasonably priced and German sausage didn't sound too desirable at the time), where I had fish tacos. Oh, yah. After, we went to the Hofbrauhaus, the largest beer hall in Munich and the most widely-known in the world, so Meg tells me, though I'd never heard of it.
There must've been thousands of people in that place. Oh my gosh. The seating never ended! It was like the Kowloon except with a much more efficient (and almost cramped) use of space. We each had a liter (I stuck with the Radler) and split a pretzel and another Bravarian staple, apple strudel. We stayed for a while, listening to the music (which alternated between jazz and Bavarian folk) and observing the scene. After walking around the city once more, we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.
In the morning we got up at 7:30 to go to the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. Most of the original structures of the camp have long since been demolished, and only fraction have been reconstructed. The resulting open expanses were very impactful and brought up questions. How did something this vast and this terrible go on for so long? I didn't feel quite right being there, not because I'm not Jewish, but because I had arrived of my own accord and left when I wished, a few hours later. None of the camp victims had that choice.
We left and Meg and I parted ways with Strauss as we headed for Berlin! We ate a lunch of fruit and Nutella on wheat puff crackers. Everything tastes better when you're on trains.
We got to Berlin at like 7. Berlin's freaking huge. I almost missed going to Berlin, so I was really glad we could fit it into this trip! Berlin may be the coolest city I've been to (though Dublin's still my favorite, and Paris, Dubrovnik, Barcelona, Milan, Rome or Florence will probably be the prettiest), mostly because of the omnipresence of it's history--Prussian, Nazi, Soviet and post-Soviet.
It was like a movie set. Some buildings were still shelled-out from WWII, and giant concrete slabs end serve as new, improvised walls. The East-West divide is still very evident, especially with the number of cranes and construction sites in the East.
We went up to the top of the Reichtag, Germany's national parliamentary building. It looked like the popper thing from that board game Trouble. The view from the top was impressive and gave us a sense of the vastness of the city. To finish off the day, we walked through the Brandenburg Gate and some of Germany's other most picturesque districts.
Sunday morning, we got up and went to the Berlin Wall Memorial Museum, which was fairly small but well-done. Now, the wall looks incredibly vulnerable. It looks like had they really wanted to, Berliners may have been able to knocked down the wall long before they actually did. The security restrictions, though, made this impossible. Berlin is still transitioning from the two, fragmented infrastructures of East and West Berlin to a single, harmonized infrastructure. They're opening a new airport next year, I think.
After the wall, we went to the DDR (East Germany) museum. Statist socialism is so interesting. It was really fun to look at, and even though the museum was crowded as balls, it was well worth our time.
We went back to Berlin's central train station, brought some foodstuffs for the train, and headed home. It was an incredible weekend, and I'm very thankful for all I got to see and how smoothly it all went!
Tomorrow late-morning we leave for Paris! We have no classes Easter Monday, so I won't be back until that night. I am so excited about this trip! I just hope I can get good sleep tonight.
We left on Thursday afternoon and got into Munich around 9 or so. In the middle of our ride we caught a good glimpse of the Frankfurt skyline, which was very modern and architecturally striking. You don't skylines like that in many European cities, and some cities (like Paris) have building height restrictions to preserve the formability of the Old-world buildings that currently dominate their skylines.
When we got into Munich, we went to our hostel, which was all of 5 minutes from the train station. We dropped off our stuff and went out to walk around and soak up the Bavarian mood.
We felt like we were in Epcot. We couldn't believe people walked the Marienplatz (Marien Street, or something) and went in these unbelievable gothic buildings every day. It all seemed so old but at the same time so modern, so anachronistic but so cutting-edge. Worldwide-known brands were juxtaposed with centuries-old cathedrals, meeting halls and fountains. This oldness felt different from the oldness of Prague, which was more weathered and generally more out-of-date in the present. Munich's old buildings still have a niche. They fit right in.
We went to a beer hall, and since I don't like beer, I got Munich's regional pseudo-beer offering: Radler, a half-lemonade, half-beer blend. It was delicious. There are beer halls throughout Munich, and the one we went to Thursday was pretty quiet (maybe because it was a Thursday). The halls are not stratified by demographics--there is no 20s beer hall, no singles beer hall, no older professionals beer hall, no gay beer hall. Everyone goes to the same place. It's so cool. The halls were very well-lit and filled with long tables and servers in traditional Bavarian dress. It was such a friendly atmosphere, and we drank it up.
We got up early Friday morning (7) to catch a train to Schloss Neuschwanstein, or King Ludwig's Castle. Google Image Search that shiz. Incredible.
The most surprising thing about the castle is that it was built in the 1860s. At that point, people didn't do the castle thing anymore, or at least they didn't do the new, huge-beyond-huge, castle in the German Alps thing anymore. King Ludwig II, who commissioned the castle, was forced to relinquish his rule it was found he was mentally ill. He must've been mentally ill, because some things about the castle were really weird. It was like that house in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, except Narnia was in the frigging castle, not in Narnia. There were swans all over the place (Swan Lake was written at the lake at the foot of the castle) and Wagner, the prolific German composer, was enshrined in multiple locations. Meg said it was every little girl's ideal doll house.
The castle was difficult to get to (more than 5 hours of traveling, round-trip), but so worth it. In Fussen, the small town we went through to get to Neuschwanstein, there was a great little bakery which we patronized (twice, actually). There, I got a traditional Bavarian pretzel and a rasberry crumble danish thing for 1.50 Euro! Hooray for a reprieve from city prices!
That night, we met up with another Emerson student (he was traveling on his own, which is not a bad idea if you want to see the things you want to see). We went out to dinner at a Tahitian chain restaurant (it was reasonably priced and German sausage didn't sound too desirable at the time), where I had fish tacos. Oh, yah. After, we went to the Hofbrauhaus, the largest beer hall in Munich and the most widely-known in the world, so Meg tells me, though I'd never heard of it.
There must've been thousands of people in that place. Oh my gosh. The seating never ended! It was like the Kowloon except with a much more efficient (and almost cramped) use of space. We each had a liter (I stuck with the Radler) and split a pretzel and another Bravarian staple, apple strudel. We stayed for a while, listening to the music (which alternated between jazz and Bavarian folk) and observing the scene. After walking around the city once more, we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.
In the morning we got up at 7:30 to go to the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. Most of the original structures of the camp have long since been demolished, and only fraction have been reconstructed. The resulting open expanses were very impactful and brought up questions. How did something this vast and this terrible go on for so long? I didn't feel quite right being there, not because I'm not Jewish, but because I had arrived of my own accord and left when I wished, a few hours later. None of the camp victims had that choice.
We left and Meg and I parted ways with Strauss as we headed for Berlin! We ate a lunch of fruit and Nutella on wheat puff crackers. Everything tastes better when you're on trains.
We got to Berlin at like 7. Berlin's freaking huge. I almost missed going to Berlin, so I was really glad we could fit it into this trip! Berlin may be the coolest city I've been to (though Dublin's still my favorite, and Paris, Dubrovnik, Barcelona, Milan, Rome or Florence will probably be the prettiest), mostly because of the omnipresence of it's history--Prussian, Nazi, Soviet and post-Soviet.
It was like a movie set. Some buildings were still shelled-out from WWII, and giant concrete slabs end serve as new, improvised walls. The East-West divide is still very evident, especially with the number of cranes and construction sites in the East.
We went up to the top of the Reichtag, Germany's national parliamentary building. It looked like the popper thing from that board game Trouble. The view from the top was impressive and gave us a sense of the vastness of the city. To finish off the day, we walked through the Brandenburg Gate and some of Germany's other most picturesque districts.
Sunday morning, we got up and went to the Berlin Wall Memorial Museum, which was fairly small but well-done. Now, the wall looks incredibly vulnerable. It looks like had they really wanted to, Berliners may have been able to knocked down the wall long before they actually did. The security restrictions, though, made this impossible. Berlin is still transitioning from the two, fragmented infrastructures of East and West Berlin to a single, harmonized infrastructure. They're opening a new airport next year, I think.
After the wall, we went to the DDR (East Germany) museum. Statist socialism is so interesting. It was really fun to look at, and even though the museum was crowded as balls, it was well worth our time.
We went back to Berlin's central train station, brought some foodstuffs for the train, and headed home. It was an incredible weekend, and I'm very thankful for all I got to see and how smoothly it all went!
Tomorrow late-morning we leave for Paris! We have no classes Easter Monday, so I won't be back until that night. I am so excited about this trip! I just hope I can get good sleep tonight.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Prag-otcha!
So I got fined $30 for jaywalking. I know, right? The Czech hate it, I guess. I live on Boylston-Tremont, the most frenetic and unpredictable intersection in the world (easily). Yah. It was really funny, us getting fined, besides the whole paying money part. My friend Jeff got fined, too. We're actually going to be living together next year, so I guess it's good we're getting all our illicit activity out of the way now, in foreign countries instead of our apartment.
Prague is really damn old. The city lived through the World Wars and the USSR and has stayed remarkably well-preserved through it all. Capitalism is still in its neo-stage, I think, but at the same time very much entrenched. Advertising seemed to be very blunt, lacking the massage and nuance of American marketing ploys. There were literally paths on the sidewalks to the nearest McDonald's (and oh, did they love their McDonald's).
Prague Castle was beautiful, and was more like an entire walled town than a castle. The city didn't have that sheen that London or (I imagine) Paris has. We were clearly in Central Europe, not Western. I'm not making a value statement--the city was amazing--it was just a clear distinction that we made.
We got there by an overnight sleeper train from Düsseldorf that cost us 20 Euro. We got into Prague at 8 a.m. Friday. We checked into our hostel, which was the best we've been in and probably the best we will've been in at the end of the trip. Free breakfast, Internet and a private room for us 6 with our own shower and bathroom. It was cheap, too.
We took a self-guided and self-paced walking tour through the city. It's really the best and simplest way to get to know a city.
The Czech currency is weaker than the Euro, so we were given a reprieve from exchange rate woes! I had traditional Czech goulash--a dish of boiled bread and stewed beef and onions with gravy. We also went to Easter Market, a really cool outdoor bazaar in the city's central square.
The public transit system of subways and trams was extensive, intuitive and efficient. The Czech are quite orderly and systematic.
The train ride back was very cool. We went clear across Germany, and got to see really pretty parts of the German countryside. We got back around 8 Sunday night.
I'm exhausted. Tomorrow I'm off to Munich, and then on Saturday I'm going to Berlin. I come back Sunday night, and I'll write about everything before next Friday, when I go to Paris!
Prague is really damn old. The city lived through the World Wars and the USSR and has stayed remarkably well-preserved through it all. Capitalism is still in its neo-stage, I think, but at the same time very much entrenched. Advertising seemed to be very blunt, lacking the massage and nuance of American marketing ploys. There were literally paths on the sidewalks to the nearest McDonald's (and oh, did they love their McDonald's).
Prague Castle was beautiful, and was more like an entire walled town than a castle. The city didn't have that sheen that London or (I imagine) Paris has. We were clearly in Central Europe, not Western. I'm not making a value statement--the city was amazing--it was just a clear distinction that we made.
We got there by an overnight sleeper train from Düsseldorf that cost us 20 Euro. We got into Prague at 8 a.m. Friday. We checked into our hostel, which was the best we've been in and probably the best we will've been in at the end of the trip. Free breakfast, Internet and a private room for us 6 with our own shower and bathroom. It was cheap, too.
We took a self-guided and self-paced walking tour through the city. It's really the best and simplest way to get to know a city.
The Czech currency is weaker than the Euro, so we were given a reprieve from exchange rate woes! I had traditional Czech goulash--a dish of boiled bread and stewed beef and onions with gravy. We also went to Easter Market, a really cool outdoor bazaar in the city's central square.
The public transit system of subways and trams was extensive, intuitive and efficient. The Czech are quite orderly and systematic.
The train ride back was very cool. We went clear across Germany, and got to see really pretty parts of the German countryside. We got back around 8 Sunday night.
I'm exhausted. Tomorrow I'm off to Munich, and then on Saturday I'm going to Berlin. I come back Sunday night, and I'll write about everything before next Friday, when I go to Paris!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Last weekend and this weekend
After the travel break, we all felt fairly tired, pretty sick and very broke, so many of us elected to stay close to home this past weekend. I was still pretty busy though, taking day trips to Amsterdam (Friday) and Delft, Leiden and The Hague on Saturday.
It was my third trip to Amsterdam since I've been here, and I know Baudrillard likes to rag on Disney World as being falsely authentic and a simulacrum and all that fun stuff, but I think Amsterdam is by far the most fantastical place I've ever been. I can't imagine how people lead normal lives here, how they settle into a routine amidst all the overwhelming shit bearing down on them from every direction. My God.
What brought me to the city this time was my Emerson and Beacon buddy Britt Braudo, who is spending a semester in Greece. We met at Free Record Shop in the Amsterdam Centraal train station (Free Record Shop is sooooooo yellow), checked Britt and her friend into their hostel (on canal boat) and walked around the town for a while.
We were there for only about four hours or so--Britt and her friend were quite tired, having flown in from Italy early that morning. We just walked around and checked out some of the sights and I ate this delicious fruit creme tart thing for lunch and it was all good. I won't see her again until the fall, so it was really good to see her!
The next day, I rolled out of bed at 9:30 (in my world, that's early) and caught the 9:56 bus to Venray to connect to a train to The Hague. No one else wanted to come along, so I went with my backpack and a general sense of what I wanted to do. First, I went to Delft, a charmingly beautiful town outside of the Hague. The town was crisscrossed with canals and cobblestone streets and buildings from centuries long gone by. I think this was my first true visit to Holland.
A sprawling outdoor market sold all types of goods, from flowers to breads and cakes to produce and cheese. And stroopwafels! The town was so beautiful. I walked around for almost three hours, trying to soak it all up and notice when my mouth fell agape.
Leiden was next. A city of about 120,000, Leiden had a much different mood than Delft. The city is home to multiple universities and is known as one of the Netherlands' chief college towns, so its residents are much younger. Once again, there were coffeeshops galore! I got quite sleepy, so I bought and ate way too much chocolate from an obnoxiously loud confectionery on one of Leiden's main shopping thoroughfares. I got a great view of the city from the top of some battlement thing (the sign was in Dutch). The city is very old--as old as Delft. I walked all about and got quite lost (I didn't have a map or anything, just my improving-but still-pathetic sense of direction to guide me) and got back to the Hague as the sun began to fade from the sky.
I was in The Hague--my stated destination for the day--for a little less than two hours. The mood here is much more reserved and dignified than Amsterdam, thanks in large part to The Hague's status as the essential capital of the Netherlands (Amsterdam is the official capital, but the Royal Family and most of the government operates here). The city is also an important center for international business. I got a scoop of gelato, put on my iPod and wandered around. The Royal Palace was a new building (19th century), and I could only sneak a peak at it. They were closing the park where you can see the palace when I got there. (But not before I peed in the bushes! Sweet triumph!)
By this point, I was quite ready to go home, and I returned to the train station via the COMPLETE WRONG DIRECTION and caught a train back to Venlo. It was great to have a day out and about by myself where I could be completely impulsive and do as I pleased. My feet hurt like hell at the end of it and I had shin splints the next few days (I shoulda wore sneakers), but I felt recharged. It was a really good day.
In about two hours or so (oh balls, I gosta pack), we're leaving for Prague! The train there is about 14 hours long, and requires a reservation (we have a rail pass, but that doesn't cover reservations). We didn't make a reservation. It costs cash money. We're pretty much planning on acting confounded and hanging out in the dining car. I completely support this plan. We'll get there somehow, some way.
I'll write about Prague before I leave for Munich and Berlin next Thursday! Bye for now.
It was my third trip to Amsterdam since I've been here, and I know Baudrillard likes to rag on Disney World as being falsely authentic and a simulacrum and all that fun stuff, but I think Amsterdam is by far the most fantastical place I've ever been. I can't imagine how people lead normal lives here, how they settle into a routine amidst all the overwhelming shit bearing down on them from every direction. My God.
What brought me to the city this time was my Emerson and Beacon buddy Britt Braudo, who is spending a semester in Greece. We met at Free Record Shop in the Amsterdam Centraal train station (Free Record Shop is sooooooo yellow), checked Britt and her friend into their hostel (on canal boat) and walked around the town for a while.
We were there for only about four hours or so--Britt and her friend were quite tired, having flown in from Italy early that morning. We just walked around and checked out some of the sights and I ate this delicious fruit creme tart thing for lunch and it was all good. I won't see her again until the fall, so it was really good to see her!
The next day, I rolled out of bed at 9:30 (in my world, that's early) and caught the 9:56 bus to Venray to connect to a train to The Hague. No one else wanted to come along, so I went with my backpack and a general sense of what I wanted to do. First, I went to Delft, a charmingly beautiful town outside of the Hague. The town was crisscrossed with canals and cobblestone streets and buildings from centuries long gone by. I think this was my first true visit to Holland.
A sprawling outdoor market sold all types of goods, from flowers to breads and cakes to produce and cheese. And stroopwafels! The town was so beautiful. I walked around for almost three hours, trying to soak it all up and notice when my mouth fell agape.
Leiden was next. A city of about 120,000, Leiden had a much different mood than Delft. The city is home to multiple universities and is known as one of the Netherlands' chief college towns, so its residents are much younger. Once again, there were coffeeshops galore! I got quite sleepy, so I bought and ate way too much chocolate from an obnoxiously loud confectionery on one of Leiden's main shopping thoroughfares. I got a great view of the city from the top of some battlement thing (the sign was in Dutch). The city is very old--as old as Delft. I walked all about and got quite lost (I didn't have a map or anything, just my improving-but still-pathetic sense of direction to guide me) and got back to the Hague as the sun began to fade from the sky.
I was in The Hague--my stated destination for the day--for a little less than two hours. The mood here is much more reserved and dignified than Amsterdam, thanks in large part to The Hague's status as the essential capital of the Netherlands (Amsterdam is the official capital, but the Royal Family and most of the government operates here). The city is also an important center for international business. I got a scoop of gelato, put on my iPod and wandered around. The Royal Palace was a new building (19th century), and I could only sneak a peak at it. They were closing the park where you can see the palace when I got there. (But not before I peed in the bushes! Sweet triumph!)
By this point, I was quite ready to go home, and I returned to the train station via the COMPLETE WRONG DIRECTION and caught a train back to Venlo. It was great to have a day out and about by myself where I could be completely impulsive and do as I pleased. My feet hurt like hell at the end of it and I had shin splints the next few days (I shoulda wore sneakers), but I felt recharged. It was a really good day.
In about two hours or so (oh balls, I gosta pack), we're leaving for Prague! The train there is about 14 hours long, and requires a reservation (we have a rail pass, but that doesn't cover reservations). We didn't make a reservation. It costs cash money. We're pretty much planning on acting confounded and hanging out in the dining car. I completely support this plan. We'll get there somehow, some way.
I'll write about Prague before I leave for Munich and Berlin next Thursday! Bye for now.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Travel break: Part II
Well time has sort of gotten away from me, but I'm going to try to catch up on entries before I leave for Munich and Berlin on Thursday. I took two day trips this weekend--one to Amsterdam and one to and around The Hague--but was at the castle Thursday and Sunday. But first things first...
Wednesday, 20/2
Today we got up, ate our substandard and free hostel breakfast (consisting of toast, jam and bad tea) and were off on the town. Dublin! Yes! This was my favorite city so far. My memory is pretty hazy and at this point I have to work hard to remember exactly what happened. But don't jump to any conclusions. The haze isn't from drinking too much!
We went to the James Joyce Museum, which, along with walking around Dublin, makes me really want to read James Joyce. I think that's probably the idea. I'm not going to take on Ulysses, though. Holy God. Maybe Dubliners or something else that won't take 20 years to read. Afterwards, we stopped for a little bit at the National Gallery of Ireland to enjoy some art and continue being cultured. We stopped in at both of these places pretty much by accident--we were out walking around Dublin and ran into them.
We didn't take any means of transportation in Dublin except on our way in and out of town. We didn't need to! It was a great walking city, and it reminded us of Boston a lot.
It was simply becoming too wholesome of a day, what with the literature and the fine art, so I hit up the McDonalds Euro Menu for lunch to balance things out. Oh, yah. The Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery was next. I haven't had enough whiskey to discern between good and bad varieties, but I'm pretty sure this stuff was really good. We got a complementary drink at the end of the tour, and I chose the Jameson with ginger ale and lime. It was very, very good. I ordered it in Cork a few nights hence.
Following Jameson, we wandered to the Viking district, which can only be described as old as hell. We walked around the outside of Dublin Castle (we were too late for the final tour of the day), which is much more impressive than the castle from which I currently write. But they couldn't decide on one architectural style: it was a hodgepodge of Gothic and Classical influences. I guess continuity wasn't a big concern.
We got some pasta and cooked it back at the hostel's open kitchen, and then went out to a comedy show. I had never seen live stand-up before, and I don't know if I'll ever see anything as hilarious as we did! As Americans, we got picked on (they asked everyone from where they hailed), but that made it all the more fun! I haven't laughed that much in a long time.
Afterwards, we went to The Temple Bar in Temple Bar, where I paid 3 Euro (about $4.50) for a Diet Coke with nothing in it. What're you gonna do? It was a really atmospheric place, though, and we ended up running into some fellow Emersonians! It was a very good day.
Thursday, 21/2
Our third and final day in Dublin! We were sad we had to be leaving so soon--we could've used another day or so. We went to the Guinness Brewery, which seems to have been heavily influenced by Epcot. What a circus that place is! Guinness tastes like beer, so for all the praise it gets, I still don't like it. The tallest building in Dublin is 13 stories high, and from the top of the Guinness Brewery (9 stories), we had a wonderfully unobstructed view of the city!
After that, Ben got guitar strings, we got paninis, checked out of our hostel and headed for the train station. Getting there took forever. The Dublin tram system is probably the slowest means of public transport I have ever suffered through (including the Green Line). The stupid thing had to yield to cars and any pedestrian who was quick enough to cross in front of it, which was basically everyone but the elderly, the handicapped and the drunk. Terrible.
We got into Limerick pretty late, and then took a bus to Newcastle-West, where we stayed at the quaintest, cutest B&B in the world (proprietor--Eileen)! We had a little trouble finding the place, given that we had no phone to use when we got off the bus. No matter, though. We had a restorative evening, enjoying homemade cake and watching Anchorman (on Irish television, no less) before going to bed early.
Friday, 22/2
We got up and had a big breakfast courtesy Eileen (we all agreed we hadn't eaten so well since we'd been abroad) and hi-tailed it onto another bus and train, this time bound for Cork. Before we boarded the train, though, we had a little time to walk around Limerick, the hometown of novelist Frank McCourt, who wrote Angela's Ashes. It was cool to be there after reading the book. And we got to play on a playground in a park! The pictures are great.
Cork is the most Irish place we went to, we think. When we got there, we went to a huge market, which is what Quincy Market/Faneuil hall would look like with actual fresh food vendors instead of Pizzeria Regina's and stuff. We got some salad stuff, some pasta stuff and some really nasty cheese. We didn't know it at the time, but that stuff was really nasty. It smelled like sadness.
We went out to a couple of pubs that night, the first of which was very subdued and grey-haired and the second of which was really freaking loud and young. Sleep felt good.
Saturday, 23/2
The last full day of the travel break! We got up and I had goat cheese, fruit and a grain roll from the market for breakfast. Everything was so cheap there! It was great. We walked around Cork after that, just checking out shops and observing things. Ben and I spent a lot of time in a couple of bookstores there. We didn't buy anything, though. We knew we couldn't, given the exchange rate and all.
That evening was a wonderful finale to the travel break, and the most organic cultural experience of the trip. We went to a pub to watch a Scotland-Ireland rugby match. It was part of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament, which was held in Dublin. We got right in the middle of all the fans and all the cheering. It was great to be in that atmosphere. It felt like a Red Sox-Yankees game or something! We had a good, cheap meal during the match and went back to the hostel to relax.
Sunday, 24/2
We woke up at 5 today to take the bus to the airport. I had a Cadbury egg and a red delicious apple for breakfast. Very weird. Absolutely. But I would do it again. We flew from Cork to London Stansted to Weeze (just across the border from the castle in Germany). We passed through four countries--Ireland, England, Germany and the Netherlands--in about five hours. We got back to the castle around two or so. It was good to be back.
So that's my travel break. Our second travel break is three weeks from this Friday. We'll be going to Croatia and then Barcelona! Yesterday, I took care of stuff for Paris (Easter weekend) and Rome and Florence (my last trip in April). This Thursday, as I said, I'm going to Munich and Berlin for the weekend. Next weekend, I'm going to Luxembourg and Belgium. I'll write about this past weekend's adventures before I leave Thursday!
Wednesday, 20/2
Today we got up, ate our substandard and free hostel breakfast (consisting of toast, jam and bad tea) and were off on the town. Dublin! Yes! This was my favorite city so far. My memory is pretty hazy and at this point I have to work hard to remember exactly what happened. But don't jump to any conclusions. The haze isn't from drinking too much!
We went to the James Joyce Museum, which, along with walking around Dublin, makes me really want to read James Joyce. I think that's probably the idea. I'm not going to take on Ulysses, though. Holy God. Maybe Dubliners or something else that won't take 20 years to read. Afterwards, we stopped for a little bit at the National Gallery of Ireland to enjoy some art and continue being cultured. We stopped in at both of these places pretty much by accident--we were out walking around Dublin and ran into them.
We didn't take any means of transportation in Dublin except on our way in and out of town. We didn't need to! It was a great walking city, and it reminded us of Boston a lot.
It was simply becoming too wholesome of a day, what with the literature and the fine art, so I hit up the McDonalds Euro Menu for lunch to balance things out. Oh, yah. The Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery was next. I haven't had enough whiskey to discern between good and bad varieties, but I'm pretty sure this stuff was really good. We got a complementary drink at the end of the tour, and I chose the Jameson with ginger ale and lime. It was very, very good. I ordered it in Cork a few nights hence.
Following Jameson, we wandered to the Viking district, which can only be described as old as hell. We walked around the outside of Dublin Castle (we were too late for the final tour of the day), which is much more impressive than the castle from which I currently write. But they couldn't decide on one architectural style: it was a hodgepodge of Gothic and Classical influences. I guess continuity wasn't a big concern.
We got some pasta and cooked it back at the hostel's open kitchen, and then went out to a comedy show. I had never seen live stand-up before, and I don't know if I'll ever see anything as hilarious as we did! As Americans, we got picked on (they asked everyone from where they hailed), but that made it all the more fun! I haven't laughed that much in a long time.
Afterwards, we went to The Temple Bar in Temple Bar, where I paid 3 Euro (about $4.50) for a Diet Coke with nothing in it. What're you gonna do? It was a really atmospheric place, though, and we ended up running into some fellow Emersonians! It was a very good day.
Thursday, 21/2
Our third and final day in Dublin! We were sad we had to be leaving so soon--we could've used another day or so. We went to the Guinness Brewery, which seems to have been heavily influenced by Epcot. What a circus that place is! Guinness tastes like beer, so for all the praise it gets, I still don't like it. The tallest building in Dublin is 13 stories high, and from the top of the Guinness Brewery (9 stories), we had a wonderfully unobstructed view of the city!
After that, Ben got guitar strings, we got paninis, checked out of our hostel and headed for the train station. Getting there took forever. The Dublin tram system is probably the slowest means of public transport I have ever suffered through (including the Green Line). The stupid thing had to yield to cars and any pedestrian who was quick enough to cross in front of it, which was basically everyone but the elderly, the handicapped and the drunk. Terrible.
We got into Limerick pretty late, and then took a bus to Newcastle-West, where we stayed at the quaintest, cutest B&B in the world (proprietor--Eileen)! We had a little trouble finding the place, given that we had no phone to use when we got off the bus. No matter, though. We had a restorative evening, enjoying homemade cake and watching Anchorman (on Irish television, no less) before going to bed early.
Friday, 22/2
We got up and had a big breakfast courtesy Eileen (we all agreed we hadn't eaten so well since we'd been abroad) and hi-tailed it onto another bus and train, this time bound for Cork. Before we boarded the train, though, we had a little time to walk around Limerick, the hometown of novelist Frank McCourt, who wrote Angela's Ashes. It was cool to be there after reading the book. And we got to play on a playground in a park! The pictures are great.
Cork is the most Irish place we went to, we think. When we got there, we went to a huge market, which is what Quincy Market/Faneuil hall would look like with actual fresh food vendors instead of Pizzeria Regina's and stuff. We got some salad stuff, some pasta stuff and some really nasty cheese. We didn't know it at the time, but that stuff was really nasty. It smelled like sadness.
We went out to a couple of pubs that night, the first of which was very subdued and grey-haired and the second of which was really freaking loud and young. Sleep felt good.
Saturday, 23/2
The last full day of the travel break! We got up and I had goat cheese, fruit and a grain roll from the market for breakfast. Everything was so cheap there! It was great. We walked around Cork after that, just checking out shops and observing things. Ben and I spent a lot of time in a couple of bookstores there. We didn't buy anything, though. We knew we couldn't, given the exchange rate and all.
That evening was a wonderful finale to the travel break, and the most organic cultural experience of the trip. We went to a pub to watch a Scotland-Ireland rugby match. It was part of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament, which was held in Dublin. We got right in the middle of all the fans and all the cheering. It was great to be in that atmosphere. It felt like a Red Sox-Yankees game or something! We had a good, cheap meal during the match and went back to the hostel to relax.
Sunday, 24/2
We woke up at 5 today to take the bus to the airport. I had a Cadbury egg and a red delicious apple for breakfast. Very weird. Absolutely. But I would do it again. We flew from Cork to London Stansted to Weeze (just across the border from the castle in Germany). We passed through four countries--Ireland, England, Germany and the Netherlands--in about five hours. We got back to the castle around two or so. It was good to be back.
So that's my travel break. Our second travel break is three weeks from this Friday. We'll be going to Croatia and then Barcelona! Yesterday, I took care of stuff for Paris (Easter weekend) and Rome and Florence (my last trip in April). This Thursday, as I said, I'm going to Munich and Berlin for the weekend. Next weekend, I'm going to Luxembourg and Belgium. I'll write about this past weekend's adventures before I leave Thursday!
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