Christiana’s Travels
Christiana’s Travels, while supposingly going to College in London, Ha!
Heidelberg is wonderful! I like it alot. Yesterday we left London at 6 AM. Then we took the tube to Heathrow, to find that our Lufthansa flight at 8:55 AM was canceled because of a strike at the Frankfurt airport. They then put us on a 9:50 flight that got delayed til 11:30! (We took a picture of the board: Frankfurt - CANCELLED, (next line) Frankfurt - DELAYED.) We finally arrived in Frankfurt at around 2 pm (Zak Ostertag was so nice and picked us up at the airport!). He helped us buy our train tickets and take us to the correct platform.
We took the train to Mannheim, then switched to a different train for Heidelberg (which surprisingly got canceled after we had already boarded and we had to wait for another one! In Germany of all places!) After another 20-25 minutes, we arrived in Heidelberg (new city), took a bus to the old city, and then HIKED (literally hiked) up this very big hill to their house called Moore House, address Graimberweg 10.
Their house is nice! Its kinda like a huge German mansion up on this hill with a spectacular view of the city below. Each room is like a little maze (kinda like Hogwarts!) with creaky floor and dark wood paneling. It feels like a wonderful early 1900s home; its wonderful!
Last night we went to dinner at a place called Regi's (means "director" in French) that had a movie theme. Each menu item had a different actor or actress name as its title. I had the "Stuart Little" which was Spetzle!! I was so happy to finally have Spetzle in Germany! But instead of gravy with it, they put cheese, which was equally good. =) Then we went to this Irish pub (I know, very random.) across the Neckar river called O'Reilly's. Almost everybody from the Heidelberg house was their singing karaoke; we didn't go to bed til like 2 AM!
This morning we woke up around 10:30, ate breakfast (they have a very good, different breakfast than us. Their breakfast is full of rolls, sweets, and breads. Very good.), then walked around the city! We saw the castle, then walked through the main street, did some shopping, saw the river, saw the original Heidelberg university, and then ate lunch at a place called the Schnitzelhaus. I had a really good Schnitzel with gratin, cream sauce, and cheese. It was AMAZING! It tasted so good!
Right now I'm back at the house, and tonight we're just going to hang out and watch movies. Basically, Heidelberg is a wonderful city. Its so beautiful and reminds me a lot of Rottenburg. I'm so glad to be here! Tomorrow our flight leaves around 4 pm, which means we should be back in London around 5 pm. I'll let you know when I'm home. (Also, I'll respond to that long email you wrote me too.)
Hi I'm in Egypt! We're in Luxor right now staying at this really awesome hotel! Yesterday we woke up at 5 AM!! took a boat across to the West side of the Nile, went to the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, then the Temple of Hatshepsut (sp?), then a long donkey ride through the Egyptian countryside (beautiful!). Then we had lunch at this African restaurant overlooking the Nile (our hotel btw is right on the Nile), then went to the Temple of Karnak (it was AMAZING, SO cool) and then home for some dinner and bed.
Today we woke up around 7, ate the awesome breakfast food (Egyptian), then took a long bus ride to the Temple of Ezna, then the Luxor Museum, lunch at this restaurant, and now we're in the hotel relaxing by the pool!
The weather here is surprisingly cool, like in the seventies, but the sun feels nice after the snow in London! Gotta go! The weather's nice and I wanna lay out in the Egyptian sun...I have WAY more to tell you guys, but I'll leave that for later. I'll probably be able to check my email at least once more before the week is up, so you can write me back about California. =) Oh and Mr. Ludwig and I wont be able to meet up, our schedules conflict unfortunately =/...
Talk to you soon!
Christiana
Here's my itinerary for Spring Break:
Fri, Feb 27 -
Fly Ryan Air from London Stansted to Krakow (6:20 am leave-arrive around 9:30)
See Krakow (perhaps see salt mines, can you ask Grandpa how I can get to the salt mines with public transportation from Krakow and how far away they are?) (I already sent her this info, fyi)
Night in Krakow
Sat, Feb 28 -
Auschwitz
Overnight train to Budapest (departs around 10 pm, arrives in Budapest around 8:30 am next morning)
Sun, Mar 1 -
Arrive by train in Budapest
See Budapest
Night in Budapest
Mon, Mar 2 -
Morning in Budapest
Midday train to Vienna
Afternoon in Vienna
Night in Vienna
Tues, Mar 3 -
Vienna
Night in Vienna
Wed, Mar 4 -
Morning in Vienna
Midday train to Prague
Afternoon Prague
Night in Prague
Thur, Mar 5 -
Prague
Night in Prague
Fri, Mar 6 -
Morning/Afternoon in Prague
Afternoon train to Berlin
Night in Berlin
Sat, Mar 7 -
Berlin
Night in Berlin
Sun, Mar 8 -
Morning in Berlin
Midday flight British Airways from Berlin to London Heathrow arrive around 4 pm
There's my itinerary! If you have any advice on stuff to see/do in any city, please let me know!
Well we're abuot halfway done with spring break and I'm having the BEST time! We started out on Friday morning the 27th (I didn't even sleep at all the night before because I was stressing trying to get everything together for everyone AND finish my Brothers Karamazov paper!). So yeah, then we walked about 35 minutes to the Vicotira coach station (yes, at 2 am!) and almost missed our bus! One of the other guys had to run ahead and wave the guy down as he was pulling away from the curb!
Then we got on our 6:10 am flight to Krakow, didn't sleep at all on the plane, took a train from the airport to the actual city center and found our really cool hostel called the Greg-Tom Hostel (it was REALLY neat, one of the best hostels I've stayed in) which was right outside the train station. Mind you, this was about 12 pm and I hadn't slept (I went 28 hrs w/o sleep!) so we took a 5 hr nap, then walked through the old town district (which was WAY better than I expected...honestly I had low expectations for Poland but Krakow was amazing) and ate dinner at this Italian restaurant (I got a HUGE pizza for like $5!).
The next day was Auschwitz. Since we didn't have a car we decided the best bet would be to do a tour where you get the transportation and a guide all included. So that left at 10 am (we booked it through the hostel) and it took about an hour to get there. It was a really haunting experiance to say the least.
We arrived at Auschwitz I and saw the infamous gate "Abreit Macht Frei" (sp?) which was actually smaller than I had expected, but still frightening. What I thought was interesting was the fact that the camp looked really "nice" if you can put it that way. Like all the barracks looked like solid "apartment-like" buildings that looked permanent. I dunno, it was weird and just not at all what I expected. (Oh yeah and the ground was all snowy still so it was sad to imagine all the prisoners wearing less clothing than what I had [and I was cold] having to stand in such conditions).
We went into the various barracks that showed their daily life, living conditions, the prison. There were barbed wire fences EVERYWHERE and despite the fact that I knew I could "escape" it was still haunting to feel trapped like that. The scariest part was the gas chambers. I've never been in such an evil place such as that. We walked through them and then saw the crematorium. It was awful.
They then bussed us to Auschwitz-Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) where I saw the "real" camp, or the camp that I had imagined. This camp was full of horse stable-like buildings with hundreds of slatted bunks that held 5-7 prisoners each. This was what I really imagined Auschwitz like. We saw the area where the trains came in carrying all the Jews, etc. and the "deciding platform" where Dr. Mengele decided who was fit for work and who was to be gassed immediately by the flick of his wrist. Then the "lavatory" (holes in the ground) and where they lived. In general it was a pretty awful place, but an enlightening experience.
After that, three of us had bought an all inclusive Auschwitz and the salt mines tour (the others bought just Auschwitz, so they went back to Krakow), so we then went straight to the salt mines. Grandpa - you were right, they were SOOOOOOOOO cool!!!!!! Oh my word, I think this was one of the highlights of the trip!!
First, our guide was this hilarious Polish man with a great sense of humor (and our tour was mostly full of college age kids so that made it fun as well), then we had to walk down 54 flights (yes, FIFTY FOUR!) of wooden stairs to get to the bottom (something like 170 metres down or something), then they took us through over 20 different caverns of carved salt. There were like full scenes of life-size figures, there were dwarves, and a complete chapel made entirely of salt!
The weirdest part was (besides the wooden beams and staircase because metal would rust) that during the ENTIRE tour we were surrounded by salt. The floor the walls and the ceiling were all made out of salt! In the chapel (where they hold about 12 weddings a year, can you imagine?) there were chandeliers made of salt and a complete carving of the Last Supper! It was amazing! (Oh yes, and then a tiny open-air elevator holding 9 people at a time beams you back up going 12 metres a second...it was kinda like the Tower of Terror of Poland.)
Then we went back to the hostel, ate some goulash (I love goulash! It's like this awesome soup made of veggies and meat!) and then boarded our overnight train to Budapest. That was FUN! I've never been on an overnight train. Me and Emily were the only ones in our three-person cabin, so the security was fine. But it was SO neat! I slept in the middle bunk and watched the passing Slovakian countryside (the whole train ride took 10 and a half hrs!),
On Sunday morning we arrived in Budapest at 8:30 am and then checked into our hostel called Home Made Hostel. It was right in the middle of town (near Oktagon Sq.) and had a loft and everything! That day we ate breakfast at McDonalds (the McDonalds we've found have been remarkably cleaner than any American ones I've found...so we figured it was safe to eat some Hungarian egg mcmuffins!) for breakfast, then we walked to the city park and saw a Castle, Hero's Sq., and the famous baths that start with an "S"...we didn't go in the baths cuz none of us had swimuits but just the reception alone was GORGEOUS! Its like a beautiful 19th century guilded bathhouse fueled with natural springs.
Then we walked along the Danube, saw their Parliament house, walked across the Chain Bridge to Buda (since Budapest is a combo of two cities, Buda to the east of the Danube and Pest to the west, making it Buda-pest), took a fenucular up to castle hill, saw the castle, saw this famous cathedral (cant remember the name...there are a LOT of cathedrals to keep straight!) and then tubed it home (oh my word.
The budapest metro system is SO fast! Its violent even and makes this combined jingle/annoying sound everytime you reach a stop! And the escalators like propell you to the next floor, not a gentle stroll, they go so fast!). That evening was Spenser's birthday so we went to this really traditional Hungarian restaurant/bar where I had MORE goulash. Spenser got a huge steak dinner and a glass of their best wine for under $10! Oh and speaking of money the hungarian forint has a crazy exchange rate! Its like 220 Hungarian forint to $1!! So your meals would be around 2000 forints!
The next morning me and Michael left the hostel early so we could see one more sight before our train (which left at 11:10 am). We went and saw the Great Market Hall which was this cool market hall built in 1896 to celebrate the 1000th year anniversary of Budapest. The Market was HUGE with butchers selling every type of meat there is, plus produce stands and some of the best pastries I've ever had.
We then met the rest of the group back at - of course - the McDonalds next to the train station, and then boarded our train to Vienna. We got to Vienna around 2:00 and checked into supposedly rated the best hostel chain in europe, the Wombats City Hostel (they have two more hostels, one in Munich and one in Berlin, which we are staying at in Berlin). The hostel really was nice, being like a young adult version of a hotel where you buy the bed instead of the room, complete with reception, a bar, and all the other hotel amenities.
That afternoon we went to this pizza place called Pizza Mafiosa where I had a probably 15 inch pizza for 3 euros, no joke! That evening we were bored, but didn't want to go far, so we went to the english speaking movie theatre and saw "He's Just Not That Into You"...which was entertaining because the Viennese like to laugh at EVERYTHING (I think because they dont really understand whats going on, haha), but as a whole it was a very different experience.
The next day (Tues) we saw Vienna. We started out going to the Schonnburg Palace, this awesome Hapsburg palace about 4 miles outside the city and went to the oldest zoo in the world, established in 1752 by Maria Teresa (the famous empress of the Austro-Hungarian empire) to entertain her friends. We even saw some of the original cages and buildings of the zoo.
Then we went into the old city of Vienna and saw the opera house (we were going to take a tour but they were closed that day), the Hofburg Palace, the main museum that starts with a "K" (kinda like the Louvre of Vienna), St. Stephens cathedral, their city hall, and a bunch of other important buildings. For lunch we went to this restaurant called Centimeter, where you can get a meter worth of spaghetti! Three of the guys got it and they literally got this trough (exactly a meter wide) just brimming with spaghetti - needless to say, they weren't feeling too well by the end of it.
Afterwards we got the monstrous chocolate cake, which was amazing! We then walked around the city more, went to Cafe Central (this really nice Viennese cafe done in a late 19th century style complete with tuxedoed waiters and a pianist playing mozart!) where Sigmund Freud, Trolsky, and several other great minds would meet and play chess! After that we went on a ferris wheel that overlooked all of Vienna (kinda like a less-cool version of the London Eye), got banana shakes at McDonalds (they had NO chocolate, only vanilla, strawberry, and banana, how weird!)...and then went back to our hostel.
This morning we woke up around 8 am for our train at 9:58 at a far away train station. It was kinda hard to figure out the railcar system which took us directly there as opposed to the metro system as we had been previously using. Anyway, we figured it out and got on our train. 4 and a half hours later we arrived in Prague.
We took the metro to our hostel called Hostel Bridge and has an AMAZIN location. From our hostel we can SEE the entrance to the Charles Bridge (THE most famous bridge in Prague) and are about a 5 min walk to Old Town and another 5 to the Jewish Quarter, even the castle across the river is only like 15 min away! This evening we went to a traditional Czech restaurant where I had salmon with dill sauce and a really good Coke Light =)
Then we wandered around near our hostel, came back and watched a movie...it was fun! Even though I haven't seen all (or actually anything of Prague), I've found its one of my favorite cities by far! It has such a cool feeling about it and all the streets and buildings have an awesome medieval vibe...I can't really describe it but it is SO cool! I'm so happy to be here!
Tomorrow our plan is to see the Old Town Sq., go up in the Old Town Hall tower, see the famous astronomical clock, Tyn church, Wenceslas Sq., Charles bridge, the castle and famous cathedral named after the St. with a "V" and then just hang out in the city. The next day our train doesn't leave until 2:30, so we'll have the morning to do the Jewish Quarter! I can't wait!
After that is Berlin and then home! This entire week has gone by in a whirlwind! I feel like we've been traveling forever, yet its gone by so quickly... Everyone's having a great time, nothing's gone wrong (this trip has been flawless except for almost missing our bus for the airport on Friday morning!) and I think that I'm doing really well as the group leader (seeing as nothing's gone wrong, we get to where we need to be when we need to be there, get to see eveything thats important in the city, and everyone's enjoying their trip!).
Its really fun! Oh and thank you SOOO much for that Rick Steve's Eastern europe book! I've been reading it like the Bible this entire trip and its helped us out SO much seeing as the internet is not always an easily accessible commodity and we need some direction in our sightseeing...again, thank you!
Hope you're having a wonderful time in Burbank (I hear there's good weather?)...please tell me when we can skype (we arrive home to our London house at like 1 pm Sunday afternoon)... thanks!
Thank you for writing me! Yeah I never finished writing an email about my trip because I just called her up and told her in person. Basically, since my last email, we went around Prague, seeing the Charles Bridge (of which our hostel was about 150 meters from the main tower on the Old Town side!), the Old Town square, the clock tower, the Astronomical Clock, the Castle Hill, St. Vitus Cathedral and a million other things.
The next day we took a train to Berlin, spent the night in a hostel near the Alexanderplatz. The next day we took an amazing walking tour (for free!) of Berlin. It began at the Brandenburg Gate, then the Reichstag, then the Holocaust Memorial, then Hitler's Bunker site (basically a parking lot), then some former Nazi buildings and the Luftwaffe headquaters, then the Berlin wall (upon which I told everyone that you already had a piece of it!) that was all gated off.
Then we walked to Checkpoint Charlie, then Unter der Linden (sp?), then Bebelplatz and the Book Burning Memorial, Humbolt University, the TV tower, and Museum Island. It was a wonderful tour! Then we went up the TV tower, which was an amazing experience. The next day we caught our British Airways flight from Berlin Tegel airport to London Heathrow! It was a fabulous trip!
Yeah, I was expecting you to say something about going to the salt mines. I know you had strongly recommended that I go, but I was still on the fence about it. Once I finally decided to go, I DID NOT regret it! They were exactly what you described but better! Two of my other traveling buddies who went with me (I told them that you were a world traveler and had recommended them, so they should go) to the salt mines wanted me to tell you: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! They really appreciated the fact that you encouraged me to go, otherwise they never would have heard of the mines!
Anyway, this coming weekend I'm on my way to Ireland. We're flying into Cork, then taking a bus up to Galway and seeing the Cliffs of Moher, and then to Shannon to fly home. The following weekend I'm seeing the South of France and Monaco. We fly into Nice, spend the night in Monaco, then see Monaco, Nice, Marseilles, Avignon to see the Pont du Gard, and then Carcassonne. The FOLLOWING weekend I'm off to Switzerland. We fly into Zurich, then see Liechtenstein, then take a train to Lausanne, and then Geneva. Should be fun! (And I'll have lots of good travel stories to share with you.
Oh and I did my count of countries and I've got 25! By the end of the trip I'll have been to 28! Isn't that incredible?! I know you've been to a lot more, but for being a 19-year-old college student, that seems to constitute the term "well-traveled" I'd say...
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