Tuesday 7.9.2010

Got up, bid good-bye to my farmer friend and trekked to the new hostel. It was wonderful. Very clean, lots of people, a legitimate key for my room door, a locker in which to put my stuff, and a laundry room (forgot to mention the last one didn’t even have one of those!). And this one was only two Euros more per night. I should stop being such a cheapskate. I left my stuff there and went to go see Innsbruck. Walked around downtown for a while. I don’t think any super eventful happened. Innsbruck is a nice mountain town. I went up to this one neighbourhood on a hill and sat down in front of this church and ate some grocery store food. There was a very good view of the city below. It was nice.

Eventually went down and headed back to the hostel (they’d let me leave my big bag of clothing there but I couldn’t check in until after 15:00). At the hostel, I checked in, put my stuff in my room, and did laundry. Washing and drying clothes cost €3,30. This was actually not too bad, as doing laundry in some other hostels at which I’d stayed were like €5 or the equivalent in the local currency. Washing and drying clothes took a long time, so I bought Internet (again had to buy it but I got it for 24 hours, instead of like, half an hour at the last place). I worked on my paper for class and ate some food and talked to people on AIM. Joe Kelly and I discussed Flogging Molly. While I was working there a bunch of kids (they were native English speakers, not sure where from though, possibly a bunch of places) came in and started making dinner and listening loudly to some rather terrible music. I put in my earphones and cranked up Flogging Molly. Eventually though they turned off the music and offered me some of the pasta they’d made. I’d already eaten (I was eating mostly carrots. You really get a craving for fruit and vegetables in Europe, especially the German-speaking countries), but upon later reflection I realised I should have eaten the spaghetti anyway and tried to make friends with them, since they were English speakers and my age and probably going out later. Anyway, eventually they left and my laundry was finished. I’d gotten a good deal of work done on my paper. I decided to head out. Upon returning to my room I met a roommate, this guy from Spain. He didn’t speak English very well, but was fun to talk to. After folding my laundry I headed out. I decided to look for this castle that was on my map. I think it was called Schloß Ambras or something.

Anyway it turned out not to be a super great idea. It was already dark, and I had to walk through some slightly scary, empty side streets to get there. I got to see the less touristy part of Innsbruck though, I guess. At one point I noticed it was smelling more and more strongly of shit, but eventually I walked past the source: a barn that housed cows. God, it reeked. Anyway, that was something I wouldn’t have expected in Innsbruck. On the way up the hill upon which is the castle I met this Italian bus driver. He was trying to find this hotel, and driving up these tiny, steep streets up this mountain. We examined maps and I tried to help him find where he was going. He seemed nice though. Anyway, finally found the castle but it was of course closed. (Das Schloss war geschlossen! But it was like 10 or 11 by this time, so what did I expect?) After confirming there was nothing to do there, I headed back down and found this fence which offered a good view of the city. I sat down upon it and with some difficulty lit a cigar with matches. I went through quite a few matches. But finally succeeded. I then opened a bottle of dunkles Weißbier (with the bottle opener I got from Andechs, which says Andechs on it and has a quite nice wooden handle and cost like €1,95. It will make a nice addition to our apartment next year. I think Devin will be thrilled to open beer bottles with it). Smoking and drinking! Look what Europe’s done to me. Anyway I headed back down, went a bit of different way than I came up, but with the help of my trusty compass managed to find my way back to the hostel before midnight. Went to bed.

A notebook in a church in which people could write their prayers. It says: Dear God, I pray for you to help me! In the next week I have a lot of schoolwork and therefore I pray for you to help me. Every week I go once or twice to church and pray! If I don't go to church, then I pray in the evening in my bed. I hope and wish that you can help me! Thank you!

Glockenspiel, More Awesome German Food, Innsbruck

Monday 6.9.2010

Went to a place that the awesome Austrian old guy at Andechs recommended for Weißwürstel. It was okay. I don’t think the waiter much liked me though. He seemed mad I didn’t eat any pretzels, but I think if I had he would have charged extra, so whatever.

Walked around Munich a bit. Went to the Englischer Garten, then headed to the Glockenspiel for the famous noon performance. Not that stimulating, really. The Glockenspiel didn’t start until a few minutes after noon, in fact, because at noon all the churches ring their bells, so you wouldn’t have been able to hear it. Clever. The Glockenspiel is in the new, beautiful, huge neo-Gothic (or perhaps actually Gothic) Rathaus, by the way. Anyway the Glockenspiel plays this slow, kitsch kind of music, and these little rotating figures of people in traditional Bavarian garb spin around for your delight. At one point these two armoured knights on horseback joust; they’re rotating in opposite directions and pass one another. I think one of them kind of falls back as though he’d been hit. Anyway it’s a rather lengthy thing, and at the end this golden rooster on top crows three times. I believe their was also crowing involved at the Olomouc and Prague astronomical clocks to signal the end?

After the Glockenspiel I trekked through the Englischer Garten for a while to find a beer garden. The one I wanted was kind of far away, but it was on a lake. It turned out to be worth it though. There was a nice lake and I got sausage and Pommes Frites (French fries) and Weißbier.

Started walking back to the hostel, but realised I wouldn’t catch my train in time, so I ambled around waiting for the next one. Got the train to Innsbruck. At Innsbruck, got a map at the train station (it cost a Euro; in Vienna it was free and in Munich it was 40 cents). Walked around asking after the bus I needed to take to get to my hostel. Finally found it and realised I’d rather just walk because it would be faster and cheaper. Walked to my hostel and had to cross the river Inn and pass the church of St. Nikolaus, which were both nice. The hostel lady was friendly but it turned out to be rather sketchy. The room was in a separate building and I had to walk through this kind of dark alley that had some sort of construction going on. Then there was no lock on the room door. There was really not enough space for both the people and their luggage there.  There was no age limit, so in my room were a couple older European guys who were staying there because it was the cheapest place in Innsbruck. They smelled heavily of cheap tobacco and sat around in their underwear (briefs!) which was extra gross because they were old and overweight. They probably harboured lecherous thoughts of the young girls there. Anyway I met some nice people in my room though. The girl on the bunk below mine was an American from . . . I want to say . . . Washington state. She went to that one university near the Canadian border. Western Washington University maybe. I could look it up if I had the Internet, but I’m typing this on a train from Vienna to Salzburg. Anyway she was working on an organic farm near Salzburg, through some program that puts kids on organic farms everywhere. She had free room and board I guess, and she’d studied some German (I think her grandmother was Austrian?) and wanted to practice. Anyway, she’d also just finished her freshman year. She was pretty nice. She was staying in Innsbruck for about a week, and had gone hiking that day. We also met this other couple that came in. I think he was Canadian (from Toronto?) and she was from New Zealand. She was really cute and had an accent to match. Anyway they were nice. He let me look through his guidebook thing, and the talked to us for a while and were friendly.

But in any case the hostel sucked, so I bought some Internet time (I hate it when hostels make you pay for Internet use) and looked up another hostel in Innsbruck, this one farther from downtown and part of Hostelling International.

Andechs Brewery and Tipsy Taboo with Australians

Sunday 5.9.2010

Andechs today! You take a train to the end of the line, and then hike up this mountain for a while to get to a monastery that has brewed beer since like, the fifteenth century. It’s supposed to be an hour hike up there, but I walk rather fast and got there in less time. Got good beer (Doppelbock Dunkel) and a food called Schweinehaxe, a bunch of pork around a bone with crispy skin. I met the friendliest couple. She was from Bavaria, he was from Austria. They were super friendly and gave me some recommendations for Bavaria. We spoke for a while, and mostly in German. The Bavarians seem to understand my accent a bit better than Austrians. The guy was describing to me this baked thing that Austrians eat. It’s called an Ausgezognet (probably misspelled that) and comes from ausziehen, to take off one’s clothes. I didn’t remember was ausziehen meant, so the guy was explaining to me. And he said (in German), “Imagine a beautiful woman. Now without clothes.” He did it in the funniest way. He was really good natured. His wife (or possibly girlfriend, I didn’t see any rings and she seemed to have a daughter by someone else) kind of rolled her eyes, and he laughed and said she hated it when he described it that way.

After a while I went to get more beer. I saw some stuff I hadn’t seen before on the menu and asked the cashier what Russ’n is. He was describing it to me, but my German wasn’t good enough to understand everything. I think he said it was some sort of wheat beer and Radler (beer and lemonade) combination. Anyway I asked if it was good, he said yes, and I ordered a litre of it. He asked, “Klein?” and I said, “Groß” and he said, “Groß?” then kind of shrugged his shoulders in an “It’s your funeral, buddy” kind of gesture. I should have read more into this. Turns out I don’t really like Russ’n. It was kind of sweet. I mean, I wouldn’t turn it down on a hot day, but I didn’t like it that much and a litre was definitely too much. I should have gone with my original plan and ordered a litre of Weißbier. However, I really wanted to try the Weißbier, so after I finished the litre of Russ’n I got a half-litre of Weißbier and sat down next to a Chinese couple and drank that. They spoke some English and German and said they were working in Munich. Anyway, don’t judge me because this is my theory: Germany brews the best beer in the world. Bavaria brews the best beer in Germany. Munich brews the best beer in Bavaria. And Andechs brews the best beer in Munich. So I was at the place that serves the best beer in the entire world. So I drank as much as possible. Two and a half litres, to be exact.

After Andechs I got back to my room and the aforementioned Australians and Canadian were playing Taboo. I joined (though I had been planning on hiking to Nymphenberg) and got dubbed Mr. Panties as the clue was “I’m not wearing any . . .” and I shouted, “panties!” The answer was, in fact, socks. After this we played cards, and eventually moved to the hostel bar. I got a Paulaner dark and met a cool Scottish guy and an older Northern Irish guy.

To Munich

Saturday 4.9.2010

Got up too early for receptionists to get there so we lost our €10 key deposit. Boo!

Went to a grocery store place.

Went to the train station, I got a schedule for Prague to Munich so I’d know the stops. Said goodbye to Martha and she got on her bus. I waited around for my train.

The Czech train conductor who checked (lol) my train ticket didn’t speak English and was trying to tell me that the car I was in did not go all the way to Munich. Fortunately the lady sitting across from me spoke both Czech and English, and I got to a car that would take me to Munich, which it did. Took notes for my paper on the way.

Got to Munich and found my hostel all right. It’s called Wombat’s and it’s run by yet more Aussies! I can’t escape them! Also two of my roommates tonight are Aussies.

Went out exploring the downtowny part of Munich, then decided to go to a beerhouse near the university that is supposed to be a favourite of the students when they’re in session. I went in and got a dunkles Weißbier (dark wheat beer, pretty much the best kind of beer) and ended up sitting next to these two English chaps that had been living in Munich for some months. We got to talking and they gave me a lot of recommendations. I think I might go to Turin instead of Milan.

Explored my way back to the hostel, smoked the last vanilla cigarillo on the way (but lit it with a MATCH, dammit!)

On they way got a towel (overpriced! I miss my old cheap better towel that I stupidly left in Prague) and went to the grocery store, but their beer selection was terrible and they didn’t have shaving cream, so I ended up just getting cookies.

Redeemed the ticket thing the hostel people gave me for a free small beer. It was bad, by Munich standards, but would have been good in the States.

Went back out and went to the main square (Marienplatz) which has the Glockenspiel in it. Didn’t really find anything to do though. Looked for a Würstelstand and a Tabak but didn’t find either. Starting to miss Vienna. Wandered my way through some less main streets to the hostel. The Internet here is super fucking slow. However these two Asian guys are rooming with me. They aren’t fluent in English but seem pretty nice. There are only two electrical outlets that I’ve found in the room. One of the guys had his stuff plugged in the one by the table so I was sitting on the floor typing this up, and he wasn’t using the table so he came over and told me I could sit there. Nice guy. Two Australian girls (previously mentioned) and a Canadian girl are also staying here, but they must not be back yet. Hopefully they’ll stay another night, maybe we can go do something tomorrow.

The famous Glockenspiel on the Munich Rathaus in Marienplatz.

Around Prague

Friday 3.9.2010

The notes I made about today:

Got up and looked up some hostels, we were determined to find another.

Went to the train station to look up transportation to Stuttgart for Martha. She found that a bus was the cheapest option, so she booked that.

Got some food.

Found a hostel we didn’t like and a hostel we liked. During the walk to find hostels, we both wore a pack on our back and a pack on our chest. We drank some beer as we walked, and looked so much like tourists that the only salvation for our dignity was to laugh at ourselves and take pictures.

Walked around old town, took a free walking tour. It was pretty informational. It was done by some company that I guess put it on to advertise their services. The tour guides took tips. Also on this tour was a dude with a pretty gnarly moustache, pictured below.

Eventually got bored of the walking tour and left.

Church with severed hand. There is this old hand hanging on a pole. The legend goes that a thief attempted to steal something from the church one night, and the statue of Mary grabbed his wrist, and would not let him go. They found him the next morning, trapped. Rather than harming the statue, they cut off the thief's hand, and hung it above the church as a warning to all who would steal from the Church.

Cathedral, but mass was going on.

St. Nicholas church, not that great.

Back to hostel.

From Olomouc to Prague

Thursday 2.9.2010

We got up and started walking around downtown Olomouc. There is this one square where they have a big commemorative sculpted pillar. It was some sort of holiday or anniversary of the city, and an artist was creating a sand sculpture of the capstone mural thing on the pillar. It was pretty cool.

As I mentioned before, I packed very light for the journey, and considering it would be summer, decided not to bring any sort of jacket or sweater. Martha was very concerned about this when she found out and had been insisting I get one since we left Vienna. I had been using a sweater borrowed from the hostel, but we decided to go shopping that day. Like all my other female travelling companions in Europe, Martha wanted to go into a bunch of stores and browse around but not buy anything, and comment on how cute a bunch of items were, and hold up clothing to ask me what I thought, which never elicited much more than a shrug and a noncommittal pair of syllables (this should surprise no one who is familiar with my fashion sense). She also kept insisting I buy jewelry for my female relatives, which didn’t happen. Anyway, we browsed a bunch of stores and met no English speakers. A lot of the clothing stores were kind of designer, and on the expensive side. I found one bookstore which excited me. I was tempted to buy a chemistry book in Czech just for the hell of it, but did not. I did buy a map of Rome in Czech, against my anticipation of going there later. It was a pretty cool little pocket map, and when you opened it, these bigger inner maps kind of unfolded in a cool way. Anyway it was a pretty nice little map, and though some words were in Czech, all of the street names and everything were in Italian, so there was no language barrier. I made great use of it in Rome, and by the end of my Roman adventure it was pretty beaten up. More about that later. I also succeeded in finding a jacket. It was at a second-hand store so it was pretty cheap, and exactly what I wanted: a zip-up with fleece or cotton or something on the inside to keep me warm, but a harder layer (polyester or plastic or something) on the outside to keep the wind out. Also I get to wear it around the United States and tell people I bought it in the Czech Republic. It’s nice because it’s not too hot, and good when the main problem is wind chill, not the actual temperature. Anyway, enough about that. There was also this folk store with a bunch of odds and ends, and among them were some weapons; I saw swords, knives, and an axe.

We also bought vanilla cigarillos, which are these kind of small flavoured ciagrs with a wooden sort of mouthpiece which you use to smoke it, and the wooden mouthpiece is soaked in vanilla flavouring, so it’s altogether delicious. And they’re individually wrapped and you don’t have to cut them so they’re easy to light. Basically, cigarillos would rock pretty hard if they didn’t cause lung cancer. We watched the astronomical clock at noon. An astronomical clock is this thing they have in Europe, where you’ve got a giant tower with a clock on it, but there’s also this other dial with a bunch of hands that kind of tell you wear the celestial bodies are, if you have any idea how to read it. I was told in later in Prague that the astronomical part of an astronomical clock didn’t really work because at the time it was created human understanding of astronomy was not yet entirely accurate. Also that the guy who made the clock for either Olomouc or Prague (I can’t remember which) was murdered by the authorities to prevent him from building another clock for another city, so the Czechs could have the best clock EVAR.

After visiting a café where the servers spoke English (our Aussies had recommended it to us) and our cappuccinos came in square mugs with an adorable little metal pitcher of cream on the side, we said goodbye to Olomouc and got the train to Prague. Our first action, of course, was to find the hostel we’d booked. The building it was in seemed kind of new but we didn’t like it for some reason (I don’t remember why, specifically). Martha in particular didn’t like it. We were in a room with yet another Australian. They were out in force that summer. Later I would meet even more. I asked this Australian, whose name was (and probably still is) Scott, and who was from Brisbane, whether he had heard of Architecture in Helsinki, an Australian band that I particularly enjoy but of which most Americans have never heard. He said he had. Francie and Greg were also familiar with them. Tom had never heard of them. He kept trying to get me to sing one of their songs to see if he’d recognise it, but I only sing in the shower. I eventually had him listen to some tracks on my iPod and he didn’t recognise any.

Anyway, we went out to explore Prague. There was this little corner store we grew to like. They had German Weißbier, iced coffee drinks (I forgot to mention that Martha for some reason loves iced coffee beverages that are sold in refrigerator sections of European stores), and so forth. Martha bought cigarettes (for shame!). We walked around and got street food. Prague has all of these little food stands that sell “German” (nothing like German/Austrian) sausages, this sandwich full of cocktail wieners, a breaded chicken patty sandwich, and this breaded cheese thing. Martha put a whole bunch of mayonnaise all over everything she ate, which I found pretty gross. I don’t like mayonnaise at all, though I’m fond of some mayo-based foods, like ranch dressing and potato salad. We were pretty sure one of the street vendors was over-charging the tourists on purpose to make a little bank for herself. We also walked around by the river and smoked our cigarillos.

Prague! Beer! Zac! Happy!

After a while we settled down on a bench in this park thing in front of a church and had a long philosophical conversation about architecture, and what an architect leaves behind when s/he dies. Do they prefer to be remembered by the beautiful, long-lasting buildings they created, or the personal impacts they made on peoples’ lives, as a human being, maybe a parent or spouse? It was a good conversation. Of course we also talked about religion. We always do that. Martha is a Catholic and a religious studies major, and I find what she has to say interesting. Anyway we talked for quite a while outside of this church, then returned to the hostel.

The philosophy-inspiring church.

In Olomouc

Wednesday 1.9.2010

The next morning, we got up and went to explore Olomouc. After walking around town for a bit, we decided to find breakfast. We finally decided on this bar. We went in and sat down. Bars have this thing where you have a choice of a couple meals every day. Not much option, you’ve kind of got to cross your fingers. The menu was brought to us. It was all in Czech. This is the place to mention Olomouc was the only place I visited on my entire trip in which no one (except the hostel owners and guests) spoke English. Everywhere else, almost everyone was conversational in English. So, this menu was all in Czech. Martha is fluent in Polish. Polish and Czech are both Slavic languages and Martha could kind of guess what things meant. However, the only thing she could get from the menu was that the meal was probably chicken. The waitress seemed to be in a foul mood that day, and took an immediate disliking to us, probably because we were in a good mood and foreign. We tried ‘Mloovite Anglitsky?’ which the ‘Learn Czech!’ thing at the hostel said meant ‘Do you speak English?’ The waitress replied negatively, and was trying to ask us something about our order, but we were completely befuddled. She left in a huff, returned a minute later, slammed her finger down on the menu and shouted, ‘Soup!’ I guess she must have gone to look up the English word for soup in some Czech-English dictionary, or ask a friend or something. Anyway, the question was still unclear but we saw no alternative but to mime something positive, like giving her a thumbs-up and nodding. We did not succeed in befriending the waitress, but we did succeed in getting food, which was pretty delicious. I think it was some sort of soup, a chicken dish with French fries, and a juice-like drink.

Next we explored the town. We were trying to find the archdiocese museum that Francie had recommended to us. I think it was free on Wednesdays. On the way we passed an orthodox church, which was pretty cool because it was in a pink building. Martha liked it because she’s a religious studies major, and pointed out to me the differences between orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. We reached what we thought was the archdiocese museum on account of the religious statues on the roof. Then we saw an ambulance drive into it. After some deliberation, we decided that we had in fact reached a hospital and started heading in the direction of the actual archdiocese museum.

We found and entered the museum, which was pretty good. It was, however, quite a different museum-going experience than any I had experience before. It was manned by a bunch of elderly Czechs. They were very kindly, but didn’t speak a word of English. At every sort of intersection or divergence in paths in the building, there was a white-haired old Czech lady standing guard and making sure all the visitors went in the correct direction so they might see every room in the museum. A couple times, we thought we were done with the museum and tried to leave, but the aged guardians kept blocking our retreat and pointing us in the direction of a new wing. For the final segment, we were made to put on these kind of slippers. They were very difficult to walk in without having your foot slip out, so I did this kind of sting-ray-shuffle thing to get around (I was wearing my customary flip-flops), at the sight of which Martha couldn’t help from laughing.

Anyway, we finally managed to escape the museum and went in the adjacent cathedral, which had pictures of John Paul II’s visit there, and was in general pretty awesome and Gothic. We also saw a church called Our Lady of the Snow and another called St. Michael’s which I believe is the one with the giant organ. In St. Michael’s is this little puddle of water, in this sort of cave beneath church which you can enter, which is called Caesar’s Pool and is supposedly the reason for the founding of Olomouc. I guess Caesar found the pool on one of his campaigns and decided to found a city there since they had fresh water. We also went up into the bell tower of St. Michael’s. They had three or four bells and each one showed how much had been paid for it. They were pretty durn expensive.

Eventually we wound our way back to the hostel, and while Martha took a nap, I went upstairs to the common room. There I entered into conversation with Tom and Yana. I said that Yana spoke English with an Australian accent from spending so much time around Aussies at the hostel. Tom didn’t agree. Yana said that when she used to hang out with Americans more, she said ‘like’ all the time when she spoke English. I laughed and said that a favourite pastime of mine was sitting on buses and listening to two American girls talk, and counting the number of times they said ‘like.’ But a funny thing happened. I couldn’t tell that store without saying ‘like’ every three seconds myself! I noticed this and made an honest attempt to continue without the superfluous word, but it was impossible. Tom and Yana were both amused to the point of laughter. I couldn’t believe it! I am truly unable to speak for any length of time without inserting like into my sentences far more times than necessary. It’s kind of weird, especially as that doesn’t happen when I write. So it seems I don’t think the word ‘like’ very often, but it’s kind of a habit when I speak. Since that day, I have tried to be as conscientious about my use of the detestable l-word as possible. I have also noticed that all my American friends say it very often. Particularly my female friends, like, say it, like, every other word.

We started discussing language barriers and Tom told us of some of this travels. He had been to China alone, to a more rural part, and been completely unable to even guess anything he read or heard. He said it was exhilarating to really step out of your comfort zone like that. He was trying to get somewhere and a kindly Chinese family took pity on him and helped him get onto a truck with them to ride to wherever it was he was headed. They took him to dinner and ordered him food, and he bought the meal for himself and the entire family, and it only amounted to the equivalent of $5 (Australian dollars, I assume). The family was very grateful.

Martha and I went to a nearby grocery store (a European chain called Billa, which was also in Vienna) to get beer and food. When checking out, I couldn’t find the little screen that displayed the price of my purchase, and the cashier and I didn’t have a language in common, so I ended up holding out all my Czech currency and they picked the appropriate amount out of my hands. Martha laughed at me and told me there was a screen with the amount. I cooked and ate Käsekrainer, cheese-filled sausage that I had grown to love in Austria, in the hostel kitchen. I forgot to mention that the coffee machine there was this awesome metal contraption where you had to assemble a thing that held water and a thing that held coffee and this filter piece, and put it on the stove so the water boiled up into where the coffee was and made coffee. I think it took me a couple tries to figure out correctly, but I succeeded in making coffee with it and I was pretty dang proud of myself.

Later Tom, Martha, and I went to a riverbank we had seen in our explorations earlier in the day and sat and drank beer. On the way we tried to find cigars (Martha and I both kind of resumed smoking while in Europe). We stopped by this tobacco stand (they are everywhere in Europe – lots of smokers there). We tried to mime to the Asian storekeeper there that we wanted cigars, but it didn’t really work. Tom picked up a couple beers there though. We reached the river bank and settled down to talk; it was a nice night. I forgot to bring a bottle-opener but Tom managed to open the bottles somehow. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Later Yana joined us and brought a bottle opener. Tom called her on his cell phone; neither Martha nor I had cell phones that worked in Europe (curse American consumers!). The only thing I remember us talking about was the Australian voting system. If you don’t know, Australians are required to vote by law. They have 99% voter turnout. Australian citizens can just show up and Christmas tree the ballot if they want, but they have to vote. Tom said if they don’t vote they get fined. He was in Poland or somewhere when the latest Australian elections came around, and couldn’t make it to the nearest Australian embassy, so he had been fined. He said though that once he got back to Australia he could appeal the fine and get it lifted without any trouble.