Praguesome!

PRAGUE… AWESOME!

We arrived at Prague in the arvo with no plans/accommodation whatsoever (getting better at this ad-hoc organising stuff).  It sounds cool except for the fact that it’s just a matter of wandering into a tourism office and getting them to do the hard yards! So we ended up doing that and the guy behind the counter is like, “We got this one place available in the centre of Prague (yay!), but it’s sort of a construction site (oh!)”, but we thought what the heck. The owner guy picked us up and took us for a wild car trip through Prague’s cobbled streets, it was crazy.. In Australia we are just used to streets in a GRID.. north-south, east-west, but this place is nuts they are just plonked everwhere and anywhere.. check out google maps of the Jewish Quarter (where we were staying) in Prague and you’d get an idea. Anyway, we got there and it was a construction site but the room was actually not bad, but there’s still no way this place would fly for accommodation in Australia (mains cables hanging out of wall, the gas heater attempting and failing to start every 5min, etc.) BUT it was a great location, 5min walk to anywhere in the centre and we didn’t blow up or asphyxiate!

We had an afternoon/evening walk through the Jewish quarter and down the river before an early one.

OUR RIVERSIDE WALK

Well, we were up reasonably early, shocked that it was sub-zero temps as we did a forced march down to the old town square. We found a nice restaurant with heaters and blankies - a nice spot for a hot breakfast and coffees overlooking the square. 

YES, THAT'S RIGHT... A SCARF AND A LATTE

Afterwards we met up with the tour dudes and got and another good tour that lasted a few hours. I recommend that anyone should take these tours, they are so informative and FREE.. the guides work only for tips and they work their butts of trying to get them which makes it a great tour. So much better than a guide who’s already got their stack of cash and is only half interested in giving a good tour.

Well, I won’t get bogged and blog about it too much but Prague is beautiful and it has a rich history, it’s visible everywhere in the city. They were in the thick of it during World War II and had a rough time, especially because they got rid of one dictator which was simply replaced by another (Hitler à Stalin). As you know, the Jews had a tough time everywhere in Europe during this time but in Prague especially as even before the war years they were confined to the Jewish quarter only. They lived and died in this quarter, fenced in. An eye-opening site was the Jewish cemetery in the Jewish quarter. Because they were confined to this small space, they ran out of burial room. They literally had to pile them on top of each other and build up the ground level. The result is a raised bumpy area in the middle of Prague with gravestones poking out everywhere, so close to each other you couldn’t walk through them. The question was asked during our tour why did Hitler not destroy the cemetery and the answer was he wanted a MUSEUM for the extinction of a race, what a terrible dude. 

JEWISH CEMETERY

Anyway, another reason why these tours are so cool is when you breeze through the city you get idea where you want to go back and check out more thoroughly, the guide also suggests other good places outside of the tour. One such place is this cool little boiled lollie shop where you can watch them at work, really interesting!

LOLLLIES!

THEY HANDED OUT THE FINISHED PRODUCT... YUM!

There's a hill on the northside of the river overlooking Prague with a nice park and view. On top of it back in the day, Stalin decided to put a statue of himself overlooking the city, anyway in ’89 when Prague come into it’s own again they decided to blow the crap out of it with 800KG of dynamite!!! Apparently the city got showered with debris and somehow his head survived which now graces a bar someone in the city, no doubt used as a dart board or something. Where the statue was is now a big dorky looking metronome. It symbolises the wasted time under communist rule and moving forward.

ON THE WAY UP THE HILL ON NORTH SIDE OF TOWN

VIEW FROM NORTH SIDE OF RIVER

PRAGUE STREETS

ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK

ONE OF THE MAIN DRAGS, LOOKING UP TO THE PRAGUE MUSEUM

LOOKING FROM THE TOP DOWN

MY GIRL NEAR THE OLD TOWN SQUARE

Early evening put us back in the Old Town Square. I love this area of town, there are crazy medieval sword fights (not the sissy kind but the kind where they really bash the crap out of each other!), pigs on spits, weird gypsie dancing in front of tepees complete with a medieval folk band covering Tool, haha I know! So we kind of found another good seat with a view of the square and ate and drank the afternoon away, a couple of hours with a few courses, several beers and coffees… we got a bit carried away, hah. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see the bill but when it came it was under 50AUD! This place rocks!!

THE GUY IN TAN GOT PAWNED

OLD TOWN SQUARE

We were told about some sort of light show that starts at 730pm on the side of the old tower where the astronomical clock is in the square to commemorate 600 years of Prague’s history so we thought we’d check it out. We had a little time to spare beforehand so we went up the tower with a view of the square which was nice by night.

OLD TOWN SQUARE BY NIGHT

Anyway 730pm was nearing and there was a projected count down on the side of the tower letting us know. We found a good spot and for a 5-10min show man it was impressive. It’s hard to explain in words but I think there is a youtube video of it somewhere out there in the interwebz if you’re interested.

PRAGUE'S HISTORY PROJECTION

THE SOVIET STAR GETTING TORN DOWN

Sadly that was our time over in Prague, we were off to the train station early again on the way to Vienna.

We winged (wung? wang?) it again in Vienna and after some bad advice from a ticket information dude at the station (sending us to a closed tourist info office) we found a Starbucks (bathed in a halo) for some free dataz and sorted out our own accommodation. After arriving there and a short google I realised a morning in Vienna was not going to be enough! So I organised another night in Vienna. We were pretty buggered by that time so we got room service from a restaurant down the street (wow) and packed it in early.

Apart from The Sound of Music Vienna is known for its coffee houses and they didn’t disappoint. Finally… good coffee, we’ve been surprised how hard it is to find good coffee over here (we are pretty blessed in Australia). The coffee houses are not just cafes, they are pretty big fancy places with prim and proper service (I think they looked down their nose a bit at us grubby Aussies) and one cup of coffee entitles you to stay there the whole day if you want. It is because of this that a lot of writers spend their time in them. I’d like to know how many books have been written in there and if I know of any of them!!

CAFE SPERL COFFEE HOUSE

CENTRAL CAFE COFFEE HOUSE

Well when we weren’t enjoying coffee bliss we were basically just wandering around Vienna, the first and oldest quarter mostly. The Hofburg palace and surrounding buildings make up a huge complex, apparently it is the second biggest in the world, the first being Vatican City (but that’s for later!).

DA HOF

ME JUMPING

ME FALLING AND AMY TAKING SWEET REVENGE FOR ARTHUR'S SEAT

VIENNA SQUARE

After the old quarter we made our way over the river to another big park where there are these massive concrete towers which were anti-aircraft placements during WWII, interesting but that’s about it. On our way home we checked out a couple of wedding dress shops but nothing struck our fancy so my wallet could unpucker it’s butt again.

AA GUNS

Well there’s not that much more to report as this morning we just high-tailed to another train station and another train, these Eurail tickets are paying off! We are currently on our way to Lucerne in Switzerland where we hope to be bumming around for about a week or so. I’m currently looking out the window at snow-capped peaks, win!

VIEW FROM OUR SEAT, WOO!

Stay tuned!

Matt

Effective... IMMEDIATELY!

14^th October 2011 – 9.30am

I apologise in advance for how long this one is. If nothing else it will show how much we enjoyed our time in Berlin and especially how much we have learnt. Pay attention, there will be a quiz when we get home!

First though, back to Denmark.

The second day in Copenhagen was miserable. The weather was cold, wet and windy. Our super duper bus ticket that was going to see us tour the entire city in coachy comfort turned out to be a fizzer. There were three separate “loops” you could do with the ticket that we had bought except two of them had stopped running for Winter and the loop we were on ended at 2pm. So there we were at 2.10pm in the pouring rain, stranded and defeated in the middle of Copenhagen with absolutely no idea what to do. So we did what anyone would do. We went to the Lego shop and customised our own Lego men (and lady) and had a little wedding. Yes. That really did happen and no it wasn’t my idea. The celebrant was a one-legged Pirate.

THE WEDDING! I REALLY FEEL I'VE CAPTURED MATT'S SENSE OF STYLE!

I DOOO!

In my opinion Copenhagen doesn’t really look like your typical city, there were no massive high rise buildings. Some of the streets were cobblestone and there are a lot of open spaces, and a few really (really) old buildings. We got a few snippets of information while on our bus tour like the Royal Family have been living in the same building since the 17^th Century and income tax being around 50% but with one of the world’s best welfare systems. I might have to do some reading on the place when I get home because I feel so ripped off by our time there. Didn’t really learn a thing!

Another train, but this one goes on a ferry!

THE TRAIN IS ON A BOAT!

We arrived in Berlin and it was raining but it didn’t last long so we were lucky. It lasted just long enough for our walk to the Laundromat. It’s the best feeling in the world when laundry day is over. I will never complain about doing the laundry in the comfort of our own home EVER again. We had a traditional German dinner in a traditional German pub, surrounded by Germans cheering for their team in the soccer.

The next morning we went to Paris Square, under the Brandenburg Gate to join a free walking tour of East Berlin. Free walking tours are held all over the world by this company, and we are kicking ourselves that this is only the first one we have done. I think it really contributed to Berlin being our favourite city so far. 

The tour guides all work for tips only. At the end, you tip what you think the tour is worth. Our tour guide was fantastic. He is from London originally but has been guiding in Berlin for 4 years and you can just tell that he loves the city. It was incredible that he kept everyone interested for 3.5 hours. 

So we started off at Paris Square where we learnt that the Statue on top of Brandenburg Gate overlooking the square had been put there by the Germans in… I can’t remember what year… but a LONG time ago. Napolean triumphantly walked through the Gates and fancied the statue so he took it back to France. I would need to read back over the history of the place to get all the dates/facts straight but the Germans got her back and she has been there ever since.

BRANDENBURG GATES

The tour group then went to the Reichstag which is the Parliament Building of Berlin. It was here we learnt that this building was burnt down in 1933, only one month after Hilter was elected as the Chancellor. A mentally ill communist Dutchman was pinned to the crime but historians now believe it was the Nazi party themselves that were responsible for the fire. Within 2 months Hitler pretty much had the power to do as he pleased. And we all know how that turned out. I found it unbelievable to learn how quickly things progressed, within 3 months of coming into power, he had started ethnic cleansing. 

This building was gutted by the fire and rebuilt. It was then bombed heavily during the last years of the war and was again rebuilt. In very recent years, a glass tower/dome has been added to the top of the Reichstag and you can walk around a spiral to get to the top and look down into the Parliament.

Because Berlin was so heavily bombed during the war (bombed by the Brits by day and by the US by night) it was almost completely flattened. The buildings that look old have in fact been rebuilt. The statues and sculptures are original though. Before the worst bombings began they actually removed the statues to safety. The rest of the buildings are new. In Paris Square for example, apart from the Brandenburg Gates, the rest of the buildings are post-2000, so are very sleek and contemporary.

We then went to probably the most confronting memorial there is. It is a memorial to the 6 million Jews that were murdered by the Nazis. The artist who designed the memorial has said little about what it means, purposefully, to let each visitor find their own meaning when they visit. You walk into the memorial, between massive blocks of concrete... It’s really quite hard to explain it in writing… but it was quite moving. There is an information centre underground which we got back to later in the day, but I’ll get back to that later. 

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL

There are no signs at the Holocaust Memorial, and the artist in my opinion has done an incredible job of not saying a word about it, and to let people go there and just think about it. Our tour guide emphasised again and again the amount of effort and thought that had gone into this memorial (completed in 2005) and then led us just around the corner to a gravel carpark of an apartment building, just a few cars and a few puddles. A stark contrast to where we had just been.

Below where we stood is the bunker (forever sealed) where Hitler had run much of his campaign, and in the end, shot himself. He didn’t come out much, as Berlin was being bombed 24 hours a day. He and his wife committed suicide in that very bunker, and their bodies were temporarily buried in a shallow grave 20 metres away. There is (very rightly so) nothing there. The Russians exhumed the bodies and buried them in the middle of nowhere, and mislead the US into thinking he was alive and well and hiding out in Argentina. In the 1970’s the archives became public and only then did it become known what had happened. The bodies were exhumed once more, cremated (twice) and scattered into the North Sea so that they would never have a final resting place. 

There was one building that stood throughout all of the bombings and that was the Luftwaffe HQ (German Air Force). This was thought all along to be pure luck, but since then it is widely recognised that Stalin had the foresight to preserve this building for himself. He knew he would need a building of this size to police from, so there was an agreement between Russia and the Allied Forces to not bomb this place. So, it went from a Nazi building to a Communist building. Now, funnily enough, it’s the TAX OFFICE!!

After that we went to look at a section of the Berlin Wall. The story of how this thing went up is as equally amazing as how it came down. It was 1am on a Sunday morning and 140,000 Soviet soldiers began erecting the wall. By 6am it was completed, all 164kms, a complete ring around West Berlin. No one knew the wall was going up, so if you were on the East side that night and your family on the West, you would not be seeing them any time soon. The only thing that divided Berlin was the wall. People wanted to move freely between the east and the west but it was forbidden. Our guide told us a story of a young couple who were separated from their young baby on that night, and it broke my heart. The wall went up in 1961.

THE BERLIN WALL - NOT AS BIG AS YOU'D THINK

Our guide explained in depth how Berlin (in Eastern Germany) came to be divided into East and West. If you already know this bit, sorry! You may skip ahead! The Allies knew Berlin was valuable so when the city quite clearly fell in the borders of East Germany, it was agreed that the city would be split into East (Soviet sector) and West (American, British and French sectors). So basically there was a dot of West Germany surrounded by East Germany. West Berlin was pretty much free to do whatever you want. Before the wall went up, 2.5 MILLION East Berliners had already escaped Germany via West Berlin. The majority included skilled and educated people, doctors, lawyers, etc. So East Berlin needed the wall to somehow keep the skilled workers in. 

When our guide started telling us the story about the fall of the Berlin Wall, it really hit home that this was not long ago at all. Simply put, a Politician made a bit of a cock up in front of the World’s media. In the late 80s, small groups started gathering weekly and discussing the need to move freely between East and West. The Government didn’t see these small groups as a threat and let them be. The groups held their first protest and 10,000 people peacefully protested to bring down the wall. Authorities told them: “Do not protest next week, remember Tiananmen Square.” The next week 70,000 people rocked up and again peacefully protested. The next week it was over half a million. The crowd was pacified with a statement that they wall “would” come down, however there was no when. There was probably no intention of it actually happening! 

The Communist Party boss, Gunter Shabowsk, usually a regular, had missed the meeting about the protests, didn’t know much about them, and went into a press conference with nothing but the meeting notes under his arm. An Italian journalist fired 3 hard hitting questions. 1. What about these protests? 2. Is the wall coming down? 3. When? Old mate is frantically flicking through the minutes looking for the answers when he buckles and makes a critical error. After spotting in the meeting notes that the wall “would” come down he announced that the wall “will” come down, incredibly a single word and such a difference.  Panicking again he answers the third question, “effective immediately.”

 

The crowds gathered at the gates, over 20,000, and the 6 guards were told not to let anyone through. As the crowd grew, the guards were told to stamp the passports of the trouble makers and let them pass. They were instructed to stamp half over the photo to identify these people when they tried to cross back, and hence be denied re-entry but the guards ended up stepping aside and the borders were open. This is where we left our tour guide. As you can tell by all the detail, we were hanging off his every word, he made everything so interesting and real for us. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, I’m not normally one for history.

After our tour we went back to the Holocaust Memorial. We walked through the Memorial again and underneath to the Museum. They first take you through a timeline of the years leading up to the war and the war itself, accompanied by horrific and graphic images. I won’t go into detail here, but it was confronting. Then you walk through a room that is filled with the final diary entries and letters of the murdered. This was the second of six rooms and I left this one in tears. It was a life changing thing. 

OUR GROUP SAT ON THESE STAIRS WHILE WE HEARD THE STORY OF THE FALL OF THE WALL

We tossed up whether to do a tour the next day but we decided against it. The day before had been amazing but it was all very heavy. We headed back to the Reichstag to walk around the dome but were told we needed to register a few days in advance. I was PISSED! I started to walk away but Matt must have been working his charm and next thing the guy at the entrance escorts us in and provided we could show our passports he was allowed to make the “occasional unofficial exception.” After all of that the dome was closed for cleaning! But the view was nice from the roof anyway. 

I WON'T BE LEFT THINKING "I WONDER HOW THEY CLEAN THAT THING?"

ANY OTHER DAY YOU CAN WALK UP TO THE TOP!

THE VIEW FROM THE ROOF OF THE RIECHSTAG

We spent most of the day wandering around the city and saw a few attractions, including the Victory Tower. As our day was almost over, we went to the East Side Gallery which is a portion of the Berlin Wall that has been painted by artists. One side is covered in graffiti (the West Side) and the East Side is covered in commissioned art. It runs along a river bank and I read once that if people ever tried to cross the water to escape, they would be shot swimming to freedom. 

SOME WEIRD ART INSTALLATION IN A TUNNEL

IMAGINE IT'S THE 60S & THIS THING GOES UP ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL

SOME OF THE ART AT THE EAST SIDE GALLERY

MATTY AT THE EAST SIDE GALLERY

Then for dinner we ate burgers out of a toilet.

We have had a great time in Berlin, and I can’t recommend this city enough. Paris and London are great but this was different from other cities. What? You want more details of the toilet burgers? Heh, okay... A public toilet block on a traffic island in the middle of a busy road, underneath a rail bridge is now a burger restaurant. Good burgers too. 

EATING FROM A TOILET

TOILET BURGER JOINT!

Now we are on the train to Prague. There are a few things we need to check out in Prague as a bit of a follow up from the tour in Berlin. If you’re still with me, I’m stoked that you got that far! Go to Berlin!

Amy.

I (don't) wanna ride my bicycle! I (don't) wanna ride my bike!

9^th October 2011 – 6pm

Hello again. The last time I wrote we were on our way to Amsterdam. I was really looking forward to Amsterdam. We arrived in the afternoon and walked for miles and miles (4-5kms) with our stinkin’ packs. After this I’m getting a suitcase on wheels. Anyway, Matt was getting over his second cold of the trip and I was just getting my first.

The first thing that struck us about Amsterdam was the traffic. There’s a lane for walkers, a lane for bikes and scooters, one for trams and the ordinary car lanes. The tram lanes were a bit of whatever goes and add to that they drive on the opposite side of the road and I was a tad freaked out. It was very busy, there were hoards of people everywhere and I was just glad to make it to the hotel in one piece. We got to one crossing with lots of strange markings on the road and we didn’t know what to do, so we ended up just following the other 2 people crossing the road, hoping they knew what was going on. I’ve never had to trust a couple of 5 year old girls with my life before. Everyone riding around on pushbikes was cute at first but after a while it just got annoying! If you stand still for long enough, someone will chain a bike to you. There are tonnes of abandoned bikes too, all rusted out and with warped wheels – I’m guessing they don’t need to trade in.

Anyway, the next day we ventured out into the city, without umbrellas because it was beautiful and sunny but the rain comes and goes like no one’s business! You’re dry one minute then BAM it’s pissing down rain and you’ve taken refuge in the door of a sex shop.

STREETS OF AMSTERDAM

We did a little canal tour which was an hour and a half and an hour too long. They did the tour in no less than 8 languages so by the time you divide that time up, there’s isn’t much more than very interesting facts like “there are many nice terrace houses on the right and even though you can’t see them, they have nice gardens.” Yep. 

A CANAL TOUR BOAT

And that brings us to our visit to the Red Light District. It is a must see, it really is. Everyone talks about this place like it’s one big massive joke but it was confronting and sad! These ladies really do just stand in these windows, parading their “wares” and interested punters can open the door, poke their head in and ask “how much?” If they are “busy” all you see is a tacky white shower curtain pulled across the door (complete with a rude picture on it of course) and the ones who are maybe having a quiet day at the office are either vacantly staring into their cups of coffee, or winking at MY BOYFRIEND. (I just waved my new engagement ring and said “Oh yeh, who loves YOU this much?” No I didn’t.) Matt laughed but I couldn’t help but think, what do their mothers think? There were hot ones, ugly ones, plastic ones, dimply ones, old ones. I felt so disgusting we had to go home so I could have a shower, and we got rained on the entire way home.

WINDOW SHOPPING IN THE "NICER" ALLEY. THE NARROWEST WASN'T A METRE WIDE

The next day I was determined to have a nicer time in this city. We went to the Van Gogh museum which we both found really interesting. There was a lot about his life and inspiration and while that normally bores me, it was really well put together and we both learnt a lot about Van Gogh. Still not sure what happened to his ear though. We remembered our umbrellas which was lucky because the ninja rain pelted down out of nowhere again. Amsterdam is also really well known for their diamonds, I didn’t know that before we checked out one of the many diamond museums. 

A WALK THROUGH THE PARK ON OUR LAST ARVO IN AMSTERDAM

From there it was back to grab our packs for the overnight train to Copenhagen. We sat at the train station for about an hour then moved to the platform we were told we’d be leaving from. Waited there for another 30 minutes when I thought this isn’t right. I asked Matt if the train 2 platforms over looked like a night train so he went to check and yes, it was ours. Packs on, a hideous dash through the crowd and we made it to our train with about 2 minutes before it took off. Close call!

Overnight trains. I’d been warned against them: “They sound like a good idea but don’t do it.” Well it did seem like a great idea and we did it. Travel and accommodation for one night! We probably won’t do it again. No one told us to pack our own dinner, and to be honest that would have made it a bit better. The sleepers are tiny and can sleep 4 people. We were told we’d have another 2 people joining our sleeper at 2am and they didn’t show so that was also a bonus. One we got settled it was really quite comfy but so so grotty.

We arrived less than fresh as daisies in Copenhagen this morning at 10am and were greeted by the most expensive prices for food yet! The exchange rate makes it look hideous – 100 Krone for bacon and eggs – but the conversion isn’t good – 20 Aussie dollars for bacon and eggs. Copenhagen rates as the 4^th most expensive city in the world. We really should have done some more research.

Anyhow, this afternoon we took it really easy as I have now contracted Man Flu from Matty. We strolled through a park (which is actually a military facility), saw the famous “Little Mermaid” sculpture which I’d never heard of, and found out that the Tivoli theme park is closed for the few days we're here. Oh, it’s fookin’ freezing here by the way. We got a bus tour ticket that we intend to use tomorrow to see some of the sights. We were going to do it by foot but I’m just not up to it at the moment with this cold. 

LOVELY COPENHAGEN!

THE LITTLE MERMAID

We are nearly six weeks in now and I’m feeling really fatigued. I know I’ll kick myself in 5, 10, 20 years’ time when I remember that all I wanted to do was go home and make myself a decent coffee, have vegetables for dinner and sleep in my own bed! It’s probably just the cold talking and once it goes away I’ll be ready to keep going again!

Oh by the way, it’s a tad before 7pm and I just had to wake Matt up so I could read him this blog, so I guess he's a little worn out too.

Amy.