Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Hamburg, Germany: I Can haz Hamburg-er?


A late morning was necessary, as we both wanted to sleep in. I was impressed by how efficiently the space in the hotel room was used – it was a tiny room, but it felt normal. Yet somehow the bathroom was as big as the room itself. Remember this when I get to the Berlin hotel room.

We didn’t have any specific plans beyond what the guy had told us on the train the night before, so we decided to wander to downtown – usually a safe bet. When we seemed confused for a moment, a nice lady offered to show us how to get downtown. I really noticed that Hamburgers (that word never ever gets old) have a distinct pride about their city. It’s not in your face – they just love the place and want to make sure you enjoy it, too!

So after she bid us farewell, we walked towards the Rathaus, complete with obligatory Christmas Market. We were hungry, so we walked around for a bit, found nothing, and then ended up at a different Christmas market, where we enjoyed German pizza (the name escapes me – super flat crispy dough), sautéed mushrooms, garlic bread, pommes frites, and washed it down with warm drinks at a nearby café (and warmed up – I thought Prague was cold. Hah.)

Caramel white hot chocolate!!!: 



We walked off the calories with a stroll around the lake, and had a nice view of the town. Note the Christmas tree in the center of the lake:


 We then decided to take the ferry to nowhere in particular, as we were told we’d get nice views. The views were nice, saw some cool riverside mansions, but nothing especially memorable. We got off at a different stop to walk back to the hotel so we could research dinner and I could get an extra layer of clothing.

We decided to check out one seafood place, but it was the farthest restaurant away on a stretch of seafood restaurants, so we tried just about every place before it as well, due to the fact that was well below freezing. To our annoyance, almost every restaurant was closed for a private party. What the heck?! Totally not used to that in the states…

Cold and hungry, we’d almost forgotten about the original place. We decided it’d be our last shot. Sure enough, it was open, and we had a table within minutes. Our waiter was fun, and he recommended the Northern-German specialty of boiled haddock. I usually only eat raw fish, but I wanted to give cooked fish another try. It was cooked perfectly, though it was served with bones, which made it hard for a cooked-fish-n00b like me to eat. That said, the fish had nice flavor, and was juicy, and it had a nice mustard sauce with it. I’m not sure I’m completely sold on cooked seafood; that said, I’m going to try to start cooking a bit of it at home…

Hamburg has a festival called DOM 3 times a year – we knew in advance that Dom was going on while we were in town. It’s identical to a county fair. Gluhwein was essential, and it gave us some warmth to walk around a lot. During said walk, we saw some priceless stereotypes (I thought Americans stereotyped a lot, then I went to Germany):



People said to check out Reeperbahn, and DOM was right next to it, so we cruised through. Don’t see what the fuss is about, it’s just another “red light” district. But then again, I’m not much into strip clubs, and everything reeked of cigarette smoke. Seemed pretty generic, though. Shockingly, this is not a strip club:



We did want drinks though; conveniently, Felix had looked up a local hangout called the Red Lounge. In fact, the entire room was lit with red lights. Our waitress spazzed and served us pilsner instead of hefe, and Felix was slightly irked. I was a bit entertained as he tried to reason with the waitress, who spoke little English. Felix was obviously right, though, and we had new beers served. After, I had an “Absinthe Dream”, and Felix had a Long Island. I’m not a huge absinthe fan, per se, but it was used just right in this concoction, which had pineapple juice, and some other stuff (I can’t remember). I caught him up on the state of Scrabble, and we enjoyed a not-so-crazy late night. We wandered home around 2.

Our train the next day was not until 3:30, so we had some time to see more of Hamburg. Of course, we slept in again – go figure. Felix was craving a burger; I really wanted to have a burger in Hamburg just for shits and giggles. I’d spotted that Curry Papa had burgers the day before, so we had lunch there. French fries (pommes frites in Germany, lolz) are done so well in Germany, and they went great with my massive cheeseburger. Nom!

We walked through the town to Saint Michael’s Cathedral, which had one of the most epic organs I’ve ever seen.



On the way back was the bombed-out Saint Nicholas Cathedral. It’s a pretty chilling scene – a picture says 1000 words, here. They build a viewing platform in what remained of the tower, so we took the elevator up, and got a foggy, but nice view of Hamburg. It was interesting when the monument spoke about the history of the church, that it spent 75% of the time apologizing for Hitler…

The ruined cathedral: 


Then it was time to get the train back to Berlin, our next stop. We were only in Hamburg for less than two days, but honestly it didn’t feel like there was all that much to do. A nice place, though.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Prague Part 3 + Kutna Hora: BONEZ


When I last left off, it was in the midst of a 4 AM somewhat drunken night in freezing-cold Prague.  4 AM bedtime of course made for a late morning. Nic, Jason (Kansas guy), a guy from Hawaii, and I went for a huge American breakfast – I had 3 eggs over easy, with bacon, potatoes, a mini bagel (it was a bagel place, after all) and hot chocolate. The location was conveniently at the food of Prague Castle – my sightseeing destination for the afternoon.


NOM: 

The student discount for the full Prague Castle tour was 50% off, so I opted for the full tour. At the art museum, some landscape works of Pieter Stevens caught my eye. The second stop was the iconic St. Vitus Cathedral – the stained glass was breathtaking. My other favorite spot was Saint George’s Basilica, which had a very mysterious vibe.

Stained Glass: 


I decided to walk all the way back to the hostel – this proved to be more work than I’d bargained for. I walked down by the river, and decided I’d take the scenic route over the rock barrier to the river. It went for a while then dead-ended. Oops. I finally made it back near the hostel, then took a wrong turn, and ended up over a km from the place. Aargh. I did find it eventually, and collapsed into a chair with some water.

The same 4 of us + an Aussie decided to try the other Czech restaurant we’d been recommended to visit. The place had been brewing for like 600 years or something, and their dark beer was delicious. I finally had GARLIC SOUP (it is as amazing as it sounds!), then Aussie guy and I shared a big plate of duck, sausage, chicken, beef, pork. One of those meals I’ll never forget. Hawaiian guy ordered the 3.3 lbs of meat plate. He didn’t finish it, but made it through a good two pounds of ribs.

Ribs:


Nic and I planned to visit the Bone Chapel in Kutna Hora the next morning (in time for me to hit my train to Berlin), so coupled with the fact that most of us were already hungover or just dead tired (I was in the latter category), we didn’t go out partying that night (others did, of course). We watched Pulp Fiction in the lounge, instead.

We did somehow wake up in time to get the train to Kutna Hora. It was the first day I experienced snow in Europe, and it was definitely colder than the previous days. We trudged down the road to the cathedral, and were pretty blown away by how eerily amazing this place was. There were THOUSANDS of skulls, and thousands more bones (I want to say 40,000 bones, or so maybe?). Just think, every one of those skulls was a person at some point. Each one of them had some story, from a different time, and I just wanted to sit and have a conversation with a few of them (I made some funny faces instead, oops). The main chandelier was made up of at least one of each bone in the human body. We even had the whole place to ourselves for 20 minutes before a big tour showed up – which was just enough time to take in the energy, and maybe make some silly faces with the skulls. I might be going to Hell now…anyway, I’ll leave you with a couple pictures to try and recreate a bit of the awe-inspiring environment by which I was enveloped.

Chandelier:

O hai thur: 


Freezing our asses off, we stumbled into a church nearby, and found out we could walk upstairs. Upon further inspection, we realized “upstairs” included walking inside the roof of the castle – unreal!
Unfortunately, I had to make it back to Prague to catch my train, so we headed back to get the train, stopping at a market on the way, where we had to communicate with the butcher via the weighing scale – ha! I hope the Czech Republic isn’t the European country where if you give the thumbs-up it means something akin to ‘screw you.’ But there was of course time for hot chocolate at the Prague equivalent of Starbucks.

Cool ceiling: 



Then it was time to say goodbye to Prague (I could’ve stayed at MadHouse for weeks, and will likely go back one day), and onto an unremarkable train ride to Berlin. I hope to run into Nic again either when he visits the West Coast one day, or when I finally make it to Montreal one year (I’m thinking Toronto/Quebec trip after the [mid-August] 2014 Scrabble Nationals in Buffalo, NY. We got along really well, and both being on our first Europe trips, and first solo trips, we were both learning to adapt to new environments, so we had that in common, too. A cool guy, for sure.

Felix randomly walked by me at Berlin Hbf. We had train station currywurst, and then stopped to get beer in a supermarket. There, we ran into a Hamburger, who started telling us what beer to buy. We soon realized we were on the same train to Hamburg, so he decided to join us for some beer on the train. He was a fun guy, laughed a lot, and gave us a whole list of things to do in Hamburg. I think Felix and I caught about half of what he said, but his ideas were very good.

Results of the train ride. We tried to at least organize our debris: 



Our hotel was right by the station, and upon arriving at 1 AM, passed the heck out.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Prague, Part 2: A Mad, Mad House


OK so I am home from Europe, and I have written almost the entire blog. But I decided I wanted to wait for pictures, and wasn't going to have them on my computer until I got home, hence little posting in quite awhile. I'll try to do one a day from here on out...

So after three days of the familiar Scrabble tournament environment, I walked the three km to my new hostel, the MadHouse Prague. And let me tell you, this hostel is probably one of the coolest hostels in the world. It caters to solo travelers, and the “employees” (mostly travelers who never left – including the owners themselves) take everyone out for some kind of nightlife…every night. Plus: cheap beer, a kitchen, a cool hangout lounge, and a really central location, and more. Quite frankly, by the time Thursday came around, I really didn’t want to leave. I wish every city had a place like this one.
I quickly met two travelers my age from Orinda (plenty of mutual acquaintance), as well as a large number of Aussies. Them Aussies are everywhere! That evening, I won five of six games of beer pong (what up), and then we went to a student bar nearby. It was fun, but the cigarette smoke in Prague is pretty crippling for me.

Trolling:



The next day, Tuesday, I finally willed myself out of bed around 11 AM. The shower on our floor was busted, so I had to trek downstairs to clean off – anyone who knows me knows I am useless without a morning shower. Once I was finally bundled up, I made my way to Choco Café, as recommended by Sandy. I had a hot chocolate with a chocolate from the Dominican Republic. But this was unique hot chocolate – it was literally pure chocolate. Overload, but amazing.

 I walked to the Old Town Square, and moseyed through the Christmas Market. Some Czech dude was doing a great rendition of “What a Wonderful World”. I found the meeting point for the free tour, and noticed a couple of my hostelmates were headed towards a different tour. We’d discussed meeting up for this one, so I nudged them in my general direction. It was snowing, but the tour was very informative, and I got to walk all over New Town/Old Town/Jewish Quarter. It’s ironic that the Jewish Quarter is now the swanky, most expensive part of Prague. A couple of pictures of Prague:


Clock Tower:

 "Old New" Synagogue:



After the tour, my hostelmate-now-friend Nic and I wandered into a Czech restaurant. We had some tasty goulash! Then back to the hostel for more beer pong.



Nightlife on this night included drinks at a trendy bar, where I learned some good stories about the MasterChef Australia judges from an Aussie at the hostel who is in the Melbourne hospitality industry. I love hanging out with Aussies because then I can nerd out about MC:AUS.

After drinks, we headed to a rock and roll club, which played lots of newer rock (right up my alley). Nic almost gave himself a concussion when he tried to dance on a table and hit a motorcycle tire, so we retreated back to the corner and talked/drank with some other solo travelers (an organic farm worker from Kansas, and a Kiwi-Perthian. When we were finally too tired to drink anymore, we went for late night burritos (yes, late night burritos in Prague), and then called it a night around 4 AM.

I leave you with this picture:


Monday, December 10, 2012

TravelBlog Special Edition: The SleazyJet-Schoenfeld Extortion Saga



If you want to skip to the punchline of this travel war-story, here you go: EasyJet is a complete fucking SCAM. Don’t be fooled by their cheap façade. Take a train or (ideally) a bus instead.

There are two important things to know about me:

1) Don’t sell me stuff I don’t need.
2) Don’t take advantage of me or the people I care about...

We arrived to the S-Bahn station for Schoenfeld airport about 45 minutes before the flight to Geneva. We knew we were cutting it close, but we didn’t realize that the S-9 train that goes there is notorious for not following the schedule.

So Felix goes with his carryon luggage to the flight, and I wait in the short line to check my baggage. I finally put my baggage on the counter, and the guy tells me to bring it to a different counter. I bring it there, the guy complains that I have no tag, and then sends me where I came from. Then another worker lady informs me that I have missed my flight (note: it is 8:25, my flight leaves at 8:56). I think this is ridicuious, and she continues that checked luggage ends 40 minutes before the flight ends, I take no issue with this policy in theory (and I did show up 35 minutes before the flight), but when she insulted other people later for not knowing these rules ahead of time, I was appalled as it says NOTHING about the 40 minute rule on your boarding pass. Maybe it said it online when I bought my ticket, and if so, I claim responsibility for that, but for fucks sake, put it on the bloody BOARDING PASS.

So this lady clearly wants nothing to do with me. I seem to remember EasyJet doing some sort of gate-checked luggage. I ask if I can do that, and she says yes (note, she didn’t OFFER to let me do this, which I find pretty annoying). It will costs me 50 euro to gate check my bag at the gate. Well shit, what are my other options? I ask how much it will cost if I skip the flight. She informs me that I will have to pay a flight change fee, which I recall being at least 50-75 euro. So OK, I’ll eat the 50 euro, there’s still hope.

She runs my credit card. Doesn’t work. Debit card. Doesn’t work (yes - I called BofA before my trip, and they know I’m in Berlin). She’s clearly annoyed with me, and then three guys come up behind me also late for the same flight – and they’d come from POLAND – a 3 hour drive. So now I ask, thinking I’ve run out of nine lives here, if I can pay cash. I CAN? REALLY? Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place? Fortunately, I have a 100 euro note left over. Hope is still alive. She sends me to the ticket counter so that they can complete the cash “transaction” (extortion is a better).

Finally I have everything set, and can go through security. As I leave, I hastily explain to the Polish guys to ask about gate checking, but I’m not sure they knew what it was, and I had to look out for myself at that point because it’s now almost 8:40.

First lady has no idea what gate checked luggage is. Fortunately I get across what is going on to her, and get into the short line. In line, people are willing to cut to the front. Of course now I can’t bring on any of my liquids, which makes me really sad, as I had to give up a present I was planning to bring home:

My best friend Noah’s step-grandpa has been very sick for awhile, and I had bought some bottles of Flensburger Pilsner in Hamburg (Flensburg is said step-grandpa’s hometown) to take home with me for Noah’s family. But no, gate checked luggage counts as hand luggage. Of course the baggage lady has to be rude about this fact. Not sure if it’s the same way in the states, but the guy actually checking the baggage offers to split the beers with me, which is normally a funny joke, but I’M TRYING TO GET MY FLIGHT. She glares at him, takes my beer, and scowls at me again. Everyone in line is yelling at her because this rule is clearly groundless.

But fine, it can’t be changed. I HAVE TO GET TO MY FLIGHT. I inform the guy that my flight is in five minutes, and he laughs. Thanks for the well wishes…It’s funny, I’ve primarily had only good experiences with TSA workers in the US. No issues in Canada either. First time at a European airport…OK well n(airport)=1 + n(workers)=5 or so are pretty small sample sizes, so I’ll reserve judgment. And maybe I can find some Flensburger in Zurich, or something!

Up to this point, I can’t fault you if you truly think this is entirely my fault. If you’re one of those people, I hope you’ll pay full attention here:


So I spring to my gate, arriving about 8:50, and the ENITIRE FLIGHT IS UNBOARDED, and herded like sheep into a tiny RyanAir gate. Felix is incredibly relieved to see that I’ve made it. In fact, the flight is pretty clearly delayed. So I WAS in fact there within 40 minutes, but EasyJet opted not to update the departure time to reflect the fact that we wouldn’t be leaving on time. If they had, I would not have been charged 50 euros, and could’ve checked my bag. Instead, I gather that my bag was the first fucking bag on the plane.

Not to mention that my lungs are all fucked up from all the smoking I’ve had to be around the last 10 days, so I’m completely out of breath, and now don’t have my bottle of water. Actually, writing this an hour later, I STILL haven’t had any water. Just on principle because I’m not paying EasyJet another fucking cent for water (2.50 euro for a bottle, to be precise).

We ended up boarding our flight 20 minutes late. As I described above, if I checked in 35 minutes before a flight that is 20 minutes late, that should be like saying I checked in 55 minutes before my flight. But thanks to EasyJet, that delay was not registered, and I almost missed my flight, and essentially bribed them 50 euro to get on the plane. See it however you want – 35 or 55 minutes, and you want to tell me I’ve missed my flight? Fuck your company.

While we were waiting in line, Felix relays his own annoying story. EasyJet allows one bag of a certain size onto the plane. He has a backpack and a piece of luggage. So the lady who didn’t know what a gate-checked bag was (and works security at an airport, hah), got mad at him for that. So he puts the backpack in the luggage, with all his stuff in it. This of course makes everything OK - *sigh*. When he got to the gate, they made the same stink, as he’d taken his backpack back out. He said that the gate lady was shocked when she found out he could just put his backpack in the luggage. But he’s flown EasyScam many times before, and knew the rules of the game, so he was prepared.

Of course when we did board the flight, I got to experience EasyJet’s wonderful boarding procedure. Assigned seats, let people board all at once, from the front AND back of the plane. Because that strategy will work SO, SO, SO WELL. Has nobody taken a psychology class? A math class? Any class that will give you any idea how people operate? I guess not. So the flight took a good 30 minutes to board, and I guess the plane was sitting there in the below-freezing water, that they had to spray the plane with hot water. Because that sight is really reassuring. I did luck into an aisle seat somehow – I’ll take the small victory. Anyway, we eventually took off, and the Polish guys were nowhere to be seen – shit.

Not really sure if I can dispute anything since I paid in cash. I’m out about 75$ US, but I’m on the flight, and so is my baggage. It’s a war story alright, all a part of traveling, but I’m pretty disappointed in this airline.

I guess the Easy in EasyJet simple means that when they’re done using you, and extorting you, you’ll feel so easy. That’s more or less how I feel right now. The irony of this situation, is that the only reason I immediately thought to ask about gate-checking my bag, was from reading myriads of horror stories on the internet about EasyJet’s baggage policies, back when I was buying this ticket in September. Yet again, Yelp [and other customer service sites] don’t lie. My research saved my ass, even if I did have to pay out my ass for it. Yet again, I have adapted and problem solved a situation on my own in a foreign country – that means I’m maturing, and staying focused, which means this trip is continuing to be an incredible success.

I will never fly EasyJet again. If you are traveling in Europe, I hope you will think twice before flying with this extortive company because what they do is just not OK.

Anyway, I get to Geneva tonight, spend tomorrow in the city (SWISS FONDUE TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!!!!!), Wednesday on the train (stopping in Berne and Lucerne, I believe), Wednesday evening and all of Thursday in Zurich (CouchSurfing – the cheapest hostel is 50 euro!) My host seems incredibly kind, and is even willing to put up with the fact that I have to get up to go to the airport at some ungodly early hour Friday morning – and she lives near the airport, and is picking me up from the train station on Wednesday. Awesome.

For about an hour there, I really felt like I’d had it with Europe and was ready to come home…but nah, traveling rules and I’m excited for my three days in Switzerland!

On the whole, the people we met in Germany could not have been nicer. The unprompted advice and kindness we were shown by people who clearly love the cities in which they reside, natively or not, was really warming to Felix and me (amongst the freezing weather!)

And to those of you world travelers out there (I’m looking at you, Jesse Day) what’s backpacking without some absolutely inane travel complications?

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Oh look I failed at travelblogging

So when I last left off, I had one day left in Vienna.

Matt and his girlfriend wanted to see the Freud museum, so we decided to have lunch at a pay-as-you-go student-loved Pakistani place (4 stars on yelp). It was fantastic. The Freud museum was very cool, though I wish they had talked more about the cocaine part of Freud's existence.

After, I split off to go visit a cafe. I ended up at the touristy Cafe Central, and had sachertorte + hot chocolate. Very rich, but tasty, and a fun experience.

I then got completely lost trying to find the Rathaus. Eventually, I got back within the range of the first district's free wifi, and found it eventually. It was absolutely gorgeous, and the Christmas market was pretty cool, albeit dominated by tourists. I took some pictures, and then headed back to the flat.

Matt and I went to a student run Christmas-drink party, where we met up with one of his friends, as well as some couchsurfers he knew from Portland! I had gluhwein (yum!) and punsch (fairly yum, as well!) It was very cold, though, and they ran out of alcohol, so we headed to a local bar, and shot the shit for awhile. Eventually, it was time for bed, though, as I had my bus ride the next morning.

Fast forward to the next morning. Finding the bus was really easy! I talked with a guy from Winnepeg, and then sat down in my seat. The seats were clean, the bus was pretty new, the personal TVs worked great (I watched Fast Five), they gave free hot chocolate, and the bathroom was easily accessible. A brief stop in Brno, and we did it all again (minus the movie part - was feeling more like music).

Arrived in Prague, and got a little bit confused with the tram system, and eventually just took the metro to Vysehrad, near the tournament hotel, and walked to my hostel. I was very happy that I had my own room to chill in. The owner was so kind - she was older, and said 'please' after every sentence. Unfortunately, the grocery store was not where she said it would be, so I was forced to wander around until I found a corner store. Apparently the corner stores in Prague are run by Vietnamese immigrants, so they don't speak Czech OR English...

I bought what I thought was herbed cream cheese, but it turned out to be horseradish flavored. That + some salami and bread was dinner. I wasn't really all that hungry, anyway. I went to bed late, studying words and watching Breaking Bad.

I'm going to skip the next two days (Saturday/Sunday), as I really have nothing to say about the Scrabble tournament. This is a travel blog, not a Scrabble blog. I will pick up from my walk to the new hostel (Monday evening) in my next post. In real time, I am leaving Prague tomorrow, and should be able to catch up on the train ride to Berlin, tomorrow.

I am exhausted, and sick of the cigarette smoke. The cigarette smoke in Prague is overwhelming. My voice gets hoarse everyday.