Berlin

From Prague we boarded a train to Berlin. It was a really lovely ride. It was overcast but we could still see how beautiful everything was. Lots of green pastures, wind farms, cute little houses…..

Upon arrival to Berlin, we booked tickets to our next destination – Paris! The man was SO friendly and helpful at the travel desk. It was a really nice start to Berlin!

We braved the trains again and made our way to our hostel. It’s near a train station, which is handy – but that’s about the only good thing. We’re in a massive room with extra beds again, this time with a tiny little heater that does nothing. Our room is freeeeeeeeeeezing! The doonas are good, when you use two at a time. The showers are great – amazing shower heads the size of my head. No, bigger!

Berlin is nice, but it’s not as cool as Prague. It’s much bigger which I don’t like so much. Graffiti is appreciated here, as are long dogs of all kinds – the closer to the ground, the better. More guys have ear piercings and there are lots of sausages around (even a proper sausage on a McDonalds burger). It’s colder than where we’ve been but that’s because we’re further north.

Below: the massive TV tower at Alexanderplatz; Ebony in the cute little town we were in yesterday; me out the front of a building that we should probably know the name of in the middle of town.

We spent a day walking around town which was lovely. And then a day yesterday at  Sachsenhausen Memorial, which was a massive concentration camp during and post WWII. It’s free to get in unless you want to pay 3euros for a English guide thingy, which we did. You could spend easily your entire day there, it’s fantastic. The train ride there was lovely, as was the little town the train stopped in.

Today we’re going to play it by ear – the weather looks terrible and it’s suppose to rain all day. Tonight we’ll board an overnight train to Paris, where we’ll spend two nights and then hopefully head on to Caen on the Western coast of France, near where the Battle of Normandy was.

Kutna Hora and the bone chapel

Above: the most delicious looking ham on a spit; Sally eating a sausage (YUM); Ebony eating a chicken kebab (YUM, both from the Christmas markets in Wenceslas Square)

The shit part of traveling around Europe with no plans is that you do have to plan eventually and there’s so many options at varying prices that it sends you batty and then you get cranky. I like to be in super control all the time so running by the seat of my pants isn’t something that comes naturally. I don’t really mind that we have no plans, I just hate that it’s such a bloody effort to make them. Which means you spend half your time finding somewhere to stay, or booking plane/bus/train tickets instead of just enjoying the place. We booked tickets this morning to Berlin, with hope that it will be easier to navigate ourselves westward, towards France.

With my recent infatuation of the Soviet era courtesy of Mongolia, I’d love to go east and check everything out. Not this time though – we’re going to Germany, France and Spain and with some luck maybe Denmark? I don’t know.

We paid for a tour today. Such a good idea. Kutna Hora and the Bone Chapel. Kutna Hora’s just a really nice super old town, and the Bone Chapel is a church that houses the bones of 40,000 people who died in the Black Plague and other various events along the years. The bones are strung up around the place, to teach children about the circle of life (?!?!). Mostly skulls and femur bones. It wasn’t gory or creepy (at least I didn’t think so). It was really cold inside but I’d say that’s because the church is made of stone and has no insulation and is surrounded by trees in the middle of European winter.

 

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I know it’s a bit anti-European of me, but I’m finding European landscapes and history so much less cooler than Mongolian history. I guess it’s because of a bunch of different reasons, but in short – Chinggis Khan conquering the world shits all over the rise and fall of numerous inbred/crazy royal families. I don’t doubt that sounds terrible, but if you were to meet lots of Mongolian people and see the landscape they have to work with, you’d appreciate anything they create for themselves so much more due to the sheer physical inhospitability AND the nomadic mindset.

Mind you, being in Europe is amazing and it’s so beautiful and so rich in history. Maybe it’s best that I say that Mongolian history is just so different to any other country’s history that it makes it exciting and interesting in such a different way.

The tour we were on just took us around a gothic style church (oh-so-beautiful), the bone chapel and around the UNESCO site of Kutna Hora – an old silver mine that was the site of many coin making centuries.

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Ebony and I stopped at a cake place and ate two rounds of pastries, as well as being forward thinking and bought bread rolls for lunch tomorrow (to go with our cheese and meat). Dinner was left over cheese and meat on bread left over from yesterday. Berlin tomorrow, for three nights. Oh Germans and their sausages. And sauerkraut. And beer. And then maybe…… Copenhagen, maybe Paris, maybe the Netherlands…. We’ll see!

Prague city

Wet, rainy and windy. Day two in Prague. It’s still bloody amazing, but it was a bit harder to appreciate. Old, beautiful buildings run for hundreds of blocks – unobstructed by modern buildings (or, if they are, they’re well disguised). Beautiful building after beautiful building. The river runs through the middle, and the big castle sits atop it all. The view from up there is amazeballs:

I guess it’s hard to see in smaller photos, but it’s just amazing.

With only a few hours of light in the day (sun up at 8am, down at 4pm) you have to squish stuff in. I’m kind of glad of the sunlight hours anyway as it means we have an excuse to rest a bit earlier. I’m still totally whacked with jetlag – it hits at 4:30am when I wake up, and then about 6pm when I want/need to go to sleep.

We wandered around and found breakfast, then the big classical music theatre. We got instructions from the guy downstairs of our hostel (Welcome Hostel PragueCentre; it’s awesome) and then headed out for our walk. Over the river, lunch from an organic supermarket. We ate it by the river. I had creamy celery soup which was delicious, Ebony had a pizza thing that wasn’t too bad either. Up to the castle, down to the old town, wandering through christmas markets with an amazing array of sausages, donut things and Czech style chips. It all looked very similar to the set up in Hyde Park in London. I got me some chips. They were awesome. They were cut like a slinky apple with a drill that had a bit on the end like a cookie cutter. The slinky bits are shaving thin – then they’re deep fried to a delicious crisp. A bit of salt and you’re one step closer to high cholesterol and heart disease. I am lucky enough to know I am genetically predisposed to both – I may as well get in while I’m young ‘cos I ain’t gonna be able to eat my way through Europe for ever. Mind you, I’m not eating too far in to it because it’s not cheap to eat out! It’s cheaper than home, but when you add it all up……….

That’s Ebony on the bridge crossing the river, and then the river from a different perspective.

Wandering back to our hostel (which is awesome, again), we stopped at Tesco to pick up some fresh bread and cheese for dinner and then again at some more markets to get some ‘hot punch’ that is very alcoholic and not very delicious. Ebony wouldn’t even drink it.

All in all a good day. Nothing exciting to report, just lovely Europe. We’re trying to decide where to go next, and it’s not easy. Austria? France? Germany? Switzerland? I’d really love to go to Budapest but Ebony’s not so keen, and I don’t mind going back to all the other beautiful cities.

Prague city VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Prague

Prague VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

wow. That’s a totally different set of photos than what I usually put up – with Mongolian countryside screaming untouched beauty. Now I’m in central Europe where modern society began (of a more recent variety, anyway. Lots of dinosaurs in Mongolia. And ancient civilisations). It means there are lots of amazing buildings, paths and a culture that has meshed so smoothly in to so many others.

I woke up at 3:40am courtesy of a wrecked body clock. The alarm went off at 4:30am and we got on our way – not without a couple of trials beforehand though. We had to pay to store some baggage, of course we had no cash on us and the machine wasn’t working so I had to sprint up to the ATM 800m away. We got on the train at 5:30am and were at Gatwick airport soon after. It’s a massive airport! Our plane left at 8:30am. We arrived in Czech Republic at about 11am, had some lunch we’d organised last night and tested out patience and knowledge with the local bus/metro system.

I wasn’t really ready to be in a country that doesn’t speak the same language as me and that isn’t particularly easy. I am okay now I’m in the city but it was a bit worrying there for a while. I was just dreading everything – I’m sure because I imagined everything would be difficult as per the last country I was in. But it wasn’t. The train was fine and we eventually got in to town.

Wholey dooley, it’s so beautiful. So, so beautiful. It’s got a small town feel, but with big buildings. No new ugly developments – just lovely well kept old buildings, wide roads and lots of gardens. It’s so nice!

Our room is great too. We’re very close to the main street. We’re in a hostel type thing where we share a bathroom, but we’ve got a massive room with a couple of spare beds. The lady downstairs is just too nice and very helpful. So far, so good!

We went for a wander around town before it went dark (4pm is when it gets dark), had some Indian for dinner and now we’re ready for bed.

We’re tired but not as tired as last night! Oh – yesterday!

Yesterday was our Big Bus #2 day. Jumping on at Leicester Square after we got ourselves some Chicago tickets, we went around town, then caught a ferry up to Greenwich and back. Back on the bus, off the bus and to the theatre to see Chicago. LOTs of people everywhere. We were a bit early so stopped off at a deli to try their pastries and tea. Ebony had tea and scones, I had peppermint tea and a delicious custardy pastry thing.

America Ferrera was in Chicago. It was just amazing. The theatre was nice and cosy with very old seats (like the Mudgee theatre ones). We had much better seats. America was GREAT. It’s so weird to see someone in real life, that you’ve spent ages watching on a tv screen (she’s in Ugly Betty and probably lots of other stuff that I don’t know about). The music was great, the dancing was great. Everything fits together like clockwork and is so cleverly crafted, the performance itself is an art – not including the amazing singing, dancing and showmanship.

Tired again, we trekked home and packed ready for our voyage to Prague!