I had been looking forward to Copenhagen for about 2 years now, ever since I first learned anything about it. It is the only city we visited in Scandanavia, the region that I really really REALLY want to travel. They have the best design there and seem like really cool people. Unfortunately, Copenhagen turned out to be the most expensive city we've been to, including London. It was gorgeous there, though, and we had a view of the river through the window of our hostel.
One of my favorite things about the city was the biking there. I'm pretty sure there are more bikes than cars in Copenhagen and they have an awesome system worked out where the cars, bikes, and pedestrians each have a different level of paved surface so nobody has to worry about being mowed down by something bigger & faster than themselves. We went on a canal tour and saw the main sights of the city, and it was cold enough to wear jeans and a scarf! It really put me in the mood for a Cincinnati Fall.
One night we went to the Ice Bar, a bar where everything but the bottles is made out of ice. The bar itself, the walls, the seats, and the glasses are all solid ice, which makes for a pretty fun experience. At the door they give you a giant furry poncho, gloves, and boots so you dont freeze to death. The place is too expensive to do anything but just stand there, but we had a ton of fun anyway.
Another night we went to Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen's amusement park. That, too was too expensive to do anything, but we got to see the pretty lights at nighttime and it was fun just to walk around.
I loved Copenhagen... my one regret was that I forgot to try a Danish in Denmark : (
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Nowhere Near Berlin
Our next stop brought us to Berlin. As it turns out, Germany may be my overall favorite country that we've visited. I loved Munich, and Berlin was no disappointment. I had been gettng pretty used to the beautiful, centuries-old architecture of every single European city and I must say that in this respect Berlin was a breath of fresh air. Pretty much everything was leveled in the 1940's (in the case of the opera house, twice) for obvious reasons, so everything that wasn't rebuilt to look exactly the same as before is pretty modern and fun to look at.
Berlin is a history fan's dream. So much stuff went on there and you can still see the evidence of it. We went on a walking tour with a girl who graduated with a degree in history, so we got to hear some pretty good stories. We saw, among others, the Brandenburg Gate, a memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust (designed by Peter Eisenman, DAAP man), the site of Hitler's bunkers, the Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the square where the nazis burnt the books, and the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby over a balcony. One of my favorite things was the square where the books were burned. In the center of the square is an underground room with shelves enough to house the 2000-some books burned there. You can look down and see the empty shelves through a glass skylight, but the room is permanently sealed to represent the irrevocable event.
One of the days in Berlin we spent 8 HOURS at the zoo! It was a nice change of pace, and totally excusable because the Berlin zoo is supposed to be really well designed and stuff like that. I got to see Knut, the famous (not so) baby polar bear that has his own TV show and theme song in Germany. We watched the Emperor Penguins, my favorites, for about 20 minutes and got to see giraffes making new giraffes. One of the best parts of the day was when Megan thought that the red raccoons were hyenas. We still havent let her live that one down.
Berlin is a history fan's dream. So much stuff went on there and you can still see the evidence of it. We went on a walking tour with a girl who graduated with a degree in history, so we got to hear some pretty good stories. We saw, among others, the Brandenburg Gate, a memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust (designed by Peter Eisenman, DAAP man), the site of Hitler's bunkers, the Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the square where the nazis burnt the books, and the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby over a balcony. One of my favorite things was the square where the books were burned. In the center of the square is an underground room with shelves enough to house the 2000-some books burned there. You can look down and see the empty shelves through a glass skylight, but the room is permanently sealed to represent the irrevocable event.
One of the days in Berlin we spent 8 HOURS at the zoo! It was a nice change of pace, and totally excusable because the Berlin zoo is supposed to be really well designed and stuff like that. I got to see Knut, the famous (not so) baby polar bear that has his own TV show and theme song in Germany. We watched the Emperor Penguins, my favorites, for about 20 minutes and got to see giraffes making new giraffes. One of the best parts of the day was when Megan thought that the red raccoons were hyenas. We still havent let her live that one down.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Czech out Prague
Prague officialy ranks among my top 5 favorite Europen Cities (so far). It has a history worthy of history class and some of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. Our first day there we went on a free walknig tour, where we accidentally landed a tourguide who is legitimately famous with travelers, he is so good. His name is Issac and apparently through word of mouth he is the tourguide that people seek out. It was like a history lesson and a standup comedy act all rolled into one, and even if it wasn't free I still would have gone.
One of the coolest things we did was go up and see the Prague castle, where all sorts of political goings-on happened way back when. In fact, my favorite ever political event occurred there, the Defenestration of Prague. Basically the Protestants got mad at the Catholics and started throwing them out the windows of the castle, and this started the 30 Years War. Defenestrate is my favorite word, and that's the truth. You better believe that I got a picture next to the actual window, and Kristin is pretending to throw me out of it. It's pretty cool.
Another neat thing about Prague is that beer is, honestly, cheaper ounce for ounce than water. Maybe this is because Prague is so close to Pilsen, where pilsner comes from, but I still find it mind-boggling.
It wasnt all fun and games, though, and we were serious for some of the time. We had decided a while ago that we weren't going to go to any concentration camps over here because we heard that they are seriously just too awful. However, there is a concentration camp called Terezin just an hour outside of Prague and there is a Synagogue in the Jewish quarters of Prague that pays homage to its victims. We were told that the experience of the memorial is a more reflective and uplifting one than a concentration camp would provide, so we decided to go. Inside were the names of the thousands of Czech Jews who were murdered during WWII, all hand-painted alphabetically and by region on the walls (Madeline Albright found her grandparents here). From far away the words just looked like patterned wallpaper, and the effect was pretty powerful. While I was looking I found the name Ferencz (I'm a little Jewish?) with a birth to death date of 1910-1941. Upstairs the memorial turned into something totally unique. A little background: Terezin was one of the less awful concentraiton camps out there because nazis used it to document & show the media that life in the camps 'weren't so bad'. However, almost everyone who went through there ended up in Auschwitz. There had also been a baby boom in the area, so children in the camp outnumbered adults 7 to 1 or something like that. Understandably, the kids were battling depression although the adults in the Jewish community were doing their best to make life as normal as possible for them. A Jewish psychologist sat down with every single child in the camp and gave them markers, newspapers, and construction paper and asked them to draw exactly what it was in their mind that had them so ditressed. Amazingly, many of these drawings survived the war and they are on rotating display in the Synagogue. The subject matter ranged from traumatic events to images of home to Bible passages, but the effect was heartwrenching. Next to every drawing was the name and dates of the child artist, and almost every one died in the summer of 1944. It was so sad but the best war memorial I've seen so far (and there have been several). It was definitely one of the best experiences I've had over here. Sorry for ending on such a downer!
One of the coolest things we did was go up and see the Prague castle, where all sorts of political goings-on happened way back when. In fact, my favorite ever political event occurred there, the Defenestration of Prague. Basically the Protestants got mad at the Catholics and started throwing them out the windows of the castle, and this started the 30 Years War. Defenestrate is my favorite word, and that's the truth. You better believe that I got a picture next to the actual window, and Kristin is pretending to throw me out of it. It's pretty cool.
Another neat thing about Prague is that beer is, honestly, cheaper ounce for ounce than water. Maybe this is because Prague is so close to Pilsen, where pilsner comes from, but I still find it mind-boggling.
It wasnt all fun and games, though, and we were serious for some of the time. We had decided a while ago that we weren't going to go to any concentration camps over here because we heard that they are seriously just too awful. However, there is a concentration camp called Terezin just an hour outside of Prague and there is a Synagogue in the Jewish quarters of Prague that pays homage to its victims. We were told that the experience of the memorial is a more reflective and uplifting one than a concentration camp would provide, so we decided to go. Inside were the names of the thousands of Czech Jews who were murdered during WWII, all hand-painted alphabetically and by region on the walls (Madeline Albright found her grandparents here). From far away the words just looked like patterned wallpaper, and the effect was pretty powerful. While I was looking I found the name Ferencz (I'm a little Jewish?) with a birth to death date of 1910-1941. Upstairs the memorial turned into something totally unique. A little background: Terezin was one of the less awful concentraiton camps out there because nazis used it to document & show the media that life in the camps 'weren't so bad'. However, almost everyone who went through there ended up in Auschwitz. There had also been a baby boom in the area, so children in the camp outnumbered adults 7 to 1 or something like that. Understandably, the kids were battling depression although the adults in the Jewish community were doing their best to make life as normal as possible for them. A Jewish psychologist sat down with every single child in the camp and gave them markers, newspapers, and construction paper and asked them to draw exactly what it was in their mind that had them so ditressed. Amazingly, many of these drawings survived the war and they are on rotating display in the Synagogue. The subject matter ranged from traumatic events to images of home to Bible passages, but the effect was heartwrenching. Next to every drawing was the name and dates of the child artist, and almost every one died in the summer of 1944. It was so sad but the best war memorial I've seen so far (and there have been several). It was definitely one of the best experiences I've had over here. Sorry for ending on such a downer!
Budapest and Katie's Forefathers
Budapest was one of my favorite cities in awhile. Buda is on the hilly side of the river Danube (which is not blue) and Pest is on the opposite side, and the two were united at some point in time for some reason, and now they are Budapest. The city smells pretty gross but other than that it was amazing: the architecture is beautiful, there's a ton to occupy your time, and it is DIRT CHEAP. Compared to the rest of the places we're going. I'm pretty sure that the bank thought that I'd died or something because I didnt have to withdraw money every 7 hours.
We did all the touristy stuff there, the coolest of which was the Turkish Bath. We figured that because we cut out Istambul, we might as well try one out in Hungary, where they are extremely popular and you get to wear bathing suits. Basically at the one we went to there were a couple dozen small indoor pools meant for soaking in, all at different temperatures ranging from 'when do you add the vegetables and reduce to a simmer?' and 'colder than most of the drinking water they serve over here'. There are also saunas and steam rooms, and outside was a pool meant for swimming and two other warm ones. The indoor pools were fun to try out but a little nasty because they arent chlorinated and Europeans are dirty. The only empty one in the whole place was the really cold one, which we all crept into and then sat down in for a second, just to say that we did. I went into a steam room for the first time, which I do not recommend. It's hard to see, hard to breathe, and really kind of scary. The sauna was better, and just like in the movies.
The highlight of the city was when I realized that when I tell people that my heritage is 'Italian Polish Hungarian Ukranian Welsh', I should really just say 'Hungarian!' Yes, not only are the names 'Ferenc' and 'Ferencz' super common in Budapest, but someone named Joseph Ferencz was imoprtant enough in Hungarian history to have over 3 metro stops named after him as well as his name engraved really big on the Chain Bridge, Budapest's second most recognisable landmark (for those of you who do not know, my grandpa's late brother was named Joseph Ferencz... but I don't think that he was the Metro guy, mostly because Budapest has Europe's oldest metro system, built in 1895 or something like that).
The lowlight of the city was the trip out of it to Prague, where we boarded the wrong train, paid as much to cross the entire country of Slovakia as we did to go in a cab down two streets, rode a train that broke down for a grand total of 2+ hours, arrived in Prague at 2am and got to walk through the park that all the homeless people live in to get to a taxi. That's a good story if you ever get time to hear the whole thing.
We did all the touristy stuff there, the coolest of which was the Turkish Bath. We figured that because we cut out Istambul, we might as well try one out in Hungary, where they are extremely popular and you get to wear bathing suits. Basically at the one we went to there were a couple dozen small indoor pools meant for soaking in, all at different temperatures ranging from 'when do you add the vegetables and reduce to a simmer?' and 'colder than most of the drinking water they serve over here'. There are also saunas and steam rooms, and outside was a pool meant for swimming and two other warm ones. The indoor pools were fun to try out but a little nasty because they arent chlorinated and Europeans are dirty. The only empty one in the whole place was the really cold one, which we all crept into and then sat down in for a second, just to say that we did. I went into a steam room for the first time, which I do not recommend. It's hard to see, hard to breathe, and really kind of scary. The sauna was better, and just like in the movies.
The highlight of the city was when I realized that when I tell people that my heritage is 'Italian Polish Hungarian Ukranian Welsh', I should really just say 'Hungarian!' Yes, not only are the names 'Ferenc' and 'Ferencz' super common in Budapest, but someone named Joseph Ferencz was imoprtant enough in Hungarian history to have over 3 metro stops named after him as well as his name engraved really big on the Chain Bridge, Budapest's second most recognisable landmark (for those of you who do not know, my grandpa's late brother was named Joseph Ferencz... but I don't think that he was the Metro guy, mostly because Budapest has Europe's oldest metro system, built in 1895 or something like that).
The lowlight of the city was the trip out of it to Prague, where we boarded the wrong train, paid as much to cross the entire country of Slovakia as we did to go in a cab down two streets, rode a train that broke down for a grand total of 2+ hours, arrived in Prague at 2am and got to walk through the park that all the homeless people live in to get to a taxi. That's a good story if you ever get time to hear the whole thing.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Vienna is not in Australia
Vienna was clean. It had blue skies free of haze, beautiful puffy clouds, and was around 75-80 degrees farenheit. In short, it was a truly wonderful moment to walk off the plane from Athens, which was hazy, dirty, and hot. The city of classical music and Freud was beautiful. On our first venture out to see stuff, we were stopped in a popular tourist area by a man in period costume who was selling tickets to an orchestra event. Of course, because we were a group of 5 and are "beautiful ladies", the man offered us a good deal and we accepted because we all wanted to go see a concert. We spent the day walking around and sampled some of the coffee that Vienna is famous for, as well as some pretty delicious chocolate cake. This was probably the stupidest purchase I've made in Europe yet, as we were in a very touristy area and overpaid by A LOT. The cake and iced coffee together came to about 20 US dollars, which I've never even spent at Starbucks. We watched ourselves after that.
That night we arrived at the orchestra hall and went to takeour seats, which were not in the superb location that the period costume man had promised us. Nor was the hall as big as he'd claimed, or the performance on time. In short, we had walked right into a tourist trap. The music was lovely, but in between songs this guy came out and made stupid jokes, which brought the experience down a bit for us. We sat next to a French girl who had bought her tickets from the same guy we did, and she was up in arms about the somewhat misleading description he had given her as well. After the show she went and complained, which was pretty funny. We all had an okay time though, and Kristin spent the train ride back to the hostel doing ballet moves.
We tried coffee again the next day, this time at a place that was recommended to us and has been in Vienna for 200 years or something like that. It was the strongest coffee I've ever had, and I felt crazy for the better part of the day. It was a little expensive, but not nearly as bad as the chocolate cake place.
It probably sounds like Vienna sucked, but we actually really liked it. But if you ever go there, dont trust the men in the period costumes.
That night we arrived at the orchestra hall and went to takeour seats, which were not in the superb location that the period costume man had promised us. Nor was the hall as big as he'd claimed, or the performance on time. In short, we had walked right into a tourist trap. The music was lovely, but in between songs this guy came out and made stupid jokes, which brought the experience down a bit for us. We sat next to a French girl who had bought her tickets from the same guy we did, and she was up in arms about the somewhat misleading description he had given her as well. After the show she went and complained, which was pretty funny. We all had an okay time though, and Kristin spent the train ride back to the hostel doing ballet moves.
We tried coffee again the next day, this time at a place that was recommended to us and has been in Vienna for 200 years or something like that. It was the strongest coffee I've ever had, and I felt crazy for the better part of the day. It was a little expensive, but not nearly as bad as the chocolate cake place.
It probably sounds like Vienna sucked, but we actually really liked it. But if you ever go there, dont trust the men in the period costumes.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Santorini and the Worst Transportation in Europe
The group decided to take Istambul off the itinerary, and to make ourselves feel better about it we added a few days to the Greek Island portion of the trip (which was originally supposed to be a day trip). In Athens we booked a ferry trip to Santorini, and we spend most of our time in Athens getting excited to go to Santorini. We were all set to take the ferry in, arrive at 8pm, and go see what the island's nightlife had to offer, but the boat was 2 hours late to pick us up. We made friends with the lady next to us onthe ferry, and she was kind enough to translate for us when the crew announced that we wouldn't arrive in Santorini until 12:30am. Our resolve was only strengthened to go have fun, however, so when we arrived at our hostel at 1 in the moring we freshened up and then headed for Fira, Santorini's most popular town. It was the only time in my whole life that I stayed up past sunrise and wasn't doing homework.
The next day we had breakfast at noon and then spent some time on the black sand beach of Parissa, just a 5 minute walk from our hostel (which was all white and blue and had a swimming pool!). We walked up along the beach to see the restaurants and shops and found a place that offered scuba diving and snorkeling excursions, and decided to do some sorkeling the next day. I had never done it before and was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do it right (I remember hearing Heather's story), but it was actually really easy (sorry, Heather). There weren't any coral reefs or anything like that, but we saw some pretty fish and the water was so blue and so so clear. We got to go through some caves, too, but I thought of that scary movie where they go cave diving and then it was less pleasant.
On the way out to the snorkeling spots, the guides drove the boat really fast so that it was comparable to riding a jet ski. There was a family of four going on the excursion with us, and the mom fell off theboat on a particularly large bump. She was okay, butI think her daughter was traumatized for life and cried a lot, that was a downer. The rest of the trip went off without a hitch, though, and Megan even got to pee in the ocean.
True to Greek form, the ferry to go back to the mainland was late picking us up from Santorini. The island was beautiful and so fun, and we were sad to have to go back to Athens for the last day.
The next day we had breakfast at noon and then spent some time on the black sand beach of Parissa, just a 5 minute walk from our hostel (which was all white and blue and had a swimming pool!). We walked up along the beach to see the restaurants and shops and found a place that offered scuba diving and snorkeling excursions, and decided to do some sorkeling the next day. I had never done it before and was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do it right (I remember hearing Heather's story), but it was actually really easy (sorry, Heather). There weren't any coral reefs or anything like that, but we saw some pretty fish and the water was so blue and so so clear. We got to go through some caves, too, but I thought of that scary movie where they go cave diving and then it was less pleasant.
On the way out to the snorkeling spots, the guides drove the boat really fast so that it was comparable to riding a jet ski. There was a family of four going on the excursion with us, and the mom fell off theboat on a particularly large bump. She was okay, butI think her daughter was traumatized for life and cried a lot, that was a downer. The rest of the trip went off without a hitch, though, and Megan even got to pee in the ocean.
True to Greek form, the ferry to go back to the mainland was late picking us up from Santorini. The island was beautiful and so fun, and we were sad to have to go back to Athens for the last day.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Athens is Dirty
It really is. It was also hot and sweaty, under a lot of construction, smelled a lot like carbon emissions, and police walked around everywhere with machine guns. However, the Acropolis was way cooler than in the pictures we saw in Architectural history classes. The main temple was covered in scaffolding, although we've gotten used to this... At least one major building in every city we've been to has been under construction. It makes me wonder why they do that during tourist season. We take pictures anyway.
I'm in the middle of reading a book about Helen of Troy, so being in Greece was pretty fun for that reason. Other than that, it was actually a bit of a letdown simply because I was so eager to go there. It was the opposite of Paris, where I thought I wasn't going to like it but ended up loving it. The food was good, though, and we ate gyros for just about every meal, including breakfast. Baklava is better here, and I've become inspired to start eating yogurt with honey and nuts (yes, mom, I finally tried it).
I'm trying to catch up on posts, as we are traveling to Budapest today which means that I still have to do Santorini and Vienna, both of which I have a lot to talk about. With some luck, the Budapest hostel will have free internet and I can update there! Sorry for the lateness.
I'm in the middle of reading a book about Helen of Troy, so being in Greece was pretty fun for that reason. Other than that, it was actually a bit of a letdown simply because I was so eager to go there. It was the opposite of Paris, where I thought I wasn't going to like it but ended up loving it. The food was good, though, and we ate gyros for just about every meal, including breakfast. Baklava is better here, and I've become inspired to start eating yogurt with honey and nuts (yes, mom, I finally tried it).
I'm trying to catch up on posts, as we are traveling to Budapest today which means that I still have to do Santorini and Vienna, both of which I have a lot to talk about. With some luck, the Budapest hostel will have free internet and I can update there! Sorry for the lateness.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
When in Rome
Whenever I meet someone on this trip and get to talking about our travels, they inevitably ask me why I am traveling. The typical response is, "Well, I'm not taking any classes or anything over here, but I'm getting school credit for it". People are usually surprised and jealous, and I can't blame them. Nothing that I'm doing over here really seems like work. On that note, however, when I got to Rome I was surprised and very proud of myself for everything that I remember from my painfully boring architectural history classes. I found myself rattling off information about all the different ruins, and even remembered some dates of things. As it turns out, memorizing 700 buildings on flashcards does actually have its uses. But only really if you go to Rome.
The ruins here were incredible, although by the end of it I was pretty prepared to see some complete buildings, and maybe some grass. Rome is hot hot hot and sweaty, and not a lot grows there. The Italian food was the best I've ever eaten in my life, and I was sad to leave the pasta and gelato for Athens.
The ruins here were incredible, although by the end of it I was pretty prepared to see some complete buildings, and maybe some grass. Rome is hot hot hot and sweaty, and not a lot grows there. The Italian food was the best I've ever eaten in my life, and I was sad to leave the pasta and gelato for Athens.
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