Today we went on a seemingly uninteresting adventure to buy our train tickets to our next destination, Ljublijana in Slovenia, and it turned into the weirdest/sketchiest adventure yet. Aparently walking to the main train station in Prague is not okay. It is under construction to update the facade and such, but that is not really the problem. First we approached the street the train station is on on the wrong side of the street. Quite suddenly, without any warning (or at least any warning in English) the sidewalk ended with no way to get to the other side except jump a gaurdrail and run across a huge street, stand in the middle island then run arcoss the next section. In all of this, we forgot to pay attention to the name of the street, and did not make the turn we needed to.
So we wandered up and turned on the next available street assuming it was where we wanted to be. We wander down the street, and through the gaps in apartment blocks, we could see the train station, but not how to get to it. We bust out the map and realize where we are, but instead of backtracking and making the correct turn, we decide to wander through the neighborhood. We have spent the whole time here in Praha 1, the old town area, and this we noticed was Praha 2. It was just as cute and wonderful as Praha 1...for the meantime. WE turn in an attempt to get down to the train station, but the sidewalk keeps ending. It seemed like everywhere that we wanted to go was blocked off. We had to go down into the subway stations to get back on the other side of the huge street- Wilsonova, thats right after the US prez there is also a Churchilla- and then had to figure out how to get back over again since the train station was actually on the side of the street we had been on. Long story short, dont go to Praha 2 unless you know where you are going.
We managed to successsfully purchase our tickets, and attempted to return to Praha 1, and ran into the same problem: sidewalks ending, having to go down into underground pee stinky tunnels. Yuk! Creepy too. It is a little unnerving to be in undergound tunnels with random Chezch bums when zou are lost. Anyway, We made it out safe and sound and we have decided to take a taxi to the station when we leave. More adventures to come....we are going to the beergarden this afternoon!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Praha
So, after our awful night train and awkward hostel arrangements, Jenn and I settled in to life in Prague pretty quickly. We have since discovered that though we were weirded out bz the hostel booking agent aspect, we actually like our hostel. It is not as cool and hip as our other places, but it is cheap, clean and comfortable-besides the smoky lounge- and best of all really close to the old town stuff. We have decided to extend our original reservation and stay here the whole time we are in Prague.
Last night we managed to hang out with a couple of mz firends from college, Jake Weger and Carly Hood. (Mom and Stuart will remember Jake from their trip to the DR) Jake and Carlz have been living here and teaching english for 6 months, it was awesome to get some tips and info from them. Plus just getting to hang out was awesome. We caught them in their final days here, so they could not hang out super late since they had to get up mad early and pack.
Our plan for today involves, you guessed it a whole bunch of walking. We plan to do the famous charles bridge and the castle quarter. It should be sweet.
thats it for now...will report back later.
Last night we managed to hang out with a couple of mz firends from college, Jake Weger and Carly Hood. (Mom and Stuart will remember Jake from their trip to the DR) Jake and Carlz have been living here and teaching english for 6 months, it was awesome to get some tips and info from them. Plus just getting to hang out was awesome. We caught them in their final days here, so they could not hang out super late since they had to get up mad early and pack.
Our plan for today involves, you guessed it a whole bunch of walking. We plan to do the famous charles bridge and the castle quarter. It should be sweet.
thats it for now...will report back later.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
night train!!!!!!!!!
so, after being some what undone by an entire day of bearing witness to the holocaust - more on that later - we were laying around mamas hostel too tired to do much of anything and thinking about how we a) wanted to watch the Euro Final (Germany v. Spain) in Prague (Prahe here) and b) were bummed about spending an entire Sunday on a train to do so. solution = night train!
Since said train departed in just a few hours and we didn't have tickets and were not packed - what followed was some serious rushing and a bit of chaos between ticket offices and hostel and train station. For those of you who know Julia, this is her least favorite way to travel, but she held up well, considering. We made it into our car (not a sleeper mind you, those are extra) which was a throwback to the fifties, made more complete by stale cigarette smoke and vinyl seats, an we shared this space (maybe 8 x 8 sq.) with a young polish couple who made out the whole time. Trying to ignore them, we played cards for a bit before attempting sleep slumped over our bags.
We arrived, finally at 6:45 am, and were promptly coerced by an accommodations agent onto a metro and then into a hostel. This was not our first choice, to be sure, but we were too tired to protest, and nothing, i mean nothing is open on Sunday in this town at this hour. not even a coffee shop.
So, were are in the (also smoky) lounge here at hostel Manhattan, waiting for our room to become available. we plan to sleep a bit and then venture out into stare maistro (old town). We are hoping to hook up with some friends of julias for the game. its nice to know that we have a whole five days here - there is so much to do and i could use a break from trains for a bit, especially since our next jaunt (to Slovenia) appears to be quite a freaking hassle.
Poland was great, by the way. We pretty much did the tourist thing the whole time, especially in Kracow - but that is how you roll when you just have a day or two. For the most part we walked (and walked and walked) checking out the architecture and meandering through boutiques and eating the occasional ice cream scoop or sipping the occasional 6 dollar latte. Poland has this really tragic history most of which is not visible on the surface, but once you know about it, its hard to forget.
I mentioned that Warsaw was leveled in WWII and its old town entirely reconstructed as it was, so it has this disneylandish feel - nothing is over 60 years old - though it looks very similar to the largely unscathed Kracow. But then you walk into one those reconstructed churches and the placard tells you that its original catacombs were being used as a hospital during the Warsaw uprising (read about that here) and which were collapsed in the bombing. The church built on top and its estimated that there are at least 1000 men, women, and children entombed beneath the marble floor you are standing on. There was a Jewish ghetto uprising as well - the results of which are equally tragic, but there is very little left of that ghetto, and very few Jewish people left tin the country at all, yet there are Jewish "districts" in every major city.
Then you have kracow, the tourist hotspot with its romantic old town square that is filled with poles and internationals alike and where you can watch break dancing crews perform for cash on one end and a small string orchestra do the same at another. There is also Wawal castle, which is enormous, and a whole bunch of JPII references, you can tour his former residence and home church if you so desire, they are still, i think mourning him - there are giant posters of him with candles and flowers all over the city. We did some really great eating here as well. I stole this pic off of wikipedia - we have not yet overcome the usb-camera issue.
The concentration camps are just a few hours drive from kracow and we spent the whole day yesterday touring them. I am going to hold of on that post. I am still processing that visit, and its just kind of hard to write about, without sounding either trite or just unaffected. Ill work on it.
Since said train departed in just a few hours and we didn't have tickets and were not packed - what followed was some serious rushing and a bit of chaos between ticket offices and hostel and train station. For those of you who know Julia, this is her least favorite way to travel, but she held up well, considering. We made it into our car (not a sleeper mind you, those are extra) which was a throwback to the fifties, made more complete by stale cigarette smoke and vinyl seats, an we shared this space (maybe 8 x 8 sq.) with a young polish couple who made out the whole time. Trying to ignore them, we played cards for a bit before attempting sleep slumped over our bags.
We arrived, finally at 6:45 am, and were promptly coerced by an accommodations agent onto a metro and then into a hostel. This was not our first choice, to be sure, but we were too tired to protest, and nothing, i mean nothing is open on Sunday in this town at this hour. not even a coffee shop.
So, were are in the (also smoky) lounge here at hostel Manhattan, waiting for our room to become available. we plan to sleep a bit and then venture out into stare maistro (old town). We are hoping to hook up with some friends of julias for the game. its nice to know that we have a whole five days here - there is so much to do and i could use a break from trains for a bit, especially since our next jaunt (to Slovenia) appears to be quite a freaking hassle.
Poland was great, by the way. We pretty much did the tourist thing the whole time, especially in Kracow - but that is how you roll when you just have a day or two. For the most part we walked (and walked and walked) checking out the architecture and meandering through boutiques and eating the occasional ice cream scoop or sipping the occasional 6 dollar latte. Poland has this really tragic history most of which is not visible on the surface, but once you know about it, its hard to forget.
I mentioned that Warsaw was leveled in WWII and its old town entirely reconstructed as it was, so it has this disneylandish feel - nothing is over 60 years old - though it looks very similar to the largely unscathed Kracow. But then you walk into one those reconstructed churches and the placard tells you that its original catacombs were being used as a hospital during the Warsaw uprising (read about that here) and which were collapsed in the bombing. The church built on top and its estimated that there are at least 1000 men, women, and children entombed beneath the marble floor you are standing on. There was a Jewish ghetto uprising as well - the results of which are equally tragic, but there is very little left of that ghetto, and very few Jewish people left tin the country at all, yet there are Jewish "districts" in every major city.
Then you have kracow, the tourist hotspot with its romantic old town square that is filled with poles and internationals alike and where you can watch break dancing crews perform for cash on one end and a small string orchestra do the same at another. There is also Wawal castle, which is enormous, and a whole bunch of JPII references, you can tour his former residence and home church if you so desire, they are still, i think mourning him - there are giant posters of him with candles and flowers all over the city. We did some really great eating here as well. I stole this pic off of wikipedia - we have not yet overcome the usb-camera issue.
The concentration camps are just a few hours drive from kracow and we spent the whole day yesterday touring them. I am going to hold of on that post. I am still processing that visit, and its just kind of hard to write about, without sounding either trite or just unaffected. Ill work on it.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Live from Krakow, its Julia Pereau-Dyer
Hey everybody... we are in Krakow, finally. We spent way too much time getting here, wasting time in the hostel in Warsaw and then waiting for over two hours in the Warsaw train station for our train to show up. A nice Warsawian helped us figure out which train to get on. We have been really lucky here because everyone speaks English, really well. They are willing to help and often very friendly. After the wonderful helpful chick in the train station we got into a train car with a group that made fun of tourists in polish ( we think - the vibe was full of contempt) for the entire three hour train ride. By the time we got to Prague we were both kind of irritated, my toe hurt, and were kind of pissed about the wasted day. But we managed to make the most of it and found a great vegetarian restaurant to eat at, and generally wandered around the city. We watched some eastern European break dancers go at it in the Stare Miasto - the old town square. Then we wandered to the oldest church/tomb thing in Krakow. It was crazy. We also met some interesting people here at the hostel, some irish girls and french dudes. Interesting mix of people.
Hopefully we will be able to get some pictures up...we have some good ones of the architecture, the cities, some awesome graffiti and our messed up feet. We will figure it out soon. That is it for now, we have to go to sleep because we are getting up early to got to Auchwitz. Not the most cheerful day, but important nonetheless. Talk to ya later!
Hopefully we will be able to get some pictures up...we have some good ones of the architecture, the cities, some awesome graffiti and our messed up feet. We will figure it out soon. That is it for now, we have to go to sleep because we are getting up early to got to Auchwitz. Not the most cheerful day, but important nonetheless. Talk to ya later!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Julia and Jenn are so over Warsaw
So... now that we have fully adjusted to local time( though we still ate at 6pm like Americans and then wondered why no one was out at the bars at 7:30... silly us). Anyway after a night of wandering around trying to find the perfect spot to have a drink, you know somewhere not too expensive, not too filled with old people or diners, we finally found somewhere Lemon Bar. We enjoyed two drinks,(Lemon drink anyone? whiskey sour -( blended whiskey sour, think slurpy style)?
As we continued our adventure, I managed to kick a cobblestone and break my toe. At least that is what we realized a couple of hours later when it was black and blue and immobile, at the time it just hurt so bad I introduced the locals with a whole new vocabulary. The Warsaw uprising that was my blistered feet has now developed into an international conflict involving a whole lot of athletic tape and some ibuprofen.
After going to bed at a reasonable time, we woke up a little before 8 and left to room, only to encounter a huge pile of rancid puke right outside our door. Damn drunk hostel-goers. We sidestepped the puke and went upstairs to the kitchen to enjoy a much anticipated muesli and yogurt breakfast, only to discover that the same damn hostel-goers have stolen our 2 zlota yogurt. At this point I am pissed. Jenn refuses to let me steal someone else's yogurt and is now on an early morning grocery store adventure trying to replace our yogurt. I am so over Warsaw. We have really enjoyed this hostel (check it out here) until about half an hour ago, so I guess it is time to be moving on down that dusty trail...
Our next stop is Krakow, where we will be staying at Mama's hostel. We have learned a couple of good lessons here, label your yogurt, close toed shoes are awesome, buying coffee at the hostel is a way better deal than at the Polish starbucks, called Coffee Heaven, and staying in our own two bed room is highly preferable to sharing with drunk 19 year old Europeans., though this is unlikely to actually happen until Croatia. We will take all of these lessons with us and hopefully have a less complaint filled post next time.
-Julia 6/27/08
As we continued our adventure, I managed to kick a cobblestone and break my toe. At least that is what we realized a couple of hours later when it was black and blue and immobile, at the time it just hurt so bad I introduced the locals with a whole new vocabulary. The Warsaw uprising that was my blistered feet has now developed into an international conflict involving a whole lot of athletic tape and some ibuprofen.
After going to bed at a reasonable time, we woke up a little before 8 and left to room, only to encounter a huge pile of rancid puke right outside our door. Damn drunk hostel-goers. We sidestepped the puke and went upstairs to the kitchen to enjoy a much anticipated muesli and yogurt breakfast, only to discover that the same damn hostel-goers have stolen our 2 zlota yogurt. At this point I am pissed. Jenn refuses to let me steal someone else's yogurt and is now on an early morning grocery store adventure trying to replace our yogurt. I am so over Warsaw. We have really enjoyed this hostel (check it out here) until about half an hour ago, so I guess it is time to be moving on down that dusty trail...
Our next stop is Krakow, where we will be staying at Mama's hostel. We have learned a couple of good lessons here, label your yogurt, close toed shoes are awesome, buying coffee at the hostel is a way better deal than at the Polish starbucks, called Coffee Heaven, and staying in our own two bed room is highly preferable to sharing with drunk 19 year old Europeans., though this is unlikely to actually happen until Croatia. We will take all of these lessons with us and hopefully have a less complaint filled post next time.
-Julia 6/27/08
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
from warsaw, with jet lag
for the record, its 3:30 AM here and we woke up a couple of hours ago, having gone to bed at 6:00 pm thinking we would sleep through - no luck - so we woke up and slammed 2 beers before the bars closed. Which just feels like i had beer and nothing else for breakfast, which is h-a-i-r-y. So i blog.
warsaw is pretty cool, and also supposed to be the low point of the trip...so outlook is good. this city is very cosmopolitan, plenty of hipsters (especially of the female type) and clean and new and easy. Apparently (according to rick steves, my only source of info at the moment) this town was completely leveled during WWII and then rebuilt by stalin and then modernized - so the very, very random mix of solviet, modern and post modern architecture is kind of amazing.
we plan to continue resetting our clocks and attempting to conserve funds (we made pasta for dinner tonight) before heading to Cracow (how its spelled) Friday for a more historic Poland fix. Again, it seems that we are simply scaffolding for Prague.
Sorry for the lack of pics...we have yet to come by a USB port on a public computer, which are harder to find because everyone has laptops and hostels just offer wifi here. so. I. am. missing, longing for, in fact, my 10 year old dell. because I could probably watch some Netflix right now from my bed.
(some late-night bitterness defending my lust for nyc living used to be here but I opted to delete as opposed to offend)
i miss my kid and im oddly hungover. But in a few hours i'll (wake up?) to 70 degrees and sunny in Poland and I'll still be unemployed. lucky girl.
cheers, jenn.
warsaw is pretty cool, and also supposed to be the low point of the trip...so outlook is good. this city is very cosmopolitan, plenty of hipsters (especially of the female type) and clean and new and easy. Apparently (according to rick steves, my only source of info at the moment) this town was completely leveled during WWII and then rebuilt by stalin and then modernized - so the very, very random mix of solviet, modern and post modern architecture is kind of amazing.
we plan to continue resetting our clocks and attempting to conserve funds (we made pasta for dinner tonight) before heading to Cracow (how its spelled) Friday for a more historic Poland fix. Again, it seems that we are simply scaffolding for Prague.
Sorry for the lack of pics...we have yet to come by a USB port on a public computer, which are harder to find because everyone has laptops and hostels just offer wifi here. so. I. am. missing, longing for, in fact, my 10 year old dell. because I could probably watch some Netflix right now from my bed.
(some late-night bitterness defending my lust for nyc living used to be here but I opted to delete as opposed to offend)
i miss my kid and im oddly hungover. But in a few hours i'll (wake up?) to 70 degrees and sunny in Poland and I'll still be unemployed. lucky girl.
cheers, jenn.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
New York New York!!
This is my first time blogging - so give me a break if I screw it up...but here it goes.
Jenn Laurie and I had a blast in New York. We have been soooo kucky to have a bunch of friends and some family here is the city, so we had a cadre of awesome New York guides on hand. We actually managed to look like non-tourists all sans guidebook! (We got asked a question about the subway, and knew the answer! I joke that we have spent half of our time in NYC under the city.) We spent our nights in a hostel in manhattan, which has been a great deal and an awesome location. Jenn and I are about to embark on a walking tour of central park, just 4 short blocks away. We hung out in Brooklyn with my friend Brian Letwin and saw the Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. We went with Jenns friend to PS1 a Contemporary art space in Queens and saw Olafur Eliason's " Take your time" it was awesome.
We did a couple of standard touristy things, wandering open-mouthed around Times Square, shoping in SoHo. And today Jenn is going to do more art galleries, and I am going to ride the staten island ferry with Eric, before heading to JFK for our 12 hour flight to poland.
After 3 days of solid walking, we are actually kind of excited about the 12 hours of slepping, reading and sitting, and so are our blisters. Running out of time on the computo-meter... we'll update again from Warsaw!
Jenn Laurie and I had a blast in New York. We have been soooo kucky to have a bunch of friends and some family here is the city, so we had a cadre of awesome New York guides on hand. We actually managed to look like non-tourists all sans guidebook! (We got asked a question about the subway, and knew the answer! I joke that we have spent half of our time in NYC under the city.) We spent our nights in a hostel in manhattan, which has been a great deal and an awesome location. Jenn and I are about to embark on a walking tour of central park, just 4 short blocks away. We hung out in Brooklyn with my friend Brian Letwin and saw the Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. We went with Jenns friend to PS1 a Contemporary art space in Queens and saw Olafur Eliason's " Take your time" it was awesome.
We did a couple of standard touristy things, wandering open-mouthed around Times Square, shoping in SoHo. And today Jenn is going to do more art galleries, and I am going to ride the staten island ferry with Eric, before heading to JFK for our 12 hour flight to poland.
After 3 days of solid walking, we are actually kind of excited about the 12 hours of slepping, reading and sitting, and so are our blisters. Running out of time on the computo-meter... we'll update again from Warsaw!
Friday, June 20, 2008
cambridge in june
probably not the best condition to blog - but here we go...
My mantra since being in the city is, "forgive me, I'm from the country." My recent rural island isolation has resulted in some pretty awkward moments such as the one where I stuck a T ticket in backwards, (jamming the machine and requiring assistance from official T staff) as well as the admitting of - rather publicly - that I didn't even know that the NBA finals happened and were subsequently won by the (Boston!) Celtics ("oh, pro basketball?").
My mantra since being in the city is, "forgive me, I'm from the country." My recent rural island isolation has resulted in some pretty awkward moments such as the one where I stuck a T ticket in backwards, (jamming the machine and requiring assistance from official T staff) as well as the admitting of - rather publicly - that I didn't even know that the NBA finals happened and were subsequently won by the (Boston!) Celtics ("oh, pro basketball?").
Laurie says I'm "scaffolding" (teacher lingo) by stopping in Boston and getting my stimulation on before NYC, and judging by my jumpy reaction to the post-parade tension between the many, many, many police and all those Sports fans - I am pretty sure she is on to something. I find myself looking up at buildings and signage instead of out over a landscape. As much as I treasure my very privileged view of Cypress island, i am loving these new views and their accompanying smells and sounds.So aside from all the gazing and country/city comparisons I've been dropping cash all over the city. Ten recent purchases:
1) large iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts - which are as abundant as starbucks in seattle
2) yoga class - maybe the best I've ever had in a studio so gorgeous for a price so cheap I'm pretty sure its a front
3) shoes - I brought some really unseasonable footwear (turns out june is not so much cold and wet) so laurie patiently accompanied me to about six shoes stores as I searched for anything remotely cute/comfortable/and my size. I finally broke down, went to macy's and jammed by size nine feet into size 8.5 flats. My left heel is looking pretty freaking gory. I'm playing through.
4) A Voice and Nothing More by Mladden Dolar from the critical theory section of the Harvard Bookstore, the one not associated with Harvard.
5) T tickets (see above)
6) a bus ticket to New York for $15 from Fung Wa bus company, which promises to drop us of in Chinatown tommorrow.
7) lots and lots of very average beer (tasted like apricots?) from the People's Republic bar in central square. Odd music choices (bob Marley, phish, wilco) for a bar decorated with photos of che and strange soviet-ish painting. They have a pretty great tradition that i want instituted elsewhere - when a car was pulled over in front of the bar the lights went off, disco balls lowered and Bee gees blared - so as to better accommodate the flashing lights of the cop car. It was kind of amazing how well it worked out. Anyway, it made the bartender very happy.
8) 75 cents worth of cashews from the bar vending machine for laurie's very smart, very sweet, very drunk friend.
9) Dollar for shoe-less guy selling (stolen?found?donated?) gap jeans @ 3:00 a.m. in Harvard square
10) ice cream at a shop with astro turf on the walls (see right)
on to New York City.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
jenn's first post
this is only a test. this was totally jimmy's idea. i stole the address from grace. (see keepingupwithgrace.blogspot.com - from her work while in Haiti, plus several post-Haiti decompression posts)
I packed last night. My backpack, according to the label, features 2430 sq. cubic inches of space. About 15 of those remain available, but not all in one place, so...basically I could squeeze in several more chapsticks and EmergenC packets, but that all. Nor will I be able to acquire anything in E. Europe. Something must give.
My most obnoxious items packed: a brand new (and smelly?) yoga mat (with DVD). I am that person.
My shuttle leaves at 7:20 pm, my flight at 11:25. I get into Boston at 7:38 am and will navigate buses and trains solo (I have directions) to Harvard square where I will meet Laurie for breakfast. I am kind of excited to fly JetBlue, as I have heard good things. I am worried the television might defeat the Ambien in a (not so) epic battle between two substances I haven't consumed in ages. I'll let you know, dear readers, because I am sure these are the types of things that keep you awake at night.
I will have a hard time believing people will (or should) have time or patience to read a blog. I will have a hard time staying serious, but I will keep it clean b/c if no one else reads it, mom will. Hi mom.
I packed last night. My backpack, according to the label, features 2430 sq. cubic inches of space. About 15 of those remain available, but not all in one place, so...basically I could squeeze in several more chapsticks and EmergenC packets, but that all. Nor will I be able to acquire anything in E. Europe. Something must give.
My most obnoxious items packed: a brand new (and smelly?) yoga mat (with DVD). I am that person.
My shuttle leaves at 7:20 pm, my flight at 11:25. I get into Boston at 7:38 am and will navigate buses and trains solo (I have directions) to Harvard square where I will meet Laurie for breakfast. I am kind of excited to fly JetBlue, as I have heard good things. I am worried the television might defeat the Ambien in a (not so) epic battle between two substances I haven't consumed in ages. I'll let you know, dear readers, because I am sure these are the types of things that keep you awake at night.
I will have a hard time believing people will (or should) have time or patience to read a blog. I will have a hard time staying serious, but I will keep it clean b/c if no one else reads it, mom will. Hi mom.
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