Well, Prague will unfortunately be the place were I lost my beloved Guinness hat. The hat I bought 13 years earier at the Guinness brewery when I was freezing my ass off in Dublin. Oh well.
Prague is a city with great architecture and has been the darling of the expat set for several years now. Having given in to any invading powers, the city is very well preserved and being a behind the iron curtain it was historically very cheap. Unfortunately this is really no longer the case. Now, not to brag here, but I was lucky enough to be here not long after the fall of the iron curtain in '92 as part of a school trip. The city was just coming into it's own, with no international chains and it was still cheap. And I mean cheap. Pints of beer for 15 cents, and as 10th graders we were just in heaven. The price, beauty and creative energy is what attracted an ecclectic set of expats, but unfortunately in our opinion it has 'jumped the shark' (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about).
It is still a great city with lots of beauty and lots to see and do, and it is still a bit cheaper than other European capitals, but it is a bit sketchy and lacks the effortless charm of other cities of similar stature. It is also very, very heavily touristed. I am talking Rome levels here, even in the winter time, elbow room only in the main square. Lots of Russians and other Eastern Europeans, as well as the usual contingent of Americans and Western Europeans rob it of it's charm a bit.
Their is an ancient castle with loads of history on a prominent position above the city and the Charles bridge and the surrounding areas are beautiful and worth seeing, but we just didn't gel with this place. We ate the national dish of pork, dumplings and saurkraut which is nothing to write home about. Not speaking even a lick of Czech was a bit inconvenient too. After coming from Italy where we can stumble through a sentence and Spain where it is even a bit easier and even Germany where I know 'Thank You' and my numbers we can't utter a word in Czech. Now several people speak English, but we went into a busy deli and had to just grunt and point which was very disspiriting as well frustrating for the person who helped us.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Berlin
Ok, so we are going to learn to buy our tickets early. After two months in Italy and Spain where train tickets are relatively cheap, this was a shock to the system. We were prepared for some high prices but, 120 euro from Amsterdam to Berlin. Wow. Lesson learned, plan ahead.
So we arrive in Berlin and beer halls and Liederhosen this is not. The capital of the new Germany and home to the German avant-garde. It is a big and vibrant city with tons of history. We went to the Pergamom (sp?) the first night because it was free and it has an impressive collection of Greek, Egyptian and Islamic relics. Their is a whole island of museums which we could have spent days in, but this was definitely the highlight.
The next day we rode a bus around the main sights. The Brandenburg gate (the symbol of Berlin and home to the speeches of world leaders), the Reichstag (the impressive sounding and looking seat of German power) and finally Checkpoint Charlie. The checkpoint between the east and the west and the heart of the cold war. Why this checkpoint was more popular than the first two (Alpha and Bravo) we didn't really figure out, but their was a museum, which while although haphazardly organized told the story of all the players in the cold war. All the escape attempts and the slow process that would eventually unseat the communist regime were presented and was quite interesting. We spent a few hours at the zoo so Brooke could make a pilgramage to see Knut. Remember him, the adorable polar bear that you probably saw pictures of about 6 months ago? Well, he has grown up a bit and although he is popular, he is sort of a prima donna now. He was not as adorable as when he was a youngster and seemed disinterested in all the attention he still got. I think I saw him yawn on the back of his paw. It was still fun and the zoo is in a nice location in the center of Berlin, with a burned out, half destroyed church nearby which was left as a symbol of the price of war, as well as the corporate buildings of Merces and the like which are the symbols of the new Germany.
So we were finally in sauerkraut country and Brooke couldn't have been happier. I mean really, this was the girl who a few months after we met, ordered and ate a bowl full of saurkraut at a festival. Unfortunately the kraut here is not what she was expecting. It is almost exclusively served warm and (possibly as a result) is sweeter. Oh well, having some of the ubiquitous sausage, mashed potatoes and kraut is a good meal on a cold day. Currywurst is also really popular and possibly the unofficial national dish. Basically a sausage cut up, put on a plate and covered with ketchup and sprinkled with curry. Eh, not so exciting.
One night after we tried to find the SS museum, which was closed by the time we tracked it down, we ended up in the heart of the east. Now this is the part of Berlin that is just full of promise. It is the home to artists and musicians and holds all the promise of the new united Germany. A bit edgy with lots of leahter and spikes on the weekend, but also home to American Apparell and Starbucks. It is also adjacent to the Turkish part of Berlin. We were smoking the hukkah in another part of town and I asked the doorman where I could find the best Turkish food and he pointed us to this area. The Turks and Germans have a long history together and their are a lot of Turkish people here, possibly the most in all of Europe. So we were walking around this part and seeing all kind of Turkish restaurants and people and I was getting a bit nostalgic about my time in that country. We saw restaurants that advertised food from every local, Antalya, Izmir, Cappadocia, etc, and I was like, 'why is their no Adana restaurant, this sucks'. Well after wandering around in the cold for a bit we were about to give up and we turned the corner to find the holy grail, 'Adana Restaurant'. This was it, this was what I had been searching for. It was perfect and full of Turks, not some kebab stand, but a proper Adana barbecue joint with sweet, delicious Adana Kebab on the spits, with onions and sumac, served with cooked vegetables on delicious Turkish bread. I have gone on and on about Turkish bread and finally Brooke saw what I was talking about. These people take bread seriously. I really couldn't have been happier. I drank Efes (the Turkish beer) and a Yeni Raki (like Greek Uzo). Brooke ate a chicken kebab and got a great taste of the whole 'Turkish BBQ' experience. We both left happy and had some Baklava to end the night.
Berlin is huge and multi-faceted and we could have spent weeks here exploring the vast plethora of art museums and WWII/Cold War museums and memorials but it was time to move on.
So we arrive in Berlin and beer halls and Liederhosen this is not. The capital of the new Germany and home to the German avant-garde. It is a big and vibrant city with tons of history. We went to the Pergamom (sp?) the first night because it was free and it has an impressive collection of Greek, Egyptian and Islamic relics. Their is a whole island of museums which we could have spent days in, but this was definitely the highlight.
The next day we rode a bus around the main sights. The Brandenburg gate (the symbol of Berlin and home to the speeches of world leaders), the Reichstag (the impressive sounding and looking seat of German power) and finally Checkpoint Charlie. The checkpoint between the east and the west and the heart of the cold war. Why this checkpoint was more popular than the first two (Alpha and Bravo) we didn't really figure out, but their was a museum, which while although haphazardly organized told the story of all the players in the cold war. All the escape attempts and the slow process that would eventually unseat the communist regime were presented and was quite interesting. We spent a few hours at the zoo so Brooke could make a pilgramage to see Knut. Remember him, the adorable polar bear that you probably saw pictures of about 6 months ago? Well, he has grown up a bit and although he is popular, he is sort of a prima donna now. He was not as adorable as when he was a youngster and seemed disinterested in all the attention he still got. I think I saw him yawn on the back of his paw. It was still fun and the zoo is in a nice location in the center of Berlin, with a burned out, half destroyed church nearby which was left as a symbol of the price of war, as well as the corporate buildings of Merces and the like which are the symbols of the new Germany.
So we were finally in sauerkraut country and Brooke couldn't have been happier. I mean really, this was the girl who a few months after we met, ordered and ate a bowl full of saurkraut at a festival. Unfortunately the kraut here is not what she was expecting. It is almost exclusively served warm and (possibly as a result) is sweeter. Oh well, having some of the ubiquitous sausage, mashed potatoes and kraut is a good meal on a cold day. Currywurst is also really popular and possibly the unofficial national dish. Basically a sausage cut up, put on a plate and covered with ketchup and sprinkled with curry. Eh, not so exciting.
One night after we tried to find the SS museum, which was closed by the time we tracked it down, we ended up in the heart of the east. Now this is the part of Berlin that is just full of promise. It is the home to artists and musicians and holds all the promise of the new united Germany. A bit edgy with lots of leahter and spikes on the weekend, but also home to American Apparell and Starbucks. It is also adjacent to the Turkish part of Berlin. We were smoking the hukkah in another part of town and I asked the doorman where I could find the best Turkish food and he pointed us to this area. The Turks and Germans have a long history together and their are a lot of Turkish people here, possibly the most in all of Europe. So we were walking around this part and seeing all kind of Turkish restaurants and people and I was getting a bit nostalgic about my time in that country. We saw restaurants that advertised food from every local, Antalya, Izmir, Cappadocia, etc, and I was like, 'why is their no Adana restaurant, this sucks'. Well after wandering around in the cold for a bit we were about to give up and we turned the corner to find the holy grail, 'Adana Restaurant'. This was it, this was what I had been searching for. It was perfect and full of Turks, not some kebab stand, but a proper Adana barbecue joint with sweet, delicious Adana Kebab on the spits, with onions and sumac, served with cooked vegetables on delicious Turkish bread. I have gone on and on about Turkish bread and finally Brooke saw what I was talking about. These people take bread seriously. I really couldn't have been happier. I drank Efes (the Turkish beer) and a Yeni Raki (like Greek Uzo). Brooke ate a chicken kebab and got a great taste of the whole 'Turkish BBQ' experience. We both left happy and had some Baklava to end the night.
Berlin is huge and multi-faceted and we could have spent weeks here exploring the vast plethora of art museums and WWII/Cold War museums and memorials but it was time to move on.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!
We finally were able to upload most of our pictures. Check them out here, or click on the link on the left.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Amsterdam
So the song 'Goodbye San Francisco, Hello Amsterdam' by Doug Sahm was in our heads the whole time, so put that on while you read this.
Ok, so we weren't even going to go to Amsterdam. I figured it was just a tourist ghetto of hash bars with a bunch of goofy stoners about. My god, how this is untrue. Amsterdam is one of the coolest cities in the world. Clean, vibrant and simply gorgeous. Most of the Netherlands is built on land reclaimed from the sea, and there are canals everywhere making this place way more deserving as the 'Venice of the North' than anywhere. I can't overemphasize how nice and inviting the city was. The people were so welcoming and kind. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE spoke English. Being a small country with a language not spoken by many, they take immense pride in speaking the international language. This combined with a liberal, laid back attitude make this a wonderfully congenial city to be in. I mentioned to somebody that everybody was just really nice and laid back here and they mentioned the calming presence of the hash bars as the reason. You might think that all the liberal attitude makes this a hedonistic city, but it only is in small parts. Just because you can smoke weed and get prostitutes legally doesn't mean you have to.
Brooke was very excited to see the Van Gogh museum and it did not dissapoint. Other impressionist masters where in the collection as well as a special exhibit that contained 130 of the most prized works by various Dutch artists. This exhibit went over the point that the Dutch historically haven't been great collectors of art (even their own) until the early 1900's. The French and Spanish own a lot of Dutch art and this wounded their national pride and they were determined to stake claim to their lost heritage. It chronicled the efforts of private individuals and the government that made efforts to reclaim art from various private art collections around the world. This was an interesting side to see, especially the dollar amounts they paid for these pieces. Of course paying 1 million dollars for a Van Gogh in 1920 seems like a pittance today when the same piece would fetch 20 times that.
Their are a lot of Turks here and I finally found my beloved Adana Kebab. It wasn't as good as it was in Turkey, but it scratched the itch slightly. Brooke has developed a taste for tea, and I introduced her to Turkish tea which is a huge part of their culture (The Turks drink more tea than any culture, including the British). We also ate Indonesian food. Sweet Jesus, where has this been all our lives. Indonesia was a Dutch colony and their are a lot of Indonesians and therefore their food in Amsterdam. The food is not quite Chineee and not quite Indian, with plenty of rice and noodles (but no pork, Muslim you know) and just the perfect amount of spice. It seems like great stoner food which probably enhances it's appeal here. Maybe with the president-elect having lived in Indonesia, it will start becoming more popular in the US, we can only hope.
On that note, it was election time when we were here. Being Americans we had a lot to say on the subject and everybody (speaking English as they all do) was eager to talk to us about the election. It was nice to talk politics with various people and it makes you realize how important US politics are to the world. Quickly, somebody tell me who is the prime minister of the Netherlands! I know they have a queen (Beatrix), but I have no idea who any other leaders are. We went to an Irish pub in the Red Light district to watch the results. This gave us an opportunity to walk through the red light district. Sure, it is pretty hedonistic, and makes Bourbon street look like Disneyland, but why the hell not. It is not like the world's oldest profession is going anywhere. On our way to the museum in the morning we passed through a mini red light district and their were prostitutes in their warm windows, sitting and reading the paper and waiting for business. Now isn't regulating and taxing this profession much more ideal than leaving these people to the mercy of the streets. Anyway, I digress. So we were watching the results come in and met some Australian political junkees. Now they were just as familiar with the American political system as me. Again, who is the prime minister of Australia? Anyone? It was fun being surrounded by lots of people from the US and other countries watching the results roll in, but the bar closed at 1:00 which is only like 6:00 on the east coast, so we retired to our place and track the results. Brooke heads to bed, but I stay up and watch the inevitable. The election is called around 5:30 local time and I wake Brooke up around 6:00 for the moving acceptance speech and we hit the sack.
The next day every paper is covered with pictures of Obama. We talked to some more people who were really optimistic and hopeful about the future, because needless to say that Bush has a sub Nixon approval rating in our country and is even less popular around the world. Every decision we make affects the world so everybody takes great stake in our election. We were also inspired and happy that after 8 long years of mismanagment and foolish blunders, that our nation might once again inspire the world with it's actions.
We slept in most of the day but managed to catch the Dutch WWII resistance museum. It was nice seeing this side of the conflict, as we are mostly familiar with the post D-Day activity. The Dutch are a proud people who did not take the invasion lightly but battled from within. In 'Band of Brothers' the story of the 101st Airborne, the soldiers mention that the Dutch were some of the best and most helpful people they met and this really lifted their spirits. They really liked these people and we cannot disagree.
Ok, so we weren't even going to go to Amsterdam. I figured it was just a tourist ghetto of hash bars with a bunch of goofy stoners about. My god, how this is untrue. Amsterdam is one of the coolest cities in the world. Clean, vibrant and simply gorgeous. Most of the Netherlands is built on land reclaimed from the sea, and there are canals everywhere making this place way more deserving as the 'Venice of the North' than anywhere. I can't overemphasize how nice and inviting the city was. The people were so welcoming and kind. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE spoke English. Being a small country with a language not spoken by many, they take immense pride in speaking the international language. This combined with a liberal, laid back attitude make this a wonderfully congenial city to be in. I mentioned to somebody that everybody was just really nice and laid back here and they mentioned the calming presence of the hash bars as the reason. You might think that all the liberal attitude makes this a hedonistic city, but it only is in small parts. Just because you can smoke weed and get prostitutes legally doesn't mean you have to.
Brooke was very excited to see the Van Gogh museum and it did not dissapoint. Other impressionist masters where in the collection as well as a special exhibit that contained 130 of the most prized works by various Dutch artists. This exhibit went over the point that the Dutch historically haven't been great collectors of art (even their own) until the early 1900's. The French and Spanish own a lot of Dutch art and this wounded their national pride and they were determined to stake claim to their lost heritage. It chronicled the efforts of private individuals and the government that made efforts to reclaim art from various private art collections around the world. This was an interesting side to see, especially the dollar amounts they paid for these pieces. Of course paying 1 million dollars for a Van Gogh in 1920 seems like a pittance today when the same piece would fetch 20 times that.
Their are a lot of Turks here and I finally found my beloved Adana Kebab. It wasn't as good as it was in Turkey, but it scratched the itch slightly. Brooke has developed a taste for tea, and I introduced her to Turkish tea which is a huge part of their culture (The Turks drink more tea than any culture, including the British). We also ate Indonesian food. Sweet Jesus, where has this been all our lives. Indonesia was a Dutch colony and their are a lot of Indonesians and therefore their food in Amsterdam. The food is not quite Chineee and not quite Indian, with plenty of rice and noodles (but no pork, Muslim you know) and just the perfect amount of spice. It seems like great stoner food which probably enhances it's appeal here. Maybe with the president-elect having lived in Indonesia, it will start becoming more popular in the US, we can only hope.
On that note, it was election time when we were here. Being Americans we had a lot to say on the subject and everybody (speaking English as they all do) was eager to talk to us about the election. It was nice to talk politics with various people and it makes you realize how important US politics are to the world. Quickly, somebody tell me who is the prime minister of the Netherlands! I know they have a queen (Beatrix), but I have no idea who any other leaders are. We went to an Irish pub in the Red Light district to watch the results. This gave us an opportunity to walk through the red light district. Sure, it is pretty hedonistic, and makes Bourbon street look like Disneyland, but why the hell not. It is not like the world's oldest profession is going anywhere. On our way to the museum in the morning we passed through a mini red light district and their were prostitutes in their warm windows, sitting and reading the paper and waiting for business. Now isn't regulating and taxing this profession much more ideal than leaving these people to the mercy of the streets. Anyway, I digress. So we were watching the results come in and met some Australian political junkees. Now they were just as familiar with the American political system as me. Again, who is the prime minister of Australia? Anyone? It was fun being surrounded by lots of people from the US and other countries watching the results roll in, but the bar closed at 1:00 which is only like 6:00 on the east coast, so we retired to our place and track the results. Brooke heads to bed, but I stay up and watch the inevitable. The election is called around 5:30 local time and I wake Brooke up around 6:00 for the moving acceptance speech and we hit the sack.
The next day every paper is covered with pictures of Obama. We talked to some more people who were really optimistic and hopeful about the future, because needless to say that Bush has a sub Nixon approval rating in our country and is even less popular around the world. Every decision we make affects the world so everybody takes great stake in our election. We were also inspired and happy that after 8 long years of mismanagment and foolish blunders, that our nation might once again inspire the world with it's actions.
We slept in most of the day but managed to catch the Dutch WWII resistance museum. It was nice seeing this side of the conflict, as we are mostly familiar with the post D-Day activity. The Dutch are a proud people who did not take the invasion lightly but battled from within. In 'Band of Brothers' the story of the 101st Airborne, the soldiers mention that the Dutch were some of the best and most helpful people they met and this really lifted their spirits. They really liked these people and we cannot disagree.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Bruges
Okay, go watch the movie 'In Bruges' before you read this, go ahead, I'll wait...
Well, if you haven't seen it, the catchphrase line from the movie that the psychotic mob boss delivers again and again is that 'Bruges is a F***ing fairy tale'. That thought was with us as we were here. Joking aside, it really is like a fairy tale. The perfectly preserved medieval buildings and the Cinderella spires combined with the canals make for a storybook experience. It is sometimes refered to as the 'Venice of the North' due to the canals, but just as likely for the tourist hordes. This being the off-season it wasn't so packed with tourists and we had some elbow room as we explored.
It really is beautiful and everywhere you turn is a picture, it is no Venice since it is not an island and there is traffic, but it is quite a sight. We only spent a day here just to see what it was like. Keeping with the Venice comparison their is even a Michelangelo sculpture in a church, one of the few Michelangelo pieces outside of Italy (I think the Louvre has another). Their are a lot of tourist traps here, but one thing worth seeing is Jesus' blood. Yes that is right, they claim to have Jesus' blood in one of the chapels. Well after witnessing these things we climbed a tower to get a view over the whole city which was nice. We spent the rest of the day walking around soaking up the fairy tale. The map we got from the hostel was hilarious. It had a section on 'how to piss off the locals', which included such gems as 'What time does Bruges close?' and 'Hey is this the tower they built for the movie "In Bruges"' and everybodys favorite, 'Where is McDonalds?'.
We partook in more of the famous Belgian beers and the bartender at the bar we ended up at was a Pantheon of knowledge on local beers and helped us select some good ones. Some more Fries before we went to sleep in our hostel (which was possibly built in the medievil era) and we were done.
Good little place, beautiful and worth the visit, but touristy and overpriced even in winter, but fries and beer overshadow any minor discomforts.
Well, if you haven't seen it, the catchphrase line from the movie that the psychotic mob boss delivers again and again is that 'Bruges is a F***ing fairy tale'. That thought was with us as we were here. Joking aside, it really is like a fairy tale. The perfectly preserved medieval buildings and the Cinderella spires combined with the canals make for a storybook experience. It is sometimes refered to as the 'Venice of the North' due to the canals, but just as likely for the tourist hordes. This being the off-season it wasn't so packed with tourists and we had some elbow room as we explored.
It really is beautiful and everywhere you turn is a picture, it is no Venice since it is not an island and there is traffic, but it is quite a sight. We only spent a day here just to see what it was like. Keeping with the Venice comparison their is even a Michelangelo sculpture in a church, one of the few Michelangelo pieces outside of Italy (I think the Louvre has another). Their are a lot of tourist traps here, but one thing worth seeing is Jesus' blood. Yes that is right, they claim to have Jesus' blood in one of the chapels. Well after witnessing these things we climbed a tower to get a view over the whole city which was nice. We spent the rest of the day walking around soaking up the fairy tale. The map we got from the hostel was hilarious. It had a section on 'how to piss off the locals', which included such gems as 'What time does Bruges close?' and 'Hey is this the tower they built for the movie "In Bruges"' and everybodys favorite, 'Where is McDonalds?'.
We partook in more of the famous Belgian beers and the bartender at the bar we ended up at was a Pantheon of knowledge on local beers and helped us select some good ones. Some more Fries before we went to sleep in our hostel (which was possibly built in the medievil era) and we were done.
Good little place, beautiful and worth the visit, but touristy and overpriced even in winter, but fries and beer overshadow any minor discomforts.
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