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Belgrade

Our last night in Budapest we were a little tired and cranky. We had no hostel and a train around midnight to catch so we had nothing to do. It was cold at the train station, but we tried to sleep.

Our night train was too short, so we were tired when we arrived in Belgrade, Serbia.

I've noticed that when taking trains one usually sees the worst parts of a city beside the railroad tracks. This was especially true in Belgrade where we saw areas filled with little shacks and piles of trash where gypsies were living.

We only intended to spend the day in Belgrade as we had a night train planned to Montenegro. Therefore, we had no hostile to stay at. Getting off the train at 6am in Belgrade we were tired and a bit intimidated.

Belgrade is definitely not as tourist-friendly as Budapest. There is a lot of work left to do.

We attempted to book a hostel so we could rest for the morning even, but the hostel was a bit unfriendly and so we decided just to walk to the main sight in the city, which was the Kalamegdan Fortress.

Luckily for us the sun started shining and it was a great day. We spent all of it sitting in the park at the fortress: reading, napping, and taking pictures.

I felt a bit like a homeless person sleeping in the grass with my backpack, but I was so tired that I didn't care.

The views from Kalamegdan were beautiful of the Danube and the Sava rivers crossing. The fortress was from when Belgrade was a Roman city.

I always find these old fortresses interesting. They went to such great lengths to build these protected cities up on the hills. It's really quite amazing to imagine all of the work that went into it.

This statue is called the Pobednik, which means the Victor in English. It was erected after WWI and placed at the Kalamegdan Fortress instead of in the Republic Square where the statue of the rider is because people complained about the nudity.

Mike thought it was neat that there were so many old men playing chess in the park and I really enjoyed a chance to eat some baklava!

That night we asked for directions to a movie theater and then watched The Rocker because it was the only movie they had in English. It was kind of lame but cute and it killed time.

In the end, we felt lucky that our day had gone so well, but we were happy to board our train that night and say goodbye to Belgrade.

***edit*** Mike tells me that we saw the movie in Budapest. Apparently this vacation has all become a blur to me because it was so long!

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Budapest

In a panic, we hurried to the train station to catch our train to Prague and start our ten day adventure. We had just gotten married that morning in a brief ceremony, and spent the day packing and preparing for our trip. It really hadn't hit me yet that we were actually married.

We had both begun to worry about this trip that I had largely planned. Would we make it to all the destinations, or would we be too exhausted from all of the travel and nights in trains? Would we still be able to stand each other at the end of it all?

In Prague we switched to a night train. It was quite different from the one we took to Zurich last Spring: it was pretty uncomfortable and also had four other beds, which meant that strange people might be sleeping with us. This particular sleeping car did not have me very excited about the prospects of many more nights on a train.

Luckily, the train was not crowded and nobody came in. I slept fitfully on the hard beds as the train rocked and made several stops. Mike slept like a baby because he loves riding in trains.

When we arrived in Budapest we started walking to the hostel I had booked. I hoped it wouldn't turn out to be a dump, but with hostels it's quite a gamble and I guess for 11 euros per night, per person, I shouldn't complain.

The hostel turned out fine, they were friendly and they had free internet and goulash for dinner so we were satisified. But I was a little wary of sleeping in the dorm room with other people.

We put our valuables in a locker and headed out for a meal and to see some of Pest, which is the side of the river that we were on. Mike made me promise not to tell anyone how many times we ate at McDonald's during our trip so I will omit that information (I've never been adventurous with food and in a foreign place seeing something familiar and predictable is very comforting!).

To get to the subways you had to take these long escalators down, and they were the longest and steepest I have ever seen in my life! It actually scared me a little because it felt like falling and you could feel the rush of wind when the subways went through.

We then took an hour long boat tour on the Danube. Unfortunately it was terribly cold on the river, but we got to take some pictures.

When we came back to our hostel for a nap because I had not slept very well on the train, the girl informed us that she had overbooked the hostel. But instead of it being bad news for us, it was actually pretty good because she moved us to a private apartment two minutes away.

I want to note that in Budapest nearly everyone spoke English, so it was very easy to get around.

The next day we went to the Buda side of the river and saw the Buda Castle. It was quite a climb up the hill, but there were beautiful views of the city and we had great weather.

There was a construction site where they were restoring some of the surroundings of the castle and hiding in the rubble we saw five little kittens.

Lately my heart melts whenever I see cats, I have become such a sap. Luckily I didn't have to feel sad about these kitties because they looked well fed and happy. I was also dealing with the guilt of leaving my kitty at home alone for the trip!

I actually really liked Budapest. I am starting to like these eastern European cities because I think they are interesting and beautiful. It's really fascinating, the juxtaposition of the old and new, the ugly and the beautiful. I'd like to go back to Budapest and I would highly recommend it for other travelers.

Next on our trip we took a night train to Belgrade, Serbia...

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Prag

This weekend we went on a short trip to Prague with my classmates from language school: Iker (Basque Country), Tessa (USA), Thomas (Holland), Katja (Russia), oh yeah, and Mike (Germany) too. Quite the international group!

We stayed in a hostel called Le Papillon for fifteen Euros a night per person. For that price I shouldn't complain, but for a hostel it was pretty sleezy and that's really saying something! I'm glad we only stayed there a night.

The first day we walked around a lot and I was quite impressed with the Czech Republic in general. I have heard many things about Prague, that it's beautiful and that it's a dirty tourist trap. I have to say that I agree with both views, but it did not hurt my impression of Prague in any way. I anticipated that there would be a lot of tourists and people trying to sell us things (it is the 6th most visited European city), so I was not surprised by it. But what I was surprised by was how interesting I found the city.

My favorite part was just to walk through the streets and see all the old buildings contrasting with the new shopping malls. It was a strange juxtaposition of the old and the new, the ugly and the beautiful, like many other eastern European cities I have seen. I liked it.

I liked the Old Town Square with the gothic cathedral, baroque church, and astronomical clock with moving figures.

I loved the views of Prague from Charles Bridge. It would be nice to take a boat tour sometime.

I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the castle, even though I had heard so much about it. To me, it was really unremarkable and boring. I was a bit let down after the hike up the hill, but the St. Vitus Cathedral up there was very beautiful with lots of colorful stained glass windows and where the relics of St. Wenceslas are kept. Also, the views from the castle of the city were amazing.

At one point we passed two Czech children playing basketball and Mike asked them in Polish if we could play with them. Katja and I watched as the boys played. The little boy, Marro, was very friendly. He spoke English and he was very surprised to learn that we were all from different countries. It was a memorable experience. He gave us some tips on what we should see, but strangely enough he didn't have much advice about Prague's bar scene.

Most of our interactions with the Czech people were pleasant. Most of them speak either English or German so we got along fine, and when we didn't they could understand some of Mike's Polish. I have to say that most of them were very friendly for Europeans.

The exception was at a restaurant we went to at the advice of our hostel's owner. We went because we were told we could get a free small beer if we ordered the goulash, a typical Czech meal.

Well, we were surprised when the beers were quite large, but they drank them and then ordered some more. When the bill came we had been charged for six beers, even though we should have gotten the first round free, and we were also charged for two colas when I had only had one.

When Mike confronted the waitress she came back with three smaller beers and said that these were the free ones and the big ones were not free.

Obviously she wanted to rip us off because we were tourists and she hoped we would either not care enough or not know enough of the language to argue with her. But she underestimated Mike, who argued with her in Polish until she relented, which was quite some time. My hero.

I have heard that this is one of the risks in Prague. Don't let it deter you from visiting, but just make sure you know what you are ordering and what you are paying for, because some people there do try to take advantage.

On Sunday Mike and I decided to go solo and take it more slowly than the day before. We had breakfast and then we went and saw Dark Knight in a theater because in Czech Republic they do not dub their films, so it was in English with Czech subtitles. So exciting! I waited so long to see that film, and it definitely lived up to all of the hype.

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Super Post

I have been neglecting my blog, and so now I will ambush you all with a super long post full of pictures.

I have been pretty occupied ever since we moved into our new apartment and I started taking German classes again. I go to class from 10am to 3pm four days a week. I have to say that I feel like I have made more progress in German in these last three weeks than I have the entire time I've been here.

I am dreaming in German, talking to Penny in German, and yes, even Mike and I are finally speaking some German together.

We went to the Museum Night in Dresden a while back. They sold one ticket that gave you entrance to all of the many museums in Dresden for the night. Unfortunately we got a late start, and the Biergartens slowed us down a bit, so we didn't see very many museums.

But I did get to take some cool night-time pictures of Dresden.

I also finally went to Meissen on a trip with my class. Meissen is also on the Elbe River, and is well known for its Meissen Porcelain Manufacture, the Albrechtsburg, and the Cathedral.

We went into the Meissen Porcelain Museum and saw hundreds of porcelain pieces that were all hand made. They were gorgeous and very expensive. In the shop they sold second-tier items that had tiny flaws for a little less (a little less being only a few hundred euros for a tea cup). Maybe if they had fifth-tier items I could afford those.

We got to tour the Albrechtsburg which is an old castle that was built up on a hill for protection, and the Cathedral, which is one of the smallest in Europe because it had to fit on the hilltop.

Both were very gorgeous with high vaulted ceilings and murals. (This picture I submitted to Exposaroonie's Challenge this week.

I am always so amazed at these old buildings and how much work it must have taken to build them without modern day machinery! They must have been truly awe-inspiring to see back then, even more so than today.

My final bit of news is that on Thursday we decided to take the train to Berlin and see Obama speak at the Siegessäule (Victory Column).

Maybe you had not heard, but there was some controversy over where he would speak. Some thought the Brandenberg Gate was too important for a candidate to speak at, so he ended up speaking at the column which is to commemorate the Prussian Victory in the Danish-Prussian War.

This choice is being criticized by some because they say it is associated with Hitler, but I say, it is probably hard to find something that isn't.

Anyways, over 200,000 people showed up to hear Obama speak. The crowds were crazy. We waited about an hour in a crowd where we were crammed together like cattle and I literally could not move. The problem was that there were too few metal detectors and it took forever to get through them.

When we finally did get through we were just in time for the speech to begin. But there were so many people that I couldn't even see Obama unless Mike lifted me up, and then he was pretty far away. We got some pictures and Mike held me up for a few minutes.

After that we were just exhausted from the ordeal getting in so we sat down and enjoyed the speech.

Obama is truly a good orator. He mostly spoke about the need for world cooperation. In an increasingly globalized world, we all need to put our differences aside and learn to work together!

I have had an action packed few weeks, so I think I will have a quiet, laid back weekend. But I'm glad we decided to go to Berlin, even though it was last minute. I think it would have been dumb not to go see something as historic as that when it is so close.

As usual, if you'd like to see more pictures you can check out my photo albums.

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die Abenteuerin

Abenteuerin adventuress

The title of this blog post is sarcastic, since I am anything but.

As I was scanning my Wörterbuch (English-German dictionary) for appropriate titles for this blog entry, I was reminded of something that I think is very cool about the German language: just about any German word can be dissected into parts and you can discover its meaning. It's actually kind of fun.

My German oral exam is not on Tuesday like I thought, but next month (collective sigh of relief)! My German comprehension has increased a lot, but my speech and grammar is still abysmal. And whenever I am in a situation where a German speaks to me, any German knowledge that I had suddenly goes out the window and I am speaking cave-man German or just copping out by saying "Ich verstehe nicht!" (I don't understand).

But back to the title of the blog...

Mike and I are working on the necessary paperwork for us to join in holy matrimony sometime this summer. On Thursday Mike said to me, "So tomorrow you will go to the consulate in Leipzig and get this form."

"Huh? We are going to Leipzig tomorrow?" I replied.

"No, you are."

Of course this made me scared. I usually try not to expose myself to situations where I may have to actually speak German. I mean, I have "mastered" the trams in Dresden and I can pretty comfortably go to class and shopping by myself. But travelling to a whole different city on my own? No way!

"It will be easy. You will get a train to Leipzig and then you'll have to take a taxi to the consulate."

"Huh? Taxi? I have to talk to a taxi driver? No! I can't do it. Boo hoo!"

"It will be easy, I know you can do it."

"I know that I can. But I don't want to!"

So on Friday morning I got on a train to Leipzig. We had compromised by deciding that I would not take a taxi but walk, so Mike printed me out a map. For some reason the taxi idea really freaked me out.

The trip was relatively uneventful. The walk was not that long, the weather in Leipzig was nice, and I got to walk through the center and see some of the nice buildings, although I didn't know what I was looking at. I think this picture is of a church.

The consulate was weird. The whole street was blocked off and I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go in, so I wandered around for a while. There were lots of cops, so finally I just approached one. Suddenly my cave-man German came into play and I must have said something like "me want marry, must go consulate". Finally I showed them my passport and they let me in. When I got in they checked me for weapons and then confiscated my cell phone and camera. A woman escorted me into a room and I sat down at a table. No one was speaking English with me, so I tried in my cave-man German to tell them what I needed: a Konsularische Ledigkeitsbescheinigung. What?! I couldn't even say it. Finally I just said "Ich will heiraten" (I want to get married). The woman said "congratulations!" and switched to English (thank you!).

They asked me for my address in the U.S. and in Germany, my father and mother's names, and then they printed me out a paper in German and English saying that I am single.

So, my little adventure went smoothly. I even got to have some McDonald's at the train station before I left.

Soon I will have to post a blog about how to marry a German in Germany. But first I have to finish figuring it out myself.

In other news, our kitchen was installed in our apartment! It looks really nice. Today Mike and I went over and cooked a meal there, even though we didn't have any chairs to sit on since we haven't bought any yet. I am really excited to move in. I just wish I could wiggle my nose like Jeannie and make all the heavy furniture in our apartment here suddenly appear in the new one. We probably can't afford movers, and besides, I don't know who would want to carry all of this already assembled furniture down from the top floor of our apartment. Atleast our new one is on the first floor.

And for fun, here is Penny. I know you all want to see another hundred photos of my cat, right? She is excited about the new apartment as well.

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