Ugh. What a day.
We woke up early, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, checked out, and walked to te train station to catch our train to Vienna, which departed Praha at 10:42 and was scheduled to arrive in Vienna at 15:22.
Our day went like this:
10:42am: Our train leaves the station. Luckily for us, we made reservations and had seats, because it was another train that was full beyond capacity, with people overflowing into the hallways. Our six-person compartment actually had seven people in it - we shared it with a Slovakian girl about our age named Martina, and a group of four Colombian girls who couldn't have been much older than eighteen, who took turns sitting on each other's laps since there were only three available seats.
11:00am: Aforementioned Colombian girls start giggling embarrassedly when Steve lets them know that he understands Spanish and therefore knows all their secrets. Hahaha.
12:00pm: Our train makes it to another station still in the Czech Republic and an announcement is made that there are technical difficulties of some kind and our train will be delayed at the station for another hour.
Well, great. The owner of the apartment we're renting in Vienna is expecting us at 4pm. Ugh.
12:45pm: Another announcement is made that tells us we are going to be bussed to a different station, and we will catch another connection to Vienna from there. These announcements are being made in Czech and being translated by Martina, who is from Slovakia but is studying in the Czech Republic, so THANK GOODNESS we have her. When we exit the train to make our way to the bus area, we stick with Martina, figuring it would be in our best interest to make friends with someone who speaks the local language.
We go outside and there are HORDES of people waiting for buses and, no joke, maybe five or six buses to transfer the approximately two thousand people to another station, which is a good twenty minutes each way. Plus there is apparently some kind of big metal music festival going on in northern Czech Republic so tons of angry metalhads were yelling and pushing and generally being obnoxious while we were trying to get on buses.
As we wait, more trains are arriving at this station. Martina overhears that, due to the slightly stormy weather, a cargo train had dereailed and taken out some electric posts, which was why our train could not press on - and neither could any of the other trains running this direction. So the crowd never gets much smaller even after several busloads of people are taken away.
2:30pm: We FINALLY make it in to a bus and are taken to a tiny little train station in a tiny little town. There is a small area of shade away from the hordes of people camped out next to the tracks, so Steve, Martina, and I sit down. Over the next two hours, the three of us are half engaged in conversation about every subject we could think of and half trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Eventually Martina found out that we were not going to be getting on another train to Vienna, but one to Brno, where we would have to change and get on a train to Breçlaw, and from there change to another train to Vienna.
AAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
5:00pm: A train bound for Brno finally makes it to the station and we hop on.
6:20pm: I guess the rails have been cleared, because we get to Brno in time to jump onto a train bound to Vienna..... THAT IS THE EXACT SAME TRAIN WE STARTED OUT ON!!!! Except now it is packed to three times its capacity, with people standing in literally every possible available space. So much for our reservations....
9:30pm: We finally make it to Vienna!!!!!!!!!!!
Twas a long, long day.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Prague Castle, The Pub, and Why USA's Legal Drinking Age is 21.
Steve and I went on a pub crawl last night, per our walking tour guide's recommendation. We figured it would be a good way to find some Praha nightlife on a Tuesday.
It was, in short, a frat party.
It sounded so promising: unlimited drinks for the first two hours at a communism-themed bar then bar/club-hopping to a few more places with a free drink at each. Cool, right?
We showed up to the first bar and found it packed with teenagers.
Now we know why the legal drinking age in the States is 21: it's because adults wanting to go to the bar to grab a drink and relax do not want to be surrounded by children.
Now, Steve and I aren't that old. But we felt old at this pub crawl, with tons (seriously, there were over 100 people on this pub crawl) of eighteen and nineteen year olde running around, acting drunker than they are, pretending they have swagger, thinking they're soooooo cool. It was like a frat party. Guys trying to act macho, girls trying to act like they're not sluts, and basically everyone ating like a dumbass and using the "I'm so drunk! I don't know what I'm doing!" excuse for dong stupid shit like shoving each other into walls and screaming at the top of their lungs while walking through the streets. CONTROL YOURSELF, PEOPLE! It was ridiculous. This is what happens when people drink before they are mature enough to not act like a moron Ugh.
Steve's analogy is grossly fitting for this experience: "It's like a dog park: it's a place for dogs to run around and sniff each other's butts."
Bahaha. Kind of gross, but fairly accurate.
On the bright side, there was dancing at most of the places we went to, so Steve and I danced for a bit, and we met a couple guys who were cool talking with. Oddly enough, the guy we first started talking to (Jordan) is from LA, and his friend (who kept disappearing to chase girls or something) was from CHICO! That was silly - we fly halfway around the world just to meet people we could hang out with in the States. :P Also, there was a 24-hour Mexican food place that had burritos that ALMOST tasted like the real thing! Whoo.
Another upside was that because the pub crawl was super lame, we didn't get trashed and therefore were not hungover in the morning. We spent the morning exploring Prague Castle, which is big enough to be a small village. We did have a beautiful view from up on the hill where the castle lies.
In the afternoon, we ate lunch at a place that had on draught THE ORIGINAL BUDWEISER!!! That's right, the American Bud is not the original. And the Czech Budweiser is better because it comes with a dark version - rather than lite! Haha, bad joke. But seriously. Delicious.
After lunch, we decided to have a drink at The Pub, which you may recall reading about when we were in Berlin. The place with the taps at the table?There is a Pub location here in Prague and we had passed by it easily a dozen times in the last day, and once we went searching, WE COULDN'T FIND IT! But after a LOT of wandering around (look at a map of Prague sometime - the whole city is a labyrinth), we made it, AND we remembered to take pictures. Now you can see what the Pub is all about!
This picture is of our table: each table in the Pub has four taps, serving the local beer, Pilsner Urquell. Steve made a little instructional video on how The Pub works.
Having something like The Pub in the States would be quite fun - although the beer on tap would likely be American Bud or Coors or something.... Boo.
After The Pub we took a nap, and after the nap we enjoyed a quiet last evening in Prague - tomorrow, Vienna!
It was, in short, a frat party.
It sounded so promising: unlimited drinks for the first two hours at a communism-themed bar then bar/club-hopping to a few more places with a free drink at each. Cool, right?
We showed up to the first bar and found it packed with teenagers.
Now we know why the legal drinking age in the States is 21: it's because adults wanting to go to the bar to grab a drink and relax do not want to be surrounded by children.
Now, Steve and I aren't that old. But we felt old at this pub crawl, with tons (seriously, there were over 100 people on this pub crawl) of eighteen and nineteen year olde running around, acting drunker than they are, pretending they have swagger, thinking they're soooooo cool. It was like a frat party. Guys trying to act macho, girls trying to act like they're not sluts, and basically everyone ating like a dumbass and using the "I'm so drunk! I don't know what I'm doing!" excuse for dong stupid shit like shoving each other into walls and screaming at the top of their lungs while walking through the streets. CONTROL YOURSELF, PEOPLE! It was ridiculous. This is what happens when people drink before they are mature enough to not act like a moron Ugh.
Steve's analogy is grossly fitting for this experience: "It's like a dog park: it's a place for dogs to run around and sniff each other's butts."
Bahaha. Kind of gross, but fairly accurate.
On the bright side, there was dancing at most of the places we went to, so Steve and I danced for a bit, and we met a couple guys who were cool talking with. Oddly enough, the guy we first started talking to (Jordan) is from LA, and his friend (who kept disappearing to chase girls or something) was from CHICO! That was silly - we fly halfway around the world just to meet people we could hang out with in the States. :P Also, there was a 24-hour Mexican food place that had burritos that ALMOST tasted like the real thing! Whoo.
Another upside was that because the pub crawl was super lame, we didn't get trashed and therefore were not hungover in the morning. We spent the morning exploring Prague Castle, which is big enough to be a small village. We did have a beautiful view from up on the hill where the castle lies.
In the afternoon, we ate lunch at a place that had on draught THE ORIGINAL BUDWEISER!!! That's right, the American Bud is not the original. And the Czech Budweiser is better because it comes with a dark version - rather than lite! Haha, bad joke. But seriously. Delicious.
After lunch, we decided to have a drink at The Pub, which you may recall reading about when we were in Berlin. The place with the taps at the table?There is a Pub location here in Prague and we had passed by it easily a dozen times in the last day, and once we went searching, WE COULDN'T FIND IT! But after a LOT of wandering around (look at a map of Prague sometime - the whole city is a labyrinth), we made it, AND we remembered to take pictures. Now you can see what the Pub is all about!
This picture is of our table: each table in the Pub has four taps, serving the local beer, Pilsner Urquell. Steve made a little instructional video on how The Pub works.
Having something like The Pub in the States would be quite fun - although the beer on tap would likely be American Bud or Coors or something.... Boo.
After The Pub we took a nap, and after the nap we enjoyed a quiet last evening in Prague - tomorrow, Vienna!
Monday, July 9, 2012
Some Interesting Things About Prague/Czech Republic.
I think Steve and I are about walking-tour-ed out.
We went on a free walking tour today, which was still loads of fun, we learned tons of things about Czech history, most of which we've already forgotten, and took a bunch of pictures of this beautiful city, some of which you can see RIGHT NOW, YAY!
One of those interesting things we learned about Prague today that I didn't expect was that it was one of the few major cities in Central/Eastern Europe that didn't get destroyed. In fact, it is really the ONLY city to remain as intact as it is today. All the buildings in Prague are orginials - whereas in Berlin, Warsaw, and various other major cities in Europe have only replicas of the original buildings that once stood. All the buildings in the pictures above are originals - original churches, original mosques, etc. In the followng picture, you can see that the building is sort of cut off - see where the facade on the left is made of darker stone and in Gothic style, whereas the wall on the right side is plain and white - like the rest of the building was chopped off, and they added a wall to the part that remained. This is the only building in Prague that suffered damage in World War II.
Why? Interesting fact about Prague #2 - err, Part #1a, since this is really still part of the fact that Prague was never destroyed in WWII: Prague was one of Hitler's favorite cities. Apparently Hitler intended for Prague to be the arts and culture capital of Nazi Europe and thus ordered it to be kept intact. I don't remember why that building in the above picture got destroyed - rogue fire or bomb or something I suppose. But who knew - Hitler loved Prague! Prague is one of the oldest, still-standing-in-original-form cities in Europe. Way cool. No wonder architecture majors are encouraged to study abroad here.
Speaking of studying abroad, Interesting Fact #2(real#2): Charles University was founded by King Charles IV, and is considered one of the most prestigious universities in the Czech Republic. Its acceptance rate is *drum roll please* 1 in 400.
ONE IN FOUR HUNDRED!!! That means that only 00.25% of the applicants get in. To put it into perspective: Stanford's acceptance rate last year, for the class of 2015, was somewhere around 7%. MIT's acceptance rate was around the same. Most of the Ivy League schools ranged from 3-10%. Charles University accepts <1%! That's insane. Interesting Fact #3: Billy made a friend!
I don't really know what the story is behind the statue, because I was too busy swapping animals-around-the-world stories with the girl in our tour group that has a squirrel that she travels around with! Hilarious. At some point earlier on in the tour, I saw someone plop this squirrel on a statue, take a picture, and put the squirrel away all in the blink of an eye - I didn't even notice who did it because I was so excited that someone else has their own version of Billy! So when I put Billy into this weird giant-with-no-head-or-hands statue, this girl comes up and says "Wait, don't take the picture yet; I have a squirrel"; squirrel gets put in the sleeve, Billy looks at the squirrel funny, and we are all instantly bonded for life.
Interesting Fact #4: In the following picture, you can just barely make out the tombstones in a Jewish cemetery - this cemetery was the inspiration for the design of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (aka Wondermaze) in Berlin.
The tombstones are set up like this because the cemetery is actually made up of many layers of graves of the Jews who lived in Prague - the oldest tombstone dates back to the 1400s. As Jews are not supposed to alter Jewish graves nor remove tombstones, but the purchase of additional land for the cemetery was impossible back then, this cemetery holds many, many layers of graves - when a new wave o' dead people needed burial, soil was added on top of the current layer, the new graves were added, and all tombstones were moved to the top. It is estimated that there are up to 100,000 graves in this cemetery, though there are only around 10,000 tombstones at the top.
Interesting Fact #5: The Czechs were apparently master inventors - among the long list of things that our guide said the Czechs invented but I don't really remember are tanks (important for the war effort, but for whatever reason the French or British or someone took the credit); soft contact lenses, which I greatly appreciate; and pilsner beer, which I appreciate only on hot days and not every time I'm trying to order a beer in Europe (seriously, people. Drink more dark beer.)
Interesting fact #6: To protest the Soviet suppression of reform in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, a student named Jan Palach climbed up a hill facing Wenceslas Square, one of Prague's main squares, and set himself on fire.
What a painful way to die.
In the 1960s, Czechoslovakia's leader Alexander Dubček allowed for liberating reform, such as more freedom of speech, in Czechoslovakia. The citizens of the country were all for it; the Communist Soviet leaders were not. To make a long story short (mostly because I don't really remember the details...), Dubček was thrown in prison and the Czechoslovaks were not down with that. A group of students in Prague made a suicide pact, declaring that one student would commit suicide each day until.... I don't remember, until the Soviets quit suppressing their people? Until Dubček was freed? I don't remember.... *checks Wikipedia, which only says that it was done in protest* Anyways, Prague-born Jan Palach was the first of the students in line to do this, and he set himself on fire, in view of thousands of Czechoslovaks watching in Wenceslas Square.
The poor guy apparently took three days to actually die, and pleaded for his fellow students to come up with a different method of protest because lighting yourself on fire is way too slow and painful a way to sacrifice yourself.
A few other students still did it, but not very many. And to commemorate Palach, there are memorials to him, streets named after him, etc.
I seriously can't believe he set himself on fire. Can you imagine being so passionate about something that you would do something so crazy? What a time it was back then... It makes me more grateful to be living in the era I live in. Things in the States may be screwy, but at least my friends aren't lighting themselves on fire....
Interesting Fact #7: Czechoslovakia basically liberated itself.
I don't remember the details. Something about how they had an uprising, they took over all the major Nazi points of control on their own, they were winning... And then the Soviet army marched in saying "We're here to liberate you! We're going to free you!" and the Czechoslovaks were like "Erm.... thanks, but we've already done that..." to which the Soviets responded, "That's cool, makes our job easier.... And as a congratulations, we give you the gift of COMMUNISM!"
Something like that, anyway.
Wikipedia it if you want all the facts. Or better yet, visit Prague and go on Kathryn's walking tour, because she's hilarious.
Interesting Fact #8: Czech onion soup is wayyyyyy better than French onion soup. At least... traditional onion soup in Prague is better than the French onion soup I had at a French restaurant in San Francisco once. I may have to amend this statement after I visit France. But as it stands.... Czech onion soup? Delicious.
Czech food in general is delicious. Look at this beef goulash with dumplings and spinach! Mmmm......
Interesting Fact #9: Bils loves pils!!!
Bils is, of course, short for Billy Bronco; pils is short for pilsener, the light beer that allegedly originated in Plsen, which is a Czech city about an hour outside of Prague. Look at Billy, thinking he's so sneaky, trying to drink Daddy's beer when he's not looking....
Okay, I know those last two facts were really not that interesting. I was trying to stretch my list out to ten things, and I really don't remember that many of the interesting stories our guide Kathryn told us on the tour. That's what I meant about Steve and I being toured-out: all the facts kind of run together after hearing so much about each city's historical events that are all fairly similar (WWII, fall of Nazi regime, Communist rule, liberation, etc)... it's harder to remember who did what when and where.
But now on to Interesting Fact #10 - I saved the best for last!
Here is the story of Gaston the Sea Lion.
About ten years ago, Prague was flooded (as happens sometimes in these parts, apparently). The restaurants, hotels, etc along the river were severely damaged, and all the animals in the zoo next to the river died (so sad).
All except for three sea lions, which saw this tragedy as an opportunity to escape.
Two of the sea lions were caught right away, but the third, Gaston, kept swimming and swimming and swimming.
They eventually found Gaston.... IN DRESDEN, GERMANY!!!!
THAT'S LIKE 120 KILOMETERS AWAY!!!!!
That is quite a swim, especially for an animal that probably hasn't had that kind of exercise in a long time, unless he did many a lap around his little pool in the zoo.
However, on the helicopter ride back to Prague, Gaston died of a heart attack.
Note to self: Do not attempt any extreme athletic events, such as ultramarathons or swimming the English channel, without proper training first.
120 KILOMETERS! THAT'S CRAZY!!!!
Also, I thought of another interesting fact that isn't on this list, so....
INTERESTING FACT#11!
If I was European (or anything other than American, for that matter), I would adjust the list so that there are only ten items (like the measurements in the metric system), but since I'm an American and we already have tons of silly measurements like 12 inches per foot and 16 ounce to a pound, etc, I will leave the list as is. (Plus 11 is Steve's favorite number.)
Some of you may remember Czech President Vaclav Klaus. A few years ago, President Vaclav Klaus was in Chile on an official visit, and while on international television during the press conference that followed their meeting, Vaclav Klaus decides he likes the commemorative pen sitting on the table and while the Chilean president is talking, Klaus pockets the pen! He stole a pen! And not very sneakily, either... About as sneakily as kids trying not to get caught texting in class. Look it up on YouTube. It is so silly.
This event embarrassed the Czech people at the time, but as a joke, a year or two ago the people declared "National Pen Day", and on this day, the Czech citizens mail their president a pen. Our tour guide Kathryn also mentioned that she had a couple Chilean guys on her tour a few months ago, and at the end of the tour, they presented her with her very own Chilean pen.
Oh, the sillyness. :)
We went on a free walking tour today, which was still loads of fun, we learned tons of things about Czech history, most of which we've already forgotten, and took a bunch of pictures of this beautiful city, some of which you can see RIGHT NOW, YAY!
One of those interesting things we learned about Prague today that I didn't expect was that it was one of the few major cities in Central/Eastern Europe that didn't get destroyed. In fact, it is really the ONLY city to remain as intact as it is today. All the buildings in Prague are orginials - whereas in Berlin, Warsaw, and various other major cities in Europe have only replicas of the original buildings that once stood. All the buildings in the pictures above are originals - original churches, original mosques, etc. In the followng picture, you can see that the building is sort of cut off - see where the facade on the left is made of darker stone and in Gothic style, whereas the wall on the right side is plain and white - like the rest of the building was chopped off, and they added a wall to the part that remained. This is the only building in Prague that suffered damage in World War II.
Why? Interesting fact about Prague #2 - err, Part #1a, since this is really still part of the fact that Prague was never destroyed in WWII: Prague was one of Hitler's favorite cities. Apparently Hitler intended for Prague to be the arts and culture capital of Nazi Europe and thus ordered it to be kept intact. I don't remember why that building in the above picture got destroyed - rogue fire or bomb or something I suppose. But who knew - Hitler loved Prague! Prague is one of the oldest, still-standing-in-original-form cities in Europe. Way cool. No wonder architecture majors are encouraged to study abroad here.
Speaking of studying abroad, Interesting Fact #2(real#2): Charles University was founded by King Charles IV, and is considered one of the most prestigious universities in the Czech Republic. Its acceptance rate is *drum roll please* 1 in 400.
ONE IN FOUR HUNDRED!!! That means that only 00.25% of the applicants get in. To put it into perspective: Stanford's acceptance rate last year, for the class of 2015, was somewhere around 7%. MIT's acceptance rate was around the same. Most of the Ivy League schools ranged from 3-10%. Charles University accepts <1%! That's insane. Interesting Fact #3: Billy made a friend!
I don't really know what the story is behind the statue, because I was too busy swapping animals-around-the-world stories with the girl in our tour group that has a squirrel that she travels around with! Hilarious. At some point earlier on in the tour, I saw someone plop this squirrel on a statue, take a picture, and put the squirrel away all in the blink of an eye - I didn't even notice who did it because I was so excited that someone else has their own version of Billy! So when I put Billy into this weird giant-with-no-head-or-hands statue, this girl comes up and says "Wait, don't take the picture yet; I have a squirrel"; squirrel gets put in the sleeve, Billy looks at the squirrel funny, and we are all instantly bonded for life.
Interesting Fact #4: In the following picture, you can just barely make out the tombstones in a Jewish cemetery - this cemetery was the inspiration for the design of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (aka Wondermaze) in Berlin.
The tombstones are set up like this because the cemetery is actually made up of many layers of graves of the Jews who lived in Prague - the oldest tombstone dates back to the 1400s. As Jews are not supposed to alter Jewish graves nor remove tombstones, but the purchase of additional land for the cemetery was impossible back then, this cemetery holds many, many layers of graves - when a new wave o' dead people needed burial, soil was added on top of the current layer, the new graves were added, and all tombstones were moved to the top. It is estimated that there are up to 100,000 graves in this cemetery, though there are only around 10,000 tombstones at the top.
Interesting Fact #5: The Czechs were apparently master inventors - among the long list of things that our guide said the Czechs invented but I don't really remember are tanks (important for the war effort, but for whatever reason the French or British or someone took the credit); soft contact lenses, which I greatly appreciate; and pilsner beer, which I appreciate only on hot days and not every time I'm trying to order a beer in Europe (seriously, people. Drink more dark beer.)
Interesting fact #6: To protest the Soviet suppression of reform in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, a student named Jan Palach climbed up a hill facing Wenceslas Square, one of Prague's main squares, and set himself on fire.
What a painful way to die.
In the 1960s, Czechoslovakia's leader Alexander Dubček allowed for liberating reform, such as more freedom of speech, in Czechoslovakia. The citizens of the country were all for it; the Communist Soviet leaders were not. To make a long story short (mostly because I don't really remember the details...), Dubček was thrown in prison and the Czechoslovaks were not down with that. A group of students in Prague made a suicide pact, declaring that one student would commit suicide each day until.... I don't remember, until the Soviets quit suppressing their people? Until Dubček was freed? I don't remember.... *checks Wikipedia, which only says that it was done in protest* Anyways, Prague-born Jan Palach was the first of the students in line to do this, and he set himself on fire, in view of thousands of Czechoslovaks watching in Wenceslas Square.
The poor guy apparently took three days to actually die, and pleaded for his fellow students to come up with a different method of protest because lighting yourself on fire is way too slow and painful a way to sacrifice yourself.
A few other students still did it, but not very many. And to commemorate Palach, there are memorials to him, streets named after him, etc.
I seriously can't believe he set himself on fire. Can you imagine being so passionate about something that you would do something so crazy? What a time it was back then... It makes me more grateful to be living in the era I live in. Things in the States may be screwy, but at least my friends aren't lighting themselves on fire....
Interesting Fact #7: Czechoslovakia basically liberated itself.
I don't remember the details. Something about how they had an uprising, they took over all the major Nazi points of control on their own, they were winning... And then the Soviet army marched in saying "We're here to liberate you! We're going to free you!" and the Czechoslovaks were like "Erm.... thanks, but we've already done that..." to which the Soviets responded, "That's cool, makes our job easier.... And as a congratulations, we give you the gift of COMMUNISM!"
Something like that, anyway.
Wikipedia it if you want all the facts. Or better yet, visit Prague and go on Kathryn's walking tour, because she's hilarious.
Interesting Fact #8: Czech onion soup is wayyyyyy better than French onion soup. At least... traditional onion soup in Prague is better than the French onion soup I had at a French restaurant in San Francisco once. I may have to amend this statement after I visit France. But as it stands.... Czech onion soup? Delicious.
Czech food in general is delicious. Look at this beef goulash with dumplings and spinach! Mmmm......
Interesting Fact #9: Bils loves pils!!!
Bils is, of course, short for Billy Bronco; pils is short for pilsener, the light beer that allegedly originated in Plsen, which is a Czech city about an hour outside of Prague. Look at Billy, thinking he's so sneaky, trying to drink Daddy's beer when he's not looking....
Okay, I know those last two facts were really not that interesting. I was trying to stretch my list out to ten things, and I really don't remember that many of the interesting stories our guide Kathryn told us on the tour. That's what I meant about Steve and I being toured-out: all the facts kind of run together after hearing so much about each city's historical events that are all fairly similar (WWII, fall of Nazi regime, Communist rule, liberation, etc)... it's harder to remember who did what when and where.
But now on to Interesting Fact #10 - I saved the best for last!
Here is the story of Gaston the Sea Lion.
About ten years ago, Prague was flooded (as happens sometimes in these parts, apparently). The restaurants, hotels, etc along the river were severely damaged, and all the animals in the zoo next to the river died (so sad).
All except for three sea lions, which saw this tragedy as an opportunity to escape.
Two of the sea lions were caught right away, but the third, Gaston, kept swimming and swimming and swimming.
They eventually found Gaston.... IN DRESDEN, GERMANY!!!!
THAT'S LIKE 120 KILOMETERS AWAY!!!!!
That is quite a swim, especially for an animal that probably hasn't had that kind of exercise in a long time, unless he did many a lap around his little pool in the zoo.
However, on the helicopter ride back to Prague, Gaston died of a heart attack.
Note to self: Do not attempt any extreme athletic events, such as ultramarathons or swimming the English channel, without proper training first.
120 KILOMETERS! THAT'S CRAZY!!!!
Also, I thought of another interesting fact that isn't on this list, so....
INTERESTING FACT#11!
If I was European (or anything other than American, for that matter), I would adjust the list so that there are only ten items (like the measurements in the metric system), but since I'm an American and we already have tons of silly measurements like 12 inches per foot and 16 ounce to a pound, etc, I will leave the list as is. (Plus 11 is Steve's favorite number.)
Some of you may remember Czech President Vaclav Klaus. A few years ago, President Vaclav Klaus was in Chile on an official visit, and while on international television during the press conference that followed their meeting, Vaclav Klaus decides he likes the commemorative pen sitting on the table and while the Chilean president is talking, Klaus pockets the pen! He stole a pen! And not very sneakily, either... About as sneakily as kids trying not to get caught texting in class. Look it up on YouTube. It is so silly.
This event embarrassed the Czech people at the time, but as a joke, a year or two ago the people declared "National Pen Day", and on this day, the Czech citizens mail their president a pen. Our tour guide Kathryn also mentioned that she had a couple Chilean guys on her tour a few months ago, and at the end of the tour, they presented her with her very own Chilean pen.
Oh, the sillyness. :)
A River Runs Through It.
The Vltava River, of course!
I hope I don't get sued for copyright infringement or something due to my theft of that book title for my blog title.
Anywho, so after we get off the night train from Krakow into Prague at 8am, we make a beeline for the ticket reservation desk at the train station to reserve seats for our train to Vienna in a few days. That's a five hour journey and I am not going to spend it sitting on the ground in the train hallway, thankyouverymuch. This must be a popular route, because we got charged €6 to make this reservation! What the heck; ten bucks(ish) to make a reservation??
And then we went to McNasty for breakfast and Wifi and bathrooms. But boy were we in for a shocker: in Prague, MCDONALD'S CHARGES MONEY TO USE THE BATHROOM! WHAT?!?!
Admittedly, it was only five Czech korunas (crowns) to use it (which is the equivalent of like 25 cents) and you can get a receipt to deduct that fee from your order, but.... I'M A PAYING CUSTOMER! And who uses the bathroom before they order - isn't that kind of frowned upon because then it looks like you're just coming in to use the bathroom then running out without buying anything? Anywho. Pay toilets are far too common here in Europe. I'm an American, goddamnit, I expect everything to be free! I have been using restaurants as my refuge since their bathrooms are USUALLY free to use if you're a customer, so this was quite irritating for me. Especially since I decided I would wait until we got to the hotel (which was 2km away) because I refuse to give in and pay for a toilet (Steve thinks I'm being silly, and tells me I'm not allowed to complain about having to pee if I pass a pay toilet and don't use it, because obviously I don't have to pee that bad).
After a long walk with a full bladder, we finally get to our hotel (a hotel! A real hotel! Thank you Booking.com for getting me such a sweet deal!) at the end of Charles Bridge (which is one of the main sights to see in Prague), I get to use the bathroom for free, and we drop off our backpacks so we can wander the maze-like cobblestone streets of Prague for the next five hours until check-in time.
Prague in the morning was so beautiful. We spent some time walking around and getting to know the area around our hotel, and everything looks so stereotypically European: tons of apartment buildings in different artistic styles, statues in hidden squares, cobblestone streets, people drinking coffee and speaking foreign languages. It was too early for the tourists to really start coming out (most likely they were still in bed hungover; the Czechs drink the most beer per capita than anywhere else in the world, and anyone who visits Prague knows, when in Czech Republic, do as the Czechs do...) so the city was still very quiet. We walked along the Vltava river (and once noon hit, we ordered a beer at a riverside restaurant and watched the boats go by) and spent an hour or two sitting in a park, watching some dogs play around. Once it was time to officially check in to the hotel, we went back and promptly fell asleep for a few hours. The bed looked too cozy and the thick curtains shut out both light and noise, and after a night of restless sleep on a train, naptime was too inviting an idea to pass up.
The evening consisted of us, a boat, and a buffet. We took an evening dinner cruise on the Vltava River and enjoyed the view from the top deck of our boat with a bottle of wine. The sun was just barely setting, the air was brisk but not too cold, my husband was handsome (as always), and I was quite content.
A live jazz band was on board, a flock of swans was swimming along the banks of the Vltava (you can see them in one of the pictures above), and the city was just beginning to light up when the cruise ended. We finished the night with a moonlit stroll back to the hotel - is there really any better way than to end your first night in a new city walking hand in hand with the person you love?
I think not. <3
I hope I don't get sued for copyright infringement or something due to my theft of that book title for my blog title.
Anywho, so after we get off the night train from Krakow into Prague at 8am, we make a beeline for the ticket reservation desk at the train station to reserve seats for our train to Vienna in a few days. That's a five hour journey and I am not going to spend it sitting on the ground in the train hallway, thankyouverymuch. This must be a popular route, because we got charged €6 to make this reservation! What the heck; ten bucks(ish) to make a reservation??
And then we went to McNasty for breakfast and Wifi and bathrooms. But boy were we in for a shocker: in Prague, MCDONALD'S CHARGES MONEY TO USE THE BATHROOM! WHAT?!?!
Admittedly, it was only five Czech korunas (crowns) to use it (which is the equivalent of like 25 cents) and you can get a receipt to deduct that fee from your order, but.... I'M A PAYING CUSTOMER! And who uses the bathroom before they order - isn't that kind of frowned upon because then it looks like you're just coming in to use the bathroom then running out without buying anything? Anywho. Pay toilets are far too common here in Europe. I'm an American, goddamnit, I expect everything to be free! I have been using restaurants as my refuge since their bathrooms are USUALLY free to use if you're a customer, so this was quite irritating for me. Especially since I decided I would wait until we got to the hotel (which was 2km away) because I refuse to give in and pay for a toilet (Steve thinks I'm being silly, and tells me I'm not allowed to complain about having to pee if I pass a pay toilet and don't use it, because obviously I don't have to pee that bad).
After a long walk with a full bladder, we finally get to our hotel (a hotel! A real hotel! Thank you Booking.com for getting me such a sweet deal!) at the end of Charles Bridge (which is one of the main sights to see in Prague), I get to use the bathroom for free, and we drop off our backpacks so we can wander the maze-like cobblestone streets of Prague for the next five hours until check-in time.
Prague in the morning was so beautiful. We spent some time walking around and getting to know the area around our hotel, and everything looks so stereotypically European: tons of apartment buildings in different artistic styles, statues in hidden squares, cobblestone streets, people drinking coffee and speaking foreign languages. It was too early for the tourists to really start coming out (most likely they were still in bed hungover; the Czechs drink the most beer per capita than anywhere else in the world, and anyone who visits Prague knows, when in Czech Republic, do as the Czechs do...) so the city was still very quiet. We walked along the Vltava river (and once noon hit, we ordered a beer at a riverside restaurant and watched the boats go by) and spent an hour or two sitting in a park, watching some dogs play around. Once it was time to officially check in to the hotel, we went back and promptly fell asleep for a few hours. The bed looked too cozy and the thick curtains shut out both light and noise, and after a night of restless sleep on a train, naptime was too inviting an idea to pass up.
The evening consisted of us, a boat, and a buffet. We took an evening dinner cruise on the Vltava River and enjoyed the view from the top deck of our boat with a bottle of wine. The sun was just barely setting, the air was brisk but not too cold, my husband was handsome (as always), and I was quite content.
A live jazz band was on board, a flock of swans was swimming along the banks of the Vltava (you can see them in one of the pictures above), and the city was just beginning to light up when the cruise ended. We finished the night with a moonlit stroll back to the hotel - is there really any better way than to end your first night in a new city walking hand in hand with the person you love?
I think not. <3
Sunday, July 8, 2012
On the Road Again.
We are well into the segment of our trip where we will be on the road a lot, traveling to a new city every few days.
I guess this means we should stop terrorizing our rooms.
Almost as soon as we check in to a new place, we unpack everything in our backpacks and make a huge mess.
This has got to stop.
Luckily, we only have our two backpacks and no other luggage; otherwise, things would get seriously out of hand.
Anyways, so we took an overnight train to Prague from Krakow and opted to stick with the regular seats, which are included with our rail passes, rather than shelling out another 45 złoty to upgrade to a sleeper car. We made reservations for seats on this train even though with a rail pass we technically didn't need to, but I have this compulsion to plan everything out as much a possible and a big aversion to leaving things to chance. And it's a good thing I did, because apparently Saturday night is THE night to head to Prague.
Our train was packed to the brim. Every six-person compartment was full and those with rail passes but no reservations (and thus likely no seat) were resigned to camping out in the hallway (which is definitely a fire hazard and would definitely not be allowed in the States) which made it very, very difficult anytime anyone had to go to the bathroom. Our car had probably twice as many people as there were seats.
Hightlights of our ten-hour train ride to the Czech Republic include watching three kids from Singapore get kicked out of our compartment because they didn't have reservations, talking for hours with a guy from Hong Kong who has lived in England for the last ten years about our current travel plans, trying to fall asleep in an upright seats next to five other people, four of whom were NOT my husband and therefore off-limits for trying to snuggle, waiting for some Polish guy in the hallway to get off his cell phone so we could ask him how to pronounce Polish goalkeeper Szczesny's name (which is not "Shezz-nee", as all of us in the Ebglish-speaking world have been led to believe by the British commentators - alas, we all fell asleep and never learned how to properly say it), and waking up at six in the morning to find that someone had come into our compartment while we were all sleeping and taken all the money out of the purse of the Czech girl sitting by the door. That last part was a little disconcerting because NONE OF US woke up! Good thing I'm so paranoid that I slept with my purse on the seat behind me (as uncomfortable as it was).
Overall, it was exactly what I expected European rail travel to be.
I will take a train full of people with oversized backpacks doing the same thing we are over screaming babies any day.
And now, Praha!!!
I guess this means we should stop terrorizing our rooms.
Almost as soon as we check in to a new place, we unpack everything in our backpacks and make a huge mess.
This has got to stop.
Luckily, we only have our two backpacks and no other luggage; otherwise, things would get seriously out of hand.
Anyways, so we took an overnight train to Prague from Krakow and opted to stick with the regular seats, which are included with our rail passes, rather than shelling out another 45 złoty to upgrade to a sleeper car. We made reservations for seats on this train even though with a rail pass we technically didn't need to, but I have this compulsion to plan everything out as much a possible and a big aversion to leaving things to chance. And it's a good thing I did, because apparently Saturday night is THE night to head to Prague.
Our train was packed to the brim. Every six-person compartment was full and those with rail passes but no reservations (and thus likely no seat) were resigned to camping out in the hallway (which is definitely a fire hazard and would definitely not be allowed in the States) which made it very, very difficult anytime anyone had to go to the bathroom. Our car had probably twice as many people as there were seats.
Hightlights of our ten-hour train ride to the Czech Republic include watching three kids from Singapore get kicked out of our compartment because they didn't have reservations, talking for hours with a guy from Hong Kong who has lived in England for the last ten years about our current travel plans, trying to fall asleep in an upright seats next to five other people, four of whom were NOT my husband and therefore off-limits for trying to snuggle, waiting for some Polish guy in the hallway to get off his cell phone so we could ask him how to pronounce Polish goalkeeper Szczesny's name (which is not "Shezz-nee", as all of us in the Ebglish-speaking world have been led to believe by the British commentators - alas, we all fell asleep and never learned how to properly say it), and waking up at six in the morning to find that someone had come into our compartment while we were all sleeping and taken all the money out of the purse of the Czech girl sitting by the door. That last part was a little disconcerting because NONE OF US woke up! Good thing I'm so paranoid that I slept with my purse on the seat behind me (as uncomfortable as it was).
Overall, it was exactly what I expected European rail travel to be.
I will take a train full of people with oversized backpacks doing the same thing we are over screaming babies any day.
And now, Praha!!!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Krakow, Poland.
Hmm, what can I say about our two days in Krakow, Poland?
Well, let's start off by saying that although it is considered the jewel in Poland's crown, and the place to go if you are a tourist in Poland, it doesn't hold a candle to Warszawa.
That said, here are some pictures from our free walking tour of Krakow:
Paweł, our guide, pronounced "Pavo", a native Pole;
The clock tower in the main square where a guy plays the famous bugle song every hour on the hour;
The Barbican, a fortress at what was once the gate to enter the city;
A weird statue of a head that Paweł crawled inside of;
A guy dressed up as a beer handing out "Free Pivo!" coupons; and
The church on Wawel Castle.
There were definitely some interesting sights to see (like the Wawel dragon, which actually shoots fire!) and lots of eating a drinking too be done in the Jewish Quarter where we stayed, but as it is more of an international city than a strictly Polish city, it didn't win my heart. Not like Warszawa did.....
We booked an overnight train to Prague, so we had most of our last day available to explore. We ended up hopping on a bus and taking a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau... I'm sure you've all heard the name. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp during the Holocaust.
Auschwitz is located about an hour away from Krakow. During the tour, we walked around the barracks and the kitchens and the imprisonment cells and on the gorgeous, sunny, hot day, it didn't seem so bad. Just like summer camp, really.... Until you realize just how many people were crammed into the area. Until you realize just what went on in this place.
After touring the barracks and trying to imagine having to share those tiny beds with three other people, sharing a room meant to two hundred with a thousand other people, we went into some rooms full of items that had been collected during the war: thousands of shoes, thousands of eyeglasses, thousands of cooking utensils.... The sheer volume of it all was sickening.
But the whole experience for us was mostly very cold, and very sterile.
Like the Stalin quote I mentioned in my post about the Holocaust memorial in Berlin: "The loss of [so many] lives is just a statistic."
It is quite literally incomprehensible.
I thought that our visit to Auschwitz would be more... I don't know. Heart-wrenching? Emotional? But it wasn't. It was just facts, with no real attempt at pulling on anyone's heartstrings. When we went to the Holocaust memorial exhibits in Berlin, it was a much more personal approach. Reading a letter than a wife wrote to her husband in her last few days or maybe even moments was much more effective at getting me to feel something than standing in a gas chamber at Auschwitz, which should have better shown the magnitude of what happened. Our visit to Auschwitz focused on numbers and repeated things we've all read in our history books, but it was hard to connect with on a personal level.
There were moments. I had a fleeting moment of panic when I saw a picture of Jews being separated, males on one side, females on the other, upon their arrival to Auschwitz, because that picture made me wonder what such an experience would have done to me, to be separated from the man I love and never knowing whether or not he was still alive. It made my skin crawl a bit to see the massive pile of women's hair that had been shorn off and set aside upon their arrival to Auschwitz. But there were so few moments like that, and there should have been so many. It seemed like such a tourist trap, rather than a step back in history. Which is sad. So thank goodness there are many more Holocaust memorials and museums all over the world which better appeal to the human heart. Steve mentioned to me that at the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, there are Holocaust survivors there to tell you about their experiences in the concentration camps. People who were only children at the time, who were separated from their families, who didn't know what it was that they'd done to deserve such treatment, who never really healed from that experience, even after all these years. You can't avoid a story like that, not when it is being told to you face to face. But you can pretend a concentration camp is just a summer lodge if the day is nice and the guide is so comically over-dramatic that you can't stand to listen to anything he says.
By the end of the day I felt so guilty for not feeling anything while I was there. I know what happened. I've felt horrified, and sad, and sickened by the things I've learned about the Holocaust since I've been in Europe. But not at Auschwitz. Not on a tour, not when the idea of having to feel something is more or less forced on me with no real attempt at actually making me feel something. It is an educational, interesting eperience to walk around within the camp, but not much more than that, I'm afraid. You will learn more about the tragedy that struck in WWII elsewhere.
Well, let's start off by saying that although it is considered the jewel in Poland's crown, and the place to go if you are a tourist in Poland, it doesn't hold a candle to Warszawa.
That said, here are some pictures from our free walking tour of Krakow:
Paweł, our guide, pronounced "Pavo", a native Pole;
The clock tower in the main square where a guy plays the famous bugle song every hour on the hour;
The Barbican, a fortress at what was once the gate to enter the city;
A weird statue of a head that Paweł crawled inside of;
A guy dressed up as a beer handing out "Free Pivo!" coupons; and
The church on Wawel Castle.
There were definitely some interesting sights to see (like the Wawel dragon, which actually shoots fire!) and lots of eating a drinking too be done in the Jewish Quarter where we stayed, but as it is more of an international city than a strictly Polish city, it didn't win my heart. Not like Warszawa did.....
We booked an overnight train to Prague, so we had most of our last day available to explore. We ended up hopping on a bus and taking a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau... I'm sure you've all heard the name. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp during the Holocaust.
Auschwitz is located about an hour away from Krakow. During the tour, we walked around the barracks and the kitchens and the imprisonment cells and on the gorgeous, sunny, hot day, it didn't seem so bad. Just like summer camp, really.... Until you realize just how many people were crammed into the area. Until you realize just what went on in this place.
After touring the barracks and trying to imagine having to share those tiny beds with three other people, sharing a room meant to two hundred with a thousand other people, we went into some rooms full of items that had been collected during the war: thousands of shoes, thousands of eyeglasses, thousands of cooking utensils.... The sheer volume of it all was sickening.
But the whole experience for us was mostly very cold, and very sterile.
Like the Stalin quote I mentioned in my post about the Holocaust memorial in Berlin: "The loss of [so many] lives is just a statistic."
It is quite literally incomprehensible.
I thought that our visit to Auschwitz would be more... I don't know. Heart-wrenching? Emotional? But it wasn't. It was just facts, with no real attempt at pulling on anyone's heartstrings. When we went to the Holocaust memorial exhibits in Berlin, it was a much more personal approach. Reading a letter than a wife wrote to her husband in her last few days or maybe even moments was much more effective at getting me to feel something than standing in a gas chamber at Auschwitz, which should have better shown the magnitude of what happened. Our visit to Auschwitz focused on numbers and repeated things we've all read in our history books, but it was hard to connect with on a personal level.
There were moments. I had a fleeting moment of panic when I saw a picture of Jews being separated, males on one side, females on the other, upon their arrival to Auschwitz, because that picture made me wonder what such an experience would have done to me, to be separated from the man I love and never knowing whether or not he was still alive. It made my skin crawl a bit to see the massive pile of women's hair that had been shorn off and set aside upon their arrival to Auschwitz. But there were so few moments like that, and there should have been so many. It seemed like such a tourist trap, rather than a step back in history. Which is sad. So thank goodness there are many more Holocaust memorials and museums all over the world which better appeal to the human heart. Steve mentioned to me that at the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, there are Holocaust survivors there to tell you about their experiences in the concentration camps. People who were only children at the time, who were separated from their families, who didn't know what it was that they'd done to deserve such treatment, who never really healed from that experience, even after all these years. You can't avoid a story like that, not when it is being told to you face to face. But you can pretend a concentration camp is just a summer lodge if the day is nice and the guide is so comically over-dramatic that you can't stand to listen to anything he says.
By the end of the day I felt so guilty for not feeling anything while I was there. I know what happened. I've felt horrified, and sad, and sickened by the things I've learned about the Holocaust since I've been in Europe. But not at Auschwitz. Not on a tour, not when the idea of having to feel something is more or less forced on me with no real attempt at actually making me feel something. It is an educational, interesting eperience to walk around within the camp, but not much more than that, I'm afraid. You will learn more about the tragedy that struck in WWII elsewhere.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Happy Fourth!
I have to admit something: we didn't really even notice it was Independence Day until the evening because we can barely keep track of what day it is. Especially since my watch broke! :( Damn you, Timex Ironman. You just aren't what you used to be.
NOTE: This is the second Timex Ironman watch I've owned. The first lasted me three years before I left it in the University Village shower when I moved out. This one? I bought it in September 2011, and by early July 2012 the strap basically disintegrated and now all I have is the watch face. Which admittedly is the more important part, but having a pocketwatch now versus a wristwatch (sidenote: try saying "Irish Wristwatch" really fast three times) means I only check the time when necessary instead of every five minutes, and I only check the date when I think we are checking out of wherever we're living soon.
Also, we were too busy hiking here:
We hiked twelve miles to see those places. TWELVE MILES!!!
Morskie Oko, meaning "Eye of the Sea", is the fourth deepest lake in Poland and the largest in Tatras National Park. We left early in the morning, as many a tourist forum recommends you go before 8am to avoid the tourists, and, after a forty minute minibus ride through trees and mountainside, made it to Palenica Bialczanka, which is basically a big parking lot with a booth where you pay a nominal fee to enter Tatras National Park, and which is a good 8-9km (or around 5 miles) from Morskie Oko. Those five miles were all uphill, which was tiring, but it was thankfully a gradual incline and the trail was actually paved for a good portion of it. Buses, cars, and even bikes aren't allowed into the park past Palenica Bialczanka - only hikers on foot and horse-drawn carriages. (And those poor horses are so over-worked!) so after about two hours, we reach Morskie Oko. And it is beautiful, with crystal clear water surrounded by trees and maybe two dozen other tourists milling about.
We get to Morskie Oko and, after a small meal, decide to hike up tonCzarny Sław, or "Black Lake", which according to our map is about an hour hike from where we were. To hike around Morskie Oko itself is about two kilometers (a little over a mile) and the trail to Czarny Sław was about halfway around. So on we went.
We found out that Czarny Sław was only about a quarter of a mile away from Morskie Oko, but in that quarter mile, we climed about 300 meters. This, my friends, is a very steep climb. It was probably one of the harder climbs I've ever done. You can see here that we are both exhausted (and that Steve is in way better shape than I am. However, Czarny Sław is one of the most beautiful alpine lakes I've ever seen (not that I've seen that many...) and in my opinion was more impressive than Morskie Oko (though that may have more to do with the fact that I had to hike up a mountain to get there).
Aren't those baby ducks ADORABLE???
The view from up there was gorgeous, because all you had to do was look over the edge to see Morskie Oko. Steve took a video but you can't really tell JUST how high up we are.
But seriously. The view is amazing.
We took the steep hike down and wandered leisurely around the second half of the lake on our way to the little lodge near the entrance to Morskie Oko, figuring we would enjoy the day as much as possible. We were sitting on some rocks near the lake edge when we heard a peal of thunder in the distance and took that as our cue to leave.
We got back to the lodge and were immediatelyl bombarded with tourists. I'm talking Venice Beach status, people. When we arrived, there were maybe twenty other people around. By the time we were ready to conclude the hike and start the five mile journey back to Palenica, that number had grown to easily six hundred people. ON A TINY LITTLE LAKESIDE "BEACH"! IN THE MIDDLE OF A NATIONAL PARK, HALF AN HOUR AWAY FROM THE NEAREST CITY! RIDICULOUS!
And it wasn't even noon yet.
Steve and I just rolled our eyes and picked our way through the hordes of tourists (this must be what those travel forums were warning us about) and set off back to Palenica to catch the next bus back to Zakopane.
About five minutes into the walk back, it started raining. And thundering.
And people were STILL heading to the lake!
Half an hour in, it is pouring down rain (at some point it started hailing) and Steve and I are trying to share a poncho, due to miscommunication as to who was packing the second poncho before we left. Ponchos are not made for two, however, and Steve ended up walking in the rain. :( poor little moo.
This two hour walk back in the rain was very, very reminiscent of our experience with the LA Marathon two years ago. Cold, wet, miles to go.... Yep. The only things missing were Korea and Marc. And LA traffic.
And the whole time we are walking back in a thunderstorm that is rattling our bones and showing no signs of letting up, we are passing by people STILL hiking the opposite direction out to Morskie Oko. WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING??? It's raining cats and dogs, you are still a good three miles away, and you want to go to the LAKE?!
Madness.
We eventually make it back to Palenica cold, wet, and exhausted because it has been a loooooong time since either of us has gotten that much exercise. I'm sure we will feel it tomorrow. We hop on the next bus back to Zakopane, change clothes, and have a nice, hot dinner of goulash, grilled pork, sauerkaut soup with smoked ribs, mulled wine, and Highlander tea to warm us up and finish out the night.
Seriously. TWELVE MILES! I'm never going to get over that. Six miles uphill, one through a maze of tourists, and five in the rain. What a day. What a long, exhausting day.
But nevertheless, happy Fourth! Happy birthday, USA!
NOTE: This is the second Timex Ironman watch I've owned. The first lasted me three years before I left it in the University Village shower when I moved out. This one? I bought it in September 2011, and by early July 2012 the strap basically disintegrated and now all I have is the watch face. Which admittedly is the more important part, but having a pocketwatch now versus a wristwatch (sidenote: try saying "Irish Wristwatch" really fast three times) means I only check the time when necessary instead of every five minutes, and I only check the date when I think we are checking out of wherever we're living soon.
Also, we were too busy hiking here:
We hiked twelve miles to see those places. TWELVE MILES!!!
Morskie Oko, meaning "Eye of the Sea", is the fourth deepest lake in Poland and the largest in Tatras National Park. We left early in the morning, as many a tourist forum recommends you go before 8am to avoid the tourists, and, after a forty minute minibus ride through trees and mountainside, made it to Palenica Bialczanka, which is basically a big parking lot with a booth where you pay a nominal fee to enter Tatras National Park, and which is a good 8-9km (or around 5 miles) from Morskie Oko. Those five miles were all uphill, which was tiring, but it was thankfully a gradual incline and the trail was actually paved for a good portion of it. Buses, cars, and even bikes aren't allowed into the park past Palenica Bialczanka - only hikers on foot and horse-drawn carriages. (And those poor horses are so over-worked!) so after about two hours, we reach Morskie Oko. And it is beautiful, with crystal clear water surrounded by trees and maybe two dozen other tourists milling about.
We get to Morskie Oko and, after a small meal, decide to hike up tonCzarny Sław, or "Black Lake", which according to our map is about an hour hike from where we were. To hike around Morskie Oko itself is about two kilometers (a little over a mile) and the trail to Czarny Sław was about halfway around. So on we went.
We found out that Czarny Sław was only about a quarter of a mile away from Morskie Oko, but in that quarter mile, we climed about 300 meters. This, my friends, is a very steep climb. It was probably one of the harder climbs I've ever done. You can see here that we are both exhausted (and that Steve is in way better shape than I am. However, Czarny Sław is one of the most beautiful alpine lakes I've ever seen (not that I've seen that many...) and in my opinion was more impressive than Morskie Oko (though that may have more to do with the fact that I had to hike up a mountain to get there).
Aren't those baby ducks ADORABLE???
The view from up there was gorgeous, because all you had to do was look over the edge to see Morskie Oko. Steve took a video but you can't really tell JUST how high up we are.
But seriously. The view is amazing.
We took the steep hike down and wandered leisurely around the second half of the lake on our way to the little lodge near the entrance to Morskie Oko, figuring we would enjoy the day as much as possible. We were sitting on some rocks near the lake edge when we heard a peal of thunder in the distance and took that as our cue to leave.
We got back to the lodge and were immediatelyl bombarded with tourists. I'm talking Venice Beach status, people. When we arrived, there were maybe twenty other people around. By the time we were ready to conclude the hike and start the five mile journey back to Palenica, that number had grown to easily six hundred people. ON A TINY LITTLE LAKESIDE "BEACH"! IN THE MIDDLE OF A NATIONAL PARK, HALF AN HOUR AWAY FROM THE NEAREST CITY! RIDICULOUS!
And it wasn't even noon yet.
Steve and I just rolled our eyes and picked our way through the hordes of tourists (this must be what those travel forums were warning us about) and set off back to Palenica to catch the next bus back to Zakopane.
About five minutes into the walk back, it started raining. And thundering.
And people were STILL heading to the lake!
Half an hour in, it is pouring down rain (at some point it started hailing) and Steve and I are trying to share a poncho, due to miscommunication as to who was packing the second poncho before we left. Ponchos are not made for two, however, and Steve ended up walking in the rain. :( poor little moo.
This two hour walk back in the rain was very, very reminiscent of our experience with the LA Marathon two years ago. Cold, wet, miles to go.... Yep. The only things missing were Korea and Marc. And LA traffic.
And the whole time we are walking back in a thunderstorm that is rattling our bones and showing no signs of letting up, we are passing by people STILL hiking the opposite direction out to Morskie Oko. WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING??? It's raining cats and dogs, you are still a good three miles away, and you want to go to the LAKE?!
Madness.
We eventually make it back to Palenica cold, wet, and exhausted because it has been a loooooong time since either of us has gotten that much exercise. I'm sure we will feel it tomorrow. We hop on the next bus back to Zakopane, change clothes, and have a nice, hot dinner of goulash, grilled pork, sauerkaut soup with smoked ribs, mulled wine, and Highlander tea to warm us up and finish out the night.
Seriously. TWELVE MILES! I'm never going to get over that. Six miles uphill, one through a maze of tourists, and five in the rain. What a day. What a long, exhausting day.
But nevertheless, happy Fourth! Happy birthday, USA!
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