Travelmaniacs

The bunny

2007-09-06T03:20:00.000-07:00

This sighting seemed so out of context. We're at the castle in Budapest and we see this guy in a bunny suit, he didn't look too thrilled, walking along the cobblestone street in front of 19th century buildings. Julia saw the same guy in a different part of the city later that day, and noticed he was advertising Energizer batteries. From the looks of his ears, I don't know how much energy his batteries have left.

I stepped in it....

2007-09-06T03:16:00.000-07:00

Julia thought this was a lot funnier than I did, nothing like cleaning your flop in a public park.

Back to Berlin

2007-09-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

So, there a few commonalities between my 2005 visit to Berlin and my 2007 visit to Berlin:

Foods:
2005 - Tried horse salami
2007 - Tried elk salami
(both very tasty)

Entertainment:
2005 - Saw a German Elvis impersonator at Julia's Parents wedding
2007 - Several posters announcing more Elvis impersonators
(is Elvis alive and living in Germany!?, see images below)

Language:
2005 - learned hello, goodbye, thankyou, what is this, where is xyz, other basics
2007 - learned how to say "I don't speak German" (a little late to learn this one, I'm not learning new languages too well)

At last in Budapest

2007-09-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

Making our way out of rainy Vienna we arrived in Budapest Friday night and like the travel pros we have become were able to get off the train, dodge the room pimps and the illegal money changers, change money, buy metro tickets and get to our hotel (including train switch) in about 45 minutes.
And mind you, one cannot read a word of signs here. The language is supposedly as hard (the locals try to think harder) to learn than Arabic or Japanese. Everything has an accent, depending on with or without accent as well as the letter combination the pronounciation of the letter changes etc. So even though I tried hard I can only say 3 words, the hardest of which is koeszoenoem (Thank You) . And locals pronounce it Budapesht.
And it is beautiful here. My favorite stop of our travels by far.
Not only that we lucked out and our hotel is super fancy (good deal on Expedia finally), the weather is awesome and it is just so incredibly beautiful here.
Not overrun by tourists, of course there are a bunch of them, but nothing like Prague. It seems a bit like a diamond in the rough, not all of the old buildings have been restored yet, not everything commercialized yet so I feel really lucky that we were here before this part of tourism moves in.
For some reason I have always wanted to come here and i can only recommend it to everyone. A lot was destroyed during the wars, especially the castle which now has museums on the inside rather than remodeled imperial rooms. But there are so many magnificent buildings left to see.
The sparkling light of the parliament and the castle over the Danube at night is a sight to behold.
So I am absolutely loving it.
Most people's english isn't that great, or they just don't want to speak it but I am not getting an unfriendly vibe. The food is good, we probably had the best food of the entire trip here, including a visit to an all vegetarian restaurant.
I feel like have been walking around so much that I am loosing some of my energy but we will enjoy our time here until the last minute until it's back to Berlin for us on Tuesday.

Vienna == $$$$$

2007-08-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

Vienna, a cool place, but no cheapies found here!

I'm starting to feel better after going through countless Kleenex's; hopefully by the time we head to Budapest, I'll be past the worst of it. Vienna has a lot to see in a very small area - the city is quite big with ~1.6 million people, but all the "must see" items are all within an 10 block radius. We've found some interesting shops, architecture, cathedrals, and people watching, but everything is pricey. Compared to Prague where we'd hunt to find a beer for under $2 and meals for under $7, here we're hunting for beer under $10 and meals under $16. The shops here really through me off, window after window of the biggest fashion brands, countless watches (no pun intended) ranging from 200 euro to 5000+ euro. Even found a nice MontBlanc pen for around 1400 euro. It is store after store after store of this stuff! All of it leads, like spokes on a wheel, directly to St. Stephen's cathedral. So, on the way to church, within a block, you could pick up a nice pair of Pradas, and a Rolex so you're sure to be on time.

I visited Schonbrunn Palace (only approx. $43 for the bus tour!), another great example of Baroque/Roccoco architecture like the previous post on Sanssouci. A beautiful place that is so over-adorned on the interior, amazing. See here for more.

We also visited the KunstHaus Wien museum featuring work from the artist Hundertwasser. See here. It was a really fun place; fun paintings, prints, graphic work, and architecture. But, like the others, quite pricey for all we were able to see.

The best are some of the Art Noveau buildings in town, hope to be posting some pics of those when I'm at a more accessible computer.

Off to Budapest tomorrow - hope I feel better, hope it stops raining and warms up!

We are idiots...but lucky ones

2007-08-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the post about the rude people on the train station totally came back to bite us in the butt.
Our suspicions became true when our tickets were controlled and she looked down at our 14 Euro tickets and was like: And where are your tickets?
Well, that was all we had. It seemed like we had purchased the world's most expensive seat reservations. Luckily we didn't get kicked off but she sold us our tickets on the train. Again I can only advise people to bring some emergency cash - you never know when you're going to need it!
When we got to the border the czech train personnel was switched for Austrian, another ticket controller came around and I realized the czech lady had only sold us tickets to the border.
Why oh why did I not look on it earlier??? Ok, so same scenario again, the guy looks at our 14 Euro ticket, and at the one we just bought before on the train, probably wonders if we're really this stupid...and says he'll be back to charge us the rest of the money.
Well, he never came back. We were were lucky after all and the train ride cost us only 22 Euro.
When we arrived in Vienna we encountered rain for the first time on our trip.
But that didn't stop a drugged up Lex and myself to walk around and take it all in.
We are staying right in the middle of it all, a 2 minute walk to the Stephansdom. It's absolutely beautiful.
Later we found a supermarket and brought home a nice bottle of Sekt and enjoyed that in our Pension. We turned on the TV and...I kid you not there was a David Hasselhof block going. Knight Rider and then Baywatch. We had a great laugh and Lex even took a picture to prove it.
For dinner we found a 100 year old Vienna Coffeehouse all decked out in 50s style furniture and Lex got to eat his Wiener Schnitzel.

Last Day in Prague

2007-08-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

We spent out our last day in Prague off the beaten path and decided to venture out of the tourist area to an area of Prague called Vinorhady.
We had a great walk, much longer than anticipated but the fact that there were no tourists to be seen, the stores and cafes we went to didn't have special English menus and descriptions and made it seem like the real Prague rather than the touristy.
We also walked up the hill to the monastery (my calves are hurting today from the steep climb) where we found a beautiful view and a bunch of restaurants.
After packing our stuff we had the last dinner in Prague and the last couple of beers.
This morning we got up early - unfortunately it seems like Lex is coming down with the flu or something. He doesn't feel good. So on the way to the train station we will hit up a pharmacia to check on some DayQuil. He is grumpy so hopefully they'll have something to brighten his mood.
I am ready for Vienna. Food for Vegetarians here sucks and also my feet need a rest.
So Cafehaeuser, Sachertorte, Palatschinken here I come!

Prague per Pedes

2007-08-28T01:13:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we started on the Tour-de-Prague and this morning when the alarm went off, I just couldn't get up, too tired.
So today we are starting a bit later and slower than we did yesterday.
Prague is absolutely beautiful, the buildings, architecture just the history that surrounds you everywhere is amazing.
We did the grand tour from the Castle area through the castle gardens through "Little Town" (where we live) via the Karl's Bridge to "Old Town". We followed the old King's Coronation Walk, were on the Old City Town Square at noon and watched the astronomical clock change. Visited the Jewish Quarter, went to the Mucha Museum which is small but so worth seeing if you're into the Art Deco period, got a bit off course when going to Wenceslav Square and then walked on to the train station where we bought our tickets to Vienna for Wednesday.
I am feeling a bit weird about those tickets - they were so cheap that I am suspecting that something must be wrong - how else can 5 hrs of train ride with a seat reservation only cost you $10? Maybe it's only a really expensive seat reservation...we shall find out on Wednesday if they kick us off the train.

Besides that we have already tried 4 different kinds of beer, it really is fantastic and .4 l will cost you $2 if you don't go to the tourist traps.
My favorite so far is a dark beer called Kalzen (I think not so sure now) it is creamy and not bitter and I have no idea how the Czechs do it but it's goo-hood.
I am also enjoying a steady intake of Milka chocolate as well as Coca Cola Light.

Observations so far (completely not objective and probably offensive):
- I have have seen more fanny packs (spelling?) yesterday than I have seen in the last year alltogether.
(Tourists must take the pickpocket warnings seriously)
- More mullets/square mile since the 80s (Or this unfortunate hair style is making a comeback and it hasn't reached the states yet)
- Deodorant seems to be hard to come by - B.O. galore...everywhere!
- People at the train station are RUDE AND DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH (or German, French, Spanish, Italian)

Prag

2007-08-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

After spending the last night in Berlin at the "Long Night of the Museums" (an event where about 200 museums are open from 6 pm- 2 am and can be visited with one cheap ticket) we boarded a train towards Prague.
We arrived last night rather late at the train station and were immediately swarmed by all kinds of people trying to offer us accommodation and god knows what else.
We arrived too late (9:30pm) to be able to make use of any of the normal touristy things you would normally find at the train station (tourist information, money exchange). But thank god my parents had had some money (and coins, so important) left from their last trip so we hat at least around 10 Dollars in the Czech currency.
We took the metro, including a train swicheroo and arrived at our station and took the walk to our hotel. After a series of incidents (I am officially unable to use Czech public phones) we finally made it to our little attic room. The promised romantic view over the roofs of Prague can only be gotten by leaning out of the window but we are not planning to spend too much time in there anyway.
From the first glimpses we have gotten it is absolutely beautiful, tons of old ornate buildings. It seems that Prague really wasn't destroyed during WWII so all the old buildings are still intact.
This morning we are off to see the castle and buy our train tickets to Vienna.

Potsdam - Sanssouci

2007-08-26T04:17:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to visit the Sanssouci castle and gardens at Potsdam. Julia had been there before, so I headed out on my own for a fun day of sight-seeing. It started with an S-bahn trip to Potsdam, then to the information booth at the train station to find the bus that led to Sanssouci. Here I encountered a quite unfriendly fellow. I asked, in German, if he spoke English — to which I received a sharp "No" in reply. I decided to continue with my question as it was very simple "Bus to Sanssouci?" That was followed by several eye-rolls and a blank stare at one of the employees colleagues. Then he asked "Tickets?" and I showed my transportation day pass — bus tickets were already covered. I said "No" in German, "Bus to Sannsouci?" — followed by another frown and eye-roll and "Tickets?"....

A friendly Germany lady stepped in and asked if she could help, which she did by translating in German to the info booth — the simple "Bus to Sansoucci?" Then man frown at me a sputtered a "6 9 5." So, I found my bus with the help of this woman, however, I can't but think this man was just being rude — the major attraction IS Sanssouci, and its pronounced the same in German as English. Its really a one word request he must receive multiple times a day... uggg, ok on to the Castle.

The Castle was amazing. I'm always a bit confused with the term castle in Germany. By American knowledge, a castle is "supposed" to look like that thing at Disneyland. But, a castle is actually a much broader term that encompasses many different styles of Royal homes. This castle was built in the 1700s and is completely overdone (in a good way). Baroque and rococo styling is throughout the castle, extremely ornate carvings, wall-moulding, furniture, paintings, fixtures and paneling. I really sets you back. The time involved without the luxurious dremel tools we have to day - unbelievable.

They don't allow photos on the inside, so you can visit the this link to get a sense of the interior decoration.

B-town

2007-08-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

So after the first 2 days Berlin has already shown itself from all sides.
After thunder and rain when we flew in the sun came out and it was hot for the remainder of the day and all of today.
After making the grand plans to go check out the Bauhaus museum right away, Lex let the jetleg take over and passed out.
So no museum.
But I did have the chance to get some general stuff done, exchange money, go to the bank, go to the store and so on.
I did forget that they charge you for every plastic bag so I already started carrying around a little shopping bag just in case we do decide to get something.
When Lex woke up we went with the subway to the centre for a walk around the Hackesche Hoefe.
This area has grown into a trendy bar scene, shopping and fashion area but has a lot of tourists.

(source: www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de)

Today Lex and I walked around Berlin for an hour and ppicked up my friend Bea from work. She works at one of Berlin's radio stations and she gave us a tour of the station, including the studio.
We then went to an area called Prenzlauer Berg. This area used to be home to the trendy cafe and bar scene and now it has a ton of young families. Bea's favorite Cafe, Anna Blume is there. We tried their specialty, Milchreiskuchen (Milkrice cake). The cafe (translated name Anna Flower) is the title of a famous german poem but it is also a reference to the fact that ther eis a flower store right next door. There is no wall between them so you get to eat your cake while looking at some great plants.
Later today my Dad came home early from work and my parents took us on a little tour of Potsdam. Parts of historic Potsdam have been put on the list of the UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage. There are beautiful houses and palaces everywhere. We went to the Schloss Cecilienhof where the Potsdam Conference had taken place after WWII. Right by there is a lake and a brewery and we had dinner there. Great view and Lex got his taste of German food and beer.

(source: www.potsdam.de)

The Plane, The Plane!

2007-08-22T04:37:00.000-07:00

Before this trip, I've never had a chance to fly First Class or as they're calling it now: Business Elite Class. Which seems to be, in my opinion, a more politically correct way of saying "First." On our flight from San Diego to New York, as well as on our flight from New York to Berlin, we had the chance to sit in these seats. Wow! The seating room was expansive, and that's the only part I was really expecting — on top of that: 5-course meals, free liquor (name your flavor), free movies... it really is the nicest way to travel. Those seats made the 11+ hours of flying much more tolerable. This isn't surprising to anyone who has traveled this way - but with it being my first time, I am extremely impressed.

As usual, we had delays at JFK - its was raining, and the airports were closing certain runways. So, we sat in the plane for over an hour, in line, waiting to take off. We did arrive 30 minutes late to Berlin, and arrived to rain there as well. It feels great though - with the recent hot days in San Diego, its a refreshing change.

On deck for today - we're starting out with the Bauhaus Museum - then on to other site-seeing until we become tired.

Finally

2007-08-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

we get to take a big vacation again.
This one is a lot better planned out than the trip we took 2 years ago - hopefully that won't result in less adventures and spontaneity.
Tomorrow morning we are leaving freakishly early to NYC and from then on to Berlin.
That is, if everything works out with the buddy passes.
Lex is taking this tiny little carry-on size bag and my bag weighs 47.5 lbs - classic.

I am super excited to get to Berlin and see my parents!
Since my little sis is starting College I will have to take an extra trip to go see her towards the end of my stay.

Everyone, wish up us luck that we won't only get on those planes but that we'll also score Business Class seats.
Next time hopefully from Berlin!

The Trip

2007-08-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

We finally have it all figured out and even decided to get some of the tickets and hotels in advance.
Here is our itinerary:

Berlin
08/22 - 08/26

Prague
08/26 - 08/29

Vienna
08/29 - 08/31

Budapest
08/31 - 09/04

The weather is pretty unpredictable these days, can be super hot or just cold and rainy. To be prepared for the latter Lex got us some see through rain ponchos. When I opened mine I realized that they come with pants as well. Part of me wishes it will rain one day just so I can put on the rain body armor and get a picture of it.

Charity

2005-06-02T02:32:00.000-07:00

I just looked over the pictures again and one thing stuck out:
The YELLOW HOODIE Lex is wearing in ALL of the pictures.
I need to start a collection box so that he can get a second one and he doesn´t look like he never changes. Feel free to pitch in. hehe

Last days...

2005-06-02T02:16:00.000-07:00

My last days are filled with cold weather (they´re trying to make it easy for me to leave) and a full schedule. On a side note: I finally got some pictures up, look to your left (clickable). Isn´t that just the coolest thing? Maybe a career in coding is right around the corner...
Met with 2 girls last night that I used to work with at EF. We had a really good time going to a couple of bars around Oranienburger Strasse (Schwarzer Rabe and Michi). It was really packed, and one bar by the next, restaurants, boutiques, clubs, there is definitely a crazy night life out here. Also the Oranienburger Strasse is famous for its hookers. I thought it was really odd walking by them being able to look them straight in the face and the guys who came to talk to them as well. I guess I am more used to not seeing that kind of stuff out in the open. And I totally caught myself thinking, she is pretty and doesn´t look like she is a drug addict or whatever, why do they do that? And for the guys (and this is really naive, just laugh at me): I was like, wow he looks so normal, even pretty good-looking, why?? Questions questions.
Also last time I checked prostitution was illegal in Germany, so either a lot has changed since I was last here or the unemployment situation is getting so bad that the police rather not put them out of their livelihood?!
Think I need to do some research.

Some Italy Pics are Up

2005-05-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

I have given up on connecting my laptop to the web here but Lex uploaded some Italy pics here. "Europe Trip 2005" Mine will be added as soon as I´m back.

Wedding Take 2

2005-05-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

The summer finally hit Germany...hard! I also knew that flying to Frankfurt to be at Silvi´s wedding would mean a lot of partying. A group of 6 old college friends met the day before the event at Kirsten´s house and completed all of our projects and of course got a chance to catch up on the last years and a chance to produce a lot of empty bottles, all this at 90 degrees!
We were all hung over the next morning but things only got started, we hopped in the cars and drove to Silvi´s parents house about an hour away. We sent the boys on some errands and had a female-pre-wedding-circle with the first bottle of champagne, the first presents and the first tears. I cried like 3 times on Saturday it was all very moving. After Silvi was sent off to complete her beautification routine we secretly went to their hotel room and decorated it, then checked into our rooms, prettified ourselves and went to the church. This church is in the most wonderful location, on a hill inmidst of green rolling fields. It was so hot that it was almost unbearbale - poor Silvi in her dress. The service was great, there was a great singer and a good sermon; our group of girlfriends took over one part were we read our wishes to the couple out loud. It made them cry, ha! After the church everyone went to the close castle Ronneburg. The guests went on a tour through the castle while the couple took a million pictures. Then the whole food-entertainment-dancing thing started. I cried again during Silvi´s Dad´s speech and during the opening dance. It was so good to see everyone and to see how happy Silvi was. Then Silvi´s parents had a surprise for her: They hired an enormous transvestite singing Germans hits from the 40ies-70ies. Although I wasn´t so sure in the beginning he did an awesome job and cracked everyone up. Everyone played a huge trick on me and I ended up with the bridal bouquet. German tradition has it that I have to dry the flowers and return them to Silvi on her first anniversary. Of course at the end of the night our group of friends was the last one standing. I guess we had a reputation to loose. Before catching my flight to Berlin we went to Silvi´s house again where we caught in a mountain of presents to say goodbye. Too bad I live so far away from them. Maike, Maren, Silvi, Kirsten love you!!

Madrid Reunion

2005-05-22T02:38:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I decided to make a surprise trip to Leipzig, around 200 km from Berlin. 2 girls that I met while I lived in Madrid live there and luck had it that also a foruth girl from Madrid was spending her vacation close by so we decided to meet up. It was a really good time we ended up sitting around the breakfast table and talking for 5 hours, we had a lot of catching up to do, I hadn´t seen some of them in 4 years.
There was a lot of eating but definitely also a lot of climbing, Bea lives on the 5th floor and we went up and down these stairs like 10 times. She also took me up a steep hill from where we had a fantastic view of the glisteing lights of Leipzig at night. We finished the night with a cider at Beas favorite Irish Pub KillyWilly or somethig like that and today I made it back home to Berlin right before the rain started again.

Barhopping

2005-05-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

Last night I really took advantage of Berlin´s nightlife. I had a a blast but can definitely tell that I am not used to staying out that late anymore.
First I met up with a friend from college who was in Berlin on business, we hadn´t seen each other in years, we met at a cocktailbar, Dante, at the Hackescher Markt. After that we took the train across town to a different bar called Maybach, where I met up with a bunch of people I used to work with for the International Student Exchange. From there a group of us left (by car thank god) to drive through Berlin again to a club called Matrix. My sis isn´t 18 yet and she got carded so unfortunately we didn´t make it into that one. We piled into the cars again (thank god we took the cars!!) and went to the Sophienclub at Hackescher Markt instead (looks like I should have just stayed there...). It was already 1 am when we got there. And guess who got carded at the entrance, ME! I decided to take it as a compliment. They had an interesting mix of music and we danced the night away, I got home at 5 I was sooo tired but had a great night.

More Berlin

2005-05-19T01:51:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I am spending this week with my sister. The parents are on their honeymoon and I made it a point to not call anyone but to really hang out with her. She is off from school this week. It is so cool to see what a great person she has become. I still can´t believe that she is almost 18 (I think for me she stopped getting older right around 15) and she is just such a happy, positive, interesting wonderful person. She is running a 10K Women´s Race tomorrow. Just because. And yesterday we walked around Berlin for 5 hours rediscovering all the architecture and streets and little cafes and boutiques that I once knew so well. She is up for anything, so last night I took her to see a play put on stage by 'Friends of the Italian Opera' . They only show productions in english. The one they played yesterday featured a lot of British and Scottish accents which were challenging to understand at times. It was really good, the main character was so well-played that both of us passionately hated him at the end.

Berlin

2005-05-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

Wedding Notes

2005-05-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

My long-felt apprehension to attend the wedding of Jurgen and Brigitte was quickly drown the night before the wedding as we sipped wine, beer, and a potent berry schnapps past 1 in the morning. I had the chance to meet a number of friends and relatives both before, during, and after the wedding. I must say that it was a trip highlight as most tourists do not have the chance to be right in the middle of a family event and experience the conversations, laughs, and company. Some of the folks I met were from Berlin, others from the Netherlands and Prague. Wherever I could, I tried to converse about ways of life, compared to how I or "we" tend to live in San Diego. I enjoyed chatting with everyone. One surprise was the amount of people that want to talk with me, simply to brush-up on their English. It was an unexpected pleasure.

Soaking up Berlin

2005-05-18T01:15:00.000-07:00

As a belated birthday present my sis took me out last night to the Bar jeder Vernunft (a word game, although 'Bar' means bar, the whole expression translates to: not reasonable at all).
It´s a Cabaret/Canchson/Concert/Comedy place, in a small circus tent that has a lot of mirrors on the sides, they call it the Mirror Tent. We saw a performance by Cora Frost which was very interesting, she has a fabulous voice and had a great band. What probably impressed me most though was that she had a mechanical cat, white and furry that could meow loudly and nod its head and she used it in some of her songs. Too funny.
Lex, if I can´t get a real cat maybe one like that?

Minus One Travelpartner

2005-05-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

Lex´s last day! I can´t even believe how quickly 2 weeks have passed by.
The weather today sucked again, it rained on the way to the airport and back. Luckily not strong enough to get the leak in my room started again though. After seeing off Lex I got to wait in line for 2 hours to renew my german ID (I just LOVE the german system) and drive by the party location to retrieve a jacket that someone left after the wedding. (Asking myself: How is it possible not to notice that you´re missing your jacket when it is raining like hell outside??)
Then the only 4 hrs of sleep of the night before caught up with me, as well as a cold and a sore throat and I decided to retreat to the couch with a blanket, Disney movies and tea. And then the DVd player refused to play back anything else but black and white and fuzzy. Was too weak to care though. Noticed that Aladdin is way better in color. When my Dad gets back from his honey moon he gets to fix that, lucky him :)

A Nice Day in Berlin

2005-05-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

Finally the sun came out! After having endured grey days with tons of rain also rain IN the house, we had blue skies!
We made use of this lovely day by checking out the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin, it´s rather small and off the beaten path but had an interesting exhibition about a german architect who built like every single cool building after the 2nd Wold War and some other furniture and jewelry Bauhaus stuff.

Then at last I could show Lex some of Berlin´s cafe culture by having a nice lunch outside in the sun.

Initially we were just going to admire the outside of the new Jewish Museum building, by architect Daniel Libeskind, but once I was standing in front of it I couldn´t help myself but go inside. It´s a great museum, I´ve never seen anything that interactive, it´s huge, showcasing more than 2000 years of jewish culture and history. I also really liked the fact that it wasn´t all about the holocaust.If you´re ever in Berlin, you should go.

The Party goes on and on and on...

2005-05-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

After three days of celebrating I am completely exhausted but my parents are married!
A lot of relatives came to Berlin and we started celebrating the night before the ceremony. The weather in Berlin had not been too friendly but finally on Friday it was all sunny and blue skies. After a rather formal ceremony in the town hall of Charlottenburg they got a big surprise from some of their friends. They presented them with a white box outside the building with the instructions to carefully open the box. And out came flying two white doves, it was very movie-like. Then the second part of the festivities started and the whole family went to a restaurant and the big eating drinking celebrating thing started. In the evening everyone needed a break just to return to more food and drink to our house late at night. I was soo tired! Then on Saturday the weather turned to crap again and the guests who were invited to the big party had to get to the venue through crazy rain. The dancing classes for my parents had paid off and they elegantly danced the first waltz. My Dad was in such a good mood that he danced all night, we rocked out to the Stones at 3 AM on the dancefloor, it was a trip! Everyone had a super night, foreseeing the extent of the event I had brought comfy shoes just in case and I was right - my parents kept going until 4 am!

Siena – The Food

2005-05-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

The best food I’ve had on the trip was at the Spadeforte restaurant in the plaza. This was a pasta dish: mushroom cream sauce along with a slight dusting of truffles on top.. delicious. I was recommend this type of dish by Julia’s father Jurgen. And I too would recommend it to anyone!

Siena – Gothic Architecture

2005-05-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

Many art history classes in the past weren’t enough to prepare me for the amazement of a Gothic Church. The overabundance of decoration and detail in the cathedral walls, sculpture, mosaic floors was amazing. I know Julia has seen such sights, she must of thought I appeared like a child in a to store the way I couldn’t take my eyes off of the church. We visited the plaza, the cathedral, the crypt, and the Museo del Opera which housed several gothic triptychs and sculptures. The crypt was especially interesting as it was in the midst of being restored. Several painters were adding new life to the original frescos. Due to the confined environment, and being covered in dirt for so long, the frescos in the crypt are a rare example of the true color pigments used in that time.

Siena - The Arrival

2005-05-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the train station in Siena - no room, no food, no idea where to go. I'd mentioned that we should simply ask for "hotel central", we did - in a way, and luckily the taxi driver thought we meant hotels near the center of town which was the exact location of all the sites. A very fast ride through narrow streets, coming within inches of knocking pedestrians over finally delivered us to several hotel options. I've never been in such tight and narrow streets, and not one road followed a straight line. After checking with one hotel that was full, we found another: Tre Donzelle. After a brief shock that the room was going to cost 1,460 euro, we realized it was only going to cost 46 euro! There were several reasons for this though: 1) no bathroom in our room, we shared a bathroom with a number of guests one floor below. 2) ambiance: the room was cold plaster with brown vinyl flooring, a simple sink and a few metal chairs. We could only relate the atmosphere to that of an insane asylum. Immediately after arriving, the power went out and alarms sounded. The problem was quickly resolved. None-the-less, it was only for one night and the price was right!

Sippin vino in Siena

2005-05-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

After a LONG train ride we made it to Siena. We didn t have a hotel and took the gamble to have a taxi driver drop us off right in the middle of everything to go and find one. At the second place we got lucky. Turns out that it was a room with an atmosphere rather like a hospital room but it was clean and cheap. Siena itself was very impressive, medieval Il Campo and the Duomo gothic galore, everything within narrow streets in the old town. Italians are all very stylish and have a contest who is waering the biggest glasses. And for some reason a lot of guys have mullets not sure what kind of a fashion statement that is.
Kind of weird: we kept seeing other tourists again that we had 'people watched' in oter palces, seems like we took a popular route. I swear I will come back smaller: my feet hurt so bad from walking around for thousands of miles every day, i think I flatified them.

Riding the Train in Italy

2005-05-11T01:49:00.000-07:00

We had quite the experience.
From Pisa via La Stancia to Vernazza, from Vernazza via La Stancia and Empoli to Siena.
Let me just say that. The only thing you can rely on is that things are not going to be moving according to plan. The trains were in great condition and comfortable to ride, the tickets were pretty cheap as well. In the beginning we thought about getting a rental but after taking a look at traffic etc I was glad we didn t. We got a good look at the countryside out of the train windows and a good look at the population. It seems that a lot of schoolkids are riding the trains to school.
It was always a bit of a gamble though because there were absolutely no signs announcing what train was going where and the constant delays and changes of platforms sent us into confusions a number of times. But we always got where we wanted to. And on the last day I bought our tickets at a ticket machine instead of having to ask someone, sweet!

Vernazza Part II

2005-05-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous dinner and great Cinque Terre-ian wine overlooking the ocean. LOVE the italian food. Definitely had to try the tiramisu. After all that food I had a hard time getting down all those steep stairs again. I felt like I was rolling my way down. All the houses are built on top of the cliffs so basically going anywhere means stairs stairs stairs. And it s so pretty. After the eating binge the jetlag tiredness kicked in and I slept for like 10 hours. And woke up with 9 moskito bites, not pretty! But then we were ready to go at like 8 am and found a Sicilian bakery with some crazy fried Ricotta cheese filled pastries for breakfast. After that we dared to go on one of the walks or hikes I should say. We found an almost overgrown pathway that lead us high up over the town, passing by an old fallen apart bell tower and by the local cemetery. We arrived at a plateau overlooking the green hills full of grape vines and the glistening Mediterranean. It was warm and sunny and the view definitely made up for the steep hike!

Vernazza

2005-05-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Schlepped the bags to the train station and boarded a train to Vernazza, Cinque Terra. Its nice and sunny out and although its not tourist season yet, they re everywhere! Ok, i really shouldn t bitch about this since we belonmg to them. Had an interesting experience with an Italian bathroom at the train station in La Spezia. It was a hole in the ground. I don t know how italian women do it but i was glad i was wearing a skirt. Vernazza is very beautiful, houses are built on green slopes on the cliffs. The mediterranean is sparkling blue and we will have dinner at a restaurant on the cliff in a little while. Life is good :)

Germany to Italy

2005-05-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

Wow... thats all that i can say. The beginning was a bit rough with the loss of our luggage, jet lag and all. But, the luggage was found, I received a great quick tour of Berlin and Potsdam seeing the exteriors of just about all that I had on my list. Then it was off to Pisa. I questioned in my mind whether Pisa would contain the things I was hoping to find in Italy... the questions were quickly answered after landing, a quick ride to the hotel, and a half a block walk to the Duomo to see the tower and Cathedral at night. It was beautiful. Then on to Vernazza... I have to admit the train ride here was amazing, just to see the Tuscan country side, where crops are grown, marble is mined and the houses stand apart versus in the city. And then Vernazza... amazing! though quite touristy, this little town is tucked tightly in a valley right next to the Mediterranean.The building are packed together, and there are locals and tourists sitting everywhere enjoying wine, and fine weather. It really is a scene directly out of a book (that is for an American that has never been to Europe).

La Bella Italia

2005-05-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here we are! Pisa is smaller and has way less to see than I thought, but I guess thats ok since we have some major travelling planned.We went to the leaning tower and the Duomo late at night after we arrived which was great because there werent any people around.Its really cold at night but our hotelroom has enough blankets and is very nice. Jetlag is still present but I am fighting it. Bar Zero in Pisa had a hard time getting a Campari Orange and a Vodka Tonic together, I wonder what the Italians drink. And also I need to brush up my italian, I suck, its embarrassing. Lex is being a tourist and snapping 100s of pictures.

A scene from Airport Berlin SXF

2005-05-08T07:22:00.000-07:00

Lex and Julia are checked in to fly to Pisa. Lex walks into the travel store at the airport and wants to buy a bottle of water.

Lex (in english): I only have €50 is that too big?

Evil Vendor Lady (in german): This is unbelievable, I just don t get it, unbelievable... [Grouchy face. Not looking at us or reacting to his question]

Julia (ha surprise I understood! in german): What is the matter why are you being so unfriendly?

Evil Vendor Lady: [VERY grouchy because of having been caught] I am not a currency exchange.

Lex: has no idea what is going on just stands there and watches

Julia: [getting very pissed] Well he asked you if it was too big and you didn t answer if you would have said something I could have just paid you with something else. [ Whole money transaction happens] You could really be a little more friendly.

Evil Vendor Lady: I don t know why you re making such a fuss I wasn t unfriendly to you.

Julia [ Aggro-meter has reached a peak] GASP! You were being very unfriendly to my boyfriend which is the same. I really don t understand why you are acting like that. Not a great way to get customers.

Evil Vendor Lady: Try working, then you will find out what I mean.

WHAT ?????
This is why they call it service desert Germany!

It wasn't meant to be

2005-05-08T05:21:00.000-07:00

3 hours before we were supposed to take off for Italy, Delta finally tracked down our bags. Yipee! It is still raining and cold but now at least I have a jacket! Due to the extra trip to the airport to pick everything up ( at this point I didn't want to rely on any delivery services) I didn't have enough time to go and see Karin who was only in Berlin for that weekend :( Bugger as the british would say but Bella Italia here we come

"These Germans look Suspicously Tan"

2005-05-07T01:07:00.000-07:00

I still don't quite know what Lex was getting at but he looked around in the airplane via Berlin and made this observation. I set off a series of unfortunate events by commenting on how smooth everything had gone when we were safely boarded in JFK via Berlin. We spent the next 2 hours in JFK on the runway after that... The only thing there is to say about the flight is that I have seen air sickness bags in action for the first time ever. When we finally arrived in Berlin it was (and still is) COLD and it rains. So it is suspicious after all to see tan Germans I guess. Oh and minor inconvenience: our luggage is still not here. Did I mention that we are flying to Italy tonight and don't have any clothes?And that stores aren't open on Sundays in Germany so I can't buy any? There is still lots of room for improvement here...

Tired but happy - We made it to Berlin!

We're packed and How much is too much?

2005-05-05T23:50:00.000-07:00

Feels so unreal that tomorrow German time I will be back in Berlin. If we don't miss the plane. We already scheduled a cab but my confidence in their timliness at 5 am is pretty nonexistent. Also keep remembering things I forgot for work.
Am glad that luggage can get checked through, there is no way I could carry all of my stuff. Really when you think about it you shouldn't be allowed to bring more than you can carry but I guess that's a good thing for me.