We made it to Florence! We've been here since Friday and although we miss the unique water-city that was Venice, we are happy to see taxis with wheels.
The day after we went on the bike adventure on Lido, we behaved as true Venicians. We climbed to the top of the San Marcos church (yes, we average 300+ stairs a day) and had a great view of the city. We then saw the bell tower that we "had to climb", so we got some water bottles to prepare for our journey, and then found out there was an ELEVATOR!!! This made my day. After a short trip to the top, we got yet another amazing view of the city. We were then treated with a front row seat to the ringing of the noon bells. Let's talk about loud.
After a slight hearing loss, we fed the pigeons in San Marcos Square, which is the only place to legally feed birds in Venice without a 517€ fine. Angie was not so keen on the idea, but was very brave and gave the birds a piece of bread while they were literally all over Rebecca and me. They figured out we were getting the pieces of bread from a bag, so they started going after the bag. They sat on our heads for no apparent reason, and liked to hang out on our arms even when we had no more food. This was quite funny and I recommend watching the video on Rebecca's blog of it.
After that, we had some lunch. I got a little adventurous again and ordered something I'd seen on every menu in Italy so far: french fry pizza. Best decision ever. We were then fueled up for our next strenous task, a gondola ride. It was a little expensive, but totally worth it because you get to see the city from a totally different view point...AND you look cool. We chilled at the hotel for a bit (literally chilled because it was fire hot outside), got some dinner, and finished our chill evening with a drink by the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal. We did get to test out some of the games Angie made up for the kids she'll be working with on the mission trip, so it wasn't a totally chill night.
The next morning, Angie left us for Prague :( But, she informed us that she got a Czech me out! shirt too, so we'll all be modeling them the next time we're together. Our trip on the train from Venice to Florence was once again eventful. A train to Florence left Venice every hour, so we hopped on one, thought we were in heaven when we sat down with 2 seats for each of us in an air conditioned car, and got comfy for the 3 hr ride. We then were told to leave our seats because we didn't make reservations (which are apparently required haha woops). So we hung out in the dining car with some Canadians (woo Steph!) our age and played Uno. I won 2 games, Rebecca won zero. Woot! Haha jk.
We caught a cab to the hotel, lugged our over stuffed bags up the 40 steps to the hotel (which is more of a boarding house), and relaxed. Apparently our room is the only one with AC, so praise the Lord on that one. However, we do have the loudest bed ever and the craziest shower ever. The shower has 2 doors that don't really close, and it's on the same level as the floor, so the whole bathroom gets flooded whenever you shower. It's pretty funny, and challenging, but mostly funny.
Since we've been here, we've enjoyed gelato every day (duh), some fabulous meals, and interesting street shopping. I'll try to get a picture/video of this, but there are lots of illegal street vendors who sell strange things like dancing pieces of paper that are folded to look like cartoon characters. The way they dance is they are secretly attached to a boom box and the vendor by string (that you can't see), so they try to convince you that they are magic dancing paper things. Hilarious.
Yesterday, we got lunch from a big market. They sell all kinds of meat (including cow faces...seriously), cheese, fruits, and veggies. So we walked around and got all kinds of goodies and relaxed at the hotel while watching 13 going on 30. We then hiked up the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo (dome), which was an adventure in itself. It wasn't just a spiral staircase like in Notre Dame. It would switch from spiral, to regular, to very steep, to "seriously we have to do that?" every few minutes. But we did get a great view of the inside of the church dome and the city itself, so that was great. Later that night, we picked our dinner spot by accepting an offer from a waiter for a free limoncello shot if we ate there. The dinner was really good (penne with a spicy tomato sauce for me, lasagna for Reba), and the after dinner shot, which is inteded to cleanse your palate, did its job. We then went to a place where we had seen a sign for karaoke, went downstairs where everyone else was, and were told that it was a private pub crawl, so we couldn't hang out down there. LAME. So we went back upstairs to hang for the rest of the non-cool-clubbers (in no AC land), waited until karaoke was supposed to start, and left because no one was left after the pub crawl departed. Rebecca decided she didn't want to sing to the bartender, and I'm thankful for this because she wanted me to sing some Journey with her. (phew)
Today, we went to the Boboli Gardens. Thankfully, we did not run into the bad guy from Harry Potter like we did in the Versailles gardens. We tried to go to the science museum and the Baptistry, but both are closed today. So we're taking it easy until our dinner reservation at a place that makes an incredible steak with a blueberry sauce (according to Reba). They eat a lot later here. Our reservation is at 7:30 and that is when the restaurant opens. After dinner, we're going to find a place to watch the Euro Cup finals between Germany and Spain! We're not sure who to root for, I'm thinking Germany, but we'll see who the crowd wants and go with them. We were going to watch it at the karaoke place, but we decided that they are not cool enough for us, so we'll find a better place.
Oh and we just ran into 2 girls from our Sound of Music tour in Salzburg on the street in Florence! How crazy is that? Answer: Very crazy, Emily. Well that's about all I got. I'm sure everyone at home is getting ready for the 4th of July. We'll be celebrating it by taking a tour of the Vatican! I have a red, white, and blue dress set aside already. Ciao!
(side note: this internet cafe won't let us upload pics or videos, but I'll try again later)
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The first 36 hours in Venice
Last night, we wandered around a bit, found some wonderful food (with a few surprises), and made some friends. We stopped for dinner at a nice place on the Grand Canal. I wanted to get something that Venice was known for, so I opted for one of their seafood specialties. The oysters I ordered came out on a HUGE rack with a tub of ice and 6 oysters on it. We were cracking up because that is not what we expected at all. The thing took up the whole table and I couldn't see Angie until I finished it. The waiters were a kick and really liked it when I ordered a second dinner. Then, the waiters brought another table a dessert and sang Happy Birthday. Obviously, we had to do this. Since Rebecca's birthday is closest, we chose her. I told the waiters her name and a couple minutes later...
We were officially the popular people at the restaurant at this point. If we weren't yet, then this action shot sealed the deal. Here's Angie fishing in the fresh seafood display.
Today, we went to the island of Lido per Angie's suggestion. She told us about when she, her mom, and friend were in Venice and mentioned a "3 person bicycle". Obviously, we had to try this. Rebecca and I were picturing a bicycle built for 2 with just a 3rd seat, so we were quite nervous about this plan. But, we didn't say anything and just went with it. To our surprise, this bicycle was close to the best invention ever made. It's like a golf cart with 2 sets of pedals and obviously no motor. Let me just tell you, we were the coolest thing since sliced bread while riding in this thing. Hills were a challenge, but if the 3rd person (the non-pedaller) would simply fling herself to the front, that would help with some of it. It had a hand break and the two pedalers were sorta hanging off the side a little, but that was all part of the fun. Also, only one of the stearing wheels actually did anything. This really bothered Rebecca when she was at the "dummy wheel".
As we made stops along our way, we had to enable the security system. This involved us chaining it to a pole. This thing was awesome. Here's a video of Reba and Angie rockin the Pimp Wagon.
We stopped at a "private beach" on the Adriatic Sea with all the real Europeans. After collecting some shells and cooling off, we were asked to leave. So we did, and rode around a little more in CTE (coolest thing ever), got some pizza, and hunted for gelato.
We returned our ride and aired ourselves out while eating gelato. (It's a LITTLE hot here) While walking around Lido, we found the reason to return there with MORE friends. This baby can fit 6 people. AND it has headlights and a bell that works. What more could you want?
Well, we're going to go suffer through another Italian meal and most likely round it out with some gelato while watching the Euro Cup semi-finals. What a rough life we are leading.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Italia!
Well after a crazy few days, Rebecca and I made it to Venice! But first, I'll backtrack a little to cover what things since the last post.
The black light theater was quite interesting. The description was an absurd mime show with visual effects, and that is exactly what we got. It started off with a scene consisting of a Barney Fife-esque cop chasing after a guy and a sketchy looking girl who have just robbed a bank. After a few minutes, they left the stage and the whole thing went dark. Then people in glowing outfits came out and did some modern dance using their clothes that glowed in the black light to create illusions like they were flying or whatever. Then after a few minutes of that, it went back to the bank robbery scene. The transitions were hilarious because there weren't any, but both parts of the show were great. It was definitely a Czech show and not American, because it was a "kid's show" where the lady who robbed the bank also snorted something white off of the table. We all looked at each other like, "Did that just happen???" Haha anyway, it really was cool because we could not figure out how they did some of the illusions.
The marianette show the next night was equally intersting. They performed Don Giovanni, which none of us had ever seen, so we had to work to pick up the story line for a few minutes from the Italian puppets. Between scenes, a Motzart marianette would come out to the front of the stage to conduct the orchestra. Each time, Motzart would get crazier and crazier. He jumped in a pool and splashed the audience once, then he came out drunk the next time. For a puppet, all of this was impressive. The story seemed pretty good, and right when we started figuring out that Don Giovanni was a bit of a player, a giant monster (an actual person in a costume) came out and took Don Giovanni off to hell. Talk about a twist. After that, it was pretty much over, except for some songs, during which Motzart came out and started making fun of how boring the singing was. I had to agree that his timing was spot on.
From Prague, we went to Salzburg. The route there was a little complicated, as it required us to get on 6 different trains for a total trip time of 8 hours. Crazy. We accidentally sat in first class on the first train, but we asked how much it was to be able to stay there (because neither us nor our stuff was moving), so we each happily paid 5 Euro to stay where we were. We were on each train for a little over an hour each time, which was basically enough time to hop on, search for a seat, find out we picked the wrong seats, find new seats, look out the window for 5 minutes, then get ready to hop off. Even though we were on a train all day, we certainly got a good workout. We often joke with taxi drivers and other people who are unfortunate enough to deal with our luggage that we have packed other friends in our bags to save money. They usually don't get it, but I laugh every time because they don't get it.
We made it to Salzburg without much trouble and checked into my favorite hotel so far. It was right in the middle of the city, and less than 100 yards from the square where the soccer games were being shown on the big screen. The shower in the room was made for midgets, however. The shower head was below my shoulders, but you could take it off the hook and do it yourself. Mary found this challenging the first day, as I had to tread water to get to the shower when she was done (hahaha jk Mary, it wasn't that bad). Breakfast in the morning was simliar to that in Paris, with the individual coffee pots and the wonderful food.
The first day in Salzburg was really our only full day, so we were very lucky that the weather was beautiful. We went on a "Sound of Music Tour", and Rebecca was in heaven. It was fun to see some of the beautiful places in the movie and to find out first that the Von Trapp family was real (yeah I didn't know that) and that they fled to Italy, then Ellis Island, and settled in Vermont, not to Switzerland as it showed in the movie. There were 4 other American girls our age on the tour, so that was a good time. The tour guide pulled over at one point and said, "Ok, this is your chance to dance around the meadows like Maria." She then blared "The Hills are Alive" and we all got out. A couple of the girls were standing there taking pictures and not really don't anything overly impressive, so Rebecca and I set up our cameras on top of the van to take a video, waited for a good musical moment, and took off! (Video on Reba's blog, soon to be on here too). We then stopped at a luge on the side of a hill. Apparently this is a common thing, but we sat on these little seats with wheels and a hand break, got pulled up the hill, got on the track, and flew down it! It was about a 2 minute ride to the bottom and it was a blast! We were especially popular since we were wearing dresses, but I think that shows how much more brave we are.
That night, we (as we do every night) went to the square to watch the soccer game. The Netherlands and Russia were playing and I think it went into double overtime, so it was quite a game. Some German guys sat next to us (of course) and after talking for a bit, one of them told me that he was going to fly to the U.S. so we could "make a party". I wasn't quite sure what we were going to make a party out of, but it was an interesting idea. Then they asked what has turned out to be the most common question anyone asks us once they find out we are Americans, "Who are you going to vote for and why?" They seem to really like Obama out here. It's pretty crazy that everyone who we've talked to for more than a minute has brought up the election.
The next morning, I went to church in a beautiful church just across from the hotel and got to experience it in German. That was pretty unique, but I kept up with everything except for the songs (that was a hopeless cause). Then we walked around a bit, went to Motzart's birthplace, and headed to our favorite place ever...the train station. We had found out earlier that Italy and Spain were playing soccer in Vienne that night we were going to be there, so we were really excited! Until we saw that our train was PACKED. Mary went down one car to try to find us seats, I went down another, and Rebecca watched our enormous pile of stuff. Mary found a nice gentleman who refused to move both his feet and hand (which were taking up 3 empty seats) because he was hot. I went through the Italy fan zone car, and there were a few people missing here and there, but everyone told me that the seats were taken by people who were temporarily in the dining car. I asked one guy, and he said, "No no, I'm married." So I laughed and said, "well dang, how about just a few seats then?" They were taken, so no dice. So we both return to the luggage (which is beweeen cars by the bathroom, awesome), discouraged. After a few minutes, the guy who told me he was married came to find us to tell us he had found us 3 seats together! He had rearranged his friends to make room for us. If he had not already been married, I would have proposed. His friends even put our luggage away for us. We sat by a guy a couple years older than us who was fun San Francisco. He was really nice and was kind of a free spirit. He said he and his friends had slept in a park one night in Switzerland because they couldn't find a hotel. I don't think I'd ever do that...hopefully. Another perk of this train was that they had turned the AC off and the windows did not open. It was literally a sauna! I fell asleep or passed out for a couple hours, and we were soon in Vienna.
We got a cab to our hotel, which was amazing (the Eurostar, since that's what we were), checked in and walked into our VIP suite! It was awesome. First, there was air conditioning, which was an luxury we hadn't enjoyed since Paris. Next, it had a normal size shower! Then, there were 2 couches, 2 tv's (one plasma...what what), and a fire escape that we called the balcony. We recovered from the train ride for a little while then got some food and found the soccer fan zone. This fan zone was bigger than any of the others we had seen. There were about 10 big screens on a long street, so bunches of people were at each one. We happened upon one where everyone was sitting, so we picked that one since we were pretty pooped. Sadly, Italy did not win in the shootout, but it was still a good game.
The next morning (yesterday June 23), Mary left us to head back home :( After we saw her off, I went back to sleep for a bit, then Reba and I caught a tram (thankfully not a deadly one like Prague) to meet up with Reba's friend from high school, Chris. He had been living in Vienna for a while and was an amazing tour guide. We had an excellent final schnitzle meal and an authentic Vienese cafe experience, along with seeing many of the beautiful palaces in the city. I plan to have a palace some day, just FYI. It has gotten quite hot here, so we took frequent breaks near fountains or sprinklers that would "accidentally" splash us.
Rebecca and I said bye to Chris around 7pm and headed to the train station (again)! We took our first overnight train in a sleeper car last night. The beds were quite similar to Mary's faux masseuse table bed in Prague, but were an enormous improvement to our last overnight train experience. We shared our cabin with an Austrain teacher who spoke English and a very nice man who spoke a little English. The teacher worked at a school for kids who want to work in/run wineries, which I thought was pretty neat.
The train ride was pretty good, a little warm with the window closing on its own (which we called the European semi-automatic AC), but still fun. We got to Venice around 10:00, took a water bus to Rialto Bridge, and found our hotel. The directions to the hotel were quite Italian. They said to go through 2 squares, and then 10 meters before the next square, look for the green door. Miraculously, we found it and were able to leave our luggage there while they got the room ready. We then got some wonderful Italian food and wandered around a bit. Now it's time to check in to the room and to wait for Angie to arrive in a couple hours!
The black light theater was quite interesting. The description was an absurd mime show with visual effects, and that is exactly what we got. It started off with a scene consisting of a Barney Fife-esque cop chasing after a guy and a sketchy looking girl who have just robbed a bank. After a few minutes, they left the stage and the whole thing went dark. Then people in glowing outfits came out and did some modern dance using their clothes that glowed in the black light to create illusions like they were flying or whatever. Then after a few minutes of that, it went back to the bank robbery scene. The transitions were hilarious because there weren't any, but both parts of the show were great. It was definitely a Czech show and not American, because it was a "kid's show" where the lady who robbed the bank also snorted something white off of the table. We all looked at each other like, "Did that just happen???" Haha anyway, it really was cool because we could not figure out how they did some of the illusions.
The marianette show the next night was equally intersting. They performed Don Giovanni, which none of us had ever seen, so we had to work to pick up the story line for a few minutes from the Italian puppets. Between scenes, a Motzart marianette would come out to the front of the stage to conduct the orchestra. Each time, Motzart would get crazier and crazier. He jumped in a pool and splashed the audience once, then he came out drunk the next time. For a puppet, all of this was impressive. The story seemed pretty good, and right when we started figuring out that Don Giovanni was a bit of a player, a giant monster (an actual person in a costume) came out and took Don Giovanni off to hell. Talk about a twist. After that, it was pretty much over, except for some songs, during which Motzart came out and started making fun of how boring the singing was. I had to agree that his timing was spot on.
From Prague, we went to Salzburg. The route there was a little complicated, as it required us to get on 6 different trains for a total trip time of 8 hours. Crazy. We accidentally sat in first class on the first train, but we asked how much it was to be able to stay there (because neither us nor our stuff was moving), so we each happily paid 5 Euro to stay where we were. We were on each train for a little over an hour each time, which was basically enough time to hop on, search for a seat, find out we picked the wrong seats, find new seats, look out the window for 5 minutes, then get ready to hop off. Even though we were on a train all day, we certainly got a good workout. We often joke with taxi drivers and other people who are unfortunate enough to deal with our luggage that we have packed other friends in our bags to save money. They usually don't get it, but I laugh every time because they don't get it.
We made it to Salzburg without much trouble and checked into my favorite hotel so far. It was right in the middle of the city, and less than 100 yards from the square where the soccer games were being shown on the big screen. The shower in the room was made for midgets, however. The shower head was below my shoulders, but you could take it off the hook and do it yourself. Mary found this challenging the first day, as I had to tread water to get to the shower when she was done (hahaha jk Mary, it wasn't that bad). Breakfast in the morning was simliar to that in Paris, with the individual coffee pots and the wonderful food.
The first day in Salzburg was really our only full day, so we were very lucky that the weather was beautiful. We went on a "Sound of Music Tour", and Rebecca was in heaven. It was fun to see some of the beautiful places in the movie and to find out first that the Von Trapp family was real (yeah I didn't know that) and that they fled to Italy, then Ellis Island, and settled in Vermont, not to Switzerland as it showed in the movie. There were 4 other American girls our age on the tour, so that was a good time. The tour guide pulled over at one point and said, "Ok, this is your chance to dance around the meadows like Maria." She then blared "The Hills are Alive" and we all got out. A couple of the girls were standing there taking pictures and not really don't anything overly impressive, so Rebecca and I set up our cameras on top of the van to take a video, waited for a good musical moment, and took off! (Video on Reba's blog, soon to be on here too). We then stopped at a luge on the side of a hill. Apparently this is a common thing, but we sat on these little seats with wheels and a hand break, got pulled up the hill, got on the track, and flew down it! It was about a 2 minute ride to the bottom and it was a blast! We were especially popular since we were wearing dresses, but I think that shows how much more brave we are.
That night, we (as we do every night) went to the square to watch the soccer game. The Netherlands and Russia were playing and I think it went into double overtime, so it was quite a game. Some German guys sat next to us (of course) and after talking for a bit, one of them told me that he was going to fly to the U.S. so we could "make a party". I wasn't quite sure what we were going to make a party out of, but it was an interesting idea. Then they asked what has turned out to be the most common question anyone asks us once they find out we are Americans, "Who are you going to vote for and why?" They seem to really like Obama out here. It's pretty crazy that everyone who we've talked to for more than a minute has brought up the election.
The next morning, I went to church in a beautiful church just across from the hotel and got to experience it in German. That was pretty unique, but I kept up with everything except for the songs (that was a hopeless cause). Then we walked around a bit, went to Motzart's birthplace, and headed to our favorite place ever...the train station. We had found out earlier that Italy and Spain were playing soccer in Vienne that night we were going to be there, so we were really excited! Until we saw that our train was PACKED. Mary went down one car to try to find us seats, I went down another, and Rebecca watched our enormous pile of stuff. Mary found a nice gentleman who refused to move both his feet and hand (which were taking up 3 empty seats) because he was hot. I went through the Italy fan zone car, and there were a few people missing here and there, but everyone told me that the seats were taken by people who were temporarily in the dining car. I asked one guy, and he said, "No no, I'm married." So I laughed and said, "well dang, how about just a few seats then?" They were taken, so no dice. So we both return to the luggage (which is beweeen cars by the bathroom, awesome), discouraged. After a few minutes, the guy who told me he was married came to find us to tell us he had found us 3 seats together! He had rearranged his friends to make room for us. If he had not already been married, I would have proposed. His friends even put our luggage away for us. We sat by a guy a couple years older than us who was fun San Francisco. He was really nice and was kind of a free spirit. He said he and his friends had slept in a park one night in Switzerland because they couldn't find a hotel. I don't think I'd ever do that...hopefully. Another perk of this train was that they had turned the AC off and the windows did not open. It was literally a sauna! I fell asleep or passed out for a couple hours, and we were soon in Vienna.
We got a cab to our hotel, which was amazing (the Eurostar, since that's what we were), checked in and walked into our VIP suite! It was awesome. First, there was air conditioning, which was an luxury we hadn't enjoyed since Paris. Next, it had a normal size shower! Then, there were 2 couches, 2 tv's (one plasma...what what), and a fire escape that we called the balcony. We recovered from the train ride for a little while then got some food and found the soccer fan zone. This fan zone was bigger than any of the others we had seen. There were about 10 big screens on a long street, so bunches of people were at each one. We happened upon one where everyone was sitting, so we picked that one since we were pretty pooped. Sadly, Italy did not win in the shootout, but it was still a good game.
The next morning (yesterday June 23), Mary left us to head back home :( After we saw her off, I went back to sleep for a bit, then Reba and I caught a tram (thankfully not a deadly one like Prague) to meet up with Reba's friend from high school, Chris. He had been living in Vienna for a while and was an amazing tour guide. We had an excellent final schnitzle meal and an authentic Vienese cafe experience, along with seeing many of the beautiful palaces in the city. I plan to have a palace some day, just FYI. It has gotten quite hot here, so we took frequent breaks near fountains or sprinklers that would "accidentally" splash us.
Rebecca and I said bye to Chris around 7pm and headed to the train station (again)! We took our first overnight train in a sleeper car last night. The beds were quite similar to Mary's faux masseuse table bed in Prague, but were an enormous improvement to our last overnight train experience. We shared our cabin with an Austrain teacher who spoke English and a very nice man who spoke a little English. The teacher worked at a school for kids who want to work in/run wineries, which I thought was pretty neat.
The train ride was pretty good, a little warm with the window closing on its own (which we called the European semi-automatic AC), but still fun. We got to Venice around 10:00, took a water bus to Rialto Bridge, and found our hotel. The directions to the hotel were quite Italian. They said to go through 2 squares, and then 10 meters before the next square, look for the green door. Miraculously, we found it and were able to leave our luggage there while they got the room ready. We then got some wonderful Italian food and wandered around a bit. Now it's time to check in to the room and to wait for Angie to arrive in a couple hours!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Oh the irony...
So it turns out that the lobby of our hotel has free wireless internet. I'm not sure why the desk lady pointed to a plug in the wall when we asked if there was internet in the hotel, but whatever. It's just pretty hilarious that we trecked all over town on a wild goose chase for internet that was right under our noses. Score.
Next, our hotel room has turned into Underwear Town and I am the mayor. We have discovered the wonders of Tide sink packets and are doing laundry like mad women. We have a system of clothes lines set up that would qualify as a World Wonder. The first one was tied to the only decoration in our entirely white room, the half dead ficus tree. This reminded me of our Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the dorms sophomore year.
Yesterday, we went on a walking tour of Prague with a great tour guide. She pointed out things we would not have normally noticed, such as the fact that McDonald's, a casino, and the Communist Museum are located in the same building. We then signed up to go on a ghost tour with the same lady, since we liked her so much. That was not scary at all since the sun was still setting (it doesn't get dark until like 10:00), and her kids would run out in costumes dressed as the people in the stories she was telling us. It was a good time though because we knew when something was coming and there were a lot of unsuspecting people on the tour with us.
Today, we checked out the churches in the Old Town Square, which were breathtaking. Then we went to the Jewish Quarter to check out some of the old synagogues and the cemetary. The cemetary has thousands of grave stones, but they are all right up on each other. This was done because they kept running out of room so they added dirt to make a new level. Each time a new level was made, the tombstones were brought up to the top. We then went to the Charles Bridge and rubbed a statue for good luck. Now, we are getting ready to go to the Black Light Theater to see an absurd mime show, which I'm sure will be good. Tomorrow night, we're going to a marianette show, so basically we're going all out in Prague.
Also, the elevator I mentioned has an added surprise. Apparently it is meant for only 2 people, so our lives were in danger during the filming of that video. There was a sign on our floor (the 2nd floor) with a big 2 on it and some Czech words, so we figured it was a wordy way of saying 2nd floor. Then I noticed that same sign on the first floor. Sooo yeah I guess that means only 2 people on the tiny elevator at a time. Nice.
While walking somewhere today, a guy passed me and said, "You dropped something." I turn around look, see nothing, look back at him, and he goes, "my heart". We were cracking up. Ten minutes later, we see the same guy, he says, "You dropped something." So I say, "your heart, right?" and give him the two gun point and his friends crack up. Apparently he'd been using that line all day.
Finally, we all bought shirts that say, "Prague Czech me out!"
Next, our hotel room has turned into Underwear Town and I am the mayor. We have discovered the wonders of Tide sink packets and are doing laundry like mad women. We have a system of clothes lines set up that would qualify as a World Wonder. The first one was tied to the only decoration in our entirely white room, the half dead ficus tree. This reminded me of our Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the dorms sophomore year.
Yesterday, we went on a walking tour of Prague with a great tour guide. She pointed out things we would not have normally noticed, such as the fact that McDonald's, a casino, and the Communist Museum are located in the same building. We then signed up to go on a ghost tour with the same lady, since we liked her so much. That was not scary at all since the sun was still setting (it doesn't get dark until like 10:00), and her kids would run out in costumes dressed as the people in the stories she was telling us. It was a good time though because we knew when something was coming and there were a lot of unsuspecting people on the tour with us.
Today, we checked out the churches in the Old Town Square, which were breathtaking. Then we went to the Jewish Quarter to check out some of the old synagogues and the cemetary. The cemetary has thousands of grave stones, but they are all right up on each other. This was done because they kept running out of room so they added dirt to make a new level. Each time a new level was made, the tombstones were brought up to the top. We then went to the Charles Bridge and rubbed a statue for good luck. Now, we are getting ready to go to the Black Light Theater to see an absurd mime show, which I'm sure will be good. Tomorrow night, we're going to a marianette show, so basically we're going all out in Prague.
Also, the elevator I mentioned has an added surprise. Apparently it is meant for only 2 people, so our lives were in danger during the filming of that video. There was a sign on our floor (the 2nd floor) with a big 2 on it and some Czech words, so we figured it was a wordy way of saying 2nd floor. Then I noticed that same sign on the first floor. Sooo yeah I guess that means only 2 people on the tiny elevator at a time. Nice.
While walking somewhere today, a guy passed me and said, "You dropped something." I turn around look, see nothing, look back at him, and he goes, "my heart". We were cracking up. Ten minutes later, we see the same guy, he says, "You dropped something." So I say, "your heart, right?" and give him the two gun point and his friends crack up. Apparently he'd been using that line all day.
Finally, we all bought shirts that say, "Prague Czech me out!"
Monday, June 16, 2008
Berlin to Prague, the miraculous journey
Friday June 13 (Friday the 13th, ahhh)
Well rained in the morning and was freezing in general, so that put a bit of a kink in our plans. But we solved that by getting on a tour bus that told us all about everything and let us hop on and off, but most importantly, allowed us to not freeze to death. The tour guide would say everything in German and then repeat it in English, which I imagine would be quite a task since he was also having to keep up with the bus' pace. We eventually hopped off and went to the Natural History Museum. P.S. People stare a lot here. I know they think I'm a famous super model and all, but geez. Anyway, the Nat Hist Museum had some pretty neat stuff including the largest fully assembled dinosaur skeleton. After that, we went to Checkpoint Charlie, which was a former access point between East and West Germany. That place had some pretty incredible stories about the lengths people would go to in their escape attempts to the West. They would build special compartments in cars, ride down ropes from windows, or just try to bust through in a big truck. After that, we found a restaurant run by Sicilians that was right across the street. The EuroCup is going on right now, so every night there is at least one soccer game on, and the Italians were no exception. Although it was run by Sicilians, this place had great weinerschnitzle (thin fried veal = good), so we were being semi-authentic German tourists!
Saturday June 14
The weather was slightly better this day, so we set out for our "outdoor adventures". This including FINALLY finding the Berlin wall. It is more difficult than you think. Yeah not really, we're just not too perceptive. The large part of the wall that we visited is called Eastside Gallery (because it's painted on the east side). At some point, people decided that if the wall was going to be there and they weren't going to be allowed to cross to the other side, they might as well decorate it and express themselves that way.
After the wall (which was across the street from the train station we had visited every day we'd been in Berlin), we went to the Zoo. Since we had gone to the Natural History Museum the day before and seen tons of stuffed animals, it made sense to go see the live ones. It was pretty cool...lions, tigers, bears, oh my. There were some cute monkeys and we got to see feeding time for all the big cats. There was also a panda and some polar bears, but there were also falsely advertised seals as we could NOT find them.
Mary and I then tricked Rebecca into letting us go to Dunkin Donuts (again) by telling her we wanted to go check out an area called Postdamer Platz, which had stores, the Sony Center (which really didn't have anything in it that we could tell), and Legoland (which I had to restrain myself from going into). While at Dunkin, with all the other Americans, we got some good people watching in while we defrosted.
We then did a little more wandering/shopping near the broken tooth church (from the first day) and then happened upon a pretty busy restaurant so we decided to have dinner. Again, a soccer game was on, so there were people all around carrying/wearing flags, hats, super hero spandex outfits...the works. I was able to get bratwurst, sourkraut, and great mashed potatoes for dinner, so I was in heaven. Rebecca thought I ordered potato soup with a wiener, so she just told the waitress that she just wanted the same thing. We realized this about 15 mins later when I said I was excited about the sourkraut. Hahaha tricks. After the soccer game, the best band in the world started playing. They were all middle aged men in matching white suits who would play a mix of oldies (mumbling much of the words which made it 5000 times better) and some German drinking songs. There were some boyfriend alerts dancing in the front, but we soon realized that they liked dancing with each other more than anyone else.
Friday June 15
We woke up bright and early to head to the train station to catch our 10:46 train to Prague. This was written at 10:54 AM that day:
By no small miracle, we are on the train to Prague. It was scheduled to leave at 10:46. So, we get to the train station at 10:15, get some sandwiches for the ride (which should last until about 3:15), and mosey toward the trains. We're looking and looking and not seeing anything about Prague or our train number. Hm... So we find someone and they tell us we are at the wrong train station. Awesome. Why wouldn't the lady who sold us the tickets from that train station mention that it left from a different one? Probably because she assumed we read German. Danke, train lady. So we hop (with our 50 lbs of luggage and backpacks and slightly panicking selves) on a train (without a ticket) and ride to the station that our train is leaving from...in 12 minutes. Four stops and 9 minutes later, we arrive at the station. We spread out to figure out the track number like a well oiled sorority machine. Rebecca finds the chart, I get the track number, we holler for Mary and take off. We're dragging our luggage down the stairs, dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging others, and 3 mins later we find what might be our train. Quick sign reading and a leap of faith later and we're flinging ourselves on the train just as they come on the loudspeaker saying to stand clear of the door. We are now sitting in some spacious seats, 2 to a person since the train isn't full, and we're treating ourselves to a much needed reward. Mary is playing solitaire on the computer, Rebecca is knee deep in the minute by minute train schedule, and I'm eating gummy bears and staring out the window. All is right with the world. We also realized that Czech is a very difficult language and they don't use Euros. If the train experience is any kind of sign of things to come, this should be good!
Well the rest of the train ride was relaxing. We got off the train and had to make our way to the hotel, which sounds simple since we had already found the hotel on the map. Once we got off the train, we found an ATM. The Czech Republic doesn't use Euros, they use the crown. 15 crowns is about 1 US dollar. So that's fun math. Also, the ATM only spits out 1000's, and people don't like to make change for you, but we'll get to that soon. we headed for the taxi stand, only to find about 7 sketchy old men sitting around in lawn chairs smoking cigarettes without a care in the world. The tour books warned us about taxi drivers trying to cheat you, so we let an American couple approach them before we did to see how it went. They turned town the taxi driver's offer and headed back our way. We asked what went down and they said they'd been to Prague before and that the guy wanted twice what they usually pay so they were just gonna take the Metro. That worked for us, since we're Metro masters, so we go downstairs to the metro station. The most useless map ever is located in that metro stop. It just has the metro stops on the map, no other streets. So we had to use the curve in the river and the location of a bridge to figure out the best stop for us. Then we go to buy tickets in cryptic machines that only take change. We see a drink/newspaper stand so Mary tries to buy a coke to get change. The lady hates Mary's life and refuses by simply repeating "No no no no no". We then remember we saw the happiest place on earth upstairs, McDonalds. Mary soon returns with a coke, apple pie, and 4 crowns short of enough change for 3 one way metro tickets. Rebecca then tries her luck with the evil troll and wins the battle buy buying some "slightly carbonated" water for me. She likes to play tricks, because that was the WORST water in the history of the world. But it got us change, so we get on the metro and off at our stop.
We then begin our hike to the hotel. It looks like only a hop, skip, and a jump from the metro stop, but it was more like a lunge, trip, and a crawl. The cobblestone streets made pulling the rolling suitcases like dragging a kicking and screaming child. We soon lost our will to live, but after going around a few wrong turns (Prague streets are a bit confusing and we have yet to master their coordination with maps), we make it to the hotel. The place is cute and cosy and the home of the smallest elevator ever. Seriously it's only big enough for one person and a suitcase.
Our place has 2 rooms and a bathroom. Rebecca and I share a room that has the same double bed as in Paris, and Mary got the VIP suites with the couch and single "bed". I say "bed" because we think it is a retired masseuse table on wooden pegs that fall off occasionally. So at about 5:30 this morning, Mary switched to the couch and never looked back. The bathroom door makes a horrendous sound when you close it, so we have to warn each other when it's about to happen. This is usually done by screaming.
After a little recovery time from the hike from hell, we hit the town. We head towards Old Town and the river to look around and find food. We happen upon the biggest party of the evening in the Old Town Square...EuroFest. Czech is playing Turkey at 8:45 and there is a huge screen, a band stand, kebabs/hot dog and beer stands everywhere, and pretty much the whole town. So after watching the astronomical clock strike 6:00 (at each hour, the rooster crows on this big clock, then some windows open and the 12 apostles pass by to scare the devil away), we get some food and settle into our spot on the ground with the the rest of the people. We happen to sit next to a Canadian family with 2 cute little boys, one of whom must have been teething or already in the wrong crowd because the mom gave him a sip of beer (should out to Steph and the Canadians everywhere haha). The band soon started and sang mostly songs we couldn't understand but sounded fun, and then some ones we knew (YMCA, yes Rebecca and I stood up and did it). Then there were some really funny people by us who brought masks like Nacho Libre wore in the move, put them on, fake wrestled, danced around, and took pictures of each other. The game started and then everyone was on their feet. We looked around when we did this and realized that the number of people had quadrupled since we had gotten there. It was crazy! Unfortunately, the Czechs didn't win (they were up 2-0 and then lost 3-2 with 2 last minute goals). We got slightly lost (again) on our way home, but made it back just fine.
Today, June 16, we got moving around 9:50 (breakfast ended at 10...yikes!) and enjoyed a slightly less extensive breakfast spread, but still good (fruit, cereal, bread, jellies, cheese, coffee, mysterious beverage we termed yellow water). We then went to Prague Castle. We hiked up quite a few steps to get to it, but luckily we arrived at the front gate just in time for the 12:00 changing of the guard, which we heard was the most impressive one. It consisted of 2 groups of soldiers marching around, some trumpet and drum playing, and a lot of precise movements. Quite impressive. They also have the guys who can't smile or whatever when you stand next to them so I got a picture, of course. We toured the Castle until 5:30. There is an amazing cathedral, a convent, an old palace where there used to be indoor jousting matches, a basilica, a cute little street with shops, and some intense gardens.
The whole castle doesn't look like the traditional castle as it was added onto as time went on and they weren't too concerned with everything matching. While there we had a traditional Czech meal, goulash, which is like a beef stew. I had the goulash menu (aka combo) which came with cabbage soup (amazing) and cheesecake. Mary and Rebecca then had to roll me out of the place.
So now we've finally found an internet cafe, after walking around in the rain asking people, so we have quite a sense of accomplishment and now that I look back on it, we have an internet addiction. Anyway, we're planning some of our future outings. We're looking into a ghost tour, a marionette show, some sort of funny mime show in a blacklight theater, and more goulash.
Some fun signs along the way. This one says that basically you can not do anything.
This one tells us to fall down the stairs in our hotel.
How Rebecca gets around Prague...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Paris to Berlin
Well, I’ve fallen behind on this a bit. We have internet issues, so pictures are on their way slowly. We got to Berlin this morning around 8:00 after an interesting train ride. There’s more on that to come, but first I’ll cover the rest of our time in Paris.
First of all, Rebecca could train Olympic atheletes with the way she runs around. She has earned two nicknames: track star and speed bump. She is either sprinting around or making sudden stops. She takes the stairs when an escalator is an option. Ridiculous. Anyway, we'll get down to business.
I wrote this on our first full day in Paris, June 6.
Today I got up and started typing some of this, but the hotel keyboard is different on the left side so it took FOREVER. Had an awesome breakfast in the hotel. Croissants rock socks. We started our photography tour with Barbara (an American journalist/photographer/awesome lady living in Paris) at 9:00. She was awesome. She showed us the neighborhood called Mont Martre. Is is where the movie Amelie was set. Very artsy, very beautiful. The church where the Jesuits were started is there, as is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (where there were singing nuns, pre-Whoopie)
We learned how to use the metro from Barbara. As our train approached, she said, “OK, now find a seat and I don’t mean a man.” Hilarious. High five to Amanda for spreading her terminology overseas. We then got some coffee, said bye bye to Barb, and headed to the Arc de Triumph (which is an arch no matter which side you look at it…also see video “No More Help”). Also, we realized that the French (and Rebecca) love stairs and that when I am elected president of France, I will implement a strict elevator/escalator policy.
We then walked to the Louvre (got in free…woohoo student discount!), hitting the Jardin de Tuillieres along the way. Just before that, we passed the American Embassy, which may not be photographed, as I was yelled at by Secret Service as I attempted to do so. The gardens were great. Square trees, fountains, but no kids playing with boats so we still have to find that.
June 7, 2008
We went to Versailles this day. It was about a 40 min metro ride out to it. That place is crazy. Gold everywhere. Louis XIV knew how to do it. The palace was just room after room of incredible paintings along the ways and the ceilings. The hall of mirrors would go nicely in a sorority dorm, and the gardens were far beyond big and incredible (see Videos from Versailles).
After getting a sandwich in the garden café (p.s. all French sandwiches are simple and amazing…cheese and bread never tasted so good), we wander the gardens so more. At this point, I’m certain my feet will fall off, but Rebecca and Melissa want to walk the mile and a half to Marie Antoinette’s place, so Mary and I shuffle ourselves out there. It’s a big mansion made of pink marble. Some couples were having their wedding pictures done while we were there. How cool would that be? Anyway, it turns out that the pink marble place wasn’t her real place, so we walked about 500 miles to another house on her estate (which was shown in the Marie Antoinette movie). This looked more like a normal place and that someone actually could have lived there, instead of enjoying the Versaille lifestyle of being woken at 8:00, dressed at 8:15, and visited in your bedroom all day.
After completing the Cribs version of Marie Antoinette, Mary and I insist on taking the petit train back to Versailles as our feet are exploding in pain. Our other options were renting a golf cart or segways, but I figured both (well certainly the latter) were too complicated. We heart the petit train.
After making it back to Paris, we go check out the Eiffel Tower. But the weather wasn’t looking too hot, so we decided not to climb up a giant metal building and to just take some pictures and try again another day. After the treck to the Eiffel, I am convinced I will never walk again as blisters have taken over my feet and I am considering amputation. Which brings us to my quote on the metro:
5:05 PM
I’m going to put Rebecca in a tiny box and mail her somewhere very far away and boring so she has to walk back. In heels. Twice. I love the petit train. They are telling me an ice cream lie. The Eiffel Tower is brown.
June 8, 2008
Melissa and I are appreciating the beauty of the bench of the Musee d’Orsay and arguing about which statue is better. I say mine because of his hair, goatee, big forehead, and moldy body. She says hers because it expresses sorrow, is green (with envy), and has saggy skin. I declare myself the winner.
We went to the Eiffel Tower today and it was pretty awesome. Everyone has seen pictures of it, but seeing it in person is amazing. We got there, hopped in line, and realized that it said the top level was temporarily closed and you could only go up to the 2nd level. This seemed like a major bummer since the 2nd level is wayyyyyyyy lower than the top. But we waited about an hour in line and just before we went up to get tickets, they re-opened the top level! WOOOO!!! So we cram on this little elevator (Rebecca wanted to take the stairs and I told her that her box just got a little smaller) and up up up we go! They stop at the 2nd level so you can look around and buy things at the gift shop. Then we got in the line to go to the top, and about 45 mins later we were up there enjoying a great view of the city! I don’t remember how tall it is, but we’ll just say it is way darn up there.
June 10, 2008 12:10 PM
We are being Parisian and floating down the Seine on our last day in Paris. The last two days have been more chill that the first few. We found and fell in love with a restaurant called Les Deux Magots (apparently Hemingway used to frequent it). We went there twice in one day and are headed back for lunch today and hopefully a t-shirt from the gift shop. Who doesn’t want a 2 magots shirt?
We tried to go to St. Chapelle again and it was closed. I think it’s fake, but Melissa owes me a Euro. We hear it is more beautiful inside than Notre Dame, however we never seem to be there when it’s open. Oh well, the outside is nice.
Yesterday, we visited Napoleon’s Tomb, and he did it up right. There was tons of armor and cannons all over the place, so I’m thinking of decorating my room in that motif. I am convinced that one cannot get ratatouille in this city. But, I am very well acquainted with bread, cheese, and wine. If we weren’t walking 400 miles a day, I would come home weighing in around a metric ton. After Napoleon’s Tomb, we went (on the metro, our fav) to the Catacombs, but they were closed. Then we tried to tour the opera house to visit the phantom, but that wasn’t until late and was only in French. So, yesterday’s theme was attempting to find ghosts and riding the metro. Speaking of ghosts, Rebecca got a couple pictures of ghost blobs at Napoleon’s tomb like we ones we got in Savannah. Creepy. Yikes, we just floated by some guy sunning himself in an itsy bitsy teeny weeny white polka dot bikini bottom. Europeans definitely have a different way of life.
June 11, 2008 10:31 AM
Yesterday was quite a day. The boat ride was a great way to see the sights one last time. We stopped at the “best ice cream place” according to the tour book and it was delicious. Hotel de Ville was a mysterious old building with no clear purpose. We then had lunch at Les Deux Magots, but alas they did not have t-shirts. So, we headed to the Latin Quarter (where a lot of Greek restaurants are, ironically) to go souvenir shopping. After that, we loaded up on sandwiches, snacks, and wine for the 11 hour train ride to Berlin. It was then that the fun started.
We had to get our luggage (all 700 lbs of it) to the metro and then to the Eurail station. Timeout. Mary just came out of the bathroom after screaming and said she slapped herself in the face with her own bra. Time in. So as we roll our suitcases out the hotel, Rebecca turns and says, “Watch out for the hole” and points to the construction on the sidewalk just outside the door. Her suitcase hears this and attempts a nose dive into the pit. She saved it, but it was pretty amazing that we had a near miss just walking out of the door. We made it to the metro station without incident, drug our stuff down the stairs (causing what sounded like machine gun fire), and Rebecca go stuck in the entrance gate. We had to wait for the lady behind her to pay so the door would re-open. Pretty amazing so far. Then we see a train pull in just as we are approaching it, so we decide to go for it and leap on before the door shuts. We consider this a huge accomplishment.
After making it to the train station (2 hrs early) and not being able to figure out too much (how to reserve our next train ride, what to do with bags, etc), Mary and I fall asleep on the ground with our bags like homeless people. Napping turned out to be a good idea since we were not able to get a sleeper car for the trip. That’s right, we had 11 hours of sitting in no air conditioning ahead of us. I should have known how the train ride would be when a pigeon pooped on me just as I woke up from my nap on the floor. Score.
Eventually the train came, we tag teamed throwing our luggage into the car and found our tiny room, which we shared with 3 college aged sisters from ATL, so that was a relief! They go to see us at our best when Rebecca and I loaded the luggage onto the shelf above our heads. Let’s talk about no strength left and I’m the only one who can reach the shelf, and we shove Mary’s bag on its side and pray it doesn’t fly off to kill the ATL girls. We then get settled, get our sandwiches out and start chatting. The girls were nice and said that they were just passing through Berlin to catch another train to Munich. That would be two 12 hour train rides back to back. Shoot me in the face. So after we finished our sandwiches, the ATL girls took some Nyquil or something and went to sleep, so we went to the dining car to play cards (Phase 10, which Reba won of course!) On our way to the dining car, Rebecca found some “dirt” on the back of my shirt that I claimed was in no way related to the bird poop. After this, we get tired and decide it’s bed time. Mary heads to our seats, returns and tells us that ATL girls have taken over and there is no room for us. So we all curl up on the dining room car floor with the blankets we stole from the airplane. I fall asleep for a bit but then woke up nearly frozen to death, so I get up, see Rebecca sleeping on several chairs, and head back to my seat, where I find Mary has done the same thing. Now I know I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere, but sleeping at a 90 degree angle with feet everywhere in the cold just didn’t work. I soon see Rebecca sitting in the hallway outside the room. We were in hell.
Finally, the rooster crows (literally) and we approach the train station. Or so we thought. Apparently there are 4 train stations in Berlin and we had to pick the right one. So after a few minutes of fatigued map searching, we just say we’re going with the last one so we don’t have to move as fast. The ATL girls get off at the stop just before us, which we were thankful for because we didn’t want them to witness us trying to get our luggage off the train.
We wander off the train in a delirious state and go to the taxi stand, where we are greeted by the least enthusiastic taxi drivers in the world. There were tons of them lined up and we had to go knock on the window, interrupting the driver’s telephone conversation, to get her to take us to the hotel. Well when I say “we” I mean Mary and I sent Rebecca. We get to the hotel and it looks pretty scary in the front, so I’m internally panicking. Berlin isn’t as cutesy as Paris, by far. Anyway, we again send Rebecca in to get our room and 20 mins later she returns with wireless internet access, breakfast tokens, and room keys! It was amazing to be able to check in at 8:00 am.
The inside of the hotel is pretty cool. It’s like a huge dorm building, so it feels almost familiar. One side of it is a hostel our side is a hotel. Our room has 2 twin beds, a set of bunk beds, a table with 3 chairs, and a bath and a half, and a storage closet. It rocks. We unpacked a little so it almost looks like a dorm.
After what I think was the best shower of my life, we chilled for a little and then ventured out to figure out the Berlin subway system. We applied the same method that they use in Paris and it worked just fine. It was just a lot more difficult because German words are a lot harder to spell and remember, so we just had to make up our own phrases to remember where to go. Our stop is Heine, so yeah that one is obviously easy to remember.
We went to a huge department store called Ka De We, which is the abbreviation for the real name but that’s what people call it. This place has everything. We had our first experience with ordering German food in their buffet. It was pretty educational to be able to see the word and the food at the same time. I think we were all still half asleep, so we just picked out whatever. I had some soup, a salad with what seemed like a crab cake but wasn’t totally one, and a roll with olive butter. Good stuff. I wanted brats, sour kraut, or weinersnitzle, but decided to wait until I could enjoy it to get it.
After lunch, we looked around for some comfy shoes for Mary so she could survive the rest of the trip and Rebecca and I got yelled at on the toy floor for trying to take pictures of the puppets. Lame.
After KaDeWe, we walked a couple blocks to an old church that is nick named the broken tooth (since that’s what it looks like). It was bombed during WWII but most of it was preserved. During the rebuilding of Berlin, new church buildings were built on either side of it in a much more modern style. We watched some more street performers, this time they had older men with skateboards. We decided they were too old to be doing that. We then realized that we were about to fall asleep (at 4:30 PM), so we headed back home. On our way there, we realized that they number the trees on the sidewalk…every sidewalk. We didn’t make it back out that night and took a much needed long rest and geared up for the next day.
June 12, 2008
We woke up around 8:00, got some breakfast at the hotel (eggs, sausage, cereal, fruit, sandwich stuff, great coffee…good stuff), and headed back to the train station to reserve our upcoming trips. We didn’t want to get stuck without a sleeper car again. The Germans have been incredibly helpful and patient. I hate that we don’t know any more than hello, English, bratwurst, and thank you in German, but a lot of them speak some English so we are getting by.
From the train station, we took a Mercedes Smart Car cab to Gendarmenmarkt. The cab driver was trying to get us there in a hurry and was not trying to run up the fare, which was really nice. Also, here they have a traffic light that flashes before the light turns green so they know to rev their engines. Awesome. We get to our destination, which is a square with two churches (a German and a French) and a big theater. My camera battery died as soon as I turned it on this morning, so Rebecca’s blog has all the pictures, sorry!
After learning about how the French were allowed to build their church so they helped the Germans by building them a church next to it, we headed to Europe’s largest chocolate store. This place had chocolate sculptures of all kinds of things (a bear, a flowing volcano, the Titanic) and some great chocolate. With all that chocolate, I thought the Germans might have tooth problems, but then I saw a place right by the chocolate store called “White Smiles: dental care lounge”. Seemed perfect.
After getting some chocolate, we headed to the famous street you always see military parades take place on in Germany, Unden de Linges (under the limes, I think). It used to be lined with lime trees and reserved for pedestrians, but it is a pretty main drag in Berlin now. We went through the big gate and took a picture with a dude dressed like a statue. It was pretty surreal to walk under there and think about all the things that had happened there in the past.
We continued walking until we saw a doner kebabs stand on the street, and per a friend’s suggestion (thanks H. Layne!) we stopped for lunch. They were sandwiches on great bread with cheese, a flavored sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and the meat was shaved off of a big slab of it that was cooking on a rotating pillar! Amazing. After that, we were energized and ready to hit the German History Museum. 3.5 hours later, that energy had been sucked out of us by German history. They Germans like to fight. The end.
After that, I got to pick an activity, so we walked past the giant needle with the golfball on it (not really but that’s what it looks like) to see if we could make reservations but they were closed…so we proceeded to a beer garden (no it doesn’t grow on trees) for an authentic German evening of watching the football (soccer) game and having wieners and potatoes. Rebecca and Mary ordered “potato soup with a weiner” (swear to ya) and I had “two wieners, potato salad, and a salad”. Each dinner was 5 euros or less, which was much different than Paris! We then had a night cap/dessert at the oldest pub in Berlin where cool people like Napoleon and Gorbechov had been. It was a nice day, and we’ve got a doosy of a day planned for tomorrow!
First of all, Rebecca could train Olympic atheletes with the way she runs around. She has earned two nicknames: track star and speed bump. She is either sprinting around or making sudden stops. She takes the stairs when an escalator is an option. Ridiculous. Anyway, we'll get down to business.
I wrote this on our first full day in Paris, June 6.
Today I got up and started typing some of this, but the hotel keyboard is different on the left side so it took FOREVER. Had an awesome breakfast in the hotel. Croissants rock socks. We started our photography tour with Barbara (an American journalist/photographer/awesome lady living in Paris) at 9:00. She was awesome. She showed us the neighborhood called Mont Martre. Is is where the movie Amelie was set. Very artsy, very beautiful. The church where the Jesuits were started is there, as is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (where there were singing nuns, pre-Whoopie)
We learned how to use the metro from Barbara. As our train approached, she said, “OK, now find a seat and I don’t mean a man.” Hilarious. High five to Amanda for spreading her terminology overseas. We then got some coffee, said bye bye to Barb, and headed to the Arc de Triumph (which is an arch no matter which side you look at it…also see video “No More Help”). Also, we realized that the French (and Rebecca) love stairs and that when I am elected president of France, I will implement a strict elevator/escalator policy.
We then walked to the Louvre (got in free…woohoo student discount!), hitting the Jardin de Tuillieres along the way. Just before that, we passed the American Embassy, which may not be photographed, as I was yelled at by Secret Service as I attempted to do so. The gardens were great. Square trees, fountains, but no kids playing with boats so we still have to find that.
June 7, 2008
We went to Versailles this day. It was about a 40 min metro ride out to it. That place is crazy. Gold everywhere. Louis XIV knew how to do it. The palace was just room after room of incredible paintings along the ways and the ceilings. The hall of mirrors would go nicely in a sorority dorm, and the gardens were far beyond big and incredible (see Videos from Versailles).
After getting a sandwich in the garden café (p.s. all French sandwiches are simple and amazing…cheese and bread never tasted so good), we wander the gardens so more. At this point, I’m certain my feet will fall off, but Rebecca and Melissa want to walk the mile and a half to Marie Antoinette’s place, so Mary and I shuffle ourselves out there. It’s a big mansion made of pink marble. Some couples were having their wedding pictures done while we were there. How cool would that be? Anyway, it turns out that the pink marble place wasn’t her real place, so we walked about 500 miles to another house on her estate (which was shown in the Marie Antoinette movie). This looked more like a normal place and that someone actually could have lived there, instead of enjoying the Versaille lifestyle of being woken at 8:00, dressed at 8:15, and visited in your bedroom all day.
After completing the Cribs version of Marie Antoinette, Mary and I insist on taking the petit train back to Versailles as our feet are exploding in pain. Our other options were renting a golf cart or segways, but I figured both (well certainly the latter) were too complicated. We heart the petit train.
After making it back to Paris, we go check out the Eiffel Tower. But the weather wasn’t looking too hot, so we decided not to climb up a giant metal building and to just take some pictures and try again another day. After the treck to the Eiffel, I am convinced I will never walk again as blisters have taken over my feet and I am considering amputation. Which brings us to my quote on the metro:
5:05 PM
I’m going to put Rebecca in a tiny box and mail her somewhere very far away and boring so she has to walk back. In heels. Twice. I love the petit train. They are telling me an ice cream lie. The Eiffel Tower is brown.
June 8, 2008
Melissa and I are appreciating the beauty of the bench of the Musee d’Orsay and arguing about which statue is better. I say mine because of his hair, goatee, big forehead, and moldy body. She says hers because it expresses sorrow, is green (with envy), and has saggy skin. I declare myself the winner.
We went to the Eiffel Tower today and it was pretty awesome. Everyone has seen pictures of it, but seeing it in person is amazing. We got there, hopped in line, and realized that it said the top level was temporarily closed and you could only go up to the 2nd level. This seemed like a major bummer since the 2nd level is wayyyyyyyy lower than the top. But we waited about an hour in line and just before we went up to get tickets, they re-opened the top level! WOOOO!!! So we cram on this little elevator (Rebecca wanted to take the stairs and I told her that her box just got a little smaller) and up up up we go! They stop at the 2nd level so you can look around and buy things at the gift shop. Then we got in the line to go to the top, and about 45 mins later we were up there enjoying a great view of the city! I don’t remember how tall it is, but we’ll just say it is way darn up there.
June 10, 2008 12:10 PM
We are being Parisian and floating down the Seine on our last day in Paris. The last two days have been more chill that the first few. We found and fell in love with a restaurant called Les Deux Magots (apparently Hemingway used to frequent it). We went there twice in one day and are headed back for lunch today and hopefully a t-shirt from the gift shop. Who doesn’t want a 2 magots shirt?
We tried to go to St. Chapelle again and it was closed. I think it’s fake, but Melissa owes me a Euro. We hear it is more beautiful inside than Notre Dame, however we never seem to be there when it’s open. Oh well, the outside is nice.
Yesterday, we visited Napoleon’s Tomb, and he did it up right. There was tons of armor and cannons all over the place, so I’m thinking of decorating my room in that motif. I am convinced that one cannot get ratatouille in this city. But, I am very well acquainted with bread, cheese, and wine. If we weren’t walking 400 miles a day, I would come home weighing in around a metric ton. After Napoleon’s Tomb, we went (on the metro, our fav) to the Catacombs, but they were closed. Then we tried to tour the opera house to visit the phantom, but that wasn’t until late and was only in French. So, yesterday’s theme was attempting to find ghosts and riding the metro. Speaking of ghosts, Rebecca got a couple pictures of ghost blobs at Napoleon’s tomb like we ones we got in Savannah. Creepy. Yikes, we just floated by some guy sunning himself in an itsy bitsy teeny weeny white polka dot bikini bottom. Europeans definitely have a different way of life.
June 11, 2008 10:31 AM
Yesterday was quite a day. The boat ride was a great way to see the sights one last time. We stopped at the “best ice cream place” according to the tour book and it was delicious. Hotel de Ville was a mysterious old building with no clear purpose. We then had lunch at Les Deux Magots, but alas they did not have t-shirts. So, we headed to the Latin Quarter (where a lot of Greek restaurants are, ironically) to go souvenir shopping. After that, we loaded up on sandwiches, snacks, and wine for the 11 hour train ride to Berlin. It was then that the fun started.
We had to get our luggage (all 700 lbs of it) to the metro and then to the Eurail station. Timeout. Mary just came out of the bathroom after screaming and said she slapped herself in the face with her own bra. Time in. So as we roll our suitcases out the hotel, Rebecca turns and says, “Watch out for the hole” and points to the construction on the sidewalk just outside the door. Her suitcase hears this and attempts a nose dive into the pit. She saved it, but it was pretty amazing that we had a near miss just walking out of the door. We made it to the metro station without incident, drug our stuff down the stairs (causing what sounded like machine gun fire), and Rebecca go stuck in the entrance gate. We had to wait for the lady behind her to pay so the door would re-open. Pretty amazing so far. Then we see a train pull in just as we are approaching it, so we decide to go for it and leap on before the door shuts. We consider this a huge accomplishment.
After making it to the train station (2 hrs early) and not being able to figure out too much (how to reserve our next train ride, what to do with bags, etc), Mary and I fall asleep on the ground with our bags like homeless people. Napping turned out to be a good idea since we were not able to get a sleeper car for the trip. That’s right, we had 11 hours of sitting in no air conditioning ahead of us. I should have known how the train ride would be when a pigeon pooped on me just as I woke up from my nap on the floor. Score.
Eventually the train came, we tag teamed throwing our luggage into the car and found our tiny room, which we shared with 3 college aged sisters from ATL, so that was a relief! They go to see us at our best when Rebecca and I loaded the luggage onto the shelf above our heads. Let’s talk about no strength left and I’m the only one who can reach the shelf, and we shove Mary’s bag on its side and pray it doesn’t fly off to kill the ATL girls. We then get settled, get our sandwiches out and start chatting. The girls were nice and said that they were just passing through Berlin to catch another train to Munich. That would be two 12 hour train rides back to back. Shoot me in the face. So after we finished our sandwiches, the ATL girls took some Nyquil or something and went to sleep, so we went to the dining car to play cards (Phase 10, which Reba won of course!) On our way to the dining car, Rebecca found some “dirt” on the back of my shirt that I claimed was in no way related to the bird poop. After this, we get tired and decide it’s bed time. Mary heads to our seats, returns and tells us that ATL girls have taken over and there is no room for us. So we all curl up on the dining room car floor with the blankets we stole from the airplane. I fall asleep for a bit but then woke up nearly frozen to death, so I get up, see Rebecca sleeping on several chairs, and head back to my seat, where I find Mary has done the same thing. Now I know I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere, but sleeping at a 90 degree angle with feet everywhere in the cold just didn’t work. I soon see Rebecca sitting in the hallway outside the room. We were in hell.
Finally, the rooster crows (literally) and we approach the train station. Or so we thought. Apparently there are 4 train stations in Berlin and we had to pick the right one. So after a few minutes of fatigued map searching, we just say we’re going with the last one so we don’t have to move as fast. The ATL girls get off at the stop just before us, which we were thankful for because we didn’t want them to witness us trying to get our luggage off the train.
We wander off the train in a delirious state and go to the taxi stand, where we are greeted by the least enthusiastic taxi drivers in the world. There were tons of them lined up and we had to go knock on the window, interrupting the driver’s telephone conversation, to get her to take us to the hotel. Well when I say “we” I mean Mary and I sent Rebecca. We get to the hotel and it looks pretty scary in the front, so I’m internally panicking. Berlin isn’t as cutesy as Paris, by far. Anyway, we again send Rebecca in to get our room and 20 mins later she returns with wireless internet access, breakfast tokens, and room keys! It was amazing to be able to check in at 8:00 am.
The inside of the hotel is pretty cool. It’s like a huge dorm building, so it feels almost familiar. One side of it is a hostel our side is a hotel. Our room has 2 twin beds, a set of bunk beds, a table with 3 chairs, and a bath and a half, and a storage closet. It rocks. We unpacked a little so it almost looks like a dorm.
After what I think was the best shower of my life, we chilled for a little and then ventured out to figure out the Berlin subway system. We applied the same method that they use in Paris and it worked just fine. It was just a lot more difficult because German words are a lot harder to spell and remember, so we just had to make up our own phrases to remember where to go. Our stop is Heine, so yeah that one is obviously easy to remember.
We went to a huge department store called Ka De We, which is the abbreviation for the real name but that’s what people call it. This place has everything. We had our first experience with ordering German food in their buffet. It was pretty educational to be able to see the word and the food at the same time. I think we were all still half asleep, so we just picked out whatever. I had some soup, a salad with what seemed like a crab cake but wasn’t totally one, and a roll with olive butter. Good stuff. I wanted brats, sour kraut, or weinersnitzle, but decided to wait until I could enjoy it to get it.
After lunch, we looked around for some comfy shoes for Mary so she could survive the rest of the trip and Rebecca and I got yelled at on the toy floor for trying to take pictures of the puppets. Lame.
After KaDeWe, we walked a couple blocks to an old church that is nick named the broken tooth (since that’s what it looks like). It was bombed during WWII but most of it was preserved. During the rebuilding of Berlin, new church buildings were built on either side of it in a much more modern style. We watched some more street performers, this time they had older men with skateboards. We decided they were too old to be doing that. We then realized that we were about to fall asleep (at 4:30 PM), so we headed back home. On our way there, we realized that they number the trees on the sidewalk…every sidewalk. We didn’t make it back out that night and took a much needed long rest and geared up for the next day.
June 12, 2008
We woke up around 8:00, got some breakfast at the hotel (eggs, sausage, cereal, fruit, sandwich stuff, great coffee…good stuff), and headed back to the train station to reserve our upcoming trips. We didn’t want to get stuck without a sleeper car again. The Germans have been incredibly helpful and patient. I hate that we don’t know any more than hello, English, bratwurst, and thank you in German, but a lot of them speak some English so we are getting by.
From the train station, we took a Mercedes Smart Car cab to Gendarmenmarkt. The cab driver was trying to get us there in a hurry and was not trying to run up the fare, which was really nice. Also, here they have a traffic light that flashes before the light turns green so they know to rev their engines. Awesome. We get to our destination, which is a square with two churches (a German and a French) and a big theater. My camera battery died as soon as I turned it on this morning, so Rebecca’s blog has all the pictures, sorry!
After learning about how the French were allowed to build their church so they helped the Germans by building them a church next to it, we headed to Europe’s largest chocolate store. This place had chocolate sculptures of all kinds of things (a bear, a flowing volcano, the Titanic) and some great chocolate. With all that chocolate, I thought the Germans might have tooth problems, but then I saw a place right by the chocolate store called “White Smiles: dental care lounge”. Seemed perfect.
After getting some chocolate, we headed to the famous street you always see military parades take place on in Germany, Unden de Linges (under the limes, I think). It used to be lined with lime trees and reserved for pedestrians, but it is a pretty main drag in Berlin now. We went through the big gate and took a picture with a dude dressed like a statue. It was pretty surreal to walk under there and think about all the things that had happened there in the past.
We continued walking until we saw a doner kebabs stand on the street, and per a friend’s suggestion (thanks H. Layne!) we stopped for lunch. They were sandwiches on great bread with cheese, a flavored sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and the meat was shaved off of a big slab of it that was cooking on a rotating pillar! Amazing. After that, we were energized and ready to hit the German History Museum. 3.5 hours later, that energy had been sucked out of us by German history. They Germans like to fight. The end.
After that, I got to pick an activity, so we walked past the giant needle with the golfball on it (not really but that’s what it looks like) to see if we could make reservations but they were closed…so we proceeded to a beer garden (no it doesn’t grow on trees) for an authentic German evening of watching the football (soccer) game and having wieners and potatoes. Rebecca and Mary ordered “potato soup with a weiner” (swear to ya) and I had “two wieners, potato salad, and a salad”. Each dinner was 5 euros or less, which was much different than Paris! We then had a night cap/dessert at the oldest pub in Berlin where cool people like Napoleon and Gorbechov had been. It was a nice day, and we’ve got a doosy of a day planned for tomorrow!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Versailles Videos
Some ballet music was playing outside of Versailles so we made up a play.
Cast:
Rebecca - hunter
Melissa - prey
Harry Potter in the Gardens of Versailles.
Cast:
Rebecca - hunter
Melissa - prey
Harry Potter in the Gardens of Versailles.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The first day in the City of Lights...
(written June 7 12:43 AM)
Well we just finished up day 2 of touring Paris. Yesterday is a bit of a blur as we went for about 36 hrs without sleep. When we got off the plane, we met up with Melissa and our driver. Yep we were those cool people with drivers waiting for them at the airport. However, we asked for our sign that read: Ms. Smith, Ms. Doucette, Ms. Wright, Ms. Cleaveland" and he said "haha", folded it, and put it in his pocket. Hello France. Then we had a silent but nearly deadly ride to the hotel. Angie and Amanda would be good Parisien taxi drivers :) Don't look, just floor it! Mary grabbed on for dear life at one point. Also, he kept blaring horrible music. "Hey there Delilah...", sad French music, and techno. Yesssss. We got to the hotel and it is great. Two cute rooms, free breakfast, and an awesome concierge. Bathrooms are slightly confusing. Shower head points directly downward and there is no shower curtain, only half a non-closing glass door. Rebecca and Mary's bathroom overlooks the street, so they became very popular after the first morning.
We then went right out to sight see. First stop: Jardin de Luxembourg. Awesome square trees, statues, and a giant golden head we named Johnny Goldenhead. Lots of runners too, even at lunch time. We then got ambitious and went to Notre Dame. Amazing. We did meet up with some gypsies (shout out to L. Cook). They walk up to people in front of the church and ask you if you speak English and if you say yes, they show you a sob story on a piece of paper while their partner comes up behind you and tries to pick your pockets! We just walked away from them so we were golden. They call the area in front of Notre Dame the Square of Miracles because at sunset, all the "cripples" get up and go to the bar with the money they suckered out of people that day.
So anyway, we check out the inside of the cathedral and then go wait outside to go up to the top to "enjoy the view". About 15 mins later into the line, fatigue and delirium hits all of us and everything becomes funny. A Frenchman sat next to me on a bench and started talking to me. He told me he was a comedian and all this stuff and then he puts on a mask and stands behind Mary. Reba got a good picture of him. I find them everywhere...
We then go in to head to the top of ND. 422 steps (around a spiral staircase that only turns left, has occasional windows so you think you're almost done every few mins, and narrows as it goes) later and we are crippled, dying, and overlooking one of the coolest cities in the world. Gargoyles are all around us, as are about 40 kids from a school, but it rocks. We got some awesome pictures, and a small hatred of spiral staircases from those 422 steps (which I counted through step 4). We saw where Quasimodo hung out and figured out that the reason he was hunched over was that the door to his belltower was too short.
We then went to get a drink where the owner ran off a crazy man who was standing by us screaming something about freedom. Then we went to another church, St. Sulpice, which is the church in the Da Vinci Code where the crazy guy busts the hole in the floor at the rose line and kills the nun.
Then we were really delerious and decided to eat at the Hippopatamus Café. Along the way, we passed the Marco Polo Gardens and played Marco Polo. I called "fish out of water" and won, obviously. Hippo Café was pretty darn good, and I may have eaten hippo (jk...I hope). We then got back to the hotel around 8 PM, went to bed until 8 AM and started all over.
(more to come on day 2 I promise)
Video preface: While at the Arc de Triumph, Mary was having sleeve issues with her jacket so Melissa and I offered our assistance. After this video Mary shouted, "No more help!"
Friday, June 6, 2008
The hop across the pond
(written on the plane)
3:10 AM Paris time
I just used the bathroom on the plane and I think the man in front of me was trying to flush himself down the toilet to escape the in flight movie (Bucket List, ironically). Today has been good so far. An 18 wheeler's tire blew out as I passed it on the way to Reba's and I thought I'd been shot. When I got to Reba's, we blew a few bubbles on the dock of the pond. Some of them bounced so her mom took pictures. Then today we rode to ATL, checked in within 5 mins, found Mary, then got some lunch and drinks before moseying to security. We got through that without a hitch, hopped on the train, and begin walking to our gate. At this point, we're pretty proud of ourselves for taking our time and getting to our concourse a good 25 mins before takeoff. Then we hear: "Emily Doucette, Mary Wright, and Rebecca Smith report to their gate immediately. This is your final call. Your plane is ready for departure and your tickets are about to be cancelled." Quite a detailed message, I thought. So we take off running the 100 yards to the counter. I get there first as Rebecca's backpack is the size of her and Mary's 80lb bag has no wheels. We made it on the plane just fine and it left early! Cray Cray planes.
So we've been on the plane for about a year now. The first movie was Fool's Gold and for dinner I chose chicken surprise. Herman (the tiny stuffed elephant Rebecca brought) enjoyed dinner as we made him a swimming pool. Melissa flew from Minnesota and she said she was confused by the ticket Japanese ticket lady who checked her in to go to Paris. Our lady was German, so who knows where all our stuff will end up. Oh and Reba's bag weighed exqactly 50lbs...mine did too after I took out my boat shoes. So basically we are packing ninjas. Well it looks like ADD is kickin in now so I'm gonna nap before we get to Paris at 1:15 AM our time and 8:15 AM Paris time.
5 mins later...
Rebecca has hidden my blanket and pillow so I'm going to wiggle around continuously until she reveals them. She and Mary are asleep and enjoying their pillows and blankets in a mocking fashion. Damn. There is also a curtain that seperates us from 1st class and it is totally crooked and bothering me.
3:47 AM
Rebecca woke up and I asked her about the pillow/blanket and she denied it. We then searched our area and decided that either Herman took it or the people behind us did. Either way, I'm SOL. Also, there is an ash tray outside the bathroom. The same bathroom has all kinds of no smoking signs on it. Confusing. We're zipping over the Atlantic now, or as Mary put it, we're hurtling across the ocean in a tin can.
4:25 AM
Just watched an episode of Everbody Hates Chris and then they started playing music. What was the first song? "I'm not gonna write you a love song..." Mary and I played our pianos. Oh and we took Airborn earlier (the children's version that tastes better). It was like eating a packet of Crystal Lite for bottled water with a pre-taste of burp.
7:20 AM
Was woken by the flight attendant getting the breakfast cart caught on mu bookbag strap. We had to pick up the cart to free it. Then my shoe fell off while trying to get the bag out of the way. Amazing. Approaching Paris!!! Mary gave me some fruit nuggets.
8:09 AM
Mary: I don't like bananas unless they're in bread.
Rebecca: You mean like married to their cousin?
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