Another night train (they just get better and better) and half a day of traveling and we’re back in Germany. First stop – Frankfurt.
Two nights in Frankfurt allowed us an evening to explore the city, and see the major squares and monuments. The next day we took a train and bus and walk out to the Baha’i House of Worship (there’s one per continent so this was not to be missed and is now the third I’ve visited)
Once we got back to the city we visited the Museum of Modern Art and the OTHER ART MUSEUM. Both fantastic and not to be missed.
Nest was Hamburg – although, I’ll admit now - I didn’t really see it. Chandra’s sister Penny lives in Othmarschen outside of the suburb of Altona outside of Hamburg. So we headed straight there, and although the intention was to kick back for the weekend as well as going back in to see the city, it didn’t happen. I had a cold and spent the first few days recovering and getting caught up on some much needed sleep. I did however find the time to explore Altona and Othmarschen. Mostly though I listened to my audio book of Harry Potter and discovered the wonders of television – specifically Veronica Mars and Doctor Who which they had the complete seasons of. (How had I lived without seeing these previously? In blissful ignorance). We also celebrate Luke’s’ first birthday on the Sunday afternoon and I got my own birthday cake as well.
Monday we made a day trip from Penny’ and David’s to see Berlin. I walked the entire city, seeing the various monuments, churches, squares, plazas, and museums. I also went to the museum at the site of the original Gestapo headquarters. I met up with Chandra later in the afternoon, explored a little of the other side of the river where the TV tower and an older quarter are and then caught the train back to Hamburg.
The next morning we headed off for Copenhagen… But Munich is yet to come. (Hopefully!)
June 28, 2008
June 20, 2008
"I am Dracula, and I bid you welcome . . . "
"We are in Transylvania, and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things."
Transylvania and the search for vampires in Romania led to no long awaited fulfillment of dreams but to some interesting discoveries nonetheless.
From Paris we took a night train to Munich and then continued on to spend an afternoon in Vienna Austria. After a few hours exploring the downtown and the ‘Fan zone’ set up for the UEFA EURO 2008 championship it was another night train to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Sunday morning we awoke on the train and had another half day to go through the country before we made it there.
Bucharest, only recently escaped from communist rule is a city showing signs of a rough passing. The ancient architecture is mixed with the high-rises and tenements of the 60s concrete convenient building style. The parliament building is the second largest building in the world (after the Pentagon) and the road leading up to it was constructed to be another Champs D’Elysees – it’s obviously failed. The opposite end of this road is a little times square of traffic and billboards although everything else seems to be missing to give it any energy. And just behind those billboards and the endless arrays of parked cars (anywhere and everywhere is a parking space in Bucharest) is the Old City. Ripped up for materials and political statement it is in complete disarray. The dirt roads have piles of cobblestones sporadically around the planks laid down as make shift sidewalks. Bars lay out additional planks in the dirt to create patio space since the roads are not usable. Only the first floor of the majority of the buildings is still usable – the upper floors hollowed out or missing. No remaining surface is clean of graffiti and yet it has more charm than the remainder of the city.
The region north of the capital, crossing the mountains is known as Transylvania. Dracula – once known as Prince Vlad or Vlad the Impaler – was born in the city of Sighasora. I took the train up to Sinaia on a day trip from Bucharest where there was meant to be an old castle. But, alas, I got lost and hiked up the mountain alongside a narrow highway. Still it was interesting to see the people living there and the variety of houses and architecture out in these more peasant towns.
Tuesday – my birthday, although no one knew it (or remembered) – we left Bucharest for the university town of Brasov. From here we took a bus out to Bran. This area of Transylvania felt like being in the center, dry hot areas of Honduras – similar people, vendors and public transportation as well as scenery. In bran we easily found the castle and discovered it to be that of Queen Maria of Romania who was a Baha’i. (I was traveling at this point with a Baha’i from Australia and a Scottish girl from the hostel). The castle was far from the intimidating medieval castles of vampires and gothic stories but a real fairytale home complete with the flapper fashions of the queen and her daughter. So in conclusion – I still want to be a vampire, I also want to wear vintage clothing and live in a little white castle in the mountains and eat Romanian pastries (tiny bite size little pastries, each a surprise in variety of flavours – from apricot or chocolate to potato, or sesame)
No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.
Transylvania and the search for vampires in Romania led to no long awaited fulfillment of dreams but to some interesting discoveries nonetheless.
From Paris we took a night train to Munich and then continued on to spend an afternoon in Vienna Austria. After a few hours exploring the downtown and the ‘Fan zone’ set up for the UEFA EURO 2008 championship it was another night train to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Sunday morning we awoke on the train and had another half day to go through the country before we made it there.
Bucharest, only recently escaped from communist rule is a city showing signs of a rough passing. The ancient architecture is mixed with the high-rises and tenements of the 60s concrete convenient building style. The parliament building is the second largest building in the world (after the Pentagon) and the road leading up to it was constructed to be another Champs D’Elysees – it’s obviously failed. The opposite end of this road is a little times square of traffic and billboards although everything else seems to be missing to give it any energy. And just behind those billboards and the endless arrays of parked cars (anywhere and everywhere is a parking space in Bucharest) is the Old City. Ripped up for materials and political statement it is in complete disarray. The dirt roads have piles of cobblestones sporadically around the planks laid down as make shift sidewalks. Bars lay out additional planks in the dirt to create patio space since the roads are not usable. Only the first floor of the majority of the buildings is still usable – the upper floors hollowed out or missing. No remaining surface is clean of graffiti and yet it has more charm than the remainder of the city.
The region north of the capital, crossing the mountains is known as Transylvania. Dracula – once known as Prince Vlad or Vlad the Impaler – was born in the city of Sighasora. I took the train up to Sinaia on a day trip from Bucharest where there was meant to be an old castle. But, alas, I got lost and hiked up the mountain alongside a narrow highway. Still it was interesting to see the people living there and the variety of houses and architecture out in these more peasant towns.
Tuesday – my birthday, although no one knew it (or remembered) – we left Bucharest for the university town of Brasov. From here we took a bus out to Bran. This area of Transylvania felt like being in the center, dry hot areas of Honduras – similar people, vendors and public transportation as well as scenery. In bran we easily found the castle and discovered it to be that of Queen Maria of Romania who was a Baha’i. (I was traveling at this point with a Baha’i from Australia and a Scottish girl from the hostel). The castle was far from the intimidating medieval castles of vampires and gothic stories but a real fairytale home complete with the flapper fashions of the queen and her daughter. So in conclusion – I still want to be a vampire, I also want to wear vintage clothing and live in a little white castle in the mountains and eat Romanian pastries (tiny bite size little pastries, each a surprise in variety of flavours – from apricot or chocolate to potato, or sesame)
No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.
June 17, 2008
There is no love sincerer than the love of food. - shaw
Two weeks in France was amazing, as well as being more than enough time.
My first week was spent sharing a small apartment in Paris with Chandra, and her sister Penny and family (Partner David, 11 month old son Luke, and crazy mother-in-law Katie). As much as they yelled to make up for my annoying quietness and pushed me to be bold I learned to appreciate the amounts of free food they forced on me and the amount they taught me about fine foods. Plus the conveniently located flat near the Bastille put everything within walking distance.
More than anything, I have learned to appreciate food in this country. I know the difference between a loaf of French bread that looks much like a baguette and a real baguette. Am learning about cheeses - having doubled the amount of types of cheeses I'd previously experience. Am a connoisseur of Parisian pastries. And have never had so many different types of chocolate as Penny has bought for a single week in Paris.
There was so much to do here as well that I didn't make it to the Louvre until our very last day. Before that was days filled with sites (the Arc de Triomph, Eiffel Tower, Champs d'Elysees, and everything in between was one day) and days dedicated to exploring smaller areas (the catacombs, a cemetery, or some markets and gardens) On the sunday all the museums were free and after returning from Versaille I made it to the Musee d'Orsay and the L'Orangerie where I saw the most wonderful of Monet's masterpieces.
After Paris, France went quickly. The day we left Paris we saw his gardens in Giverny and then spent the night in the wonderful little town of Orleans. And whether or not this is how one may want to spend time in France we then saw Jackpot at the local cinema. a guilty pleasure. And still funny in French. The next day was Amboise and its chateaux and a night in a local community center on an island. Then a long train trip to get to La Rochelle -the white city - on the Atlantic Coast. A quite touristy, but still pleasant quaint town on the Atlantic coast. Centered around an old harbor with medieval towers and turreted walls the city has a couple small beaches and lots of expensive restaurants. We had a small ‘studio’ – a room with a bed, a desk and a stove – which was right in the centre and provided us with the means of cooking our own dinners. In the morning we rented bicycles and followed the coast past the yacht club, the beach, through the park and along the fields and increasingly rock coastline. Eventually we turned in to come back into town and realized we were completely lost and seemed to be in a different suburb or town all together. But we managed to find our way back, and worn out spent the rest of the day on the windy beach.
Although hoping to leave La Rochelle early in the morning and making good time… we spent an entire day getting from there to our next stop – Biarritz – mostly waiting in train stations.
Biarritz is a surfing town further along the coast in Basque country where French and Spanish culture mixes. From there we also took the bus to St-Jean-de-Luz, a small fishing town.
Traveling next along the south, the Mediterranean coast we went through Arles, Marseille and from Toulon –Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, and Nice. Arles, my favorite place in France, was poor and dirty. The streets were largely empty, with locals wandering and biking through the narrow streets. Knowing that Van Gogh had lived there, although the house is gone and he did most of his paintings in the countryside, added to the mystery and splendor of the town.
From Toulon we did a series of day trips, and spent the time in Toulon exploring at night, and doing laundry in the morning. We were meant to go to Chamonix next, and when we made reservations the only train we could take left at 4:30 in the morning, but we found upon arriving then that there was a strike and the first train to leave the station would be at 5:30 –for Paris. So we got on the train for lack of anything else to do and figure things out from there. We had to spend a day in Paris, and then we took a night train to Munich, another train to Vienna where we spent an afternoon, and then another night train to Bucharest Romania…
My first week was spent sharing a small apartment in Paris with Chandra, and her sister Penny and family (Partner David, 11 month old son Luke, and crazy mother-in-law Katie). As much as they yelled to make up for my annoying quietness and pushed me to be bold I learned to appreciate the amounts of free food they forced on me and the amount they taught me about fine foods. Plus the conveniently located flat near the Bastille put everything within walking distance.
More than anything, I have learned to appreciate food in this country. I know the difference between a loaf of French bread that looks much like a baguette and a real baguette. Am learning about cheeses - having doubled the amount of types of cheeses I'd previously experience. Am a connoisseur of Parisian pastries. And have never had so many different types of chocolate as Penny has bought for a single week in Paris.
There was so much to do here as well that I didn't make it to the Louvre until our very last day. Before that was days filled with sites (the Arc de Triomph, Eiffel Tower, Champs d'Elysees, and everything in between was one day) and days dedicated to exploring smaller areas (the catacombs, a cemetery, or some markets and gardens) On the sunday all the museums were free and after returning from Versaille I made it to the Musee d'Orsay and the L'Orangerie where I saw the most wonderful of Monet's masterpieces.
After Paris, France went quickly. The day we left Paris we saw his gardens in Giverny and then spent the night in the wonderful little town of Orleans. And whether or not this is how one may want to spend time in France we then saw Jackpot at the local cinema. a guilty pleasure. And still funny in French. The next day was Amboise and its chateaux and a night in a local community center on an island. Then a long train trip to get to La Rochelle -the white city - on the Atlantic Coast. A quite touristy, but still pleasant quaint town on the Atlantic coast. Centered around an old harbor with medieval towers and turreted walls the city has a couple small beaches and lots of expensive restaurants. We had a small ‘studio’ – a room with a bed, a desk and a stove – which was right in the centre and provided us with the means of cooking our own dinners. In the morning we rented bicycles and followed the coast past the yacht club, the beach, through the park and along the fields and increasingly rock coastline. Eventually we turned in to come back into town and realized we were completely lost and seemed to be in a different suburb or town all together. But we managed to find our way back, and worn out spent the rest of the day on the windy beach.
Although hoping to leave La Rochelle early in the morning and making good time… we spent an entire day getting from there to our next stop – Biarritz – mostly waiting in train stations.
Biarritz is a surfing town further along the coast in Basque country where French and Spanish culture mixes. From there we also took the bus to St-Jean-de-Luz, a small fishing town.
Traveling next along the south, the Mediterranean coast we went through Arles, Marseille and from Toulon –Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, and Nice. Arles, my favorite place in France, was poor and dirty. The streets were largely empty, with locals wandering and biking through the narrow streets. Knowing that Van Gogh had lived there, although the house is gone and he did most of his paintings in the countryside, added to the mystery and splendor of the town.
From Toulon we did a series of day trips, and spent the time in Toulon exploring at night, and doing laundry in the morning. We were meant to go to Chamonix next, and when we made reservations the only train we could take left at 4:30 in the morning, but we found upon arriving then that there was a strike and the first train to leave the station would be at 5:30 –for Paris. So we got on the train for lack of anything else to do and figure things out from there. We had to spend a day in Paris, and then we took a night train to Munich, another train to Vienna where we spent an afternoon, and then another night train to Bucharest Romania…
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