Venice is Italy's most expensive city. This is what we have been told, and this is what we experienced right off the bat. We arrived early in the morning and found much to our 'jubilation' that our hostel wasn't on the main island, but on an island called Giudecca just to the south of the city centre. This obviously meant that we were forced to take a Vaporetto, or water taxi, every time we want to go back to the hostel or go to the main island. Each ride on this Vaporetto costs 6.50 Euros! Almost 15 dollars! We couldnt belive it. Luckily we were only staying in Venice for one night. Most of the main 'sites' to see in Venice were all churches. We decided to take advantage of a Choral Pass which let us into most churches in the city. We ended up saving a few Euro in the process so it was worth it. Our first stop on our whirlwind tour of Venice was the Piazza San Marco. The piazza is Venice's number 1 tourist spot, and the Basilica San Marco dominates the square. It is a Byzantine building that consists of a mish mash of domes, mosaics and marble columns. It wasnt really much to look at from the outside but it was still impressive in its uniqueness. It is so named because it allegedly houses the remains of St. Mark under its central altar. Quite a boast to make! The story behind his remains coming to Venice is certainly ammusing. Apparently his body was smuggled out of Alexandria in a barrel of pork. Now, being the medieval times, I cant imagine that they would just let the pork go to waste. So I think 1 of 2 scenarios must have happened. Either St. Mark is buried alongside pork innards and the devout in the Basilica are paying hommage to beatified pigs or that barrell of holy pork found its way onto the markets of Venice. mmmmmmmmmmm. The inside of the Basilica was much more impressive though. EVERY nook and cranny was covered in ancient golden mosaics, and the treasures on display were staggering. It was one of the richest churches i have ever seen, and the dark interior of the romanesque basilica added a feeling of mystery and magic to the whole place. The stunning alter piece contained priceless jewels, and of course the saint himself.
the Piazza San Marco also contained the Palazzo Ducale which was the formal residence of the Doges of the city. It also served as the prisons for Venice and the famous Bridge of Sighs owes its name to the sounds prisoners made when being transported over it towards the prisons. Apparently it has a massive romantic element to it because Casanova languished in Venice's prisons. I dont know whats so romantic about swooning over an ancient pick up artist but whatever. The rest of our day was spent exploring the city and making stops at 10 other churches. Thats right ladies and gentleman you read right. 11 CHURCHES IN ONE DAY! Venice has a lot of churches... The narrow streets and maze of canals were awesome to wlak around in though. Inevitably we got lost, but how can you not!? I think even the posties have trouble. It was fascinating to watch the people go about their daily business in the city. I definitly couldnt live there, but it is something that we both enjoyed watching. We struggled to keep under budget in Venice, especially once we found that our hostel didnt have a kitchen so self catering was out of the question. We were forced to go try and find some cheap food and eventually stopped at a corner pizzeria where we managed to get a HUGE family size pizza and split it. Probably the most satisfying meal I have had in MONTHS! It was at this place that the Italy Pizza Challenge was born. Me and Rishi decided to eat Pizza every day while we were here in Italy. We wanted to conduct an experiment. Can you really get sick of eating Pizza? Results pending :p It also had the added benefit of being cheap so it helps us stay on budget.
That concluded our stay in Venice. We were only there for 1 night and our wallets were glad of it. We thoguht we did a good job of knocking it off though, and there wasnt really much more we wanted to see. We took our final Vaporetto to the train station in the morning and hopped on the train to Florence and even warmer climates! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Vienna and the World's best chocolate cake
We arrived from Prague with high hopes for Austria. There were two reasons for this. The first was that it apparently had the world's most amazing chocolate cake. The second was that we would be able to eat more schnitzel. We hopped off the train and made our way to the hostel, got ourselves checked in and then ventured out to explore the city. Vienna had a great buzz about it. People were walking around everywhere, shopping, going into little cafes and we generally got the feel that Vienna was a busy city. Our first stop was Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), one of Vienna's most treasured symbols. This cathedral was amazing from the outside with its Gothic architecture. What was striking was the mosaic tiles on the roof which stood out from the rest of the cathedral exterior. The interior was just as jaw-dropping as the exterior. The stained glass was definitely some of the best we have seen by far, and definitely one of the most amazing cathedrals we've seen on this trip. We tried to locate Mozart's house, which was supposedly behind the cathedral. However, unfortunately we were not able to find it so we decided to continue on with the other sights. After visiting the cathedral we decided to go have a look at the Hofburg Palace. The imperial palace spans over 800 years and currently contains both the President's office and residences. It was getting late so we decided to go grab some dinner (yes, schnitzel!) and then head back to the hostel to get some sleep.
The next day we woke up and decided to take things slow. There were a few things still left to do here but we did not want to run out of things to do completely for the following day. The first stop was Karlskirche (the Church of St. Borromeo). We just had a look at this Church from the exterior. It incorporated various architectural elements from the outside, including Baroque and Neo-Classical styles. The church had an entrance fee and because we are indeed on a budget, we decided to give the interior a miss. We continued walking around Ringstrasse, one of the main roads and found that again, the city was buzzing. The atmosphere was incredible, the way Viennese people went about their day to day life was interesting. We then went right by the Stadpark (City park) which was quite a pretty sight. Our next stop was to go to try the World's best chocolate cake, the so-called Sacher Torte. There is one place which apparently has 'the original' Sacher Torte, where even the recipe is kept secret. The place that has this original version is called Sacher Eck which is a cafe inside the Hotel Sacher. I know what you're thinking... Just how good can chocolate cake really be? Well, this thing was amazing. It was hard to believe at first, but it really is the best chocolate cake in the World. Nothing else even comes close to being this good. Sacher Torte combined with some coffee in Vienna, an awesome combination. They give you some whipped cream on the side and even the whipped cream is like the best whipped cream you will ever taste. After eating the Sacher Torte, there was a party inside both our stomachs. It was that good.
The final day in Vienna started off smoothly but ended in chaos. We had reserved our seats for the train trip to Venice. We decided that we would be better off taking a night train to Venice. We still had some time to do a few more things during the day. We decided to go take a look at the Kirche am Hof (Church of the Nine Choirs of Angels). This was where Mozart gave his first performance. It took a while to find this Church and it was a bit of a walk to get there. Once we finally found it, we realised it was closed. We decided to just head back and chill out a bit at the hostel. Before going to the hostel, we got some pasta and sauce from the supermarket since the hostel had a kitchen. When we reached the hostel, we sat down in the main common room area watching some TV with other guests. It was about 6pm and our train to Venice was at about 9pm. I had a few things to write up so I got cracking on that whilst Chris went to use the internet. After about an hour, I quickly went to go ask Chris something (who was in the room next door). 30 seconds later, I had returned only to find that my wallet was stolen. It sucked because I was literally gone for 30 seconds, if that. I asked around the room and the girls who were there said they did not see anything or anyone else in the room. I quickly informed Chris and we tried to retrace our steps just in case I had left it somewhere by mistake. We could not find anything and I am pretty sure it was stolen. This really put a damper on things. I informed the hostel staff and quickly gave my parents a call. Because I had various forms of identification, including my drivers license, I had to notify the police. So I went to the police station whilst Chris cooked dinner. This was a mission in itself. Austrian police are scary. They hardly spoke a word of English and because I hardly knew a word of German, they just ended up shouting and screaming. Eventually, they managed to file a report and I ran back to the hostel to cancel all my cards. After cancelling all my cards, we then managed to transfer money into Chris's account. I was not so much annoyed at losing the cards or the money, but mainly annoyed at losing my Student cards. Student cards guaranteed a discount at most sights and we generally saved a lot of money as a result of having our Student cards with us. The other thing is that since we are only withdrawing money from Chris's card now, we would have to be extra careful since if something happened to Chris's wallet, we would probably be stranded. The hostel was really helpful with everything and luckily allowed me to use their phone to make free international calls back home and to my bank. Who knows... I might clear out my bag and randomly find my wallet underneath a pile of smelly clothes... Either way, it was more just an annoyance factor than anything else really. By this time it was almost 9pm and we quickly made our way to the train station to gear up for Venice.
Rishi
The next day we woke up and decided to take things slow. There were a few things still left to do here but we did not want to run out of things to do completely for the following day. The first stop was Karlskirche (the Church of St. Borromeo). We just had a look at this Church from the exterior. It incorporated various architectural elements from the outside, including Baroque and Neo-Classical styles. The church had an entrance fee and because we are indeed on a budget, we decided to give the interior a miss. We continued walking around Ringstrasse, one of the main roads and found that again, the city was buzzing. The atmosphere was incredible, the way Viennese people went about their day to day life was interesting. We then went right by the Stadpark (City park) which was quite a pretty sight. Our next stop was to go to try the World's best chocolate cake, the so-called Sacher Torte. There is one place which apparently has 'the original' Sacher Torte, where even the recipe is kept secret. The place that has this original version is called Sacher Eck which is a cafe inside the Hotel Sacher. I know what you're thinking... Just how good can chocolate cake really be? Well, this thing was amazing. It was hard to believe at first, but it really is the best chocolate cake in the World. Nothing else even comes close to being this good. Sacher Torte combined with some coffee in Vienna, an awesome combination. They give you some whipped cream on the side and even the whipped cream is like the best whipped cream you will ever taste. After eating the Sacher Torte, there was a party inside both our stomachs. It was that good.
The final day in Vienna started off smoothly but ended in chaos. We had reserved our seats for the train trip to Venice. We decided that we would be better off taking a night train to Venice. We still had some time to do a few more things during the day. We decided to go take a look at the Kirche am Hof (Church of the Nine Choirs of Angels). This was where Mozart gave his first performance. It took a while to find this Church and it was a bit of a walk to get there. Once we finally found it, we realised it was closed. We decided to just head back and chill out a bit at the hostel. Before going to the hostel, we got some pasta and sauce from the supermarket since the hostel had a kitchen. When we reached the hostel, we sat down in the main common room area watching some TV with other guests. It was about 6pm and our train to Venice was at about 9pm. I had a few things to write up so I got cracking on that whilst Chris went to use the internet. After about an hour, I quickly went to go ask Chris something (who was in the room next door). 30 seconds later, I had returned only to find that my wallet was stolen. It sucked because I was literally gone for 30 seconds, if that. I asked around the room and the girls who were there said they did not see anything or anyone else in the room. I quickly informed Chris and we tried to retrace our steps just in case I had left it somewhere by mistake. We could not find anything and I am pretty sure it was stolen. This really put a damper on things. I informed the hostel staff and quickly gave my parents a call. Because I had various forms of identification, including my drivers license, I had to notify the police. So I went to the police station whilst Chris cooked dinner. This was a mission in itself. Austrian police are scary. They hardly spoke a word of English and because I hardly knew a word of German, they just ended up shouting and screaming. Eventually, they managed to file a report and I ran back to the hostel to cancel all my cards. After cancelling all my cards, we then managed to transfer money into Chris's account. I was not so much annoyed at losing the cards or the money, but mainly annoyed at losing my Student cards. Student cards guaranteed a discount at most sights and we generally saved a lot of money as a result of having our Student cards with us. The other thing is that since we are only withdrawing money from Chris's card now, we would have to be extra careful since if something happened to Chris's wallet, we would probably be stranded. The hostel was really helpful with everything and luckily allowed me to use their phone to make free international calls back home and to my bank. Who knows... I might clear out my bag and randomly find my wallet underneath a pile of smelly clothes... Either way, it was more just an annoyance factor than anything else really. By this time it was almost 9pm and we quickly made our way to the train station to gear up for Venice.
Rishi
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Prague: Where Beer is Cheaper than Bottled Water
Getting to Prague turned out to be quite a mission. It was originally supposed to be fairly simple with only 1 stop and change over needed. However, for some reason known only to the creator, our train just stood at a station somewhere between Munich and our destination for about half an hour. This inevitably meant that our connection was missed at a place called Schwandorf. So we had to figure out how to get from Schwandorf across the border into Czech Republic and eventually to Prague itself. We managed to smell our way there by heading first to a semi-border town called Firth (on a 'train' that was the size of a bus and required that the driver change gears audibly while going uphill, and composed of seats which were little more than padded wooden benches), and then changing at Plzen (the home of the worlds first Lager :D) before FINALLY arriving in Vienna a full 3 hours later than expected. That all didnt matter though. We got there eventually. Unfortunately, this resulted in us trying to find a place to eat at almost midnight, a task that proved more difficult than expected.
Well after that experience, we decided to sleep in a little bit and woke up fairly late, intending to leave the morning to relaxing and doing internet like chores. That afternoon we decided to go on a walking tour of the Western side of the river running though the middle of Prague. We have found throughout our travels that a walking tour is a perfect and inexpensive way at introducing yourself to the layout, major sights and history of the city. This particular tour was not quite as well done as some of the others we have been on, but it still served its purpose. We met 3 other travellers on this tour, Nathan and Sally who were both from Australia and Alice from the States. We decided to go out to dinner after the tour as we were all practically dying of hypothermia. It is actually ridiculous in Central Europe right now (although not as bad as the States from what I can gather) Prague, Munich and Berlin were all MUCH colder than Scandinavia. We were easily tipping -15 degrees at some points, even perhaps -20 at night. Needless to say that after a 3 hours of walking around we were well due for a warm up. After much searching, we found a fairly nice restaurant and sat down for a fantastic traditional Czech meal of dumplings and sausages. We didnt even pay much, as most things (especially food) is very cheap in Czech Republic. Beer itself is actually the budget option (yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!) and is much cheaper than soft drinks or in some cases, bottled water. I dont think I need to stress that Prague was FILLED with Australians. Following dinner, we all split up and went to our seperate hostels. We met up with Nathan later, however, and proceeded to explore the pubs around our hostel making full use of the curious price of our favourite beverage. We tried multiple brews that night, but highlights included the famous Pilsner Urquell (the original lager, and one of the best) and Pragues very own Staropramen (which I became very familiar with, selling it in England). We also managed to try our hand at the original Absynth, best taken by lighting it on fire and caramalising a suger cube into the spirit. Very strong but very nice, and quite exotic! Its a far cry from what it used to be 50 years ago parents, so dont worry. We wont be cutting off each others ears in an attempt to emulate Mr. Van Gogh. However, one of the more unpleasant things happened to us on our way back to our hostel, which to be honest was only about 50 metres away. A girl came out of nowwhere and collapsed into Rishis arms drunkenly asking for a cigarette. Rishi tried to help her up but she was as limp as can be and leaning completely against him. Rishi tried to push her away but it wasnt much use, but then she just kind of disappeared. We didnt think much of it at the time, but in the morning when we were bout to get a bagel for breakfast, Rishi realised that all his cash was gone from his wallet. Nasty surprise to say the least and it really did sour the rest of our experiences in Prague. However, looking on the bright side, at least she took the trouble to pickpocket him, rifle through his wallet and grab his notes, and then put his wallet back in his jeans leaving his cards intact. So polite!
The next day we decided to do some sightseeing of our own and explore the architectually arrogant city that is Prague. We mainly walked around the Eastern Bank of the river and Old Town. We saw the fairy tale Tyn Cathedral with its Disney like castle spires and the Old Town hall with the most over rated town clock extravaganza in all of Europe (seriously. Its actually official, just in front of Munich's Glockenspiel) which consisted of a skeleton ringing a tiny bell and a parade of the 12 apostles in front of a window while the clock chimed the hour. With the crowds that gather every hour to watch the show, and with the amount of souvenirs available, one would think that the Pope himself was appearing in the window. Quite ridiculous although the skeleton was pretty cool. Acting on the heady adrenalin that was now flowing through our veins, we managed to make our way to two seperate St. Nicholas' churches. The second one was across the river and was Pragues premier Baroque building. This thing was so ostentatious it was threatening to collapse around our ankles. There was gold gilding everywhere, and elaborate columns, domes, and statues. It was very impressive of course, but both me and Rishi have had our fill of baroque arrogance. There is such a thing as less is more, but I dont think any of the artists of the Baroque period ever took it to heart. Maybe they were the reason for coining the expression!
The next day we woke up early. We do have a confession to make though. We weren't being enthusiastic sightseers. We were acting the part of deprived cricket tragics, and we were making use of the free internet at the hostel to watch the Twenty20 cricket match between SA and Australia via text commentary. This may sound boring, but we don't really care what you think. We made up for lost sightseeing time in the early afternoon though, and made our way to the jewel of Prague, the Prague Castle. Now to be honest, this whole Castel complex had been completely built up for us. We had HUGE expectations and were quite dissapointed when we saw the facade. It really jsut looked like a huge mansion, and not like a castle at all! the grounds were very big though and contained a giant Neo-Gothic Catheral, multiple churches and an entire mini town inside its walls. The Cathedral was the most impressive part of the complex. It was the Cathedral of Saint Vitus and it contained our favourite stained glass by FAR. It really was extremely majestic both inside and out and was definitly worth the hour or so we spent oggling. This was definitly the highlight of the day and worht the entrance fee we paid to the other attractions inside the castle. That was it for the day and after finding a bite to eat we went back to the hostel and prepared our packs for the next city. We ended up spending the night chatting with the charming Swedish girls we were rooming with. They were ridiculously crazy. They could speak upwards of 6 languages, paint, sing and were getting ready to go back to university to study medicine after spending some time in Ireland working on a farm! Charming. But CRAAAZY! :p It seems that we can't escape the Swedish no matter what we do.
Chris
Well after that experience, we decided to sleep in a little bit and woke up fairly late, intending to leave the morning to relaxing and doing internet like chores. That afternoon we decided to go on a walking tour of the Western side of the river running though the middle of Prague. We have found throughout our travels that a walking tour is a perfect and inexpensive way at introducing yourself to the layout, major sights and history of the city. This particular tour was not quite as well done as some of the others we have been on, but it still served its purpose. We met 3 other travellers on this tour, Nathan and Sally who were both from Australia and Alice from the States. We decided to go out to dinner after the tour as we were all practically dying of hypothermia. It is actually ridiculous in Central Europe right now (although not as bad as the States from what I can gather) Prague, Munich and Berlin were all MUCH colder than Scandinavia. We were easily tipping -15 degrees at some points, even perhaps -20 at night. Needless to say that after a 3 hours of walking around we were well due for a warm up. After much searching, we found a fairly nice restaurant and sat down for a fantastic traditional Czech meal of dumplings and sausages. We didnt even pay much, as most things (especially food) is very cheap in Czech Republic. Beer itself is actually the budget option (yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!) and is much cheaper than soft drinks or in some cases, bottled water. I dont think I need to stress that Prague was FILLED with Australians. Following dinner, we all split up and went to our seperate hostels. We met up with Nathan later, however, and proceeded to explore the pubs around our hostel making full use of the curious price of our favourite beverage. We tried multiple brews that night, but highlights included the famous Pilsner Urquell (the original lager, and one of the best) and Pragues very own Staropramen (which I became very familiar with, selling it in England). We also managed to try our hand at the original Absynth, best taken by lighting it on fire and caramalising a suger cube into the spirit. Very strong but very nice, and quite exotic! Its a far cry from what it used to be 50 years ago parents, so dont worry. We wont be cutting off each others ears in an attempt to emulate Mr. Van Gogh. However, one of the more unpleasant things happened to us on our way back to our hostel, which to be honest was only about 50 metres away. A girl came out of nowwhere and collapsed into Rishis arms drunkenly asking for a cigarette. Rishi tried to help her up but she was as limp as can be and leaning completely against him. Rishi tried to push her away but it wasnt much use, but then she just kind of disappeared. We didnt think much of it at the time, but in the morning when we were bout to get a bagel for breakfast, Rishi realised that all his cash was gone from his wallet. Nasty surprise to say the least and it really did sour the rest of our experiences in Prague. However, looking on the bright side, at least she took the trouble to pickpocket him, rifle through his wallet and grab his notes, and then put his wallet back in his jeans leaving his cards intact. So polite!
The next day we decided to do some sightseeing of our own and explore the architectually arrogant city that is Prague. We mainly walked around the Eastern Bank of the river and Old Town. We saw the fairy tale Tyn Cathedral with its Disney like castle spires and the Old Town hall with the most over rated town clock extravaganza in all of Europe (seriously. Its actually official, just in front of Munich's Glockenspiel) which consisted of a skeleton ringing a tiny bell and a parade of the 12 apostles in front of a window while the clock chimed the hour. With the crowds that gather every hour to watch the show, and with the amount of souvenirs available, one would think that the Pope himself was appearing in the window. Quite ridiculous although the skeleton was pretty cool. Acting on the heady adrenalin that was now flowing through our veins, we managed to make our way to two seperate St. Nicholas' churches. The second one was across the river and was Pragues premier Baroque building. This thing was so ostentatious it was threatening to collapse around our ankles. There was gold gilding everywhere, and elaborate columns, domes, and statues. It was very impressive of course, but both me and Rishi have had our fill of baroque arrogance. There is such a thing as less is more, but I dont think any of the artists of the Baroque period ever took it to heart. Maybe they were the reason for coining the expression!
The next day we woke up early. We do have a confession to make though. We weren't being enthusiastic sightseers. We were acting the part of deprived cricket tragics, and we were making use of the free internet at the hostel to watch the Twenty20 cricket match between SA and Australia via text commentary. This may sound boring, but we don't really care what you think. We made up for lost sightseeing time in the early afternoon though, and made our way to the jewel of Prague, the Prague Castle. Now to be honest, this whole Castel complex had been completely built up for us. We had HUGE expectations and were quite dissapointed when we saw the facade. It really jsut looked like a huge mansion, and not like a castle at all! the grounds were very big though and contained a giant Neo-Gothic Catheral, multiple churches and an entire mini town inside its walls. The Cathedral was the most impressive part of the complex. It was the Cathedral of Saint Vitus and it contained our favourite stained glass by FAR. It really was extremely majestic both inside and out and was definitly worth the hour or so we spent oggling. This was definitly the highlight of the day and worht the entrance fee we paid to the other attractions inside the castle. That was it for the day and after finding a bite to eat we went back to the hostel and prepared our packs for the next city. We ended up spending the night chatting with the charming Swedish girls we were rooming with. They were ridiculously crazy. They could speak upwards of 6 languages, paint, sing and were getting ready to go back to university to study medicine after spending some time in Ireland working on a farm! Charming. But CRAAAZY! :p It seems that we can't escape the Swedish no matter what we do.
Chris
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Munich: The Capital of Bavaria
We had taken the overnight train from Berlin. We're used to these by now and have somehow adapted to sleeping on them quite soundly. We arrived in the morning at about 6am. The train station was right next to the hostel (literally on the same block to be honest) which was great. We checked into the hostel and found out that there was breakfast being served at 7:30am. So we decided to hang around for a bit and have some breakfast before heading out. After some breakfast we decided to walk around Munich for a bit and familiarize ourself with the city. Up until this point we have been doing free walking tours provided by a company called 'New Europe'. These tours are very imformative and are great for knocking out a city's main attractions, learning about the history of the city and generally good for orientation purposes. We knew that this same company did a free walking tour around Munich and we also knew the meeting point, but we were not sure what time exactly it starts. Generally these tours start around 10am, so we decided to head down to Marienplatz which was the meeting point of the free walking tour. It turned out that the walking tour started at 11am. Marienplatz was this square with somewhat historical buildings around it including the Neues Rathaus, translating to the new town hall (which contains the Glockenspiel). At 11am, hordes of tourists gather around the square to witness the Glockenspiel chimes. To be perfectly honest, this was by the the most overrated attraction I have ever seen. This was further justified by our tour guide who claimed that it comes 2nd only to the astronomical clock in Prague, in terms of the most overrated attractions in the whole of Europe. From Marienplatz, the tour guide led us to Peterskirche, which is a 12th century church (the city's oldest parish church). We then encountered the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady), one of Munich's most notable landmarks and a city emblem which has two giant onion-domed towers. From Munich, there was a tour available to goto the Dachau Concentration Camp. Dachau was apparently the first concentration camp ever established. We were tempted to go visit this one, however decided against it as we had already seen Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp when we were in Berlin and one moving experience was enough. During the tour, we did pass through various Holocaust Memorial sites. It was interesting to see the contrasting difference between how people from Berlin remembered the war and how people from Munich remembered the war. The Holocaust War Memorial in Berlin was massive and in the middle of the city center. Berliners had to walk pass it every day as opposed to the memorial sites in Munich, which were scattered away in various corners where hardly anyone wondered and were very small. It seems that Berlin wants people to remember what happened in the Holocaust more than Munich. The large memorial site will be noticed by everyone, not just people searching for the memorial site. What we found with Munich was that the only people that would notice these small memorial sites are those who actively seek it, thus these atrocities can be forgotten more easily, as opposed to Berlin where people are forced to walk through it in their day to day lives and are reminded of what happened each and every day. After the tour, we continued wondering around the city and then head back to the hostel to relax and warm ourselves up a bit. For dinner, we heard about a place that served a giant schnitzel, the so called 'Wiener Schnitzel'. This was a place that serves schnitzels the size of elephant ears. We had to try it. So we did, and it was amazing. You missed out. Quite possibly the most satisfying meal either of us has ever had. The schnitzel was literally the size of an elephant's ear. Under it were fries and combine that with some Augustiner Beer (a traditional type of Bavarian beer), it was amazing. I'm not even quite sure how we managed to finish it all, but we did. I know what you're probably thinking... 'enough about the stupid schnitzel already'. But no, I will not stop talking about this stupid schnitzel. Seriously guys, this schnitzel is worth moving to Munich for. It was GREAT. Okay so after that we head back to the hostel and went to sleep (and dreamt about the schnitzel ofcourse).
The next morning we woke up and had only one thing on our minds. Okay, maybe two if you count the schnitzel. That was the BMW Werlt (BMW World). This is the headquaters of the most incredible car company in the world... BMW. Both me and Chris are avid fans of BMW and we had to check it out. It was a bit of a mission to get there but a trip to the headquaters of Bavarian Motor Works is a must, especially if you're in Bavaria already. We saw a wide range of BMW vehicles whilst we were there including the BMW 2008 Formula 1 car which was by far the highlight. It had the latest range of BMW's and both me and Chris were in awe. We then decided to go take a look at the BMW museum which displayed the past, present and future BMW products. This included the 'Bubble Car' and some of the older classics. What was also interesting was the new techonology that the museum was displaying. We saw a car that was powered entirely by Hydrogen and produced no emissions whatsoever. It was powered by hydrogen and produced water. Just imagine if that technology gets implemented into every day vehicles! But that was no the most interesting thing was saw there. BMW have been developing something that is called the 'GINA Light'. It's sort of hard to explain what it is or how it works, but I suggest you google it up. It's a car, but its outer body can adjust to take the form of various things (I hope that makes sense, because it doesn't to me). Seriously, just google it up! After we were done with the BMW headquaters we headed back to the hostel and on the way stopped by for some... yes, you've guessed it... schnitzel! We were gearing ourselves up for the infamous Munich Pub Crawl, the so called 'Beer Challenge'. Now if you don't know, Munich is popular for its Beer Halls. These Beer Halls are giant. They can probably house thousands of people in one and no trip to Munich is complete without visiting the most famous Beer Hall of them all, the Hofbrauhaus! The pub crawl visits various beer halls and finishes off at a Bar. I won't go into TOO much detail about what happened during the Munich Pub Crawl, partly because I can't remember half the night. But it was the best night out we've had by far. One thing I do remember is that we ran into this American Jazz Orchestra group and met a whole lot of awesome people. One of the guys from this American Jazz Orchestra apparently lived in Sydney for 6 months. So we naturally, we asked where. He mentioned Kenthurst. So naturally we asked what school he went to. He said Hills Grammer School. We were like, hey... that's the same school as us! What a coincidence. Oh, another thing I recall is that we ordered this giant pretzel. This thing was huge, possibly bigger than the schnitzel! But overall, we had heaps of fun there and managed to get back to the hostel.
We woke up the next day with just one thing left to do in Munich. We had breakfast, checked out and then ventured out to the Neue Pinakotheken. A museum which holds a variety of famous artwork. The highlights being Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers and Claude Monet's Waterlillies. Both paintings were indeed masterpieces and Monet's Waterlillies in particular has been a painting i've been wanting to see since high school. We had a train to catch in the afternoon so we finished up and were on the road again...
Until next time...
Rishi
The next morning we woke up and had only one thing on our minds. Okay, maybe two if you count the schnitzel. That was the BMW Werlt (BMW World). This is the headquaters of the most incredible car company in the world... BMW. Both me and Chris are avid fans of BMW and we had to check it out. It was a bit of a mission to get there but a trip to the headquaters of Bavarian Motor Works is a must, especially if you're in Bavaria already. We saw a wide range of BMW vehicles whilst we were there including the BMW 2008 Formula 1 car which was by far the highlight. It had the latest range of BMW's and both me and Chris were in awe. We then decided to go take a look at the BMW museum which displayed the past, present and future BMW products. This included the 'Bubble Car' and some of the older classics. What was also interesting was the new techonology that the museum was displaying. We saw a car that was powered entirely by Hydrogen and produced no emissions whatsoever. It was powered by hydrogen and produced water. Just imagine if that technology gets implemented into every day vehicles! But that was no the most interesting thing was saw there. BMW have been developing something that is called the 'GINA Light'. It's sort of hard to explain what it is or how it works, but I suggest you google it up. It's a car, but its outer body can adjust to take the form of various things (I hope that makes sense, because it doesn't to me). Seriously, just google it up! After we were done with the BMW headquaters we headed back to the hostel and on the way stopped by for some... yes, you've guessed it... schnitzel! We were gearing ourselves up for the infamous Munich Pub Crawl, the so called 'Beer Challenge'. Now if you don't know, Munich is popular for its Beer Halls. These Beer Halls are giant. They can probably house thousands of people in one and no trip to Munich is complete without visiting the most famous Beer Hall of them all, the Hofbrauhaus! The pub crawl visits various beer halls and finishes off at a Bar. I won't go into TOO much detail about what happened during the Munich Pub Crawl, partly because I can't remember half the night. But it was the best night out we've had by far. One thing I do remember is that we ran into this American Jazz Orchestra group and met a whole lot of awesome people. One of the guys from this American Jazz Orchestra apparently lived in Sydney for 6 months. So we naturally, we asked where. He mentioned Kenthurst. So naturally we asked what school he went to. He said Hills Grammer School. We were like, hey... that's the same school as us! What a coincidence. Oh, another thing I recall is that we ordered this giant pretzel. This thing was huge, possibly bigger than the schnitzel! But overall, we had heaps of fun there and managed to get back to the hostel.
We woke up the next day with just one thing left to do in Munich. We had breakfast, checked out and then ventured out to the Neue Pinakotheken. A museum which holds a variety of famous artwork. The highlights being Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers and Claude Monet's Waterlillies. Both paintings were indeed masterpieces and Monet's Waterlillies in particular has been a painting i've been wanting to see since high school. We had a train to catch in the afternoon so we finished up and were on the road again...
Until next time...
Rishi
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Berlin: Wearing the Past With Dignity
The flight from Stockholm arrived very early in the morning, and we just decided it would be much easier to stay up the previous night. So we arrived in Berlin bleery eyed and unrested, and like the true troopers we are, decided to go on a 3 hour walking tour in the middle of the coldest weather we have experienced so far. Our reasoning behind this was fairly solid at the time. We couldnt check into our hostel until 3pm that afternoon, and therefore couldnt sleep until then. An easy way to stay awake was to take a tour around one of the most fascinating cities in the world. Unfortunately, 10 minutes into the tour with our feet completely numb and our fingers aching with the cold, we regretted our decision. The tour itself was fantastic though. We proved that we couldnt escape the Swedish for very long as our tour guide ended up being from Stockholm. He was very well informed though and showed us all around Third Reich Berlin and also Communist Berlin. We went to sites such as the famous Pariser Platz (where you will not only see the famous Brandenberg Gate, but also the hotel window from which Michael Jackson dangled his baby), the site of Hitlers Bunker, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall, Museum Platz and a plethora of amazing architecture and sites. To go on and name everything we saw would take up 90% of this blog post. It was easily the best tour we have been on so far. However, once 3pm arrived, we were off to our hostel like lightning and checked in. We relaxed a little at the hostel before turning in for a very early night and to catch up on some much needed sleep.
The next morning we decided to go to the Nazi Concentration Camp of Sachenhauzen (I probably spelled it wrong). It is just outside of Berlin and was reputedly the 'model' camp, the one that all camps tried to live up to. Needless to say, this was NOT the funnest way to spend a day in Berlin, but I think it was definately necessary. The sheer brutality and genocide of the concentration camps is something that needs to be seen to be believed. It was absolutely staggering. The tour itself was done in a very informative way, and tried to get across as accurately as possible the day to day functioning of the camp. The whole place was simply evil. Pure and simple. There was a chill in the air that wasnt just from the cold. The Nazis and the SS turned killing into an industrial process at these camps, and this wasnt even a death camp like Auschwitz. It was here that political prisoners, Jews, homosexuals, and other undesirables of Nazi society were sent to work in the most horrible conditions imaginable in order to fuel the Nazi war machine. The SS soldiers were animals in the way they treated their fellow human beings. Absolute monsters. I think that everyone should visit one of these camps in their lifetime. It is something that has to be seen to be believed. The fact that humans can do this sort of thing to one another is nightmarish, and all in the name of some radical and eccentric doctrine imposed by a minority on a majority. It is simply madness. I think the more people who are aware of the consequences of such ideas, the less likely they are to happen ever again in the future. Education about the past is the key.
We wanted to do our own thing on our third day in Berlin, so we could visit some of the sites we had passed by on the walking tour. We went to a bombed out church in West Berlin that was left there as a memorial to the war. It was destroyed by bombings in WWII, much like 90% of Berlin, but was left in its sad state as a reminder of the destruction of war unlike most of Berlin which has now been rebuilt. We then headed to an art gallery called the Hamburger Bahnhof where lots of modern art is displayed. Unfortunately, 90% of the '''''''art'''''' on show was by one guy, Joseph Bueys, and we absolutely hated it. The guy is a crack pot. We did enjoy a very good Andy Warhol exhibit whcih had some very cool and famous photograph prints on display, as well as some of his film work. After this general dissapointment we decided it was time for some lunch and grabbed some Wurst at a small store. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM! Filled up and thoroughly satisfied, we headed to Museum Island, to see the world famous Pergamon museum (lap it up my fellow Alexandrian Scholars! *points and laughs at you*). It contains the famous 'Pergamon Alter', a Hellenistic sanctuary probably dedicated to Athena or Zeus at the Anatolian city of Pergamon, the seat of power for King Eumenes I (one of Alexander the Great's generals). It has some of the best Hellenistic friezes I have ever seen, and the magnificence of the Alter was such that even Rishi was enthralled with the mythical scenes depicted. Another of the museums highlights was the famous Ishtar Gate from Babylon. This is an entire gate that was moved from the excavations at Babylon and reassembled brick by brick inside the museum. It was really amazing to see. Considering the gate was almost 5 stories high, and that it was the smallest of many gates really makes one think about the sheer magnificence of Babylon in those ancient times. This was of course built by Nebuchadnezzar II about 2500 years ago. The fact that such things could be built so long ago is awesome. Anyway, with my inner history nerd satisfied for a little while, we headed towards the Parliament Building. This was where a fire allowed Hitler to seize power, and the Soviets raised their flag to signal Nazi Germany's defeat. A very cool building, but we were not able to get up inside the glass dome at the top because the ques were way too long.
Our final day in Berlin consisted of us going to the magnificent Berlin Cathedral, a fairly modern building that consisted of so many architectual styles it made the eyes bleed. It was quite spectacular none the less. We also decided to do another tour called 'Red Berlin'. Basically it was a tour in East Berlin, showing us life under the communists. We were shown examples of what life was like behind the wall, famous sites of revolution and squashed rebellion. We were also told the story of the wall from its conception to its final stage in the 1980s, and also told stores of escape attempts and brutal executions. We were shown the Stassi Headquarters, the most powerful spy organisation to have ever existed. At the hight of its power, there was 1 person working for the Stassi for every 6 living in East Berlin. We were also told stories of the paranoia and brutal treatment of the people by this organisation and the government. The tour ended at the famous East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall. Its the longest surviving stretch of wall, and contains a number of badly damaged artworks (concrete is not the best material to paint on, it seems). All in all, a good end to an historic city. We were to catch a night train to Munich, where the German adventure would continue without pause.
Berlin was incredible all up. There is no other city that wears its past on its shoulder with such dignity. It might not have much it can be proud of, but it has a great load to teach us. It would be so easy for Berliners to try to forget their horrible history, but instead they remember it in their every day lives and make sure that they learn from it. I have great respect for Berlin and the German people because of this.
Chris
The next morning we decided to go to the Nazi Concentration Camp of Sachenhauzen (I probably spelled it wrong). It is just outside of Berlin and was reputedly the 'model' camp, the one that all camps tried to live up to. Needless to say, this was NOT the funnest way to spend a day in Berlin, but I think it was definately necessary. The sheer brutality and genocide of the concentration camps is something that needs to be seen to be believed. It was absolutely staggering. The tour itself was done in a very informative way, and tried to get across as accurately as possible the day to day functioning of the camp. The whole place was simply evil. Pure and simple. There was a chill in the air that wasnt just from the cold. The Nazis and the SS turned killing into an industrial process at these camps, and this wasnt even a death camp like Auschwitz. It was here that political prisoners, Jews, homosexuals, and other undesirables of Nazi society were sent to work in the most horrible conditions imaginable in order to fuel the Nazi war machine. The SS soldiers were animals in the way they treated their fellow human beings. Absolute monsters. I think that everyone should visit one of these camps in their lifetime. It is something that has to be seen to be believed. The fact that humans can do this sort of thing to one another is nightmarish, and all in the name of some radical and eccentric doctrine imposed by a minority on a majority. It is simply madness. I think the more people who are aware of the consequences of such ideas, the less likely they are to happen ever again in the future. Education about the past is the key.
We wanted to do our own thing on our third day in Berlin, so we could visit some of the sites we had passed by on the walking tour. We went to a bombed out church in West Berlin that was left there as a memorial to the war. It was destroyed by bombings in WWII, much like 90% of Berlin, but was left in its sad state as a reminder of the destruction of war unlike most of Berlin which has now been rebuilt. We then headed to an art gallery called the Hamburger Bahnhof where lots of modern art is displayed. Unfortunately, 90% of the '''''''art'''''' on show was by one guy, Joseph Bueys, and we absolutely hated it. The guy is a crack pot. We did enjoy a very good Andy Warhol exhibit whcih had some very cool and famous photograph prints on display, as well as some of his film work. After this general dissapointment we decided it was time for some lunch and grabbed some Wurst at a small store. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM! Filled up and thoroughly satisfied, we headed to Museum Island, to see the world famous Pergamon museum (lap it up my fellow Alexandrian Scholars! *points and laughs at you*). It contains the famous 'Pergamon Alter', a Hellenistic sanctuary probably dedicated to Athena or Zeus at the Anatolian city of Pergamon, the seat of power for King Eumenes I (one of Alexander the Great's generals). It has some of the best Hellenistic friezes I have ever seen, and the magnificence of the Alter was such that even Rishi was enthralled with the mythical scenes depicted. Another of the museums highlights was the famous Ishtar Gate from Babylon. This is an entire gate that was moved from the excavations at Babylon and reassembled brick by brick inside the museum. It was really amazing to see. Considering the gate was almost 5 stories high, and that it was the smallest of many gates really makes one think about the sheer magnificence of Babylon in those ancient times. This was of course built by Nebuchadnezzar II about 2500 years ago. The fact that such things could be built so long ago is awesome. Anyway, with my inner history nerd satisfied for a little while, we headed towards the Parliament Building. This was where a fire allowed Hitler to seize power, and the Soviets raised their flag to signal Nazi Germany's defeat. A very cool building, but we were not able to get up inside the glass dome at the top because the ques were way too long.
Our final day in Berlin consisted of us going to the magnificent Berlin Cathedral, a fairly modern building that consisted of so many architectual styles it made the eyes bleed. It was quite spectacular none the less. We also decided to do another tour called 'Red Berlin'. Basically it was a tour in East Berlin, showing us life under the communists. We were shown examples of what life was like behind the wall, famous sites of revolution and squashed rebellion. We were also told the story of the wall from its conception to its final stage in the 1980s, and also told stores of escape attempts and brutal executions. We were shown the Stassi Headquarters, the most powerful spy organisation to have ever existed. At the hight of its power, there was 1 person working for the Stassi for every 6 living in East Berlin. We were also told stories of the paranoia and brutal treatment of the people by this organisation and the government. The tour ended at the famous East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall. Its the longest surviving stretch of wall, and contains a number of badly damaged artworks (concrete is not the best material to paint on, it seems). All in all, a good end to an historic city. We were to catch a night train to Munich, where the German adventure would continue without pause.
Berlin was incredible all up. There is no other city that wears its past on its shoulder with such dignity. It might not have much it can be proud of, but it has a great load to teach us. It would be so easy for Berliners to try to forget their horrible history, but instead they remember it in their every day lives and make sure that they learn from it. I have great respect for Berlin and the German people because of this.
Chris
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
New Years In Stockholm
So we arrived once again in Stockholm. This was the big one. New Years celebrations. We did not have any plans at all. We arrived late at night and got back to the same hostel we were in last time we were here. We checked ourselves in, dumped our bags and head out to get some groceries for dinner and some beer. When we got back to the hostel, we walked downstairs into the common room area. What we saw next reiterated the fact that this was indeed going to be one crazy New Years. There were about 15 Italians, 15 Germans, a bunch of New Zealanders, Swedes, Danes and ofcourse, Americans, all crammed into this common room area, most of whom were completely drunk. So drunk infact, there was one Italian guy wearing the shortest shorts known to mankind thinking he was William Shakespeare. Every five minutes you'd hear him somewhere in the back... "to be or not to be". Believe it or not, he wasn't the craziest one there. This other Italian guy was handing out 'business cards' to every person he met. Federico was his name and my god was he awesome. These 'business cards' of his became infamous. You'd see one lying on the floor wherever you went in the hostel. There were about 6 on the floor in the toilet. The Italians surrounded us and told us that they hate Napoli (Naples). 'Napoli is a problem for Italy!'. That's all they seemed to talk about (apart from soccer of course). We decided to cook some pasta. Finding a pot was close to impossible with this many Italians. In the end, we managed to cook some pasta, even though Frederico insisted we try some 'traditional Italiano pasta'. According to the Italians, if it's made by Italians, it just instantly tastes better. We finished dinner and walked back into the common room area. The Italians welcomed us with open arms and immediately offered us drinks. We tried a wide range of drinks, including the best Sambuca we have ever had in our life. These guys were pulling drinks out of nowhere. There was seriously 10 bottles of vodka/whiskey/alcohol on each table in the common room area, with beer cans lying around all over the place. This was going to be a great new years. The funny thing is that it wasn't even new years eve yet. This was the 30th! But for Italians, every night is drinking night! So why not. We joined in and it was damn fun. The Italians came up with a name for Chris. Apparently he absorbs Sambuca like a sponge and one random guy in the back shouted 'Spongebob'. So Chris was now known as 'The Brother of Sambuca' or 'Spongebob' to the Italians. We then moved into the TV room where there were drunk Germans. I attempted to play ping pong whilst I was drunk but as you can imagine, that did not go very well. We ended up going to bed at 5am.
We awoke the next morning at 10am. It was New Years Eve! We decided to spend the day
'recovering' from the previous night of mayhem. Before I go on, I must elaborate on the people we have met from the previous night. Ari, an american guy who was travelling with his Danish mate, Ole. Johanna and Mikki, two Swedish girls who were staying in the same dorm room as us. There was their other friend, Pontus who was travelling with them (pretty much the most patient guy we have ever met, champion). There were the 6-7 New Zealanders who were pretty cool, an Irish girl Esther (who Frederico was fascinated with), some random Germans whose names I cannot remember, and of course, the Italians with their ring leader, Frederico! We had no real plans for New Years Eve, so like the trip, we were going to wing it and take it as it came. We spent the day hanging around with Ari and Ole, doing some laundry and gearing ourselves up for the big one. We had decided that we were going to join Ari, Ole and Johanna's group to go to a random house party somewhere in Stockholm. At about 5pm, we went downstairs to the kitchen to cook some dinner. Again, finding a pot was bloody impossible. We had to wait like 1 hour for a pot before and eventually managed to cook some pasta. There was a group of about 5 Swedish girls who had spent ages cooking their dinner and went through the trouble of making a nice candlelight dinner which I thought was pretty cool. There was an incredible amount of noise coming from the common room, so naturally, we decided to go take a look. If you think walking into a group of 15 drunk Italians is wild, try walking into a group of 35. The entire room was filled with Italians. They all migrated into the kitchen. They were breeding. They took over the entire kitchen, singing soccer songs at the top of their voices. Then came the Italian national anthem. You felt compelled to join in, they sing it with such pride. I was pondering what would happen if I just chucked a soccer ball into that kitchen area. It was crazy. They were all surrounding the group of Swedish girls (the ones who wanted a nice, quiet, candlelight dinner). One of the Italians was carrying around a laminated photo of some Italian pimp because apparently, they all aspire to be just like him. They then moved onto the topic of Napoli (Naples). Shouting/singing songs about how they hate Naples so much. It was like there were 3 Italian groups and they had just fused together to form some sort of flock. Federico however was no longer their ring leader. This role was filled by another Italian dressed rather smartly, wearing a tie, shirt (top button done up of course, Italian's wouldn't have it any other way), some pants and oh, socks and sandals. SANDALS. You can't beat Italian fashion. Bruno was his name and to the other Italians, he is known as 'The President'. They were all shouting the word 'RIVA', which we translated to mean 'Cheers', but later found out that it had no meaning. So we chanted it anyways. We then moved into the common room area and started drinking with the New Zealand girls and whoever else was generally in the room at the time. It was about 6:30pm. The Italians again offered us their drinks and we of course accepted. At one point during the night, I walked upstairs to our dorm room and found that it was surrounded by about 20 Italians. To enter the dorm room, you need a pin code. Only the people residing at that particular dorm room knew the pin code. They were attempting to get into our room but did not know the pin code. I asked them what they were doing and they said that they were waiting for the girls inside (Johanna and Mikki) to come outside. I walked inside the dorm room (making sure they did not notice me typing it in) and I nearly got bulldozed over by them. I barely managed to make it into the dorm room by myself. I asked Johanna what exactly was going on and she said she doesn't want to walk outside. I told her that if I was in her shoes, I would be scared too. Chris talked to one of the Italians and apparently the Italian guy was like "Do you have project?"... Chris was like, "huh?"... The Italian guy then said, "Girl". Seriously crazy. We made it back downstairs and continued drinking with some seriously random but cool people until about 11pm, when everyone went off to the clubs, bars and such.
We were going to the random house party with Ari, Ole and Johanna's group. Of course we were not invited and were not sure how it would turn out. Apparently it was in Stockholm, or so we thought. We walked outside and caught the taxi. We were driving for almost 30 minutes and were going in some random direction completely away from the city center. We passed through roads with no lighting and into some random forest. Where were we!? Even the taxi drivers were lost and they both pulled over and decided to figure out where in the world this house was. It just so happened that it was the stroke of midnight. So whilst the taxi drivers got out of the car to discuss how to get to this place, we took the liberty of getting out too. What we saw was amazing. Literally everywhere we looked, there were fireworks going off. 360 degrees. Everyone was doing fireworks. I have seen fireworks, but not like this. This was just crazy. It seems that when midnight strikes, every single person goes in their backyard and starts up some fireworks. Just imagine the whole of Sydney doing fireworks at precisely the same time in their backyard. The show went on for about 10 minutes. Once the taxi drivers had figured out where to go, we all got back inside the car to the house party. After driving for another 15 minutes, we finally reached the house. There was obviously a house party going on inside. Loud music, people congregating outside the house either talking to each other, passed out or dancing and bottles of alcohol everywhere. We were essentially gate-crashing a party. We were not invited, we didn't speak Swedish and more importantly, we didn't know anyone at the party. As we walked towards the house, we were immediately greeted by a group of Swedes. They were wondering who exactly we were. We explained that we're from Australia and they immediately welcomed us in. They gave us drinks and we wondered around the party meeting people. They seemed to marvel at the fact that we were from Sydney and by the end of the night, I think we must have met everyone at the party. There were about 40 people there. We drank the night away and numerous events occurred, most of which involved me getting eaten by the biggest bloke I have ever seen in my life because apparently I was hitting on his girlfriend. I can assure you that I was innocent and was pulled into a room by two girls until this dude came out of nowhere. Eurotrip could actually have ended right there. You can forget about me falling into a frozen lake, this was by far 10 times worse. Note to self: do not talk to Swedish girls who have gargantuan megasaurus boyfriends.
A Swedish house party. Tick it off. Thinking back, we were actually quite rude. We gate-crashed their party, drank their beer and then ran off back to Stockholm. At about 4am we caught the taxi back to the metro station and managed to get back to Stockholm in one piece (i'm not exactly sure how). Stockholm itself was buzzing. 4.30am, there were people everywhere having a good time. Every 10 minutes some random person would come up to us and just yell out happy new year. We were all hungry so we decided to go into the closest thing we could find. It just so happened that it was a Burger King. The girls went in first and then me, Chris, Ari, Ole and Pontus tried to follow. We were blocked off by an employee and were not allowed in. The girls however did manage to get in. We couldn't understand why but he barricaded us and locked the door. All we wanted was some Burger King. Seeing as the girls had already gone inside, we went round to the window area to tell them we couldn't get in and to call them back out. There we saw the same employee greeting the girls and shaking their hands. We all looked at each other and then at him. We were yelling at him, just what was he doing? He wouldn't let us into Burger King because he wanted to hit on the girls we were with? We got bounced out of Burger King. Yes. Just in-case you missed that sentence, i'll repeat it. We got bounced out of BURGER KING on New Years in Stockholm. We headed back to the hostel for the after-party. The Italians were back from their ventures and we continued drinking with them. We did manage to get to bed, albeit it was 7am. But what a night!
We woke up at about 12pm. We were not going to do anything during the day and just chilled out in the hostel. Ari and Ole cooked us some real gourmet pasta, arguably better than the recipe that me and Chris were working on perfecting. We said goodbye to Ari and Ole as they were heading to Denmark the same day. At about 5pm, we went back downstairs to the common area and the Italians were once again drinking. Bruno the ring-leader by now had figured out the combination to get into any dorm room in the hostel. I'm not exactly sure how he remembered the pin codes for every room seeing as he could barely stand (I am guessing too much Sambuca). We had to catch a plane the next day at 6.30am. The airport was a 90 minute drive from the city center and seeing as you need to arrive 1 hour before departure, this meant we needed to wake up at like 3am. We decided not to sleep at all and stocked up on some red bull. We were going to be awake the whole night just drinking red bull and watch the Italians get up to their usual antics. We had saved two beers from the previous night (don't ask how we were able to continuously drink beers, by reading this post it might sound like we have indeed turned into alcoholics, but I can assure you we have not). The problem was we could not locate a bottle opener. Chris went off to ask the Italians to open his bottle whilst I slaved away with a spoon. Then a random German walked up to me and grabbed the beer out of my hand, and was like "here, let me help you". He took an empty plastic coke bottle and opened my beer for me. I'm not entirely sure how, but he used the top of the coke bottle. Looks like German's are so used to opening beers that they can literally open them with anything. We stayed in the common room area and met a few other nice people. One of which was a German girl called Anja who was traveling with her mum and her sister. The other was an Italian bloke. I know what you're thinking, ANOTHER Italian! But this guy was quite possibly one of the coolest guys I have ever met. In a room filled with about 35 drunk Italians, he was traveling by himself and was literally the complete opposite of the others. He hated Soccer (yes there exists an Italian who hates soccer), he hated the antics the other Italian's got up to and he was generally a top bloke. He was going to be working for the Ferrari Formula 1 team, designing the aerodynamics of the car/chassis. Both me and Chris being avid Formula 1 fans, made him instant-cool. We talked until about 2.30am when we had to leave to get ourselves organized. We walked back upstairs, grabbed our bags and bid farewell to everyone.
Pretty much the best new years either of us has ever experienced. We love Stockholm, yeah we do, yeah we do.
Until next time...
Rishi
We awoke the next morning at 10am. It was New Years Eve! We decided to spend the day
'recovering' from the previous night of mayhem. Before I go on, I must elaborate on the people we have met from the previous night. Ari, an american guy who was travelling with his Danish mate, Ole. Johanna and Mikki, two Swedish girls who were staying in the same dorm room as us. There was their other friend, Pontus who was travelling with them (pretty much the most patient guy we have ever met, champion). There were the 6-7 New Zealanders who were pretty cool, an Irish girl Esther (who Frederico was fascinated with), some random Germans whose names I cannot remember, and of course, the Italians with their ring leader, Frederico! We had no real plans for New Years Eve, so like the trip, we were going to wing it and take it as it came. We spent the day hanging around with Ari and Ole, doing some laundry and gearing ourselves up for the big one. We had decided that we were going to join Ari, Ole and Johanna's group to go to a random house party somewhere in Stockholm. At about 5pm, we went downstairs to the kitchen to cook some dinner. Again, finding a pot was bloody impossible. We had to wait like 1 hour for a pot before and eventually managed to cook some pasta. There was a group of about 5 Swedish girls who had spent ages cooking their dinner and went through the trouble of making a nice candlelight dinner which I thought was pretty cool. There was an incredible amount of noise coming from the common room, so naturally, we decided to go take a look. If you think walking into a group of 15 drunk Italians is wild, try walking into a group of 35. The entire room was filled with Italians. They all migrated into the kitchen. They were breeding. They took over the entire kitchen, singing soccer songs at the top of their voices. Then came the Italian national anthem. You felt compelled to join in, they sing it with such pride. I was pondering what would happen if I just chucked a soccer ball into that kitchen area. It was crazy. They were all surrounding the group of Swedish girls (the ones who wanted a nice, quiet, candlelight dinner). One of the Italians was carrying around a laminated photo of some Italian pimp because apparently, they all aspire to be just like him. They then moved onto the topic of Napoli (Naples). Shouting/singing songs about how they hate Naples so much. It was like there were 3 Italian groups and they had just fused together to form some sort of flock. Federico however was no longer their ring leader. This role was filled by another Italian dressed rather smartly, wearing a tie, shirt (top button done up of course, Italian's wouldn't have it any other way), some pants and oh, socks and sandals. SANDALS. You can't beat Italian fashion. Bruno was his name and to the other Italians, he is known as 'The President'. They were all shouting the word 'RIVA', which we translated to mean 'Cheers', but later found out that it had no meaning. So we chanted it anyways. We then moved into the common room area and started drinking with the New Zealand girls and whoever else was generally in the room at the time. It was about 6:30pm. The Italians again offered us their drinks and we of course accepted. At one point during the night, I walked upstairs to our dorm room and found that it was surrounded by about 20 Italians. To enter the dorm room, you need a pin code. Only the people residing at that particular dorm room knew the pin code. They were attempting to get into our room but did not know the pin code. I asked them what they were doing and they said that they were waiting for the girls inside (Johanna and Mikki) to come outside. I walked inside the dorm room (making sure they did not notice me typing it in) and I nearly got bulldozed over by them. I barely managed to make it into the dorm room by myself. I asked Johanna what exactly was going on and she said she doesn't want to walk outside. I told her that if I was in her shoes, I would be scared too. Chris talked to one of the Italians and apparently the Italian guy was like "Do you have project?"... Chris was like, "huh?"... The Italian guy then said, "Girl". Seriously crazy. We made it back downstairs and continued drinking with some seriously random but cool people until about 11pm, when everyone went off to the clubs, bars and such.
We were going to the random house party with Ari, Ole and Johanna's group. Of course we were not invited and were not sure how it would turn out. Apparently it was in Stockholm, or so we thought. We walked outside and caught the taxi. We were driving for almost 30 minutes and were going in some random direction completely away from the city center. We passed through roads with no lighting and into some random forest. Where were we!? Even the taxi drivers were lost and they both pulled over and decided to figure out where in the world this house was. It just so happened that it was the stroke of midnight. So whilst the taxi drivers got out of the car to discuss how to get to this place, we took the liberty of getting out too. What we saw was amazing. Literally everywhere we looked, there were fireworks going off. 360 degrees. Everyone was doing fireworks. I have seen fireworks, but not like this. This was just crazy. It seems that when midnight strikes, every single person goes in their backyard and starts up some fireworks. Just imagine the whole of Sydney doing fireworks at precisely the same time in their backyard. The show went on for about 10 minutes. Once the taxi drivers had figured out where to go, we all got back inside the car to the house party. After driving for another 15 minutes, we finally reached the house. There was obviously a house party going on inside. Loud music, people congregating outside the house either talking to each other, passed out or dancing and bottles of alcohol everywhere. We were essentially gate-crashing a party. We were not invited, we didn't speak Swedish and more importantly, we didn't know anyone at the party. As we walked towards the house, we were immediately greeted by a group of Swedes. They were wondering who exactly we were. We explained that we're from Australia and they immediately welcomed us in. They gave us drinks and we wondered around the party meeting people. They seemed to marvel at the fact that we were from Sydney and by the end of the night, I think we must have met everyone at the party. There were about 40 people there. We drank the night away and numerous events occurred, most of which involved me getting eaten by the biggest bloke I have ever seen in my life because apparently I was hitting on his girlfriend. I can assure you that I was innocent and was pulled into a room by two girls until this dude came out of nowhere. Eurotrip could actually have ended right there. You can forget about me falling into a frozen lake, this was by far 10 times worse. Note to self: do not talk to Swedish girls who have gargantuan megasaurus boyfriends.
A Swedish house party. Tick it off. Thinking back, we were actually quite rude. We gate-crashed their party, drank their beer and then ran off back to Stockholm. At about 4am we caught the taxi back to the metro station and managed to get back to Stockholm in one piece (i'm not exactly sure how). Stockholm itself was buzzing. 4.30am, there were people everywhere having a good time. Every 10 minutes some random person would come up to us and just yell out happy new year. We were all hungry so we decided to go into the closest thing we could find. It just so happened that it was a Burger King. The girls went in first and then me, Chris, Ari, Ole and Pontus tried to follow. We were blocked off by an employee and were not allowed in. The girls however did manage to get in. We couldn't understand why but he barricaded us and locked the door. All we wanted was some Burger King. Seeing as the girls had already gone inside, we went round to the window area to tell them we couldn't get in and to call them back out. There we saw the same employee greeting the girls and shaking their hands. We all looked at each other and then at him. We were yelling at him, just what was he doing? He wouldn't let us into Burger King because he wanted to hit on the girls we were with? We got bounced out of Burger King. Yes. Just in-case you missed that sentence, i'll repeat it. We got bounced out of BURGER KING on New Years in Stockholm. We headed back to the hostel for the after-party. The Italians were back from their ventures and we continued drinking with them. We did manage to get to bed, albeit it was 7am. But what a night!
We woke up at about 12pm. We were not going to do anything during the day and just chilled out in the hostel. Ari and Ole cooked us some real gourmet pasta, arguably better than the recipe that me and Chris were working on perfecting. We said goodbye to Ari and Ole as they were heading to Denmark the same day. At about 5pm, we went back downstairs to the common area and the Italians were once again drinking. Bruno the ring-leader by now had figured out the combination to get into any dorm room in the hostel. I'm not exactly sure how he remembered the pin codes for every room seeing as he could barely stand (I am guessing too much Sambuca). We had to catch a plane the next day at 6.30am. The airport was a 90 minute drive from the city center and seeing as you need to arrive 1 hour before departure, this meant we needed to wake up at like 3am. We decided not to sleep at all and stocked up on some red bull. We were going to be awake the whole night just drinking red bull and watch the Italians get up to their usual antics. We had saved two beers from the previous night (don't ask how we were able to continuously drink beers, by reading this post it might sound like we have indeed turned into alcoholics, but I can assure you we have not). The problem was we could not locate a bottle opener. Chris went off to ask the Italians to open his bottle whilst I slaved away with a spoon. Then a random German walked up to me and grabbed the beer out of my hand, and was like "here, let me help you". He took an empty plastic coke bottle and opened my beer for me. I'm not entirely sure how, but he used the top of the coke bottle. Looks like German's are so used to opening beers that they can literally open them with anything. We stayed in the common room area and met a few other nice people. One of which was a German girl called Anja who was traveling with her mum and her sister. The other was an Italian bloke. I know what you're thinking, ANOTHER Italian! But this guy was quite possibly one of the coolest guys I have ever met. In a room filled with about 35 drunk Italians, he was traveling by himself and was literally the complete opposite of the others. He hated Soccer (yes there exists an Italian who hates soccer), he hated the antics the other Italian's got up to and he was generally a top bloke. He was going to be working for the Ferrari Formula 1 team, designing the aerodynamics of the car/chassis. Both me and Chris being avid Formula 1 fans, made him instant-cool. We talked until about 2.30am when we had to leave to get ourselves organized. We walked back upstairs, grabbed our bags and bid farewell to everyone.
Pretty much the best new years either of us has ever experienced. We love Stockholm, yeah we do, yeah we do.
Until next time...
Rishi
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Oslo
We arrived in Oslo via the magnificent Oslo-Bergen Railway. This is something that everyone should do if they are ever in Norway. The trip winds past snow covered forests, gigantic and steep fjords cut into the landscape like a knife through butter, barren arctic tundra with no trees in site and beautiful mountains. It really is breathtaking and almost impossible to tear yourself away from the window for even a second. Getting to Oslo much too late to do much of anything, we decided to check into our hostel and go out in search of the elusive Christmas meal we never had in Bergen. We managed to find a great TGI Fridays and settled down for a good old fashioned steak. While extremely expensive, we splashed out with the help of a Christmas gift from my parents (thanks mum and dad :p) and got ourselves thoroughly stuffed. I dont think I have ever had a meal that has satisfied me as much as that. It was so good to taste real steak again! We rolled home and got ourselves ready to tackle Oslo in the morning.
Upon waking, we found out that we had the odd situation of having too many days in a city. We had been forced to schedule 4 days here in Oslo but there was simply not enough to keep us busy for that amount of time. Nevertheless, we decided to start out our stay by visiting the Munch Museum. Edvard Munch used to be a favourite of mine back when I was doing art in highschool, so I was really looking forward to finding out more about him. The museum didnt dissapoint us. Much like the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, this one showed us all about the development of Munch as an artist through his very early stages, all his experimentation, and finally culminating in the realisation of a style that was distinctly 'Munch'. Needless to say, this guy was absolutely amazing. Extremely talented, he could paint in almost any style he wanted and his experimentation was exceptional. I think you can probably tell that he has now turned into my favourite. After the museum, we headed towards Akershus Fortress and Castle. It was the old Viking castle when Norway was in the middle of the Viking Era, and was also used as a german command post/bomb shelter during the war. Quite a pretty Castle, it was cool to walk around the fortifications and see how they worked. Afterwards the city was quickly becoming dark, so we decided to explore around a little bit more and see what Oslo by Night had to offer. Noticing that beers cost over 13 dollars for 330 mils, we decided to go back to the hostel soon afterwards :p.
Before I go much further, I want to first tell you about our impressions of the city. Up until this point, we were not very impressed at all. Our hostel wasnt in a great part of town, the city was very dirty, dingy and we were looking over our shoulders continuously. There were large populations of random cultures all around and there were lots of junkies hanging all around the central train station. It really didnt feel like a great city. After the beauty of Bergen and the seeming perfection of the other Norway cities, this was coming as a bit of a surprise and slight dissapointment. We werent expecting it at all!
Despite this, we were enthusiastically ready for our second day. We grabbed some fruit for breakfast and headed towards the National Gallery. Our main objective was to see Munch's 'The Scream' which has been my favourite painting for YEARS. The museum itself had some very interesting Norwegian landscapes which were quite good, especially those from the famous Dahl. The highlight though was clearly the Munch room which contained many of his really famous works from quite late in his career when his style was more uniquely his. Highlights included the Scream, Madonna and Dance of Life. They were all very thought provoking and great to look at. We both were very impressed. Following the museum, we walked around the Royal Palace, but decided not to go inside. Further exploration of the city revealed the Nobel Peace Prize Museum, which had free entry, so we decided to give it a go. We were quite pleasantly surprised! Oslo is the site of the Nobel Peace Prize, and Norway is the prize's judge. The rest of the Nobel prizes are given away in Stockholm. We spent ages touring around the museum, finding out about all the winners and how they had helped work towards peace and for the betterment of humankind. I really enjoyed all the displays on the 1993 Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Clerk for obvious reasons. Later that evening, we met up with Kai (our roommate from germany) and decided to take a little trip to a suburb outside f Oslo where you can climb to the top of a ski jump tower and look out over the city. Unfortunately, the tower was closed for renovations but we still had a great view from up the hill. All in all, it was a very successful day!
Our third day had left us with very little still left to do. We decided to make the trek out to the viking museum, which is a very far way to walk. Its quite close via ferry, but we don't have deep pockets and decided to just tough it out and walk the 4 kms or so. This, like so many of our decisions on this trip, turned out to be a regretful choice. It was cold. However, we made it just before our toes and fingers fell off and managed to check out 3 viking ships that were excavated in the Oslofjord area of Norway. 2 of these were extremely well preserved and gave a glimpse of how amazing the Vikings really were. These guys travelled all the way to North America and the Meditterranean in what were extremely simple, but well built, ships. We felt quite humbled at complaining about a mear 4km walk in the cold. We walked back and found that we had pretty much finished what we wanted to do in Norway so decided to go to an internet cafe and take care of some things and just talk to some guys from home.
We slept in a little the next morning and packed our bags. We decided that we would move on early to Stockholm and have an extra half day there. However, the previous night and this morning we seemed to get a different sense of the city. It must have been because people were slowly emerging from their homes from the christmas season. We sw a lot more locals around, and also walked through some much nicer neighbourhoods on our way back from the Viking Museum. Perhaps a little more like how we imagined Oslo to be. I dont know if I will ever come back, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe we just got the wrong first impression.
Upon waking, we found out that we had the odd situation of having too many days in a city. We had been forced to schedule 4 days here in Oslo but there was simply not enough to keep us busy for that amount of time. Nevertheless, we decided to start out our stay by visiting the Munch Museum. Edvard Munch used to be a favourite of mine back when I was doing art in highschool, so I was really looking forward to finding out more about him. The museum didnt dissapoint us. Much like the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, this one showed us all about the development of Munch as an artist through his very early stages, all his experimentation, and finally culminating in the realisation of a style that was distinctly 'Munch'. Needless to say, this guy was absolutely amazing. Extremely talented, he could paint in almost any style he wanted and his experimentation was exceptional. I think you can probably tell that he has now turned into my favourite. After the museum, we headed towards Akershus Fortress and Castle. It was the old Viking castle when Norway was in the middle of the Viking Era, and was also used as a german command post/bomb shelter during the war. Quite a pretty Castle, it was cool to walk around the fortifications and see how they worked. Afterwards the city was quickly becoming dark, so we decided to explore around a little bit more and see what Oslo by Night had to offer. Noticing that beers cost over 13 dollars for 330 mils, we decided to go back to the hostel soon afterwards :p.
Before I go much further, I want to first tell you about our impressions of the city. Up until this point, we were not very impressed at all. Our hostel wasnt in a great part of town, the city was very dirty, dingy and we were looking over our shoulders continuously. There were large populations of random cultures all around and there were lots of junkies hanging all around the central train station. It really didnt feel like a great city. After the beauty of Bergen and the seeming perfection of the other Norway cities, this was coming as a bit of a surprise and slight dissapointment. We werent expecting it at all!
Despite this, we were enthusiastically ready for our second day. We grabbed some fruit for breakfast and headed towards the National Gallery. Our main objective was to see Munch's 'The Scream' which has been my favourite painting for YEARS. The museum itself had some very interesting Norwegian landscapes which were quite good, especially those from the famous Dahl. The highlight though was clearly the Munch room which contained many of his really famous works from quite late in his career when his style was more uniquely his. Highlights included the Scream, Madonna and Dance of Life. They were all very thought provoking and great to look at. We both were very impressed. Following the museum, we walked around the Royal Palace, but decided not to go inside. Further exploration of the city revealed the Nobel Peace Prize Museum, which had free entry, so we decided to give it a go. We were quite pleasantly surprised! Oslo is the site of the Nobel Peace Prize, and Norway is the prize's judge. The rest of the Nobel prizes are given away in Stockholm. We spent ages touring around the museum, finding out about all the winners and how they had helped work towards peace and for the betterment of humankind. I really enjoyed all the displays on the 1993 Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Clerk for obvious reasons. Later that evening, we met up with Kai (our roommate from germany) and decided to take a little trip to a suburb outside f Oslo where you can climb to the top of a ski jump tower and look out over the city. Unfortunately, the tower was closed for renovations but we still had a great view from up the hill. All in all, it was a very successful day!
Our third day had left us with very little still left to do. We decided to make the trek out to the viking museum, which is a very far way to walk. Its quite close via ferry, but we don't have deep pockets and decided to just tough it out and walk the 4 kms or so. This, like so many of our decisions on this trip, turned out to be a regretful choice. It was cold. However, we made it just before our toes and fingers fell off and managed to check out 3 viking ships that were excavated in the Oslofjord area of Norway. 2 of these were extremely well preserved and gave a glimpse of how amazing the Vikings really were. These guys travelled all the way to North America and the Meditterranean in what were extremely simple, but well built, ships. We felt quite humbled at complaining about a mear 4km walk in the cold. We walked back and found that we had pretty much finished what we wanted to do in Norway so decided to go to an internet cafe and take care of some things and just talk to some guys from home.
We slept in a little the next morning and packed our bags. We decided that we would move on early to Stockholm and have an extra half day there. However, the previous night and this morning we seemed to get a different sense of the city. It must have been because people were slowly emerging from their homes from the christmas season. We sw a lot more locals around, and also walked through some much nicer neighbourhoods on our way back from the Viking Museum. Perhaps a little more like how we imagined Oslo to be. I dont know if I will ever come back, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe we just got the wrong first impression.
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