To all my loyal readers:
It's been a while. Too long to catch up, actually, so the next few posts are basically just going to be a photographic summary of my last couple of months around Europe (and a bit of Africa). If you want to know the stories -- and of course there are stories -- we'll talk some time.
You know the pictures are always your favorite parts, anyways...
Friday, March 28, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Paris...
Where to start…
Friday 2 weeks ago I woke up early to go to my internship and spent 3 hours shelving yogurts and dairy products, then checking off which butters were on the shelves… and then ran home, grabbed my bags, and headed to the train station.
I made it just fine, but there was some sort of problem with the train that made the trip about an hour longer, and by the time I met up with my friend Becca in Paris we were the last two people to register for the flight (and ended up in the very back row). A couple hours later we were in Prague! Our friend Nicole came to the airport to meet us and bring us back to her apartment. She’s been living in Prague for a few more months than I’ve been in France teaching in an international preschool, and she is still going to be there for more than a year. She has family there, has found herself a wonderful boyfriend, and is very happy :)
Becca and I were really lucky to have Nicole, first to have a place to stay and second to have someone show us around the city for a couple days. Prague is beautiful; the architecture and the buildings are amazing. Nicole told us the Nazis left it pretty much alone because they thought it was beautiful. Unfortunately, even though they haven’t yet adopted the Euro, they’re getting ready to and Prague wasn’t as cheap as I was expecting it to be. Also, we had amazing weather. We got bundled up and ready to go explore on Saturday morning, and 10 feet out the door had to turn around and ditch hats, coats, etc.—it was like summer! Perfect for walking around the city. We saw the Prague Castle and Cathedral, Old Town Square, the Charles bridge, the Moldau (the river) the dancing house, etc. Becca and I really enjoyed seeing Nicole and hanging out with her and her roommate.
Nicole and I
Monday morning Becca and I left and headed to the train station to catch our train for Budapest. We got there and on the train without any problems and stretched out and relaxed for a relaxing 7-hour train ride….for about 4 hours, before the controller passing through our car looked at our tickets and informed us rather off-handedly that the train was not going to Budapest because of “strike”. Other than that she had very little information for us and no suggestions of what we should do. After a couple seconds of panic I realized that there wasn’t too much we could do about it, and decided to wait and see what happened. At every stop we went through, the signs still said the destination was Budapest, and there were no announcements on the train to indicate any differently.
We heard some people speaking English in our car, and ended up going over to talk to them: two Brazilian students about our age, working in London and taking some time off the travel, and just as at a loss as we were about what to do if we didn’t make it to Budapest. We decided collectively to wait it out and then stick together until we had figured something out. A bit later, the train stops. It’s dark out, we’re somewhere in Slovakia (close to the Hungarian border) but there’s clearly not much around, and everyone got off the train. We waited a bit to see if anyone would announce anything, to no avail… we got off and after asking around a bit, and discovered some other English-speaking students. Luckily for us, they were Slovak (ian?) students studying in Budapest and had some ideas about finding a bus to get into the city. We waited a bit longer on the train, since there was still a chance it might take off again, and then got off all together to try for the bus idea. As we’re walking away, another kid sticks his head out one of the train doors and asks us in American English if we knew what was going on… we explained what we knew and what we were doing and told him he could come with us…
With the exception of the two Slovak students, none of us had any of either Slovak or Hungarian currency, and there weren’t any ATM’s to be found. The Slovak girls called us taxis to take us to a bus station across town and loaned us the money. We made it to the bus stop just fine, where the other American (who, as it turns out, was a soldier on leave from Iraq) got some money out and paid for my and Becca’s bus fares. (Sidenote: have I just been in France for too long, or is that a really grammatically complicated thing to try and say? Becca and I’s? my’s? anyways…) An hour or so later, we were all in Budapest! Our Slovak friends helped us find out where we needed to go to find our respective hostels, we exchanged emails in the metro and talked about meeting up, and Becca and I made it to our hostel a few hours later than we had planned…
I loved Budapest from the first couple minutes, and Becca thought I was crazy. I felt really safe in the area where we were, and Becca and I actually had an apartment all to ourselves in a really nice area down the street from the main hostel. We had a late dinner then got up the next morning to explore. We had beautiful weather again, and I couldn’t stop gushing about how much I loved the city, which we found to be cheaper than Prague. We saw the Palace and Castle Hill and walked around all over the place before we met up with Mike (our new soldier friend) and went to a really nice dinner (because we could almost afford it, in Budapest) and out to a really cool bar with him. The next day we got up, met with Mike again, and the three of us went to the Terror museum, a really interesting museum in what used to be the headquarters of both the Hungarian Nazi party and then the Communists. That afternoon we had some famous cake from Gerbeaud for lunch then headed to one of Budapest’s famous bathhouses for a bit before heading to the opera (we saw Carmen... with Hungarian subtitles) that evening. After that we asked where we could find a good restaurant, had someone walk us almost all the way there, and then later found a bar with live Hungarian folk music, which was actually really cool.
Friday 2 weeks ago I woke up early to go to my internship and spent 3 hours shelving yogurts and dairy products, then checking off which butters were on the shelves… and then ran home, grabbed my bags, and headed to the train station.
I made it just fine, but there was some sort of problem with the train that made the trip about an hour longer, and by the time I met up with my friend Becca in Paris we were the last two people to register for the flight (and ended up in the very back row). A couple hours later we were in Prague! Our friend Nicole came to the airport to meet us and bring us back to her apartment. She’s been living in Prague for a few more months than I’ve been in France teaching in an international preschool, and she is still going to be there for more than a year. She has family there, has found herself a wonderful boyfriend, and is very happy :)
Becca and I were really lucky to have Nicole, first to have a place to stay and second to have someone show us around the city for a couple days. Prague is beautiful; the architecture and the buildings are amazing. Nicole told us the Nazis left it pretty much alone because they thought it was beautiful. Unfortunately, even though they haven’t yet adopted the Euro, they’re getting ready to and Prague wasn’t as cheap as I was expecting it to be. Also, we had amazing weather. We got bundled up and ready to go explore on Saturday morning, and 10 feet out the door had to turn around and ditch hats, coats, etc.—it was like summer! Perfect for walking around the city. We saw the Prague Castle and Cathedral, Old Town Square, the Charles bridge, the Moldau (the river) the dancing house, etc. Becca and I really enjoyed seeing Nicole and hanging out with her and her roommate.
Prague Castle
Nicole and IMonday morning Becca and I left and headed to the train station to catch our train for Budapest. We got there and on the train without any problems and stretched out and relaxed for a relaxing 7-hour train ride….for about 4 hours, before the controller passing through our car looked at our tickets and informed us rather off-handedly that the train was not going to Budapest because of “strike”. Other than that she had very little information for us and no suggestions of what we should do. After a couple seconds of panic I realized that there wasn’t too much we could do about it, and decided to wait and see what happened. At every stop we went through, the signs still said the destination was Budapest, and there were no announcements on the train to indicate any differently.
We heard some people speaking English in our car, and ended up going over to talk to them: two Brazilian students about our age, working in London and taking some time off the travel, and just as at a loss as we were about what to do if we didn’t make it to Budapest. We decided collectively to wait it out and then stick together until we had figured something out. A bit later, the train stops. It’s dark out, we’re somewhere in Slovakia (close to the Hungarian border) but there’s clearly not much around, and everyone got off the train. We waited a bit to see if anyone would announce anything, to no avail… we got off and after asking around a bit, and discovered some other English-speaking students. Luckily for us, they were Slovak (ian?) students studying in Budapest and had some ideas about finding a bus to get into the city. We waited a bit longer on the train, since there was still a chance it might take off again, and then got off all together to try for the bus idea. As we’re walking away, another kid sticks his head out one of the train doors and asks us in American English if we knew what was going on… we explained what we knew and what we were doing and told him he could come with us…
With the exception of the two Slovak students, none of us had any of either Slovak or Hungarian currency, and there weren’t any ATM’s to be found. The Slovak girls called us taxis to take us to a bus station across town and loaned us the money. We made it to the bus stop just fine, where the other American (who, as it turns out, was a soldier on leave from Iraq) got some money out and paid for my and Becca’s bus fares. (Sidenote: have I just been in France for too long, or is that a really grammatically complicated thing to try and say? Becca and I’s? my’s? anyways…) An hour or so later, we were all in Budapest! Our Slovak friends helped us find out where we needed to go to find our respective hostels, we exchanged emails in the metro and talked about meeting up, and Becca and I made it to our hostel a few hours later than we had planned…
I loved Budapest from the first couple minutes, and Becca thought I was crazy. I felt really safe in the area where we were, and Becca and I actually had an apartment all to ourselves in a really nice area down the street from the main hostel. We had a late dinner then got up the next morning to explore. We had beautiful weather again, and I couldn’t stop gushing about how much I loved the city, which we found to be cheaper than Prague. We saw the Palace and Castle Hill and walked around all over the place before we met up with Mike (our new soldier friend) and went to a really nice dinner (because we could almost afford it, in Budapest) and out to a really cool bar with him. The next day we got up, met with Mike again, and the three of us went to the Terror museum, a really interesting museum in what used to be the headquarters of both the Hungarian Nazi party and then the Communists. That afternoon we had some famous cake from Gerbeaud for lunch then headed to one of Budapest’s famous bathhouses for a bit before heading to the opera (we saw Carmen... with Hungarian subtitles) that evening. After that we asked where we could find a good restaurant, had someone walk us almost all the way there, and then later found a bar with live Hungarian folk music, which was actually really cool.
The Parliament Building over the Danube
The house of terror
The next morning we got up a bit later than originally planned to take our 3 hour train ride to Vienna—this time without any problems :) I felt a little more lost in Vienna. I don’t speak or understand any German, and we didn’t have “a Nicole” or the really helpful guidebook we had had in Budapest. We found our budget hotel to be much less friendly than the hostels we had stayed in previously, and were very much on our own to figure out something to do. We found something to eat and then rode the metro(/subway/whatever) to the center of town and walked around a bit. The next day, since it was raining a bit and windy, we signed up for a bus tour and saw a lot of the city before visiting Schonbrunn palace (the “Versailles” of Vienna). Afterwards we stopped in for some famous Sacher torte at the Hotel Sacher.
Schonbrunn Palace
Sachertorte!
Saturday we got up and braved the wind, rain, and actually a little bit of hail to visit Sigmund Freud’s old apartment. It was interesting to see, but I didn’t think it was set up very well in terms of a museum. Then we headed to the Succession building which is something of a modern-art museum with the Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt before taking off that evening for Paris (we sat in the very front row of the plane, that time).
Freud's waiting room
We walked around in circles a bit looking for our hotel, then had a quick dinner before heading to bed. Sunday we went to the Musée de l’Orangerie to see Monet’s famous water lilies paintings, and then Notre Dame and around that area to pick up some souvenirs for Becca’s friends and family. After that, Becca and I split up in the metro and I was back in Nantes in time for dinner.
Monday morning hit like a ton of bricks, and I actually had two midterms this week before spending Friday again in Paris… I did ok on the first, but the second was a disaster… my mind was (still is) on vacation. Tomorrow I’m going to see a play, and then I’m going to GET SOME WORK DONE, because next weekend I’m going with IES to Normandy, the weekend after I’m going to Morocco for 4 days, I think I have a friend studying in England visiting either the next weekend or the weekend after, then I have 2 weeks of vacation (for which I still do not have plans) and then the last week of class! Ah!
BUT I did manage to quit my internship!
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