Yes: Copenhagen and Oslo were awesome. But as the trip is now over, its time for awards (anecdotes included):
Best Tour Guide: Tie between Ricky in Munich and Robert in Oslo. Together these are the two cities where we can most identify what we walked past, thanks to these dudes.
Most incompetent hostel reception: Sleep-In-Green in Copenhagen, where the teenagers running the place could not even handle assigning people to numbered beds, and ending up having to turn people away who had reservations - really. They also apologized that we would not be in the same room... as if five feet and a large bulletin board constitute the divider between rooms.
Good beer that we had but don't want to rank against each other: Lasko (Slovenia) was great and cheap, Gosser (Austria) was extremely smooth, Dreher (Hungary) was good, and Germany - you rock.
Most lethal man we met: Jim Ross
Coolest hostel in the world: The Loft in Budapest... just go there.
Coolest hostel in the world, if cool meant sucking: Jaegers Hostel in Munich. In addition to the breakfast toast and 80 degree basement, they had amazing showers: You know how water-conservation sinks will come on for like ten seconds when you press them (like in an airplane) and then go off and you can press them again to get ten more seconds of water. THATS HOW THE SHOWERS WERE. Think about it.
Best time that Evan fell asleep and we covered him in cheese: The time Evan fell asleep and we covered him in cheese (Copenhagen)
Favorite City: Munich. We actually unanimously agree on this, and it comes even despite the fact that we stayed in our worst hostel there. Very nice
Coolest club we went to: the 5 story club on the river in Prague, where John and I each danced for three hours while both of us actually wanted to dance with the other's dance partner. We would have switched... but it didn't come up until Munich.
Most Scenic Place: Oslo. It was never dark, and we went to a completely still lake at 2am with a purplish white sky backdrop. It was really peaceful... until we realized we could scream and get huge echoes from the other side of the lake.
Longest running jokes: Evan spends forever writing Anna e-mails, Marshall can't ride a bike, Johns republican.
Ugliest Prices: Oslo - standard bottle of beer in a bar will set you back 12-15 US dollars. No joke.
Best time we got Jim drunk and peer pressured him to let us stay in his apartment while he was out of town: The time we got Jim drunk and peer pressured him to let us stay in his apartment while he was out of town (Prague).
Best foosball table on which I beat John: Budapest. Or Vienna. Or Prague. Or Copenhagen.
Largest foosball table: The Vienna fanzone had a foosball field where the players on the sticks were 5-6 feet tall, and each row of players was controlled by a different person, turning a huge wheel. Neat
Coolest playground: At Rob's old elementary school in Oslo, they had a see-saw type thing where you swing around like ten feet in the air.... John's dismount? 4.6 4.4 4.7 4.6
Best romantic comedy I watched on my Virgin Atlantic flights...: Definitely, Maybe beat out 27 dresses, so I decided to watch Definitely, Maybe twice.
Time Evan glared at me for watching romantic comedies on planes: see above.
Kind of interesting local tradition: In Copenhagen, high school graduates ride around in huge flat beds shouting at traffic while drunk... all day, many days.
Worst local beer: Ozujsko in Zagreb. It tasted like an American Light beer, only not the good kinds like Miller Lite or Keystone Light, but the bad kind like the mix of beer that you had to play the last game of beer pong with because some of the cups had a little Busch Light in them which you topped off with your last can of Pabst. Woof.
(Did you see the Pabst reference coming? I didn't. Who drinks Pabst. Haha, if you say Pabst a lot it sounds like a dirty word. Pabstface)
Dumbest decision any of us made..: Jury's still out.
Least comfortable hardwood floor on which we slept: Rob's floor
Most disagreeable Hungarian woman: The Hungarian woman who would not validate our Eurail passes nor tell us what to do with unvalidated passes.
Most agreeable woman: A woman in Prague approached us on the street at midnight asking us, "Do you have a lighter?" then whispering "sex sex sex". A few hours later we were on our way to the club..
Best meat plate: PLATE OF MEAT (Ljubljana).
Best faux-hawk: John.
Coolest train stop: When riding from Berlin to Copenhagen, our train actually got on a ferry when we had to cross a stretch of water. We had to leave the train and hang out on the deck until we got back to land.
Best families in the world for encouraging us to Eurotrip: Mine, Johns, Evans. Thank you so much for all of your support!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Marshall's Pictures up on Flickr and QUIZ SHOW
My pictures from the entire trip are now up right here. This is the first and only time pictures from my camera have been put online so see them before theyre gone. The last 100 or so pictures are from Copenhagen and Oslo which arent covered in the other albums. This album pretty much has every day of the trip from my camera except today (our 2nd day in Oslo). Enjoy. More pictures from John's camera are also up and Rob's camera will be uploading shortly... so if you have time to kill, there will be about 2000 pictures for your viewing pleasure. Mine are the best though
Five shoutouts to the person who names these five people correctly from our days in Berlin:
1. went to the hospital
2. became Gorbachev when an Irishman ran him into the tree
3. had sex inside a Brazilian inside a bar
4. got a good dose of bird shit on his leg
5. lost his sunglasses in the river
Five shoutouts to the person who names these five people correctly from our days in Berlin:
1. went to the hospital
2. became Gorbachev when an Irishman ran him into the tree
3. had sex inside a Brazilian inside a bar
4. got a good dose of bird shit on his leg
5. lost his sunglasses in the river
Monday, June 30, 2008
Berlin 2
For the purposes of continuing the story, I will call the guy whom NO ONE HAS GUESSED YET "Jared". But please guess who it is because this will get annoying.
As there were several requests to know what we saw on our walking tour, I will mention that we walked along the only standing section of the Berlin Wall, saw Checkpoint Charlie where many incidents of trying to sneak between East and West Berlin occurred, stood above Adolf Hitler's former bunker (now mostly filled in), and saw the Brandenburg Gate.
Funny story: on top of the Brandenburg Gate, there is a statue of a goddess of Victory. Actually, it had been a goddess of peace when Napoleon stole it from the Germans in the early 1800s. But when Germany took it back, they replaced the olive branch with a spear and turned the statue's head to stare directly at the French embassy. Then they renamed the square in front of the gate Parisier Platz. A nice fuck you from the Germans to the French.
The second day of Berlin, we hit up the river to get amazing crepes, cheap beer, and access to a five person paddle boat which was awesome except for when we nearly got run over buy a seaplane which landed right next to us. After Rob's sunglasses fell into the river we decided to go to the museum district to see one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world - the Ishtar Gate. It was quite impressive. Taking pictures was prohibited but not if you played the innocent tourist card, which is precisely what Jared and Robert did. But we had to leave and high tail it over to the start of an amazingly notable pub crawl where ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED.*
That pretty much wraps up the night. No one did anything inside of a bar or went to the hospital.
As there were several requests to know what we saw on our walking tour, I will mention that we walked along the only standing section of the Berlin Wall, saw Checkpoint Charlie where many incidents of trying to sneak between East and West Berlin occurred, stood above Adolf Hitler's former bunker (now mostly filled in), and saw the Brandenburg Gate.
Funny story: on top of the Brandenburg Gate, there is a statue of a goddess of Victory. Actually, it had been a goddess of peace when Napoleon stole it from the Germans in the early 1800s. But when Germany took it back, they replaced the olive branch with a spear and turned the statue's head to stare directly at the French embassy. Then they renamed the square in front of the gate Parisier Platz. A nice fuck you from the Germans to the French.
The second day of Berlin, we hit up the river to get amazing crepes, cheap beer, and access to a five person paddle boat which was awesome except for when we nearly got run over buy a seaplane which landed right next to us. After Rob's sunglasses fell into the river we decided to go to the museum district to see one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world - the Ishtar Gate. It was quite impressive. Taking pictures was prohibited but not if you played the innocent tourist card, which is precisely what Jared and Robert did. But we had to leave and high tail it over to the start of an amazingly notable pub crawl where ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED.*
That pretty much wraps up the night. No one did anything inside of a bar or went to the hospital.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Berlin 1
A poem:
After a short nap, and with a Viking in hand, we made our norway into the Berlin fanzone with twenty thousand other fans to watch Germany play Turkey. Did you know that Berlin has the largest population of Turks outside of Turkey? Not after this cagematch. And while all the street parties were going on, one John Stallcup stole the show by downing three different kinds of herring and a glass of salt water on our way back to the hostel.
And then the night ended. OR SO WE THOUGHT. But who should be in the hostel lobby when we arrived, waiting for us to go to the rooftop bar with him? Who came to the rooftop bar with us and immediately hit it off with a cute Australian and drank beer out of a pitcher late into the night? Who hunted us down from all over Europe to know we would be in Berlin at that exact moment, at that exact hostel? WHO I ASK YOU, WHO??
I will give five dollars to anyone who can tell me.*
There once was a man who lived in a land of fjords,And so it was that when Evan, John, and I arrived in Berlin the morning of June 25th, Plummer comma Robert arrived with a triumph into the Wombats lobby. Walking tour time! Not even Condi Rice blocking off the US embassy could stop this pain train.
His name was Robert Plummer.
After a short nap, and with a Viking in hand, we made our norway into the Berlin fanzone with twenty thousand other fans to watch Germany play Turkey. Did you know that Berlin has the largest population of Turks outside of Turkey? Not after this cagematch. And while all the street parties were going on, one John Stallcup stole the show by downing three different kinds of herring and a glass of salt water on our way back to the hostel.
And then the night ended. OR SO WE THOUGHT. But who should be in the hostel lobby when we arrived, waiting for us to go to the rooftop bar with him? Who came to the rooftop bar with us and immediately hit it off with a cute Australian and drank beer out of a pitcher late into the night? Who hunted us down from all over Europe to know we would be in Berlin at that exact moment, at that exact hostel? WHO I ASK YOU, WHO??
I will give five dollars to anyone who can tell me.*
Friday, June 27, 2008
Munich 2
We got up mere hours after the pub crawl ended to do a walking tour of Munich. As opposed to other cities where we walked around and saw many buildings without learning much about them, Munich was made more awesome by this tour. Our Canadian tour guide was hilarious, and we got to hear very informative stories about Munich and its history. We heard stories about the devil helping speed up the construction of Fraunkirche, an opera house burning down when a human line from a beer hall drank all the beer before it could be used to put out the fire, and Hitlers bodyguard taking eleven bullets in a street shootout while diving on top of Hitler. Seriously. The tour was great.
After that we went to Dachau, home of the only concentration camp open all twelve years of the Nazi reign (1933-45). The original buildings were gone, but a few were reconstructed and the foundations were all there. It was a massive camp, and it is now home to several memorials. Very humbling.
We returned to Munich to pay tribute to the famous beer gardens - Englischer garten, maybe the most famous, and Augustiner garten, the biggest. If you dont know what a beer garden is... well, its basically a basketball court size area of picnic tables where people sit and drink one liter beers outside... and if you go anytime between noon and noon the following day, its full. When I say full, I mean it actually took us several minutes to find a place to sit in Augustiner garden. Seriously (the tourists only show up at night, but people are actually there 24-7). We had bratwurst and pretzels in Englischer... delicioso.
Then we took a night train to Berlin...
After that we went to Dachau, home of the only concentration camp open all twelve years of the Nazi reign (1933-45). The original buildings were gone, but a few were reconstructed and the foundations were all there. It was a massive camp, and it is now home to several memorials. Very humbling.
We returned to Munich to pay tribute to the famous beer gardens - Englischer garten, maybe the most famous, and Augustiner garten, the biggest. If you dont know what a beer garden is... well, its basically a basketball court size area of picnic tables where people sit and drink one liter beers outside... and if you go anytime between noon and noon the following day, its full. When I say full, I mean it actually took us several minutes to find a place to sit in Augustiner garden. Seriously (the tourists only show up at night, but people are actually there 24-7). We had bratwurst and pretzels in Englischer... delicioso.
Then we took a night train to Berlin...
Munich 1
Before we left for Munich from Prague we made sure we were getting on a train with no air conditioning, a track that was under construction so that we would have to switch to a bus for one leg of the trip, and connections that made us use three hot trains total in addition to the bus. Thankfully we got exactly what we wanted.
The first night in Munich we just chilled out and watched the Spain quarterfinal game, but instead of chilling out we slept in a basement with 80 people at 80 degrees. Luckily we got up for all you can eat breakfast which consisted of a plate of 10 loaves of bread and a toaster. But then Munich actually turned awesome.
We went to a train stop that had the Olympic village from when Munich hosted in 1972 and the BMW headquarters building (museum, corporate hq, plant, welt). The BMW Welt was a whale shaped building that was ridiculously awesome if you are into sweet cars. There were driving similations, headphones to listen to engines, a sweet F1 car, and the building looked extremely futuristic and massive. It was neat.
We made it back in time to do a pub crawl with a great group of about 25 people. It was awesome, and one of the stops was the HofBrauHaus, said to be the worlds most famous beer hall (google it). On our tour the next day we learned that the Hofbrauhaus used to have gutters running through it so that males could go to the bathroom without getting up and losing their seat (even though the place is huge, like auditorium size). Now, there are no gutters and girls are allowed, but in the guys bathroom there is a large bin in which to vomit (there is not one in the girls bathroom). Seriously, a bin dedicated to people throwing up. There we had one-liter mugs of beer (standard in most halls or beer gardens in Munich) and I stole some amazing brat and kraut off of a couples plate who ending up joining our crawl. And... absolutely nothing else eventful happened.*
The first night in Munich we just chilled out and watched the Spain quarterfinal game, but instead of chilling out we slept in a basement with 80 people at 80 degrees. Luckily we got up for all you can eat breakfast which consisted of a plate of 10 loaves of bread and a toaster. But then Munich actually turned awesome.
We went to a train stop that had the Olympic village from when Munich hosted in 1972 and the BMW headquarters building (museum, corporate hq, plant, welt). The BMW Welt was a whale shaped building that was ridiculously awesome if you are into sweet cars. There were driving similations, headphones to listen to engines, a sweet F1 car, and the building looked extremely futuristic and massive. It was neat.
We made it back in time to do a pub crawl with a great group of about 25 people. It was awesome, and one of the stops was the HofBrauHaus, said to be the worlds most famous beer hall (google it). On our tour the next day we learned that the Hofbrauhaus used to have gutters running through it so that males could go to the bathroom without getting up and losing their seat (even though the place is huge, like auditorium size). Now, there are no gutters and girls are allowed, but in the guys bathroom there is a large bin in which to vomit (there is not one in the girls bathroom). Seriously, a bin dedicated to people throwing up. There we had one-liter mugs of beer (standard in most halls or beer gardens in Munich) and I stole some amazing brat and kraut off of a couples plate who ending up joining our crawl. And... absolutely nothing else eventful happened.*
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Prague Day 3 - River
After seeing a great part of the river on Friday, we woke up Saturday with one idea in mind: Paddle boats. Genius? No: Evan-The-Thinktank-Davies shoots out ideas of this caliber like a wombat beats ten year old Canadians at table tennis.
Thats right folks! We spent time on the river in both a rowboat and a paddle boat, and it was pretty fricking cool. We also walked onto one of the United Islands of Prague in the middle of the river for free concerts that were going on. No one big was there that day but apparently we only recently missed Jameroquai.
We went back to the square for the Russia-Netherlands game, and then went out to a bar and dance club. We ran into some college people from Ohio and a few people from Atlanta whom we had met in Budapest, and they provided the bulk of the entertainment; or i should say, we provided them with the bulk of their entertainment. Congratulations Day 3 - you were quite the success.
The following morning we had planned on leaving at 830 to go to Munich. I vaguely recall the following conversation occuring in the five seconds I was awake, around 8am.
John: Hey guys, lets just go on a later train.
Evan and Me: (No response)
We ending up taking an afternoon train to Munich... the city of gold. Stay tuned.
Thats right folks! We spent time on the river in both a rowboat and a paddle boat, and it was pretty fricking cool. We also walked onto one of the United Islands of Prague in the middle of the river for free concerts that were going on. No one big was there that day but apparently we only recently missed Jameroquai.
We went back to the square for the Russia-Netherlands game, and then went out to a bar and dance club. We ran into some college people from Ohio and a few people from Atlanta whom we had met in Budapest, and they provided the bulk of the entertainment; or i should say, we provided them with the bulk of their entertainment. Congratulations Day 3 - you were quite the success.
The following morning we had planned on leaving at 830 to go to Munich. I vaguely recall the following conversation occuring in the five seconds I was awake, around 8am.
John: Hey guys, lets just go on a later train.
Evan and Me: (No response)
We ending up taking an afternoon train to Munich... the city of gold. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Prague Day 2
It was tough waking up in Jims apartment knowing he wouldnt be around. But we did. After grabbing some fornetti, we made our way across the river to the castle and the massive St. Vitus Cathedral. It was really quite a sight; hopefully we will put up pictures of it soon. Being the perfect demographic for advertisements (the read-and-follow demographic), we stumbled upon an amazing lunch place called Bio Cafes, where we had paninis and returned for more paninis and ice cream. We then walked across the Karlov Most (Charles Bridge), a famous pedestrian bridge with a few merchants and musicians and into Stare Mesto (old town). Wanting to fill up our afternoon we made our way over to St. Winceslas boulevard, a very wide street of shops.
John and I enjoy going into athletic stores, so we stepped into the Nike store there, and then proceeded to watch a sweet Nike soccer commercial four times and juggle a soccer ball a little. After that, it was time for the next quarterfinal game - this time it was Croatia and Turkey.
The Prague fanzone can hold a couple thousand people and a lot of cheap beer. This game was particularly entertaining because of the wild ending, but also because there was a stag party of drunk British guys being kg-davs-rowdy. Imagine a square of people all facing one direction. Now imagine a group of guys somewhere in the middle trying to start a wave.. twenty times, and booing everytime no one followed. It was pretty funny.
What would Day 3 hold in store for us? Hint: it rhymes with orange pajamas.
John and I enjoy going into athletic stores, so we stepped into the Nike store there, and then proceeded to watch a sweet Nike soccer commercial four times and juggle a soccer ball a little. After that, it was time for the next quarterfinal game - this time it was Croatia and Turkey.
The Prague fanzone can hold a couple thousand people and a lot of cheap beer. This game was particularly entertaining because of the wild ending, but also because there was a stag party of drunk British guys being kg-davs-rowdy. Imagine a square of people all facing one direction. Now imagine a group of guys somewhere in the middle trying to start a wave.. twenty times, and booing everytime no one followed. It was pretty funny.
What would Day 3 hold in store for us? Hint: it rhymes with orange pajamas.
June 19-21 - Prague 1 - now with Jim Ross
Jim Ross. The name raises the hairs on the back of your neck. When John, Evan, and I got off at the Holesovice train station in Prague one fateful afternoon, we had no idea what was in store for us. Standing on the platform innocently, we were approached by a man who somehow knew all of our names and knew exactly when we were arriving. That man was Jim Ross.
Jim Ross might be a secret agent; no one really knows for sure. But when he took us to his third floor spacious apartment above some sricetastic club that the mafia probably owns, we knew not to cross him.
Jim took us to a restaurant with great microbrews and meat plates, then to the center of the old town to watch the first Eurocup quarterfinal between Germany and Portugal. Finally, he led us to a bar, drank with us, and skipped town. Seriously. The next morning, John, Evan, and I woke up and had the apartment to ourselves, with Jim already in Austria and after that, who knows. One thing is for certain - the following conversation took place Friday morning at 8am with Jim in bed just minutes before he vanished:
Moments later he was gone, leaving John, Evan, and I to do Prague the only way we know how: thunderously.
Jim Ross might be a secret agent; no one really knows for sure. But when he took us to his third floor spacious apartment above some sricetastic club that the mafia probably owns, we knew not to cross him.
Jim took us to a restaurant with great microbrews and meat plates, then to the center of the old town to watch the first Eurocup quarterfinal between Germany and Portugal. Finally, he led us to a bar, drank with us, and skipped town. Seriously. The next morning, John, Evan, and I woke up and had the apartment to ourselves, with Jim already in Austria and after that, who knows. One thing is for certain - the following conversation took place Friday morning at 8am with Jim in bed just minutes before he vanished:
Me: Jim, what time are you supposed to be at the train station?
Jim: 8:15.
Me: Here. (handing him my watch)
Jim: ...Fuck.
Moments later he was gone, leaving John, Evan, and I to do Prague the only way we know how: thunderously.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
More Pictures
For all of the pictures from John's camera only for the first four cities only, visit our flickr page.
Pictures 3 - Actual Sightseeing
The top of the Citadel in Buda
Hungarian Parliament
Evan Davies in front of the Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana
Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna - with huge gardens and hedge mazes
A very large emerald from the Austrian Crown Jewels
The EuroCup fan zone in Vienna, with City Hall in the backgroundFriday, June 20, 2008
PICTURES 2!!!! All about John Stallcup
John Stallcup knocked down a Croat just by staring at him.
John Stallcup puts pretzels in his shirt pocket sometimes.
John Stallcup.. likes reading the newspaper.
PICTURES!!! Ljubljana
These are pictures off John's camera only, from the first four cities only. Enjoy
Thumbs up to Europe.
By day, 3D moviewatchers. By night, ladykillers.
PLATE OF MEAT
Cool graffiti all over a square in Ljubljana.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Narwhal
I just want to reiterate that we saw the tusk of a mothereffing narwhal. Naturally, the museum decided to advertise this piece by having a man dressed up in a narwhal costume outside in the platz. We actually went out to a bar with the narwhal man after museum hours closed. Once we started drinking he turned into an actual narwhal and I cant believe you are still reading this, please stop because only the first sentence was true. Seriously why are you still reading this post Sara Lark? Stop, just stop.
Vienna 1
We arrived yesterday at Westbahnhof train station in Vienna, about a 3 minute walk from our hostel. After dropping our stuff off we walked a ways until arriving at a recommended pizza place - not only was the pizza awesome, but we were able to enjoy Gosser beer and the Simpsons in German on tv. And its true: European commercials are weird.
We went to the official UEFA fan zone to watch last nights games on huge screens (they are being hosted by both Switzerland and Austria but we decided to eat for 3 months rather than paying 900 euro to get tickets). The fan zone and giant screens are set up right in the middle of the city, between Parliament, an opera house, city hall, and near the Hofburg palace. Pretty cool backdrop. Last night we hung out a little in the Wombar - the bar in the basement of our hostel. It serves 1 euro beer and has a foosball table on which I enjoy beating John. We played one game of pool also, but Evan Davies destroyed us. Fun fact: Evan Davies plays pool left-handed.
Today we actually got up early to do a fully planned out sightseeing trip around the city. We went back to the city center to see really cool buildings and statues, walked upstairs around city hall, and saw the Austrian crown Jewels (including an Emerald the size of a softball, a tusk of a narwhal... (really), and Evan Davies baby clothes. Okay one of those may not be true, but two out of those three are pretty impressive). We then climbed up 343 steps in a spiral stone staircase at St. Stephens Cathedral to see nice views of the city and sweat. We also visited Karlsplatz and Karls Church which has massive columns, and finally we went to Schonbrunn palace.
The palace area was incredible. We walked for about 2.5 hours through huge gardens, and we went through a few hedge mazes and labyrinths. There was a house sized fountain (of mermen on top of mer-people) and an inner loop sized palace. Good stuff.
Tomorrow we are going to visit the Jim Ross in Prague... you know that only chaos will follow. Coming soon.. hostel ratings and local beer ratings. Bye Bye
We went to the official UEFA fan zone to watch last nights games on huge screens (they are being hosted by both Switzerland and Austria but we decided to eat for 3 months rather than paying 900 euro to get tickets). The fan zone and giant screens are set up right in the middle of the city, between Parliament, an opera house, city hall, and near the Hofburg palace. Pretty cool backdrop. Last night we hung out a little in the Wombar - the bar in the basement of our hostel. It serves 1 euro beer and has a foosball table on which I enjoy beating John. We played one game of pool also, but Evan Davies destroyed us. Fun fact: Evan Davies plays pool left-handed.
Today we actually got up early to do a fully planned out sightseeing trip around the city. We went back to the city center to see really cool buildings and statues, walked upstairs around city hall, and saw the Austrian crown Jewels (including an Emerald the size of a softball, a tusk of a narwhal... (really), and Evan Davies baby clothes. Okay one of those may not be true, but two out of those three are pretty impressive). We then climbed up 343 steps in a spiral stone staircase at St. Stephens Cathedral to see nice views of the city and sweat. We also visited Karlsplatz and Karls Church which has massive columns, and finally we went to Schonbrunn palace.
The palace area was incredible. We walked for about 2.5 hours through huge gardens, and we went through a few hedge mazes and labyrinths. There was a house sized fountain (of mermen on top of mer-people) and an inner loop sized palace. Good stuff.
Tomorrow we are going to visit the Jim Ross in Prague... you know that only chaos will follow. Coming soon.. hostel ratings and local beer ratings. Bye Bye
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Budapest 2 - Two Funny Stories
The Labyrinth of Courage
Okay. Okay. Imagine if there were a labyrinth of tunnels under a city - that would be pretty cool right? Then imagine if it were turned into a museum with ancient, ancient prehistoric art, like cave drawings, and you walked through the tunnels and it was pretty dark and you saw cave drawings. That would be nice.
Now imagine the same dark tunnels, only with replica art - cave drawings Joe made last week. And though the caves were mostly dark, damp, dripping, and avec low ceilings, someone decided hey, lets put some candles in there, so that the smoke will just sit there. And we will also put a wine fountain there with huge vats of wine that have been sitting out. Thats one section. The next section labels itself "from another world" and claims to have rocks with fossils of them from 42 million years ago. You get to the first fossil, which has a footprint. You read the plaque - it says "footprint, circa 42 million years ago." You look at the footprint again... and see a nike swoosh. Seriously.
This is Hungarian humor at its finest. John, Evan, and I followed the caves to see fossils of a keyboard, laptop, and coke bottle from between 45 and 35 million years ago according to the plaques on the wall. Really. Not only that, but the plaques described how the fossils were probably left from Homo Consumes, a distant cousin of ours. I think I missed some crucial weeks of my seventh grade science class.
The third section of the caves was a labyrinth of courage. For kids and cowards, there was an exit before the maze so that you could skip it. This was a series of caves and halls with zero light. We literally walked into walls until we got out. But we felt pretty invincible after finishing...
That day we also saw Hungarian Parliament, the Great Synagogue, a castle, a sweet pub where I schooled John in foosball which included both a karaoke room and a dance club room, and a Subway... at which we had lunch.
Now we are in Vienna, and we have some really cool stuff planned out. Also, we will try to upload some pictures in the next few days.
Okay. Okay. Imagine if there were a labyrinth of tunnels under a city - that would be pretty cool right? Then imagine if it were turned into a museum with ancient, ancient prehistoric art, like cave drawings, and you walked through the tunnels and it was pretty dark and you saw cave drawings. That would be nice.
Now imagine the same dark tunnels, only with replica art - cave drawings Joe made last week. And though the caves were mostly dark, damp, dripping, and avec low ceilings, someone decided hey, lets put some candles in there, so that the smoke will just sit there. And we will also put a wine fountain there with huge vats of wine that have been sitting out. Thats one section. The next section labels itself "from another world" and claims to have rocks with fossils of them from 42 million years ago. You get to the first fossil, which has a footprint. You read the plaque - it says "footprint, circa 42 million years ago." You look at the footprint again... and see a nike swoosh. Seriously.
This is Hungarian humor at its finest. John, Evan, and I followed the caves to see fossils of a keyboard, laptop, and coke bottle from between 45 and 35 million years ago according to the plaques on the wall. Really. Not only that, but the plaques described how the fossils were probably left from Homo Consumes, a distant cousin of ours. I think I missed some crucial weeks of my seventh grade science class.
The third section of the caves was a labyrinth of courage. For kids and cowards, there was an exit before the maze so that you could skip it. This was a series of caves and halls with zero light. We literally walked into walls until we got out. But we felt pretty invincible after finishing...
That day we also saw Hungarian Parliament, the Great Synagogue, a castle, a sweet pub where I schooled John in foosball which included both a karaoke room and a dance club room, and a Subway... at which we had lunch.
Now we are in Vienna, and we have some really cool stuff planned out. Also, we will try to upload some pictures in the next few days.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Budapest 1
We're in Budapest now, staying at the Loft which is a top floor apartment/group of about 15 badass people. On Saturday we took an 7 hour or so train ride from Zagreb - we slept most of the way, in our own cabin - into one of the Budapest train stations. We had some really great pizza in the station for about a dollar a slice, then got yelled at by a Hungarian woman because we never validated our Eurail pass... hopefully this wont be an issue in the future.
After getting on a bus going the wrong way, but realizing by the first stop our mistake (because males have good senses of direction) we made our way to our sweet sweet hostel. We then proceeded to meet some people from New England, a few from Georgia, and other English speakers before enjoying our daily routine of watching soccer at a local outdoor cafe (3 beers? No, two and a latte). After that, we went out to eat with a few new acquaintances from our hostel. Really good food and wine at Fatal restaurant. The only downside with the city is the supposed mafia connection to so many rip-off venues. But that's worth it. As we were walking back to the hostel we saw another group on their way to a hookah bar where we hung out for a good part of the rest of the night... debauchery ensued, but one thing is for certain: Evan Davies was entertaining people for at least a few minutes with a guitar before the night was over. Im not sure about the rest. Sunday we slept late for the first time all trip, hiked up to the Citadel in Buda (we are staying in Pest), had goulash, and went out to a sweet mostly outdoor bar.
Okay, I dont know what else to say about Budapest, but seriously this place is awesome. The city is much larger than Zagreb or Ljubljana, so we havent gotten to see everything, but the people we have met, the hostel we are staying in, and the nightlife are all really enjoyable pieces. You should come...
After getting on a bus going the wrong way, but realizing by the first stop our mistake (because males have good senses of direction) we made our way to our sweet sweet hostel. We then proceeded to meet some people from New England, a few from Georgia, and other English speakers before enjoying our daily routine of watching soccer at a local outdoor cafe (3 beers? No, two and a latte). After that, we went out to eat with a few new acquaintances from our hostel. Really good food and wine at Fatal restaurant. The only downside with the city is the supposed mafia connection to so many rip-off venues. But that's worth it. As we were walking back to the hostel we saw another group on their way to a hookah bar where we hung out for a good part of the rest of the night... debauchery ensued, but one thing is for certain: Evan Davies was entertaining people for at least a few minutes with a guitar before the night was over. Im not sure about the rest. Sunday we slept late for the first time all trip, hiked up to the Citadel in Buda (we are staying in Pest), had goulash, and went out to a sweet mostly outdoor bar.
Okay, I dont know what else to say about Budapest, but seriously this place is awesome. The city is much larger than Zagreb or Ljubljana, so we havent gotten to see everything, but the people we have met, the hostel we are staying in, and the nightlife are all really enjoyable pieces. You should come...
Zagreb 1
On Friday we left Ljubljana pretty early in the morning to take a two hour train ride to Zagreb. In our car were a huge group of guys who were returning from Switzerland and the Croatia-Germany game, fully decked out in jerseys and in a singing mood. It was pretty cool.
We had actually heard that Zagreb wasnt that cool and this was confirmed by a book which said that days in Croatia are best spent on the coast. But that didn't stop us from giving the city a good 20 hour visit. Included in our visit were amazing fornetti pizza balls, the local beer Ozujsko which unfortunately tastes like an American light beer, a large Cathedral, Ben Jelacic square where Bob Dylan was supposed to be playing, some really cool outdoor venues where we watched soccer, an underground mall of bars where we watched more soccer, and a speculative tram ride east to the end of a line just to see what was out there. Nothing.
And as we were calling it a night before a super early train ride to Budapest, our two Australian roommates went off about hating Budapest because all of their valuables were stolen there. Thanks for your input.
Anyway, Zagreb was actually really entertaining and now we are in The Loft in Budapest - the sweetest hostel ever. Will write soon
We had actually heard that Zagreb wasnt that cool and this was confirmed by a book which said that days in Croatia are best spent on the coast. But that didn't stop us from giving the city a good 20 hour visit. Included in our visit were amazing fornetti pizza balls, the local beer Ozujsko which unfortunately tastes like an American light beer, a large Cathedral, Ben Jelacic square where Bob Dylan was supposed to be playing, some really cool outdoor venues where we watched soccer, an underground mall of bars where we watched more soccer, and a speculative tram ride east to the end of a line just to see what was out there. Nothing.
And as we were calling it a night before a super early train ride to Budapest, our two Australian roommates went off about hating Budapest because all of their valuables were stolen there. Thanks for your input.
Anyway, Zagreb was actually really entertaining and now we are in The Loft in Budapest - the sweetest hostel ever. Will write soon
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Ljubljana 2
Its well after midnight Thursday night, and I finally got my bag over 50 hours after leaving Dallas. I immediately brushed my teeth and took out my contacts, and tomorrow I may even change clothes...
(Dear Robert) This evening we sat down for a beer outside and watched part of the Poland-Austria Eurocup game. We also watched part of the Croatia-Germany game before. Here, there are dozens of cafes where people just sit outside and everyone faces the flat screen to watch soccer. Its really neat. I had an amazing hot chocolate at one place where our server pointed out that she loves how Americans feel obligated to tip. We asked her proper etiquette and she explained that students or people with less money dont need to tip even if the service was good. As for herself, she said that she would probably leave 10 or 20 cents on a 5 dollar tab, as a student or young worker.
At another cafe - we stop a lot because John loves coffee - Evan and I tried the Union beer, the other local beer. Union and Lasko are like the Miller-Bud powerhouses of Slovenian beer, only they are way better. They are also served in half-liter bottles...
For dinner we went to Compa, a restaurant John and Evan read about in some book. It is run by a family - father, mother, daughter - and they are the only workers. We ate around 9:15, which I guess was still early for around here. We were also basically the only ones in the restaurant the entire night, which probably should have been a red flag. Everything in the restaurant was homemade, including the wine, of which we ordered a liter, and alright Ill just cut to saying that the entire occasion can only be labeled as an experience. There were no menus, but the mother just presented us an option of a plate of meat, then brought us several pounds of mixed meat. There was cheese that John and Evan disliked with the bread, a salad bowl that was respectable, the meat plate, an after dinner cheese thing that John disliked, and an after dinner shot. We tried to ask questions but Im not even sure they knew what they were giving us. The mother declined Johns invitation to take a shot with us on account of her being married (she said the shot was an aphrodisiac). Evan went into a Shakespearean love sonnet about wanting to be with Anna, which threw off Johns game (the daughter declined a shot on account of not drinking). The food was decent but incredibly greasy or heavy or both.. the wine was pretty bad at first but somehow grew on us. We stayed for a couple of hours; no matter what it was incredibly entertaining.
Ill skip most of the rest of the night, but it included the wine at least affecting John, who at one point camouflaged into a wall, and at another point intentionally threw our leftovers from the restaurant off the bridge and into the river, then said I did it. We also ran into those people from before, and ran into a couple of guys playing frisbee in a street; we each took a few throws. Mine amateurishly hooked right, bouncing off a store window and leaving me with the foundation for nightmares.
Tomorrow we are getting up bright and early to go to Zagreb. More on Evan Davies later...
(Dear Robert) This evening we sat down for a beer outside and watched part of the Poland-Austria Eurocup game. We also watched part of the Croatia-Germany game before. Here, there are dozens of cafes where people just sit outside and everyone faces the flat screen to watch soccer. Its really neat. I had an amazing hot chocolate at one place where our server pointed out that she loves how Americans feel obligated to tip. We asked her proper etiquette and she explained that students or people with less money dont need to tip even if the service was good. As for herself, she said that she would probably leave 10 or 20 cents on a 5 dollar tab, as a student or young worker.
At another cafe - we stop a lot because John loves coffee - Evan and I tried the Union beer, the other local beer. Union and Lasko are like the Miller-Bud powerhouses of Slovenian beer, only they are way better. They are also served in half-liter bottles...
For dinner we went to Compa, a restaurant John and Evan read about in some book. It is run by a family - father, mother, daughter - and they are the only workers. We ate around 9:15, which I guess was still early for around here. We were also basically the only ones in the restaurant the entire night, which probably should have been a red flag. Everything in the restaurant was homemade, including the wine, of which we ordered a liter, and alright Ill just cut to saying that the entire occasion can only be labeled as an experience. There were no menus, but the mother just presented us an option of a plate of meat, then brought us several pounds of mixed meat. There was cheese that John and Evan disliked with the bread, a salad bowl that was respectable, the meat plate, an after dinner cheese thing that John disliked, and an after dinner shot. We tried to ask questions but Im not even sure they knew what they were giving us. The mother declined Johns invitation to take a shot with us on account of her being married (she said the shot was an aphrodisiac). Evan went into a Shakespearean love sonnet about wanting to be with Anna, which threw off Johns game (the daughter declined a shot on account of not drinking). The food was decent but incredibly greasy or heavy or both.. the wine was pretty bad at first but somehow grew on us. We stayed for a couple of hours; no matter what it was incredibly entertaining.
Ill skip most of the rest of the night, but it included the wine at least affecting John, who at one point camouflaged into a wall, and at another point intentionally threw our leftovers from the restaurant off the bridge and into the river, then said I did it. We also ran into those people from before, and ran into a couple of guys playing frisbee in a street; we each took a few throws. Mine amateurishly hooked right, bouncing off a store window and leaving me with the foundation for nightmares.
Tomorrow we are getting up bright and early to go to Zagreb. More on Evan Davies later...
Ljubljana 1
After 4 flights and about 30 hours in airports (delayed in Dallas (where I kept having to look right over this girls ear to see the ETD board, and she thought I was staring at her, but I wasnt - woof), Newark (boarded on time, sat at gate for 3 hours, but got to watch Definitely Maybe and Jumper on the plane), London (where I missed my original flight to Ljubljana), finally connected through Brussels to arrive around midnight), I have finally tracked down John and Evan in Ljubljana. Unfortunately, my bag is not as good of a tracker as me; I believe its currently tracking a different John and Evan in Brussels. But who needs a bag anyway?
So far we have had really good ice cream, walked around a huge part of the citz, seen the Ljubljana Castle on Castle Hill, had meat and cheese bureks for lunch, enjozed Lasko beer for 1.80 euro, and met a group of 3 people working in Austria for the summer (Aussie, Irishie and New Zorkie), who we first saw at a 3d-glasses-including video at the castle, then at lunch nearbz in the citz, and who happen to be on the same floor of the same hostel as us. Also the y and z are switched on the kezboard here, so I figured I would let zou guzs enjoz that. In case zou were wondering, the Lasko beer was actuallz reallz good, and the bureks were as well. I preferred the cheese, Evan the meat. John had a hot dog.
Alright, time to help Evan fulfill more of his destinz....so much fulfilling to do.
So far we have had really good ice cream, walked around a huge part of the citz, seen the Ljubljana Castle on Castle Hill, had meat and cheese bureks for lunch, enjozed Lasko beer for 1.80 euro, and met a group of 3 people working in Austria for the summer (Aussie, Irishie and New Zorkie), who we first saw at a 3d-glasses-including video at the castle, then at lunch nearbz in the citz, and who happen to be on the same floor of the same hostel as us. Also the y and z are switched on the kezboard here, so I figured I would let zou guzs enjoz that. In case zou were wondering, the Lasko beer was actuallz reallz good, and the bureks were as well. I preferred the cheese, Evan the meat. John had a hot dog.
Alright, time to help Evan fulfill more of his destinz....so much fulfilling to do.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Mexico 3
Mexico 3 includes giant sea turtles, hermit crabs, storytime at dinner with the Chaneys, Green Eyes, and more. When I have time to write it.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Mexico 2
Alcohol. Like a baby emperor penguin, alcohol can drive you crazy. When I went to Mexico with Clark a few years ago, the first thing his mom said was "You have to be at the house by five for happy hour." Some things never change. After hitting up both the duty-free store and the grocery store before arriving at the house, we had accumulated this:
Don't worry, the beer and white wine is in the fridge for safekeeping. Is this a responsible amount of alcohol for seven days with only four guests under the age of 50? I hope not.
There were also hanging plastic skeletons which shocked us when we touched them. Naturally, this led to longest-squeeze contests. Perhaps the most entertaining moments came on Karaoke Night, when dozens of cougars descended upon the bar to drunkenly make fools of themselves, more dancing than singing. If you have ever seen the movie Rudy, this had nothing to do with that. A post with more significant subject matter to come...
Don't worry, the beer and white wine is in the fridge for safekeeping. Is this a responsible amount of alcohol for seven days with only four guests under the age of 50? I hope not.Luckily the alcohol that the Chaney parents forced upon us did not prevent us from hitting up La Buena Vida, the chillest outdoor beach bar south of the Arctic Circle. La Buena Vida is home to a signature drink of the same name - voted "best drink not served by Evan Davies" in 2005 and 2008. Some pictures from La Buena Vida:
Swingers.
Brent, Clark, and C.J... after a few drinks
There were also hanging plastic skeletons which shocked us when we touched them. Naturally, this led to longest-squeeze contests. Perhaps the most entertaining moments came on Karaoke Night, when dozens of cougars descended upon the bar to drunkenly make fools of themselves, more dancing than singing. If you have ever seen the movie Rudy, this had nothing to do with that. A post with more significant subject matter to come...
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Mexico 1
When I checked the forecast before leaving for Mexico - without even knowing I was going - the internet predicted rain every single day in Akumal. When we got there, the area newspaper said the same thing. Each day, the same picture:
If the picture of the lighting wasn't scary enough, the adjacent sun covered in deadly spikes causes chills to run down one's spine. Well, I'm really not sure how strong the meteorology discplines are at universities in Mexico because every day looked like this:
Look - thunderstorms! I'll admit: there are clouds in the distance. But this false weather forecasting made me suspicious, especially because it happened literally every day. Does this sign have anything to do with Evan Davies? I'll have to dig deeper to find out..
If the picture of the lighting wasn't scary enough, the adjacent sun covered in deadly spikes causes chills to run down one's spine. Well, I'm really not sure how strong the meteorology discplines are at universities in Mexico because every day looked like this:
Look - thunderstorms! I'll admit: there are clouds in the distance. But this false weather forecasting made me suspicious, especially because it happened literally every day. Does this sign have anything to do with Evan Davies? I'll have to dig deeper to find out..
June 1st - Dawn
I arrived bright and early to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport for what was sure to be the most memorable month of my life, got my boarding pass, then BLAM!:
Que lastima! American Airlines put me on a flight to Cancun when I'm supposed to go backpacking in Europe! But wait! Purely due to coincidence*, I spot my friend Clark Chaney and his family in line right next to me.
Wow, that was close. Turns out, Clark's family has a timeshare right on the beach in Akumal Bay, Mexico, about an hour south of Cancun. Joining us will be his brother Brent, friend C.J., Clark's parents, a grandma and a great aunt. I can't believe how well this entire situation turned out completely by luck. Now to patch things up with my Europe connection:
Que lastima! American Airlines put me on a flight to Cancun when I'm supposed to go backpacking in Europe! But wait! Purely due to coincidence*, I spot my friend Clark Chaney and his family in line right next to me.
Me: Where are you headed?
Clark: Cancun.
Me: Can I stay with you?
Clark: Yes.
Dear John and Evan,I feel like I'm cheating, but it's different countries! Juggling lesson 101. Time to hit the beach.. bar..
My plane went to Cancun instead of London. Can you chill in England for a few days with Evan's family and wait to start our backpacking trip June 11? Great!
Love,
Marshall
May 31st - Countdown
After hardly any planning*, it's time to act with some moxie and go abroad. John and Evan are flying into London from New York, and I'll be meeting them from Dallas. Commencing countdown engines on..
Thursday, May 29, 2008
January 1986 to May 2008 = PreTrip
Twenty three years ago, I was searching for an egg. Now, I'm on the hunt again - this time hitting up twelve* countries in the next thirty something days. Why? It started with a fortune cookie:
This fortune was made? sent? meant for one man: Evan Davies. Evan Davies walked into a PeiWei* one day as a boy and walked out a man destined to travel far and wide. Don't believe me? This is Evan Davies as a boy:
Smooth. Innocent. Good for petting. But then something happened. No longer a boy, Evan Davies became rugged, stylish, and manly. The pictures tell the story:
Evan Davies is my friend, and his mission is mine. Joining us will be John Stallcup, a spunky energy trader from Oklahoma. With our powers combined, we can help Evan to fulfill his destiny. Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed...
This fortune was made? sent? meant for one man: Evan Davies. Evan Davies walked into a PeiWei* one day as a boy and walked out a man destined to travel far and wide. Don't believe me? This is Evan Davies as a boy:
Smooth. Innocent. Good for petting. But then something happened. No longer a boy, Evan Davies became rugged, stylish, and manly. The pictures tell the story:
Evan Davies is my friend, and his mission is mine. Joining us will be John Stallcup, a spunky energy trader from Oklahoma. With our powers combined, we can help Evan to fulfill his destiny. Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)