Hello. I come from Transylvania where I saw Dracula's Castle!!!! It was so cool! It is called the Bran Castle and is huge and scary looking (see photos) and amazing. There were secret passageways and all sorts of cool things inside. Lots of low ceilings and scary looking lamps. The bed was huge and black. But the best was the view from outside. Romania is so beautiful. Transylvania is a gorgeous area with mountains. With the fall colors the scenery was amazing. Estera's friend Nicoleta took me to see the castle and then she took me to this really cool fortress that sits way on top of a hill. It has a big sign on it like the Hollywood sign, so it was pretty exciting to climb all the way up there and pose by the sign. The fortress was really cool. The whole town used to live inside there. They even had a well that went all the way down through the hill and to some sort of water source below. They made two prisoners dig the well and promised to release them upon completion. 17 years later they finally finished! :-) The fortress had a beautiful view of the city. They stayed very protected in that fortress through several seige attempts. They even had some torture devices around, apparently for those they took prisoner. Kind of scary. It was really neat to see the fortress and the view from way up there. And it was a nice hike up there too. I'm getting used to a lot of hiking and climbing, so I'll have to find things to climb when I return home. After the fortress and Dracula's castle, Nicoleta and I went back to her house and joined her family for pizza Romanian style. My veggie pizza had carrots, peas, corn, and green beans on it. :-) And they like to put ketchup on their pizza here too, so I had to do that. Nicoleta told me that when she went to America her favorite pizza was the pizza at Sam's Club. :-) I love it! I had a great time with Nicoleta and her family. It was so nice of them to show me around. They tried to take me to a cave too, but it was closed (hence the sad face in my pics.) But we had a great time laughing after we drank our mushroom hot chocolate (don't ask) so we didn't mind. And a word to the wise for anyone traveling abroad: don't mention anything about the gas prices being high in America... I would suggest just saying, "They have increased, but I'm sure they're still nothing compared to what you pay for gas so I feel incredibly lucky and if I can assist in your gas payments in any way please let me know." Memorize that and you will be fine. :-)
All in all, I have found Romanians to be incredibly kind and generous and their country is beautiful! I have really enjoyed my stay here in every way, shape and form.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Campulung, Romania
So here I am! I am visiting some missionaries that my family has supported for almost ten years. Estera and Vio are an extremely nice Romanian couple who are doing the Lord's work in Campulung. I started donating some of my money each month to their mission work when I was 14 and now I am here meeting them! What a cool thing! Today I spent the day making crafts. :-) Estera teaches Bible lessons for children and she needed to make examples of some of the crafts she has the kids do, but she is extremely busy, so I volunteered to make the examples. I made four crafts today and also attempted to draw puzzle pieces on a picture so Estera can cut it apart for an object lesson. We'll see how well I did when she gets home.
A few months ago Estera and Vio got an email about some kids who needed help. They had been abused and were often abandoned for days by their father. So Estera and Vio volunteered to take the children. They have been jumping through hoops ever since to try to be able to take care of the boys. First they just had the younger son, Danny, who is 3. But they found out they could get arrested just for having him living with them without certain paperwork, so they had to put him back into the care (or lackthereof) of their dad. They tried to get permission to have Danny and when they finally got permission, they had to search for him and found he and his brother living with some gypsie ladies on the street. Danny's dad wants Vio and Estera to have him, but getting permission is really hard. "Welcome to Romania!" is how Estera explained it to me. Their rules are really silly. When they finally did get some sort of permission, Danny's dad asked them to take his other son, Andrew, as well. Andrew is 6 and has some mental problems, so it has been extremely hard for Estera and Vio to care for both boys. But of course they agreed because they are amazing Christian people with huge hearts. But they are still waiting for the papers to come to them which has been a burden. Usually children in Romania get the medicine they need for free, but Estera and Vio have had to pay for a lot of medicine for the boys because they don't have the papers. And of course they are making big bucks as missionaries so it's not a problem (yeah right!)
I am glad that I'm here right now because I am able to help them out as much as I can with the boys and crafts and other small things. I guess this is a shameless plug for them, but if anyone who is reading this is looking to support a worthy cause or if your church might be looking for some super cool missionaries to support, I know just the people. They obviously didn't ask me to do this. I don't even think they know I have a blog. But I am here and seeing first hand what awesome things they are doing for the children of Romania, two of which are in their home right now. So I just thought I'd mention it just in case. :-) Let me know if you want more info. Now I think I'll get back to my crafts. :-)
A few months ago Estera and Vio got an email about some kids who needed help. They had been abused and were often abandoned for days by their father. So Estera and Vio volunteered to take the children. They have been jumping through hoops ever since to try to be able to take care of the boys. First they just had the younger son, Danny, who is 3. But they found out they could get arrested just for having him living with them without certain paperwork, so they had to put him back into the care (or lackthereof) of their dad. They tried to get permission to have Danny and when they finally got permission, they had to search for him and found he and his brother living with some gypsie ladies on the street. Danny's dad wants Vio and Estera to have him, but getting permission is really hard. "Welcome to Romania!" is how Estera explained it to me. Their rules are really silly. When they finally did get some sort of permission, Danny's dad asked them to take his other son, Andrew, as well. Andrew is 6 and has some mental problems, so it has been extremely hard for Estera and Vio to care for both boys. But of course they agreed because they are amazing Christian people with huge hearts. But they are still waiting for the papers to come to them which has been a burden. Usually children in Romania get the medicine they need for free, but Estera and Vio have had to pay for a lot of medicine for the boys because they don't have the papers. And of course they are making big bucks as missionaries so it's not a problem (yeah right!)
I am glad that I'm here right now because I am able to help them out as much as I can with the boys and crafts and other small things. I guess this is a shameless plug for them, but if anyone who is reading this is looking to support a worthy cause or if your church might be looking for some super cool missionaries to support, I know just the people. They obviously didn't ask me to do this. I don't even think they know I have a blog. But I am here and seeing first hand what awesome things they are doing for the children of Romania, two of which are in their home right now. So I just thought I'd mention it just in case. :-) Let me know if you want more info. Now I think I'll get back to my crafts. :-)
Night train to Romania
I had a wonderful time on the night train between Budapest and Bucharest. I was in a four person sleeping car but there turned out to be only two of us. My traveling companion for the night was an extremely sweet lady named Theodora. She is from Bucharest but has done a ton of traveling and speaks English very well. She filled me in on exactly what to do because this was my first night train experience. When she suggested that I go get my sheets I quickly followed her instructions and left our compartment. But I had no sooner started down the hall when I heard, "Marla! Marla! Come back!" I went to see what was the matter and Theodora explained that I must never leave my handbag anywhere! I had left it on the seat with the rest of my luggage thinking she would keep an eye on it for me, but she was adamant that I take it with me wherever I go, even to the toilet! :-) I appreciated this very important lesson. My handbag never left my side for the rest of the journey. I got to know Theodora a little and turns out she was an electrical engineer, just like my brother Justin! She has traveled all over the world and just got done spending two weeks with her friends in Budapest going to the baths every day! Now isn't that the life!
I went to bed pretty early, but was woken up twice at border control. First the Hungarians wanted to see our passports before we left the country for some reason. And then the Romanians wanted to see our passports when we entered the country. At least I got two more stamps in my passport! Yippee!
I slept pretty well. I tell ya, night trains are the way to go. You spend a couple hours chatting with your lovely train-mate, go to sleep, get two stamps in your passport, and when you wake up you're about there!
I had set my alarm the night before, but it turned out I didn't need to because I was woken up by Theodora. "Marla! Marla! You must get up! You must come down and see the mountains!" :-) I am very glad Theodora woke me up because the mountains were absolutely beautiful. One of them even had a wooden cross on the very top of it. Beautiful scenery.
The train was delayed so I missed my connecting train, but Theodora was with me the whole time. She helped me get off the train and took me to information to find out when the next train was and got me to the track and everything before she said good bye. I was definitely extremely lucky to have shared a compartment with her on the night train to Romania. :-)
I hopped on the train to Pitesti shortly after and sat by a really nice old man who kept trying to talk to me in Romanian. So we ate milky way minis together and laughed about how much luggage I had. And then about how we couldn't understand each other. At least I think that's what we were laughing about... He also helped me off the train and carried my bag for me. He made sure I didn't have to take another train or bus that he could help me find. And when he figured out I was waiting for a ride, he kissed my hand when I tried to shake his and waved good bye. Romania is full of super nice people as far as I can tell so far.
I went to bed pretty early, but was woken up twice at border control. First the Hungarians wanted to see our passports before we left the country for some reason. And then the Romanians wanted to see our passports when we entered the country. At least I got two more stamps in my passport! Yippee!
I slept pretty well. I tell ya, night trains are the way to go. You spend a couple hours chatting with your lovely train-mate, go to sleep, get two stamps in your passport, and when you wake up you're about there!
I had set my alarm the night before, but it turned out I didn't need to because I was woken up by Theodora. "Marla! Marla! You must get up! You must come down and see the mountains!" :-) I am very glad Theodora woke me up because the mountains were absolutely beautiful. One of them even had a wooden cross on the very top of it. Beautiful scenery.
The train was delayed so I missed my connecting train, but Theodora was with me the whole time. She helped me get off the train and took me to information to find out when the next train was and got me to the track and everything before she said good bye. I was definitely extremely lucky to have shared a compartment with her on the night train to Romania. :-)
I hopped on the train to Pitesti shortly after and sat by a really nice old man who kept trying to talk to me in Romanian. So we ate milky way minis together and laughed about how much luggage I had. And then about how we couldn't understand each other. At least I think that's what we were laughing about... He also helped me off the train and carried my bag for me. He made sure I didn't have to take another train or bus that he could help me find. And when he figured out I was waiting for a ride, he kissed my hand when I tried to shake his and waved good bye. Romania is full of super nice people as far as I can tell so far.
Budapest, Hungary
So Sarah and I went to Budapest and it was pretty amazing! We got there on Friday night and pretty much headed straight to Szechenyi Baths. Budapest is known for it's thermal hot springs so what better way to enjoy the city than by bathing in the warm water with a bunch of strangers! The baths were enormous! There were three outside pools and a ton of inside pools as well as a few saunas and I think some steam rooms. Inside there were pools of all different temperatures and sizes. It was so cool because the baths are in this old building that looks like a big palace or old government building of some kind. It seemed as though we were bathing in an elaborately decorated cathedral or something like that. There were columns with figures on them and the ceilings were cool looking. It was pretty sweet. We of course tried every single bath. We even tried a sauna that had colored lights in it. Every few minutes the light would change to a different color of the rainbow. I'm not sure what the lights had to do with anything, but it was enjoyable. Most of the baths were around 36 degrees celcius. But there was one 20 degree bath and one 40 degree bath. As soon as I climbed in the 20 degree bath I was out and into the 40 degree bath. Much better. There was a 38 degree bath outside that was the best. We stayed in there a majority of the time because the air was fresh, the night sky was pretty, and it was oh so warm in the bath with the chilly weather on our faces. We need to get some baths like that in the states.
The next morning we went shopping at this cool market that Sarah knew about. Then we headed up the touristy shopping street and ended in a square where we joined a free tour. Woohoo! Our guide was really cool! His name was Adam and he was born and raised in Hungary. His English was very good and he was extremely informative and into the tour. He was pretty hilarious in an cute awkward sort of way. He showed us a ton of stuff and we walked all over the Pest side and the Buda side of the city. I'm not just making that up, by the way. One side of the river is Buda and one side is Pest and they decided to join them together to make one big capitol city: Budapest. Apparently they tried Pestbuda for awhile, but it was a no go. Anyway, Buda is the hilly side and it was really beautiful and there is a cool fortress and castle that we climbed up to. It gives an awesome view of the Pest side, which is more city like but has the Parliament Building and a few other cool things. I learned way too much and saw too many things to type them all, but one thing I thought was really interesting were Adam's thoughts about communism. For some reason, I just expect everyone to have horrible stories and terrible things to say about communism, but Adam said some different things. He said things are harder for the Hungarian people now then they were then. He said that it was terrible that they didn't have any choices, but people lived better then. His example was: which is better, having only one choice for laundry soap in the store that you have to buy but being able to afford it, or having twenty different choices for laundry soap, but not being able to afford to buy any of them. An interesting perspective.
But, anyway, Budapest was lots of fun. I really enjoyed the city, the baths, and the tour. At 5:00 I bid Sarah good bye and hopped on the night train to Bucharest, Romania. Off to more adventures.
The next morning we went shopping at this cool market that Sarah knew about. Then we headed up the touristy shopping street and ended in a square where we joined a free tour. Woohoo! Our guide was really cool! His name was Adam and he was born and raised in Hungary. His English was very good and he was extremely informative and into the tour. He was pretty hilarious in an cute awkward sort of way. He showed us a ton of stuff and we walked all over the Pest side and the Buda side of the city. I'm not just making that up, by the way. One side of the river is Buda and one side is Pest and they decided to join them together to make one big capitol city: Budapest. Apparently they tried Pestbuda for awhile, but it was a no go. Anyway, Buda is the hilly side and it was really beautiful and there is a cool fortress and castle that we climbed up to. It gives an awesome view of the Pest side, which is more city like but has the Parliament Building and a few other cool things. I learned way too much and saw too many things to type them all, but one thing I thought was really interesting were Adam's thoughts about communism. For some reason, I just expect everyone to have horrible stories and terrible things to say about communism, but Adam said some different things. He said things are harder for the Hungarian people now then they were then. He said that it was terrible that they didn't have any choices, but people lived better then. His example was: which is better, having only one choice for laundry soap in the store that you have to buy but being able to afford it, or having twenty different choices for laundry soap, but not being able to afford to buy any of them. An interesting perspective.
But, anyway, Budapest was lots of fun. I really enjoyed the city, the baths, and the tour. At 5:00 I bid Sarah good bye and hopped on the night train to Bucharest, Romania. Off to more adventures.
Friday, October 17, 2008
A wonderful time in Hungary.
My last two days in Hungary were wonderful. After I spoke to the 12th grade class, one of Sarah's students came up to me to see if I had tried some of the local Hungarian food. I hadn't had the things he was talking about, so after school, Tamas and Balint, two of Sarah's students, took us to get Langos and Palincsinta. It was delicious! And super fun to eat typical Hungarian food. Tamas and Balint were really fun. We walked around town, stopped at the tea house, walked to the river, and just chatted about life in Hungary and the U.S. They even helped me get stamps for some postcards and also reserve my seat on the train from Budapest to Bucharest. What nice young men!
Today Sarah and I are heading to Budapest to see some things there before I head to Romania tomorrow. I'm not sure when I'll be able to blog next, but I'll do my best!
Today Sarah and I are heading to Budapest to see some things there before I head to Romania tomorrow. I'm not sure when I'll be able to blog next, but I'll do my best!
Bratislava, Slovakia
The thing I love most about Europe is that you can take a day trip to another country. So that's exactly what I did. I hopped on the train at 7:45 am and headed to Slovakia! I had to change trains once to get there, but I'm pretty much amazing at the train system by now, so it wasn't a problem. I arrived in Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia, at around 9:45 am. Pretty much the instant the train pulled into the station it started raining. But I have a cute little umbrella Henry bought for me that fits perfectly in the pocket of my purse, so I was all set. I stopped by the tourist info to get a map and a free guidebook and then the ATM to get 1000 korunas for the day and then I headed out with my map and my umbrella. Sarah's guidebook on Slovakia recommended this little book store/coffee shop called Next Apache. I found it on the map and it was on the way from the train station to the old town, so I stopped in for a break from the rain. It was the cutest place ever! Really cozy and eccentric. There were old couches and cute little tables and chairs and it had tons of books. And most of them were in English! I was tempted to buy a few, but I already have a bunch of books I'm carrying around with me, so I just got a coffee and planned out my day in Bratislava. By the time I was ready to go, the rain had pretty much stopped, so I headed into the city. I was passing under the St.Michael's Gate (a big archway under the tower of St. Michael's church that basically leads into the old town) when I saw a cute little lady selling jewelry. It was all hand made by her (I knew because she was making some as she was sitting there waiting for customers.) So I bought some really cute earrings. Then I walked around the town and saw all the cool things the guidebook told me to see. Bratislava has all these cool statues kind of hidden around town. There's a man in a manhole, a man leaning on one of the benches in the main square, a paparazzi guy taking photos around a corner, and a man with a top hat waving to people on the street. So I had a good time walking around town finding all the statues and taking pictures with them. I also enjoyed the main square and some of the other beautiful buildings in town. In the main square there's a random painting of a man dressed in black on the outside of the old town hall. There's also some measuring tools attached to the old town hall that people used to use to measure their goods before they bought them to make sure the merchants weren't cheating on the price. I thought that was kind of cool.
Bratislava also has a big castle right next to the old town. So I hiked up to it and walked all around it. The castle itself was closed for refurbishment right now, but I enjoyed the view of the town and the Danube river from way up at the castle and it was still a beautiful walk. I also saw the narrowest house in town. The frontal face measures only 130 cm.
I walked a few blocks out of town to see the "blue church" and I'm really glad I did because it was super cool! It was a beautiful blue color both inside and out and I loved it! I would totally go to church there! Sarah's guidebook mentioned a vegetarian restaurant outside of town, so I decided to hike out there for some good veggie food. But when I got out there I found that the restaurant no longer existed. So I ate at the restaurant that is there now and had some amazing stuffed mushrooms! So it all worked out. :-) Then I headed back into town and saw the Grassalkovish Palace. It is a huge palace where the President of the Slovak Republic works. There were two guards out front guarding the building and standing absolutely still. That would be a tough job. The palace had a really cool fountain out front with a globe-like thing in the middle of it. In the back of the palace were some beautiful gardens where I sat and read my book for awhile. Then I made my way back to the train station and headed back to Hungary. I definitely enjoyed my day in Slovakia. :-)
Bratislava also has a big castle right next to the old town. So I hiked up to it and walked all around it. The castle itself was closed for refurbishment right now, but I enjoyed the view of the town and the Danube river from way up at the castle and it was still a beautiful walk. I also saw the narrowest house in town. The frontal face measures only 130 cm.
I walked a few blocks out of town to see the "blue church" and I'm really glad I did because it was super cool! It was a beautiful blue color both inside and out and I loved it! I would totally go to church there! Sarah's guidebook mentioned a vegetarian restaurant outside of town, so I decided to hike out there for some good veggie food. But when I got out there I found that the restaurant no longer existed. So I ate at the restaurant that is there now and had some amazing stuffed mushrooms! So it all worked out. :-) Then I headed back into town and saw the Grassalkovish Palace. It is a huge palace where the President of the Slovak Republic works. There were two guards out front guarding the building and standing absolutely still. That would be a tough job. The palace had a really cool fountain out front with a globe-like thing in the middle of it. In the back of the palace were some beautiful gardens where I sat and read my book for awhile. Then I made my way back to the train station and headed back to Hungary. I definitely enjoyed my day in Slovakia. :-)
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Pannenhalma, Hungary
On Tuesday Sarah and I decided to visit a really old abbey that is located just outside of Gyor in Pannenhalma. And boy was it an adventure! We set out for the bus station after school and tried to find the 1:43 bus to Pannenhalma. First we were at the wrong bus station. We couldn't really find Pannenhalma on any of the signs, so we asked someone who worked there where the bus was and they pointed to another bus station on the other side of the train tracks. So we hiked over the bridge to the other bus station. But there were a gazillion buses and we had no idea which was ours. We tried to ask some of the young people, hoping they would speak English. No luck. We asked a lady selling things at a little stand. No luck. We asked a few bus drivers. You guessed it. No luck! Everyone kept saying "elf." I know I'm not the tallest person in the world but Geez! We finally found the information window and managed to find out that we had just missed our bus and the next one didn't leave for another 50 minutes. So we hung out at the train station in Gyor and then hopped on bus number 11. I later found out that "elf" means 11 in German. If the bus had only been number 1-10 we would have been totally fine. But that's as far as my numerical knowledge of German stretches. So anyway, there we are on the bus on the way to Pannenhalma, and we weren't even sure if we were going to get there on time because the tours leave on the hour, the abbey closes at 4, and we were on the 2:46 bus. So we're riding along and we start to see the abbey up on the hill, but we weren't too sure where to get off. All the sudden it's the last stop and the bus driver is yelling something about heading back to Gyor. So we hop off and look up and the abbey is on the top of this huge hill which we are on the bottom of. But I wasn't about to give up at this point, so I just start hiking. Before we know it, we're hiking through people's backyards and driveways, hitting dead ends and having to try another way. As long as we were still going up I was convinced we were going to make it. Eventually we hit this little path. We booked it up the path and there it was! The abbey at Pannenhalma! We were wondering around trying to find the tourist office but no one that we asked spoke English. We were maybe getting a little flustered when I saw a group of people sitting around and just started with, "does anyone speak English?" Luckily one young man did and informed us that the ticket office was down the other side of the hill. This was not music to our ears since we had just hiked up the hill in record pace, but we were determined to see this abbey! So we hurried down the path and across a little bridge and found the ticket office. And much to our surprise and delight, we were able to get on a tour in ten minutes! In Hungarian... But no worries. They had pamphlets in English for us to use to follow along with the tour. We were pretty pumped that it all worked out.
The abbey was beautiful! It is high atop a hill, which we were well aware of, so it overlooks the city of Pannenhalma and has an amazing view. They abbey is actually over 1500 years old and still funtions! We even saw a couple of monks! The church was beautiful in the abbey, but the best part was the library! They have over 400,000 books! It's huge and beautiful and just makes me want to read! We even saw some really old documents written about the abbey. After the tour I bought some tea that is made by the monks by the herbs they grow in their garden right there at the abbey! How cool!
Sarah and I went wondering around the beautiful grounds and ended up at the front of the abbey just in time to see our bus pulling away. Yeah, we definitely missed it by about 20 seconds. We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves, so we tried to ask a lady standing outside the abbey and she arranged for her friends to drive us down to the bus stop at the bottom of the hill where we could catch a bus back to Gyor. The Hungarian people are so helpful and nice! The lady who drove us even got out of the car to show us what time our bus would be arriving. And go figure, we had missed the last bus by about 2 minutes, so we had to wait about 45 til the next one. But that was fine. Sarah and I were just chatting away. And then a scary drunk Hungarian man stumbled over to the bus stop and tried to chat with us forever! He tried Hungarian, German, and even a little English before we finally just got up and walked around the area for awhile to lose him. I will say, though, that I am pretty impressed that a Hungarian drunk man could speak three languages. I'm pretty sure most drunk people in the states can't even manage their native English very well. Needless to say, Sarah and I were excited when the bus finally pulled up and we were safely on our way back to Gyor. It was a crazy day with yet another wild Hungarian adventure. :-)
The abbey was beautiful! It is high atop a hill, which we were well aware of, so it overlooks the city of Pannenhalma and has an amazing view. They abbey is actually over 1500 years old and still funtions! We even saw a couple of monks! The church was beautiful in the abbey, but the best part was the library! They have over 400,000 books! It's huge and beautiful and just makes me want to read! We even saw some really old documents written about the abbey. After the tour I bought some tea that is made by the monks by the herbs they grow in their garden right there at the abbey! How cool!
Sarah and I went wondering around the beautiful grounds and ended up at the front of the abbey just in time to see our bus pulling away. Yeah, we definitely missed it by about 20 seconds. We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves, so we tried to ask a lady standing outside the abbey and she arranged for her friends to drive us down to the bus stop at the bottom of the hill where we could catch a bus back to Gyor. The Hungarian people are so helpful and nice! The lady who drove us even got out of the car to show us what time our bus would be arriving. And go figure, we had missed the last bus by about 2 minutes, so we had to wait about 45 til the next one. But that was fine. Sarah and I were just chatting away. And then a scary drunk Hungarian man stumbled over to the bus stop and tried to chat with us forever! He tried Hungarian, German, and even a little English before we finally just got up and walked around the area for awhile to lose him. I will say, though, that I am pretty impressed that a Hungarian drunk man could speak three languages. I'm pretty sure most drunk people in the states can't even manage their native English very well. Needless to say, Sarah and I were excited when the bus finally pulled up and we were safely on our way back to Gyor. It was a crazy day with yet another wild Hungarian adventure. :-)
Sopron, Hungary
On Monday Sarah and I decided to go to a cute little town called Sopron. We took the train there after school and met up with another missionary, Harriet, who is teaching at the Lutheran school there. She picked us up at the train station and brought us to her flat at the school. While there, Sarah ran into some students that she knew from previous trips to Hungary with Concordia University during which the American students put on "English Camp" for the Hungarian students. The girls we ran into, Ildy and Kinga, were so excited to see Sarah. They took us for a tour around Sopron and we saw the Goat Church. Apparently the story is that a goat was digging in the dirt and uncovered a buried box of gold. So the people took the gold and built a church in that very spot and named it after the goat. There is even a picture of a goat on the church. We also saw a really pretty column symbolizing the holy trinity. There was a priest on the column who was holding a cross and making a really funny looking face that looked exactly like the modeling face that Ben Stiller makes in Zoolander. I hope that doesn't offend anyone. check out my pictures if you don't believe me. We also saw the huge "key to the city" and if you put your fingers in the three holes on the key it is supposed to bring good luck. As we walked around the city and wandered past some shops I ducked into one to look at the scarves. Both the Hungarian girls were wearing scarves around their necks and it's seriously all the rage in Europe right now. And since I always dress according to the trends (not!) I had to have one. :-) I bought a really cute black and white one from a really nice lady who had been to Minnesota! She went to the Mall of America and everything! It was so cool. We stopped to have a Soproni, the locally brewed beer, and had some great conversation with Kinga and Ildy. They are super sweet girls and their English was amazing! They even taught Sarah and I some more Hungarian words and phrases. We really enjoyed our time in Sopron with Harriet, Kinga, and Ildy.
Gyor, Hungary
This is not a story about me being on the "around the world diet." This is about a beautiful country in eastern Europe. Hungary! My college friend Sarah Cusson is teaching English here at a wonderful school filled with really cool students. The Hungarians are super friendly and Sarah gets invitations to do things almost every weekend. So on Sunday after church, a few students from the 10th grade and their families invited Sarah and I to go on a hike. Of course we took them up on it and we found ourselves outside of Gyor next to this old castle hiking around in the woods, climbing over rocks, walking across a fallen log from one side of the valley to another, and having a great time! We hiked for 5 and a half hours and covered 16 km of hills and valleys. We also stopped for a lunch break and a few water breaks. The scenery was gorgeous, the hike was wonderful, and the Hungarian people were really cool! Most of the time I didn't have a clue what they were saying, but they were laughing and carrying on with each other and I enjoyed just being around. It was fabulous. Sarah and I walked into town for dinner and ate at a really cute restaurant with super friendly service. We ate a ton of food and both had drinks (one of us even had a beer. I won't say who Miss Sarah...) :-) and the final bill was only about $19 for the both of us! I finally made it to a country where I am getting a good deal with my money! Yay!!! We were way too tired to do anything else so we just crashed in Sarah's super cute little flat. We did tune in online for a church service broadcast live on the web from Illinois because church this morning was all in Hungarian and I didn't understand a word. I did figure out, just by cadence, when we were reciting the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, but that was pretty much it.
I spent the mornings and afternoons this week with Sarah at school. She is teaching English, so she had her students come up with questions and interview me in class and then they had a quiz on what my responses were. :-) It was really fun and I enjoyed the Hungarian students very much. They are very sweet and they seem to really enjoy having Sarah as a teacher. And who wouldn't because she's super fun and a great teacher. The older kids especially are great because their English is wonderful and they are all genuinely pleasant people so we had some great conversations. (That was the worst run-on sentence ever so I hope the Hungarian students who read this don't base their English skills on it.)
I spent the mornings and afternoons this week with Sarah at school. She is teaching English, so she had her students come up with questions and interview me in class and then they had a quiz on what my responses were. :-) It was really fun and I enjoyed the Hungarian students very much. They are very sweet and they seem to really enjoy having Sarah as a teacher. And who wouldn't because she's super fun and a great teacher. The older kids especially are great because their English is wonderful and they are all genuinely pleasant people so we had some great conversations. (That was the worst run-on sentence ever so I hope the Hungarian students who read this don't base their English skills on it.)
Vienna, Austria
Vienna is huge and beautiful and packed with things to do! We started in the morning by attending the morning exercises at the Spanish Riding School. The school is famous for their well trained and beautiful horses and all the cool poses and formations they do during performances. But the performances are about 60 euro and the morning rehearsal was 6. So it was a pretty good deal. I had thought that they were actually going to rehearse the program for that night, but I was wrong. They pretty much just gallopped around the ring and maybe did some fancy steps here and there. So I was a little bummed. But hey, I got to see the horses and riders of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and that's pretty cool. And I did see a horse or two stand on it's hind legs and hold the pose for a while. So I guess you get what you pay for.
Next stop: Schonburnn Palace and Gardens. This place is amazing! The palace is huge and beautiful and the gardens are AMAZING!!! We didn't actually go in the palace because it was a ridiculous 15 euro or something like that for a 50 minute tour. And I've been to multiple palaces on this and other trips and you've seen one you've seen 'em all! A throne here, a wall sized painting of the king's mother's sister's uncle there. You know what I mean. Also, my travel advisor, Kelly Warneke, told me the gardens were more spectacular than the palace, so I took her wonderful advice and spent all my time enjoying the gardens outside. By the way, thank you so much Kelly for all your wonderful advice on Munich and Austria. I followed your instructions for everything and had a fabulous time! You should write a guidebook! :-) So the gardens were huge! Henry and I walked all the way through the gardens and climbed up the big hill in the back to look out over the palace and it was pretty amazing. Around the gardens there's also tree-lined paths with fountains and running paths and benches. The property of the palace seriously takes up acres and acres. We couldn't even walk through the whole thing while we were there. There is a zoo and a maze and who knows what else in the gardens. It was beauitful and lovely!
When we got back into town I went inside the Karlskirche, a beautiful church, and climbed up to the very top to stand in the dome and look out over the city. It was amazing and the frescos in the church are absolutely beautiful. They are working on restoring them right now, which is why you can climb up on the scafolding inside and even get up there. The inside of this church was one of my favorites.
Next the most exciting part of my trip to Vienna: The Vienna Boys' Choir!!!! I can't believe I got to see them sing! They were so cute and amazing! And oh my goodness, some of them could sing higher than I could ever dream of singing. The little boy sopranos were awesome! There were a few soloists and they were all amazing. One of them was a really tall boy who sang high notes over the top of the rest of the choir during a song and I was extremely impressed. Then this super cute little tiny boy who stood next to the tall guy sang a really cute little solo. You could hardly see him over his huge folder. He was cute as a button! The first half was just the boys and it was amazing. The second half was selections from a mass by Mozart and the boys were joined by some men singing tenor and bass as well as an orchestra. It was cool because when Mozart wrote his masses, it was always boy sopranos and altos singing those parts. The boy who sang the soprano solos in the mass was unbelievable. His voices floated to the high notes and came out so pure and beautiful. It gave me the chills. Wow! Amazing! What a cool thing to see the Vienna boys' choir in VIENNA! :-)
Sarah Cusson joined Henry and I in Vienna after the concert! My next stop is Hungary where I will be staying with Sarah. She is teaching English there for a year through LCMS World Missions. She is in Gyor, which is only an hour and a half train ride from Vienna, so she came on over to spend some time in Vienna with us. So we headed to the Haus der Musik, an interactive music museum that is loads of fun! We played around and learned for several hours. Then we walked around downtown and had tortellini and ice cream for dinner.
Henry, Sarah, and I headed to the Naschmarkt the next morning. It is a huge outdoor market with fresh fruits and vegetables and other yummy foods. We also checked out the flea market but didn't find anything we quite liked. We stuck around long enough to get some lunch there. I had some really yummy falafel. After that we wandered around Vienna, walked up Karntner Strasse to look at the souvenier shops, get some starbucks, and just enjoy Vienna and each other's company. We made our way to St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is absolutely beautiful. It looks kind of gothic, but has a colorful tiled roof, so it's a pretty interesting sight. We went inside as well and saw beautiful stained glass windows and the intricate detail in the sculpting inside the church. There is even a spot where a bust of the architect is peeking out of a sculpted window into the church. It's pretty cute. We all enjoyed it. Our time in Vienna was drawing to a close, so Henry bought Sarah and I some homemade wine they were selling at a booth in the street. Henry is one of the most generous people I have ever met. And it was extremely nice of him to take vacation and come along on a week long of crazy adventures with me. I definitely tired him out making him power walk all over the place and see so many things. He was a great travel partner and I'm very thankful for him. Thanks, Henry! :-)
Vienna was pretty much amazing. They even had free water! The first place so far in all my travels in Europe. They had a big drinking fountain that you could fill up your water bottles and drink from. So cool of them. And of course the Vienna boys' choir was slightly cooler than the free water. :-) I'm so glad I got to go there! Now Sarah and I are off to Hungary. At least we won't be thirsty with the free water from Vienna...
Next stop: Schonburnn Palace and Gardens. This place is amazing! The palace is huge and beautiful and the gardens are AMAZING!!! We didn't actually go in the palace because it was a ridiculous 15 euro or something like that for a 50 minute tour. And I've been to multiple palaces on this and other trips and you've seen one you've seen 'em all! A throne here, a wall sized painting of the king's mother's sister's uncle there. You know what I mean. Also, my travel advisor, Kelly Warneke, told me the gardens were more spectacular than the palace, so I took her wonderful advice and spent all my time enjoying the gardens outside. By the way, thank you so much Kelly for all your wonderful advice on Munich and Austria. I followed your instructions for everything and had a fabulous time! You should write a guidebook! :-) So the gardens were huge! Henry and I walked all the way through the gardens and climbed up the big hill in the back to look out over the palace and it was pretty amazing. Around the gardens there's also tree-lined paths with fountains and running paths and benches. The property of the palace seriously takes up acres and acres. We couldn't even walk through the whole thing while we were there. There is a zoo and a maze and who knows what else in the gardens. It was beauitful and lovely!
When we got back into town I went inside the Karlskirche, a beautiful church, and climbed up to the very top to stand in the dome and look out over the city. It was amazing and the frescos in the church are absolutely beautiful. They are working on restoring them right now, which is why you can climb up on the scafolding inside and even get up there. The inside of this church was one of my favorites.
Next the most exciting part of my trip to Vienna: The Vienna Boys' Choir!!!! I can't believe I got to see them sing! They were so cute and amazing! And oh my goodness, some of them could sing higher than I could ever dream of singing. The little boy sopranos were awesome! There were a few soloists and they were all amazing. One of them was a really tall boy who sang high notes over the top of the rest of the choir during a song and I was extremely impressed. Then this super cute little tiny boy who stood next to the tall guy sang a really cute little solo. You could hardly see him over his huge folder. He was cute as a button! The first half was just the boys and it was amazing. The second half was selections from a mass by Mozart and the boys were joined by some men singing tenor and bass as well as an orchestra. It was cool because when Mozart wrote his masses, it was always boy sopranos and altos singing those parts. The boy who sang the soprano solos in the mass was unbelievable. His voices floated to the high notes and came out so pure and beautiful. It gave me the chills. Wow! Amazing! What a cool thing to see the Vienna boys' choir in VIENNA! :-)
Sarah Cusson joined Henry and I in Vienna after the concert! My next stop is Hungary where I will be staying with Sarah. She is teaching English there for a year through LCMS World Missions. She is in Gyor, which is only an hour and a half train ride from Vienna, so she came on over to spend some time in Vienna with us. So we headed to the Haus der Musik, an interactive music museum that is loads of fun! We played around and learned for several hours. Then we walked around downtown and had tortellini and ice cream for dinner.
Henry, Sarah, and I headed to the Naschmarkt the next morning. It is a huge outdoor market with fresh fruits and vegetables and other yummy foods. We also checked out the flea market but didn't find anything we quite liked. We stuck around long enough to get some lunch there. I had some really yummy falafel. After that we wandered around Vienna, walked up Karntner Strasse to look at the souvenier shops, get some starbucks, and just enjoy Vienna and each other's company. We made our way to St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is absolutely beautiful. It looks kind of gothic, but has a colorful tiled roof, so it's a pretty interesting sight. We went inside as well and saw beautiful stained glass windows and the intricate detail in the sculpting inside the church. There is even a spot where a bust of the architect is peeking out of a sculpted window into the church. It's pretty cute. We all enjoyed it. Our time in Vienna was drawing to a close, so Henry bought Sarah and I some homemade wine they were selling at a booth in the street. Henry is one of the most generous people I have ever met. And it was extremely nice of him to take vacation and come along on a week long of crazy adventures with me. I definitely tired him out making him power walk all over the place and see so many things. He was a great travel partner and I'm very thankful for him. Thanks, Henry! :-)
Vienna was pretty much amazing. They even had free water! The first place so far in all my travels in Europe. They had a big drinking fountain that you could fill up your water bottles and drink from. So cool of them. And of course the Vienna boys' choir was slightly cooler than the free water. :-) I'm so glad I got to go there! Now Sarah and I are off to Hungary. At least we won't be thirsty with the free water from Vienna...
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Hallstatt, Austria
Next stop: The beautiful town of Hallstatt, Austria. A friend recommended the town to me before I embarked on this adventure, but I wasn't quite sure I could squeeze it in. But while touring the UN in Geneva, my mom and I were looking at a display with beautiful photos of the most beautiful places on the earth, and guess which city there was a photo of? That's right, Circle Pines, Minnesota! Just kidding. Hallstatt, Austria! So I definitely had to see it, and I'm very glad I did.
The small town of Hallstatt is nestled between a mountain and a lake. It is tiny and cute and actually incredibly historic. Inside the mountain, people have been mining salt for thousands of years. That's right, thousands! Archaeologists have discovered tools dating back to B.C. made from antlers and other animal parts. In the 1700s they even discovered a the body of a man in the mine that had been preserved in the salt! He apparently was the victim of some sort of collapse inside the mine and today's scientists believe he is around 1500 years old. That's pretty cool if you ask me. Henry and I even went on a tour of the salt mine and got to see a ton of what they used to call "white gold." It was very interesting and fun. We had to wear these super trendy special outfits and to get from one level of the mine to another we went down this really long slides. It was pretty sweet. Or salty rather...
Just walking around Hallstatt was beautiful and the view of the city lakeside was picturesque. I'm really glad we were able to fit it into our schedule.
The small town of Hallstatt is nestled between a mountain and a lake. It is tiny and cute and actually incredibly historic. Inside the mountain, people have been mining salt for thousands of years. That's right, thousands! Archaeologists have discovered tools dating back to B.C. made from antlers and other animal parts. In the 1700s they even discovered a the body of a man in the mine that had been preserved in the salt! He apparently was the victim of some sort of collapse inside the mine and today's scientists believe he is around 1500 years old. That's pretty cool if you ask me. Henry and I even went on a tour of the salt mine and got to see a ton of what they used to call "white gold." It was very interesting and fun. We had to wear these super trendy special outfits and to get from one level of the mine to another we went down this really long slides. It was pretty sweet. Or salty rather...
Just walking around Hallstatt was beautiful and the view of the city lakeside was picturesque. I'm really glad we were able to fit it into our schedule.
Salzburg, Austria
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC AH AH AH AH
I was so excited to be in the city where the most cherished American musical was filmed. Henry and I arrived in the afternoon, so we headed out to the Hellbrunn Palace and Gardens for a bit of fun. We toured the palace, which was okay, but it was the garden tour I was really looking forward to. The dude who designed the place definitely had a sense of humor and loved water! As the guide led us through the gardens, surprise fountains would go off and get everyone wet along the way. I was entering a little building and all the sudden I looked down to find that there were small fountains of water drenching my shoes. The coolest part was a big picnic table the prince or duke or whoever it was that lived in the palace used for entertaining guests in the garden. All he had to do was give a signal and water would shoot out of the benches the guests were sitting on and it was forbidden to stand in the presence of sitting royalty, so the guests had to endure their soaking bottoms! Water also shot out from all directions around the table drenching everyone. The only seat that stayed completely dry was of course that of the duke or prince or whatever his title is at the head of the table. Besides being really fun and full of surprises, the gardens were really beautiful.
In the evening we went to the oldest restaurant in Europe called the Stiftskeller St. Peter. We had a wonderful dinner and also enjoyed a concert. The music was all composed by Mozart because Salzburg is the birthplace of dear Wolfgang. On the way to dinner we even saw Mozart's birthplace and his adult home when he was living in Salzburg. The concert was really fun. A string quintet played beautifully and male and female soloists sang and entertained us all. It was absolutely wonderful! Henry and I sat next to a lovely couple on their honeymoon and really enjoyed chatting with them all night. (Hello to Nicole and Ben if you're reading!)
The next morning brought the reason I decided to come to Salzburg: The Sound of Music Tour! I said "so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good-bye" to Henry (he has never seen the movie if you can believe it!) and skipped down the street to the big red bus waiting to show me all the wonderful sights from the film. If you want to know all that I saw you'll have to come to my sing-a-long Sound of Music party and I will gladly show you as we watch and sing. :-) But it was certainly delightful and I took a lot of pictures. They played the soundtrack on the bus and I sang along loud and proud!
Salzburg is a beautiful city with a lot to see and do. I loved all the old and beautiful buildings and fun things to see. I also had a Mozart kugle (sp?) A chocolate ball with a cookie-like inside that was just delicious. Henry was adament that I must try one while I was in the composers birthplace and I'm glad I did!
I was so excited to be in the city where the most cherished American musical was filmed. Henry and I arrived in the afternoon, so we headed out to the Hellbrunn Palace and Gardens for a bit of fun. We toured the palace, which was okay, but it was the garden tour I was really looking forward to. The dude who designed the place definitely had a sense of humor and loved water! As the guide led us through the gardens, surprise fountains would go off and get everyone wet along the way. I was entering a little building and all the sudden I looked down to find that there were small fountains of water drenching my shoes. The coolest part was a big picnic table the prince or duke or whoever it was that lived in the palace used for entertaining guests in the garden. All he had to do was give a signal and water would shoot out of the benches the guests were sitting on and it was forbidden to stand in the presence of sitting royalty, so the guests had to endure their soaking bottoms! Water also shot out from all directions around the table drenching everyone. The only seat that stayed completely dry was of course that of the duke or prince or whatever his title is at the head of the table. Besides being really fun and full of surprises, the gardens were really beautiful.
In the evening we went to the oldest restaurant in Europe called the Stiftskeller St. Peter. We had a wonderful dinner and also enjoyed a concert. The music was all composed by Mozart because Salzburg is the birthplace of dear Wolfgang. On the way to dinner we even saw Mozart's birthplace and his adult home when he was living in Salzburg. The concert was really fun. A string quintet played beautifully and male and female soloists sang and entertained us all. It was absolutely wonderful! Henry and I sat next to a lovely couple on their honeymoon and really enjoyed chatting with them all night. (Hello to Nicole and Ben if you're reading!)
The next morning brought the reason I decided to come to Salzburg: The Sound of Music Tour! I said "so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good-bye" to Henry (he has never seen the movie if you can believe it!) and skipped down the street to the big red bus waiting to show me all the wonderful sights from the film. If you want to know all that I saw you'll have to come to my sing-a-long Sound of Music party and I will gladly show you as we watch and sing. :-) But it was certainly delightful and I took a lot of pictures. They played the soundtrack on the bus and I sang along loud and proud!
Salzburg is a beautiful city with a lot to see and do. I loved all the old and beautiful buildings and fun things to see. I also had a Mozart kugle (sp?) A chocolate ball with a cookie-like inside that was just delicious. Henry was adament that I must try one while I was in the composers birthplace and I'm glad I did!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Dachau Concentration Camp
It's hard to put into words what visiting a concentration camp was like. I think it's very important to learn from past mistakes. To enter the memorial, I walked through the same gate the prisoners walked through on their way into the camp. The iron gate said "work will set you free." But many of the innocent people who walked through that gate never got the chance to walk back through the gate into freedom.
I walked around on land where horrible things took place and innocent people died for no reason whatsoever. The memorial was definitely very moving. The stories told on the audio guide by prisoners in that very camp were unsettling. And the documentary we saw at the camp was extremely graphic. It's hard to imagine that humans could do those things to each other. We walked in the crematoriums and saw pictures of the bodies found piled up next to the ovens because there were too many casualties for them to even handle.
Dachau was the first concentration camp that existed. And all the guards were trained at Dachau before they were sent to other camps. Hearing about the medical experiments they used to perform and torture they used to inflict upon the prisoners was disturbing. This is a very sad part of our world's history, but the only thing we can do now is learn from it and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
I walked around on land where horrible things took place and innocent people died for no reason whatsoever. The memorial was definitely very moving. The stories told on the audio guide by prisoners in that very camp were unsettling. And the documentary we saw at the camp was extremely graphic. It's hard to imagine that humans could do those things to each other. We walked in the crematoriums and saw pictures of the bodies found piled up next to the ovens because there were too many casualties for them to even handle.
Dachau was the first concentration camp that existed. And all the guards were trained at Dachau before they were sent to other camps. Hearing about the medical experiments they used to perform and torture they used to inflict upon the prisoners was disturbing. This is a very sad part of our world's history, but the only thing we can do now is learn from it and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Munich, Germany
Munich was a blast! There is a company that basically caters to backpackers and offers a free walking tour of the city. And it's three hours long! So you definitely get your money's worth. :-) So we basically saw everything we wanted to see in Munich on the tour and also heard all about the history of Munich. It was extremely interesting and fun. Some of the highlights of the tour were the huge Glockenspiel that goes off three times every day. It plays music and the lifesize figurines dance around. There is even a jousting tournament and of course the Bavarian knight knocks the French knight off his horse. It's really funny. And at the end there is an owl (why it is an owl I do not know) who waddles forward, opens his wings, and says "Coo, coo, coo." And then it's over. It was pretty sweet.
I learned a lot about Hitler and the Third Reich. We saw the window where Hitler and his buddies celebrated the anniversary of the Crystalnacht. Interesting stuff. Also went into the the Church of Our Lady and saw the "Devil's footprint." We learned a cool story inside this church. It was basically destroyed in the war, so when the city was trying to rebuild it after the war, several church congregations were pitching in and helping and all the churches who helped got to put their church seal painted on the ceiling. The tour guide pointed out a crest with a Jewish manorah on it and explained that after World War II, when it was time to rebuild, one of the local synagogues, who also had to rebuild their church, took time to pitch in and help rebuild this Catholic Church. Isn't that amazing! I got chills just hearing about it. What amazing people to put religion aside, even after such a devastating time of persecution, and pitch in to help rebuild. Wow!
We also visited the Hofbrauhaus, the world's most famous beer hall and heard stories about it's origins. Apparently, it didn't used to have any bathrooms, so the men had to go outside to go to the bathroom. But it was quite the popular place, so if they got up they lost their seat and they also probably lost their beer. So as a solution, the managers of the beer hall made these big troughs under the tables so the men could just relieve themselves right under the table as they drank and it would flow down the floor to the outside of the building and into the gutter in the street. Luckily, they have now installed bathrooms, so it is much cleaner and better smelling these days.
After our lovely tour of the city, we took a nice stroll out to this big park which just happened to be the location for Oktoberfest! I had assumed that Oktoberfest happened the whole month of October, but in actuality it is only a couple of weekends and we just happened to be in Munich for the last night of Oktoberfest. Lucky us! Oktoberfest is a HUGE celebration. There were carnival rides and food stands and all sorts of crazy things in the park. But the most popular place is the big tent with all the beer. There a a bunch of tables and you have to try to squeeze onto a table with a bunch of other people. It was packed with women in traditional dress and men in liederhosen. They were all standing on the benches or even up on the table dancing and singing along with the band. And they seriously were swinging their glasses back and forth with the music exactly how you would picture it. Henry and I managed to find a table with a couple of spots left. We ended up next to a group of five lovely people from Italy, a guy from Russia who was very drunk, and a guy from Prague. We were friends right away, because it's Oktoberfest and everyone is friends there, and before I could say "one small beer please" I had a HUGE liter size mug in my hand and was toasting to everything under the sun with everyone at the table. Every time I tried to sit down everyone was yelling at me to get up and toast to something else or dance or just swing my beer back and forth. It was pretty ridiculous. I was really excited about the HUGE pretzel I bought though. It was the size of my head and was pretty delicious. I guess they don't do small sizes at Oktoberfest. Needless to say, the evening was quite the experience. I really enjoyed the group of Italians. They were really nice and a lot of fun! I spent the whole evening there just laughing and enjoying how jovial everyone was at the huge party. The band played a ton of English songs, so I could sing along and I even learned one of the German drinking songs they played over and over again. I think being at Oktoberfest for an evening was one of those crazy unique experiences I will always remember. :-) The next morning I couldn't figure out why I had this big bruise on the skin between my thumb and my pointer finger on the side of my hand. And then I realized that I was trying to hold my huge heavy mug full of beer like the Germans do with my hand around the side of the mug inside the handle and the top of the handle resting on my hand. And it was so heavy it bruised my hand! I guess I shouldn't have toasted so much. :-)
The next day we did some more cool stuff around the city. We went to St. Peter's church because I wanted to say hi to St. Mondita. Here skeleton is laying there in the church all dressed up in jewels and whatnot. St.Mondita just happens to be the patron Saint of Lonely Women. So we bonded for a few minutes. She taught me an important lesson. There she was on a little couch. Laying back with all her jewelry and finest clothes on. Waiting for the perfect man to come along. And guess what? She's still there...
So we were off to the 300+ stair climb to the top of St.Peter's tower. From there you get a spectacular view of the city and it was such a clear day we could see the Swiss Alps! We also watched the Glockenspiel go off again from up in the tower. Perfect timing!
Definitely got our exercise when we hiked all the way out to the Englischer Garden with it's beautiful Chinese Tower. The gardens were beautiful. They were like Munich's answer to Central Park. Huge! And lovely just to walk around or enjoy a picnic there. Then we hoofed it back into town and went to the Deutches Museum, the only thing Henry requested of our whole trip. We got to see gliders and planes and boats and machines. Basically a bunch of guy stuff but I did find it quite interesting.
All in all, Munich was pretty amazing! I'm really glad I got to go there.
I learned a lot about Hitler and the Third Reich. We saw the window where Hitler and his buddies celebrated the anniversary of the Crystalnacht. Interesting stuff. Also went into the the Church of Our Lady and saw the "Devil's footprint." We learned a cool story inside this church. It was basically destroyed in the war, so when the city was trying to rebuild it after the war, several church congregations were pitching in and helping and all the churches who helped got to put their church seal painted on the ceiling. The tour guide pointed out a crest with a Jewish manorah on it and explained that after World War II, when it was time to rebuild, one of the local synagogues, who also had to rebuild their church, took time to pitch in and help rebuild this Catholic Church. Isn't that amazing! I got chills just hearing about it. What amazing people to put religion aside, even after such a devastating time of persecution, and pitch in to help rebuild. Wow!
We also visited the Hofbrauhaus, the world's most famous beer hall and heard stories about it's origins. Apparently, it didn't used to have any bathrooms, so the men had to go outside to go to the bathroom. But it was quite the popular place, so if they got up they lost their seat and they also probably lost their beer. So as a solution, the managers of the beer hall made these big troughs under the tables so the men could just relieve themselves right under the table as they drank and it would flow down the floor to the outside of the building and into the gutter in the street. Luckily, they have now installed bathrooms, so it is much cleaner and better smelling these days.
After our lovely tour of the city, we took a nice stroll out to this big park which just happened to be the location for Oktoberfest! I had assumed that Oktoberfest happened the whole month of October, but in actuality it is only a couple of weekends and we just happened to be in Munich for the last night of Oktoberfest. Lucky us! Oktoberfest is a HUGE celebration. There were carnival rides and food stands and all sorts of crazy things in the park. But the most popular place is the big tent with all the beer. There a a bunch of tables and you have to try to squeeze onto a table with a bunch of other people. It was packed with women in traditional dress and men in liederhosen. They were all standing on the benches or even up on the table dancing and singing along with the band. And they seriously were swinging their glasses back and forth with the music exactly how you would picture it. Henry and I managed to find a table with a couple of spots left. We ended up next to a group of five lovely people from Italy, a guy from Russia who was very drunk, and a guy from Prague. We were friends right away, because it's Oktoberfest and everyone is friends there, and before I could say "one small beer please" I had a HUGE liter size mug in my hand and was toasting to everything under the sun with everyone at the table. Every time I tried to sit down everyone was yelling at me to get up and toast to something else or dance or just swing my beer back and forth. It was pretty ridiculous. I was really excited about the HUGE pretzel I bought though. It was the size of my head and was pretty delicious. I guess they don't do small sizes at Oktoberfest. Needless to say, the evening was quite the experience. I really enjoyed the group of Italians. They were really nice and a lot of fun! I spent the whole evening there just laughing and enjoying how jovial everyone was at the huge party. The band played a ton of English songs, so I could sing along and I even learned one of the German drinking songs they played over and over again. I think being at Oktoberfest for an evening was one of those crazy unique experiences I will always remember. :-) The next morning I couldn't figure out why I had this big bruise on the skin between my thumb and my pointer finger on the side of my hand. And then I realized that I was trying to hold my huge heavy mug full of beer like the Germans do with my hand around the side of the mug inside the handle and the top of the handle resting on my hand. And it was so heavy it bruised my hand! I guess I shouldn't have toasted so much. :-)
The next day we did some more cool stuff around the city. We went to St. Peter's church because I wanted to say hi to St. Mondita. Here skeleton is laying there in the church all dressed up in jewels and whatnot. St.Mondita just happens to be the patron Saint of Lonely Women. So we bonded for a few minutes. She taught me an important lesson. There she was on a little couch. Laying back with all her jewelry and finest clothes on. Waiting for the perfect man to come along. And guess what? She's still there...
So we were off to the 300+ stair climb to the top of St.Peter's tower. From there you get a spectacular view of the city and it was such a clear day we could see the Swiss Alps! We also watched the Glockenspiel go off again from up in the tower. Perfect timing!
Definitely got our exercise when we hiked all the way out to the Englischer Garden with it's beautiful Chinese Tower. The gardens were beautiful. They were like Munich's answer to Central Park. Huge! And lovely just to walk around or enjoy a picnic there. Then we hoofed it back into town and went to the Deutches Museum, the only thing Henry requested of our whole trip. We got to see gliders and planes and boats and machines. Basically a bunch of guy stuff but I did find it quite interesting.
All in all, Munich was pretty amazing! I'm really glad I got to go there.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Neuschwanstein
So while at Henry's house in Switzerland, I was telling him about my plans for my upcoming travels in Austria and Henry said, "I've never visited Salzburg or Vienna, I'm retiring at the end of the year, and I have two weeks of vacation left. How about if I come with you?" And I said, "Throw in a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest and you've got yourself a deal." So Henry took off of work and I have myself a travel buddy. Perfect. So since we were heading to Munich first, we absolutely had to stop off on the way and see the Schloss Neuschwanstein. It is a HUGE castle in Germany. If you take a look at my pictures, you may notice that it looks a bit familiar. If you've ever been to Disney World, you should recognize it, because this castle was the inspiration for Cinderella's Castle! Isn't that cool?! We arrived in town to find that it was a 40 min. hike up to the castle. But that just wouldn't do. So I called my fairy godmother and we were wisked away up to the castle in a horse drawn carriage! The castle was pretty amazing. The guy who created it definitely lived in a fairy tale world. There was a corridor that led to his bedroom that was designed to look like you were walking through a cave. It was pretty sweet. And he had this really cool bed that had all this woodwork on it and had these big curtains around it, so he could close them and be in his own little cave of a bed. (Matt Preston, you would have loved the cave like bed thing! I think you should get one.) And the ballroom was gorgeous with beautifully painted walls. The castle also had a beautiful view of a really pretty lake. And after the tour of the inside, we hiked around to a bridge that gave us a wonderful view of the castle as well (minus the scaffolding.) I really enjoyed seeing this huge fairytale castle. I couldn't imagine living in a place like that. But if any princes are reading this blog, I would definitely be willing to give it a try.
Liechtenstein
That's right. I went to Liechtenstein. Pretty much the most exciting country EVER! I saw the huge castle that is the residence of the Furst (pretty much the King of Liechtenstein.) They were having a street fair and carnival when I was there. I'm not sure what the occasion was. Maybe there wasn't an occasion. Maybe Liechtenstein is just cool like that. So I got myself a nice Liechtenstein bookmark so I can remember it always and sampled what they call Maroni. It's a chestnut cooked in these big cooker thingys so the shells crack open and you can kind of pop the soft cooked nut part in your mouth. They were pretty yummy. And that was pretty much it. Off to the next country.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Briefly away
I'm heading to Munich, Salzburg, Halstatt, and Vienna for the next week. I don't think I'll have much access to the internet, so I probably won't be blogging much. But keep the comments coming. I really enjoy reading them and they always brighten my day.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Italy!!!
I did see the airport in Rome, but I always say just being in the airport on a layover doesn't actually count as having been to the country. So now I actually have been to Italy!! Basically, we got off the train, ordered gelati, I spilled it all over my leather wallet from Frankfurt, and then we left. :-) The gelati was really yummy though! And the weather was so warm in Italy. I loved it! We walked up and down the streets of Tirano a little, but there was barely anything there. So I bought a postcard from a little souvenier stand, wrote and mailed it from Italy, and then we hopped on our bus for our drive through the top of Italy. It was a three hour drive across the top of the boot. We were basically in a valley the whole time with vineyards covering the hills on either side of us. The real beauty came when we drove by Lake Como. It definitely beats Lake Como in Minnesota. And Lake Lugano was next, which was gorgeous as well. And then we arrived in Lugano, and we were back in Switzerland. I'll definitely have to get to the rest of Italy some day.
3 day trip around Switzerland
Mom and I decided to view as much scenery as possible. So we took three days worth of scenic trips. First we rode the Glacier Express from Brig to St.Moritz. The scenery was definitely lovely, the train was really nice, and we even got to hear some commentary about what we were seeing. We walked around St. Moritz a little when we got there. It is a posh little Swiss town where everyone participates in winter sports. The lake that the town sits on is beautiful. We rode the bus over to Pontresina and then took a cable car up to Mouttas Muragl, where our hotel was located! That's right, we spent the night on top of a mountain!!!! That's not something you get to do everyday. Our view was wonderful. We could see St. Moritz and the lake right from the hotel. And we sat right at the window for breakfast and enjoyed the view while we ate. Then we hopped on the Bernina Express all the way down to Tirano, Italy. I will write a special blog about Italy, so we'll skip over to Lugano, Switzerland, our next stop. Our hotel was right by the train station, very convenient. But we hiked down to the downtown area to sit by Lake Lugano and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. Lugano was a very nice city. It was nice and warm and beautiful. We had a pizza for dinner because we were right across the border from Italy and in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. Then we hiked up the hill all the way back up to our hotel.
Day three we took the Wilhelm Tell Express from Lugano to a big lake where we got on a boat and cruised on the lake for three hours all the way to Lucern. My favorite part of the day was cruising on the lake. It was beautiful to be on water surrounded by mountains. We kept pulling up to these cute little towns that sat right on the lake. It was very picturesque.
In Lucern, we had some coffee right by the famous wooden bridge. I think we were both ready to head back to Bern after three long travel days. But the scenery was wonderful. Switzerland really is a beautiful country.
Day three we took the Wilhelm Tell Express from Lugano to a big lake where we got on a boat and cruised on the lake for three hours all the way to Lucern. My favorite part of the day was cruising on the lake. It was beautiful to be on water surrounded by mountains. We kept pulling up to these cute little towns that sat right on the lake. It was very picturesque.
In Lucern, we had some coffee right by the famous wooden bridge. I think we were both ready to head back to Bern after three long travel days. But the scenery was wonderful. Switzerland really is a beautiful country.
Waterfalls, Lakes, and Mountains, oh my!
Henry has taken us all over the place to see Switzerland. The countryside is gorgeous and there is a ton to do here. We went to Trummelback Falls and climbed around inside a bunch of caves to see more than 10 waterfalls. We also saw a beautiful waterfall cascading down the mountainside with the sun shining right on it. It was amazing! We also went to Grindelwald and sat outside drinking coffee and looking at the mountains. I don't know how you could ever get sick of being outside here! We saw lake Brieuz and got a view of the three famous mountain tops: Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. Then we went to Giessback Falls. This was a really long waterfall that you could walk behind. The pictures of the beautiful hotel overlooking the lake are from this waterfall. We basically drove the GoldenPass line in Switzerland and saw some beautiful scenery over the Brunig Pass and ended up in Lucerne where we saw the wooden bridge that is the icon of the city.
Henry took us to an old city that used to be occupied by the Romans. There was an old amphitheater there that is from that time period and we got to climb all over it and also explore the museum inside and see a lot of Roman artifacts. I found it extremely interesting. We drove through a town called Nuechatelle and saw a beautiful lake there. Then we headed to a wine tasting and also sampled some delicious mushrooms and apple-fritter like things. We met some really fun Swiss people and enjoyed toasting to all kinds of things. Prost!
Cable Cars are really popular around here. I think I've had at least 10 cable car rides since I've been here. The best one was the steepest cable car in Switzerland. It was 106% grade. It was kind of scary, I'll admit it. But once we got to the top we saw the most beautiful scenery. There was a lake up there tucked in the mountain tops with the most beautiful blue water. We ran down a small path and used rocks to write my name on a rock face so people who were walking around the lake could see it. It was pretty fun.
Next stop was a glacier! We even got to walk inside of the glacier in a tunnel. It was pretty cool. Pun intended.
Eggishorn was probably my favorite mountain. We had to take 2 cable cars to get up there and then we literally did some rock climbing and made our way over to another peak with a 360 degree view. It was super fun and amazing! I love stuff like that!
Switzerland definitely takes the cake as far as scenery goes. It is beautiful everywhere you go.
Henry took us to an old city that used to be occupied by the Romans. There was an old amphitheater there that is from that time period and we got to climb all over it and also explore the museum inside and see a lot of Roman artifacts. I found it extremely interesting. We drove through a town called Nuechatelle and saw a beautiful lake there. Then we headed to a wine tasting and also sampled some delicious mushrooms and apple-fritter like things. We met some really fun Swiss people and enjoyed toasting to all kinds of things. Prost!
Cable Cars are really popular around here. I think I've had at least 10 cable car rides since I've been here. The best one was the steepest cable car in Switzerland. It was 106% grade. It was kind of scary, I'll admit it. But once we got to the top we saw the most beautiful scenery. There was a lake up there tucked in the mountain tops with the most beautiful blue water. We ran down a small path and used rocks to write my name on a rock face so people who were walking around the lake could see it. It was pretty fun.
Next stop was a glacier! We even got to walk inside of the glacier in a tunnel. It was pretty cool. Pun intended.
Eggishorn was probably my favorite mountain. We had to take 2 cable cars to get up there and then we literally did some rock climbing and made our way over to another peak with a 360 degree view. It was super fun and amazing! I love stuff like that!
Switzerland definitely takes the cake as far as scenery goes. It is beautiful everywhere you go.
Geneva
Geneva was really fun! The city is really beautiful right on the waters of Lake Geneva. The big fountain that is usually blasting up into the air was turned off because of the wind, but we still saw some pretty cool stuff. Like a huge flower clock, a free museum, a mausoleum some rich guy paid the city to build in honor of him, and a nice cathedral. Then we headed off on the bus to the United Nations!!! This was the coolest part. We had to go through airport-like security to get there and then we got a special badge with our picture on it and everything. How's that for official UN business. Had a really cool tour and got to see where all the conventions are held and everything. It was very interesting. Does anyone know the only two countries that aren't part of the UN? Because I do.
After the UN we went across the street to the Red Cross Museum. Did you know that the Red Cross was founded in Switzerland? That's why the symbol is a red cross. Because they just inverted the Swiss flag! We learned a lot of cool things about the red cross in the museum about which I will be quizzing my cousin-in-law, Julie, who works for the R.C. :-)
All in all, a good day. Both the UN and Red Cross were really cool and Geneva was beautiful.
After the UN we went across the street to the Red Cross Museum. Did you know that the Red Cross was founded in Switzerland? That's why the symbol is a red cross. Because they just inverted the Swiss flag! We learned a lot of cool things about the red cross in the museum about which I will be quizzing my cousin-in-law, Julie, who works for the R.C. :-)
All in all, a good day. Both the UN and Red Cross were really cool and Geneva was beautiful.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Zermatt
Okay, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I have been having so much fun in Switzerland, I haven't had time to write at all! Just so everyone is up to speed, I will backtrack a little. My mom decided to fly over to Switzerland because it is her friend that I'm staying with and she hasn't visited for quite awhile. I certainly appreciated the idea of having a travel partner after my experiences in the beginning of my trip, so that may have influenced the idea of coming over as well. And she had a lot of frequent flyer miles to use. So free trip to Switzerland? Why not?
Our first day here we took the train to Zermatt. After filling out a day on my Eurail pass, I was riding happily along on the train. Then the ticket checker dude (that's the Swiss German name for them) came and asked for my ticket. So I showed him my Eurail pass only to discover that I was on a "private train" (a.k.a. we use the same tracks as every other train we just want to charge more because we're dumb) and my Eurail pass wasn't valid. So I had to pay 50 franks to ride the train to Zermatt and back. Does anyone know how to say "that's a bunch of baloney" in Swiss German?
Zermatt was a super cute town and it was fun just to walk up and down the streets. But it's really a ski town, so there weren't a ton of people because it's not quite ski season yet. It was absolutely freezing, so we had a hot chocolate and just looked out over the cute streets. Then we decided to take a little train up to Gornergratt so we could have a nice view of the Matterhorn. Well, guess what? Another "private train." I did get a 25% discount, but it was 57 Franks for the return trip. But hey, I'm only here once. And they seem to know that everywhere I go based on the price of everything! The train ride up was quite scenic. We even saw a groundhog running along the hills. We arrived at the top for our scenic view... and we were standing in a cloud of fog. (see pictures. it's the one where I look pretty disappointed.) So we went inside the world's highest mall and ate the lunch we packed for ourselves. We had a nice chat with Roy and his wife who were from Houston. (By the way, Roy, if you're reading, I have a wonderful picture of the Matterhorn if you'd like me to email it to you.) The weather never cleared up. On the way down I saw just a sliver of the side of the Matterhorn through the clouds and that was it. So let's see. The grand total for my trip to the "Matterhorn" (if it even really exists) was 107 Franks. Next time I will take the same amount of money and go to Disneyland two days in a row where I can always see the entire Matterhorn, the train ride is way more entertaining, and I don't have to dress like an Eskimo. Not that there's anything wrong with Eskimos. I think they are very fashionable and practical for the climate in which they live. (Trying to keep this blog as P.C. as possible. I need to remain neutral because, you know, when in Rome... Speaking of, the Romans actually did have colonies in this area. I went to a museum about it and everything. But you'll hear about that later.) :-) So anyway, the trip to the Matterhorn was a bit of a bust. But you just can't know what the weather will be like when you head off for these things. And I did enjoy Zermott and Gornergratt. And as you know from my previous blog, I got to see the Matterhorn on a perfectly clear day with no clouds in front of it or anything! And it was amazing. So in the end it all worked out. It always does. And now I don't have to spend money at Disneyland when I get back to CA.
Our first day here we took the train to Zermatt. After filling out a day on my Eurail pass, I was riding happily along on the train. Then the ticket checker dude (that's the Swiss German name for them) came and asked for my ticket. So I showed him my Eurail pass only to discover that I was on a "private train" (a.k.a. we use the same tracks as every other train we just want to charge more because we're dumb) and my Eurail pass wasn't valid. So I had to pay 50 franks to ride the train to Zermatt and back. Does anyone know how to say "that's a bunch of baloney" in Swiss German?
Zermatt was a super cute town and it was fun just to walk up and down the streets. But it's really a ski town, so there weren't a ton of people because it's not quite ski season yet. It was absolutely freezing, so we had a hot chocolate and just looked out over the cute streets. Then we decided to take a little train up to Gornergratt so we could have a nice view of the Matterhorn. Well, guess what? Another "private train." I did get a 25% discount, but it was 57 Franks for the return trip. But hey, I'm only here once. And they seem to know that everywhere I go based on the price of everything! The train ride up was quite scenic. We even saw a groundhog running along the hills. We arrived at the top for our scenic view... and we were standing in a cloud of fog. (see pictures. it's the one where I look pretty disappointed.) So we went inside the world's highest mall and ate the lunch we packed for ourselves. We had a nice chat with Roy and his wife who were from Houston. (By the way, Roy, if you're reading, I have a wonderful picture of the Matterhorn if you'd like me to email it to you.) The weather never cleared up. On the way down I saw just a sliver of the side of the Matterhorn through the clouds and that was it. So let's see. The grand total for my trip to the "Matterhorn" (if it even really exists) was 107 Franks. Next time I will take the same amount of money and go to Disneyland two days in a row where I can always see the entire Matterhorn, the train ride is way more entertaining, and I don't have to dress like an Eskimo. Not that there's anything wrong with Eskimos. I think they are very fashionable and practical for the climate in which they live. (Trying to keep this blog as P.C. as possible. I need to remain neutral because, you know, when in Rome... Speaking of, the Romans actually did have colonies in this area. I went to a museum about it and everything. But you'll hear about that later.) :-) So anyway, the trip to the Matterhorn was a bit of a bust. But you just can't know what the weather will be like when you head off for these things. And I did enjoy Zermott and Gornergratt. And as you know from my previous blog, I got to see the Matterhorn on a perfectly clear day with no clouds in front of it or anything! And it was amazing. So in the end it all worked out. It always does. And now I don't have to spend money at Disneyland when I get back to CA.
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