As I mentioned in my last post our flight to London was delayed a couple times so the extra 11 euro we paid in order to have some time in London on Saturday wound up being for naught. We eventually got to the airport in London, from which we had to take a 40 minute bus ride and a 30 minute train ride to our hostel. Once we finally got to the street it took us a few minutes to find the hostel because you had to walk through the bar below it to get to the entrance. Even after figuring that part out, it took another few minutes to realize that we actually needed one of the bartenders to check us in using the same computer that they use to put the orders in. The whole process would probably have been easier had it not been for the 75-100 rabid soccer fans crowding the bar to watch the English national team play Kazakhstan in a world cup qualifier.
After finally navigating our way to the room to set our stuff down we made our way back to the bar to get something to eat. Apparently this particular bar had a Saturday wing special where 10 wings were 8 GBP, but 50 wings were only 15 GBP; I'll leave you to guess which we ordered.
Sunday morning we got up in time for the free breakfast at the hostel and (theoretically) for an 11:00 tour. We took a train and two subways to the spot where the tour was supposed to meet with two girls from the hostel, but by the time we got there it had either left or wasn't going at all that day. In any event, the four of us decided to just make our own tour which covering the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, Trafalgar square, a couple exhibits at the British Museum, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the tower of London and tower bridge. After a break short break we continued past the Globe theater to the London Eye, basically an overgrown ferris wheel, that, despite the unique views it offered, was the opposite of worth 17 GBP.
After the Eye we had the bright idea to eat dinner and go out in Soho, not realizing that the metro closed at 11:45. After a brief attempt to figure out the bus schedule we got into a cab. The cab would've been really cool had it not been a pretty expensive ride back to Greenwich, because it was one of the old style ones where the back seats faced one another.
We made it to the airport shortly before our flight began boarding, leaving just enough time for Ryan Air to rob us blind before boarding. Apparently Ryan Air isn't a real airline it just pretends to be, they require you to check in online and print your boarding pass online, or face a 40 GBP/person airport check in fee. That's a pain, but doesn't really seem like that big a deal, until their website locks you out and wn't let you check in online. You'd think that when it's their fault that you can't check in online they'd apologize and waive the airport check in fee; instead they charge you and give you a fax number to complain to, because apparently in England it is legal to rob people. @#$#% you Ryan Air.
When we landed in Madrid the aforementioned airline further demonstrated it's arrogance by playing a triumphant jingle and recording bragging that our flight was among the 90% of Ryan Air flights that arrived on time. That was immediately before they announced that we'd be waiting another 20 minutes for gate to open up. @#$#% you Ryan Air.
After checking into the hostel yesterday afternoon we retrieved Sean's extra bags from the train station, which was shockingly easy considering that he'd lost the ticket and left them in the locker well over the 15 day maximum. Later on we went to see Star Trek, which was thankfully in English with Spanish subtitles.
Tonight we're hoping to see a bullfight before heading home in the morning. My flight should be getting into RDU at 6:45, see you all soon.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Days 22-25- Munich
We got to Munich Wednesday afternoon with literally no idea where our hostel was located. As we were looking for an information booth at the train station, we conveniently found instead, an ad for the hostel indicating that it was less than a km down the street.
In addition to being just down the street from the train station our hostel was right across the street from the Augustiner Brewery/Beer Hall. We had dinner there shortly after checking into the hostel and I felt obligated to order the "Big XXL Bavarian Meat Plate" (no joke, that's what it was called on the English menu even though it was only one word on the German menu). Though maybe not a direct translation, the description was certainly appropriate, because about 10 minutes later I had three kinds of meat cooked six different ways all smothered in a "dark beer gravy" and it was excellent.
We got up the next morning hoping to take a free bike tour at 11:30. For the second time in Germany we just missed getting into the morning tour and were promised that we'd be able to catch the second round at 2:30. In the meantime we visited the famous Haufbrahaus, where a liter is the smallest beer available, and wandered through the Englischer Garten, complete with another Biergarten.
We got back to the tour starting point at 2:30, seeing as that's when it was supposed to start. It didn't actually start until 4:00, but that's ok, because it gave us more time to hang out outside a subway station. The tour, by the way, was not on conventional bicycles, as you might expect a bike tour to be; instead the tour was conducted on a four wheeled contraption with a steering wheel at the front, a bar in the middle, and fifteen seats around the bar, most with peddles beneath them. I think on the 3 hour tour we may have reached a top speed of 10 mph (while going downhill); I don't think the beers they kept handing us did anything to speed our pedaling. Apparently we got "lucky" to take the apparatus tour for free because the next day they were planning to start charging 20 euros for it. We had a lot of fun on this tour, but it was by far the least informative of any that I've ever been on; one of the guides, who was still in training, actually admitted that they made up certain aspects of it.
After the tour we went to a different hostel's bar, which sold beer for 1 euro during happy hour, with some other college students from the tour. We debated going out, but decided that we needed to be up too early the next morning to make it worth it.
We got up yesterday and took a two hour train and a thirty minute hike to Neuschwanstein (sp?), which supposedly inspired Walt Disney's design for Sleeping Beauty's castle and is apparently the most visited tourist attraction in Germany. He we got the polar opposite of Lenny's apparatus tour from Frau Finn, who led us through a very informative, but obviously scripted tour in the most monotone voice possible. The castle was somewhat interesting and there were some incredible views from the castle and the surrounding grounds. One interesting point from the tour was that the castle was never actually completed because King Ludwig mysteriously died one day after being deemed mentally incompetent to rule. You can kind of tell as you walk through the castle (which was built in the late 19th Ce) that he might have been a little bit off his rocker, because every room is decorated with huge murals depicting myths and legends; it all seemed a little over the top for the time period.
Once we finally got back to Munich, we an into our same friends from the apparatus tour at a restaurant between the train station and the hostel. We went with them back to the Augustiner Brewery, where I happened upon what was quite possibly the strangest drink I've ever been served. The menu was in German and identified it only as a "Russ'n", but I'm ninety percent certain that it was half white beer and half lemon soda. After leaving the Augustiner we made started to make our way to a club mentioned in one of the city guides, but wound up following two German guys to a different set of clubs. One of the guys had spent a year of high school in the US & seemed really excited to have someone to talk american football with.
This morning we got to the airport to find that our flight to London had been delayed, and then it wound up sitting on the tarmac for several more minutes waiting for some rain to clear. We finally got into London around two and then to our hotel about two hours after that. We'll be here until Monday morning and then we'll head back to Madrid. I'll try to make at least one more post before I fly home net Wednesday.
In addition to being just down the street from the train station our hostel was right across the street from the Augustiner Brewery/Beer Hall. We had dinner there shortly after checking into the hostel and I felt obligated to order the "Big XXL Bavarian Meat Plate" (no joke, that's what it was called on the English menu even though it was only one word on the German menu). Though maybe not a direct translation, the description was certainly appropriate, because about 10 minutes later I had three kinds of meat cooked six different ways all smothered in a "dark beer gravy" and it was excellent.
We got up the next morning hoping to take a free bike tour at 11:30. For the second time in Germany we just missed getting into the morning tour and were promised that we'd be able to catch the second round at 2:30. In the meantime we visited the famous Haufbrahaus, where a liter is the smallest beer available, and wandered through the Englischer Garten, complete with another Biergarten.
We got back to the tour starting point at 2:30, seeing as that's when it was supposed to start. It didn't actually start until 4:00, but that's ok, because it gave us more time to hang out outside a subway station. The tour, by the way, was not on conventional bicycles, as you might expect a bike tour to be; instead the tour was conducted on a four wheeled contraption with a steering wheel at the front, a bar in the middle, and fifteen seats around the bar, most with peddles beneath them. I think on the 3 hour tour we may have reached a top speed of 10 mph (while going downhill); I don't think the beers they kept handing us did anything to speed our pedaling. Apparently we got "lucky" to take the apparatus tour for free because the next day they were planning to start charging 20 euros for it. We had a lot of fun on this tour, but it was by far the least informative of any that I've ever been on; one of the guides, who was still in training, actually admitted that they made up certain aspects of it.
After the tour we went to a different hostel's bar, which sold beer for 1 euro during happy hour, with some other college students from the tour. We debated going out, but decided that we needed to be up too early the next morning to make it worth it.
We got up yesterday and took a two hour train and a thirty minute hike to Neuschwanstein (sp?), which supposedly inspired Walt Disney's design for Sleeping Beauty's castle and is apparently the most visited tourist attraction in Germany. He we got the polar opposite of Lenny's apparatus tour from Frau Finn, who led us through a very informative, but obviously scripted tour in the most monotone voice possible. The castle was somewhat interesting and there were some incredible views from the castle and the surrounding grounds. One interesting point from the tour was that the castle was never actually completed because King Ludwig mysteriously died one day after being deemed mentally incompetent to rule. You can kind of tell as you walk through the castle (which was built in the late 19th Ce) that he might have been a little bit off his rocker, because every room is decorated with huge murals depicting myths and legends; it all seemed a little over the top for the time period.
Once we finally got back to Munich, we an into our same friends from the apparatus tour at a restaurant between the train station and the hostel. We went with them back to the Augustiner Brewery, where I happened upon what was quite possibly the strangest drink I've ever been served. The menu was in German and identified it only as a "Russ'n", but I'm ninety percent certain that it was half white beer and half lemon soda. After leaving the Augustiner we made started to make our way to a club mentioned in one of the city guides, but wound up following two German guys to a different set of clubs. One of the guys had spent a year of high school in the US & seemed really excited to have someone to talk american football with.
This morning we got to the airport to find that our flight to London had been delayed, and then it wound up sitting on the tarmac for several more minutes waiting for some rain to clear. We finally got into London around two and then to our hotel about two hours after that. We'll be here until Monday morning and then we'll head back to Madrid. I'll try to make at least one more post before I fly home net Wednesday.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Days 19-22- Berlin
Well I guess it's been a couple days since I've posted. Last you heard we were on our way to Berlin for two nights, we wound up spending three nights there & now we're in Munich. We got on a bus a little after 8 this morning and got here shortly before 5. I'm sure you're all surprised after my last post that I would consent to bus travel again, but it was less than half the price of a train and a fourth of the cost of a flight, so 8 hour bus ride it is. It wasn't a bad ride at all, the bus was less than half full so we each had 2 seats to ourselves, and I guess Germans run a little bigger than Greeks or Spaniards, because there was actually an appropriate amount of legroom on this bus.
Now t recap the last few days, we got to Berlin Sunday night and really lucked out with our hostel. Not only did it have large rooms and air conditioning, but there was a huge festival going on Friday though Monday about two blocks from the front door. It was apparently the annual festival of cultures, so there were a couple music stages and hundreds of small stands selling food and drinks from around the world. We spent about two hours Sunday night just wandering around this festival; I got ripped off on some dried fruit and we had our first taste of German wursts and beer. A couple observations about the Germans, first, while they do deserve a good deal of credit for their brats, someone needs to start importing some hot dog buns, because serving a brat on a round roll makes about as much sense as rooting for Duke. Secondly, there is either an epidemic of kleptomania or some kind of push for recycling here, because you cannot buy any kind of drink without a deposit for the cup, glass, or plastic bttle that it comes in; and it's not the 10 cent deposit that Michigan puts on cans either, it is often as much as a Euro. After the festival I was, finally, able to do laundry for the first time this trip so I'm feeling much cleaner now.
Monday we slept in a little bit and tried to take a free walking tour at 1; unfortunately one of the guides didn't show and we got bumped to the 4 o'clock tour. That gave us a couple hours to wander around on our own. Berlin is by far the most spread out city we've visited on this trip, it's still walkable, because it's very flat, but it takes a while to get from one spot to the next. Before meeting back up with the tour group at four we stopped for lunch at a subway, which is notable only because it was the first place in Europe that I've seen a self service soda fountain (read free refills), it's rare enough to see one behind the counter.
The free tour (which really just means that you're expected to tip the guide rather than buy a ticket), was very interesting and informative. It covered, in about 3 hours, most of the history of Germany (which I was surprised to find out only really began in the 1870s). Surprisingly, the entire tour was in the former East Berlin, most of the major sites and memorials (which there are quite a few of) were East of the wall, or in between the two walls.
The tour began at the Brandenburg Gate, which incidentally was built in the 18th century as a symbol of victory. Funny story about this gate, there's a famous sculpture atop it, of a goddess pulled in a chariot by four horses. When the gate was built she was the goddess of peace and she looked straight ahead over the city, but at some point France stole the statue, it's unclear to me how, because I can't imagine the French taking anything by force. Eventually though, Germany got it back and when they did, the changed the goddess to be the goddess of victory and shifted her gaze to stare directly at the French Embassy. This was one of the highlights of the tour for me, because I'm always in the mood for a good joke about the French.
The next stop on our tour was the Reichstag, now the seat of the German Parliament. It was originally built to be the Seat of the Weimar (sp?) republic after WWI, but after Hitler burned it down and blamed the communists in order to gain power, it fell out of use. It was on the East side when Berlin was split, but since it was between the two walls, the soviets didn't bother to rebuild it. Like seemingly everything on our tour the reconstruction came only after a design contest to determine the best way to rebuild it. It really is a cool building, there is a glass dome with walkways going around it open to the public, directly above the parliament chamber. The idea is apparently to constantly remind the politicians who they work for, by placing the people above them.
From the Reichstag we made our way to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which was by far the most powerful of the memorials we saw. Sean and I had actually stumbled upon it by accident during the 3 hours we were waiting to start the tour, and interesting, our experience was exactly as our guide described its intention. First of all the monument is huge, there are apparently 2,711 cement blocks (each about 3' X 6', I'd say). The blocks are neatly arranged into rows and columns, but vary in height from 1' to at least 12'. When you get to the memorial, and you really can't help but get there eventually, because it's right in the middle of everything, there are no signs to tell you what it is, but it is painfully obvious that it has some significance. We wound up wandering through the memorial, until we found the entrance to the exhibit below, which is where we finally found out what it was. We didn't have time to walk through the exhibit until the next day, so I'll explain that more later.
Back to the tour, our guide explained that this memorial was very controversial, particularly in the choice of it's location. There was big push to build the memorial at one of the concentration camps (Sachsenhausen was about an hour north of Berlin, and there are trips and tours available). This spot, where the memorial was constructed, has no real relation to the holocaust, but our guide argued, and I'm inclined to agree, that even if you offer free trips to and from Saschsenhausen, people have to make a decision to go. This memorial, right in the middle of the city, forces you to confront the issue of the holocaust, whether you want to or not. It is a daily reminder for many Berliners, that walk, bike, or drive past it on their way to work, what can happen when power is concentrated in the wrong hands.
We moved on from the holocaust memorial, to a very different, and appropriately non-existent memorial. We stopped in a parking lot 50 meters above the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. There isn't so much as a plaque to commemorate him, and it isn't clear what happened to his remains so this parking lot is the closest thing there is to his final resting place. It's worth speaking here of the obvious struggle in Germany, to come to grips with this part of history. There is an obvious effort to acknowledge and memorialize these atrocities, by the German government, but they're also, understandably, hesitant to acknowledge the man who set them in motion. The Nazi party, is incidentally, still an actual political party in Germany, and there is a fear that any acknowledgment would turn into a neo-nazi shrine. On the other hand, the vast majority of Germans hate his memory, when the Madame Toussaud's was museum in Berlin built a Hitler exhibit, he was decapitated within two hours.
From the parking lot we moved on to cover several more memorials, including the site of the
Nazi book burnings and a memorial for the German soldiers, spanning multiple wars. I won't bore you with the details of all these memorials other than to describe the site of the book burnings, which i thought was really cool. The book burnings took place in a square between the library, an opera house, and the University, in the middle of this square there is a piece of glass that looks down into a room full of empty bookshelves.
The tour also took us, quickly, past checkpoint charlie. I didn't realize before this tour that there were actually two walls, both on the soviet side, so that if someone managed to get over the first wall, soviet snipers would be able to pick them off before they made it over the second one. They walls not only split the city down the middle, but also went all the way around West Berlin, about 100 miles, and their first incarnation, begun at 2 am, was completed in 57 hours.
Tuesday morning we got up relatively early, thinking that the Third Reich tour we wanted to take started at 11, it actually didn't start until 1. After realizing this, and some minor confusion about what time it actually was, we got a chance to visit the exhibit beneath the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. The exhibit began with a time line, describing the iterations that the Nazi Persecution went through prior to the final solution. The most powerful parts of the exhibit though, were the efforts to share the individual stories of many of the murdered Jews. One room had sections of the floor lit to display notes handwritten by men, women, and children in or on their way to concentration camps. Another was completely dark and quiet, except for a screen on each wall displaying the name of one of the victims and a narrator giving their brief personal history. The next room told the stories of families affected by the holocaust, showing family pictures, and describing the way the families were split up and most of them eventually killed. The last room was perhaps the most difficult to deal with, there were phones built into alcoves down one wall that you could pick up and listen to stories from holocaust survivors. I think that overall the exhibit and memorial were very well done and pretty appropriate, but it was difficult to walk through and think about, not at all enjoyable.
The Third Reich tour that we eventually took that afternoon was good, but it was a little repetitive from the "free" tour the day before. Last night we kind of went on the pub crawl organized by the same people who run the tours. I say kind of, because technically we never paid, but it was kind of their fault since the only person who could collect the money seemed to be on an hour long 10 minute break. We left before even getting to the last stop since we were planning to take the bus so early this morning. I didn't realize when we left how far we actually were from the hostel, but it took us almost an hour to walk back.
I think that about covers Berlin, we'll be in Munich for at least two nights, but we've yet to decide where we're going next. Any suggestions?
Now t recap the last few days, we got to Berlin Sunday night and really lucked out with our hostel. Not only did it have large rooms and air conditioning, but there was a huge festival going on Friday though Monday about two blocks from the front door. It was apparently the annual festival of cultures, so there were a couple music stages and hundreds of small stands selling food and drinks from around the world. We spent about two hours Sunday night just wandering around this festival; I got ripped off on some dried fruit and we had our first taste of German wursts and beer. A couple observations about the Germans, first, while they do deserve a good deal of credit for their brats, someone needs to start importing some hot dog buns, because serving a brat on a round roll makes about as much sense as rooting for Duke. Secondly, there is either an epidemic of kleptomania or some kind of push for recycling here, because you cannot buy any kind of drink without a deposit for the cup, glass, or plastic bttle that it comes in; and it's not the 10 cent deposit that Michigan puts on cans either, it is often as much as a Euro. After the festival I was, finally, able to do laundry for the first time this trip so I'm feeling much cleaner now.
Monday we slept in a little bit and tried to take a free walking tour at 1; unfortunately one of the guides didn't show and we got bumped to the 4 o'clock tour. That gave us a couple hours to wander around on our own. Berlin is by far the most spread out city we've visited on this trip, it's still walkable, because it's very flat, but it takes a while to get from one spot to the next. Before meeting back up with the tour group at four we stopped for lunch at a subway, which is notable only because it was the first place in Europe that I've seen a self service soda fountain (read free refills), it's rare enough to see one behind the counter.
The free tour (which really just means that you're expected to tip the guide rather than buy a ticket), was very interesting and informative. It covered, in about 3 hours, most of the history of Germany (which I was surprised to find out only really began in the 1870s). Surprisingly, the entire tour was in the former East Berlin, most of the major sites and memorials (which there are quite a few of) were East of the wall, or in between the two walls.
The tour began at the Brandenburg Gate, which incidentally was built in the 18th century as a symbol of victory. Funny story about this gate, there's a famous sculpture atop it, of a goddess pulled in a chariot by four horses. When the gate was built she was the goddess of peace and she looked straight ahead over the city, but at some point France stole the statue, it's unclear to me how, because I can't imagine the French taking anything by force. Eventually though, Germany got it back and when they did, the changed the goddess to be the goddess of victory and shifted her gaze to stare directly at the French Embassy. This was one of the highlights of the tour for me, because I'm always in the mood for a good joke about the French.
The next stop on our tour was the Reichstag, now the seat of the German Parliament. It was originally built to be the Seat of the Weimar (sp?) republic after WWI, but after Hitler burned it down and blamed the communists in order to gain power, it fell out of use. It was on the East side when Berlin was split, but since it was between the two walls, the soviets didn't bother to rebuild it. Like seemingly everything on our tour the reconstruction came only after a design contest to determine the best way to rebuild it. It really is a cool building, there is a glass dome with walkways going around it open to the public, directly above the parliament chamber. The idea is apparently to constantly remind the politicians who they work for, by placing the people above them.
From the Reichstag we made our way to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which was by far the most powerful of the memorials we saw. Sean and I had actually stumbled upon it by accident during the 3 hours we were waiting to start the tour, and interesting, our experience was exactly as our guide described its intention. First of all the monument is huge, there are apparently 2,711 cement blocks (each about 3' X 6', I'd say). The blocks are neatly arranged into rows and columns, but vary in height from 1' to at least 12'. When you get to the memorial, and you really can't help but get there eventually, because it's right in the middle of everything, there are no signs to tell you what it is, but it is painfully obvious that it has some significance. We wound up wandering through the memorial, until we found the entrance to the exhibit below, which is where we finally found out what it was. We didn't have time to walk through the exhibit until the next day, so I'll explain that more later.
Back to the tour, our guide explained that this memorial was very controversial, particularly in the choice of it's location. There was big push to build the memorial at one of the concentration camps (Sachsenhausen was about an hour north of Berlin, and there are trips and tours available). This spot, where the memorial was constructed, has no real relation to the holocaust, but our guide argued, and I'm inclined to agree, that even if you offer free trips to and from Saschsenhausen, people have to make a decision to go. This memorial, right in the middle of the city, forces you to confront the issue of the holocaust, whether you want to or not. It is a daily reminder for many Berliners, that walk, bike, or drive past it on their way to work, what can happen when power is concentrated in the wrong hands.
We moved on from the holocaust memorial, to a very different, and appropriately non-existent memorial. We stopped in a parking lot 50 meters above the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. There isn't so much as a plaque to commemorate him, and it isn't clear what happened to his remains so this parking lot is the closest thing there is to his final resting place. It's worth speaking here of the obvious struggle in Germany, to come to grips with this part of history. There is an obvious effort to acknowledge and memorialize these atrocities, by the German government, but they're also, understandably, hesitant to acknowledge the man who set them in motion. The Nazi party, is incidentally, still an actual political party in Germany, and there is a fear that any acknowledgment would turn into a neo-nazi shrine. On the other hand, the vast majority of Germans hate his memory, when the Madame Toussaud's was museum in Berlin built a Hitler exhibit, he was decapitated within two hours.
From the parking lot we moved on to cover several more memorials, including the site of the
Nazi book burnings and a memorial for the German soldiers, spanning multiple wars. I won't bore you with the details of all these memorials other than to describe the site of the book burnings, which i thought was really cool. The book burnings took place in a square between the library, an opera house, and the University, in the middle of this square there is a piece of glass that looks down into a room full of empty bookshelves.
The tour also took us, quickly, past checkpoint charlie. I didn't realize before this tour that there were actually two walls, both on the soviet side, so that if someone managed to get over the first wall, soviet snipers would be able to pick them off before they made it over the second one. They walls not only split the city down the middle, but also went all the way around West Berlin, about 100 miles, and their first incarnation, begun at 2 am, was completed in 57 hours.
Tuesday morning we got up relatively early, thinking that the Third Reich tour we wanted to take started at 11, it actually didn't start until 1. After realizing this, and some minor confusion about what time it actually was, we got a chance to visit the exhibit beneath the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. The exhibit began with a time line, describing the iterations that the Nazi Persecution went through prior to the final solution. The most powerful parts of the exhibit though, were the efforts to share the individual stories of many of the murdered Jews. One room had sections of the floor lit to display notes handwritten by men, women, and children in or on their way to concentration camps. Another was completely dark and quiet, except for a screen on each wall displaying the name of one of the victims and a narrator giving their brief personal history. The next room told the stories of families affected by the holocaust, showing family pictures, and describing the way the families were split up and most of them eventually killed. The last room was perhaps the most difficult to deal with, there were phones built into alcoves down one wall that you could pick up and listen to stories from holocaust survivors. I think that overall the exhibit and memorial were very well done and pretty appropriate, but it was difficult to walk through and think about, not at all enjoyable.
The Third Reich tour that we eventually took that afternoon was good, but it was a little repetitive from the "free" tour the day before. Last night we kind of went on the pub crawl organized by the same people who run the tours. I say kind of, because technically we never paid, but it was kind of their fault since the only person who could collect the money seemed to be on an hour long 10 minute break. We left before even getting to the last stop since we were planning to take the bus so early this morning. I didn't realize when we left how far we actually were from the hostel, but it took us almost an hour to walk back.
I think that about covers Berlin, we'll be in Munich for at least two nights, but we've yet to decide where we're going next. Any suggestions?
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Day 18 & 19- Back to Athens
I'm typing this post up in word on our flight from Athens to Berlin, where I obviously don't have internet access. So, if the tenses I use don't make sense anymore when I actually get internet access to post it, that's why.
When I last posted we were on the ferry back to Athens, we were able this time to take a metro directly from the port to a station near the hostel. And now begins my rant about this hostel:
We weren't sure when we were booking it online why the location had such low ratings, because on a map it looking pretty close to the center. What our map failed to highlight was that our hostel was, unfortunately, smack dab in the middle of Athens' red light district. Which made our walk home a little after midnight...I'm not sure if interesting, disturbing, or disconcerting is the right word here, take your pick I guess.
I mentioned booking it online, and i use the term booking loosely, because they didn't seem to be expecting us when we got there. Rather than being together in the 5 bed dorm that we "reserved" we were split into separate rooms, at least one of which, i discovered, did not have the advertised air conditioning.
We dealt with three different staff people during the approximately 18 hours that we were in Athens, exactly one of them was helpful. The guy working the desk last night directed us to the mall, via the metro for the closest movie theater, That would've been convenient had the metro not been closed for 5 stops forcing us to take to take a 45 minute, 80 degree bus ride until we could get back on the metro. Oh, and we passed at least one other movie theater while on said bus, so that whole bit about the mall being the closest one wasn't exactly accurate either.
The Mall in Athens, cleverly named "The Mall" was a whole other interesting experience. It was four stories tall and, even though all the stores were closed by the tie we got there at 10 pm, there was a fashion show going on outside and the restaurants and bars inside (which by the way included Hooters and Ruby Tuesday's) were all packed. We didn't actually wind up seeing a movie because the first one we could've gotten seats further back than the 3rd row (apparently European movie theaters assign seats?) would've ended after the metro stopped running.
When we got back to the hostel I decided to shower to cool off before attempting to sleep without a fan or air conditioning. I went back down to the desk to get a towel and unhelpful staff member #2 was kind enough to offer me a piece of terry cloth that would be much better suited to drying a dinner plate than a person my size.
I'll stop ranting now to say that, this morning we awoke to, finally, find a useful person sitting behind the front desk. She was able to accurately direct us to an atm, a restaurant, the national archaeological museum, and the airport with skipping a beat. The museum was fairly interesting, but i was a little disappointed by the mask of Agamemnon, supposedly the centerpiece of the whole place.
After seeing the museum we made our way to the airport via another hot and uncomfortable bus ride. On a side note I've decided during the course of this trip, that buses have got to be my absolute least favorite way to travel; they're always hot and apparently the people who design them are all 5'6" or shorter. In the Athens airport we got McDonald's for lunch, mainly because it was the only reasonably priced option, but it was a nice way to break the gyro and spanikopita diet that I've accidentally been on for the last week or so.
We'll be landing in Berlin about 7 pm and theoretically our hostel there offers a free walking tour that we'll be taking tomorrow (Monday I think). On Tuesday or Wednesday we're planning to find our way to Munich (hopefully not by bus) and from there we may hit one more city, not sure where yet, before heading back to Madrid.
When I last posted we were on the ferry back to Athens, we were able this time to take a metro directly from the port to a station near the hostel. And now begins my rant about this hostel:
We weren't sure when we were booking it online why the location had such low ratings, because on a map it looking pretty close to the center. What our map failed to highlight was that our hostel was, unfortunately, smack dab in the middle of Athens' red light district. Which made our walk home a little after midnight...I'm not sure if interesting, disturbing, or disconcerting is the right word here, take your pick I guess.
I mentioned booking it online, and i use the term booking loosely, because they didn't seem to be expecting us when we got there. Rather than being together in the 5 bed dorm that we "reserved" we were split into separate rooms, at least one of which, i discovered, did not have the advertised air conditioning.
We dealt with three different staff people during the approximately 18 hours that we were in Athens, exactly one of them was helpful. The guy working the desk last night directed us to the mall, via the metro for the closest movie theater, That would've been convenient had the metro not been closed for 5 stops forcing us to take to take a 45 minute, 80 degree bus ride until we could get back on the metro. Oh, and we passed at least one other movie theater while on said bus, so that whole bit about the mall being the closest one wasn't exactly accurate either.
The Mall in Athens, cleverly named "The Mall" was a whole other interesting experience. It was four stories tall and, even though all the stores were closed by the tie we got there at 10 pm, there was a fashion show going on outside and the restaurants and bars inside (which by the way included Hooters and Ruby Tuesday's) were all packed. We didn't actually wind up seeing a movie because the first one we could've gotten seats further back than the 3rd row (apparently European movie theaters assign seats?) would've ended after the metro stopped running.
When we got back to the hostel I decided to shower to cool off before attempting to sleep without a fan or air conditioning. I went back down to the desk to get a towel and unhelpful staff member #2 was kind enough to offer me a piece of terry cloth that would be much better suited to drying a dinner plate than a person my size.
I'll stop ranting now to say that, this morning we awoke to, finally, find a useful person sitting behind the front desk. She was able to accurately direct us to an atm, a restaurant, the national archaeological museum, and the airport with skipping a beat. The museum was fairly interesting, but i was a little disappointed by the mask of Agamemnon, supposedly the centerpiece of the whole place.
After seeing the museum we made our way to the airport via another hot and uncomfortable bus ride. On a side note I've decided during the course of this trip, that buses have got to be my absolute least favorite way to travel; they're always hot and apparently the people who design them are all 5'6" or shorter. In the Athens airport we got McDonald's for lunch, mainly because it was the only reasonably priced option, but it was a nice way to break the gyro and spanikopita diet that I've accidentally been on for the last week or so.
We'll be landing in Berlin about 7 pm and theoretically our hostel there offers a free walking tour that we'll be taking tomorrow (Monday I think). On Tuesday or Wednesday we're planning to find our way to Munich (hopefully not by bus) and from there we may hit one more city, not sure where yet, before heading back to Madrid.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Days 17 & 18- Mykonos
Apparently Mykonos is the Greek word for expensive, just about everything here costs significantly more than anywhere else we've been. We got here yesterday afternoon after a quick, but very bumpy, ferry ride from Paros. After choosing a hotel from the many sign toting promoters who greeted us at the port we took a bus down to one of the beaches.
We thought about renting the bikes for an extra day and getting there that way, but ultimately decided that we didn't want to pass up the opportunity to walk into the bus station and ask for 2 tickets to paradise (beach). We spent the rest of the afternoon there, near a beach front club where the DJ was constantly begging beachgoers, in very broken English to come to the stage. On our way to the beach the bus seemed to be serving the purpose of a school bus, dropping off several elementary and middle school aged kids along the way. By the time we caught a bus back into town it had turned into the Greek version of the P2P (that's the late night bus that shuttles students from campus to Franklin St for those of you that have not had the privilege of attending UNC).
We ate a relatively late dinner and then had time to watch several episodes of the office before heading out last night, apparently no one here goes out until at least midnight.
This morning... well, technically it was afternoon, we got up and rented bikes to get around the island for the day. Our first stop, which we accidentally got to by taking a wrong turn, was Psarou (sp?) beach, which was by far the most crowded beach we'd been to until that point. We spent a little bit of time swimming there, but opted not to pay 4 euro for a beach chair. From Psarou we went to Super Paradise beach, which turned out to be much more like a dance club with a sandy floor than it was like a beach. There was a packed club right on the beach and even more people than Psarou taking up just about every square foot of sand. Again we just swam for a little while before heading out.
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the island (often on roads that were about as wide as cart paths and sometimes almost as steep as Rialto St). We stopped at a few more beaches, but they were all but deserted by the time we got to them.
We got back to town in time to eat dinner and now we're obviously in an internet cafe. Hopefully from here on we'll be able to find hostels/hotels with internet access more easily. Tomorrow afternoon we're heading back to Athens and then Sunday we'll (hopefully) be flying to Germany.
We thought about renting the bikes for an extra day and getting there that way, but ultimately decided that we didn't want to pass up the opportunity to walk into the bus station and ask for 2 tickets to paradise (beach). We spent the rest of the afternoon there, near a beach front club where the DJ was constantly begging beachgoers, in very broken English to come to the stage. On our way to the beach the bus seemed to be serving the purpose of a school bus, dropping off several elementary and middle school aged kids along the way. By the time we caught a bus back into town it had turned into the Greek version of the P2P (that's the late night bus that shuttles students from campus to Franklin St for those of you that have not had the privilege of attending UNC).
We ate a relatively late dinner and then had time to watch several episodes of the office before heading out last night, apparently no one here goes out until at least midnight.
This morning... well, technically it was afternoon, we got up and rented bikes to get around the island for the day. Our first stop, which we accidentally got to by taking a wrong turn, was Psarou (sp?) beach, which was by far the most crowded beach we'd been to until that point. We spent a little bit of time swimming there, but opted not to pay 4 euro for a beach chair. From Psarou we went to Super Paradise beach, which turned out to be much more like a dance club with a sandy floor than it was like a beach. There was a packed club right on the beach and even more people than Psarou taking up just about every square foot of sand. Again we just swam for a little while before heading out.
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the island (often on roads that were about as wide as cart paths and sometimes almost as steep as Rialto St). We stopped at a few more beaches, but they were all but deserted by the time we got to them.
We got back to town in time to eat dinner and now we're obviously in an internet cafe. Hopefully from here on we'll be able to find hostels/hotels with internet access more easily. Tomorrow afternoon we're heading back to Athens and then Sunday we'll (hopefully) be flying to Germany.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Days 15 & 16- Paros
Does typing "Days 15 & 16" mean that this trip is halfway over already? Here's to hoping I've miscounted. I do miss a lot of things and people back home and I'm looking forward to the last summer I'll have back at home, but I'm having a great time here.
We made our way from Santorini to Paros yesterday afternoon, but didn't do much other than get dinner and walk around a little bit last night.
Mom, STOP READING HERE and skip the next paragraph.
This morning I made a brief, mostly unsuccessful, attempt to ride a scooter, before eventually deciding that I'd feel a lot safer on an ATV for the 25 km ride to Golden Beach. I'm sure I could have gotten the hang of the scooter eventually, but I decided that a 25 km adventure wasn't really the time to find out.
Mom, START READING AGAIN HERE.
When we went to rent the ATVs this morning I discovered that I would need my driver's license, not just my passport, which is the opposite of what the hotel told me when they kept my license as collateral. So I had to call the hotel owner's cell phone, since there's no front desk, and eventually got the license back to proceed with the day.
Once we'd made it through that ordeal, we spent the rest of the day riding around the island. We stopped at three different beaches and a little shop/restaurant where it took all three employees, none of whom spoke English, about 20 minutes to make two sandwiches; they were pretty good for 2 euro though.
On our way back to the main town we took a back way, so that we could see a Mycenaean Acropolis, but went past it once we realized that we'd have to hike uphill for about a km to get to it. We continued to follow the back road, hoping it would eventually put us onto a main road... When it became a one way street we took a right turn down an alley which, conveniently, spit us out about 100m from our hotel.
We went back and cleaned up a bit before stopping off at the internet cafe where we are now. We're leaving here in a few minutes to grab dinner and then we'll probably go out for a little.
We leave Paros tomorrow morning to head to Mykonos.
P.S. Feel free to comment on here to let me know how everything is going back home
We made our way from Santorini to Paros yesterday afternoon, but didn't do much other than get dinner and walk around a little bit last night.
Mom, STOP READING HERE and skip the next paragraph.
This morning I made a brief, mostly unsuccessful, attempt to ride a scooter, before eventually deciding that I'd feel a lot safer on an ATV for the 25 km ride to Golden Beach. I'm sure I could have gotten the hang of the scooter eventually, but I decided that a 25 km adventure wasn't really the time to find out.
Mom, START READING AGAIN HERE.
When we went to rent the ATVs this morning I discovered that I would need my driver's license, not just my passport, which is the opposite of what the hotel told me when they kept my license as collateral. So I had to call the hotel owner's cell phone, since there's no front desk, and eventually got the license back to proceed with the day.
Once we'd made it through that ordeal, we spent the rest of the day riding around the island. We stopped at three different beaches and a little shop/restaurant where it took all three employees, none of whom spoke English, about 20 minutes to make two sandwiches; they were pretty good for 2 euro though.
On our way back to the main town we took a back way, so that we could see a Mycenaean Acropolis, but went past it once we realized that we'd have to hike uphill for about a km to get to it. We continued to follow the back road, hoping it would eventually put us onto a main road... When it became a one way street we took a right turn down an alley which, conveniently, spit us out about 100m from our hotel.
We went back and cleaned up a bit before stopping off at the internet cafe where we are now. We're leaving here in a few minutes to grab dinner and then we'll probably go out for a little.
We leave Paros tomorrow morning to head to Mykonos.
P.S. Feel free to comment on here to let me know how everything is going back home
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Days 13 & 14- Santorini
We left Athens early Sunday morning for a 7 hour ferry ride to Santorini. Luckily we were able to watch a couple movies during the trip to make the time pass a little faster.
It seems we picked the right time to visit the Greek isles, apparently their busy season doesn't start until next month so we haven't had to deal with any crowds or exorbitant prices in Santorini. Yesterday, Monday, we were planning to rent 4 wheelers to get around the island but instead got talked into renting a Suzuki Jimmy for only 20 Euros, the ATVs were going to cost 15 each. The car worked out really well for getting around the island, I would've been pretty hesitant to take a four wheeler down some of the roads we were on yesterday.
We went to three different beaches yesterday afternoon, Kamari, Perissa and the Red Beach. I thought that the fact that all three were pebble beaches would be nice, because i don't really like sand, but i was quickly proven wrong. The black pebbles were too hot to walk barefoot on, but if you wore flip flops your foot would sink in and they'd get stuck between your sandal and foot, ouch.
The red beach was an adventure unto itself. We parked in the designated lot assuming that the beach would be right around the corner. In a way it was, right around the corner on the other side of the cliff. So after about a ten minute hike we were able to swim for a little bit, before hiking back to the car.
We drove to the opposite end of the island to the small village of Ia, which is supposedly the most beautiful place in Greece to watch the sunset. I can't tell you whether or not that's true, because about an hour before it would have set the sun disappeared behind the first cloud I've seen since we got to Greece.
After almost watching the sunset we drove back to the main town where our hotel is, a got a late dinner. We tried once again to go out, here we found the one downside to coming before the busy season, all of the bars and clubs are empty.
This afternoon we'll be getting back on the ferry to head to Paros for two nights.
It seems we picked the right time to visit the Greek isles, apparently their busy season doesn't start until next month so we haven't had to deal with any crowds or exorbitant prices in Santorini. Yesterday, Monday, we were planning to rent 4 wheelers to get around the island but instead got talked into renting a Suzuki Jimmy for only 20 Euros, the ATVs were going to cost 15 each. The car worked out really well for getting around the island, I would've been pretty hesitant to take a four wheeler down some of the roads we were on yesterday.
We went to three different beaches yesterday afternoon, Kamari, Perissa and the Red Beach. I thought that the fact that all three were pebble beaches would be nice, because i don't really like sand, but i was quickly proven wrong. The black pebbles were too hot to walk barefoot on, but if you wore flip flops your foot would sink in and they'd get stuck between your sandal and foot, ouch.
The red beach was an adventure unto itself. We parked in the designated lot assuming that the beach would be right around the corner. In a way it was, right around the corner on the other side of the cliff. So after about a ten minute hike we were able to swim for a little bit, before hiking back to the car.
We drove to the opposite end of the island to the small village of Ia, which is supposedly the most beautiful place in Greece to watch the sunset. I can't tell you whether or not that's true, because about an hour before it would have set the sun disappeared behind the first cloud I've seen since we got to Greece.
After almost watching the sunset we drove back to the main town where our hotel is, a got a late dinner. We tried once again to go out, here we found the one downside to coming before the busy season, all of the bars and clubs are empty.
This afternoon we'll be getting back on the ferry to head to Paros for two nights.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Day 12- Athens
We woke up pretty early for our tour, which was supposed to leave at 9:15, but apparently our guide was operating on what's known as GMT (that stands for Greek Maybe Time here in Athens, not Greenwich Mean Time like it does everywhere else), so we didn't actually leave until about 10:15. Once it got going the tour was really worthwhile; it covered both the Roman and the Greek Agoras, the Acropolis, Hadrien's Arch and Hadrien's Library, the Temple of Zeus as well as the more modern sites, the Olympic stadium, the president's house and the Parliament. Essentially, we were able to hit every major site in Athens except for the archaeological museum in a span of about 6 hours.
After the tour we went to a Travel agent to book ferry tickets for the rest of the week. I an now tell you that we'll be heading to Santorini early tomorrow for two nights, then we'll go to Paros and Mykonos for another two nights each. After Mykonos we'll come back to Athens to catch a flight to our next destination. Right now it looks that will be somewhere in Germany, most likely Berlin or Munich.
After the tour we went to a Travel agent to book ferry tickets for the rest of the week. I an now tell you that we'll be heading to Santorini early tomorrow for two nights, then we'll go to Paros and Mykonos for another two nights each. After Mykonos we'll come back to Athens to catch a flight to our next destination. Right now it looks that will be somewhere in Germany, most likely Berlin or Munich.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Day 11- Rome to Athens
We had much better luck making it to the airport on time for our flight to Athens this morning than we did for our flight to Rome a couple days ago, but unfortunately the ground crew and the airport was not so efficient. We sat in the plane for almost an hour before being cleared for take off, but we did make up a little bit of time in the air. Once we landed we ad a little adventure on the train to get to our hostel, this is the only place we've been that doesn't even use the same alphabet.
After checking in we went to the bar downstairs for our “welcome drink” which was, as i feared, ouzo (a really gross licorice flavored alcohol that is, for reasons i don't understand, quite popular in Greece). While we wear sitting at the bar i made the mistake of volunteering the fact that i spoke some French, which made me the perfect person to translate for an Italian man at the front desk. So i spent the next 20 minutes trying to explain to him that the hostel hadn't charged his card yet for the room, and that he had only paid a deposit. Once I was free of translating duties, we had a great dinner about 30 yards from our front door, 1,60 for a gyro! Unfortunately we have yet to find hummus, despite checking four different grocery stores.
I think we'll go out for a little while tonight, and tomorrow we're planning to take a walking tour of the city. We'll probably head out of Athens to one of the Greek isles, maybe Mykonos? tomorrow evening or Sunday morning, one we figure out the ferry schedule.
After checking in we went to the bar downstairs for our “welcome drink” which was, as i feared, ouzo (a really gross licorice flavored alcohol that is, for reasons i don't understand, quite popular in Greece). While we wear sitting at the bar i made the mistake of volunteering the fact that i spoke some French, which made me the perfect person to translate for an Italian man at the front desk. So i spent the next 20 minutes trying to explain to him that the hostel hadn't charged his card yet for the room, and that he had only paid a deposit. Once I was free of translating duties, we had a great dinner about 30 yards from our front door, 1,60 for a gyro! Unfortunately we have yet to find hummus, despite checking four different grocery stores.
I think we'll go out for a little while tonight, and tomorrow we're planning to take a walking tour of the city. We'll probably head out of Athens to one of the Greek isles, maybe Mykonos? tomorrow evening or Sunday morning, one we figure out the ferry schedule.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Day 10- Rome
Trying to cram all of the Roman sites into one day was a challenge to say the least, that was (unfortunately) made easier by the fact that the Vatican museum was closed today due to an obscure catholic holiday that no one seems to know much about. We got all the way to Vatican city this morning before we realized that minor detail, but we were still able to tour St. Peter's Basilica and the Tomb of the Popes.
On our way from the Vatican to the Colosseum we stopped for lunch in a little side street restaurant and saw the Roman Pantheon. We eventually made it to the Colosseum, where we got haggled into a tour that covered both the Colosseum and Palentine Hill for 7 Euro.
Aldo, our tour guide at the Colosseum, was quite the character. He had very white hair, a tan that he's obviously been working on for about 40 years straight and he wore a bright pink shirt with a speaker strapped to his stomach so that he didn't really have to project his voice. There seemed to be very little actual fact during his incredibly long winded monologues, which consisted primarily of him closing his eyes and recounting what he imagined the gladiator battles to be. It was also pretty clear that English was not his first language so he would repeat a lot of phrases like “the gladiators were all big strong men, like Hercules.” He would also get stuck on certain ideas and repeat them in about 8 slightly different ways; for example he wanted to make it abundantly clear that gladiators could become very popular “after they won a few fights they might develop some fans... the more fights they won, the bigger their following would be...a gladiator who had won 8 fights might have more than half the stadium cheering for him... they were like today's movie stars...etc.” After about 5 minutes of Aldo monologuing on this topic, Sean turned to me and asked sarcastically, “hey Steve, do you think gladiators could be famous?”
Our second tour guide Jill, who led us through Palentine Hill and the Forum, was also interesting in her own way. She seemed much more knowledgeable and didn't have quite as many idiosyncrasies as Aldo, but I'm also pretty sure she took her caffeine trough an IV prior to the tour.
After Palentine Hill we walked through the Forum, then made our way to the Fountain of Trevi and the Spanish Hotel. Dinner tonight had its own little fun story, Sean and i each got an 8 euro pizza, a diet coke, and we split a large bottle of water. Needless to say we were a little surprised at the 32 euro bill, apparently at this particular restaurant sodas (which do not include refills) cost 8 euro and there's a 4 euro cover charge, @#%$%.
Tomorrow we fly to Athens and from there we'll probably take ferries out to one or two of the Greek isles.
On our way from the Vatican to the Colosseum we stopped for lunch in a little side street restaurant and saw the Roman Pantheon. We eventually made it to the Colosseum, where we got haggled into a tour that covered both the Colosseum and Palentine Hill for 7 Euro.
Aldo, our tour guide at the Colosseum, was quite the character. He had very white hair, a tan that he's obviously been working on for about 40 years straight and he wore a bright pink shirt with a speaker strapped to his stomach so that he didn't really have to project his voice. There seemed to be very little actual fact during his incredibly long winded monologues, which consisted primarily of him closing his eyes and recounting what he imagined the gladiator battles to be. It was also pretty clear that English was not his first language so he would repeat a lot of phrases like “the gladiators were all big strong men, like Hercules.” He would also get stuck on certain ideas and repeat them in about 8 slightly different ways; for example he wanted to make it abundantly clear that gladiators could become very popular “after they won a few fights they might develop some fans... the more fights they won, the bigger their following would be...a gladiator who had won 8 fights might have more than half the stadium cheering for him... they were like today's movie stars...etc.” After about 5 minutes of Aldo monologuing on this topic, Sean turned to me and asked sarcastically, “hey Steve, do you think gladiators could be famous?”
Our second tour guide Jill, who led us through Palentine Hill and the Forum, was also interesting in her own way. She seemed much more knowledgeable and didn't have quite as many idiosyncrasies as Aldo, but I'm also pretty sure she took her caffeine trough an IV prior to the tour.
After Palentine Hill we walked through the Forum, then made our way to the Fountain of Trevi and the Spanish Hotel. Dinner tonight had its own little fun story, Sean and i each got an 8 euro pizza, a diet coke, and we split a large bottle of water. Needless to say we were a little surprised at the 32 euro bill, apparently at this particular restaurant sodas (which do not include refills) cost 8 euro and there's a 4 euro cover charge, @#%$%.
Tomorrow we fly to Athens and from there we'll probably take ferries out to one or two of the Greek isles.
Day 8 & 9- Back to Madrid and on to Rome (eventually)
I think I mentioned in my last post that since our flight to Rome left at 7 am, we weren't planning to rent a hostel in Madrid Tuesday night. Unfortunately that plan came back to bite us a little bit. We got into Madrid around 5 or 6, stopped off at Kaitlin's apartment/hotel to store our bags for the evening, then went out to grab a snack, store some of our Moroccan souvenirs in Sean's bus locker and meet back with a few people for dinner at 9.
After dinner the plan was just to bar hop until 3:30 or 4, then catch a cab to the airport. Unfortunately Sean wasn't feeling too well, so we went back to crash at Kaitlin's apartment for a couple hours, setting an alarm on Sean's phone, so that we could get up in time to head to the airport. That phone, however, seemed to think that we were still on Moroccan time (2 hours behind Madrid), so when we got to the airport at "5:30 am" it was actually 7:30 and we had just missed our flight to Rome. Luckily AirEuropa was nice enough to refund that ticket and give us a new one on a later flight for about 30 euro more.
So we napped in the Madrid airport for a while, before eventually getting on a plane to Rome. From the Rome airport we took at train to within a km of our hotel, which is by far the nicest we've stayed in so far. After checking in we showered and went out to dinner, but it was too late to really do much else. This morning we are planning to head to the Vatican and then we can hopefully get to the Colosseum and the Forum this afternoon. Hopefully, I can elaborate on those sites this evening.
After dinner the plan was just to bar hop until 3:30 or 4, then catch a cab to the airport. Unfortunately Sean wasn't feeling too well, so we went back to crash at Kaitlin's apartment for a couple hours, setting an alarm on Sean's phone, so that we could get up in time to head to the airport. That phone, however, seemed to think that we were still on Moroccan time (2 hours behind Madrid), so when we got to the airport at "5:30 am" it was actually 7:30 and we had just missed our flight to Rome. Luckily AirEuropa was nice enough to refund that ticket and give us a new one on a later flight for about 30 euro more.
So we napped in the Madrid airport for a while, before eventually getting on a plane to Rome. From the Rome airport we took at train to within a km of our hotel, which is by far the nicest we've stayed in so far. After checking in we showered and went out to dinner, but it was too late to really do much else. This morning we are planning to head to the Vatican and then we can hopefully get to the Colosseum and the Forum this afternoon. Hopefully, I can elaborate on those sites this evening.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Day 6 & 7- Marrakesh
Let's see, when I last posted we had just arrived at our hostel in Marrakesh and were planning to spend the afternoon exploring the city. We left the hostel shortly after I posted and went out to find some lunch. As we made our way through the main square Kaitlin was quickly grabbed by one of the Henna artists who drew all over her hand “as a gift,” but was quite offended when we didn't want to pay 150 Durham (about 15 Euro) for her 45 seconds of work.
We finally found a restaurant, slightly off of the square, where we got a three course meal for 65 Dh (by the way, I think it's pretty fitting that a currency called Durham isn't worth much). After lunch we wandered and eventually had to enlist a 12 year old guide to take us to the Marrakesh Museum which was right next to an old school and aqueduct. After touring all three we gradually worked our way back to the main market where we did a little bit of shopping.
We got back to the hostel around 7 to shower and change before dinner at 8, but upon finding out that the hostel was going to charge us 100 Dh for a bottle of wine, Sean and I decided to go get our own. Unfortunately, there is only one store in Marrakesh that sells alcohol, and it is about a 15 minute cab adventure from the main square. The roads in Marrakesh are used by everything from bicycles to mopeds to cabs to horse carriages, and at one point we drove in between a truck and a carriage... on a two lane road.
Eventually we made it back to the hostel for 'Tagine' with our hostel host Mousaffa. The dish is prepared in a uniquely shaped clay pot an contains a collection of meat, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots as well as several other vegetables and spices and it is eaten from the pot with bread, not from individual plates with utensils. We ate on the roof (and were apparently the first group ever to do so at this hostel) end then spent the rest of the evening there as well.
Right before we went to bed last night we found out that our day trip for today had been canceled since we were the only three to book it, so Monday morning we slept in bit and then went to a nearby bakery for breakfast. After breakfast we came back to the hostel and Mousaffa gave us some suggestions for the rest of the day. Before lunch we went to the Menara, a large pool that exists for I'm not sure what reason, but you can buy bread to feed the fish in it. On our way back to the square for lunch we took a 30 minute camel ride, which we bartered down to 100 Dh each. After the camel ride we found a literal 'hole-in-the-wall' restaurant with no menu, where 25 Dh per person bought a quarter chicken with rice, fries, and bread.
We spent an hour or so back at the hostel after lunch to get out of the heat, then took a cab to la Jardin Majorelle, which Mousaffa told us was one of the most beautiful gardens in all of Africa. The garden was the work of Jaques Majorelle, a French artist who spent much of his life in Morocco. There were plants representing 5 continents along with an overpriced cafe and art museum.
From the garden we took another cab adventure to the grocery store were we bought bread, goat cheese and lunch meat to eat dinner on the roof again. After dinner we went briefly back to the square to take some pictures and I finally found what was apparently the only shop in Morocco with an XL Soccer Jersey.
Tuesday we're flying back to Madrid and then on to Rome because it was cheaper to do that than fly straight to Rome. But since our flight to Rome leaves at 7 am and Spanish bars stay open well past 5, we're not even going to check into a hostel.
We finally found a restaurant, slightly off of the square, where we got a three course meal for 65 Dh (by the way, I think it's pretty fitting that a currency called Durham isn't worth much). After lunch we wandered and eventually had to enlist a 12 year old guide to take us to the Marrakesh Museum which was right next to an old school and aqueduct. After touring all three we gradually worked our way back to the main market where we did a little bit of shopping.
We got back to the hostel around 7 to shower and change before dinner at 8, but upon finding out that the hostel was going to charge us 100 Dh for a bottle of wine, Sean and I decided to go get our own. Unfortunately, there is only one store in Marrakesh that sells alcohol, and it is about a 15 minute cab adventure from the main square. The roads in Marrakesh are used by everything from bicycles to mopeds to cabs to horse carriages, and at one point we drove in between a truck and a carriage... on a two lane road.
Eventually we made it back to the hostel for 'Tagine' with our hostel host Mousaffa. The dish is prepared in a uniquely shaped clay pot an contains a collection of meat, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots as well as several other vegetables and spices and it is eaten from the pot with bread, not from individual plates with utensils. We ate on the roof (and were apparently the first group ever to do so at this hostel) end then spent the rest of the evening there as well.
Right before we went to bed last night we found out that our day trip for today had been canceled since we were the only three to book it, so Monday morning we slept in bit and then went to a nearby bakery for breakfast. After breakfast we came back to the hostel and Mousaffa gave us some suggestions for the rest of the day. Before lunch we went to the Menara, a large pool that exists for I'm not sure what reason, but you can buy bread to feed the fish in it. On our way back to the square for lunch we took a 30 minute camel ride, which we bartered down to 100 Dh each. After the camel ride we found a literal 'hole-in-the-wall' restaurant with no menu, where 25 Dh per person bought a quarter chicken with rice, fries, and bread.
We spent an hour or so back at the hostel after lunch to get out of the heat, then took a cab to la Jardin Majorelle, which Mousaffa told us was one of the most beautiful gardens in all of Africa. The garden was the work of Jaques Majorelle, a French artist who spent much of his life in Morocco. There were plants representing 5 continents along with an overpriced cafe and art museum.
From the garden we took another cab adventure to the grocery store were we bought bread, goat cheese and lunch meat to eat dinner on the roof again. After dinner we went briefly back to the square to take some pictures and I finally found what was apparently the only shop in Morocco with an XL Soccer Jersey.
Tuesday we're flying back to Madrid and then on to Rome because it was cheaper to do that than fly straight to Rome. But since our flight to Rome leaves at 7 am and Spanish bars stay open well past 5, we're not even going to check into a hostel.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Day 5 & 6- Tangier & Marrakesh
Since my last post which was, by the way, from an internet cafe that only charged 50 cents an hour to use their computers, we have toured the Kasbah and the Caves of Hercules in Tangier and taken an overnight train to Marrakesh.
The Kasbah was a really interesting historic fort that faced out on the water towards Spain. There were exhibits set up in each room to walk us through the history of the site from about 1200 BC through the present day. The caves of Hercules were a 30 minute cab ride outsidde of Tangier, but well worth the trip. The cave itself was only a few “rooms,” but it was right on the coast and Sean and Kaitlin were able to get some great pictures both in and outside the cave.
We got our cab driver to take us back to the place we'd left our luggage and then drop us off at the train station for our trip to Marrakesh. Our cabin on the train was a little tight, one set of bunks on each side with about 20 inches in between, but we had it to ourselves and bunk beds certainly beat the heck out of the bus seats we slept in two nights before.
We arrived in Marrakesh about 8:00 this morning (in Morocco we are only 4 hours ahead of EST by the way) and came straight to our hostel. Our hostel here is much nicer than the hotel in Tangier and the staff is excellent. Our host, lives in the hostel full time and greeted us upon our arrival with tea and map of Marrakesh. He showed us were the hostel was on the map and circled several spots that he recommended we visit. He also booked a day trip for us tomorrow during which we will leave the city to see the mountains, have an authentic Moroccan breakfast and lunch, and ride a camel.
As soon as we all make it through the shower we're going to venture out to find some lunch, visit a few of the historic sites, and make our way through the market. We're planning to be back t the hostel by 8 so that we can learn to make Tagine, a traditional Moroccan dish with chicken, vegetables, and kouskous (Mom i know you'll be proud). Then we'll eat and probably spend the rest of the night hanging out here on our rooftop terrace.
The Kasbah was a really interesting historic fort that faced out on the water towards Spain. There were exhibits set up in each room to walk us through the history of the site from about 1200 BC through the present day. The caves of Hercules were a 30 minute cab ride outsidde of Tangier, but well worth the trip. The cave itself was only a few “rooms,” but it was right on the coast and Sean and Kaitlin were able to get some great pictures both in and outside the cave.
We got our cab driver to take us back to the place we'd left our luggage and then drop us off at the train station for our trip to Marrakesh. Our cabin on the train was a little tight, one set of bunks on each side with about 20 inches in between, but we had it to ourselves and bunk beds certainly beat the heck out of the bus seats we slept in two nights before.
We arrived in Marrakesh about 8:00 this morning (in Morocco we are only 4 hours ahead of EST by the way) and came straight to our hostel. Our hostel here is much nicer than the hotel in Tangier and the staff is excellent. Our host, lives in the hostel full time and greeted us upon our arrival with tea and map of Marrakesh. He showed us were the hostel was on the map and circled several spots that he recommended we visit. He also booked a day trip for us tomorrow during which we will leave the city to see the mountains, have an authentic Moroccan breakfast and lunch, and ride a camel.
As soon as we all make it through the shower we're going to venture out to find some lunch, visit a few of the historic sites, and make our way through the market. We're planning to be back t the hostel by 8 so that we can learn to make Tagine, a traditional Moroccan dish with chicken, vegetables, and kouskous (Mom i know you'll be proud). Then we'll eat and probably spend the rest of the night hanging out here on our rooftop terrace.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Days 4 & 5- Tangiers
To elaborate on my last post, we took an overnight bus from Madrid to Algecira (about 8 hours), from Algecira we took a 2.5 hour ferry ride to Tangiers. We were immediately approached, upon getting off the boat, by a man who claimed to be from the tourism office, who wanted to take us to a hotel and then give us a tour of the city. We managed to fend off the first couple of offers along these lines, but eventually we got suckered intp a 5 euro taxi ride to a hotel. The hotel they took us to was decent enough, the bathroom isn't the best and the matresses are a little stiff, but it was only 35 euro for all three of us.
After settling in to the hotel we went out to explore the market, where we again constantly approached by people who wanted to give us directions and take us places for a tip. We're getting better and better at fending them off, Sean discovered that if you say no money enough times they'll eventually give up and leave you alone. We spent most of yesterday afternoon and this morning shopping in the open air markets. It is definitely a barter market, yesterday I bought a pair of leather slippers/shoes for 5 euro, down from an initial price of 40, haha.
We were all really tired from the overnight bus ride (which was the opposite of condusive to sleeping) so we went back to the hotel pretty early last night and only made it back out long enough to go to a McDonald's. It's ok though, Sean and I both got the McArabia, so it still counts as ethnic food.
Tonight we'll be taking an overnight train (which for an extra 5 euro has beds intead of seats) to Marrakesh, which is supposed to be much prettier than Tangiers. I'll hopefully be able to post more easily from there, I think our hostel there has internet access.
After settling in to the hotel we went out to explore the market, where we again constantly approached by people who wanted to give us directions and take us places for a tip. We're getting better and better at fending them off, Sean discovered that if you say no money enough times they'll eventually give up and leave you alone. We spent most of yesterday afternoon and this morning shopping in the open air markets. It is definitely a barter market, yesterday I bought a pair of leather slippers/shoes for 5 euro, down from an initial price of 40, haha.
We were all really tired from the overnight bus ride (which was the opposite of condusive to sleeping) so we went back to the hotel pretty early last night and only made it back out long enough to go to a McDonald's. It's ok though, Sean and I both got the McArabia, so it still counts as ethnic food.
Tonight we'll be taking an overnight train (which for an extra 5 euro has beds intead of seats) to Marrakesh, which is supposed to be much prettier than Tangiers. I'll hopefully be able to post more easily from there, I think our hostel there has internet access.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Days 3 and 4- Madrid and Tangiers
This is probably going to be a quick post with a number of errors, because i am trying to type on a frech keyboard in an internet cafe, but since i did not do ân update yesterday I wanted to do one today.
I slept in pretty late yesterday morning and then pqcked up and checked out of my hostel. I met up with Sean for lunch and then we took the metro out to the bus stqtion to buy tickets for that night. We spent a pretty lazy afternoon hanging out in a couple different café/restaurants and then took an overnight train to Algeceras where we caught an overnight ferry to Tangiers.
Gotta run for now, i will try to post soon.
I slept in pretty late yesterday morning and then pqcked up and checked out of my hostel. I met up with Sean for lunch and then we took the metro out to the bus stqtion to buy tickets for that night. We spent a pretty lazy afternoon hanging out in a couple different café/restaurants and then took an overnight train to Algeceras where we caught an overnight ferry to Tangiers.
Gotta run for now, i will try to post soon.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Day 2- Madrid
My second day in Madrid was a lot of fune, even though I didn´t get to see too many sites. I tried to go to a monastery and the Spanish Senate yesterday morning, but unfortunately both were closed. I found a small bar near the Senate that had a ¨Cana y Tapas¨ special, for 1 euro you got a small plate of tapas and a sampler sized beer. The first tapas i got was a piece of fried ham (never seen that before) on a slice of bagguette and the second was a slice of ham and a slice of tomato on a piece of bread.
From the bar i went up to ¨Temple de Debod¨ which is, randomly enough, an 2200 year old Egyptian temple that was gfted to Spain in 1968 and transported to Madrid piece by piece. It was a really cool place to visit and walk around, they had exhibits set up inside the temple describing different aspects of it. After leaving the temple I only had about an hour before I was supposed to meet Sean, so i wandered down a nearby street and through a public park before heading towards him.
I got to the Starbucks where we met yesterday and he called me to come meet him at his university, because apparently they have dorm bars there, somebody needs to bring this concept to the US. I listened to most of the directions he gave me until i pulled out my map with a university labelled on it. So i follow my map & call him when i get close to the university on the map, unfortunately that was not his university, so wjhen i called him again, i had to back track about ten minutes to get to the right place.
After meeting up, we went to a small grocery store with some of his friends to buy drinks and snacks to take to the park, where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Later on I came back to the hostel to grab a quick shower and ate dinner nearby, before meeting up with Sean and several friends to emjoy their last night out in Madrid.
We´re hopefully getting on an overnight bus to the south of Spain tonight, where we´ll take a ferry across the straight of gibralter into morocco, where we´ll spend the next five days. We´ll be back in Madrid next Tuesday for one night and then we´ll fly to Rom very early next Wednesday.
From the bar i went up to ¨Temple de Debod¨ which is, randomly enough, an 2200 year old Egyptian temple that was gfted to Spain in 1968 and transported to Madrid piece by piece. It was a really cool place to visit and walk around, they had exhibits set up inside the temple describing different aspects of it. After leaving the temple I only had about an hour before I was supposed to meet Sean, so i wandered down a nearby street and through a public park before heading towards him.
I got to the Starbucks where we met yesterday and he called me to come meet him at his university, because apparently they have dorm bars there, somebody needs to bring this concept to the US. I listened to most of the directions he gave me until i pulled out my map with a university labelled on it. So i follow my map & call him when i get close to the university on the map, unfortunately that was not his university, so wjhen i called him again, i had to back track about ten minutes to get to the right place.
After meeting up, we went to a small grocery store with some of his friends to buy drinks and snacks to take to the park, where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Later on I came back to the hostel to grab a quick shower and ate dinner nearby, before meeting up with Sean and several friends to emjoy their last night out in Madrid.
We´re hopefully getting on an overnight bus to the south of Spain tonight, where we´ll take a ferry across the straight of gibralter into morocco, where we´ll spend the next five days. We´ll be back in Madrid next Tuesday for one night and then we´ll fly to Rom very early next Wednesday.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Day 1- Madrid
Just came back to the hostel after a pretty long first day in Madrid. After dropping my bags off here this morning, I walked about half a mile to Plaza Mayor, the historic "center" of Madrid. I've been pleasantly surprised at how easily walkable Madrid is, I was planning to take the metro from a stop near plaza mayor to meat Sean this afternoon, that's the directions he gave me because the metro stop was the closest landmark, but when i looked at the map it was only a little over a mile away so i decided to walk there too. I've noticed that most of the buildings here, at least in the section of Madrid that I walked through today are mixed use. Apartments, Condos or offices might occupy the top floors, but the ground floors are almost exclusively shops and restaurants, which makes walking much more enjoyable.
Before I left plaza mayor to meet Sean i tried to visit the Cathedral de St Isodoro, there I almost wandered into the catholic middle school that it houses before realizing that the part that was generally open to the public was closed for nap-time, apparently they take their naps pretty seriously here.
I finally met up with Sean at a Starbucks near the university (NW of plaza mayor) and from there we went to a bar/restaurant with several of his friends from the study abroad program. Apparently they had befriended the bartender here over the semester and they brought him a few small gifts. Unfortunately they all still have exams tomorrow, ever the procrastinator, Sean is currently writing a 7 page paper in Spanish or studying for one of the 2 exams he has tomorrow, so was alone again for the rest of the afternoon/evening.
After leaving them, I went on a tour of the Royal Palace (W of plaza mayor), which was okay, but would have been much better if had it cost less than 8 euro and if they had allowed me to use my camera in the palace. I missed out on another cathedral that faces the palace today, because it closed at 4:30. I did get to see the armory at the palace though, which was really cool because they had weapons and coats of armor that dated back to the 15th century.
From the palace walked back past plaza mayor, but this time i swung to the south of it just to see some different streets, I eventually would up over near two of the art museums (SW of plaza mayor), one of which was closed, but the second was free since it was after 6, so i took a quick walk through it, even though I'm not much of an art person.
I was pretty tired by the time I finished up at the art museum so I came back here to shower before going to dinner. I found a nice little restaurant just outside of plaza mayor where you could get a sandwich and a beer for 1 euro each, by far the cheapest i've seen either one here. i'm back at the hostel now obviously, i may go downstairs to the bar below the hostel for a few minutes when i finish writing this, but I'll probably turn in pretty early tonight since I haven't slept much at all the last two nights.
Before I left plaza mayor to meet Sean i tried to visit the Cathedral de St Isodoro, there I almost wandered into the catholic middle school that it houses before realizing that the part that was generally open to the public was closed for nap-time, apparently they take their naps pretty seriously here.
I finally met up with Sean at a Starbucks near the university (NW of plaza mayor) and from there we went to a bar/restaurant with several of his friends from the study abroad program. Apparently they had befriended the bartender here over the semester and they brought him a few small gifts. Unfortunately they all still have exams tomorrow, ever the procrastinator, Sean is currently writing a 7 page paper in Spanish or studying for one of the 2 exams he has tomorrow, so was alone again for the rest of the afternoon/evening.
After leaving them, I went on a tour of the Royal Palace (W of plaza mayor), which was okay, but would have been much better if had it cost less than 8 euro and if they had allowed me to use my camera in the palace. I missed out on another cathedral that faces the palace today, because it closed at 4:30. I did get to see the armory at the palace though, which was really cool because they had weapons and coats of armor that dated back to the 15th century.
From the palace walked back past plaza mayor, but this time i swung to the south of it just to see some different streets, I eventually would up over near two of the art museums (SW of plaza mayor), one of which was closed, but the second was free since it was after 6, so i took a quick walk through it, even though I'm not much of an art person.
I was pretty tired by the time I finished up at the art museum so I came back here to shower before going to dinner. I found a nice little restaurant just outside of plaza mayor where you could get a sandwich and a beer for 1 euro each, by far the cheapest i've seen either one here. i'm back at the hostel now obviously, i may go downstairs to the bar below the hostel for a few minutes when i finish writing this, but I'll probably turn in pretty early tonight since I haven't slept much at all the last two nights.
Here we go...
I just got to Madrid and navigated three subway trains to my home for the next two or three days, Cat's Hostel. It seems pretty nice so far, there's free internet and a bar in the lobby. I'm here mostly to lock up my bags before I head out for the day. I'm meeting Sean at 3:15 local time, 6 hours ahead of the East Coast. Which gives me a couple hours to go explore on my own. Hopefully I'll have more to report later, but for now I just wanted t quickly post and let everyone (Mom & Dad) know that I got here ok.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Gettiing Started
I decided to start this blog for my trip to Europe rather than trying to send a bunch of emails or talking to everyone online since i don't know how often I'll have internet access. I starting packing tonight so that I cant take my bag into work to weigh & measure it tomorrow, I'll be flying out Monday afternoon and should get to Madrid to meet Sean Tuesday morning, I'll try to post something then.
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