Tuesday, May 25

I am pleased to report I was able to get some laundry done for under $2!!!!! I don't have the luxury of a dryer, unfortunately, but hey, clean clothes are clean clothes! It wasn't so much that my clothes were dirty. However, in Eastern Europe they still allow people to smoke in the bars and the restaurants, and even if you don't smoke you're going to come out smelling like an ashtray! Little things that you take for granted back home, they come with a vengeance when you're traveling! For example, there are no public bathrooms. If you want to use one, you have to pay a dollar or so to join the club! Each bathroom is it's own club, so there aren't any carryover membership privileges! I completely made that last bit up, but having to pay to use the bathroom, I just ain't used to that! Also, you don't get complimentary water with your meal when you eat out. In fact, there have been more than a couple of occasions where beer is cheaper than water! This may sound like heaven for a lot of you, but I tell you, there will be times when the desire for water is insatiable.

I had a good final two days in Prague. The tendency is to try and cram as much as you can in final times because you just don't know when you'll be in the part of the world next. I had heard of the bone church in Kutna Hora, and I thought it would be good to get out of the city for a few hours. In hindsight, it was a rewarding challenge to buy a train ticket and figure out where to go without speaking any Czech, but at the time it sure wasn't any fun! All the ticket person was able to tell me was the train left for Kutna Hora at 12pm, but no idea what platform I should catch the train from or where it was. It took me a while to realize that the train arrival and departure schedules are done in the moment, and you won't know where to go until 10-15 minutes before your train leaves. It all worked out, of course, but it's just one of those things you don't know about until you know.

Kutna Hora is a pretty small town, and I really don't think they would have people coming there if it weren't for the Kostnice Ossuary bone church. I admit I felt a bit uncomfortable as I took pictures of the inside - it almost seemed a bit like grave robbing. However, learning the history of the church and how it came to be put my mind at ease. Plus, I paid a few crowns to light one of the candles to show some respect to those that rest there. If you think about it, we are remembering those who perished during the plague by visiting this church.

I needed to get back to Prague fairly quickly, so I was only able to stay for an hour or so. I had plans to see my friend Diana perform with her trio at a small cafe on the 'other side' of Prague. I mean 'other side' in that it was a ways from where my hostel was, not that it was a bad part of town.

I can't say enough good things about the tram/train system in Prague. It gets you from one side of the city to the other in 10 - 15 minutes, plus it is cheap! I was even able to get to a beer festival at the end of the train line where some friends from the hostel were. $2 24 oz beers, can it get any better?

My last day in Prague I spent just outside the city on the Vltava river. It was a beautiful day, and it was good to get away from the constant traffic within the city. I was also able to walk around some of the neighborhoods in Prague that used to be the wealthiest in the city, until the Soviets took over. There are still remnants of soviet occupation if you look in the right places, but most of the homes have gone back to the original owners, or were subsequently sold.

All for now! The train from Prague to Krakow was uneventful, but I'll tell more about the city as I write more!

Friday, May 21st.

I'm currently at day 2.5 in Prague. My last post I mentioned I would crash immediately after, but I had no idea how tired I really was. I slept through the whole night! I only have vague memories of other folks wandering in and out the of the room, but man was that sleep necessary! I woke up feeling completely refreshed. That tends to happen to me when I'm traveling; I just go, go,l go, then the Z's hit me like a sledgehammer! I woke up at 8:30 am the next morning, and one of the other fellows staying in the same room looked at me and said (thick aussie accent): 'You had an EPIC sleep!' I think we all could use one of these from time to time!

As beautiful as Prague is, I came very close to losing my patience more than a few times. The streets in this city are an absolute maze! Also, the streets aren't clearly labeled, and while there are maps that give detailed images of the city and the street names, they can't label EVERY street. So it goes, you wander down one street, and think you're close to your destination, and it turns out you've gone in the complete opposite direction of where you should be going! Hey, I guess that's another one of the adventures of traveling! Another interesting thing about the street signs is that not all of them tell you where you are, they tell you where you are going, which is not the most helpful thing if you're trying to get your bearings! Oh well, I suppose you can't get lost if you don't know where you're going!

The architecture in Prague is amazing! You can tell it's been around for a LONG, long time. For those who don't know, Prague is one city that was not bombed at all during WWII, so there is a ton of preserved history here. There are a lot of old gothic statues around the city, especially on the Charles Bridge. Most of them are very catholic inspired, at least as far as I can tell. It's funny, if earth were to finally be visited by intelligent beings, and the only remnants of humanity were these statues, they would think that us humans were VERY unhappy!

I was very fortunate to visit some old friends from Seattle who currently live in Prague! Last night, May 20th, I had dinner at my friend Diana Aivia's flat which she shares with her boyfriend Mickey and 3 other people! It was nice having a home cooked meal for once! Diana is the daughter of one of my first bosses, Joy Huber, when I worked at the River's council of Washington in Seattle. She is working as an english teacher, as well as teaching and singing opera! http://www.dianaaaivia.com/ She performs quite a bit in Prague, and tomorrow I will watch a performance at Galerie Scarabeus. They were so generous to welcome me into their home and show me a bit of the city!

One of my oldest friends from high school is also in Prague, and has been for the past 12 years. Lucien Zell is his name, but those in the know from Seattle will remember him as Jody Zell. ( If you're reading this, Lucien, I apologize, but I have to make a point of reference!) He's got a fairly well known band in Prague called The Wavemen, and they will be releasing their first CD in a month. http://www.thewavemen.com/ He also is a well-known poet, and I purchased a book of his poetry in the tea shop we met at. It turns out since both are singers, Diana and Lucien know each other fairly well, and only by mentioning the name to Diana were we able to hook up with Lucien! Really glad we did! It's wonderful to see old friends for the first time in 12 years! What's even better are that the same traits you knew way back in high school are still with the person!

All for now! As always, take good care of yourselves!

Prague - 5/19/10

'On to us all a little bit of rain must fall, but it's just a little rain.'

I always knew what this line meant, but I never quite took it literally, until today! Oh man, anybody who's been on a backpacking adventure knows that things never work out exactly as you'd hoped or planned. It's all part of the adventure, and while I wouldn't classify it as hell, there are definitely some pockets of heck to go through!

Long story short, I am in Prague and I arrived at my Hostel just fine and in one piece. Getting here was much easier than I thought! I had to wake up in Budapest at 5:45am to get my stuff together and get to the bus terminal on time. Since I'm backpacking, I packed light and have been doing the old sink laundry that is so popular amongst us backpagers. Waking up at 5:45am was hard enough, but it was more than a little disappointing to find my clothes hadn't quite dried, and I was forced to make my way wearing a pair of damp drawers! There's always gotta be something that will at least make you remember the journey, I suppose. Maybe I should spring for some laundry, but $10 a load??!?!? Come on!!

Arriving in Prague having absolutely no idea where the hostel is makes things a bit challenging, to say the least. That's the beauty of traveling, it forces you to be patient and do your best to just figure things out the best you can. It is nice that Prague is used to foreign travelers, and there are plenty of information booths in major areas that can help you out. It was (is) raining buckets, however, so it sure wasn't easy to navigate the streets in a foggy tram. The roads and stops weren't too clearly marked, so I jumped off the tram at the last minute and started walking, hoping to find some major road on the map I carried. Luckily, I found a Marriott hotel with an English speaking concierege. Turned out I was going in the complete opposite direction of where I needed to go! By that point I was soaked, tired, and just ready to crash, so I sprung for the $5 cab ride and, well, here I am! Really nice hostel. It's only 3pm, but I'm exhausted, so I'm going to crash after this.

Not to say it was all a bad day. Not at all. Some things worked very well in my favor! My original plan was to take the train from Budapest to Prague. I happened to mention this to my new friend Alex at the Carpe Noctem Hostel in Budapest, and he told me about a bus service that runs directly to Prague, is 3 hours shorter, and is only 1/4 the price of a train ticket! 20 Euro to get here vs. 110 Euro? Not a bad score, I must say! The bus was also super comfortable so I was able to relax the whole way.

No pictures for now, but there will be more! If anybody has any tips for Prague, let me know! There are a couple of friends I will get in touch with from way back, but otherwise my plan is just to enjoy myself! It is supposed to be warm this weekend, so there's always that to look forward to!

You all take good care of yourselves!

Hungarian Food

One of my favorite parts of traveling is the food! Of course, some of the best food I've had was in Tuscany, and I know Europe is full of a variety of tastes, customs, spices and cooking techniques, so I knew traveling to Hungary would be quite a different food experience. I don't want to say I had low expectations of the food, really I had NO expectations. We've all had exposure to Italian, Thai, Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese and French food. As far as I know, there is virtually no exposure to Hungarian food in Seattle. It's just not the type of food that I've heard much, if anything about. So, how is it? If there is a Hungarian restaurant, let me know where it is, because I will become their next frequent patron!

Hungarian food is AWESOME! All the basics we are used to are easy to find: chicken, potatoes, pork, asparagus, peas, etc. What's unique are the spices and seasonings they take advantage of that really bring out the flavor of the food! As you may know, Paprika is used very frquently. Think of it as Irish food that actually has some flavor to it! Not the nicest thing to say, I know, but I'm Irish so I don't feel as bad. I haven't tried the Ghoulash yet, but that's because I've only ordered big meals so far!

5/18/2010 - 3rd full day in Budapest

I have a question: Why do you travel? Do you travel to see the sights? Do you travel to experience the culture? Do you travel to meet people? Do you travel to enjoy the cheap beer and get shit drunk?

I think for most of us it's a little bit of everything (maybe not the drunk part) and just taking what comes with it. For myself, it's hard to think of a single time I've been on vacation and it's not been sunny. That's just something I've grown to expect; when I'm on vacation, I'm in the sun. Well, that certainly hasn't been the case this time around! The weather has been rainy and VERY windy! It's a good thing I'm from Seattle, or I'd be stuck inside the hostel moping!

Back to the original question: personally, I think it's much easier to experience the culture than anything else when traveling. All you have to do is walk out the door and immerse yourself in, whether it's eating the food, talking to folks, visiting sites, listening to the music or just walking around. I really enjoy seeing the sites when I travel, but I do my best not to stick to a firm itinerary. I'm a wanderer at heart, so one of my favorite things to do is just grab a map and start hitting the streets. This is more rewarding for me as you just never know what you'll come across, and some of the best hidden treasures of sight-seeing will come when you least expect them.

All right, I'm rambling, what can I say about Budapest? It's very similar to any other major European city I've been to; Dublin, London and Rome all have the similar setup of winding streets and European architecture lining both sides. It's hard to know if you're looking at people's homes, offices, or what is actually in these buildings above the ground level. Here are some pictures of my roams through Budapest so far.

1st day

Not a bad 1st 24 hours! The youth hostel, Carpe Noctem is a great place! Most of the other folks staying here are young people from the US and England, and are always looking to have a good time. The Hostel staff also plans evening events every night! We're about to go on what they call the 'Shit Pub Crawl'. It's sunday night so the evening's pretty quiet in Budapest, so we'll go to the local dive bars to enjoy the cheap beer! It's about a dollar a glass, am I in heaven??
I partook in the local custom by going to one of the hot springs this afternoon. It was a great way to wind down from the full day of traveling yesterday. Plus, it's raining pretty hard, so it was a good escape from the wind and rain. Giving this, I think I will make more of an effort to visit the hot springs on the olympic peninsula this summer!