The Final Hours
Today was short and simple. Right down the street is the enterance to the Bacilica Cistern. This is a massive underground hall that was used to get water to Topkapi Palace. The whole chamber is held up by big stone pillars and at the end of the hall are two large stone heads depicting Medusa. There is about a foot if water everywhere so you must walk around on little wooden bridges. It may have been my favorite thing to see here in Istanbul. It looked so mysterious and eerie. To help with this effect were lights at the base of every pillar as well as slow music to create the ombiance. Next we took a train to Taksim square accros the river and then walked back and just watched people. When we got back into the old city we went back to the Grand Bazaar and bought some stuff. These guys check out our whiteness and immediately jack their prices up five fold so you gotta bargain and get them to bring prices back down. Often walking away will have them shouting out their lowest price yet to your back. Turn around and go back at it. At once store in particular I watched Jacob and the seller engage in a beautiful dance of verbal price jousting, which ended in our favor. It was thoroughly impressive. We returned to our hostel's rooftop restaurant and just chilled for a few hours, ducking out once for a cheap kabob for dinner. We meet a traveler here from Colorado, Devon, who we hung out with up on the roof, listening to his travel stories. It was a nice relaxing day to end a very busy trip. Tomorow we're up at five to head to the airport. I'll post once more once we get home!
The Legacy of the Ottomans
Three days in Istanbul is enough to say that this is my favorite city hands down. Maybe because it stands in stark contrast to everything else we've seen. The architecture, the cuisine, and the general atmosphere are all fantastic. The weather has actually been kind to us here, keeping between 70 and 80 degrees. Our hostel is literally a block away from the Hagia Sofia which makes getting to many of our destinations quite easy. This also means that the call to worship issuing out of its minarets is right outside the window at four in the morning. The third night we finally slept through it! The calls to worship throughout the day are very cool though, especially when you aren't directly next to one. That way you really pick up on different mosques going off all over the city. I uploaded a video in PHOTOS where you can hear the competing calls of the Blue Mosque and a smaller one down the street. There are tons of stray cats and dogs around our area. This morning I watched three tiny kittens wrestling in a potted plant.
When we first arrived we had to take a bus from the Asia side into the main city. Essentially the Asia side is all urban housing and office buildings. Not much to see. The European side is split into two by the Golden Horn, and small river branching off the Bosphorus. The north side is the hip college side, with quality restaurants and thoroughfares, while the south side is the heart of the old city. This is where all the history is and has buildings dating back to the city's origins as Byzantium. We arrived at the town square that is sandwiched between the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. All the mosques tend to be lit from underneath at night, which makes for a very cool striking scene.
In the last three days we have visited many mosques and museums, including Topkapi Palace, the heart of the Ottoman Empire. One of my favorite bits we've learned is that the Aya Sofia, despite being possibly the most iconic building in Istanbul, and clearly built in the Ottoman style, was first built as a cathedral, not mosque. However it has been a mosque as well throughout its history. This makes the inside a fascinating combination of Christian and Muslim elements.
The wharf is a great place to walk. There are tons of street vendors trying to peddle their goods. We passed up the corn on the cob and roasted chestnuts and found what became my favorite thing I've eaten here (as well as the cheapest), basically a Turkish burrito. From the docks we also took a ferry trip almost to the top of the Bosphorus, which gave us an excellent look at different buildings all throughout the city which we never would have seen otherwise.
Today we walked through the Spice Bazaar as well as the Grand Bazaar. The funniest thing here, as well as everywhere else in the city for that matter, is the different ways people try to sell you on their goods. Some are really aggressive and follow you. Some try and be funny. Many act as if they've known you for years. But the best is the translation error that has become the norm for the majority of store owners, "yes please." That's it. They stand on the street and point to their restaurant or store and just tell you "yes please."
With the exception of pushy vendors, I have been incredibly impressed with the average hospitality of the locals. I had a bus driver that tried very hard to convey through a translator where I needed to go, and when I was lost on the north side with a dead phone at 1 in the morning (my living hell) I had a group of kids offer to let me go with them to where I could get a cab.
Tomorow is our last day before we head home. This month and a half has gone by so incredibly fast!
Into the East
The following was supposed to go out two days ago and didn't:
Today was a travel day. Not too exciting. Once we landed in Turkey we got on a bus to Istanbul. Once we entered the outskirts of the city the horizon immediately became a spiky landscape of minarets. We havnt been here even four hours and we are already in love. This city is busy and crazy in the best possible way. The variety of people is impressive, with all kinds of nationalities and religions, and even wide subsets of those. More info to come tomorrow.
And now, I am so tired I can't think straight so you'll have to wait just one more day for the juicy goods on Istanbul. However! If you want to cheat and look ahead, pictures are uploaded and up to date!
Sprawling Berlin
At the start of our second say in Berlin, we immersed ourselves in Museum Island. This island is a bit of land in the middle of the city where the river splits and then rejoins on the other side. On this little island is five separate world class museums, hence the name. We started with the Pergamon Museum, the Museum of the Ancient Near East. The main attractions here where the remnants of old Babylon and the wider Mesopotamian area. Upon first entering the museum you are subject to the massive blue Ishtar Gate. Seeing the real thing there in the flesh was amazing but ironically the more impressive part in my opinion was the small model of what the structure originally looked like. The gate in the museum had to be cut in half in order to accommodate the ceiling and didn't fully acknowledge the behemoth that it once was. In the the next hall was the Pergamon Altar. Again this altar was not nearly the same size it was when it sat in the east, but impressive none the less. The rest of this museum consisted of old Islamic artifacts ranging from utensils to giant statues.
The second museum was the Neues Museum, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History. This museum had many civilizations but I focused on primarily Ancient Egypt. The basement, quite appropriately, held all the mummies, tombs, burial items, and burial scripts. On the top floor was the gem of the museum, the Bust of Nefertiti. No pictures were allowed so I recommend googling this one. The bust was absolutely amazing. The amount of detail that went into the Pharaoh's every curve and bone is incredible. Seriously, google it.
Later that evening we went to an Sneak Peek at the local theater. Every Thursday, the theater shows a movie a few days before it's official release and it only costs six Euros. The catch is that you have no idea what movie you are going to see until you are sitting in the seat and it starts playing. We ending up watching Brick Mansions, a hilariously awful movie set in 2018 Detroit. It had some great parkour scenes which were fun to watch and overall it was a generally entertaining... but it was a bad movie.
Today we meet up with Jacob's dad, Bruce, who was flying back from Nepal. We started the day with the DDR Museum, which covered the history of East Germany. The museum was a little gimmicky and was trying a little too hard to cater to the younger crowd, but it was informative none the less. Just next to the museum was the dock to a boat tour. The hourlong tour took us up and down the river and have us the history and different buildings and parks as we pasted them.
The Reichstag was next: the house of the German parliament. Bruce was awesome and made reservations for lunch in the massive glass Reichstag dome. We had an incredible lunch complete with campaign, the best salad ever, salmon, and cheesecake to top it off. After lunch, we walked to the top of the dome which had a wonderful 360 view of Berlin.
The last stop of our very busy day was the Berliner Philharmoniker. The two hour concert was great, featuring a quick paced cello piece as well as Dvorjak's 7th symphony. We got out of the performance and meet up with Juergen (our host from Munich) for drinks. We then realized we were absolutely starving and went out for a very late dinner around 12.
I got home at 2 and crashed immediately and therefore forgot to post everything above. So now I'll address Saturday's adventures as well.
The started with the Stasi museum at the old headquarters of the Stasi. Unfortunately, most of this museum was in German so we didn't stay here long. Keeping with our theme we took the metro to the old Stasi prison in Berlin. Here we had a fantastic tour of the cells and interrogation rooms utilized by the East German secret police. Our tour guide did a great job of telling us stories and presenting theoreticals of what kinds of mental and emotional torture took place there. She then told us about her experience reading her family's Stasi files after the razing of the Berlin Wall. It was a very immersive and informative experience and well worth the time.
From there we headed over to the East Side Gallery. This is a very long expanse of the Wall that is still standing and the whole thing is dedicated to street art. Everything from outlines of hands to advanced spray paint images.
We rounded out the night with dinner with Juergen and his friend, Snoopy. It was an excellent German pub/restaurant with live music and although we waited around two hours for our food, it was still quite delicious.
Razing of Walls and Parties
Today was our first full day in Berlin. In the morning we arrived at the Brandanburg Gate in the center of town where we would begin a walking tour. Our guide was very energetic, and not necessarily in the good way. We briefly saw the Reichstag, but I'll save that information for another day (when we go there for real). Next was the Jewish part of Berlin's Holocaust Memorial. This consisted of hundreds of cement blocks spread out in a grid and taking up an entire city block. The blocks on the edges are short enough to sit on, but as you walk further in the blocks grow in size until they are towering above you. We learned that many people do not like it because the artist had no meaning in mind when he created it. His excuse is that the meaning is for each person to come up with for themselves. I personally liked it.
Next we were taken to a half paved parking lot with a large open grass area next to it. Nothing spectacular. And that is basically the point. Because this location is where Hitler took his own life, and everybody wanted to make sure that no kind of memorial or even grave would be created in his honor. To this day, there is no burial site for Hitler, only a parking lot for an apartment building, not even fully paved, and some grass where the tenants walk their dogs (and we all know what gets left behind in areas where dogs are walked).
We visited Checkpoint Charlie. While this place obviously had historical significance, it was extremely underwhelming. The locals call it Checkpoint Disneyland because the entire area is filled with stands, food vendors, and fake US soldiers you can pay to take pictures of. Even the checkpoint building itself is a brand new picturesque rehash of what used to be. After the tour ended we grabbed lunch and headed to the Tier Gartens, where we spent much of the afternoon
Before heading home, we stopped by the Topography of Terror, an indoor and outdoor museum of the history of Berlin. We only visiting the outdoor part today. This consisted of the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall with dozens of pictures, information, and stories to see as you walked down the stretch. This took us from the beginnings of the Nazi party when Hitler was not yet even a citizen of Germany all the way to the fall of the party and the rise of communism and the Berlin Wall (and their fall as well). Tomorrow we will most likely return to see more as we got to a little less than half of the available exibits
Ancient Texts
Today we got up and walked down to the university in Dresden to see the Dresden Codex. The Dresden Codex is the only remaining text from the Mayans of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and has given us impressive amounts of information about how their society worked. It it something I have always wanted to see in person ever since I studied the Mayans in school. We arrived at the library and asked how we were to see the Codex. A security guard escorted just the two of us up a few floors and then down a hall. At the end was a massive brass door; not quite as thick as a vault, but getting there. He let us inside and then shut the door behind us. Inside was a darkened room with a few dozen manuscripts and artifacts bathed in gentle spotlights. In the center was the long glass case that held the Codex and along the walls were the many other items. After admiring the Codex we started checking out the others, all of which I had no idea would be here as well. Bach's handwritten pieces, ancient Egyptian shipment logs written on decaying papyrus, a small statue dating back to the 21st century BC! It was all very impressive.
Afterward, we returned to the beer garden and relaxed for a few hours before catching our train to Berlin. We are now here, staying with a friend of a friend and looking forward to our longest stay in a city yet.
As with the last post, I am unable to embed photos directly into the blog due to lagging internet speed so you'll have to check out the PHOTOS tab.
Crime and Fame
This has been a really chaotic three days: for better but mostly for worse. I know I said I would get better with the punctuality of the posts but this time it was out of my hands. I'll explain more further down; gotta stay chronological.
Our second day in Prague started off with the Communist Museum. This museum was tiny! Basically four small living rooms crammed with photos, texts, statues, displays, etc... It wasn't nearly as professional as most museums and did feel as if someone rented out their apartment for the cause, but still got the job done. We learned all about Prague's history with communism, from the earliest marches to the Velvet Revolution. There was a fifth room off to the side that was set up as a viewing room, where we saw footage of marches and protests (mostly consisting of police beating nonviolent protestors). After this we grabbed lunch and then made our way back to the Town Square. Chris, our hilarious tour guide from the day before, would be leading another tour of the Castle District across the river and we decided to join up. This was around 2 o'clock and here it started raining. This rain didn't stop. All day. While we walked outside for three hours. Despite the rain though, we learned some interesting history. Plus we learned about another defenestration! Once the tour concluded, we were drenched and cold and so proceeded to head home.
That night we walked up the block to the monastery brewery and had what is widely referred to as the best beer in the world. We tried all five of their options and had a good time ranking our favorites over the night.
The next day was still raining, albeit not as hard. We returned to the Jewish quarter and bought the Jewish museum ticket. This gave us access to several different buildings throughout the area, all of which contained essential Jewish history. Most buildings had old items and texts with information regarding them, but the most awing was the graveyard and the memorial synagogue (both in PHOTOS). As I said before, the entirety of the Jewish quarter used to be a Jewish ghetto and during that time, very few people were able to leave the ghetto. This resulted in the cemetery, which is about the size of a traditional chapel cemetery (not huge) being the resting place of some hundred thousand Jews. The walls of the yard never expanded so the graveyard had only one direction to go: up. Around twelve layers of bodies were buried on top of each other, but the headstone were always raised up with the new layers, resulting in thousands of headstones of different sizes cramped together at random angles, like many stony teeth that never got braces. The Pinkas Synagogue is a memorial to all those that died during the Holocaust. As such, the synagogue is completely empty and on every wall is elegantly written the names of all those who died (pictures show best).
From the Jewish quarter we returned to our hostel and settled down for the night. We thought. Upon arrival, I noticed that the locking mechanism on my locker fell off when I went to open it. I didn't think anything of it as I had noticed it was kinda a crappy wiggly lock before. A few hours later a roommate walked in and quickly yelled and declared that his lock had been broken and that his laptop was missing. The locker next to his was broken too. I then realized that my busted lock was not a mere accident. I ran to investigate thoroughly and found that my camera was missing. I lost roughly 1000 photos from the trip. The police were called and did a surprisingly thorough investigation, complete with photos, witness questioning (two roommates totally saw who did it), and forensics. Super impressed.
They asked me and the two other victims to stay up until they returned, when they brought us a bunch of paperwork to sign and we exchanged information. The whole ordeal took around 4 hours. An exciting but awful way to end our stay in Prague.
This morning the took a train to Dresden. We arrived mid afternoon and walked around downtown. It is pretty amazing because every building we see has been either built or rebuilt in the last fifty years thanks to the Allies (oops). Many "old" buildings stand that date back centuries, but they have been completely rebuilt with pieces of the original structures. As we are back in Germany, we headed to a beer garden to enjoy the finally sunny weather. As we were receiving our beers two men approached us and said that they would buy our beers for us if we would help them for a photo shoot. Short story shorter and two free beers later, we will be featured in the Dresden newspaper in a special on beer gardens! We gave him our information and when he sends us the web article (unfortunately we will be gone before we can get a hard copy) I will post it here.
Again, I apologize for my lack of punctuality but it wasn't for lack of trying. Also, no photos in this post due to ungodly awful internet here at our Dresden hostel. But, as usual, all photos can still be seen on the PHOTOS tab.
City of a Hundred Towers
Czech Philharmonic
Last night we "slept" on an eight hour bus ride from Krakow that landed us here in Prague around 8:30. The bus ride really destroyed my sense of time. Almost worse so than the jetlag in Munich. I hardly slept for an hour, yet somehow the incredibly uncomfortable trip felt quite quick. The result was my body feeling like the night never happened at all. We found our hostel and dropped our stuff there before heading out into the city. We were recommended a free walking tour so we headed toward the town square. Our tour guide Chris was HILARIOUS. He had a real dry, deadpan, self-effacing sense of humor that had us in tears a couple times. The tour took about two and a half hours and took us all around the Old Town and the Jewish quarter. We learned some interesting history about the city as well as a new word: defenestration. For those who are unfamiliar with this word, it is the act of throwing something, or in this case someone, out of a window. We learned that throughout Prague's history, its denizens have had an unfortunate habit of resolving conflicts with defenestration. Therefore, on several times throughout our tour, Chris would stop at a building, give us its history, and then tell us who was chucked out of which window and for what reasons. After the tour and upon Chris' recommendation we went to a small underground (I mean literally under the ground) restaurant that served traditional Czech food. After some goulash and beer we headed back to the hostel for the day.
So far the rain and wind have followed us, which is a real buzzkill at times. Otherwise Prague is a very beautiful city. Very colorful. Tomorrow we plan to czech out the Castle District as well as the Jewish Museum.
Easy Going
Not much to report from last two days. We've wandered around town. Found some cool restaurants/cafés/pubs. We went out two nights ago with a bunch of people from the hostel and had a good time. There's a lot of English and Australian folks staying here. I don't think think we have had a single language barrier problem in Poland, with locals and travelers alike. It's been raining pretty hard today, so we locked ourselves up in a cool cafe and have been sitting here for several hours. Later tonight we'll take a night bus to Prague. See ya then!
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Walking around the infamous pinnacle of the Nazi's death camps was something else. The pictures will do more than I can put into words but I'll give it my best. We started in Auschwitz II. Here we saw the Wall of Death, a small cement wall where thousands of prisoners were shot; the solitary confinement cells, where prisoners were tortured by the SS; piles of sorted clothing and belongings taken from the prisoners by the Nazi's; and most iconically, the only remaining gas chambers and crematorium. The gas chambers were set halfway underground in cement bunkers. On the roof were square holes where the soldiers would drop in the Zyklon B. Inside were empty cement rooms. There were a few flowers and two solitary candles burning here. It was possible to see scratch marks on the walls. The crematorium was directly next to the chambers. We then drove down the road to Birkenau. This is the area that you most often see in pictures and in movies and is somewhat incorrectly referred to as Auschwitz. Here was the iconic brick archway with the train tracks running through into the center of the compound. The curved electric fences ran in every direction, containing the barracks where the prisoners "lived." Most of the original barracks were destroyed, either by Nazis attempting to cover up their crimes, or Poles trying to remove the memories attached with that place. As a result, the vast majority of the camp was a wasteland of brick chimneys, some of which were attached to the remnants of ruined cement foundations. We entered a few of the still standing barracks and saw the three levels of wooden bunks. It was a very beautiful day, which added a surreal juxtaposition to the landscape.
If there was one time I highly encourage you to view the photos in the PHOTOS tab it would be here. One can only explain so much. The comment section below has been fixed so feel free to ask questions about the content of the photos.
Violence and Relaxation
So as I'm sure you've noticed I havn't been exactly consistent with my posts of late. I'm going to fix that starting with this post.
Although pictures weren't allowed, I snuck this one. Sorry its not very good. But I think you can get the idea.
Friday morning we headed to the House of Terror. The House is a museum that used to be the old headquarters of old fascist and communist dictatorial regimes that controlled Hungary during the 1900s: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It was very stylized, with haunting music playing and suspenseful lighting. That said, it never felt cheesy or overplayed. Quite the contrary; many parts of the museum were very somber and beautiful. Beneath the building is a labyrinth of cells that were used to interrogate prisoners, sometimes for months on end. At the end of these cells in particular was a room devoted as a memorial. The room had dozens of iron crosses coming up out of the ground with lights in the center of them.
The next day we headed up to the Turkish Bathhouse on the Pest side. I had a little phobia of public pools I had to overcome, but then it was a really great time. We hopped around from many different pools of different temperatures, both inside and out. We also spent some time in three different saunas of varying temperatures as well. It wasn't until we decided to leave that we found the steam room (which they had said was out of order. Liars). It really was unfortunate that we found it so late because it was easily my favorite spot. The reason we left was that we were both starving, so we headed to a cheap falafel place a few blocks away. From there we walked a few blocks more to a recommended restaurant, Klassz, where we got dessert and wine. I got a cheese cake and Jacob got a chocolate cake. We both got the same dessert wine. We both agree that each item was the best of its class we had ever had. We then moved on to our third venue, a ruin pub. Ruin pubs are old buildings that were going to be destroyed but entrepreneurs stepped up and saved them, turning them into bars. The inside was very rustic looking. There was also a whole wall devoted to traveler's graffiti. On this wall I received some very deep important advice, "Drink beer, and become an ostrich."
The next day was spent getting up to Krakow. There first thing we noticed upon arrival in Krakow was the dirt cheap prices. I for one wasn't expecting this. We have been here for about 36 hours and I haven't spent more than 15 bucks. Today we awoke and left for the Old Town Square, where we began a walking tour of the city. The cool thing about Krakow is that most everything of interest in in the Old Town, a very walkable area. No public transport needed. After the tour we wandered the Wawell castle and saw the statue of the dragon that used to live here. We were told that every 15 minutes that statue breathed fire, so we waited. It was disappointingly anticlimactic. It kinda coughed up a quick spout of flame and then stopped. From Wawell, we walked to the one point of interest outside the Old Town, the Jewish Quarter. Here we got these crazy delicious toasted bread cheese things. Imagine garlic bread with tons of stuff on top.
Pots and bowls and cups all made in Schindler's Factory
After eating we made our way down to Oskar Schindler's Factory. Most of the building had been converted to a walking museum, telling the elaborate story of Poland's part in World War II, as well as the life of Schindler and his factory. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more original factory to see, but that didn't ruin the experience in any way. The exhibits had sound affects and dramatic lighting in the same way as the House of Terror, but, like the House of Terror, it was never over the top or cheesy. Everything really added to the museum.
Two Halves Make a Whole
Today was our inaugural day in Budapest. We are staying here at the Colors Hostel on the Pest side. This hostel is tiny and more intimate compared to our others ones. There is one main room, about the size of your average living room, with four 8-bed bedroom doors leading off of that. That's it. Its location is pretty convenient; its right on the river and within walking distance of most important sites. The closest of which is the Great Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe. We went there first.
It has some interesting history, most intriguing of which is that itself as well as the surround neighborhood were the center of the Jewish ghetto in Budapest during WWII. On the side of it is a small graveyard. It is only about the size of a tennis court with just a few headstone. I was shocked to learn that it was actually a mass grave that was home to over three thousand bodies. This was our first bit of in-person exposure to the Holocaust and just a small preview before we hit Auschwitz in about a week.
After the Great Synagogue, we wandered around a few of the central parks until we meet up with a free walking tour at 2. Our guide, Norbert, took us all over the Pest side seeing statues building, recommending activities and restaurants before crossing over the Chain Bridge into the much wealthier Buda side. Here we saw the main palace, a huge gothic church, as well as the Hungarian White House. As the Buda side is extremely hilly, certain spots provide a great view over the river to the much flatter Pest.
A few interesting things we learned is that the "hun" in the word Hungary is actually from the race, as in Attila the Hun. The name of the country in Hungarian is Magyarország. Clearly different. This is because of a rather unfortunate mix up. The original Hungarians were actually nomads from northern Asia, and essentially when they settled in Europe, europeans just decided to call them Huns even though they were a completely different race. Needless to say, it kinda stuck.
The Croatian Coast
Aaaand we're back. Sorry about the delay. We had some technical difficulty and this is actually the second time I'm writing this. Anyway...
As I mentioned last post, on Sunday morning we headed for the Zagreb Airport and rented a car. We landed ourselves a silver Renault Clio and began the drive towards Plitvice Lakes National Park. At Plitvice we encountered the same problem we had in Hallstatt: rain. The park was still beautiful, but we really would have liked some sunshine to make all the surrounding green pop. Due to the rain, there was also some flooding in the park, which prevented us from seeing everything. That said, there was still plenty to enjoy. The park is known for its cascades that descend in about six levels over the course of around a half mile. We got to see four of the six falls while we were there. We walked in a big loop around the park that took us through forest trails as well as elevated bridges over waterways. After a few hours we loaded back into the car late afternoon and made our way to the coast and the town of Senj.
That was an interesting night in a few different respects. We arrived after dark and not a minute after our arrival, a young man waves us down and asks if we speak English. When we say yes he quickly asks, "Do you need room or apartment?" We were startled by this abrupt tactic but asked how much. Instead of quoting a price he insisted that we should just "pull over, pull over." Nah man, we're out. We drive away and after about a minute we pull to the side to scan for any wi-fi. The car behind us pulls over too and a women gets out and approaches the car. "Do you need room or apartment?" Not like this we don't! Stop it!
The other bit that made for an interesting night came when we decided where to sleep. We had a fairly roomy car so we thought we might try and keep costs down and sleep in the car. So we went and found a cliff parking lot overlooking the ocean. Bad decisions all around. We wind was insane and loud and we were both freezing and uncomfortable. In retrospect I'm not sure why either of us thought it would be a good idea. When we "woke up" (we were waking up about every half hour) in the morning it was clear that we would need a change of plan for the next two nights. After checking out a hilltop castle, we went back into Senj (which was happy and beautiful and a lot less sketchy during the day) and found a cafe to do some research. We decided on a place that we had looked at a few days before, a house down south a few hours on the island of Pag. Once we arrived at the ferry terminal it was very clear we made the right decision. The rain had completely cleared and it was 75 degrees and sunny. Our spot was in Stara Novalja (Old Novalja) just outside the town of Novalja. We was perfect. It was right on the water with a patio overlooking the bay. But the real reason we choose this place was that it was a diving center.
The next day we went out scuba diving twice. Jacob had been diving before but it was the first time for me. I'm a fan. We spent a lot of time in Novalja too. Its a small town with only one main drag right on the water. Despite its size it is packed with different shops, restaurants, and stands. There was a small board walk lined with palm trees and a bunch of sail boats and yachts moored at the docks. It was essentially a vacation from our travels. After two nights there we got up early and drove back up to Zagreb, spent the day there, and then caught a bus up to Budapest.
I'm writing this Thursday morning and I will write a post about today later tonight, which means that today will be the first day where two posts go out. Make sure to check them both!
(NOTE: I am aware that comments suddenly need my approval. It is not supposed to be like that. It's a problem on the hosting end. I'm pressuring them. Hopefully it will be addressed soon)
A Pretty Solid 48 Hours
Small forest on the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace
After witnessing the miracle of homeless ritual (from the last post), we went back to our new quarters up in Grinzing. Our hosts were fantastic (shout out to Courtney, Aiden, and Vienna! Thank you guys so much!). That night they took us out to a local heuriger, an Austrian wine tavern, just a three minute walk from the house. It was my favorite dinner so far. We got some local white white as well as the infamous weiner schnitzel, although it was with pork instead of veal so it technically was just schnitzel. When we got home from dinner we hopped in the car and they drove us up to a lookout spot north of Vienna that looked out over the whole city. It was really cool seeing the whole city lit up and sprawling out underneath us. We could spot the different historical parks even from a distance because they were big dark spot in an otherwise bright city. Just as we turned to head back to the car after about 5 minutes, fireworks began to go off over downtown Vienna (remember it was a holiday). It was pretty great. After possibly my favorite day yet, we hit the sheets. The next day was a relatively simple one despite being very long. We got up in the morning and checked out the Schönbrunn Palace, the Hofburg's summer palace. The entire grounds here are stunning, and the sunny day didn't hurt either. After walking the grounds for a bit we settled at a small cafe in the middle of the palace gardens. Here is where we tried the Austrian classic, sachertorte. It's chocolate cake. It was good, but neither of us thought it was anything special (the apfelstrudel was my favorite Austrian dessert).
Schönbrunn Palace and grounds. At far end on right of the picture is basically a giant royal gazebo on a hill. Up close pics in PICTURES tab.
After some three-odd hours of dumb logistical travel, we were sitting on a bus bound for Zagreb, Croatia. The six hour bus ride went by quicker than expected and contained a few visual treats. The countryside on the way south was still amazing, but not quite so as the Salzberg-Hallstatt trip. What I did spot though was a fantastic waterfall, probably eighty feet high, as well as an old abandoned castle, way up on a cliff. That was something completely new. We have seen many palaces, castles, and fortresses, but all of those of been maintained and some still occupied. But this thing was dilapidated and missing entire sections of walls. It looked like something one would see in Lord of the Rings. And speaking of which...
Zagreb has had a surprising number of Tolkien references that made me very happy. When we first rolled in to our hostel around 11 o'clock, a large quote was painted onto a pillar, "Not all who wander are lost," a quote that was actually at the top of this blog for a few days. We found our roommates completely asleep and silent which came as a huge relief because in Vienna we had the. single. worst. snorer. I have ever heard. This morning proved to be rainy, but we ventured out into the surprisingly small capital that is Zagreb. First we went to the city square where we saw a group of young girls doing a traditional dance and song. Then quickly of to the Old Town, where we went to one of the most original museums I have ever seen. The Museum of Broken Relationships is basically just as it sounds. The entire museum consisted of physical mementos and an accompanying story, all donated to the museum, of relationships that had ended in one way or another (distance, death, cheating, illness, etc...). While most were stories of significant others, there were also stories of broken relationships between parents and children as well. It was a very intriguing exhibit.
After a quick look a couple churches, we found ourselves at the next Tolkien reference, a small tavern called Tolkien's House. The inside and outside was covered in Tolkien themed stuff. Swords and axes hung on the walls and movie posters covered the ceiling. After each getting a Classic Hobbit Ale, and the Gandalf the Grey and Aragorn mixed-drinks respectively, we left the pub and walked just down the street for dinner. Croatia is the first country of ours that is not on the Euro. As such, the US dollar has much more buying power than it did in Germany or Austria. So for dinner we got very cheap, yet very delicious pizzas and two equally cheap tiramisus for dessert. All told, we barely spent spent 40 bucks today, and I didn't even mention a bunch of other stuff we bought. The Croatian "Kuna" is where it's at.
Tomorrow, we will be getting up and heading to the airport where we will rent a car and make our make for Plitvice Lakes National Park. Google it. Now.
(Note: The the PICTURES tab, the last day in Vienna and the first day in Zagreb are switched. So scroll past the palace and stuff if you want to get to Zagreb pics. My bad. Sorry.)
Masters of the Renaissance
Little change of plans this morning. I made contact with a family who lives in Vienna through a mutual friend, so we checked out of the hostel early and headed up to their place. They live in a lovely little suburban area on the edge of the city called Grinzing. After we dropped our stuff at the house, we proceeded to head back into town and make our way to the Albertina, the world famous art museum.
The demonstration in front of town hall
As I mentioned yesterday, today was a national holiday, the Austrian version of Labor Day. As such, there were several rallies and demonstrations. We walked by the Parliament building as well as the town hall and found that a large stage had been erected with banners and balloons, and there was an Austrian politician of some kind who's voice boomed over several blocks.
Once we arrived at the Albertina, we started with the Picasso exhibit. This consisted of his work as well as many others who held similar styles in their work. We spent the next few hours reading about and viewing many different kinds of art from many different time periods. Much of this art was woven into the history of the royal families of Europe, and was displayed in a sort of timeline. This is because the Albertina actually began as the great art collection of Albert the "I-forget-which-number-ith", the Archduke of Austria. My favorite part of the museum was getting to see a few works of the Renaissance masters up close and personal. Below are just two examples: Leonardo da vinci and Michaelangello.
The Hare by Albrecht Burer
We were also very fortunate to the the painting of The Hare, the sellingpiece and mascot for the museum. I say fortunate because this painting is only shown to the public every 25 years.
Afterward we hit a local park per-usual and got a really special treat that put the artwork to shame. A crazy homeless man set his clothes on fire and began to dance around it in a Native American kind of way. The fire department was called and put the fire out and then the police to take him away. The hundreds of people in the park were all applauding. It was good old-fashion quality fun.
Laketown
The countryside from Salzburg to Hallstatt was incredible. I have never seen a landscape like it in my life. The train from Munich had terrain I wasn't used to but this had a wow-factor I wasn't expecting. Rolling hills covered with the greenest grass imaginable and small singular mountains sticking up out of nowhere covered the landscape. Forests covered the hillsides with so many different types of trees it seemed as if every shade of green was represented. Unfortunately, the crappy bus windows prevented me from taking any pictures worth keeping, one of the few big letdowns so far. The other letdown presented itself once we arrived in Hallstatt. Overcast and rainy the entire time. This didn't prevent us from still having amazing views of the town, lake, and the valley they're nestled in. But it did mean that everything was closed and that there was an overall lack of atmosphere.
On Left: Our Hallstatt when the rain let up a bit - On Right: The ideal Hallstatt we hoped for
That said, the area is (like the rest of Austria) stunning. The entire lake is surrounded by mountains, their sides covered in trees. The town itself is very small. You can walk from one side to the other in about five minutes. When the weather is decent you can rent a boat and go out on the lake, something we both said we will come back and do someday. After only a single day here, we hoped on a high speed train and made our way to Vienna.
We are now staying the the Wombat City Hostel, a fun and modern hostel conveniently located two blocks from the train station. They have a little restaurant were we ate breakfast this morning as well as an awesome underground bar where we hung out last night. The same teams that we saw play in Munich we're playing again last night, and as the sudden die hard football fans that we are, we decided to spend the evening watching the game. It was quite fun. We met a cool Australian guy and his friend who are taking a week off from their time at the University of Edinburgh, as well as a crazy Brazilian kid who was quizzing us on our knowledge of American soccer players (I couldn't name a single one). He was the true entertainment of the night, as he was always jumping around waving his jersey in the air, and every time his team scored he lost it, running around and ordering drinks for everyone watching the game.
This morning we got up and explored Vienna. This place is so packed with architecture, it makes both Munich and Salzburg look like Legos. For a variety of reasons the city is littered with different styles of architecture and on every block is some kind of palace, opera house, statue, memorial, cathedral, or grand political office, all dating back hundreds of years.
While they may be difficult to see here, this picture alone has buildings built in the Baroque, Renaissance, Greek, and Gothic styles.
Despite these time-tested buildings, Vienna is easily the most modern city than anywhere else we have been so far. Downtown is packed with high end shops, designer outlets, and the usual busy crowd that most large cities bring. For a late lunch, we made our way to a recommended cafe and got the best apple strudel in the city. Tomorrow is a national holiday here in Vienna, with no stores opening and a parade through the Old Town. Should be fun.
Gardens, Churches, and Fortresses
Day late. Sorry.
Yesterday was our only full day in Salzburg. The awesome heat and sun from the day before completely disappeared, only to be replaced with an overcast sky and rain in the afternoon. We took the 5 minute train from Berg into Salzburg in the morning and hit up down town. Salzburg is relatively small, with everything tourist worthy all within walking distance of each other. The first thing we walked to was the Mirabellgarten. The flowers here were planted in weird crop-circle-looking shapes. In the center was a fountain and lining the edges were olive trees. the garden were cool, but nothing really special. We moved on pretty quickly.
After leaving the garden we toured the house of Mozart. This was fascinating. We learned the full history of the child prodigy from birth to death (at only age 35) as we went from room to room, hearing his different pieces played on different instruments. Unfortunately, you wont find any pictures of the inside in the PHOTOS tab because they weren't allowing us to. Dumb.
Across the river was the massive cathedral, Kollegienkirche and the hilltop fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg, both parts of a UNESCO heritage site. The church was at least three stories high, with paintings covering all the walls and ceiling. A staircase led down to the catacombs which had a small underground chapel and well as the tombs of monk dating back centuries.
After leaving the church we had a ten minute walk up the hill to the fortress. Here we got to the many different rooms of the castle and their uses, not unlike Residenz in Munich. A very cool difference however is that we got to see the things they used, not just where they lived. A few canons lined the walls, and inside were chess sets, armor, torturous devices, utensils, and gold coins, all dating back to around 1077, the year the fort was built.
3 in 1: Mirabellgarten in front, Kollegienkirche church in the middle, and the Festung Hohensalzburg in the back
+1 for my hella sweet photography skills
Today we left Salzburg and took a bus to Hallstatt. The drive here was amazing. The Austrian countryside is absolutely gorgeous. We got here and just crashed so I'll discuss more more the area tomorrow once we get out and about.
Next Up: Austria
Juergen drove us to the train station this morning and we said our goodbyes (temporary - we'll see him again in Berlin). The two hour commute east was a nice one. Everything opened up as we left the busy city and entered the German countryside. Lots of green! Grass, hills, forests. Little picturesque villages speed by as we made our way to Salzberg, Austria, right near the Germanic border. From the central train station in Salzberg, we took another quick train to a small town just a few minutes outside the city called, Berg. We had a 10 -minute walk up a hill until we found our place, Haus Christine. This place is awesome! Up on a hillside it has an amazing view looking down on Berg and in the distance, the Alps. The building itself is also great. Lots of green lawns, an indoor glass-in closed dining area, and a sweet deck with that view. It also has gotten much hotter than it was in Munich. Once we got in, we walked down into town and grabbed some food, which we brought back up to the house and ate on the deck. We spend the rest of the day on the deck. +1 for Austria.
The reason this post isn't accompanied with pictures is that the internet here is really weak and if you try and do anything more complicated than text it cries. There should be some new photos in the PHOTOS tab above however. Emphasis on 'should'. I make no guarantees. As I said, the internet and stuff.
German Royalty
The only destination today was the Residenz, the royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs dating back to 1385. The complex building contains halls, courtyards, private chambers, bedrooms, dining halls, treasuries, and chapels. Art from all over the world was collected here and is displayed in hallways and on bedroom walls. The entire complex is extremely ornate, from the detailed oriental pottery on the shelves to the fine gold trimming covering the walls and ceilings. In my opinion, the most notable thing we saw the relic vault. This room had crowns and crucifixes dating back thousands of years; preserved hands of old rulers; wood said to be taken from the Cross of Calvary; and most notably a mummified baby, said to be murdered during King Herod's 'Slaughter of the Innocents' during the time of Jesus.
After only a few short hours here, we retired to the English Gardens once again. On the way there we saw something pretty cool. In a plaza we had been past before, portable bookshelves had been rolled out and there were dozens of bean bag chairs all around with people reading. Awesome German outdoor book sale. After reading, eating, watching a dog fight, and watching three old men get completely nude in the park, we headed back home, where our host Juergen took us out yet again to a very nice Turkish restaurant. +1 point for Juergen.
Actually, +10. He hooked us up with a sweet flat and two different dinners.
The Deutsches Museum
Today we went to The Deutsches Museum. This place is basically a museum of how everything ever is created. It is not unique to just Germany, but covered the world's history in creating tools, vehicles, and items for the arts. Some exhibits are just for viewing while many others are a little more hands on (think Exploratorium). We started in the oil and gas exhibit and worked our way through metals, electric power, robotics, nanotechnology, aeronautics, ceramics, textiles, photo and film, computers, weights and measures, timekeeping and way more than I'm going to list here. The glassblowing exhibit was pretty exceptional as there was a live demo. We got to see a wine glass being made. The paper making and printing exhibit was both our favorite and we happened to see another live demo there of an old fashion printing press. The museum is so massive we had to skip some exhibits but I'm fine with that. What I do wish I had done is take more pictures. I kinda blanked today and only took a handful.
Afterward we heading back up to the English Gardens and chilled in the park for a few hours. There was saw several baby geese following their parents around, learning how to harass passing people into giving them food.
And speaking of food... The stereotypical German diet of meat, bread, and beer is alive and well here in Munich. It struck us today that we havn't eaten a single vegetable since we got here. Tonight we made a very specific stop at a grocery store to get green salads. I specify 'green' because every salat we order tends to be sliced potatoes drenched in mayonnaise. Something else we have realized and repeatedly forgetten is that if one orders water in Germany, it is by default carbonated. You must specifically ask for flat water, something we keep forgetting to do. Oops. -1 point for our memory.