This is just a brief prelude to my actual blog. It was actually inspired by my desire to insert something about the title of this particular entry so that it would make sense. Here goes…I’m AMAZED at how much of the supermarket is made up of either cheese or chocolate! What is even more amazing is the apparent lack of obese individuals walking around when you consider that Swizterland is one of the top chocolate consuming nations in the world…something around 25lbs/year. I’m surprised that they haven’t figured out a way to make some sort of chocolate covered cheese delicacy that would combine both of their loves. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a cow strike in the near future though…I’m sure they weren’t being paid well even before the world economy went down the tubes!
And now, the real deal: I arrived in Geneva and had a lazy but lively night in the so called “Critical Mass” Co-op style house. An awesome group of international students/interns living in Geneva. It reminded me a lot of Davis and I even felt at home sleeping on the floor!
The next morning I was fired up to go visit some of the many international headquarters that polka-dot the city of Geneva. Lucky for me, Geneva has some amazing themed walks and maps that you can pick up at the tourists office. The one I chose was called “Spirit of Geneva - Of Dialogue and Peace” which just happened to take me past the UN, WHO and WCC headquarters! Unfortunately, I soon found out, most of these buildings aren’t open to the public…and most of them aren’t even that interesting to look at! I guess I should feel fortunate that most of these organizations are supposedly spending their time fixing problems rather than fussing over tourists! I did find a warm welcome at the World Council of Churches Headquarters though. This organization is made up of churches across the global that work towards global unity through religious similarities. Pretty awesome! The site is home to made cool organizations like the Lutheran World Federation and the World Student Christian Federation. I even ended up attending an ash Wednesday service is their chapel. A unique experience that required singing in German, French, English and Korean…
Oh YEAH!!! I know you’re all wondering where I decided to spend one of the world’s most important holidays…my birthday! I’m offended that you even needed to wonder…obviously I chose to spend the weekend in Bern, Switzerland. They even saw fit to throw me a weekend long carnival!…So yeah, I was in Bern for my birthday! Carnival was a crazy mixture of Halloween and battle of the bands. Actually, the closest thing that I can think of to compare it to would probably be a Star Trek Convention (Don’t get too excited Sugar D!) For the more mature individuals it appeared that you had to dress up in the gaudiest, frilliest,…ugliest jumpsuit you could get your hands on and then paint your face to match. For the young adults, something raunchy or suggestive of course! And for the kiddies, cowboys, pirates, clowns, you get the picture.
As far as the bands go, there were about 40+ marching bands, marching around the crowded street belting partially in-tune renditions of everything from California Girls to Country Roads and Angels. The main requirement to be in one of these bands appeared to be that you own an instrument…not that you necessarily had ever played it before. Oh yeah, and there was a bear too!
Right now I’m sitting here in bed and brainstorming about how I could potentially make this blog more interactive. One of the things that I have come up with is to ask you guys for suggestions of things to do and see. Now, I’m not saying I’ll do everything that you suggest (No I will not desecrate relics or ruins with my bodily fluids!) but I think my writings (and photos) could potentially be more exciting that way!
La la la!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Guinness, Gaudi and Good Times!
New pictures in "Some Pictures!"
The last 11 days have seen me pass through five countries. Unfortunately, riding a train through half of those countries doesn’t really count! I last spoke of Cologne and there is where the tale will resume.
I left Cologne in the early morning hours to make the long journey west and across the water to the land of green and Guinness. I already told you of the disgustingly tiresome hours I spent traveling by train and boat so I will skip to the better parts.
I arrived in Dublin to the warm welcome of my friend Liz. Liz and I met “way back” mid-college when I started attending Newman Catholic Student Community (to do what else but sing in their choir!) at Davis. She is currently getting her MBA at Trinity College. I have to say that unfortunately Dublin is lacking in a few things: interesting sites, an efficient public transportation system, and wireless internet access. All things that I have come to depend on throughout my trip. Some highlights though, included the Guinness Storehouse with it’s “Gravity Bar” that gave a great view of the surrounding city and St. Patrick’s Cathedral where I happened upon an a cappella choir at practice. The rest of my time in Dublin consisted of catching up with Liz, most often at a pub with her classmates where one was forced to pay a ridiculous 5 Euro (~$6.50) for a pint. This came as a surprise to me coming from Germany where a half liter could come as cheaply at 0.45 Euro. Needless to say, I was sad to say goodbye to Liz but happy to return to the mainland and cheaper drinks!
But I get ahead of myself. How could anyone travel to Ireland and not lean upside down to kiss a stone on the top of a castle ruin?? The Blarney “Castle” has unfortunately been turned into somewhat of a “Disney-esque” theme park ride. For only 10 Euro you can take home a red faced picture of yourself kissing the glorious stone. They have even stooped so low as to compare the stone to a “Harry Potter - like sorting hat” on one of the parks many comedic informational signs. Blarney isn’t exactly a city of easy couches so I spent a night in Cork where, along with my day trip to Blarney (Do they sanitize the stone?), spent the evening watching a quirky production of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame”. I also spent a relaxing day in Killarney National Park. When you think of Ireland, you probably think of the rolling green hills of Killarney. Killarney also offered some entertainment in the form of ridiculously costumed and wigged girls staying in my hotel. I guess the Irish have a tradition of looking like oversized Barbies when they compete in Irish dancing.
After the exceptional two day experience of getting to Dublin I decided to fly back to the mainland. My airline of choice was Ryanair. You have probably heard of it as the amazing airline that gives you flights for 1 penny. This is true, until you begin to read the fine print. When I arrived at the airport at 5:30am I was still satisfied with the $50 that I had paid for my flight to Madrid. Here is the problem. Unless you plan to travel with a bag that contains practically nothing, you get the delight of paying excess baggage fees! In the end my ticket price doubled…and Ryanair lost a customer. The flight was uneventful, as was the train ride from Madrid to Barcelona.
Barcelona! A city with many cool sights and (the better part for me) warm weather! I arrived in Barcelona and checked into my hostel with plenty of time for an evening stroll to La Sagrada Familia. Of the sights, I focused mainly on the Gaudi. Park Guel was amazing, even with the hundreds of tourists swarming around. The Pedrera, with it’s serpentine roof had a great Gaudi museum and amazing sights of La Sagrada Familia in the setting sun.
Glad to be back in the land of cheap drinks, I spent my evenings in Barcelona playing loud card games with my loud and raucous American/Australian/Irish hostel mates , watching a great selection of Spanish dubbed American movies and obtaining free entrance to clubs with the hostel. It’s still amazing to me that you can walk into any club in Europe and get transported back five or ten years with the music selection!
I had an enjoyable morning walk to the train station with a fellow American traveler as we headed to Montpellier, France. Don’t ask…it was basically the only place in France that I could find a train to. And here I sit in a McDonald’s using their free wireless. I’m staying in Montpellier for a few days to plan out the next few weeks of my trip. It looks like I will be heading through Switzerland and Austria.
Until next time….Au revoir!
Peace in your hoods.
The last 11 days have seen me pass through five countries. Unfortunately, riding a train through half of those countries doesn’t really count! I last spoke of Cologne and there is where the tale will resume.
I left Cologne in the early morning hours to make the long journey west and across the water to the land of green and Guinness. I already told you of the disgustingly tiresome hours I spent traveling by train and boat so I will skip to the better parts.
I arrived in Dublin to the warm welcome of my friend Liz. Liz and I met “way back” mid-college when I started attending Newman Catholic Student Community (to do what else but sing in their choir!) at Davis. She is currently getting her MBA at Trinity College. I have to say that unfortunately Dublin is lacking in a few things: interesting sites, an efficient public transportation system, and wireless internet access. All things that I have come to depend on throughout my trip. Some highlights though, included the Guinness Storehouse with it’s “Gravity Bar” that gave a great view of the surrounding city and St. Patrick’s Cathedral where I happened upon an a cappella choir at practice. The rest of my time in Dublin consisted of catching up with Liz, most often at a pub with her classmates where one was forced to pay a ridiculous 5 Euro (~$6.50) for a pint. This came as a surprise to me coming from Germany where a half liter could come as cheaply at 0.45 Euro. Needless to say, I was sad to say goodbye to Liz but happy to return to the mainland and cheaper drinks!
But I get ahead of myself. How could anyone travel to Ireland and not lean upside down to kiss a stone on the top of a castle ruin?? The Blarney “Castle” has unfortunately been turned into somewhat of a “Disney-esque” theme park ride. For only 10 Euro you can take home a red faced picture of yourself kissing the glorious stone. They have even stooped so low as to compare the stone to a “Harry Potter - like sorting hat” on one of the parks many comedic informational signs. Blarney isn’t exactly a city of easy couches so I spent a night in Cork where, along with my day trip to Blarney (Do they sanitize the stone?), spent the evening watching a quirky production of Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame”. I also spent a relaxing day in Killarney National Park. When you think of Ireland, you probably think of the rolling green hills of Killarney. Killarney also offered some entertainment in the form of ridiculously costumed and wigged girls staying in my hotel. I guess the Irish have a tradition of looking like oversized Barbies when they compete in Irish dancing.
After the exceptional two day experience of getting to Dublin I decided to fly back to the mainland. My airline of choice was Ryanair. You have probably heard of it as the amazing airline that gives you flights for 1 penny. This is true, until you begin to read the fine print. When I arrived at the airport at 5:30am I was still satisfied with the $50 that I had paid for my flight to Madrid. Here is the problem. Unless you plan to travel with a bag that contains practically nothing, you get the delight of paying excess baggage fees! In the end my ticket price doubled…and Ryanair lost a customer. The flight was uneventful, as was the train ride from Madrid to Barcelona.
Barcelona! A city with many cool sights and (the better part for me) warm weather! I arrived in Barcelona and checked into my hostel with plenty of time for an evening stroll to La Sagrada Familia. Of the sights, I focused mainly on the Gaudi. Park Guel was amazing, even with the hundreds of tourists swarming around. The Pedrera, with it’s serpentine roof had a great Gaudi museum and amazing sights of La Sagrada Familia in the setting sun.
Glad to be back in the land of cheap drinks, I spent my evenings in Barcelona playing loud card games with my loud and raucous American/Australian/Irish hostel mates , watching a great selection of Spanish dubbed American movies and obtaining free entrance to clubs with the hostel. It’s still amazing to me that you can walk into any club in Europe and get transported back five or ten years with the music selection!
I had an enjoyable morning walk to the train station with a fellow American traveler as we headed to Montpellier, France. Don’t ask…it was basically the only place in France that I could find a train to. And here I sit in a McDonald’s using their free wireless. I’m staying in Montpellier for a few days to plan out the next few weeks of my trip. It looks like I will be heading through Switzerland and Austria.
Until next time….Au revoir!
Peace in your hoods.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Trains...the devil's work
WARNING - The first paragraph may not be comprehensible and is full of malice…you can skip it if you want!
Oh *&%$…what a day. I’m tired and just ready to sleep but I still have a train ride to London and then I have to figure out how to get to Notting Hill…I’ve been traveling for about 15 hours now. That includes a train that was 70 minutes late from Cologne, a missed train in Brussels that then required a 3 hours wait for a train to a place that was half an hour away…once there I ran to catch a train to Calais and then once in Calais, I paid for a cab because I didn’t want to miss a boat that ended up being not for foot passengers anyway. Oh, and the bloody UK passport officials that took half an hour to decide to stamp my passport because of my lack of ticket out of their stupid country (I don‘t want to stay in your expensive and snotty country anyway!). An hour and a half on the boat from Calais to Dover and then I get to Dover only to find that the last bus left ten minutes before I got there…so I try to take the bus that goes to the train station…oh but I forgot to change money so I don’t have any pounds and therefore must make the 20 minute trek on foot to the train station…at least I made the train….*sigh* Next time I fly…
The past week or so has been packed full of fun things though! I must repeat, I love Germany! When we last met, I was still in Gottingen. From Gottingen I made my way to the tiny town of Salzgitter. The ride to Salzgitter was uneventful. I got lucky with a bus and ended up at the right street where my host lived. Unfortunately my phone didn’t have service in the middle of nowhere, so I sat by his door for an hour while he sat at the train station for an hour waiting for me! You may be wondering why I was in Salzgitter (and I was wondering the same thing at points). This is where my a cappella obsession comes into the picture. For my one night in Salzgitte, I sat in the front row of an a cappella concert put on by Maybebop, a German a cappella group that I’d heard of in America. It was Amazing. So was my host Nyamkhuu. He returned from his break in Berlin to host me!
From Salzgitter I headed to Hamburg. Hamburg…great people, not the most amazingly interesting city. Although I did try to see it all in one day. I spent my first night in Hamburg with the Hamburg couch surfing group. We met up at a really chill bar with couches everywhere. I’m convinced that Hamburg deserves a second chance at some point when I can spend a little more time! I saw a nice rendition of La Traviata at the Hamburg Opera house on my second night. I also spent some time envisioning the Hamburg Philharmonie building that looks amazing on paper, but may never actually be finished.
On to Cologne I went! I have to say, and I mean no offense to all of my wonderful hosts so far, but I think I had the most fun with Maria and Florian! Maria and Florian met through couch surfing and got married soon after! (Don’t worry Mom! I’m not really looking…too hard) On my first night we went out to a Brewery and had some Kolsh, which is the local beer of Cologne and played some Skat! I was worldly though and I had already had some in Leipzig with David! The next morning, Maria and I started out on my tour of Cologne. It was raining lightly, so we brought umbrellas as we made our way to the Kolner Dom. Cologne’s Cathedral is either the biggest in Germany or Europe…I forget. I have to honestly admit that I enjoyed the Berliner Dom and lot more. The Kolner Dom is just a little too Gothic and dark and cold for me. And then have a modern stain glass window which sort of ruins the mood…haha! Upon leaving the Dom, we made our way to the Lintz Chocolate Museum with some stops at a few more churches along the way. All I have to say is Yum. This is where things got interesting. While we were inside the delectable museum, someone pissed off the weather gods…we walked out into a gale of snow/slush. It was like walking into a cold, horizontal shower. Needless to say, we quickly made our way to the nearest tram and headed home to a warm and dry flat. The night was spent playing with cats, watching Underworld and eating delicious pizza. Such a great couple!
This brings us to the end of this episode of the Klilight Zone…I’m almost to London and tomorrow will be a better day!
Peace
P.S. - Oh yeah, my next stop is Dublin to see my friend Liz…that’s the only reason I even made the trek through the UK.
Oh *&%$…what a day. I’m tired and just ready to sleep but I still have a train ride to London and then I have to figure out how to get to Notting Hill…I’ve been traveling for about 15 hours now. That includes a train that was 70 minutes late from Cologne, a missed train in Brussels that then required a 3 hours wait for a train to a place that was half an hour away…once there I ran to catch a train to Calais and then once in Calais, I paid for a cab because I didn’t want to miss a boat that ended up being not for foot passengers anyway. Oh, and the bloody UK passport officials that took half an hour to decide to stamp my passport because of my lack of ticket out of their stupid country (I don‘t want to stay in your expensive and snotty country anyway!). An hour and a half on the boat from Calais to Dover and then I get to Dover only to find that the last bus left ten minutes before I got there…so I try to take the bus that goes to the train station…oh but I forgot to change money so I don’t have any pounds and therefore must make the 20 minute trek on foot to the train station…at least I made the train….*sigh* Next time I fly…
The past week or so has been packed full of fun things though! I must repeat, I love Germany! When we last met, I was still in Gottingen. From Gottingen I made my way to the tiny town of Salzgitter. The ride to Salzgitter was uneventful. I got lucky with a bus and ended up at the right street where my host lived. Unfortunately my phone didn’t have service in the middle of nowhere, so I sat by his door for an hour while he sat at the train station for an hour waiting for me! You may be wondering why I was in Salzgitter (and I was wondering the same thing at points). This is where my a cappella obsession comes into the picture. For my one night in Salzgitte, I sat in the front row of an a cappella concert put on by Maybebop, a German a cappella group that I’d heard of in America. It was Amazing. So was my host Nyamkhuu. He returned from his break in Berlin to host me!
From Salzgitter I headed to Hamburg. Hamburg…great people, not the most amazingly interesting city. Although I did try to see it all in one day. I spent my first night in Hamburg with the Hamburg couch surfing group. We met up at a really chill bar with couches everywhere. I’m convinced that Hamburg deserves a second chance at some point when I can spend a little more time! I saw a nice rendition of La Traviata at the Hamburg Opera house on my second night. I also spent some time envisioning the Hamburg Philharmonie building that looks amazing on paper, but may never actually be finished.
On to Cologne I went! I have to say, and I mean no offense to all of my wonderful hosts so far, but I think I had the most fun with Maria and Florian! Maria and Florian met through couch surfing and got married soon after! (Don’t worry Mom! I’m not really looking…too hard) On my first night we went out to a Brewery and had some Kolsh, which is the local beer of Cologne and played some Skat! I was worldly though and I had already had some in Leipzig with David! The next morning, Maria and I started out on my tour of Cologne. It was raining lightly, so we brought umbrellas as we made our way to the Kolner Dom. Cologne’s Cathedral is either the biggest in Germany or Europe…I forget. I have to honestly admit that I enjoyed the Berliner Dom and lot more. The Kolner Dom is just a little too Gothic and dark and cold for me. And then have a modern stain glass window which sort of ruins the mood…haha! Upon leaving the Dom, we made our way to the Lintz Chocolate Museum with some stops at a few more churches along the way. All I have to say is Yum. This is where things got interesting. While we were inside the delectable museum, someone pissed off the weather gods…we walked out into a gale of snow/slush. It was like walking into a cold, horizontal shower. Needless to say, we quickly made our way to the nearest tram and headed home to a warm and dry flat. The night was spent playing with cats, watching Underworld and eating delicious pizza. Such a great couple!
This brings us to the end of this episode of the Klilight Zone…I’m almost to London and tomorrow will be a better day!
Peace
P.S. - Oh yeah, my next stop is Dublin to see my friend Liz…that’s the only reason I even made the trek through the UK.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Pictures
I fixed the picture links so they should be accessible for anyone!
I posted a link to some pictures...for right now you have to have facebook to see them though! Sorry to those of you that don't! I'll try to change it soon. You can find the links in the left margin.
As to the spot tracker...it seems to track when it wants to and just sit there blinking at me more often than not. It seemed like a cool thing but it doesn't seem to function well.
I posted a link to some pictures...for right now you have to have facebook to see them though! Sorry to those of you that don't! I'll try to change it soon. You can find the links in the left margin.
As to the spot tracker...it seems to track when it wants to and just sit there blinking at me more often than not. It seemed like a cool thing but it doesn't seem to function well.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Luther and Tigers and Bach, Oh My!
It’s been an eventful past few days. My last few days in Berlin consisted of a personal tour of the Turkish district (where according to my guide/friend, you can basically find the best/cheapest food of any kind), a band advertised as a pirate band blast psychedelic sea shanties (they turned out to be 45 years old and didn’t look like pirates at all…), and dance at a reggae club until the wee hours of the morning. I have to reiterate, I love Berlin!
Upon leaving Berlin, I took my first real Eurail ride to Lutherstadt Wittenberg, which is the town famous for…you guessed it! Martin Luther. Unfortunately, I was not meant to make a timely entrance into the city as I missed my stop and then had to take a slower train back the other way…I finally got to LW and walked to the pension that I had booked. They were full. I was not happy. Long story short, I ended up paying more than I wanted for a room. Luckily it was only one night.
I woke up bright and early on a Sunday morning and went to a service at the City Church of St. Marien, the church were Martin Luther preached. There was even special music by the children’s choir. I felt very at home. After the service I visited the only two other things open in the whole town, the Castle Church (Luther nailed the theses here as well as the site of his grave) and the Lutherhouse museum. Apparently Sunday in the middle of winter is not the best time to do things in Wittenberg as not even the grocery store is open.
That brings us to my current place of residence, Leipzig. Leipzig, although few people seem to have ever heard of it, is important for many reasons. It was the home of Bach as well as being home to the sight of the peaceful prayer gatherings at St. Nikolas’s Church that are many attribute to a being an important influence in the fall of the Berlin wall (you can read more about this yourself if you want). After visiting St. Nikolas’s Church, I made my way to St. Thomas’s Church in which Bach acted as Cantor for the last 25 years or so of his life and in which his body was laid to rest.
After a few days of visiting churches, what would be the obvious place to go next, you ask? Well, the Leipzig Zoo of course! I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the zoo and getting some pretty cool pictures of animal. Nothing like a frozen savana or elephants enclosed in an building with and Indian Temple theme!
How is my couch surfing host in Leipzig? David is pretty awesome. He is fluent in Arabic and headed to Morocco in a few weeks to do work on his PhD study nomadic tribes. Our evenings have consisted of my learning a German card game called Skat. Let’s just say I went out and bought my own deck.
Tschuss!
Upon leaving Berlin, I took my first real Eurail ride to Lutherstadt Wittenberg, which is the town famous for…you guessed it! Martin Luther. Unfortunately, I was not meant to make a timely entrance into the city as I missed my stop and then had to take a slower train back the other way…I finally got to LW and walked to the pension that I had booked. They were full. I was not happy. Long story short, I ended up paying more than I wanted for a room. Luckily it was only one night.
I woke up bright and early on a Sunday morning and went to a service at the City Church of St. Marien, the church were Martin Luther preached. There was even special music by the children’s choir. I felt very at home. After the service I visited the only two other things open in the whole town, the Castle Church (Luther nailed the theses here as well as the site of his grave) and the Lutherhouse museum. Apparently Sunday in the middle of winter is not the best time to do things in Wittenberg as not even the grocery store is open.
That brings us to my current place of residence, Leipzig. Leipzig, although few people seem to have ever heard of it, is important for many reasons. It was the home of Bach as well as being home to the sight of the peaceful prayer gatherings at St. Nikolas’s Church that are many attribute to a being an important influence in the fall of the Berlin wall (you can read more about this yourself if you want). After visiting St. Nikolas’s Church, I made my way to St. Thomas’s Church in which Bach acted as Cantor for the last 25 years or so of his life and in which his body was laid to rest.
After a few days of visiting churches, what would be the obvious place to go next, you ask? Well, the Leipzig Zoo of course! I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the zoo and getting some pretty cool pictures of animal. Nothing like a frozen savana or elephants enclosed in an building with and Indian Temple theme!
How is my couch surfing host in Leipzig? David is pretty awesome. He is fluent in Arabic and headed to Morocco in a few weeks to do work on his PhD study nomadic tribes. Our evenings have consisted of my learning a German card game called Skat. Let’s just say I went out and bought my own deck.
Tschuss!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)