Days, 152, 153 and 154 a whirlwind stop in Austria

Beethoven's Garden

My grandmother loved Austria. She talked about it and said it was a must see. So, in my case it turned it into a must squeeze....I had a place to stay for a couple of nights so I arrived and had a good dinner with a friend that I met in Rome. We chatted and she gave me loads of advice on how to squeeze all of the highlights of Vienna into a days viewing.

I wake up in the morning and its raining. Boo! I am getting some serious sick of the rain. Says the girl headed back to the Seattle....but that's a different story. As I get into the city I stop and get a coffee and notice a H&M...hmmmm haven't seen one of those in 50 feet. I guess they are having some sort of sale and for the first time since my back breaking walk around Rome with Jamie and Erica I add a few pieces of clothing to the monster that is my backpack. Shorts 5euro. How could you say no!

After that pit stop I meander around to Karlskirche a church that didn't seem like anything cool until I got in and realized that they let you climb up to the cupola. At first I was excited and then as I ascended the rickety stairs I realized that this might be where I discover my fear of heights. Ack!


At first I thought they were painting or something, but no....this is the main attraction


Got some cool pictures of the paintings though...

Stephansdom was the next thing on the list that my friend had made me. Now there aren't many situations that perplex me these days. I look for signs, follow crowds or ask someone if I am seriously confused but all those stand-bys failed me here. I couldn't figure out how to get in to church. I figured it was a sign and pressed on the museum quarter.

In the museum quarter I let the Leopold Museum be my last stop. In this museum they had a large collection of Gustav Klimit's work and I just took my time staying out of the rain.

Last night at Ala's house was quieter than I had imagined. We were going to go to a party but she had to work late or something so I just hung out and had dinner with her when she got back. In the morning I took the first bus to Prague. Heard a lot about the Czech Republic and I am excited to see what this place is all about but getting a bit weary about transit days being every other day.

Day 150 and 151 Budapesting on Castle Hill

Wheew. Day 150? Really? I guess so. Seems like at times I have been on the road forever. At other times it feels like I left Minnesota yesterday. But the reality is that today was a long transit day. I concentrated on one phrase for eight hours of hilly, curvy, and speedy of travel. "I will NOT throw up" I have to date never felt so ill on a bus in my life. Arriving an hour early to Budapest I found my hostel and slept off the risidual sickness. I lucked out too. A single room! How these little gems come along at just in the knick of time is beyond me.

My first day in Budapest I battled the rain to visit Castle Hill. First off the entire city is postcard perfect. After some chinese food. I know, I really did grab some good old mushroom chicken, I headed up the hill to find me some castle. What I did find was a rain, rain and a bit more rain. So strange because until now rain hasn't been a problem. hmmmm. I wonder when the summer sun is going to kick in we are getting closer and closer to June! Amending my activities to indoor activities I spent a bit of time at the beautiful Matthias Church. There I lingered in the pews to check out what other indoor activities I could find to fill my day. Ready to head down and pick up some souvineers I was lucky enough to get stuck in a really awesome downpour that even my umbrella couldn't provide much cover from. Came back to the hostel and made some new friends :)


Parliament Building


Beautiful Matthias Church


In love with all the cute little door here.

I found myself back out in the rain with a few Australian travelers to grab a seat at the opera. Opera? You ask....yes. They have a beautiful opera house and a ticket wasn't a budget buster at 3 dollars. The performance was pretty exceptional. It was a Moroccan love story and there were huge ships, a working car and an airplane. We then ventured out for a drink or two ending up back the hostel completely soaked once again. Damn you Europe!

Day 158 trading the old for the new Prague to Berlin

As well as Eastern Europe has treated me these past couple of weeks I can't say I am not excited to move onto Germany. At every chance I could I asked travelers what cities should be on the must-see list. A surprisingly large number of people included Berlin in that count. So I planned three days in Berlin en-route to visit a few friends in the northwest for the weekend.

Arriving in Berlin was a breeze. The city is well planned and easily accessible. I found the hostel and had my first Schnitzel and German beer for lunch. It being late afternoon I did as I saw many of the Germans doing and took my book and a bottle or two of beer park and basked in what I now remember is the sun. Man this weather is a lot different than what people tell me is the norm in Europe during the spring.

Later that evening I found the local shopping center and attempted what I am sure will continue for a long time the search for a pair of sandals that are now more needed than ever as my feet are torn up from my walking around Kutna Hora. My normal shoes hurt :{ While walking into the mall I noticed something that only those who have my met my dog Bruno will see or understand to be so peculiar. Bruno is a mut we rescued from a sketchy situation at best. He is extremely loyal to my step-father and barely tolerates the rest of us while being the sweetest, oddest looking dog ever. I once explained them to someone as say....he is stout. with little legs, the mane of a lion and the nose of a deer. He doesn't have a lot of look-a-likes at home and here in Berlin he has a doppleganger. Crazy!


The German Dog


Bruno

Day 149 Auswitch

Having ditched my Lonely Planet book somewhere in Italy I arrived in Poland oblivious to the fact that the Auswitch Concentration Camp was just a short bus ride away from Krakow. While this wasn't the happy easy going day I was hoping for I decided that it was a must-see.

I arrived at the site with a guy from the hostel who had been traveling about the same amount of time as me. A rarity at this stage in the game coming up to around seven months. We met and split a few times during the day as I take too many pictures and he reads English slowly.


train on the tracks that brought in the people


lookout towers

As I did the non-organzied tour option I didn't have a lot of time to see the museum but I did feel like I got to see what I wanted so I was satisfied. The mood was somber and the facts atrocious. I am glad that I went but ready to return to pretty buildings and museums.


Halt!


memorial

Day 148 Hello Krakow!

Coffee Coffee Coffee is all I had on my mind when I got up. Two cups later I was at the Wawel Castle. The seat of ancient kings and queens. The Wawel has pretty much created a decide your own castle tour situation. Everything is broken down into different sections and you can pay for what you want to see. I decided to keep it simple, as they have turned much of it into museums. So I toured the state rooms, courtyards and then the cathedral.


Wawel Castle

WOW. It was really beautiful upstairs. There were pretty strict no photo rules, so that was a bummer, but what sucked more was the fact that there were 49039403 million students taking them a tour of the cathedral that lead down into the catacombs. At first I thought there was a little snag as the line had stopped in this little tiny hall way going one way. Five minutes later I was even more crushed in. Then I notice that the damn teachers are stopping groups in the hall way and I was going to be down in those catacombs for the rest of my life unless I did a little pushing. Sidenote, these are small, tiny little hallways underground filled with teenagers. So, elbows pointed I pushed my way through. Definitely not my Mother Theresa moment, but I got out hoping to finish my tour of the beautiful upstairs. Um, I got dumped outside and decided I was fine with that and carried on.

I then ventured to the Jewish district and of course got distracted by a fabric shop. Nothing too good to pass up considering that I would have to carry it for the next forever. A longer than planned walk later due to poor map reading I found the Jewish cemetery. It was interesting. I felt weird being there but at the same time some of the graves were really cool.


Jewish Cemetary

Final stop for the day was a kebab dinner, few churches and a walk back to the hostel. Since I have no plan for the next few weeks at this point, I wanted to get things sorted out and as I created a loose idea of where I would be for the next week or so I met so great people at the hostel. One girl was walking from the very most southern tip of Greece to the most Northern part of Norway. Crazy! But great! She had a lot of stories to tell!


Abandoned pretzels.




Pretty church


Church of St. Mary in the Old Town Center


in Old Town Center

Day 147 town squares, pretzels and trains.

This morning I had a little time before my train, so I hung around with Ari and her friend before I had to gather my stuff and a few supplies for my train ride to Krakow. A soft pretzel and fizzy water in hand, I am off to the train station.

The train station was a bit confusing. I got a ticket, headed to the platform and freaked out when at the sight of what I thought was my ride for the next six hours. The train was ancient! It had no windows, tons of graffiti, and was probably older than my dad. I asked the platform attendant and in his limited English he tells me to wait, something else will arrive. Here we are 10 minutes to go time and I am still staring at this ugly train and now worried that I am in the wrong place and headed the wrong way to nowheresville on the train that pulled up at the exact time my ticket was set for departure.

However, I didn't end up in nowsheresville. I ended up in Krakow at about nine. Found my hostel, bought a few beers and relaxed in the common room. It was a thankfully anticlimactic ending to self-induced stressful day.

Here are few pictures I took before getting on the train this morning.

The town square behind the town square


townhall adorableness

Day 145 off to Poland!

I am not sure why leaving Italy was so unnerving. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I have gotten comfortable in Italy. I spent almost a month there. Or maybe that I have been in an "easy" tourist country and am leaving for what has be described to me as difficult by more than a few fellow travelers.

After a short miscommunication with the bus ticket machine and a longggggg walk I am at the hostel. This place is pretty plush for 8euro compared to the cramped and not amazingly clean place in Rome at four times the cost. I drop my bags and head out for a wander and start to wonder.. What is here? Why am I in Wroclaw? I turn the corner and there is the cutest little town square ever. I'm sold!

Arriving in Poland I am changing up my travel strategy. Until now I have spent a decent amount of time in each country. At least two weeks. Well, except for Morocco. What I am trying to say is that I am going to be skipping around a bit more until I get to the UK. I think I will be in each country for less than a week. Whew. I hope I can hack this kind of schedule. At this point I have been at this for six months. Not everyday can I conquer the world, but rested and ready I will attempt Wroclaw tomorrow!

Days 143 and 144 Back in Rome

Well, Rome is like the new Bangkok of Europe for me. A place I seem to come and go and spend a lot of time in. Not too bad of a place to be hanging around. I came back to Rome on a Saturday night. I found my hostel after a lot of, hmmm, what, I thought it was down that ways and found out that it is pretty much an apartment for girls only. As I leave there I think about how I should have stayed somewhere else then I remember that it was only 20 euros and the rest were like 30 plus. Even the shit one with the creapy guy who hit on Jamie. I am settled in and have a few things I want to buy, so I headed out to the shoppers row and buy a new book, A Room With A View, eh. Sometimes you get sick of staring at an e-book. I also desperately need new headphones and as the sun comes out to play I am more and more aware that there are no sandals in my backpack.

The next morning I wake up and talk with a few of the travelers before I take off to see if I can get into the Caravaggio exhibition but after some poking around on the interweb I figured out that it would be a challenge. All the tickets are sold out for the entirety of the event. So as I meander around going in a few churches and such on the way I notice a large amount of people down the street. I keep walking, walking and then I see it. The worlds longest que! I am not the only one who thought, why don't I give this waiting thing a shot. However, these people decided this a lot earlier than me. I am 98% sure that I wouldn't be seeing anything today but the back of the persons head in front of me.



So here I stand. In Rome for the like the seventh day and clueless where to go. I realize while reading Angels and Demons that I haven't seen the Piazza Navona. So I set out in that direction ready to hang around. I took some pictures but soon realize that this is not the piazza for hanging as there are too many tourists and pigeons. I then remember this little park area and realize that I have my newest addition to the backpacking library in my bag. I get a linner pizza and head back that way. It took me 209309 years but I found a place to sit and read and eat my lunch. Not the most active and accomplished day in Rome but pretty fitting for this stage of my trip. A few days of relaxation before I conquer the east. As tomorrow I head to Wroclaw, Poland!




Piazza Navona


Random ruins all over the place

Day 142 Last day in Naples

Today I hung around with the group of travelers I went to Pompeii with yesterday. While they weren't traveling together they were mostly headed in the same direction. Up to Rome. I will be there for a day.five when I leave Naples tomorrow but having paid and not packed I could not be persuaded to leave early. Mostly because it would most likely be a repeat for me hanging around with them as they go to see the Rome must sees I have already conquered.

So at two I while the others set out for the train I set out to find a sight left unseen. The rain threatening I headed up to the San Elmo Monestary. It was nice. There was a weird modern art museum there. You could definitely see the monestary and Mount Vesuvius. As I was walking back to the subway the ran started. Not a little but a lot so I again retreated to my book.


Mt. Vesuvius

Day 146 Churches, Beer and Trolls

Off to the east! I head out of the hostel with a girl who also just arrived in Eastern Europe to see the sights. I think they can mostly be seen in a day. Wroclaw isn't big. After putzing around the square and taking a bazillion pictures of the adorable colored houses we walked to the river to see a few of the churches and have some lunch at a milk bar. I guess that is where the cheap "home cooking" happens.


Isn't this the most adorable little old lady in the world???




clock on the town hall


Church near the center

The churches were a welcome change from those of Italy. While Italy has some of the most beautiful and famous churches in the world the style is quite similar all over the country so a bit of change is good for a person. I loved the use of stained glass. So much beautiful stained glass.
We also happened upon a bridge with more locks. From what I have been told couples come here and put a long on to represent the strength and longevity of their marriages. Fun. Fun.


The river and I



After the churches we found us some lunch and I had pirogi and soup. It cost like two dollars. Loving this already. After lunch we did a bit of window shopping and had a few local brews wondering what to do next. It turns out that you can buy this map of the trolls of Wroclaw and hunt them down around the town. They are symbols of anti-communism from the past but are now something that every Wroclawian knows about. When we were searching between the library and pizza hut for the book troll a family came up to assist us. Everyone from the little girl to grandmother was trying to get a word in about where the next one was, or share the location of the newest addition. It was adorable!

After a bit of time searching far and wide for trolls we had to return to the hostel and sort out transportation for the next day. I am already moving on to the next city. I think this pace is going to take some getting used to.


they aren't moving anywhere anytime soon


daydreaming about the future Mrs. WroclawTroll


Pirogi, Pirogi too much Pirogi


$$$

Day 141 Pompeii

Today I was still cranky and tired from whatever was going on with my body. However, I wanted to do the Pompeii thing as my favorite visitor to Italy, rain, is supposed to grace us again on Friday with its presence. A little foggy I set out with my sights on Pompeii. I found on my way out a huge group of people from the hostel doing the same thing. As I felt like a little alone time I figured I should just join up and get out of my funk with the group.

It was the best decision. We navigated our way there and around the site realizing that it was huge an we had to pick and choose which places we wanted to see. In case you didn't know...Pompeii is a partially covered Roman town outside of Naples. It was buried in ash during the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D. The area was buried under 4 to 6 meters of ash and sediment. It was accidentally discovered around 1592 and has be excavated to bring to life incredible detail and insight into civilization during the height of the Roman Empire.

While walking around we saw many, many homes. A few temples and some fast food stands. Yes, they had fast food back then.




Casting of the imprint left by someone covered during the eruption


fastfood restaurant




One more thing they had in the land of Pompeii was a brothel with picture indicating which services were available. oh pompeii.

We also trekked out to the area where gladiators would fight animals and human competitors. We ended the day walking through the forum as the first walk through was amongst 10930 billion tourists and as we stayed till the bitter end we were a few or the last people in the area.


forum

That night at the hostel there was an art party of sorts. Cool, yes! Awkward, yes! It was weird to feel out of place at this cozy hostel. There were lots of Italians and little room at the bar. However, we stood our ground and the group of us chatted and drank wine for the rest of the evening.