adventures from across the pond..

finally, another update!

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:56:18 GMT

after many, many months, my life is more settled (i found work, i got a car, etc) and i can go back to finishing this thing. added a whopping THREE entries tonight:

day 21: more tooling around in rome: EUR, Trastevere, more ruins!
thoughts on rome
day 22: paris->philly->toronto

i'll also try to type in some paper journals i took pictures of at the beginning of the trip, and post more pictures from Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.

begin burning your midnight oil.....NOW!

update!

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:38:17 GMT

I've been extremely busy for the last couple of months with getting things straight with my school (I've graduated, apparently one of the profs made a mistake marking my exam.),my career search, eventually finding a job and working hard to get up to speed. I've taken a day off from work today since I'm sick and what better way to make more use of my time than to work on and hopefully finish this soon:

Scroll down to day 30: rome 3a, 3b - Vatican City, Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain.

update

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 23:59:27 GMT

It's been a long while but I finally finished Day 19: My second day in Rome where I took so many pictures that it takes 3 pages to show them all.

Coming up on Day 20: Vatican City, Vatican Museum(Sistine Chapel), Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps.

updated:

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 06:56:33 GMT

day 18: Pisa and my first night in Rome.

More Rome and pictures of Coliseum next.

(Almost done chronicling my trip! yay.)

update:

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 19:20:14 GMT

Pictures from Florence, Day 17

Pisa and Rome next

completed:

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 01:46:46 GMT

Day 16: Venice/Florence

Pictures from Florence next.

update

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 03:38:03 GMT

finished day 15: bratislava/vienna 2 .

I have a lot of things going on lately (mostly positive) so it might take a long time between each update, but I do hope to finish this by the end of next month as some of the entries I'm converting from paper entries, then adding pictures on.

update

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:24:57 GMT

Day 14: Bratislava is ready.

Next day is more Vienna, then to Venice.

omg i'm tired.

updates

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 05:54:32 GMT

Vienna 1 complete.
Next entry...Bratislava - the Prague without the crazy bustle.

day 13: vienna 1

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 03:04:00 GMT

We got into Vienna sometime in the early afternoon and took the tram from Sudbahnhof to Westbahnhof where our hostel was.
The hostel we stayed at was a cute little hostel in a quiet residential area, with a small but nice lounge to chill. After dropping off our stuff we found a donair and pizza place around the corner from the hostel to eat.

We took the metro to downtown for some sightseeing. I was feeling really exhausted so we found an outdoor café where I had a large cup of coffee. It was something like 2.30e which was bloody expensive but hey, I'm enjoying a cup of coffee at a Viennese outdoor café! It was NICE! I would have taken a picture but I was wayy too tired to do so.

We walked around the downtown area for a bit and was approached by one of many guys in 18th century costumes. He was trying to get us to see a Mozart theater thing for 25 euros. We just got into the city and want to sightsee first so we declined. This is something I would do though if I brought along a girlfriend or a wife. I'd definitely hit it next time I end up in Vienna with a girl.

So we walked around some more and ran into Hofburg, or the Imperial Palace:

We walked inside the arch. It's a road that cars could actually drive through.
There was this rotunda thing right inside the arch:

(stitched together) and someone was playing violin there, and the music echoed through the whole rotunda thing. That was very nice.

Some kind of museum at the Hofburg.

This was interesting. There are supposed to be two statues in the Hofburg, but as part of an art exhibit they've surrounded one of them with brick wall (it's really plastic but it's supposed to show a brick wall) Apparently when the Nazis annexed Austria they built a brick wall around the statues with the excuse to protect them from ruins during war, but in reality (according to the info kiosk) they want to cover up the statue's glory. So the exhibit was made to show what the place looked like in WW2.

Another art exhibit in the Hofburg. After WW2 Vienna was starving for food, so the gardens of the Hofburg were converted to temporary farmland to grow food. So here some artists are growing food on the Hofburg grounds to show what this place looked like after WW2.

This building is beside the Hofburg. I'm not sure what its purpose was (yet another museum?)

We stumbled into the Museum Quarter and found these really cool benches.

There was jazz music playing in the background and it was nice weather. I curled up on one of these funky benches and read a brochure about the architecture museum I picked up earlier. I'm planning to hit it during my stay in Vienna.

Hofburg Theater.
It was turning into night and the streets were getting prettier.
We walked through the downtown for a bit.

This is the famous Stephansdom, in the heart of downtown Vienna:

We took the metro back to the hostel, and used internet at an internet cafe. The place was also a callcenter so I made some calls. First to Denisa, my friend in Bratislava that we're going to visit the next day. Then to Josef, my friend in Graz who told me to call him when I get to Vienna. It's too bad I can't visit Josef too since Graz was kind of out of the way and my schedule was very tight. (I'd definitely try my best to go to Graz and find him the next time I'm in Europe though.) What I found funny about the charges were how it was cheaper to phone Bratislava, in another country, than it was to phone Graz in the same country. Go figure.

We went back to the hostel after and chilled in the common room with a couple of girls from the States. This hostel (the Ruthensteiner Hostel) was by far the most socially inviting hostel of our entire trip. There's people hanging out there all the time, there's guitars you can play, and it's just a great place to chill out and meet people. I wished we stayed in more hostels like this throughout our trip rather than institutional places where tour groups stay or everyone just leaves in the morning and comes back very late at night.

For the sake of efficiency and trying to save money, we slightly altered our plan for the next few days. Since there was no way we can leave from Bratislava in the morning to catch the morning train to Venice from Vienna, we'd spend the next day in Bratislava, sleep over at Denisa's, then come back to Vienna the day after and chill in the city until 8 when we'll take the overnight train to Venice, arriving there at 8 am. I felt so awful having to leave after only one night at this wonderful hostel, and having to also spend so little time in this beautiful city to do it enough justice. However, my pockets were probably saved as Vienna is notoriously expensive, and I probably saved myself from misery without being there with a date. However maybe I could have hooked up with someone at the hostel? But that'd be another story..

update

Thu, 09 Jun 2005 06:45:23 GMT

finished Prague pics, part two. Stay tuned for Vienna!

updates

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 07:25:32 GMT

my goodness, updating this is taking much longer than I hoped. But I will have it done!

finished part one of pictures from Prague. part two to follow!

prague pictures part one

Mon, 06 Jun 2005 06:42:58 GMT

In our first day in Prague we got into town and sorted out all that hostel stuff by night, so we checked out the Old Town Square for a bit.

The astronomical clock.

More shots:

Near the square at night:

The astronomical clock at the square in the day. Every hour those windows above the clock would open and 12 wooden apostles would show themselves at the windows (or does it only cycle to the number of apostles according to the hour?), then the skeleton on the right would sound the bell. I did record one of the hourly processions on my Canon, albeit a really shitty one since I didn't zoom in the windows =(

Street scene in the Old Town on the walking tour.

More street scene.

from what I was told this is one of the few clocks with Jewish numbers created/still in existence.

Mozart lived here!

This art piece supposedly symbolizes the death of communism in Czech Republic.

Yet another church. After this I promised myself no more churches except Pantheon, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's. Eventually all European churches look similar.

The walking tour included a beer at a pub! Here's Caroline, Katherine, Rob and me chilling.

I randomly found this in a bookshop display. [insert your joke for the title here.]

View off Charles Bridge.

This dude was playing guitar music in the background and was making the puppet play guitar to the tunes.

Jazz band on the Charles Bridge. It was a gorgeous day and listening to jazz music, feeling the breezes from the river on the bridge was real nice.

updates

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 23:15:04 GMT

finished days 11 and 12 in Prague. More pictures of the city to follow.

notes

Sun, 29 May 2005 06:30:27 GMT

Berlin pics are up: part one and part two

notes: back home!

Fri, 27 May 2005 01:57:01 GMT

I'm back home in Mississauga now. It's been an incredible trip. Will fill in all the gaps to the journal in the next few weeks.

notes

Mon, 23 May 2005 17:52:03 GMT

updated day 17: florence and day 10: prague.. trying to upload pics from berlin now and seeing how it goes..

God bless this 1e/hour internet place..

notes

Fri, 20 May 2005 19:05:26 GMT

I am in Florence and althought the city is beautiful the internet here is so bloody expensive. Will try to write more when I get to Rome tomorrow night.

notes

Wed, 18 May 2005 11:19:31 GMT

Just got back to Vienna from Bratislava and had an awesome, awesome, awesome time. Updated Berlin day 8 and off to Venice and Florence tomorrow.

notes

Mon, 16 May 2005 20:53:54 GMT

I'm in Vienna. Updated Berlin, Day 7.

its incredibly small.. i'll fix it a bit later.

notes

Fri, 13 May 2005 17:06:50 GMT

I'm still in Prague and trying to catch up my entries. I've uploaded part 1 of my pics from Paris. Enjoy.

notes

Tue, 10 May 2005 18:23:14 GMT

Finally found a cheap internet cafe in Berlin for 1e an hour, with usb connection on the computers! Enjoy the pics and the entries I just uploaded.

amsterdam pictures

Tue, 10 May 2005 18:18:53 GMT

Me at Amsterdam Centraal station, daypack in front and duffle bag in back: ultimate tourist style.

On our way to the hostel in the tram there was some kind of Anti-Bush rally stopping the trams for a while on the street.

street scene.

North of Red Light

Chinatown

cute cafe just west of Red Light.

Amsterdammers must be Gods of parallel parking. It was so amusing seeing this guy moving his car out of his tiny parking space with the help of his friends. Reminds me of the scene in Austin Powers where Mike Myers tries to turn the golf cart around in a narrow corridor.

Royal Palace (??)

national monument

Traditional Dutch windmill in Sloten. The tour was awesome.

Relaxing with a cap for 1.7e at Nieuwmarkt square(I think that's the name of the place?)

Canal near Jordaan area.

Small village near the Sloten mill.

Museumplein, near my hostel. There's a supermarket below the steeped lawn.

This is mostly for my bro or spusan or anyone else who'd find this amusing.

notes

Sat, 07 May 2005 23:34:43 GMT

I'm currently at the Inner Amsterdam Student House in Amsterdam.. wrote an entire entry today on paper, took a picture of it, but I left my camera in my room. Can't get it now since there's people waiting to use the net (prolly cos it's really cheap here, 1.50e/hour) but I'll try to upload that and some pics when I get the chance.

I'm thinking of taking a daytrip out tomorrow from Utrecht since we couldn't think of anythign else exciting to do here besides the Red Light District, the coffee shops and exploring the canals, and we're not huge musea fans. Any suggestions you may have are welcome.

note

Fri, 06 May 2005 20:23:33 GMT

Using these internet cafés are getting kind of expensive so I think I'm going to do actual text posts less and do more write in ink, take picture of it then upload it posts.

I'll leave you these random thoughts on Paris though as I take off tomorrow morning on the Thalys for Amsterdam.

-It's well known that Paris is a "romantic" city and in many ways it is.. Walking along the Seine or in the Marais at night with a significant other can be real nice, and you see so much couples walking around the streets and on subways, cuddling and kissing etc. However it doesn't have to be romantic if you dont want it to be. There's so many attractions to see, and things to do, enough to keep you busy. I'm single, here with my buddy and still had an excellent time going to different landmarks, exploring neighbourhoods, eating off crepe vendors etc. It's a cool place to hang out.

-Almost all people in Paris dress nicely compared to in Toronto where it's very casual. Here even the slobbiest of slobs wear a blazer over a shirt or some kind of nice looking sweater.

-Salespeople are more likely to speak English to you than people who won't profit from helping you out with something (ie information desk people, supermarket cashiers, cops etc)

-I'm maybe meeting the wrong Parisians, but I find most of them to be disgruntled and unfriendly when I try to talk to them, despite trying my hardest to converse in my bad French.

-I love the metro/commuter rail(RER) system here. Although areas of some stations smell like pee, you can get around everywhere in them, and some lines offer a breathtaking sight of the city and the Seine. Today (day 3, which I'll update later) on Line 12 I believe, I saw a cop car with its sirens on trying to get past a traffic jam on a road parallel to the line. It was neat to watch and eventually it got through. However, for most of their fleet they don't announce the station names, which I find really weird considering such a complex metro system.