I'm back in Calgary now. Got in last night just before 8PM. Apparently reindeer meat is not an allowed import, so my Norwegian souvenirs were confiscated, although I was allowed to stand there and eat as much as I could handle before clearing customs. Reindeer sausage sticks are tasty, but moose is much juicier and I highly recommend it. I assume I should be able to find some more of that back here?
Speaking of which, does anyone know where one can find Yakult in Calgary? It's a drinkable yogurt I first encountered in our unplanned morning in London. The hotel had it for free with breakfast, so I tried it on a whim, fully expecting the name to say it all, but was surprised by a delicious party in my mouth. I kept finding it and (over?)consuming it everywhere in Germany and Austria, but never saw it again once we hit Ukraine.
Anywho, enough about food...
Our last city was Oslo, which was, well, Oslo. Not a whole lot to comment on. It was nice and all, but not exactly a tourist hotspot. We saw City Hall, the Fortress and Harbour, took a ride on the public ferry and went to a museum full of 1100 year old viking ships, artifacts, and skeletons. That part was cool because I was feeling like I hadn't gotten enough viking exposure in Scandanavia yet. All in all though, the last week or so felt like I was already back in Canada. I definitely enjoyed my time in Norway, but both John and I often felt like we could have done pretty much the same things a few hours from home. For much cheaper too. I'd heard Scandanavia was going to be expensive, and Finland and Sweden definitely were, but Norway was downright shocking. $12 for a beer on tap. $22 for a bowl of soup and half-sandwich. $200-$300 a night for pretty basic hotels. Fortunately I had already stopped paying attention to what this trip was costing me or I likely would have broke down crying. Future weekend trips to Banff and Lake Louise are going to seem crazy cheap!
The highlight of the trip home was waking up from a short nap just as we reached the shores of Greenland. I've flown over that a handful of times now, but never in daylight, and it was a sight to behold. With snow and glaciers as far as the eye can see, "Green"land is the whitest thing I've ever seen. When you consider how white I am, that's really saying something :)
Well, that concludes my sojourn. 16 cities, 37 days. It was... perfect.
Thanks for reading along!
Greg
PS. I'm too tired / jet-lagged to think about posting any more pics right now, so I'm not sure when I'll ever get to that. If there are any in particular you want to see, give me a shout and I'll get some up.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Norway in a Nutshell
Quick post tonight as I'm fighting a cold and need to get some sleep. Apparently Mount Ulriken isn't finished with me yet...
We've spent the last 2 days doing the "Norway in a Nutshell" tours through the Norwegian Fjords. I probably would have been content sitting in a concrete bunker as long as I was dry and warm. I'm actually relishing that experience as a fond memory already, but it has definitely taught me to appreciate such basic comforts, and there have been moments since then when I've cracked a smile just realizing how comfortable I am right then. If you are warm and dry while reading this, take a moment to experience some gratitude for it. It's such a huge privilege, one that I'm sure millions in the world don't always count on.
Ok, back to Norway. The Norwegian Fjords are world famous for the natural beauty. I just learned that National Geographic has them listed at the top of the travel destinations, ahead of the pyramids, Great Wall, and Grand Canyon. Our first day was a bus ride to Norheimsund, 2 boat rides on the Hardinger Fjord, and another buss ride to Voss for an overnight stop. The scenery was very nice, don't get me wrong, but I was left somewhat underwhelmed. John and I just chalked it up to being from the Canadian Rockies and conceded that this would be incredible for people who didn't live near something like this.
That changed on day 2 when we went on to Sognefjord and I had my socks knocked off. We started off with a bus ride to Gudvangen. The scenery was very nice, nice enough to keep me up despite being tired. But then we hit the valley, marked by a sign saying 18% grade! To put that in perspective, anything around 9% usually has runaway ramps in Canada. It was 2 bus lengths forward, 180 degree turn, rinse and repeat, the whole way down. And the views were absolutely stunning. I don't know how else to describe it. By the time we got to the valley floor, I was literally speechless and just sat there in silent amazement for several minutes.
I could try to describe it more or post some pictures, but you know it wouldn't do it justice. I will eventually, but for now, about the best picture I can give is that it was like a combination of the Rockies and the rainy sides of the Hawai Islands.
We are in Oslo now for our last full day. 5 weeks has gone by fast.
We've spent the last 2 days doing the "Norway in a Nutshell" tours through the Norwegian Fjords. I probably would have been content sitting in a concrete bunker as long as I was dry and warm. I'm actually relishing that experience as a fond memory already, but it has definitely taught me to appreciate such basic comforts, and there have been moments since then when I've cracked a smile just realizing how comfortable I am right then. If you are warm and dry while reading this, take a moment to experience some gratitude for it. It's such a huge privilege, one that I'm sure millions in the world don't always count on.
Ok, back to Norway. The Norwegian Fjords are world famous for the natural beauty. I just learned that National Geographic has them listed at the top of the travel destinations, ahead of the pyramids, Great Wall, and Grand Canyon. Our first day was a bus ride to Norheimsund, 2 boat rides on the Hardinger Fjord, and another buss ride to Voss for an overnight stop. The scenery was very nice, don't get me wrong, but I was left somewhat underwhelmed. John and I just chalked it up to being from the Canadian Rockies and conceded that this would be incredible for people who didn't live near something like this.
That changed on day 2 when we went on to Sognefjord and I had my socks knocked off. We started off with a bus ride to Gudvangen. The scenery was very nice, nice enough to keep me up despite being tired. But then we hit the valley, marked by a sign saying 18% grade! To put that in perspective, anything around 9% usually has runaway ramps in Canada. It was 2 bus lengths forward, 180 degree turn, rinse and repeat, the whole way down. And the views were absolutely stunning. I don't know how else to describe it. By the time we got to the valley floor, I was literally speechless and just sat there in silent amazement for several minutes.
I could try to describe it more or post some pictures, but you know it wouldn't do it justice. I will eventually, but for now, about the best picture I can give is that it was like a combination of the Rockies and the rainy sides of the Hawai Islands.
We are in Oslo now for our last full day. 5 weeks has gone by fast.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Bad day in Bergen
My phone is dead, but I'm alive. After today, I'll take that trade. Let me back up and recount our time here in Bergen:
- we arrived via plane yesterday about noon, found our hotel, and headed for the Fish Market. I can now add whale to the list of strange meats I've eaten on this trip. Mmmmm... whale burger.
- went walking around just to experience Bergen. This is a beautiful coastal mountain town, and just hanging out is the thing to do here. Also took in a 600 year old leprosy hospital turned museum... apparently Norway was the hot bed for leprosy in Europe, and had problems with it all the way up to the 20th century. Ended with a walk through the local fortress turned park.
- slept in this morning, then headed out about 10 to climb a mountain. Decided to take the funicular up Floyen and hike around at the top instead. Once there, we realized you could actually hike to Ulriken, the highest of the 7 mountains backing the city of Bergen. Estimated hike time, 5-6 hours. So off we headed, equiped with rain jackets, some food and about a liter of water each. It was overcast and cool, so that seemed like enough, and would have been, if not for our adventure that was about to unfold...
The trail is well marked and could even be driven on for the first 2KM. Past the last kiosk, it gradually got more and more rugged, and signs got further and further apart. At one point, we realized how far back we were going to traverse to get across a valley before even starting towards Ulriken, and weren't sure which trail to take even, so the thought of turning back was creeping into our minds. After comparing notes and maps with a couple other hikers in the same cunundrum, we eventually figured it out and were on our way again.
At lunch the clouds finally broke and we had our first bit of sunshine, were about half way there, and feeling like all was right with the world. The trail was getting even more fun and required a bit of hands on scrambling to gain the ridge, which is something that those who know me know I enjoy muchly. From there, the trail pretty much disappeared, but the way was marked out with cairns. Big ones. Every 20 yards or so. As far as the eye could see. I even tried to take a few pictures of the line of them all along the ridge because I'd never seen anything quite like that.
As we starting closing in on the highest cairn which marked the home stretch to the Ulriken cable car, less than an hour away and clearly visible, some clouds started rolling in. It looked like it was raining at the cable car, but we thought with a little luck it would blow past us through the valley. 5 minutes later I was sure that cloud would, but the one coming in beside it was clearly coming straight for us. At first, this was quite neat, because you could see mists of cloud swirling around you as it got thicker and thicker. We were literally hiking through a cloud. But in a couple minutes it started getting even thicker. I lost site of Ulriken. Then the ridges around us. Then the cairns. 20 feet of visibility in any given direction. Then 10. Then the rain started.
We kept going the general direction we figured, and kept passing cairns every so often. But after a couple minutes it seemed like it had been an awfully long time since we'd seen one, and the trail was absolutely non-existent. I didn't figure that should be the case this close to one of the trail heads, so I double backed to find the cairn and see if I could spot the trail. Found the cairn. Did not find the trail. It seemed like it should have gone off just to the right, but all I could see was what seemed to be a straight drop off an awfully steep ridge. So I ran back to where John was waiting and we took our best guess that if we continued along what we thought was the ridge we had been following the whole time, we'd eventually get out of this mess.
Another 10 minutes and by now the wind was howling, the rain bigger and colder, and still no indication of a trail. It felt like the ridge was turning away from where we wanted to be, but we couldn't tell for sure. It is absolutely amazing how easily you can get disoriented when you can only see 10 feet in any direction, and we didn't figure we could even find our way back to the last cairn at this point. So we decided to hunker down and hope this passed over quickly, and managed to find a large rock that provided at least a little temporary shelter, except when the wind gusts shifted direction and blew rain straight in the side. I should clarify that we were traversing across the plateau of a mountain, and the only things up there were rock, grass, lakes, and marsh. We had no where to go and were thoroughly soaked after another 10 minutes.
Fortunately, the cloud cover (but not the rain and wind) let up for less than a minute, and we got a good 40 yard view in every direction, which was just long enough for John to spot a cabin about that far away. As the clouds blew in again, we headed straight for it and got on the downwind side just as the visibility disappeared again. Tried the door. Locked. But at least now we had some protection from the wind, and, well, we were as wet as we could get anyway.
I did some quick scouting to find windows around the other side, but again, they were locked. So we stood there. We began wondering whether we'd be able to see the lights from the cable car and restaurant once it got dark, but soon realized that was wishful thinking and that we were going to be standing there until this passed. Every minute or so a gust would come in sideways and soak and chill us all over again. We tried dumping water out of our shoes, but they were so soaked it was useless. It felt like I was standing in a puddle. A very cold one at that. I said I was waiting till 5 (it was 4 then, the storm had blown in about 3), then I was breaking a window and getting inside if I had to. By 4:15 we were starting to shiver and it showed no signs of letting up, and it started dawning on us how serious a situation this might be, so we gave up the wait and turned to a life of crime.
It's a strange feeling trying to break a window to get into someone's house. It's even stranger when the third and final pane simply won't break even after both of us tried, so we headed back to the somewhat sheltered side, but the stint on the exposed side had proven to be fatal. We were shivering uncontrollably at this point and had to get in. I've never been more determined to break something in my life as I ran back to the front, and 2 swings later we were through. Managed to fumble around and unlatch it, clear enough glass, then John boosted me up and in I went, only to find you needed a key to unlock the door even from the inside. Poor John had to climb in through the window unaided, but at that point, instinct and adreline were kicking in so it didn't seem to be a problem.
We stripped down and quickly found whatever dry towels, blankets and clothes we could, then stuff the open window with a couple pillows and settled in to figure out what to do next. Still shivering, we found a few candles and lit them to get some light and heat... not enough to dry out, but it at least got the feeling back in my fingers eventually. John managed to pick up a signal on his iphone occassionally and sent some text messages to friends and family back home trying to describe the situation and where we were, but at this point, we knew we were here until this cleared up. Every 10 minutes or so, the cloud cover would lift enough that we could see there was a lake outside, and eventually what we thought looked like a cairn in the distance, but it never lasted long enough to even warrant a try. We figured if this didn't let up by 8, it would be too late to get to the cable car before it shut down at 9, and that meant we were staying put for the night. I was pretty sure the weather forecast called for rain tomorrow, so for all we knew, it might be even longer. We had enough food to sit tight for a day, but no water, so thoughts of making a rain catch started entering in to my head.
We also used the time to figure out options for the rest of our trip on the assumption we were going to miss out 7:30AM bus in the morning, as well as crafting a very apologetic note to the owner of the cabin, complete with contact information and promises to pay for the damage. But at 6, the rain stopped, and gradually the clouds lifted until we finally figured this was as good a chance as we were going to get, and started getting ready to go. I can't tell you how cold that was putting those wet clothes back on. Worse than the beach in Helsinki. I was shivering again before we even started climbing out the window.
But when we got out, the sun had actually broken through a bit and we could see a cairn in the distance, and after setting off a brisk pace, we started to warm up and even began laughing at the predicament we had endured... thinking it was over. Ha!
A glance over the shoulder said no to that, and even after running it caught up to us and we were right back in it. We had about 30 feet of visibility this time, but had lost site of the restaurant and cairns again, so we were back to following what we thought was the ridge, and far enough along that we couldn't find our way back to the cabin if we needed. It was either get to the cable car, or find another cabin to break into it. There were several of those up there, but this trip was getting expensive enough without doing that again, so we kept pushing forward. It wasn't nearly as bad this time... the wind wasn't as fierce, and the visibility, though bad enough to get lost easily, was good enough that there wasn't the risk of stepping straight off a cliff before you knew it. And we could hear the cable cars by now. Except we couldn't tell where the sound was coming from because it bounced off rocks all around us. If anything, it was just frustrating to know we were that close, but still completely unsure of where to go.
Eventually the cloud cover lifted again though, and while it kept raining, we could at least see the radio tower we were heading for, and our spirits lifted from being able to see our destination. We were moving pretty quick, except for the odd stop for John to reply to a text message and let people know that we were OK now and to not send for help anymore. We were even sloshing straight through marshes because it was shorter than going around and we couldn't possibly get wetter or muddier anyway.
Things looked good until we hit a cliff. Man that was frustrating. We'd gone from knowing we were close but not being able to find our destination, to knowing where it was, but being unable to get to it. I was ready to scream. I think my language may finally have started getting colorful at this point too. Oops.
Long story short, we slowly and carefully worked our way down the cliff, fully convinced that one of us was going to slip and crack a skull open because that was just the way the day was going. To our surprise though, we managed to make it through with no more events. We walked into the kiosk looking and feeling like wet dogs, bought our tickets and headed down that mountain... at which point the sky's opened up and it was the sunniest it's been in 2 days. Go figure. Incidentally, Bergen was nice before, but it was stunning when the sun was shinning. Probably happens too rarely for me to want to move here though. John swears he's never even coming back :)
We managed to find a bus at the bottom and bought more tickets with our sopping wet norwegian crowns, and asked the bus driver to show us where the police station was on the way in so we could go turn ourselves in. Weren't really sure how that was going to go, and John starting the story with "we need to report a break and enter" probably didn't help :) But from what I'd heard of Scandanavian prisons, I figured at worst case this might turn out to be an upgrade on our hotel room anyway.
The police officer didn't seem to know what exactly to do with us, but he took our information and filled out a report, and then asked when we were leaving. "So, it's Voss tomorrow eh?" he said. We looked at each other, sure the next statement was going to be that we couldn't leave town until this was cleared up which was really going to screw up our plans. Instead we got:
"Have a pleasant trip."
I love Scandanavians man. I have never met a nicer, happier bunch of people. And I thought that for days before this. High taxes and all, they are doing something right here. Everything seems so clean, and all the people seem so well taken care of, healthy, and friendly. Of course, I haven't met the guy who's window I smashed today yet either... he might not be so much so now.
On to Voss tomorrow. I do hope for a pleasant trip. More pics enroute assuming my phone will power back on once it dries out.
- we arrived via plane yesterday about noon, found our hotel, and headed for the Fish Market. I can now add whale to the list of strange meats I've eaten on this trip. Mmmmm... whale burger.
- went walking around just to experience Bergen. This is a beautiful coastal mountain town, and just hanging out is the thing to do here. Also took in a 600 year old leprosy hospital turned museum... apparently Norway was the hot bed for leprosy in Europe, and had problems with it all the way up to the 20th century. Ended with a walk through the local fortress turned park.
- slept in this morning, then headed out about 10 to climb a mountain. Decided to take the funicular up Floyen and hike around at the top instead. Once there, we realized you could actually hike to Ulriken, the highest of the 7 mountains backing the city of Bergen. Estimated hike time, 5-6 hours. So off we headed, equiped with rain jackets, some food and about a liter of water each. It was overcast and cool, so that seemed like enough, and would have been, if not for our adventure that was about to unfold...
The trail is well marked and could even be driven on for the first 2KM. Past the last kiosk, it gradually got more and more rugged, and signs got further and further apart. At one point, we realized how far back we were going to traverse to get across a valley before even starting towards Ulriken, and weren't sure which trail to take even, so the thought of turning back was creeping into our minds. After comparing notes and maps with a couple other hikers in the same cunundrum, we eventually figured it out and were on our way again.
At lunch the clouds finally broke and we had our first bit of sunshine, were about half way there, and feeling like all was right with the world. The trail was getting even more fun and required a bit of hands on scrambling to gain the ridge, which is something that those who know me know I enjoy muchly. From there, the trail pretty much disappeared, but the way was marked out with cairns. Big ones. Every 20 yards or so. As far as the eye could see. I even tried to take a few pictures of the line of them all along the ridge because I'd never seen anything quite like that.
As we starting closing in on the highest cairn which marked the home stretch to the Ulriken cable car, less than an hour away and clearly visible, some clouds started rolling in. It looked like it was raining at the cable car, but we thought with a little luck it would blow past us through the valley. 5 minutes later I was sure that cloud would, but the one coming in beside it was clearly coming straight for us. At first, this was quite neat, because you could see mists of cloud swirling around you as it got thicker and thicker. We were literally hiking through a cloud. But in a couple minutes it started getting even thicker. I lost site of Ulriken. Then the ridges around us. Then the cairns. 20 feet of visibility in any given direction. Then 10. Then the rain started.
We kept going the general direction we figured, and kept passing cairns every so often. But after a couple minutes it seemed like it had been an awfully long time since we'd seen one, and the trail was absolutely non-existent. I didn't figure that should be the case this close to one of the trail heads, so I double backed to find the cairn and see if I could spot the trail. Found the cairn. Did not find the trail. It seemed like it should have gone off just to the right, but all I could see was what seemed to be a straight drop off an awfully steep ridge. So I ran back to where John was waiting and we took our best guess that if we continued along what we thought was the ridge we had been following the whole time, we'd eventually get out of this mess.
Another 10 minutes and by now the wind was howling, the rain bigger and colder, and still no indication of a trail. It felt like the ridge was turning away from where we wanted to be, but we couldn't tell for sure. It is absolutely amazing how easily you can get disoriented when you can only see 10 feet in any direction, and we didn't figure we could even find our way back to the last cairn at this point. So we decided to hunker down and hope this passed over quickly, and managed to find a large rock that provided at least a little temporary shelter, except when the wind gusts shifted direction and blew rain straight in the side. I should clarify that we were traversing across the plateau of a mountain, and the only things up there were rock, grass, lakes, and marsh. We had no where to go and were thoroughly soaked after another 10 minutes.
Fortunately, the cloud cover (but not the rain and wind) let up for less than a minute, and we got a good 40 yard view in every direction, which was just long enough for John to spot a cabin about that far away. As the clouds blew in again, we headed straight for it and got on the downwind side just as the visibility disappeared again. Tried the door. Locked. But at least now we had some protection from the wind, and, well, we were as wet as we could get anyway.
I did some quick scouting to find windows around the other side, but again, they were locked. So we stood there. We began wondering whether we'd be able to see the lights from the cable car and restaurant once it got dark, but soon realized that was wishful thinking and that we were going to be standing there until this passed. Every minute or so a gust would come in sideways and soak and chill us all over again. We tried dumping water out of our shoes, but they were so soaked it was useless. It felt like I was standing in a puddle. A very cold one at that. I said I was waiting till 5 (it was 4 then, the storm had blown in about 3), then I was breaking a window and getting inside if I had to. By 4:15 we were starting to shiver and it showed no signs of letting up, and it started dawning on us how serious a situation this might be, so we gave up the wait and turned to a life of crime.
It's a strange feeling trying to break a window to get into someone's house. It's even stranger when the third and final pane simply won't break even after both of us tried, so we headed back to the somewhat sheltered side, but the stint on the exposed side had proven to be fatal. We were shivering uncontrollably at this point and had to get in. I've never been more determined to break something in my life as I ran back to the front, and 2 swings later we were through. Managed to fumble around and unlatch it, clear enough glass, then John boosted me up and in I went, only to find you needed a key to unlock the door even from the inside. Poor John had to climb in through the window unaided, but at that point, instinct and adreline were kicking in so it didn't seem to be a problem.
We stripped down and quickly found whatever dry towels, blankets and clothes we could, then stuff the open window with a couple pillows and settled in to figure out what to do next. Still shivering, we found a few candles and lit them to get some light and heat... not enough to dry out, but it at least got the feeling back in my fingers eventually. John managed to pick up a signal on his iphone occassionally and sent some text messages to friends and family back home trying to describe the situation and where we were, but at this point, we knew we were here until this cleared up. Every 10 minutes or so, the cloud cover would lift enough that we could see there was a lake outside, and eventually what we thought looked like a cairn in the distance, but it never lasted long enough to even warrant a try. We figured if this didn't let up by 8, it would be too late to get to the cable car before it shut down at 9, and that meant we were staying put for the night. I was pretty sure the weather forecast called for rain tomorrow, so for all we knew, it might be even longer. We had enough food to sit tight for a day, but no water, so thoughts of making a rain catch started entering in to my head.
We also used the time to figure out options for the rest of our trip on the assumption we were going to miss out 7:30AM bus in the morning, as well as crafting a very apologetic note to the owner of the cabin, complete with contact information and promises to pay for the damage. But at 6, the rain stopped, and gradually the clouds lifted until we finally figured this was as good a chance as we were going to get, and started getting ready to go. I can't tell you how cold that was putting those wet clothes back on. Worse than the beach in Helsinki. I was shivering again before we even started climbing out the window.
But when we got out, the sun had actually broken through a bit and we could see a cairn in the distance, and after setting off a brisk pace, we started to warm up and even began laughing at the predicament we had endured... thinking it was over. Ha!
A glance over the shoulder said no to that, and even after running it caught up to us and we were right back in it. We had about 30 feet of visibility this time, but had lost site of the restaurant and cairns again, so we were back to following what we thought was the ridge, and far enough along that we couldn't find our way back to the cabin if we needed. It was either get to the cable car, or find another cabin to break into it. There were several of those up there, but this trip was getting expensive enough without doing that again, so we kept pushing forward. It wasn't nearly as bad this time... the wind wasn't as fierce, and the visibility, though bad enough to get lost easily, was good enough that there wasn't the risk of stepping straight off a cliff before you knew it. And we could hear the cable cars by now. Except we couldn't tell where the sound was coming from because it bounced off rocks all around us. If anything, it was just frustrating to know we were that close, but still completely unsure of where to go.
Eventually the cloud cover lifted again though, and while it kept raining, we could at least see the radio tower we were heading for, and our spirits lifted from being able to see our destination. We were moving pretty quick, except for the odd stop for John to reply to a text message and let people know that we were OK now and to not send for help anymore. We were even sloshing straight through marshes because it was shorter than going around and we couldn't possibly get wetter or muddier anyway.
Things looked good until we hit a cliff. Man that was frustrating. We'd gone from knowing we were close but not being able to find our destination, to knowing where it was, but being unable to get to it. I was ready to scream. I think my language may finally have started getting colorful at this point too. Oops.
Long story short, we slowly and carefully worked our way down the cliff, fully convinced that one of us was going to slip and crack a skull open because that was just the way the day was going. To our surprise though, we managed to make it through with no more events. We walked into the kiosk looking and feeling like wet dogs, bought our tickets and headed down that mountain... at which point the sky's opened up and it was the sunniest it's been in 2 days. Go figure. Incidentally, Bergen was nice before, but it was stunning when the sun was shinning. Probably happens too rarely for me to want to move here though. John swears he's never even coming back :)
We managed to find a bus at the bottom and bought more tickets with our sopping wet norwegian crowns, and asked the bus driver to show us where the police station was on the way in so we could go turn ourselves in. Weren't really sure how that was going to go, and John starting the story with "we need to report a break and enter" probably didn't help :) But from what I'd heard of Scandanavian prisons, I figured at worst case this might turn out to be an upgrade on our hotel room anyway.
The police officer didn't seem to know what exactly to do with us, but he took our information and filled out a report, and then asked when we were leaving. "So, it's Voss tomorrow eh?" he said. We looked at each other, sure the next statement was going to be that we couldn't leave town until this was cleared up which was really going to screw up our plans. Instead we got:
"Have a pleasant trip."
I love Scandanavians man. I have never met a nicer, happier bunch of people. And I thought that for days before this. High taxes and all, they are doing something right here. Everything seems so clean, and all the people seem so well taken care of, healthy, and friendly. Of course, I haven't met the guy who's window I smashed today yet either... he might not be so much so now.
On to Voss tomorrow. I do hope for a pleasant trip. More pics enroute assuming my phone will power back on once it dries out.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Finland Fotos
Trying to catch up, so I'll cover off Finland now too, but that'll probably be it for tonight. Doing this with a combination of a smart phone and a hotel lobby foreign keyboard is a slow and painful process :) We're planning on climbing some mountains tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep. John's already got a 3 hour head start on me for that, and it's only 10:30. Apparently that Contiki trip really wore him out :)
First up, the fortress we spent almost a full day at. Again, a very small sample, but this gives you an idea of how pertty it was. It's on the UNESCO world heritage list for being the largest and best preserved example of European naval military bases.
John standing at attention as we watched a very large contingent of Finnish Forces go marching buy unexpectedly. It always creeps me out when I see kids 10 years younger than me carrying semi-automatic weaponry.
The 'beach'. This is John, Aussie-Ben and his sister in law in the water. If you could see their faces, you'd have a good idea of how cold the water is. I think Peta and I were standing on the sand again, having already given up due to the frigidity, but a few moments later, John and I were back in, stupidly swimming all the way out to that dock in back ground. John bit the bullet and went first, and almost froze up half-way and stopped swimming because his lungs stopped taking in air. Thankfully his survival instinct kicked in and he got going again. I'm not entirely sure what we would have done if he hadn't. In hindsight, probably not the smartest thing we've done on this trip, and I've been feeling like I'm fighting a cold since. Instead of learning a lesson though, I just followed suit, but at least now realized you had to go fast and not stop no matter what. I felt like I was moving pretty quick, and even Ben commented afterward that he had never seen someone swim on top of the water before.
One of the most famous churches in Helsinki, and perhaps the only one of this entire trip who's interior I can still recognize when looking at photos. The Church Of The Rock is built out of an old rock quarry, and that roof top is something like 1500 meters of copper strip. A modern service was just getting underway, so it was a little awkward doing the touristy thing, but it also felt a little bit like home, at least in comparison to the Catholic and Orthodox proceedings I've seen thus far. I even knew the song they were singing in English. Scandanavia was apparently pretty big on the Reformation bandwagon, and something like 90% of the population are Lutheran, although most aren't practising.
A quick shot of the archipelego (sp?) outside Helsinki as we set sail in our overnight cruise for Stockholm.
Another picture, taken moments later. I have no idea how the color turned out like this, but had to share it.
One final shot of some silver head shot of some famous composer who's music apparently helped create the Finnish sense of nationalism which eventually helped lead to it's independance after being tossed back and forth between the Swedes and the Russians like a ping-pong ball. I didn't catch his name, it was difficult to hear much of what was being said like this.
First up, the fortress we spent almost a full day at. Again, a very small sample, but this gives you an idea of how pertty it was. It's on the UNESCO world heritage list for being the largest and best preserved example of European naval military bases.
John standing at attention as we watched a very large contingent of Finnish Forces go marching buy unexpectedly. It always creeps me out when I see kids 10 years younger than me carrying semi-automatic weaponry.
The 'beach'. This is John, Aussie-Ben and his sister in law in the water. If you could see their faces, you'd have a good idea of how cold the water is. I think Peta and I were standing on the sand again, having already given up due to the frigidity, but a few moments later, John and I were back in, stupidly swimming all the way out to that dock in back ground. John bit the bullet and went first, and almost froze up half-way and stopped swimming because his lungs stopped taking in air. Thankfully his survival instinct kicked in and he got going again. I'm not entirely sure what we would have done if he hadn't. In hindsight, probably not the smartest thing we've done on this trip, and I've been feeling like I'm fighting a cold since. Instead of learning a lesson though, I just followed suit, but at least now realized you had to go fast and not stop no matter what. I felt like I was moving pretty quick, and even Ben commented afterward that he had never seen someone swim on top of the water before.
One of the most famous churches in Helsinki, and perhaps the only one of this entire trip who's interior I can still recognize when looking at photos. The Church Of The Rock is built out of an old rock quarry, and that roof top is something like 1500 meters of copper strip. A modern service was just getting underway, so it was a little awkward doing the touristy thing, but it also felt a little bit like home, at least in comparison to the Catholic and Orthodox proceedings I've seen thus far. I even knew the song they were singing in English. Scandanavia was apparently pretty big on the Reformation bandwagon, and something like 90% of the population are Lutheran, although most aren't practising.
A quick shot of the archipelego (sp?) outside Helsinki as we set sail in our overnight cruise for Stockholm.
Another picture, taken moments later. I have no idea how the color turned out like this, but had to share it.
One final shot of some silver head shot of some famous composer who's music apparently helped create the Finnish sense of nationalism which eventually helped lead to it's independance after being tossed back and forth between the Swedes and the Russians like a ping-pong ball. I didn't catch his name, it was difficult to hear much of what was being said like this.
Swedish Scenery
Finally, some pictures, eh? Sorry for the delay... here we go...
A few pics of Stockholm. Very green, full of rivers, lakes, and canals, and Gamla Stan in particular was very scenic if you like old European streets and plazas. I don't know if you can see it but the picture of the plaza includes a picture of someone holding up a postcard of the same plaza. That's about as creative as I get :)
A couple of tourist attractions... one is the roof of the parliament in the Old Town Hall. It's built to resemble an upside down viking ship to remind the people of their heritage (viking heritage is so much cooler than farmers and fur traders, don't you think?). The other is the changing of the guards. First time I've seen one with horses and a full military band.
Next few are from Skansen, the big open air museum I mentioned before. This is a very small sample of a very large place... for Calgarian's, think several heritage parks put together. Here is the first, honest-to-goodness reindeer I've ever seen in real life.
They even look tasty.
Next up was the Grey Owl's, which I assumed would be the most boring of the animal exhibits, but you could actually walk inside this one (unlike the bears... they are such sticklers for safety here), and we just happened to hit it at feeding time. The lady was putting dead mice right on the railing beside us and that owl was not the least bit shy. It was huge (the head is probably the same size as mine to put the picture in perspective). Not sure if you can make it out, but in one pic, he's mid-bite on a mouse, in the other, one of the smaller owls is in mid-flight away from us, having just snagged another mouse right out of the zookeepers hand. Too cool.
A sample of an old farmstead where all the buildings have been moved here and restored from elsewhere in Sweden (and some Norway). This type of exhibit actually makes up the majority of the museum (along with a sample of a complete old town site), but I can't post too many of these. The buildings ranged from 150 - 700 years old and included write ups of how they farmed and lived. Again, very cool.
This is an otherwise blah picture, but I took it because of the kid at the bottom. Check out his head. I hope the color shows up... he's so blond, he's almost white. You see a lot of that here, and it's one of the things I'm can't help but look at every time. A few, like this guy, are so light-haired that at first glance you would swear his eye-brows are glowing. Welcome to the land of the blondes...
A few pics of Stockholm. Very green, full of rivers, lakes, and canals, and Gamla Stan in particular was very scenic if you like old European streets and plazas. I don't know if you can see it but the picture of the plaza includes a picture of someone holding up a postcard of the same plaza. That's about as creative as I get :)
A couple of tourist attractions... one is the roof of the parliament in the Old Town Hall. It's built to resemble an upside down viking ship to remind the people of their heritage (viking heritage is so much cooler than farmers and fur traders, don't you think?). The other is the changing of the guards. First time I've seen one with horses and a full military band.
Next few are from Skansen, the big open air museum I mentioned before. This is a very small sample of a very large place... for Calgarian's, think several heritage parks put together. Here is the first, honest-to-goodness reindeer I've ever seen in real life.
They even look tasty.
Next up was the Grey Owl's, which I assumed would be the most boring of the animal exhibits, but you could actually walk inside this one (unlike the bears... they are such sticklers for safety here), and we just happened to hit it at feeding time. The lady was putting dead mice right on the railing beside us and that owl was not the least bit shy. It was huge (the head is probably the same size as mine to put the picture in perspective). Not sure if you can make it out, but in one pic, he's mid-bite on a mouse, in the other, one of the smaller owls is in mid-flight away from us, having just snagged another mouse right out of the zookeepers hand. Too cool.
A sample of an old farmstead where all the buildings have been moved here and restored from elsewhere in Sweden (and some Norway). This type of exhibit actually makes up the majority of the museum (along with a sample of a complete old town site), but I can't post too many of these. The buildings ranged from 150 - 700 years old and included write ups of how they farmed and lived. Again, very cool.
This is an otherwise blah picture, but I took it because of the kid at the bottom. Check out his head. I hope the color shows up... he's so blond, he's almost white. You see a lot of that here, and it's one of the things I'm can't help but look at every time. A few, like this guy, are so light-haired that at first glance you would swear his eye-brows are glowing. Welcome to the land of the blondes...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Super Stockholm
Finland seemed so amazing after leaving Russia that I didn't think I'd be as impressed with the rest of Scandanavia because that was a tough act to follow. But Stockholm has been equally, if not even more impressive. Of all the places I've been in Europe, this seems like the places I would find most livable... At least in the summer :) Beautiful, clean, and European. Events of the last couple days:
- woke up on the boat in the Baltic for breakfast, after which we found ourselves in Stockholm... and in rain
- toured the Old Town Hall where the annual Noble Banquet takes place. The most impressive room though was not where the Noble prizes are awarded, but the Gold Hall, a massive room covered floor to ceiling with 24 karot gold mosaic.
- went from there to Gamla Stan, an island which is the "Old Town". Given that everything is generally newer here, I wasn't expecting much. But after watching the most impressive changing of the gaurds I've seen yet, we had time to explore the island and were treated to narrow twisting alleys with shopd and restaurants as colorful and quaint as anywhere else I've been.
- the final stop was at Vassa museum, which is famous for housing a ship that sank 20 minutes into it's maiden voyage but recently recovered. It ia highly recommended, but I wasn't in the mood and craving some alone time so I wandered off to Skansen, Europes first open air museum. It was fantastic. I was caught off gaurd by the sheer size and only had time to see about half of it and double speed. It was full of Scandanavian animals, including reindeer, moose, bears, etc, and lots of Swedish, Finnish, and Norweigian buildings that have been transported here. Farmsteads, storehouses, churches, mills, etc, as well as some other cool things like live music, fair-food, and viking rune stones.
- last night was our fairwell supper and it was a good last chance to visit this those we had spent the last 10 days with, as well as meet a few of the newbies that would be taking the place of those disembarking here before the tour continues on to Norway and Denmark.
- today was seeing new friends off to the airport, then heading back to explore more of the areas we didn't have enough time at yesterday. Found a place that served moose burgers, so my tastebud's tour could check off another local delicacy.
Tommorrow John and I head to the airport to catch a flight to Bergen on the Norwegian coast, for a few days of training, boating, and cable-carring across Norways renowned fjords and then finishing up in Oslo. Exactly 1 week to go.
Heading out to grab a bite, then I'll see if I can finally get some pics up.
- woke up on the boat in the Baltic for breakfast, after which we found ourselves in Stockholm... and in rain
- toured the Old Town Hall where the annual Noble Banquet takes place. The most impressive room though was not where the Noble prizes are awarded, but the Gold Hall, a massive room covered floor to ceiling with 24 karot gold mosaic.
- went from there to Gamla Stan, an island which is the "Old Town". Given that everything is generally newer here, I wasn't expecting much. But after watching the most impressive changing of the gaurds I've seen yet, we had time to explore the island and were treated to narrow twisting alleys with shopd and restaurants as colorful and quaint as anywhere else I've been.
- the final stop was at Vassa museum, which is famous for housing a ship that sank 20 minutes into it's maiden voyage but recently recovered. It ia highly recommended, but I wasn't in the mood and craving some alone time so I wandered off to Skansen, Europes first open air museum. It was fantastic. I was caught off gaurd by the sheer size and only had time to see about half of it and double speed. It was full of Scandanavian animals, including reindeer, moose, bears, etc, and lots of Swedish, Finnish, and Norweigian buildings that have been transported here. Farmsteads, storehouses, churches, mills, etc, as well as some other cool things like live music, fair-food, and viking rune stones.
- last night was our fairwell supper and it was a good last chance to visit this those we had spent the last 10 days with, as well as meet a few of the newbies that would be taking the place of those disembarking here before the tour continues on to Norway and Denmark.
- today was seeing new friends off to the airport, then heading back to explore more of the areas we didn't have enough time at yesterday. Found a place that served moose burgers, so my tastebud's tour could check off another local delicacy.
Tommorrow John and I head to the airport to catch a flight to Bergen on the Norwegian coast, for a few days of training, boating, and cable-carring across Norways renowned fjords and then finishing up in Oslo. Exactly 1 week to go.
Heading out to grab a bite, then I'll see if I can finally get some pics up.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Russian Roundup
I'm sitting in the posh lobby of our hotel waiting for the bus, so I've got a few minutes to kill and figured Id do a quick brain dump of what happened in Russia.
- flew into Moscow last Thursday on my own and the transfer I had booked worked out well. The 1.5 hour drive to the airport was a bit awkward, but I'd picked up enough Russian words to initiate some conversation and the young driver knew enough English words that we could manage a bit of interaction. Cherades were still essential. I quite enjoyed the experience, although it would be exhausting to keep it up longer.
- met the tour group for dinner and spent the night choosing optional excursions and hunting for money exchanges to pay for it, before we headed to the bar for a few drinks and time to get to know each other.
- next morning we met our Moscow tour guide Galina, a big, rough woman who was every bit the picture of what you would expect for someone who has lived through some of the worst of the communism era here. We didn't get a lot of good detailed historical information from her as her stories tended to wander, but were treated to first hand accounts of what life was really like. She had participated in the rallies that led to Boris Yeltsin's presidency, feared the KGB, and lived through encounters with secret informers. It's easy to see why people in Russia didn't seem to smile much, although the young people seemed to be happy and full of hope so there is a good chance of a better future for the country, although the return of the old days remains a real possibility. Most interesting story she told was the introduction of Macdonald's and what that did for the psychology of the country. I guess when you've spent your whole life recieving your allowed rations, being able to go in to a place and have choices was a huge shock to the system. Apparently some even suffered heart attacks because it was so foreign to their world concept, they simply couldn't handle the shock.
- Galina took us on a tour of the Moscow metro, where each station was built and decorated like a palace. Quite a site. We also made stops at a milatary museum (including a display of the rifle from the sniper featured in "Enemy at the gates"). The read square, St. Basil's church, Lenin's tomb, and the Kremlin completed our Moscow sightseeing. Oh, and a night time tour of Moscow including a stop for a Vodka shot at Swan Lake. Moscow is far more beautiful at night, and I highly recommend a night tour if you are ever here.
- James Bond theme music gives a complelty different feeling to a bus ride in Moscow by the way. Actually makes your heart beat a little faster.
- we also got an evening at the famous Moscow State Circus (hence the earliwr comment about the cat and monkey). A few of the acts were lame, but all in all it was a great show. Recommended.
- after 2 days in the capital, we had a 440 KM drive to Novgorod that took close to 10 hours. The roads here are not so good, but still on par with Saskatchewan, except for the traffic. It was cool seeing the country side though (quite poor). Novgorod was more of an overnight road stop than anything scenic.
- we had 2 days in St. Petersurg, which was far more beautiful than Moscow. Our tour guide Ana here was a hoot. Included a visit to the Hermitage, some free time to explore the city and a couple very impressive churches, as well as an evening canal cruise. Vodka was cheap, although some of our group ppaid for it the next day. Good fun though, I would definitely recommend a visit here. Most of our group much prefered it to Moscow, although I thought Moscow provided the better "EXPERIENCE"
Well, it's go time so I have to sign off. We are headed to the harbour to catch our overnight cruise ship to stockholm. 1 more full day there before the tour officially ends and then John and I will break off for Norway on our own. By the way, Finland is beautiful. I don't think I know anyone else who has comehere, which is a shame. I could easily see myself living here. Go Finland.
Sorry about the lack of pics... they will come in time :)
- flew into Moscow last Thursday on my own and the transfer I had booked worked out well. The 1.5 hour drive to the airport was a bit awkward, but I'd picked up enough Russian words to initiate some conversation and the young driver knew enough English words that we could manage a bit of interaction. Cherades were still essential. I quite enjoyed the experience, although it would be exhausting to keep it up longer.
- met the tour group for dinner and spent the night choosing optional excursions and hunting for money exchanges to pay for it, before we headed to the bar for a few drinks and time to get to know each other.
- next morning we met our Moscow tour guide Galina, a big, rough woman who was every bit the picture of what you would expect for someone who has lived through some of the worst of the communism era here. We didn't get a lot of good detailed historical information from her as her stories tended to wander, but were treated to first hand accounts of what life was really like. She had participated in the rallies that led to Boris Yeltsin's presidency, feared the KGB, and lived through encounters with secret informers. It's easy to see why people in Russia didn't seem to smile much, although the young people seemed to be happy and full of hope so there is a good chance of a better future for the country, although the return of the old days remains a real possibility. Most interesting story she told was the introduction of Macdonald's and what that did for the psychology of the country. I guess when you've spent your whole life recieving your allowed rations, being able to go in to a place and have choices was a huge shock to the system. Apparently some even suffered heart attacks because it was so foreign to their world concept, they simply couldn't handle the shock.
- Galina took us on a tour of the Moscow metro, where each station was built and decorated like a palace. Quite a site. We also made stops at a milatary museum (including a display of the rifle from the sniper featured in "Enemy at the gates"). The read square, St. Basil's church, Lenin's tomb, and the Kremlin completed our Moscow sightseeing. Oh, and a night time tour of Moscow including a stop for a Vodka shot at Swan Lake. Moscow is far more beautiful at night, and I highly recommend a night tour if you are ever here.
- James Bond theme music gives a complelty different feeling to a bus ride in Moscow by the way. Actually makes your heart beat a little faster.
- we also got an evening at the famous Moscow State Circus (hence the earliwr comment about the cat and monkey). A few of the acts were lame, but all in all it was a great show. Recommended.
- after 2 days in the capital, we had a 440 KM drive to Novgorod that took close to 10 hours. The roads here are not so good, but still on par with Saskatchewan, except for the traffic. It was cool seeing the country side though (quite poor). Novgorod was more of an overnight road stop than anything scenic.
- we had 2 days in St. Petersurg, which was far more beautiful than Moscow. Our tour guide Ana here was a hoot. Included a visit to the Hermitage, some free time to explore the city and a couple very impressive churches, as well as an evening canal cruise. Vodka was cheap, although some of our group ppaid for it the next day. Good fun though, I would definitely recommend a visit here. Most of our group much prefered it to Moscow, although I thought Moscow provided the better "EXPERIENCE"
Well, it's go time so I have to sign off. We are headed to the harbour to catch our overnight cruise ship to stockholm. 1 more full day there before the tour officially ends and then John and I will break off for Norway on our own. By the way, Finland is beautiful. I don't think I know anyone else who has comehere, which is a shame. I could easily see myself living here. Go Finland.
Sorry about the lack of pics... they will come in time :)
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Hello from Helsinki
We are finally free from behind the Iron Curtain, and with that freedom comes such luxuries as Internet access, so I finally have a decent chance to post a real update again. Rather than try to cover the last week or so all at once, I'll leave Russia for a later time and just cover off the latest from Scandanavia:
- we drove to Helsinki yesterday. For some reason, I got randomly pulled out of line at the Russian border check. It only took a few extra minutes as they are extremely effecient at cavity searches owing to their KGB heritage (JK)
- had a quick bus tour, then back to the hotel for a dinner buffet that was by far our best meal since the contiki trip began. This hotel is also by far the best we've had.
- we had free time today for the first time on the trip, except for the odd hour or so. Not that that was bad, they just try to pack a lot into the Russian days because it's harder to do stuff on your own when everything is in cyrillic. I quite enjoyed the back-to-back 14 hour days, but having some downtime has been a nice treat as well. About 80% of the group took a day trip to Talin in Estonia because we were told there isn't much to do in Helsinki, but John and I met up with Aussie-Ben, his girlfriend Peta, and her sister Jody and went exploring in the salmonela fortress here. OK, that isn't what it's really called, but I can't really figure out the Finnish signs, especially since I now mentally try to read everything as though it was still cyrillic. Do a google search for the fortress in Helsinki and you'll find what the real name is. If there is more than 1, it's the one that is on Unesco's world heritage list.
- fortress was gorgeous, especially the 10 minute ferry ride through the calm baltic sea waters past many small rocky mountains. The highlight though was the "beach". It was a small section of sand maybe 30 yards across, but since it was totally unexpected, we all took off our shoes and dipped in our feet. It was so cold that it literally hurt, and no matter how much warning we had, each person yelped when they entered. Being stupid Canadians that we are though, John and I decided to show our Aussie friends what kind of cold temperatures we can really tolerate and shed our shirts for an impromptu swim to the dock 20 meters out. I almost chickened out when it looked like John froze up halfway there, but bit the bullet and followed suit. I have never swam so fast in my life and barely remember even feeling the water, except that my feet were screaming bloody murder at me. By far the coldest water I have ever swam in, but very invigorating.
- also got to try some reindeer meet... Ethan, sorry buddy, but Santa ain't coming this year because I just ate Rudolph. He was delicious. I think I'm going to try to find some Blitzen for supper.
- tonight is more freetime, so I think a bunch of us will be hitting the sauna because apparently that is what you do in Finland. Tommorrow morning is more free time so we'll likely hit the harbor markets and a couple churches, then we board a boat for an overnight cruise to Stockholm.
- One more random thought, and perhaps a teaser for Russia when I get to that write up: capitalism has it's problems, and I personally agree with some of the ideaology behind communism, though not as an imposed political system. There are many in Russia who still favor it's return even. But having done this trip, I can now conclisively say that anyone who still debates communism versus capitalsim has never driven across the Russian-Finish border. Wow. What a differene you can see in the quality of life that changes as quickly as you can drive over the line. Even from on the bus in a rural area, several people commented how they felt like a weight had just been lifted off their shoulders.
- we drove to Helsinki yesterday. For some reason, I got randomly pulled out of line at the Russian border check. It only took a few extra minutes as they are extremely effecient at cavity searches owing to their KGB heritage (JK)
- had a quick bus tour, then back to the hotel for a dinner buffet that was by far our best meal since the contiki trip began. This hotel is also by far the best we've had.
- we had free time today for the first time on the trip, except for the odd hour or so. Not that that was bad, they just try to pack a lot into the Russian days because it's harder to do stuff on your own when everything is in cyrillic. I quite enjoyed the back-to-back 14 hour days, but having some downtime has been a nice treat as well. About 80% of the group took a day trip to Talin in Estonia because we were told there isn't much to do in Helsinki, but John and I met up with Aussie-Ben, his girlfriend Peta, and her sister Jody and went exploring in the salmonela fortress here. OK, that isn't what it's really called, but I can't really figure out the Finnish signs, especially since I now mentally try to read everything as though it was still cyrillic. Do a google search for the fortress in Helsinki and you'll find what the real name is. If there is more than 1, it's the one that is on Unesco's world heritage list.
- fortress was gorgeous, especially the 10 minute ferry ride through the calm baltic sea waters past many small rocky mountains. The highlight though was the "beach". It was a small section of sand maybe 30 yards across, but since it was totally unexpected, we all took off our shoes and dipped in our feet. It was so cold that it literally hurt, and no matter how much warning we had, each person yelped when they entered. Being stupid Canadians that we are though, John and I decided to show our Aussie friends what kind of cold temperatures we can really tolerate and shed our shirts for an impromptu swim to the dock 20 meters out. I almost chickened out when it looked like John froze up halfway there, but bit the bullet and followed suit. I have never swam so fast in my life and barely remember even feeling the water, except that my feet were screaming bloody murder at me. By far the coldest water I have ever swam in, but very invigorating.
- also got to try some reindeer meet... Ethan, sorry buddy, but Santa ain't coming this year because I just ate Rudolph. He was delicious. I think I'm going to try to find some Blitzen for supper.
- tonight is more freetime, so I think a bunch of us will be hitting the sauna because apparently that is what you do in Finland. Tommorrow morning is more free time so we'll likely hit the harbor markets and a couple churches, then we board a boat for an overnight cruise to Stockholm.
- One more random thought, and perhaps a teaser for Russia when I get to that write up: capitalism has it's problems, and I personally agree with some of the ideaology behind communism, though not as an imposed political system. There are many in Russia who still favor it's return even. But having done this trip, I can now conclisively say that anyone who still debates communism versus capitalsim has never driven across the Russian-Finish border. Wow. What a differene you can see in the quality of life that changes as quickly as you can drive over the line. Even from on the bus in a rural area, several people commented how they felt like a weight had just been lifted off their shoulders.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Meet Me in Moscow
No wi-fi here, so I'm paying by the minute in the lobby next door. I've got three minutes left, so here's the quickest update ever:
- the tour guide here is a 50-60 something Russian, who's lived through some very interesting history and shared some great stories and insights into what life in Russia has been like. Will definitely write more on that when able. To quote the famous Rasputin Song though... "oh those russians"
I have seen the following things in random order:
- the red square
- the kremlin
- st. basil's cathedral
- a putin look alike
- a bus parallel park
- a cat do a handstand
- a monkey do the can can
Having a great time
- the tour guide here is a 50-60 something Russian, who's lived through some very interesting history and shared some great stories and insights into what life in Russia has been like. Will definitely write more on that when able. To quote the famous Rasputin Song though... "oh those russians"
I have seen the following things in random order:
- the red square
- the kremlin
- st. basil's cathedral
- a putin look alike
- a bus parallel park
- a cat do a handstand
- a monkey do the can can
Having a great time
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Das-vee-dan-ya Donetsk
Strana strana. I'm butchering the spelling, but I'm told those two words mean "Strange Country". Syllable emphasis makes a big difference in Russian language, and strana can mean either "Strange" or "Country" depending on whether you emphasize the first syllable or the last. Apparently it doesn't matter which order you do it in either. Word order and sentence structure are fairly unimportant in this language. Say STRA-na stra-NA or stra-NA STRA-na, either way it means Ukraine, er, I mean "Strange Country". This leg of the trip has been very different than what we've encountered elsewhere. A few examples of why this country seems strange to me:
- we got off the plane via stairs to the tarmat, then boarded a bus and waited for several minutes. Then the bus started up, pulled a u-turn, and stopped. We all got off on the other side and walked into the airport building. It was literally less than 10 seconds, and I could have walked that distance 20 times while we waited. I'm not sure what the point of that was. Could be some kind of government job-creation program or something :)
- when you enter the country, they give you a form with 2 sections for "Arrival" and "Departure". Both sections are identical, and you fill them in with your personal information and ARRIVAL details, including for the "Departure" section. That seemed really odd to me. I would have thought they'd want to know when I was coming and when I was leaving, but instead they wanted to know when I was arriving twice. It made more sense once I went through passport control though. The guy verified they were the same, marked both sections with an official stamp, then cut it in half and gave me back the departure section. Apparently I have to have that to leave the country. I've been checking my pockets twice a day to make sure I haven't lost it.
- there are white lines on the roads here just like in Canada, but I'm still unsure whether they are lane markers to drive between, or guiding lines to show where the middle of your car should be. The locals don't seem to know which purpose they serve either. I've seen motorbikes turn lane dividers into another lane back home, but here it's common place for full size vehicles to do the same, even between 2 wide buses.
- they use the Cyrillic alphabet here, which makes reading the signs impossible for a monolingual like me. There's some weird symbols I can't type out here, but about half of them are actually the same as the Phoenetic alphabet we use. Except that those symbols don't always mean the same thing. For example "W" is "sh", "C" is "S", and "P" is "R". Mapket was the only sign I saw in 3 days that I could read. Oh, and MacDonalds, which is the universal word for "free bathroom".
- speaking of bathrooms, I'm told that most of them here are squatters, and have no TP or running water. My sisters and nephew encountered a few of those, but somehow I have yet to see one for myself. Been all fully-equipped porcelain thrones for me thus far.
- we had a Ukranian BBQ one day, which was DELICIOUS. Nothing all that unusual about a BBQ, but Laurie and Bruno invited some Ukranian friends over for it. Between their broken English and Laurie and Bruno's more broken Russian, communication involved a lot of cherades. A fun and entertaining experience we didn't get elsewhere. The "strange" part was that no one here has a BBQ, so a Ukranian "Sashlik" is done by building a big fire, letting it burn down to coals, then slow-cooking your meat (mostly pork) on it. Yummity-yum-yum-yum. As far as I can tell though, you can't buy firewood anywhere here. So if you want a sashlik, you go around the neighborhood scrounging for wood where-ever you can find it. Fortunately most houses and fences are in bad disrepair, so it's not hard to get enough for a meal. Nail in the board? No problem. Strange chemicals on it? That'll burn too, toss it on. Hey, a new flavour!
- Donetsk is quite poor and run down. Unemployment is well over 20%. A local tram driver makes about 40 greevna a day, which is about 6 dollars Canadian. A decent apartment will typically cost 1500 greevna a month. You can do the math. But there's also a lot of wealthy people here. You will see brand new condo buildings that would look fancy in Canada, right next to a run down house with only half a roof that someone is still living in, with nothing separating them but an industrial smokestack that may or may not still be in use.
- the highlight of our stay here, other than visiting family, was that we got to tour a local children's TB hospital yesterday. It was exactly what you'd expect a hospital in this country to look like, but the kids where a delight. They put on a "performance" for us, then showed us around. I'd love to describe more, but I've probably written enough already, so I'll wait until I can post some pictures and videos to go with it.
That's all for now. I'm off to Moscow where I'm meeting John and my new tour group for the next leg of the trip in about 4 hours. I arrive at an airport that the tour company won't pick me up from, so I've pre-arranged a private transfer for myself. Supposedly some guy will be there with a sign saying "Greg Ashby". Supposedly he won't work for the Russian mob, and supposedly he won't drive me to some forsaken part of the city and threaten to leave me there unless I pay him 1 million rubles. This is what I like to call the adventure part of my journey. If I survive, I'll try to keep posting something from each city I hit, and hopefully gets pics of Prague and Donetsk up soon too. If I don't, well, it's been nice knowing ya :)
Das-vee-dan-ya
Greg
- we got off the plane via stairs to the tarmat, then boarded a bus and waited for several minutes. Then the bus started up, pulled a u-turn, and stopped. We all got off on the other side and walked into the airport building. It was literally less than 10 seconds, and I could have walked that distance 20 times while we waited. I'm not sure what the point of that was. Could be some kind of government job-creation program or something :)
- when you enter the country, they give you a form with 2 sections for "Arrival" and "Departure". Both sections are identical, and you fill them in with your personal information and ARRIVAL details, including for the "Departure" section. That seemed really odd to me. I would have thought they'd want to know when I was coming and when I was leaving, but instead they wanted to know when I was arriving twice. It made more sense once I went through passport control though. The guy verified they were the same, marked both sections with an official stamp, then cut it in half and gave me back the departure section. Apparently I have to have that to leave the country. I've been checking my pockets twice a day to make sure I haven't lost it.
- there are white lines on the roads here just like in Canada, but I'm still unsure whether they are lane markers to drive between, or guiding lines to show where the middle of your car should be. The locals don't seem to know which purpose they serve either. I've seen motorbikes turn lane dividers into another lane back home, but here it's common place for full size vehicles to do the same, even between 2 wide buses.
- they use the Cyrillic alphabet here, which makes reading the signs impossible for a monolingual like me. There's some weird symbols I can't type out here, but about half of them are actually the same as the Phoenetic alphabet we use. Except that those symbols don't always mean the same thing. For example "W" is "sh", "C" is "S", and "P" is "R". Mapket was the only sign I saw in 3 days that I could read. Oh, and MacDonalds, which is the universal word for "free bathroom".
- speaking of bathrooms, I'm told that most of them here are squatters, and have no TP or running water. My sisters and nephew encountered a few of those, but somehow I have yet to see one for myself. Been all fully-equipped porcelain thrones for me thus far.
- we had a Ukranian BBQ one day, which was DELICIOUS. Nothing all that unusual about a BBQ, but Laurie and Bruno invited some Ukranian friends over for it. Between their broken English and Laurie and Bruno's more broken Russian, communication involved a lot of cherades. A fun and entertaining experience we didn't get elsewhere. The "strange" part was that no one here has a BBQ, so a Ukranian "Sashlik" is done by building a big fire, letting it burn down to coals, then slow-cooking your meat (mostly pork) on it. Yummity-yum-yum-yum. As far as I can tell though, you can't buy firewood anywhere here. So if you want a sashlik, you go around the neighborhood scrounging for wood where-ever you can find it. Fortunately most houses and fences are in bad disrepair, so it's not hard to get enough for a meal. Nail in the board? No problem. Strange chemicals on it? That'll burn too, toss it on. Hey, a new flavour!
- Donetsk is quite poor and run down. Unemployment is well over 20%. A local tram driver makes about 40 greevna a day, which is about 6 dollars Canadian. A decent apartment will typically cost 1500 greevna a month. You can do the math. But there's also a lot of wealthy people here. You will see brand new condo buildings that would look fancy in Canada, right next to a run down house with only half a roof that someone is still living in, with nothing separating them but an industrial smokestack that may or may not still be in use.
- the highlight of our stay here, other than visiting family, was that we got to tour a local children's TB hospital yesterday. It was exactly what you'd expect a hospital in this country to look like, but the kids where a delight. They put on a "performance" for us, then showed us around. I'd love to describe more, but I've probably written enough already, so I'll wait until I can post some pictures and videos to go with it.
That's all for now. I'm off to Moscow where I'm meeting John and my new tour group for the next leg of the trip in about 4 hours. I arrive at an airport that the tour company won't pick me up from, so I've pre-arranged a private transfer for myself. Supposedly some guy will be there with a sign saying "Greg Ashby". Supposedly he won't work for the Russian mob, and supposedly he won't drive me to some forsaken part of the city and threaten to leave me there unless I pay him 1 million rubles. This is what I like to call the adventure part of my journey. If I survive, I'll try to keep posting something from each city I hit, and hopefully gets pics of Prague and Donetsk up soon too. If I don't, well, it's been nice knowing ya :)
Das-vee-dan-ya
Greg
Friday, August 7, 2009
Pretty In Prague
Wow. I'd heard good things about Prague being a beautiful city and all, but it surpassed my expectations. Our hotel was in the "new town" area so my first impressions were mostly of that area. It's nice and all, but nothing to go ga-ga over. But around noon on the first day we walked in to the old town square and I had found the Prague I was expecting. Climbed the clock tower for an even better view and was convinced that Prague is indeed the most beautiful city I've seen. Rome was "grander", Jerusalem more "impressive", Venice and Florence more "quaint", Innsbruck more "scenic", but for sheer aesthetics, Prague takes the cake. As I understand it, Prague was the largest city that was relatively undamaged during WWII, so most of its old buildings were still intact and not rebuilt in the last 50 years. It definitely shows.
From the Old Town square, we had lunch then crossed the famous Charles Bridge, climbed another tower there, and went on to The 2nd Church of St. Nicolaus we've seen here (I believe there's a third, but I never saw it). That was the first time I've encountered a church that charged to enter. Since they all look the same anyway by now, we didn't bother. We then headed back along the river and stopped at the hotel in New Town for a break. I had already walked poor little Ethan and Carla to exhaustion (about 8 hours on foot), so they called it a day, but I had a couple hours of daylight left so I went on to Vysehard, having no real idea what it was (other than it use to be a castle) or whether I could get in. The long hike was worth it though, it turned out to be public park, so after circling to find a way up, entrance was free and the views were worth many times what I had paid. Well worth the trip down there if you are ever here.
I also stumbled into some kind of Czech beer gardens there. They had an actual wood burning grill full of pork, chicken and Klobsa sausage, with corn on the cob to boot. Everything was in Czech but I couldn't pass up the experience and tried to order anyway. Unfortunately, I had simultaneously stumbled into the first place that didn't take Euros either. The Koruna still reigns supreme here, although many places will take the Euro. Apparently this was a locals only hang-out though, the lady there didn't seem to even understand what I was trying to pay with. I left hungry and itching for a European experience, so I hiked all the way back to the windy narrow streets of old town and had myself I nice meal of lamb and eggplant under the full moon.
Day 2 was set aside for Prague Castle, which meant another walk clear across town, and up a rather large hill. Highlights were the St. Vittus Cathedral, and a museum exhibit of "The Story of Prague Castle", complete with models of its development over the past 1100 years, 7000 year old pottery from the earliest settlers, and loads of history to read through. It's interesting how little seems to be known about Czech history. From what I can gather (you don't get to read all the museum information when you've got a hyper-active 8 year old with you), there wasn't a written Czech language until well into the crusader era when it was invented specifically to translate the Bible. So other than some scant archeological information, a few early "royals" mentioned in Roman writings, and some general statements about Slavic migrations in the 6th century and the formation of the Bohemian Kingdom, there's very little said about anything here prior to the 10th century CE. All the exhibits I've come across cover "pre-history to 918" with a pretty broad brush, then get into good ol' St. Wencelas. Even then, there's a lot of gaps and apparent guess work up until about 1500. From there the history gets pretty interesting though, including the Hussite Wars, the 30 years war (which I just saw an exhibit of one of the last battles involving the Swedes trying to fight across Charles Bridge... what the heck were they doing way down here???), and of course, WWII and the communist era. This trip is definitely re-igniting my interest in history. Of course, this is my travel blog, not Wikipedia, so I should stop digressing :)
After the Castle, the only major area of Prague I hadn't seen was Mala Strana, which is a huge forest area and highest point in Old Prague. To my surprise, Carla and Ethan decided to come with me for that part, so I marched them up and down that hill, as well as yet another tower at the top (a mini-Eifel tower from the looks of it). One of my favorite things to do in any city is to climb a tower and get a good look of the place, so Prague was a real treat for me (and there were many more we passed up even!). I've probably walked more in the last 2 days than I did in the first week (Salzburg excluded). Legs are fine, but my feet are throbbing and ready for a break, which we are about to get.
Tomorrow we start our travels to Ukraine. 6 hours on the train back to Munich, overnight near the airport, and then a late morning flight to Donetsk where Laurie and Bruno (my little sister and brother-in-law) will pick us up for a few days of visiting with them.
PS. Sorry, no pics tonight. I can't get online with my smart-phone here, so I'm using the free computer in the lobby. It has a real keyboard, hence the more verbose entry tonight. Sorry about that. I'm wordy. Will try to post some more pics when I next get a wifi connection.
From the Old Town square, we had lunch then crossed the famous Charles Bridge, climbed another tower there, and went on to The 2nd Church of St. Nicolaus we've seen here (I believe there's a third, but I never saw it). That was the first time I've encountered a church that charged to enter. Since they all look the same anyway by now, we didn't bother. We then headed back along the river and stopped at the hotel in New Town for a break. I had already walked poor little Ethan and Carla to exhaustion (about 8 hours on foot), so they called it a day, but I had a couple hours of daylight left so I went on to Vysehard, having no real idea what it was (other than it use to be a castle) or whether I could get in. The long hike was worth it though, it turned out to be public park, so after circling to find a way up, entrance was free and the views were worth many times what I had paid. Well worth the trip down there if you are ever here.
I also stumbled into some kind of Czech beer gardens there. They had an actual wood burning grill full of pork, chicken and Klobsa sausage, with corn on the cob to boot. Everything was in Czech but I couldn't pass up the experience and tried to order anyway. Unfortunately, I had simultaneously stumbled into the first place that didn't take Euros either. The Koruna still reigns supreme here, although many places will take the Euro. Apparently this was a locals only hang-out though, the lady there didn't seem to even understand what I was trying to pay with. I left hungry and itching for a European experience, so I hiked all the way back to the windy narrow streets of old town and had myself I nice meal of lamb and eggplant under the full moon.
Day 2 was set aside for Prague Castle, which meant another walk clear across town, and up a rather large hill. Highlights were the St. Vittus Cathedral, and a museum exhibit of "The Story of Prague Castle", complete with models of its development over the past 1100 years, 7000 year old pottery from the earliest settlers, and loads of history to read through. It's interesting how little seems to be known about Czech history. From what I can gather (you don't get to read all the museum information when you've got a hyper-active 8 year old with you), there wasn't a written Czech language until well into the crusader era when it was invented specifically to translate the Bible. So other than some scant archeological information, a few early "royals" mentioned in Roman writings, and some general statements about Slavic migrations in the 6th century and the formation of the Bohemian Kingdom, there's very little said about anything here prior to the 10th century CE. All the exhibits I've come across cover "pre-history to 918" with a pretty broad brush, then get into good ol' St. Wencelas. Even then, there's a lot of gaps and apparent guess work up until about 1500. From there the history gets pretty interesting though, including the Hussite Wars, the 30 years war (which I just saw an exhibit of one of the last battles involving the Swedes trying to fight across Charles Bridge... what the heck were they doing way down here???), and of course, WWII and the communist era. This trip is definitely re-igniting my interest in history. Of course, this is my travel blog, not Wikipedia, so I should stop digressing :)
After the Castle, the only major area of Prague I hadn't seen was Mala Strana, which is a huge forest area and highest point in Old Prague. To my surprise, Carla and Ethan decided to come with me for that part, so I marched them up and down that hill, as well as yet another tower at the top (a mini-Eifel tower from the looks of it). One of my favorite things to do in any city is to climb a tower and get a good look of the place, so Prague was a real treat for me (and there were many more we passed up even!). I've probably walked more in the last 2 days than I did in the first week (Salzburg excluded). Legs are fine, but my feet are throbbing and ready for a break, which we are about to get.
Tomorrow we start our travels to Ukraine. 6 hours on the train back to Munich, overnight near the airport, and then a late morning flight to Donetsk where Laurie and Bruno (my little sister and brother-in-law) will pick us up for a few days of visiting with them.
PS. Sorry, no pics tonight. I can't get online with my smart-phone here, so I'm using the free computer in the lobby. It has a real keyboard, hence the more verbose entry tonight. Sorry about that. I'm wordy. Will try to post some more pics when I next get a wifi connection.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Views from Vienna
shonbrun palace
an example of the forested area here... this place is huge...
a view of the palace and Vienna from the south hill
The place where said view was from
An example of how manicured this place is... that's 2 rows of trees, shaved flat at one end and formed into a tunnel down the middle
A shot of the maze we got lost in. As fun as it was, I couldn't help but think it would have been even better if they would release the occasional wild boar to liven it up a bit :)
The Danube tower and Donau City. Nice modern area with a cool park... good spot to get away from the terrorists, er, tourists
Danube River from the "Sunken City", a little, long island in the middle of the river. Seemed like a nice place to hang out. We were at a stretch of restaurants, and all those lights on the other side is more... it was too dark to explore, but the maps show many kms of park and paths in all along the river.
St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Old City
The view from it's tower... sorry, but the rain and detail made the panorama's look poopy, so this is the best I've got
the last church we stumbled on today. I don't know what it is called... at this point, they are all starting to look the same to me! :)
One extra shot of it for my mom... she liken zee flowers.
an example of the forested area here... this place is huge...
a view of the palace and Vienna from the south hill
The place where said view was from
An example of how manicured this place is... that's 2 rows of trees, shaved flat at one end and formed into a tunnel down the middle
A shot of the maze we got lost in. As fun as it was, I couldn't help but think it would have been even better if they would release the occasional wild boar to liven it up a bit :)
The Danube tower and Donau City. Nice modern area with a cool park... good spot to get away from the terrorists, er, tourists
Danube River from the "Sunken City", a little, long island in the middle of the river. Seemed like a nice place to hang out. We were at a stretch of restaurants, and all those lights on the other side is more... it was too dark to explore, but the maps show many kms of park and paths in all along the river.
St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Old City
The view from it's tower... sorry, but the rain and detail made the panorama's look poopy, so this is the best I've got
the last church we stumbled on today. I don't know what it is called... at this point, they are all starting to look the same to me! :)
One extra shot of it for my mom... she liken zee flowers.
When in Wien
Vienna. I didn't know much about this place before we got here. To be honest, I kept getting it confused with Venice in my mind, except that I knew this one was without the canals (I still mix up Austria and Australia too... I was comforted to learn that both names derive from the latin "south" so I'm not too far off). We had 2 full days here, so there's too much to really update... back to point form:
- it was 34 celsius when we got here. My brain shuts down around 30.
- the "air conditioner" in our hotel room is just a noise maker. Nothing more, nothing less. so we headed straight for the closest public swimming pool we could find to cool off.
- next day was Shronbrun (sp?) Palace and Park. I could do without tours of old rooms and art by "famous" artists I've never heard of, but some of the stories of the Imperial Hapsburg members were amusing, and the grounds were very impressive. Acres and acres of incredibly manicured gardens and fountains, with nice views of Vienna. A stroll (at least) through here is definitely a must.
- best part was the labrynth... 2700m2 (a VERY small fraction of the grounds) worth of mazes cut through hedges and trees. The first one looked pretty small and I figured it was going to be lame, er, I mean meant for kids, but 30 minutes later we were still wandering through it ending up back at the entrance every time.
- thunderstorms rolled in that afternoon and it has been raining off and on ever since. I'll take that over 34 degrees and humid anyday though.
- that night we took the subway (we have got to figure out how to build things like this in Canada!) to the Danube River and Donau City area. I highly recommend exploring the sunken city island area, we didn't get there until after dark but it still seemed like a cool area to explore
- our hotel room is an oven. They installed the blinds so as to prevent the windows from opening more than a crack, and even after the rain, it was still cooking hot in here. Fortuantely the water leaking in the through the roof is refreshingly cold. :)
- today was spent exploring the old city. Not as "european" as other cities I've explored, but still very cool, and every so often you stumble across a sight that simply catches you off guard rounding a corner. Personal favorite was the St. Stphen Cathedral and it's south tower... 340-some steps to the top, all in a very tight, spiral staircase that still makes me dizzy just remembering it. Highlight of the day (other than the amazing views) was halfway back down. Behind me Ethan was laughing about how dizzy he was getting and said he felt like he was going to fall... by then I was already wondering how they haven't had problems with people falling or getting injured in there too. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blur of blue as 58 pounds of boy plunged headfirst down the solid stone stairwell. I'm still not really sure what happened, but somehow he landed behind me on his knees and looked up at me laughing. No harm, no foul I guess. He is still laughing about it.
Pics of the aforementioned forthcoming. Tommorrow we head to Prague, which was my destination of choice on this here trip. I've heard great things about it, so expectations are high!
- it was 34 celsius when we got here. My brain shuts down around 30.
- the "air conditioner" in our hotel room is just a noise maker. Nothing more, nothing less. so we headed straight for the closest public swimming pool we could find to cool off.
- next day was Shronbrun (sp?) Palace and Park. I could do without tours of old rooms and art by "famous" artists I've never heard of, but some of the stories of the Imperial Hapsburg members were amusing, and the grounds were very impressive. Acres and acres of incredibly manicured gardens and fountains, with nice views of Vienna. A stroll (at least) through here is definitely a must.
- best part was the labrynth... 2700m2 (a VERY small fraction of the grounds) worth of mazes cut through hedges and trees. The first one looked pretty small and I figured it was going to be lame, er, I mean meant for kids, but 30 minutes later we were still wandering through it ending up back at the entrance every time.
- thunderstorms rolled in that afternoon and it has been raining off and on ever since. I'll take that over 34 degrees and humid anyday though.
- that night we took the subway (we have got to figure out how to build things like this in Canada!) to the Danube River and Donau City area. I highly recommend exploring the sunken city island area, we didn't get there until after dark but it still seemed like a cool area to explore
- our hotel room is an oven. They installed the blinds so as to prevent the windows from opening more than a crack, and even after the rain, it was still cooking hot in here. Fortuantely the water leaking in the through the roof is refreshingly cold. :)
- today was spent exploring the old city. Not as "european" as other cities I've explored, but still very cool, and every so often you stumble across a sight that simply catches you off guard rounding a corner. Personal favorite was the St. Stphen Cathedral and it's south tower... 340-some steps to the top, all in a very tight, spiral staircase that still makes me dizzy just remembering it. Highlight of the day (other than the amazing views) was halfway back down. Behind me Ethan was laughing about how dizzy he was getting and said he felt like he was going to fall... by then I was already wondering how they haven't had problems with people falling or getting injured in there too. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blur of blue as 58 pounds of boy plunged headfirst down the solid stone stairwell. I'm still not really sure what happened, but somehow he landed behind me on his knees and looked up at me laughing. No harm, no foul I guess. He is still laughing about it.
Pics of the aforementioned forthcoming. Tommorrow we head to Prague, which was my destination of choice on this here trip. I've heard great things about it, so expectations are high!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Shell
One of the cool things about working for a large international company (actually ranked the largest in the world last year based on revenues - thanks in no small part to myself I'm sure :) is that you see it everywhere you go. So for the folks back in the office, here's a sample of Shell's presence in German, which is right next to our hotel...
Sounds of Salzurg
Salt Town. Famous for 2 things: the musical I was routinely tortured with every Christmas as a child, AKA The Sound of music (although truthfully I would probably enjoy it now) and WAM, AKA Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.. We did see the house he was born in but otherwise didn't have much to do with either the last couple days. Spent most of our time just walking around the old town and touring the fortress. I highly recommend that tour if you are ever in Salzburg. Quite interesting from a history perspective (built over 500 years ago and was never conquered, although it was surrendered to Napolean, the tour also covered a lot of WWI, which I forgot had involved Austria so prominently - unfortunately it was all in German so there was only so much I could glean from the exhibits), and amazing views of Salzburg and the surrounding mountains.
Lots to see and do here, so we walked about 8 hours today alone. Ethan kept up amazingly well... infact he was still bursting with energy tonight well after Carla and I had clearly hit our tired and cranky limit. He was also quite proud of his catch at lunch today, so I've included a pic of that. The wasps at llunch were quite annoying, and the two of us eventually caught 4 of them in upside down glasses. For an 8 year old, that is the highlight of almost anyday.
Also managed to post a video of a quartet we stunbled on in one of the plazas today. You can see it at http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QP0j-FCn-08&client=mv-google&gl=US&hl=en. There was 1 accordian and 3, um, Austrian yukeles? One of them was clearly overgrown as you can see in the pics. But the combination sounded incredible, which I'm sure my phone did a terrible job of picking it up. I'm just impressed I could get it from Salzburg to youtube all on this little device.
Tommorrow we head off to Vienna. 1 week is officially in the books now. 4 more to go!
Friday, July 31, 2009
In Innsbruck
Had a bit of a slower day in Innsbruck, and I couldn't have picked a nicer town for it. There's definitely not as much to see and do here as the big cities, but as a quiet, more laid back destination (relatively speaking), it was fantastic. It seemed like it would be a great spot to hang out for a while, especially if you are into hiking, skiing, and such. Beautiful location in a river valley between 2 mountain ranges. By far the most sxenic train ride we've had so far too.
We hit the usual sights, climbed a tower, checked out the cathedral (which was surprisingly impressive, perhaps because I wasn't expecting it. Otherwise we just explored the streets, walked along the river and spent a bit of time hanging out at the hotel during a mid-afternoon thunderstorm (besy hotel so far too).
Oh, and for Jimmy and all my other chess peeps back home, I took a stroll through the Imperial gardens in the evening and stumbled across the most "European" moment so far. 2 old guys, playing chess on a huge board, with a handful of spectators watching the game and adding their commentaries. All in German so I didn't understand much, but I did catch the odd word like "goot" and "Fisher., and you could sure tell when one of them thought someone had misplayed. I watched one full game (ended in a draw, but had lots of back and forth moments), then carried on my way.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Zugspitze + Ziplock = Crazy Canuck
- took the train from Munich to Innsuck today, with a stop in Garmish to take the alpine train and cable car to the summit of the Zugspitze. that's 10000 feet up... same height as cascade mountain in banff! I've climbed that high twice before but carla and ethan had never been close so it was a real treat for them (and me). Amazing views and scenery... you'll see it in the pics.
- I hiked part way up the glacier, then stood there thinking about the best way to go back down, wishing I had a garbage bag to sled on. Then I realized I did have a ziplock bag that might just be big enough. It was, barely. :) Nothing quite like a self-induced glissade down a mountain, starting to pick up a little speed, and wondering whether that flat spot ahead will be enough to stop you or if you are going to have to find out what's around that blind corner ahead :) Too much fun! I think I started giggling like a school girl at that point :)
-Ethan and I climbed up to the summit. No pics of that stretch yet... I don't want my mom freaking out when she sees them :)
- train ride in to Innsbruck had amazing scenery too. This was going to our shortest stop, but I'm alreay rethinking that... seems like a great little city so far
on to the pics
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