Hi guys!! just a quick note to let you know that we've put heaps more photos up right the way back to Berlin and we've photorised some of the recent posts that required it, so feel free to check them out if you don't want to be subjected to the full onslaught of the complete slide show (currently in post-production).
the full collection of uploaded photos can be viewed at http://picasaweb.google.com/rjdmoore. if you want us to send you any of the (full res) photos or if you're wondering if we've got photos of something that's not uploaded, just let us know.
cheers,
rjdm & sejb
Monday, May 12, 2008
Beijing
so after arriving in beijing to humid and smoggy 29c conditions and heading out to the acrobatics, then onwards to the bar district (via nearly every other district) and further onwards to bed; the 2nd day in beijing was quite uneventful. i awoke to extremely heavy rain which persisted in varying degrees of heaviness all morning. that afternoon, however was crisp and clear, so i headed (partly on foot, partly on bus) to the clothing market. the market, from the outside appeared similar to a large department store, however once inside this veil was lifted to reveal a typical, bustling asian market - full of small stalls stacked high with all sorts of clothing, shoes, bags, fabrics, etc.
it was quite busy and the vendors pounced on you as soon as you let your gaze linger too long on a particular garment so i wandered around for an hour or so - just looking thankyou. i decided i'd better pick up a couple of items for the missus and selected a couple of candidates, however the asking price was probably more than i'd pay back home so a heated exchange followed in which i think i walked away twice before handing over something like 10% of the asking price.
that evening i'd kind of arranged to meet a friend from melbourne for dinner. our agreed meeting place had been only slightly more specific than 'the general beijing area' and so i headed straight there. 90min of sms's and very badly spoken mandarin later mindy and i had assimilated our positions closely enough to make eye contact. we ate a nice meal which was fairly close to what we'd ordered but unfortunately didn't have the courage to try the 'fried wikipedia' which appeared to be some sort of green salad.
the following day was sunny and perfect for exploring around the centre of town. i checked out the tiananmen square area and forbidden city complex and attempted to have a look inside the working peoples cultural museum but was repelled by security for carrying a camera i think. after having my photo taken with an unknown chinese man by his unknown chinese wife i proceeded towards a cafe with an ex-pat flavour to meet up with a pom i'd met on the train. it was a warm and sunny morning and sitting in an outdoor courtyard eating a decent english breakfast was a breath of fresh air - the food (and everything else) in beijing was excellent but i was looking forward to getting home and this cafe had really hit the spot.
that afternoon i spent a couple of hours wandering around the temple of heaven gardens. some areas were a little touristy but there were plenty of superb areas with locals practicing traditional instruments or playing games - it was quite beautiful. the following day i jumped on the 919 express bus to badaling with Mindy to check out the wall. it was far better than i'd expected. i'd imagined that tourists would be able to view the wall from a bit of a platform and perhaps walk along a short segment of it. in fact we were able to walk along it for a number of (surprisingly strenuous) kilometers. there were crowds near the entrance and a toboggan, but the farthest stretches of the wall were the most mountainous, least visited and most spectacular.
we spent several hours walking and taking photos before returning to beijing via the 919, enjoying a quick, hearty and cheap meal and then i headed to the airport to fly home (but not before bumping into the bloody dutch again :P )! beijing airport was appropriately enormous and sparkling new, and even tho it was about 2100hrs i was forced to change into shorts and t-shirt before getting on the plane.
my flight back to australia was almost uneventful; i was flying with qantas and the flight to sydney was long but practically empty. i changed in sydney to a domestic flight and on boarding the plane discovered i knew one of the stewards! paul soon informed me that i had been allocated the wrong seat and quickly reseated me in business class :D if only he flew international flights..
so i landed in melbourne mid-arvo and breezed through customs before meeting (a very anxious) sarah in the terminal! because i was in business class i was one of the first off the plane and my bag was one of the first out too so all up i'd been in the airport for less than 20min. this was actually a bit of a theme for the whole trip - even flying from africa to europe the customs procedure involved the arduous process of walking through an automatic door. really glad i got all that documented evidence of vaccinations before i left..
so thanks for reading and commenting, the blog was mainly a personal memory aid but it's been good to be able to share a couple of stories and some photos as well. all up we have about 3600 photos so there might be a few distillations before an email goes around. hope to catch up with everyone soon!!
it was quite busy and the vendors pounced on you as soon as you let your gaze linger too long on a particular garment so i wandered around for an hour or so - just looking thankyou. i decided i'd better pick up a couple of items for the missus and selected a couple of candidates, however the asking price was probably more than i'd pay back home so a heated exchange followed in which i think i walked away twice before handing over something like 10% of the asking price.
that evening i'd kind of arranged to meet a friend from melbourne for dinner. our agreed meeting place had been only slightly more specific than 'the general beijing area' and so i headed straight there. 90min of sms's and very badly spoken mandarin later mindy and i had assimilated our positions closely enough to make eye contact. we ate a nice meal which was fairly close to what we'd ordered but unfortunately didn't have the courage to try the 'fried wikipedia' which appeared to be some sort of green salad.
the following day was sunny and perfect for exploring around the centre of town. i checked out the tiananmen square area and forbidden city complex and attempted to have a look inside the working peoples cultural museum but was repelled by security for carrying a camera i think. after having my photo taken with an unknown chinese man by his unknown chinese wife i proceeded towards a cafe with an ex-pat flavour to meet up with a pom i'd met on the train. it was a warm and sunny morning and sitting in an outdoor courtyard eating a decent english breakfast was a breath of fresh air - the food (and everything else) in beijing was excellent but i was looking forward to getting home and this cafe had really hit the spot.
that afternoon i spent a couple of hours wandering around the temple of heaven gardens. some areas were a little touristy but there were plenty of superb areas with locals practicing traditional instruments or playing games - it was quite beautiful. the following day i jumped on the 919 express bus to badaling with Mindy to check out the wall. it was far better than i'd expected. i'd imagined that tourists would be able to view the wall from a bit of a platform and perhaps walk along a short segment of it. in fact we were able to walk along it for a number of (surprisingly strenuous) kilometers. there were crowds near the entrance and a toboggan, but the farthest stretches of the wall were the most mountainous, least visited and most spectacular.
we spent several hours walking and taking photos before returning to beijing via the 919, enjoying a quick, hearty and cheap meal and then i headed to the airport to fly home (but not before bumping into the bloody dutch again :P )! beijing airport was appropriately enormous and sparkling new, and even tho it was about 2100hrs i was forced to change into shorts and t-shirt before getting on the plane.
my flight back to australia was almost uneventful; i was flying with qantas and the flight to sydney was long but practically empty. i changed in sydney to a domestic flight and on boarding the plane discovered i knew one of the stewards! paul soon informed me that i had been allocated the wrong seat and quickly reseated me in business class :D if only he flew international flights..
so i landed in melbourne mid-arvo and breezed through customs before meeting (a very anxious) sarah in the terminal! because i was in business class i was one of the first off the plane and my bag was one of the first out too so all up i'd been in the airport for less than 20min. this was actually a bit of a theme for the whole trip - even flying from africa to europe the customs procedure involved the arduous process of walking through an automatic door. really glad i got all that documented evidence of vaccinations before i left..
so thanks for reading and commenting, the blog was mainly a personal memory aid but it's been good to be able to share a couple of stories and some photos as well. all up we have about 3600 photos so there might be a few distillations before an email goes around. hope to catch up with everyone soon!!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Ulaanbataar to Beijing (or: The Very Long Train Ride - Part 2)
this part of the journey was going to be quite short, we departed UB at 8am and arrived in Beijing at 2pm the following day. still we were going to be passing through some interesting scenery (and a change of gauge).
in many ways i think the first part of the trip was more exciting - 5 days with about a dozen foreigners amongst 400 hundred odd locals. when you're the odd ones out you tend to bond much more quickly. the 2 georgian blokes who operated the russian restaurant car didn't speak a word of english (neither did their menu) but we got along with them really well and had a couple of great nights. the restaurant cars on the mongolian and chinese legs were cheaper, cleaner, spoke more english and, well.. were more restauranty. the trains during the leg to beijing was also predominantly tourists with few locals. the stops were unexciting with no dodgey goods being sold and the attendants running the show were much stricter and more likely to keeps things clean (like the toilets).
i was sharing my cabin with the australian bloke (only other one on the train as far as i could tell) and two mongolian women (who slept for pretty much the whole 30 hours straight). the pom was, again, way down the other end of the train so i spent most of my time with the two groups of dutch friends i had met along the way. although there was less mingling on this leg the scenery was much more exciting. after passing through the gobi and crossing the border (again a lengthy process although we were lifted in the air at one stage to change the wheels) we immediately encountered many more people, typically tending to their crops or (somewhat mysteriously) planting rows of trees next to the rail line.
as we drew closer to beijing the countryside became more hilly and we even caught glimpses of wall fragments (the 'great'ness and genuineness of which was hotly disputed). we passed through steep valleys, alongside wide rivers and under impressive bridges. unfortunately we also passed through countless tunnels of all lengths which made photography a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' kind of sport. on encountering the outskirts of beijing the scenery changed to heavy industry, construction and smog (although i've been repeatedly informed it's just fog, apparently common in springtime).
beijing itself it very busy, very neat and very large. at every opportunity there are neat flower beds (where in UB there were dust gardens) and the streets and back streets are lined with locals playing board or dice games and tiny shops selling all kinds of animal, vegetable and mineral. beijing is surrounded by 6 (!!) ring roads and the CBD is apparently about 40km across so you can imagine the size of the tourist map i picked up. navigating the streets is however very easy, as most signs have both english and mandarin and the city has a sensible grid layout. after leaving the train i said goodbye to all my friends and set off to my own (pre-booked) accomodation. after showering i set off down the street to find some lunch and promptly bumped into most of them again doing the same.
that evening i went to the see the national acrobatics group perform which was nothing short of spectacular. on the bus on the way there i met two australian girls who were about to set off on the train towards st petersburg. it turns out kat had studied at UQ so we exchanged information before the show. on the way home i again bumped into the (bloody!) dutch who were on the way to check out beijing's (apparently only??) bar and club district. well 'bar street' turned out to be a deceptively long walk, during which we didn't pass a single bar. when we got there though there were plenty of bars and people and the street surrounded a lake which was quite picturesque at nighttime. there was karaoke, heaps of tourists and expensive beer so we didn't stay long. on the way home (and only about 200m from my hotel!!) i found a bar with a mix of locals and foreigners, cheap beer, a live band and a much better atmosphere than anything we found earlier in the evening.
so this morning i woke up to the sound of thunder and heavy rain and decided to do a few inside things until the weather calmed down somewhat. the next couple of days i will check out the (real) wall (take the 919 express bus from some bus station) and the central tian'an men square and forbidden city and gardens complex. i might also swing by one of the closer markets to see if i can get my wallet stolen for a nice leather jacket.
ps. i'll be home tuesday afternoon if i don't get a chance to write again before i leave.
in many ways i think the first part of the trip was more exciting - 5 days with about a dozen foreigners amongst 400 hundred odd locals. when you're the odd ones out you tend to bond much more quickly. the 2 georgian blokes who operated the russian restaurant car didn't speak a word of english (neither did their menu) but we got along with them really well and had a couple of great nights. the restaurant cars on the mongolian and chinese legs were cheaper, cleaner, spoke more english and, well.. were more restauranty. the trains during the leg to beijing was also predominantly tourists with few locals. the stops were unexciting with no dodgey goods being sold and the attendants running the show were much stricter and more likely to keeps things clean (like the toilets).
i was sharing my cabin with the australian bloke (only other one on the train as far as i could tell) and two mongolian women (who slept for pretty much the whole 30 hours straight). the pom was, again, way down the other end of the train so i spent most of my time with the two groups of dutch friends i had met along the way. although there was less mingling on this leg the scenery was much more exciting. after passing through the gobi and crossing the border (again a lengthy process although we were lifted in the air at one stage to change the wheels) we immediately encountered many more people, typically tending to their crops or (somewhat mysteriously) planting rows of trees next to the rail line.
as we drew closer to beijing the countryside became more hilly and we even caught glimpses of wall fragments (the 'great'ness and genuineness of which was hotly disputed). we passed through steep valleys, alongside wide rivers and under impressive bridges. unfortunately we also passed through countless tunnels of all lengths which made photography a 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' kind of sport. on encountering the outskirts of beijing the scenery changed to heavy industry, construction and smog (although i've been repeatedly informed it's just fog, apparently common in springtime).
beijing itself it very busy, very neat and very large. at every opportunity there are neat flower beds (where in UB there were dust gardens) and the streets and back streets are lined with locals playing board or dice games and tiny shops selling all kinds of animal, vegetable and mineral. beijing is surrounded by 6 (!!) ring roads and the CBD is apparently about 40km across so you can imagine the size of the tourist map i picked up. navigating the streets is however very easy, as most signs have both english and mandarin and the city has a sensible grid layout. after leaving the train i said goodbye to all my friends and set off to my own (pre-booked) accomodation. after showering i set off down the street to find some lunch and promptly bumped into most of them again doing the same.
that evening i went to the see the national acrobatics group perform which was nothing short of spectacular. on the bus on the way there i met two australian girls who were about to set off on the train towards st petersburg. it turns out kat had studied at UQ so we exchanged information before the show. on the way home i again bumped into the (bloody!) dutch who were on the way to check out beijing's (apparently only??) bar and club district. well 'bar street' turned out to be a deceptively long walk, during which we didn't pass a single bar. when we got there though there were plenty of bars and people and the street surrounded a lake which was quite picturesque at nighttime. there was karaoke, heaps of tourists and expensive beer so we didn't stay long. on the way home (and only about 200m from my hotel!!) i found a bar with a mix of locals and foreigners, cheap beer, a live band and a much better atmosphere than anything we found earlier in the evening.
so this morning i woke up to the sound of thunder and heavy rain and decided to do a few inside things until the weather calmed down somewhat. the next couple of days i will check out the (real) wall (take the 919 express bus from some bus station) and the central tian'an men square and forbidden city and gardens complex. i might also swing by one of the closer markets to see if i can get my wallet stolen for a nice leather jacket.
ps. i'll be home tuesday afternoon if i don't get a chance to write again before i leave.
Ulaanbataar
Now being completely and totally prepared i had not read a single book about the trans-siberian railway or any of the cities along the way until i was on the train and borrowed someone else's book. however, reading about mongolia i was getting more and more keen to arrive and more and more disappointed that i was only going to spend 3 days there! mongolia has a population of about 2-3 million with over 1 million of them living in the capital UB. the rest of the population still live nomadic lives moving about the rest of the country side. so basically mongolia's landscape is in almost pristine condition with few townships marking the rolling hills and steppes.
having only 3 days we (the pom, the belgian and i) decided to try and see a bit of everything and spend half the time in the terelj national park (about an hour and a half out of UB) and half the time in the city. well for a predominantly nomadic peoples (even in UB half the pop lives in tents) they have made a good effort at creating a very large city. the air when we arrived was thick with dust from the strong wind and 'gardens' (read: patches of fenced dirt) which are everywhere in the city, it was like a heavy smog and made it so that you could only just make out the hills which surround UB. the city itself is composed mainly of communist style appartment blocks which are in an advanced state of decay. the written language is a mix of traditional mongolian script (looks like a cross between chinese and arabic) and quasi-russian (looks like russian but apparently is not). actually speaking more than a couple of words is a laughable prospect but the people are invariably very friendly.
around the central square area and parliament building there are several nice and large buildings however the appeal of the large square was diminished somewhat by the clouds of dust blowing across it from the gardens surrounding it. while in the city i visited the mongolian historical museum which despite being housed in a smallish building was packed with information in english, rock art and tools (some dating back to the early paleolithic - about 800,000 BC), spear heads, whole rooms dedicated to Genghis Khan and objects from the pre-, post- and communist times. i also checked out the lama monastery which contained a 30m high statue of some buddhist deity and a lot of pigeons.
definitely the best aspect to UB was the food. it was very big and very nice and very cheap. the first night we ate at a place with the slogan 'meat is for men, grass is for animals' and that was pretty much the theme everywhere. the currency is one of those in which there are way too many zeros on every note but we had lunch for about $2 and dinner for $5. the final night we ate at 'The Great Mongol' - opposite the state department building near the state circus for those interested - with some people i had met in the national park and a local guy on whose couch Maarten intended to sleep for a couple of weeks. the house brewed beer was very good and i had a mixed grill. ok it wasn't very mongolian but there were 5 types of meat and it arrived on 3 plates!! it cost about $11 and the mongolian ate my salad.
the national park was beautiful. endless rolling green hills dotted with Gers (tent houses), horses and rocky peaks. i spent my time horse riding, meeting a local family and climbing some of the peaks surrounding my ger. the local family served me some sort of yak milk tea, little dried bits of curdled yoghurt (apparently a sweet, but basically yak milk which has been left outside for a couple of days) and some home made bread. i politely tried a bit of everything. camping next to me was group of 5 people including an australian bloke and 4 (more bloody!) dutch. we spent that evening playing a local game with goat's anklebones.
i was sad to be leaving but nearly everyone i had met so far was going to be travelling on the same train to beijing so i wasn't going to be lonely...
having only 3 days we (the pom, the belgian and i) decided to try and see a bit of everything and spend half the time in the terelj national park (about an hour and a half out of UB) and half the time in the city. well for a predominantly nomadic peoples (even in UB half the pop lives in tents) they have made a good effort at creating a very large city. the air when we arrived was thick with dust from the strong wind and 'gardens' (read: patches of fenced dirt) which are everywhere in the city, it was like a heavy smog and made it so that you could only just make out the hills which surround UB. the city itself is composed mainly of communist style appartment blocks which are in an advanced state of decay. the written language is a mix of traditional mongolian script (looks like a cross between chinese and arabic) and quasi-russian (looks like russian but apparently is not). actually speaking more than a couple of words is a laughable prospect but the people are invariably very friendly.
around the central square area and parliament building there are several nice and large buildings however the appeal of the large square was diminished somewhat by the clouds of dust blowing across it from the gardens surrounding it. while in the city i visited the mongolian historical museum which despite being housed in a smallish building was packed with information in english, rock art and tools (some dating back to the early paleolithic - about 800,000 BC), spear heads, whole rooms dedicated to Genghis Khan and objects from the pre-, post- and communist times. i also checked out the lama monastery which contained a 30m high statue of some buddhist deity and a lot of pigeons.
definitely the best aspect to UB was the food. it was very big and very nice and very cheap. the first night we ate at a place with the slogan 'meat is for men, grass is for animals' and that was pretty much the theme everywhere. the currency is one of those in which there are way too many zeros on every note but we had lunch for about $2 and dinner for $5. the final night we ate at 'The Great Mongol' - opposite the state department building near the state circus for those interested - with some people i had met in the national park and a local guy on whose couch Maarten intended to sleep for a couple of weeks. the house brewed beer was very good and i had a mixed grill. ok it wasn't very mongolian but there were 5 types of meat and it arrived on 3 plates!! it cost about $11 and the mongolian ate my salad.
the national park was beautiful. endless rolling green hills dotted with Gers (tent houses), horses and rocky peaks. i spent my time horse riding, meeting a local family and climbing some of the peaks surrounding my ger. the local family served me some sort of yak milk tea, little dried bits of curdled yoghurt (apparently a sweet, but basically yak milk which has been left outside for a couple of days) and some home made bread. i politely tried a bit of everything. camping next to me was group of 5 people including an australian bloke and 4 (more bloody!) dutch. we spent that evening playing a local game with goat's anklebones.
i was sad to be leaving but nearly everyone i had met so far was going to be travelling on the same train to beijing so i wasn't going to be lonely...
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Home
Hi All,
So now I am home and slightly depressed about it! I dont really have much more to add from Richards account of Berlin, Poland and being with my family.
As much I would love to tell more about Poland I feel it is best for Richard if I do not. All I can say is I was not happy and he is very sneaky! I will say however the reason for no photos of Poland is we had left our cameras is the car when we parked thinking that we were just meeting up with Will then would be heading back to the car, this was not the case sadly!
As for being with my family, it was a wonderful time even though Richard did turn up with a black eye. The funniest moments though which he did not mention was watching my 30ish year old male cousin dance! Undescriable and rather amusing. The other thing was going to a kitchen party and playing a game called circle of love!! It is a card game so dont get to many ideas, hard to explain in writng but had me in fits of laughter.
Well I would add the photos for Richard (ones I have anyway) but I sadly am not skilled in this department! So I will go back to counting the days when my love returns and being depressed its all over!
Love Sarah
So now I am home and slightly depressed about it! I dont really have much more to add from Richards account of Berlin, Poland and being with my family.
As much I would love to tell more about Poland I feel it is best for Richard if I do not. All I can say is I was not happy and he is very sneaky! I will say however the reason for no photos of Poland is we had left our cameras is the car when we parked thinking that we were just meeting up with Will then would be heading back to the car, this was not the case sadly!
As for being with my family, it was a wonderful time even though Richard did turn up with a black eye. The funniest moments though which he did not mention was watching my 30ish year old male cousin dance! Undescriable and rather amusing. The other thing was going to a kitchen party and playing a game called circle of love!! It is a card game so dont get to many ideas, hard to explain in writng but had me in fits of laughter.
Well I would add the photos for Richard (ones I have anyway) but I sadly am not skilled in this department! So I will go back to counting the days when my love returns and being depressed its all over!
Love Sarah
Monday, April 28, 2008
Moscow to Ulaanbataar (or: The Very Long Train Ride - Part 1)
Just a quick hello from Ulaanbataar, Mongolia!!
We arrived this morning at 7.30am after 5 days on the train from Moscow. The journey was quite amazing and definitely a great experience. The scenery gradually changed from spruce and pine forests in central Russia to rolling grassy hills and frozen lakes in Mongolia. The view was dotted at regular intervals with muddy wooden villages and wide icy rivers. Luckily we could open some of the windows and i was able to take a couple of photos - capturing the experience however was impossible.
the train itself was no less exciting. i was sharing my 4 berth cabin with a young Belgian ecologist named Maarten but we were the only english speaking passengers in our half of the train! it seemed nearly everyone else on board was a mongolian trades-person carrying dubiously large quantities of leather goods or clothing. most cabins were completely packed full of goods, with mongolian women and children perched on top while their husbands were all in the next cabin drinking vodka and arguing.
although none spoke english they were all very friendly and more than willing to wander into your cabin uninvited to recount tales of Genghis Khan and the mighty mongolian empire (in Mongolian) or to share some vodka (at like 9am in the morning). Or more usually just to see if you were in need of a genuine leather jacket or boots.
at dinner the first night we discovered that we weren't the only tourists on board as we passed through a carriage (which became known as the netherlands) on the way to dinner containing 16 dutch tourists (the carriage, not the dinner). we also discovered a young english journalist way down the other end of the train perched amongst several mongolian women and a lot of new leather handbags.
so we spent the journey swapping guide books to siberia, playing cards, learning dutch and buying 2 minute noodles off the locals at station platforms. about 30min before every stop there was a mass movement of goods throughout the train as the mongolians prepared to move their entire stock onto the platform. and at every station there was inevitably several hundred locals awaiting teh arrival of our train. what proceeded during the 10min stops was like a local market in fast forward! if we were lucky we could push our way through and stretch our legs for a couple of mins before resuming our journey.
so there will be more detail and hopefully some photos later but that's all for now!
We arrived this morning at 7.30am after 5 days on the train from Moscow. The journey was quite amazing and definitely a great experience. The scenery gradually changed from spruce and pine forests in central Russia to rolling grassy hills and frozen lakes in Mongolia. The view was dotted at regular intervals with muddy wooden villages and wide icy rivers. Luckily we could open some of the windows and i was able to take a couple of photos - capturing the experience however was impossible.
the train itself was no less exciting. i was sharing my 4 berth cabin with a young Belgian ecologist named Maarten but we were the only english speaking passengers in our half of the train! it seemed nearly everyone else on board was a mongolian trades-person carrying dubiously large quantities of leather goods or clothing. most cabins were completely packed full of goods, with mongolian women and children perched on top while their husbands were all in the next cabin drinking vodka and arguing.
although none spoke english they were all very friendly and more than willing to wander into your cabin uninvited to recount tales of Genghis Khan and the mighty mongolian empire (in Mongolian) or to share some vodka (at like 9am in the morning). Or more usually just to see if you were in need of a genuine leather jacket or boots.
at dinner the first night we discovered that we weren't the only tourists on board as we passed through a carriage (which became known as the netherlands) on the way to dinner containing 16 dutch tourists (the carriage, not the dinner). we also discovered a young english journalist way down the other end of the train perched amongst several mongolian women and a lot of new leather handbags.
so we spent the journey swapping guide books to siberia, playing cards, learning dutch and buying 2 minute noodles off the locals at station platforms. about 30min before every stop there was a mass movement of goods throughout the train as the mongolians prepared to move their entire stock onto the platform. and at every station there was inevitably several hundred locals awaiting teh arrival of our train. what proceeded during the 10min stops was like a local market in fast forward! if we were lucky we could push our way through and stretch our legs for a couple of mins before resuming our journey.
so there will be more detail and hopefully some photos later but that's all for now!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Moskva!!
РУДДЩ АКЩЬ ЬЩЫСЩЦ!!! Or equivalently 'Hello from Moscow!!!' when written on an english keyboard (if you can only see boxes don't worry, the real text doesn't look much different). it may look funny to you but try finding your way around when every street sign (when there is one) is written like that, as well as every metro (sorry, METPO) station, AND as well as my only map. i think there is a logic to the language somewhere but it's buried beneath a tonne of unpronouncable symbols. actually i think i'm doing alright - i recognise some of the greek characters and so PI (п) gives a P sound and so on. ie Photo becomes фото.
Even so, my train station is called Partizanskaya but in Russian that's ПАРТИЗАНСКАЯ... (Pi_A_P_T_back-to-front-N_3_A_H_C_K_A_back-to-front-R, for those with squares) and i had to find it at 1am in the rain after i landed at one of Moscow's 4 international airports. Not so hard i hear you say.. well it is when you understand that Moscow has something like 200 train stations and about 15 different lines (and that's just the metro), AND, you have to catch some private airport (which isn't even on the map) train to connect with the public lines... plus no-one speaks english.
anyway i did make it, only due to the directions i got from some considerate pimp (i had to decline his offer of entertainment for the remainder of the evening). unfortunately i hadn't been very successful in extending my accommodation to include sunday night over the phone - mainly due to the language barrier, but probably also due to the limited mental capacity of the staff member. so when i rocked up at 1am looking for a room i was informed that my booking was for monday and tuesday nights only. luckily the staff member (from phone conversation fame) called her manager over who told me that the hotel's day started at 2am and so my room for the following night would be available at 2am!! so i had to wait around in the lobby for an hour but in the end scored 3 nights for the price of 2 :) i think i was the only person in the lobby who didn't charge by the minute.
so this is all very interesting but doesn't really tell you anything about moscow except that it's full of dodgey people. Second only to the number of dodgey men and women are the number of police officers, although it's a close race between them and the stray dogs - at least the dogs aren't corrupt. however, other than all this moscow is quite a beautiful city - much like prague on a larger scale. this unfortunately means it's impossible to walk around and see everything. i did try a walking tour from my hotel (which is 4 metro stations from red square, well actually 5 but one is closed for some reason) but after walking for 2.5 hours in a state of semi-knowledge of where i was (the big landmarks like rivers and above ground train lines were where they should have been but the smaller land marks like roads and walking paths didn't correlate with what was on the map) i eventually stumbled into a station (i'll come back to this) to discover i had only advanced 2 stations down the line in 2.5 hours! i promptly jumped on the first train that came by and arrived at red square 10 min later.
now, about stumbling into the station: metro stations (ie the underground lines) are impossible to find. and i'm not joking, even ignoring the language barrier. every 2nd building in moscow looks the same. it's either a brick/concrete box or a gold encrusted church. the stations are some of the boxes but they're tucked away down back streets, miles apart and there's no signs. the only way i found this station was by walking in whichever direction there was more people.
but again, i digress. my hotel is located near the old olympic village, right next to a large park and a market area so the area is 'quite nice' (very relatively speaking). the area around revolution (red) square in central moscow is also very nice, with many beautiful buildings and parks right next to the river. i had a look inside the kremlin walls one afternoon (for 300 rubles ~ US$15) and i'm really glad i did. visitors are tightly restricted to a small area inside the walls but this area includes many small chapels, palaces and cathedrals. inside there are many tombs of kings from the middle ages plus some of the most decorated interiors i've seen, rivaling the raphael rooms in the vatican museum. the exteriors are no less impressive - gold capped onion domes ahoy.
there was also the tsar cannon and tsar bell. the cannon has a caliber of about 1m and each shot must weight a *&^$load. the cannon itself weights something like 40t and is about 3m high and 6m long but unfortunately i don't think it was ever fired (although the descriptive plaque was in russian so not 100% sure). the bell is even more ridiculous.. over 200t and 6m high. i don't think it was ever used either tho. apparently it was used as a chapel at some stage tho (i'm not joking, that's how big it is).
so moscow is very beautiful although it would probably be more so during winter when all the rubbish and concrete is covered with snow. tonight i'm getting on the train and heading towards beijing, therefore i'm not sure how much net i'll have until i arrive in china (2nd May). so that's why i've tried to update the posts if you're wondering why the sudden spurt in news. i'm in a 4-berth cabin but i don't know who else will be in there so that could be exciting. the first stop is at Ulaanbataar in Mongolia in just over 4 (!!) days. hopefully the windows are clear enough to get some decent photos. so that's all for now, hope everyone is well and keeping up with the posts. i'm off to the market to stock up on biscuits and vodka.
Even so, my train station is called Partizanskaya but in Russian that's ПАРТИЗАНСКАЯ... (Pi_A_P_T_back-to-front-N_3_A_H_C_K_A_back-to-front-R, for those with squares) and i had to find it at 1am in the rain after i landed at one of Moscow's 4 international airports. Not so hard i hear you say.. well it is when you understand that Moscow has something like 200 train stations and about 15 different lines (and that's just the metro), AND, you have to catch some private airport (which isn't even on the map) train to connect with the public lines... plus no-one speaks english.
anyway i did make it, only due to the directions i got from some considerate pimp (i had to decline his offer of entertainment for the remainder of the evening). unfortunately i hadn't been very successful in extending my accommodation to include sunday night over the phone - mainly due to the language barrier, but probably also due to the limited mental capacity of the staff member. so when i rocked up at 1am looking for a room i was informed that my booking was for monday and tuesday nights only. luckily the staff member (from phone conversation fame) called her manager over who told me that the hotel's day started at 2am and so my room for the following night would be available at 2am!! so i had to wait around in the lobby for an hour but in the end scored 3 nights for the price of 2 :) i think i was the only person in the lobby who didn't charge by the minute.
so this is all very interesting but doesn't really tell you anything about moscow except that it's full of dodgey people. Second only to the number of dodgey men and women are the number of police officers, although it's a close race between them and the stray dogs - at least the dogs aren't corrupt. however, other than all this moscow is quite a beautiful city - much like prague on a larger scale. this unfortunately means it's impossible to walk around and see everything. i did try a walking tour from my hotel (which is 4 metro stations from red square, well actually 5 but one is closed for some reason) but after walking for 2.5 hours in a state of semi-knowledge of where i was (the big landmarks like rivers and above ground train lines were where they should have been but the smaller land marks like roads and walking paths didn't correlate with what was on the map) i eventually stumbled into a station (i'll come back to this) to discover i had only advanced 2 stations down the line in 2.5 hours! i promptly jumped on the first train that came by and arrived at red square 10 min later.
now, about stumbling into the station: metro stations (ie the underground lines) are impossible to find. and i'm not joking, even ignoring the language barrier. every 2nd building in moscow looks the same. it's either a brick/concrete box or a gold encrusted church. the stations are some of the boxes but they're tucked away down back streets, miles apart and there's no signs. the only way i found this station was by walking in whichever direction there was more people.
but again, i digress. my hotel is located near the old olympic village, right next to a large park and a market area so the area is 'quite nice' (very relatively speaking). the area around revolution (red) square in central moscow is also very nice, with many beautiful buildings and parks right next to the river. i had a look inside the kremlin walls one afternoon (for 300 rubles ~ US$15) and i'm really glad i did. visitors are tightly restricted to a small area inside the walls but this area includes many small chapels, palaces and cathedrals. inside there are many tombs of kings from the middle ages plus some of the most decorated interiors i've seen, rivaling the raphael rooms in the vatican museum. the exteriors are no less impressive - gold capped onion domes ahoy.
there was also the tsar cannon and tsar bell. the cannon has a caliber of about 1m and each shot must weight a *&^$load. the cannon itself weights something like 40t and is about 3m high and 6m long but unfortunately i don't think it was ever fired (although the descriptive plaque was in russian so not 100% sure). the bell is even more ridiculous.. over 200t and 6m high. i don't think it was ever used either tho. apparently it was used as a chapel at some stage tho (i'm not joking, that's how big it is).
so moscow is very beautiful although it would probably be more so during winter when all the rubbish and concrete is covered with snow. tonight i'm getting on the train and heading towards beijing, therefore i'm not sure how much net i'll have until i arrive in china (2nd May). so that's why i've tried to update the posts if you're wondering why the sudden spurt in news. i'm in a 4-berth cabin but i don't know who else will be in there so that could be exciting. the first stop is at Ulaanbataar in Mongolia in just over 4 (!!) days. hopefully the windows are clear enough to get some decent photos. so that's all for now, hope everyone is well and keeping up with the posts. i'm off to the market to stock up on biscuits and vodka.
The end of the world
Well I think Sarah can do a more thorough post on our stay with her family in Rodalben but since i've got command of a computer i put one up for the time being (still not photos tho folks - i know, i know, blame the russians).
In all we spent about a week and a half in Rodalben with Sarah's family. This was definitely not enough. Although Rodalben is not a well known tourist destination (in fact it's not a known tourist destination at all, or even a tourist destination) being in Germany it was well endowed with castles, ruins and forests. Rodalben (for those of you who haven't visited before, ok all of you), is very close to the french border and i think we spent almost as much time in france as we did in germany. we also ducked across to luxembourg one day to check out the capital (ie. luxembourg - they obviously weren't very inventive with names).
Sarah's cousins only speak halting english and their parents not at all so our stay was punctuated with hand gestures, novice german and schnapps (spelling unknown). our stay got off to a flying start when i rocked up with a black eye. the 'beat a polish bar owner in a vodka drinking competition' story went down a treat when translated. the most memorable aspect to our stay was the food. sarah's cousin frank is a professional chef and happened to be on holiday during our stay so he spent a considerable amount of time in the kitchen. including on one occaision to prepare my 'ideal animal' - a meal composed of chicken breast, bacon, cheese and ham. being a chef he went all creative and threw in some egg, beef and bratwurst as well. the meal received fairly positive reviews.
despite waking up after breakfast most mornings we were basically force fed traditional german meals for dinner (accompanied by considerable amounts of alcohol) with the result of both of us putting on about 100kg. one of the other german activities we participated in was going to a soccer (fussball) match. we saw kaiserslautern flog some other team 2-0 which apparently is a very rare event indeed so we were very privilaged. it was a home game for K which obviously held special meaning for us aussies. i came home with a scarf and sarah came home with a cold chest (you figure it out).
anyway i have 28sec left on net so gotta go!!!
In all we spent about a week and a half in Rodalben with Sarah's family. This was definitely not enough. Although Rodalben is not a well known tourist destination (in fact it's not a known tourist destination at all, or even a tourist destination) being in Germany it was well endowed with castles, ruins and forests. Rodalben (for those of you who haven't visited before, ok all of you), is very close to the french border and i think we spent almost as much time in france as we did in germany. we also ducked across to luxembourg one day to check out the capital (ie. luxembourg - they obviously weren't very inventive with names).
Sarah's cousins only speak halting english and their parents not at all so our stay was punctuated with hand gestures, novice german and schnapps (spelling unknown). our stay got off to a flying start when i rocked up with a black eye. the 'beat a polish bar owner in a vodka drinking competition' story went down a treat when translated. the most memorable aspect to our stay was the food. sarah's cousin frank is a professional chef and happened to be on holiday during our stay so he spent a considerable amount of time in the kitchen. including on one occaision to prepare my 'ideal animal' - a meal composed of chicken breast, bacon, cheese and ham. being a chef he went all creative and threw in some egg, beef and bratwurst as well. the meal received fairly positive reviews.
despite waking up after breakfast most mornings we were basically force fed traditional german meals for dinner (accompanied by considerable amounts of alcohol) with the result of both of us putting on about 100kg. one of the other german activities we participated in was going to a soccer (fussball) match. we saw kaiserslautern flog some other team 2-0 which apparently is a very rare event indeed so we were very privilaged. it was a home game for K which obviously held special meaning for us aussies. i came home with a scarf and sarah came home with a cold chest (you figure it out).
anyway i have 28sec left on net so gotta go!!!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Poland
We spent Saturday / Sunday nights in Berlin and then we ducked over to Poznan in west Poland to catch up with Will on Monday night and then we headed back to Berlin Tuesday / Wednesday nights. So we didn't have all that long in Poland. The drive from Berlin to Poznan took about 3 and a half hours and was remarkable only for the rain and the extraordinary number of trucks and potholes on the polish roads.
We'd agreed to meet Will at the main square in Poznan so we headed in what we thought was that direction. Unsurprisingly neither Sarah nor I speak Polish and we didn't have a town map so our first two attempts were somewhat unsuccessful. Eventually we found a servo, admitted defeat and bought a map. After one more lap of Poznan (just to make sure we'd really seen the sights) we found the main square. Not much to it really, nor Poznan for that matter. Couple of nice looking churches and a lot of roadworks really.. the rain probably didn't help :)
After a short while we also found Will and his room-mate and set about finding the nearest watering hole. Will assured us he knew just the one and we headed that way. Apparently the barmaid was a friend and so we had a couple of beers. I might remind our readers at this point that 'a beer' in Europe refers to 500ml and not, as one might assume, a measly 275ml. So we were getting along alright and decided to grab some food (which wasn't bad) and hit up the local Aussie bar.
I'm not sure what about this bar distinguished it as the Aussie bar because as far as I could make out the owner and all the customers were (very) polish. In fact I think when Will and Martin first visited the establishment they were the first australians to do so. Anyway after a couple more drinks someone suggested shots. My recollection gets slightly hazy at this point but i remember tequila and vodka, lots of vodka, and something blue (which may have also been vodka). For some reason (which was obviously important but which now escapes me) i challenged the bar owner to an arm wrestle. This was probably my first mistake. Apparently 'arm wrestle' translates to Polish as 'vodka drinking competition'.
At this point I'll make a quick diversion to Sarah's memory. On returning from the toilet she found a disturbingly long line of empty shot glasses on the bar and the polish bar owner collapsed on the floor.
Back to my memory: I woke up at midday with a sore head. Apparently I had remained strong right up until the point where I had to walk somewhere. Also apparent (from my forehead) was the fact that I'd fallen over at some stage.
So.. Will's residence was located in a nice old (and large) building, now being used for a school about 30min out of town and we had lunch the next day in town at an interesting little place which served savory pancakes from around the world. The drive back to Berlin was surprisingly a lot better than the drive into Poland, probably because i slept for a large percentage of it.
Result: I don't actually remember a whole lot of Poznan and the only photos we've got are of a pretty decent sunset on the road back to Berlin.
We'd agreed to meet Will at the main square in Poznan so we headed in what we thought was that direction. Unsurprisingly neither Sarah nor I speak Polish and we didn't have a town map so our first two attempts were somewhat unsuccessful. Eventually we found a servo, admitted defeat and bought a map. After one more lap of Poznan (just to make sure we'd really seen the sights) we found the main square. Not much to it really, nor Poznan for that matter. Couple of nice looking churches and a lot of roadworks really.. the rain probably didn't help :)
After a short while we also found Will and his room-mate and set about finding the nearest watering hole. Will assured us he knew just the one and we headed that way. Apparently the barmaid was a friend and so we had a couple of beers. I might remind our readers at this point that 'a beer' in Europe refers to 500ml and not, as one might assume, a measly 275ml. So we were getting along alright and decided to grab some food (which wasn't bad) and hit up the local Aussie bar.
I'm not sure what about this bar distinguished it as the Aussie bar because as far as I could make out the owner and all the customers were (very) polish. In fact I think when Will and Martin first visited the establishment they were the first australians to do so. Anyway after a couple more drinks someone suggested shots. My recollection gets slightly hazy at this point but i remember tequila and vodka, lots of vodka, and something blue (which may have also been vodka). For some reason (which was obviously important but which now escapes me) i challenged the bar owner to an arm wrestle. This was probably my first mistake. Apparently 'arm wrestle' translates to Polish as 'vodka drinking competition'.
At this point I'll make a quick diversion to Sarah's memory. On returning from the toilet she found a disturbingly long line of empty shot glasses on the bar and the polish bar owner collapsed on the floor.
Back to my memory: I woke up at midday with a sore head. Apparently I had remained strong right up until the point where I had to walk somewhere. Also apparent (from my forehead) was the fact that I'd fallen over at some stage.
So.. Will's residence was located in a nice old (and large) building, now being used for a school about 30min out of town and we had lunch the next day in town at an interesting little place which served savory pancakes from around the world. The drive back to Berlin was surprisingly a lot better than the drive into Poland, probably because i slept for a large percentage of it.
Result: I don't actually remember a whole lot of Poznan and the only photos we've got are of a pretty decent sunset on the road back to Berlin.
Berlin (Part 3)
Just thought I'd add a couple a things to the main Berlin post..
Travelling on the autobahns with a new peugot at some stage we were going to have to test out how fast it would go. Usually in the unlimited areas we'd been sitting on about 150 and the car was doing this pretty easy at about 4000rpm. I think it was on a quite bit of road on the way to Berlin from Prague we got it up to about 196 before we hit a 120km/h speed zone so thought we'd better ease back a bit :) wouldn't have got much quicker tho - the speedo only goes up to 210.. there's video evidence too.
The drive from Berlin to Sarah's family in Rodalben (south west of frankfurt right near the french border) took us about 7 hours for those playing at home. In other news I forgot to read the ODO when we dropped the car back but it would've been about 4600km. Anyway, I'd better leave this post here before i confuse you with more time jumps..
PS. I'm in mockva and sarah's probably just touching down in aus!
Travelling on the autobahns with a new peugot at some stage we were going to have to test out how fast it would go. Usually in the unlimited areas we'd been sitting on about 150 and the car was doing this pretty easy at about 4000rpm. I think it was on a quite bit of road on the way to Berlin from Prague we got it up to about 196 before we hit a 120km/h speed zone so thought we'd better ease back a bit :) wouldn't have got much quicker tho - the speedo only goes up to 210.. there's video evidence too.
The drive from Berlin to Sarah's family in Rodalben (south west of frankfurt right near the french border) took us about 7 hours for those playing at home. In other news I forgot to read the ODO when we dropped the car back but it would've been about 4600km. Anyway, I'd better leave this post here before i confuse you with more time jumps..
PS. I'm in mockva and sarah's probably just touching down in aus!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Berlin (Part 1 & 2)
It's currently 12.29am Sunday morning - Sarah is flying home and i'm flying to Moscow later today!!
Back to the point... our time in Berlin was split between two short visits - we ducked over to Poland inbetween, but more about that later. We arrived Saturday evening and, due having obtained a map before entering the city limits, we arrived at our accommodation in record time. We were staying at another Wombats - the one in Munich was good and had a sister hostel - and so knew the drill. To obtain your room key you have to hand over some form of photo ID as insurance, our ID of choice was my MET concession card. To the uninitiated this may not seem out of the ordinary but if you've seen it before you'll understand when I say it scored us 8 free drinks in the house bar.
Since it was Saturday night and we'd heard Berliners liked to partay we decided to head out. Scouring the 'suggested night spots' we settled on a funky little bar with a swimming pool. No joke. To our great disappointment the pool was nowhere to be seen and is apparently closed during winter but the club was going off anyway and we got home about 5am. Sunday we arose slightly after breakfast closed and decided to head out and check out the sights. There were several markets setup and plenty of people about, a surprising percentage of whom were wearing inline skates. The reason for which turned out to be some sort of organised endurance event (complete with crowds, collapsing skaters and inappropriately worn bike shorts).
Our tour of Berlin's sights by foot led us to the Reichstag, which you can enter for free and climb the large dome on the roof - which apparently gives good views of the city. Being a sunday arvo the queue was phenomenal and being early spring in Germany it was raining and being still slightly drunk upon departing our residence that morning we had come out in light (un-waterproof) clothing. After a not so lengthy second glance at the queue we caught the train back to our hostel.
Sunday also happened to by our 1 year anniversary so we (read: Sarah) decided we'd better do something (or else..). Something turned out to be straightening Sarah's hair for what seemed like about 3 hours while Richard had a nap. By the time both parties were awake and ready to party it was approaching dinner time. However, we had 8 free drinks at the bar to make use of and being students it would have been rude of us not to do so. 3 romantic games of pool followed (in which Sarah was very unromantically flogged) before we realised it had approached dinner time quite some time before and was fast approaching not dinner time.
We were both pretty hungry and so settled upon the first open place we happened across. This turned out to be some sort of brauhaus, which also may have been in some sort of shopping centre. Some may claim this is not the most romantic setting by I'll take this opportunity to point out that we were having dinner in a traditional German restaurant in Berlin, which ought to be worth more than a couple of flowers.
So the next morning we headed to Poland to meet up with Will (Richard's cousin) and we returned to Berlin on Tuesday. We spent a day checking out the sights we'd missed on the weekend (including the Reichstag dome and Checkpoint Charlie). The most memorable aspect to the dome was the inordinately time consuming security check on the way in. The checkpoint Charlie museum was quite good but surprisingly huge and packed full of exhibits and information. It was a mix of personal stories, genuine and mock artifacts, artwork and a detailed history of the whole affair. The museum opened in 1962 and bits and pieces had been added ever since so it was a bit confusing at some times but worth a look.
We spent one more night in Berlin before heading across Germany to Sarah's relatives.
Back to the point... our time in Berlin was split between two short visits - we ducked over to Poland inbetween, but more about that later. We arrived Saturday evening and, due having obtained a map before entering the city limits, we arrived at our accommodation in record time. We were staying at another Wombats - the one in Munich was good and had a sister hostel - and so knew the drill. To obtain your room key you have to hand over some form of photo ID as insurance, our ID of choice was my MET concession card. To the uninitiated this may not seem out of the ordinary but if you've seen it before you'll understand when I say it scored us 8 free drinks in the house bar.
Since it was Saturday night and we'd heard Berliners liked to partay we decided to head out. Scouring the 'suggested night spots' we settled on a funky little bar with a swimming pool. No joke. To our great disappointment the pool was nowhere to be seen and is apparently closed during winter but the club was going off anyway and we got home about 5am. Sunday we arose slightly after breakfast closed and decided to head out and check out the sights. There were several markets setup and plenty of people about, a surprising percentage of whom were wearing inline skates. The reason for which turned out to be some sort of organised endurance event (complete with crowds, collapsing skaters and inappropriately worn bike shorts).
Our tour of Berlin's sights by foot led us to the Reichstag, which you can enter for free and climb the large dome on the roof - which apparently gives good views of the city. Being a sunday arvo the queue was phenomenal and being early spring in Germany it was raining and being still slightly drunk upon departing our residence that morning we had come out in light (un-waterproof) clothing. After a not so lengthy second glance at the queue we caught the train back to our hostel.
Sunday also happened to by our 1 year anniversary so we (read: Sarah) decided we'd better do something (or else..). Something turned out to be straightening Sarah's hair for what seemed like about 3 hours while Richard had a nap. By the time both parties were awake and ready to party it was approaching dinner time. However, we had 8 free drinks at the bar to make use of and being students it would have been rude of us not to do so. 3 romantic games of pool followed (in which Sarah was very unromantically flogged) before we realised it had approached dinner time quite some time before and was fast approaching not dinner time.
We were both pretty hungry and so settled upon the first open place we happened across. This turned out to be some sort of brauhaus, which also may have been in some sort of shopping centre. Some may claim this is not the most romantic setting by I'll take this opportunity to point out that we were having dinner in a traditional German restaurant in Berlin, which ought to be worth more than a couple of flowers.
So the next morning we headed to Poland to meet up with Will (Richard's cousin) and we returned to Berlin on Tuesday. We spent a day checking out the sights we'd missed on the weekend (including the Reichstag dome and Checkpoint Charlie). The most memorable aspect to the dome was the inordinately time consuming security check on the way in. The checkpoint Charlie museum was quite good but surprisingly huge and packed full of exhibits and information. It was a mix of personal stories, genuine and mock artifacts, artwork and a detailed history of the whole affair. The museum opened in 1962 and bits and pieces had been added ever since so it was a bit confusing at some times but worth a look.
We spent one more night in Berlin before heading across Germany to Sarah's relatives.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Postcript to Prague
Hi,
Sorry I just have to add two small things that were quite amusing that Richard realised he had forgot to put in.
On our drive out of Czech Republic we were pulled over by the police. This made us both a little nervous as we were thinking about the visa that we did not have. We had to show our passports which were conveniently in the boot of the car, locked in our packs and somewhat buried. Then we had to show our drivers license which were in the glove box! Then we were asked for our car papers!! What??? We had no idea what he was talking about. Lucky for us we are Australian as this did seem to please the officer who called out to his mate "skippy" and pointed at us. He was looking at my passport and it seemed he recognised that I have a German surname, so he asked me in German do I speak German. I thought about what response I should give as I know a number of random sentences and decided that I would go with "we are having fun"!! I thought it would ease the nervousness I was feeling and everyone always laughs when I say it! Well it worked a treat! He laughed handed us back our stuff and did not worry about the car papers and we were on our way again
Not ten mins down the road from this there was a house on the side of the road with big windows. Richard was driving so I noticed it and he did not. I thought it was strange because before we got right in front of it I thought I could see what looked like a leg wearing stockings and a high heel in the window. I found this strange and was wondering if it was a real leg. Well it was!!! And it was attached to a prostitute who was displaying her wares in the window!!! I was so suprised and shocked that I let out some sort of cry which startled Richard! I almost wanted him to turn back so he could see because it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen (as well as a little shocking).
So we must go again. We will write more later.
Love us
Sorry I just have to add two small things that were quite amusing that Richard realised he had forgot to put in.
On our drive out of Czech Republic we were pulled over by the police. This made us both a little nervous as we were thinking about the visa that we did not have. We had to show our passports which were conveniently in the boot of the car, locked in our packs and somewhat buried. Then we had to show our drivers license which were in the glove box! Then we were asked for our car papers!! What??? We had no idea what he was talking about. Lucky for us we are Australian as this did seem to please the officer who called out to his mate "skippy" and pointed at us. He was looking at my passport and it seemed he recognised that I have a German surname, so he asked me in German do I speak German. I thought about what response I should give as I know a number of random sentences and decided that I would go with "we are having fun"!! I thought it would ease the nervousness I was feeling and everyone always laughs when I say it! Well it worked a treat! He laughed handed us back our stuff and did not worry about the car papers and we were on our way again
Not ten mins down the road from this there was a house on the side of the road with big windows. Richard was driving so I noticed it and he did not. I thought it was strange because before we got right in front of it I thought I could see what looked like a leg wearing stockings and a high heel in the window. I found this strange and was wondering if it was a real leg. Well it was!!! And it was attached to a prostitute who was displaying her wares in the window!!! I was so suprised and shocked that I let out some sort of cry which startled Richard! I almost wanted him to turn back so he could see because it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen (as well as a little shocking).
So we must go again. We will write more later.
Love us
Prague
On the way to Prague we stopped by a German town by the name of Regensburg because we'd been reliably informed that it was a medieval town worth checking out. First impressions were to the contrary but after having a bit of a look around we found the old town centre which was nice and included a spectactular cathedral - why is it that all the massive churches are dedicated to St. Peter??
After Regensburg we continued towards the Czech Rep. and we had a quick read through the reading material we had whilst on the way. Unfortunately the only reading material material we possessed contained little information on Prague and the only information it provided for the C.R. was that Australian visitors required a visa. Well we didn't have one so we presumed (somewhat optimistically) that the C.R. had joined the EU since publication of this particular volume. We presumed correctly and cruised through yet another border gate without troubling our passports.
We had decided to make Berlin by the weekend so we only had 1 and 1/2 days in Prague. The first evening we ate and drank at our hostel - which, by the way we have decided was queer. It was called something inauspicious but their motto was 'for people like us' and the guys behing the front desk were wearing pink polo shirts. To cap it off, some of the TV's in the dining room were continuously playing 'GayTV'. BUT, the rooms were cheap, they had an indoor swimming pool, and there was an attached bar/restaurant with good pizza and cheap beer. Hence we ate and drank at our hostel the 2nd night as well.
We did, however, venture out into the city to check out the sights which included the impressive St. Vitus's Cathedral complex and the old bridge / town. On the Friday night we hit the town after dinner. It was pretty busy but we found a couple of nice places. One of which was advertising the opportunity to fire genuine AK47's, uzi's, pump action shotguns and high power rifles. Unfortunately we had to leave early the next morning.
So I found Prague a nice, old, cheap European city - worth spending longer in than we did. Sarah however found the locals decidedly unfriendly and dodgey (which is hard to argue with) and was unswayed by the beauty of the skyline.
Saturday morning we made extensive use of the free internet at our hostel then headed for Berlin!!
After Regensburg we continued towards the Czech Rep. and we had a quick read through the reading material we had whilst on the way. Unfortunately the only reading material material we possessed contained little information on Prague and the only information it provided for the C.R. was that Australian visitors required a visa. Well we didn't have one so we presumed (somewhat optimistically) that the C.R. had joined the EU since publication of this particular volume. We presumed correctly and cruised through yet another border gate without troubling our passports.
We had decided to make Berlin by the weekend so we only had 1 and 1/2 days in Prague. The first evening we ate and drank at our hostel - which, by the way we have decided was queer. It was called something inauspicious but their motto was 'for people like us' and the guys behing the front desk were wearing pink polo shirts. To cap it off, some of the TV's in the dining room were continuously playing 'GayTV'. BUT, the rooms were cheap, they had an indoor swimming pool, and there was an attached bar/restaurant with good pizza and cheap beer. Hence we ate and drank at our hostel the 2nd night as well.
We did, however, venture out into the city to check out the sights which included the impressive St. Vitus's Cathedral complex and the old bridge / town. On the Friday night we hit the town after dinner. It was pretty busy but we found a couple of nice places. One of which was advertising the opportunity to fire genuine AK47's, uzi's, pump action shotguns and high power rifles. Unfortunately we had to leave early the next morning.
So I found Prague a nice, old, cheap European city - worth spending longer in than we did. Sarah however found the locals decidedly unfriendly and dodgey (which is hard to argue with) and was unswayed by the beauty of the skyline.
Saturday morning we made extensive use of the free internet at our hostel then headed for Berlin!!
Munich
After dropping Mick off at the station in Salzburg we made tracks for Munich. It was a ripping day and a pity to be wasting it in the car but it made the drive more relaxing than previous experiences..
We arrived in Munich in mid-afternoon. By arrived I mean the first time we exited the motorway. By the fourth time we exited the motorway it was more like late afternoon. Eventually we temporarily abandoned the car and continued on foot in search of some sort of map or tourist information. We had actually been told of a good place to stay in central Munich and had booked accom. (a relatively new experience for us which we starting to get used to). This however was a two sided coin because it meant we had to find a specific hostel in Munich rather than any of the countless hostels and hotels we were passing. Eventually we happened upon a detailed road map for $4.50 (can't find the cursed euro symbol) and discovered that our hostel was indeed in prime position over the road from the central station. We proceeded there (almost) directly.
The Wombats Hostel (some tenuous Australian connection tho none of the staff are aussies) was actually pretty flash and good value for money. One of the best things was the town map and suggestions for things to do / see / eat / drink / etc which you got given after checking in. That evening we headed to one of the suggested dining locations and dined heartily on the closest thing to a parma we've come across in Europe. After tea we decided to head for Ned Kelly's aussie bar. On the way we walked down the main drag - Munich is a very pretty town (it doesn't seem like a city at all). The centre of town is dotted with churches and cathedrals and the Rathaus is a large intricately decorated gothic building. The aussie bar was almost as tacky as expected and they weren't even playing afl on the big screen so we had the requisite couple of Fosters and headed home.
The next day we repeated our tour of the main drag and checked inside a couple of the churches and the townhall (Rathaus) before heading to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch and Mass beers (1L). That arvo we checked out the Deutches Museum which is meant to be one of the best (and biggest) technology museums in the world. It was Sarah's idea, obviously. Well all I can say is that when they offer multi-day passes at the entrance, they mean it. The place was huge. It was packed full of genuine pieces of technology ranging from windmills, to mining equipment, to laser cutters, production lines, cars, aeroplanes, space ships, rockets, submarines, diving equipment, boats, bridges, etc, etc. Sarah had a ball. We decided we'd better leave at closing time after nearly being locked in the toilets.
That night we met up with our local contact (Alister - a friend of Richard's) and got a bit of a guided tour around part of the city we hadn't seen and a great meal. We mustn't have disgraced ourselves to much because we scored the use of Alister and his girlfriend's bikes for the next day. We arose early at the indecent hour of 10am and proceeded to pick up the bikes from the agreed location. Munich is very flat so it's difficult to get an idea for the size of the city from street level so we cycled over to Munich's olympic park where there's a man made hill (from post WW2 rubble). The view was pretty decent but Sarah discovered on the way down that her bike was devoid of any form of braking equipment. We therefore proceeded at a fair clip to the English gardens - which are the biggest city gardens in Europe I think. The gardens surround a central lake, biergartens and nude bathing area. We checked out 2 of the 3 (to the great disappoinment of one of our party).
The most memorable bit about the gardens was the surfing area, no joking. Where one of the rivers flows into the gardens under a bridge a permanent wave has been created. The water was bloody freezing but there was about half a dozen well insulated surfers giving it a crack. It was pretty hilarious and unexpected.
The next day we decided to check out some of the castles surrounding Munich. Turns out the weather didn't agree and it was raining pretty solidly. We'd both seen Neuschwanstein before so Sarah decided to take me to her favourite castle from her previous trip. Linderhof is a pretty small castle compared to others but it the only one of Ludwig's castles to be completed and it was amazing inside. Packed with gold, silver, mirrors, chandeliers, and even a dinner table which rose up through the floor. In the surrounding gardens there was even a man made cave with a lake in which the king held concerts!
We'd decided to head to Berlin via Prague so we left Munich there and made tracks for the Czech Republic.
We arrived in Munich in mid-afternoon. By arrived I mean the first time we exited the motorway. By the fourth time we exited the motorway it was more like late afternoon. Eventually we temporarily abandoned the car and continued on foot in search of some sort of map or tourist information. We had actually been told of a good place to stay in central Munich and had booked accom. (a relatively new experience for us which we starting to get used to). This however was a two sided coin because it meant we had to find a specific hostel in Munich rather than any of the countless hostels and hotels we were passing. Eventually we happened upon a detailed road map for $4.50 (can't find the cursed euro symbol) and discovered that our hostel was indeed in prime position over the road from the central station. We proceeded there (almost) directly.
The Wombats Hostel (some tenuous Australian connection tho none of the staff are aussies) was actually pretty flash and good value for money. One of the best things was the town map and suggestions for things to do / see / eat / drink / etc which you got given after checking in. That evening we headed to one of the suggested dining locations and dined heartily on the closest thing to a parma we've come across in Europe. After tea we decided to head for Ned Kelly's aussie bar. On the way we walked down the main drag - Munich is a very pretty town (it doesn't seem like a city at all). The centre of town is dotted with churches and cathedrals and the Rathaus is a large intricately decorated gothic building. The aussie bar was almost as tacky as expected and they weren't even playing afl on the big screen so we had the requisite couple of Fosters and headed home.
The next day we repeated our tour of the main drag and checked inside a couple of the churches and the townhall (Rathaus) before heading to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch and Mass beers (1L). That arvo we checked out the Deutches Museum which is meant to be one of the best (and biggest) technology museums in the world. It was Sarah's idea, obviously. Well all I can say is that when they offer multi-day passes at the entrance, they mean it. The place was huge. It was packed full of genuine pieces of technology ranging from windmills, to mining equipment, to laser cutters, production lines, cars, aeroplanes, space ships, rockets, submarines, diving equipment, boats, bridges, etc, etc. Sarah had a ball. We decided we'd better leave at closing time after nearly being locked in the toilets.
That night we met up with our local contact (Alister - a friend of Richard's) and got a bit of a guided tour around part of the city we hadn't seen and a great meal. We mustn't have disgraced ourselves to much because we scored the use of Alister and his girlfriend's bikes for the next day. We arose early at the indecent hour of 10am and proceeded to pick up the bikes from the agreed location. Munich is very flat so it's difficult to get an idea for the size of the city from street level so we cycled over to Munich's olympic park where there's a man made hill (from post WW2 rubble). The view was pretty decent but Sarah discovered on the way down that her bike was devoid of any form of braking equipment. We therefore proceeded at a fair clip to the English gardens - which are the biggest city gardens in Europe I think. The gardens surround a central lake, biergartens and nude bathing area. We checked out 2 of the 3 (to the great disappoinment of one of our party).
The most memorable bit about the gardens was the surfing area, no joking. Where one of the rivers flows into the gardens under a bridge a permanent wave has been created. The water was bloody freezing but there was about half a dozen well insulated surfers giving it a crack. It was pretty hilarious and unexpected.
The next day we decided to check out some of the castles surrounding Munich. Turns out the weather didn't agree and it was raining pretty solidly. We'd both seen Neuschwanstein before so Sarah decided to take me to her favourite castle from her previous trip. Linderhof is a pretty small castle compared to others but it the only one of Ludwig's castles to be completed and it was amazing inside. Packed with gold, silver, mirrors, chandeliers, and even a dinner table which rose up through the floor. In the surrounding gardens there was even a man made cave with a lake in which the king held concerts!
We'd decided to head to Berlin via Prague so we left Munich there and made tracks for the Czech Republic.
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