From the center of the Hapsburg Empire to the Hills of the Sound of Music

Austria is a great country. Quiet, beautiful and full of various different activities. My first night in Vienna was less than productive as I got a migraine from forgetting to eat every four hours and had one hell of a time trying to get my laundry done in the hostel. I ended up meeting several people in the laundry room however who were terribly confused as to why I was there instead of pre-partying to go out. This is a conversation I rarely ever win with the hostel goers who are only on vacation to drink in foreign bars and clubs. But I was relentless and finished up my errands and returned to my quiet dorm room in an annex the hostel rents during the summer to take in the overflow. The next day, to no avail, I started off my time in Vienna with another bike tour. This one was almost a private one as there was only one other person with me and the guide. It was great to go around the city with an actual Austrian (although I still sing praises for my American and Australian tour guides in Paris and Berlin). She wasn't from Vienna, but could at least give me some historical perspectives from an insiders point of view. Vienna is absolutely beautiful. I think it is second to Paris as one of Europe's most breath-taking cities in that romantic and pristine image of beauty sense. The old palace and gardens are so well taken care of it was hard to find a piece of trash in them. The streets are all well taken care of without any major potholes for Catherine to lose control and flip over the handle bars of her bike in. I was quite impressed. There also happens to be excellent shopping throughout the city. After my personal bike tour, I returned to the hostel for a much needed shower and nap and then ventured out to find another cathedral on the map that we didn't get to on the tour. St. Charles Borromeo Cathedral (which also happens to be the same saint the church in Arlington I use to go to was named after) is a mix of baroque and other architectures. I have to say that it was at first quite odd looking, but then I started to appreciate the eclectic value the mixture brought. What was more interesting to me was the display outside the church. The Austrian government had decided to place an exhibit of about 150 bears decorated by artists from around the world (one for each participating country) around a pond outside the church. Some of the bears were just ok, like the one for the US was basically a big statue of liberty, but others had incredible designs on them. I took a couple of photos, so when I actually get to post some pictures you'll have to guess which countries they are. Not all countries were represented, even some bigger ones were left out, so that was kind of a bummer. But all in all it was cool. The following morning I left for Salzburg. It was a great train ride only momentarily interrupted by a chatty older American guy from South Tahoe who was disappointed that he couldn't get a place to stay in Munich due to Oktoberfest. On our way into town we started noticing some road blocks and police cars along some of the main roads. As it turned out, the world championships of road cycling happened to be taking place that afternoon, so many roads, bus and tram routes were blocked off. It was rather exciting to see it all from the comfort of the train, but it was absolutely no fun trying to negotiate the new traffic route in an attempt to make it to my hostel. I was lucky that on the final bus I had to get on there was an Australian guy also headed in the same direction so when the bus driver failed to let us know which stop we were supposed to get off at, I had some company in the middle of Austrian cow country while waiting for another bus to take us back into the city. The hostel was less than impressive and actually had several groups of middle school children staying in it. Screaming preteens was not what I was thinking when I planned two days in the quaint mountain city of Salzburg. I dropped off my things and set out to find some food. I returned to the main roadway and basically follow the crowds into what turned out to be the old part of the city. As I turned down the small cobblestone streets I noticed that a lot of the smaller cafes weren't open, but I continued to follow the crowds. After one last bend, I came upon Salzburg's version of Oktoberfest. Beer gardens, kiddy rides, entertainers and food vendors lined the streets and squares. It was quite a treat. I had no clue where I was but I was entertained. There wasn't much substantial food around, so I settle for a huge pretzel and beer and listened to a traditional Austrian band. Over taken by so much visual stimuli, I went back the hostel and figured that I could fill my hunger void with snacks I've been carrying along with me. But alas in the hostel I ended up meeting a very cute and energetic American from Irvin of all places. She had actually just recently transferred to the London office of her company and was taking some time off early to do some European site seeing. Meeting Christy was a Godsend because she actually motivated me to look for some real dinner food on a Sunday night in Europe which is almost impossible to find. After a bit of walking we found a nice cafe in the newer part of the city, had a great meal with some Stigel beer, and returned to the hostel for a decent night of sleep.
The next morning she invited me to join her and another girl she had met in Vienna out for some site seeing. It was during this trek that I realized that the carnival I went to the day before was actually in and around all of the major historical sites of Salzburg, including the big cathedral, Mozart's house and some of the cities best museums. When the question came up as to whether to go on a tour of the ice caves or continue roaming the streets of Salzburg and shop, we picked the option most American girls would: shopping. After some relatively productive ganders through some of the shops, we sat down for what I have deemed the best and most healthy meal I have eaten thus far on my trip. We ended up at this little Indian place in the newer part of the city. My special of the day plate consisted of three different kinds of vegetarian curry with a mound of basmatti rice. It was so simple, but so excellent. Ohh. I'm not sure any meal I will have in the next few weeks could top that. After our meal, we sat around for a while and chatted, which actually got us free dessert, and then parted ways for some afternoon errands before meeting up to see the only English language movie playing at the Salzburg film festival, "Breakfast on Pluto." For those who haven't heard of this film, it's a trannie movie. Yes folks, this film chronicles Patrick "Kitten" Braden and his quest to find his long lost mother who left their small town in Northern Ireland when he was a baby for the metropolis of London. Set in the 1970s this film is relatively happy but has some pretty intense moments of IRA historical fiction added in. But that was pretty much it for Austria. The next day I had to trek back through Vienna to get to Bratislava where I am now. More on that from Budapest. Off to catch my train!

Oh the Czech Republic (or is it Republiky?)

Ok, first a disclaimer. I failed to post my revised itinerary. I had a slight issue with my flight from Budapest to Istanbul. Turns out that I booked it one week earlier than I thought, so I had to shave off some time in Europe. Forgive me if the dates aren't perfect but this is kind of what it all ended up looking like.

Sept 10-13: Paris
Sept 13-14: Cologne
Sept 14-18: Berlin
Sept 18-22: Prague
Sept 22-24: Vienna
Sept 24-26: Salzburg
Sept 26-29: Bratislava (I know, I know, you'll find out later why this one got it over Munich)
Sept 29-Oct 04: Budapest
Oct 04-10: Istanbul and maybe some other places in Turkey
Oct 11-18: Tel Aviv
Oct 19-22: Athens
Oct 22-Dec 18: Tel Aviv and various other places in the Middle East.

Ok. Now that that's all in the open, here's Prague.

Well, got into Prague after an interesting and again beautiful train ride down south through eastern Germany and northwestern Czech Rep with two German businessmen and another world traveler from Brazil. Got to my hostel and realized that they had put me in a room with 5 19 yr old British guys who were on a one-week holiday before heading back to Oxford for the year. For about the first hour I was there, they tried to get me to start playing drinking games with them. It was 4pm. Then as they got more drunk the most frequent words out of their mouths were, "Catherine, do girls like it when guys do . . . " (you fill in the blank). Then, when they realized that I wasn't going to hang out with them, they left, and I went off to find myself some dinner before hitting the sack before midnight. My first full day in Prague was great. I wandered around a little bit on my own, but the highlight was my personalized tour from Barak's friend from Cornell. Ondrej is a local and after he so eloquently asked me to meet him at the horse's ass of a particular statue, we had a great time touring the city. We walked for 5 or 6 or 7 hours with a coffee break and dinner to nourish us along the way. I had a great time. I gather he did too, or he was just too nice to tell me to stop talking and leave him alone. We'll see if a comment pops up to prove me wrong!
After hitting all of the major sites with my local tour guide, heading out on my own just didn't have that spark the second and third days there. I retraced some of Ondrej and my steps from the night before to take some day time photos and made my way somehow to the state theatre where I managed to score tickets to two shows - Cinderella, the ballet, and Madame Butterfly for each of my last two nights in the city for less than $50. Awesome. I ended up in a great box, first balcony, just right of the center. I know most people reading this really don't care about theatre, but it was great to be able to see two shows in Europe without killing my budget.
To be honest, I don't really remember what I did during the day time during my last day in Prague. I was probably too excited to see Madame Butterfly for the 3 or 4 or 5 time. But I know it wasn't too bad whatever it was I did. It will all come back to me when I see the date stamp on my photos.
Well, then it was off to Vienna. Got to the train station just in time and managed to find a seat next to an American couple from the DC area (Wheaton). The world is too small.
Seeing as I just left Austria today, I can't possibly keep my blog too up to date with my travels, so I'll have to sign off now and see you sometime in Budapest, or worse, Turkey! Cheers

German Hospitality

Hi all, well, of course I'm in Vienna (posted in Bratislava) now, but it's time to talk about Cologne and Berlin. I was really only in Cologne for less than 24 hours so I can't really say much about it. After a sobering ride on the train back up through Brussels and across the boarder, I arrived in Cologne tired, smelly and slightly hung over. This called for a quick nap and lots and lots of water. After which I awoke to the sounds of one of my hostelmates. She was this cute young Canadian girl in Germany to teach English for a year in some town in the north. At any rate, she seemed normal enough to share a meal with and knew the area so she could navigate us somewhere better than the tourist places next to the cathedral, which is the only major building to survive WWII, and the plethora of kebab (or kebap) stands. We ended up at a relatively nice cafe by the river where we enjoyed some wiener schitzel and pomme frites. All in all it was a good meal, but the conversation was kind of strange. She was very eager to hear about my Catholic upbringing, because she wants to convert to Catholicism, and is a huge fan of Bush's foreign policy. When we got to the latter topic, I filled my mouth with fries. Needless to say, we returned to the hostel where I promptly got ready for bed!
My morning in Cologne was kicked off to the Lindt Chocolate Museum. Excellent facility. Not only did it have comprehensive English guides, but I received 4 samples of chocolate along the way. Totally worth my 3.50 euros. After that, I walked along the river, and back to the Cathedral for some photos opps, then it was off to catch my train to Berlin.
The trek across the middle of Germany was beautiful. I had a great time watching small towns pass by from my seat. I arrived in Berlin in the late afternoon and found my hostel with ease. It was called "David's Little Backpackers Hostels" in the western part of the city. When I walked in I thought I had entered one of those really cheesy Indian shops with cheap handicrafts from around asia plastered around the place. In the kitchen, which was really just a section of the common room/check-in area, there was a picture of "David" circa 1950 and it was encircled by tubes of various different colors of neon lights. The rest of the place had a very bohemian feel. Matresses were on the floor, simple bedding, and shower curtains separated the large bedroom into smaller sections. There was only one toilet and shower for all of the occupants to share, but this place was clean, staff was friendly, and I didn't see any spiders or other small insects, so I didn't really care.
One of the other major bennefits to this place was that there was an internet cafe around the corner and they only charged 0.80 per hour and allowed users access to the CPUs so I could potentially upload my photos. While we're on that note, I did try to upload my photos, but it was a nitemare which only ended after the third technician called to the internet cafe was able to remove my digital camera memory card from the computer. After potentially losing all of my photos from this trip, I think I'll be slightly more careful about chosing which machines I trust.
Anywho, Berlin is awesome. The culture of the city is driven by all of the events of the past 70+ years and the young adults who are working so hard to make the city their own. It's an amazing blend of motivations that create an incredible environment. It was really overwhelming. Well, I started my site seeing in Berlin with a long walk through the middle of the city, and then, you guessed it, another bike tour by the same guys I used in Paris. My guide in Berlin was great and conveyed the history of the city in a way that really made you understand how it has developed. The only drawback to this one was that I had to pay for the alcohol and that there were 20 australian kids along for the ride. They were very annoying in several different ways, but my guide, Randall, who also happened to be an Aussie, was amazing and made up for it. We had dinner in a beer garden in the Tiergarten, the major park in the west end of the city, and rode along the Spree at night with the lights of the parliament and other government buildings guiding our way. It was a great start to my time in the city.
My second full day in Berlin didn't start out great. I'm constantly fighting a cold, so I decided to take it slow. Walked around a great flea market and had a light lunch/dinner again in the Tiergarten. On my way back to the hostel, I ran into the manager, a greek guy named Adrien. He was headed to the movies and invited me to come along with him. We settled on "Friends with Money" and got a bite to eat at one of the many little cafes inside this huge Sony complex that hosts something like 30 movie theatres. It was great to see a movie filmed in LA. Saw a lot of places I remember well from my childhood on the west side since most of it was filmed in Santa Monica. Afterwards we walked through the former French occupied region and Adrien filled me in on his life story.
My third and final full day in Berlin started out with a great breakfast at a little cafe around the corner from my hostel, another flea market, a picnic in, you guessed it again, the Tiergarten, and a random walk through the city with Adrien. Another great, simple day on the road. I loved it.
Next it was off to Prague!

Ohhh Paris

Paris was overwhelming from the start. I got there in the afternoon on Sunday for a brief, too brief, three nights stay at another insane hostel. This one had over 200 people staying in all sorts of rooms, but get this, they only had one key for each room. So who ever got there first, got the key and the last one to leave brought it down to the desk. Interesting concept of security . . .

Basically I was still a little sick when I got to Paris, so I took a little nap to rally for the night. Ended up meeting these two Irish girls and a German in my room who had me out sucking down bottles of wine in no time. What a surprise. Great fun. The next day I decided to get up early and go on a bike tour with a company I found a flyer for in Amsterdam. The Fat Tire Bikes Paris city tour started at 11am (sharp) and somehow, after leaving my hostel at 9:50 am, I was thoroughly stumped by the RER trains integrated in the Paris metro system and didn't get there until around 11:15 am. Luckily they were still there and I got to go on a 4 hour tour of Paris' most visited places. Unfortunatley, it being 20 degrees hotter in Paris than Rotterdam didn't agree with me, so instead of spending the rest of Monday at the Louvre, I slept off my heat-induced migrain in the Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower. Went back to the hostel around 8:00 pm and again, ended up rallying for the Irish girls for a couple of hours of wine and cheese before heading to bed.

My second day was just as productive. I got up. Walked around the area near my hostel for two hours looking for Sacre Couer, which I never found, and ended up at another cafe for some journal writing, then back to the hostel for a shower before my second bike tour of Paris at night. This was a great tour. Not a lot of stopping to take photos, but we hit major sites and had some fun on their beach bikes. The highlight was a nite cruise on the Seine with a couple of glasses of wine. It was amazing to see the city at night. It was interesting to see the group get back on the bikes to take them back to the shop too.

Afterwords I was befriended by my tour guide, a fellow California, named River, who took me an awesome crepe place and then allowed me to hang out with his fellow tour guide friends while we had beers in front of the Effiel Tower . . . until 5:00 am. That was a good night. My train ride to Cologne was interesting to say the least, but that will have to go in the Germany post.

BTW - I found an internet cafe in Berlin that has the ability to upload my photos, so expect some pictures in your email boxes soon.

Random Animals in the Netherlands

Hello all,

I know it's been a long, long time. No excuses. Here we go . . . The Netherlands.

So I arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday, September ?? . . . oh man it has been a long time since I updated this thing. OK. EasyJet, britian's budget airline, was 3 hours late in departing, and after spending 5 hours in London's Gatwick Airport getting my photo taken several times before I was able to go into the boarding area, I had little energy to roam the city. The next morning however, I ventured out into the wild canal guided streets of most young and liberal adults' city to orient myself. The only thing I kept noticing was that there was a plethera of stray, or seemingly stray, animals everywhere. They weren't necessarily gross, smelly or dirty, just all over the place. I had a grand day exploring the canals, a nice walk up to the train station to get a visitor's museum pass, and planned out the next couple of days in a great little cafe near my hostel.

Oh - my hostel. This place was interesting. Sixteen people in each room, two rooms on each floor, one bathroom. Yes people, 32 individuals shared one bathroom. You can only imagine how they tried to keep things sanitary.

There was one good thing about the hostel. No lockout. And since I brought a cold with me to the Netherlands, I was free to go to my bunk whenever I pleased. That was nice. I also met a Japanese girl and Brazilian guy who ended up becoming my drinking buddies in the city. They were cool too.

So Amsterdam was pretty chill. Went to 10 museums in 48 hours. Ended up in some amazing parks for some alone time to write in my journal. It was pretty good to me.

I wasn't able to get a hold of Annemieke, one of the wonderful young women who came to be au pairs for the Stringer children 20 odd years ago, so I went on to The Hague (or Den Haag) for a night. Called the political capital of the Netherlands, this place has basically one purpose and although I enjoyed my time there, I could have skipped it.

I did however decide to spend three days in Rotterdam which were awesome. Rotterdam's tag line is the "cultural capital" and is true to a "T." Loaded with small art galleries and private museum collections, this place was my ideal. Friendly folks, great outdoor markets, clean streets, great bridges, . . . I could go on and on. My favorite activity was watching a puppet show in the city center with a bunch of little kids. They were really just too cute.

So in the end, I loved the Netherlands. I'd go back without question. I'd go to the north too and some smaller towns with less than 500,000 people to see what that life is like too. Well, got to end this entry so I can talk about my 36 hours in Paris.

They Really Do Exist!

I wasn't sure whether or not the Monty Python guys made it up or if British women actually possess the power to talk in an incredibly high pitch. This I discovered was a fact of nature at my hostel in London when a woman about 60 walked in and started speaking to her son(?). I couldn't keep my eyes and ears off her in total disbelief! It was amazing. It was such a thrill.
Well, on the whole, London was London. I got in around 12nn from my flight from Cork, took an express train to the main train station and the "tube" two stops to my hostel where I promptly crashed for a couple of hours before going to check out the neighborhood. I feel kind of silly because I ended up at a Borders bookstore about 5 blocks away. I enjoyed a huge cup of British Starbucks coffee with my Big Ben London guide until I was approached by a chatty Londoner who had his own opinions on what I should and shouldn't spend time on. I quickly retreated to my hostel where I met my roommates, an Italian named Guilia and a German, Franziska, and some others. We left for a pub about 20 minutes later and after starting to convert the amount we were spending in pound Sterling into our native currencies, left to go to the local grocery store and stock up on some cheap drinks. The rest of my days in London followed a similar pattern: rolling out of bed, checking out the sites, heading back to the hostel to my new little family and then some celebratory drinks. I went to Regent's Park, a beautifully landscaped park designed in the 1800s for London's upper class, Madame Tussauds, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, Covent Gardens, Trafalger Square, Picadilly Circus, Tate Modern, Globe Theatre (where I saw "Antony and Cleopatra"), London Tower (my favorite), and some other more or less interesting places. By the time I left on Saturday I was $100 over budget and satisfied that although I didn't see half of the more interesting places, I covered the basics and that I can always return. Cheers!