Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Day 32
Tuesday August 28
7:30am - set my phone to wake myself up. Not sure why, except that tomorrow I have to get up before 5:30am so I figured it'd be good to not sleep too late
8:30amish - went to breakfast. Wasn't that hungry, didn't eat that much.
9:00amish - took tram 1 to the opera and then the U-4 subway to Naschmarkt - but I took it in the wrong direction lol, so I got off after one stop at the Stadtpark and then went 2 stops in the right direction. The market was much smaller - no flea market during the week - and much much quieter. The annoying sellers were still out, trying to get you to come over and try their stuff, etc. I wasn't much in the mood for that, plus the bees were still there around the dried fruit so I just walked to the end and left. Walked a few blocks and found the Café Sperl, supposedly one of the best coffeehouses in the city, and one of the oldest. Very beautiful place inside. There's one guy who runs it and has a bunch of waitresses. I had a "melange" which is like a cappuccino, and an apfelstrudel. I know, I don't like fruity pastries, but I figured while in Vienna might as well try the other famous dessert - and it was cheaper here than anywhere else I'd seen (less than the coffee, in fact - 2.80 to 3.30 lol). The coffee comes on a little silver tray with a glass of water and 3 sugar cubes, which were just enough. Ok it was tasty but it tasted no different than other good coffee. I am just not a connoisseur I guess.
Sat for a while and soaked in the atmosphere. ORF, an Austrian TV network, was there and interviewing people. Perhaps for a special about the café! It was fun to watch that all happen. A feature of these coffee cafes is that they have lots of international newspapers so I picked up the UHT (only English one they had) and read through it, reminding myself why I hate the news :p
10:30amish - paid and left. The next major street over is a big shopping street called Mariahilferstrasse. Checked it out and it was a LOT longer than I anticipated it being lol. So I walked to the end, then crossed and walked back. It's so interesting to me that on one street you will have multiple outlets of the same store. Same as the Stroget in Copenhagen. It really just makes no sense. Anyway.
11:40am - Got to the end which led out to the ring right near the Museumsquartier where I was yesterday. Took the Tram 2 the two stops to my hotel and relaxed for a few min and put together the picnic stuff I still had in my fridge.
12:30pm - left the hotel and took the Tram 2 one stop to the Stadtpark, the main city park. Saw the Strauss statue and the Schubert statue and found a nice shady bench and ate. 2 benches down there were these two older guys and I'm pretty sure at one point, one of them farted and they laughed. Oy vey. Walked through the rest of the park, which is beautiful, and caught the Tram 2 again a few more stops.
1:15pmish - started the Fodor's "back streets" walking tour which started a bit away from the St. Stephan's church square at another church, Maria am Gestade. Pretty. Followed the tour through old medieval side streets behind the main squares, ending up around where I was a couple days ago for dinner. Walked right by Zanonis and was good and didn't get an ice cream ;) At one of the last stops it was a(nother) church and outside, a bunch of nuns were eating lunch and laughing. I don't know why, but it was a most amusing scene.
3:00pmish - thirsty and tired, I just came back to the hotel after stopping in a little store to get a packaged pastry to take on the train with me tomorrow. That and a banana I took from breakfast today should be enough with what I already have. Plus my fridge here has a little freezer that actually freezes, and my Schonbrunn water bottle actually fits into there so I will actually be able to freeze it for cold water on the train. Nice. Just gonna relax here and find somewhere close to the hotel for dinner since I have to get up so early tomorrow :(
5:30pm - went for dinner. Wasn't in the mood to find a place and all that jazz so I went back to the Rosenberger Market Cafeteria and had a grilled chicken breast, some potatoes, and a little plate of salad. Brought a bottle of water with me so total 12.40
6:45pm - the lady at the desk says the tram to the station runs at the time I need to leave tomorrow (about 6am :( :( :( ) and that reception is open 24 hours so I will just deal with everything tomorrow.
Gotta pack :(
8:15pm - my suitcase is a whole lot fuller and I am not sure why, yikes LOL. Well at least I don't have to check it anymore. Here's to hoping for trains that are not so full that I can just keep it beside me…. |:.
I gotta get up at like 5:15am tomorrow. Oh my lord. BUT I AM GOING TO ITALY! Woohoo!!! Pretty sure my hotel in Venice does not have internet, I could be surprised like I was in a couple others but I doubt it. So I dunno when I will be able to update again but rest assured I will be writing it all down and everything!
7:30am - set my phone to wake myself up. Not sure why, except that tomorrow I have to get up before 5:30am so I figured it'd be good to not sleep too late
8:30amish - went to breakfast. Wasn't that hungry, didn't eat that much.
9:00amish - took tram 1 to the opera and then the U-4 subway to Naschmarkt - but I took it in the wrong direction lol, so I got off after one stop at the Stadtpark and then went 2 stops in the right direction. The market was much smaller - no flea market during the week - and much much quieter. The annoying sellers were still out, trying to get you to come over and try their stuff, etc. I wasn't much in the mood for that, plus the bees were still there around the dried fruit so I just walked to the end and left. Walked a few blocks and found the Café Sperl, supposedly one of the best coffeehouses in the city, and one of the oldest. Very beautiful place inside. There's one guy who runs it and has a bunch of waitresses. I had a "melange" which is like a cappuccino, and an apfelstrudel. I know, I don't like fruity pastries, but I figured while in Vienna might as well try the other famous dessert - and it was cheaper here than anywhere else I'd seen (less than the coffee, in fact - 2.80 to 3.30 lol). The coffee comes on a little silver tray with a glass of water and 3 sugar cubes, which were just enough. Ok it was tasty but it tasted no different than other good coffee. I am just not a connoisseur I guess.
Sat for a while and soaked in the atmosphere. ORF, an Austrian TV network, was there and interviewing people. Perhaps for a special about the café! It was fun to watch that all happen. A feature of these coffee cafes is that they have lots of international newspapers so I picked up the UHT (only English one they had) and read through it, reminding myself why I hate the news :p
10:30amish - paid and left. The next major street over is a big shopping street called Mariahilferstrasse. Checked it out and it was a LOT longer than I anticipated it being lol. So I walked to the end, then crossed and walked back. It's so interesting to me that on one street you will have multiple outlets of the same store. Same as the Stroget in Copenhagen. It really just makes no sense. Anyway.
11:40am - Got to the end which led out to the ring right near the Museumsquartier where I was yesterday. Took the Tram 2 the two stops to my hotel and relaxed for a few min and put together the picnic stuff I still had in my fridge.
12:30pm - left the hotel and took the Tram 2 one stop to the Stadtpark, the main city park. Saw the Strauss statue and the Schubert statue and found a nice shady bench and ate. 2 benches down there were these two older guys and I'm pretty sure at one point, one of them farted and they laughed. Oy vey. Walked through the rest of the park, which is beautiful, and caught the Tram 2 again a few more stops.
1:15pmish - started the Fodor's "back streets" walking tour which started a bit away from the St. Stephan's church square at another church, Maria am Gestade. Pretty. Followed the tour through old medieval side streets behind the main squares, ending up around where I was a couple days ago for dinner. Walked right by Zanonis and was good and didn't get an ice cream ;) At one of the last stops it was a(nother) church and outside, a bunch of nuns were eating lunch and laughing. I don't know why, but it was a most amusing scene.
3:00pmish - thirsty and tired, I just came back to the hotel after stopping in a little store to get a packaged pastry to take on the train with me tomorrow. That and a banana I took from breakfast today should be enough with what I already have. Plus my fridge here has a little freezer that actually freezes, and my Schonbrunn water bottle actually fits into there so I will actually be able to freeze it for cold water on the train. Nice. Just gonna relax here and find somewhere close to the hotel for dinner since I have to get up so early tomorrow :(
5:30pm - went for dinner. Wasn't in the mood to find a place and all that jazz so I went back to the Rosenberger Market Cafeteria and had a grilled chicken breast, some potatoes, and a little plate of salad. Brought a bottle of water with me so total 12.40
6:45pm - the lady at the desk says the tram to the station runs at the time I need to leave tomorrow (about 6am :( :( :( ) and that reception is open 24 hours so I will just deal with everything tomorrow.
Gotta pack :(
8:15pm - my suitcase is a whole lot fuller and I am not sure why, yikes LOL. Well at least I don't have to check it anymore. Here's to hoping for trains that are not so full that I can just keep it beside me…. |:.
I gotta get up at like 5:15am tomorrow. Oh my lord. BUT I AM GOING TO ITALY! Woohoo!!! Pretty sure my hotel in Venice does not have internet, I could be surprised like I was in a couple others but I doubt it. So I dunno when I will be able to update again but rest assured I will be writing it all down and everything!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Day 31
Monday August 27
8:15amish - woke up, went to breakfast, etc. etc.
9:30amish - went to Karntnerstrasse and Graben to look for something specific to buy. Found it. Won't say what it is here because the person it's for will be reading this :p but hopefully they will like it.
10:00am - of all the Swarovski stores on the Karntnerstrasse (by my count, at least 3), the biggest one of all opened at 10 so I went in and I go up to the lady and I ask sheepishly, "Is there anything I can buy here in Austria that I can't buy in the US?" She kind of looks at me funny and I try to explain that I collect them and have millions of them but wanted something special that I can't get at home in a Swarovski store. So she shows me these Austria and Vienna-specific keychains and paperweights. That's it. So I can't leave Austria without my favorite Austrian crystal so I bought a paperweight that has a famous image at the bottom of Vienna's amusement park's ferris wheel that says "Wien" (the way they spell Vienna here). It was 30 euros, whatever, I had to have it LOL!!!!!!!!
11:00am - Made my way to the Synagogue, which his not particularly far away. On the way I got a pretzel and sat down in a little square and ate it. Got to the synagogue, which looks like a normal building except for the chains and concrete blocks at each end of the street it's on and the little bit of Hebrew on the outside. Not exactly like the major churches. I was early (tour at 11:30) so I went and sat down under the shade close by.
11:20am - went to the synagogue and there was a line! Wow. Whole family from Israel with a "so-ugly-it-was-cute" baby with them. This british lady came up and wanted to know how to get into the Synagogue. We told her and she starts telling me how her grandmother was from Vienna and probably went to this temple and blahblah and she was upset that she couldn’t get in. She was all emotional and asking me to say a prayer for her inside because she didn't have time as she and her friends were going home that day or whatever. I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't particularly pray, so I was just like "sure sure"
Anyway, the security to get inside this temple was more than anything I had encountered on my trip so far!! Had to show a picture ID and the security guard asked questions. He asked me why I was in Vienna, where I was from, where I had been before that, blahblah. Then he asked if I liked it and I said I loved it it was beautiful and he asked me if everything I was carrying was mine and if anything could be used as a weapon. I was like, DUH LOL. I figured it probably wouldn't have been smart to say "if I did, don't you think I wouldn't tell you anyway"
Then through a metal detector where you put your bags on a table for another guard to look through. I should mention these guys were in black suits and looked like FBI agents in Washington DC. Anyway he looks through my bags and sees the Swarovski box, so I'm like, you can look in it if you want to. He goes "I don't want to but I have to." so he starts to open it and he's doing it upside down so that if he opened it up that way the round paperweight would just fall right out. I was like please, let me do that. And so I open it and he sees it's a crystal thing and he looks at a THIRD guy behind a window, and they just laugh. Then he looks through my purse and I'm like, that's just a water bottle, you can throw it away if you need to. And he laughs at me and says "no maybe I'll just make you drink it" and I said "hey if you want me to I will." It was funny but.. Well… didn't have to do any of that to go into any church that is for sure.
12:00 noon - finally everyone is inside - maybe close to 75 or so people - and we get to go into the sanctuary which is actually a lot smaller than I expected. It's an Orthodox temple so the lower part is for men and the upper part is for women so the men can't see the women during the service. The girl explained the history of the temple (it's the only one that survived a 1938 Nazi raid and it did that because it was "hidden" within a building pretty unnoticeable from the outside, it's only one of 12 today in the whole city, etc.), answered some questions and then we got to look around. It was built in 1826 and has been renovated. It looks kind of like a round theater and that's because it was designed by an architect who did theaters at the time.
Anyway it was very interesting.
12:30pmish - saw a little restaurant around the corner from the temple that looked pretty busy, called Bermuda Brau. So I was hungry and went. They had a chicken wing dish for 7.20. Sounded good, so I got it. Asked for a glass of water and got a bottle of mineral water, ah well. Then the bees came. One of the dipping sauces they brought with the wings (which was, btw, just a huge plate of about 50 (ok maybe not 50 but you get the point) pieces of wings and nothing else. They should probably have it on the appetizer menu but anyway it was tasty nonetheless). So the bee comes. And doesn't leave. I got up and went to the bathroom, and when I got back, it had gone away but shortly came back. Finally I got so tired of sitting there I wasn't even hungry anymore. Paid and left.
Conveniently on my way back, once again, I passed by Zanoni and since I knew I wouldn't be by there later, I had my daily Blumentute! I was a good girl again, and I had 3 sorbets - raspberry, blueberry, and LEMON! Omg, the lemon tasted like eating a lemon :D It was sooooo sour and tasty!! Of course, since it was during the day, it was hotter and sunnier, so I was like, please please just don't make a mess on yourself. So what do I do, I look down and see pink spots going down the front of my pants. Of course LOL.
1:45pm - so I went back to the hotel, sprayed some OxiClean on it and put the pants in the sink, changed, and went back out a while later.
2:30pmish - went back out, walked to the Kaisergruft - aka the place where ALL of the Hapsburgs are buried. Ok, can we say CREEPY. I got the map for 50 cents and like, omg, there are like hundreds of them. It's so creepy. I don't know what more I can say but to see all of the tombs of ALL of these powerful people all in one place. Yikes. Took a picture of the map so you can see how big and how many there are, since my pictures don't show the sheer size of it I don't think.
3:15pmish - walked a few blocks to the Burggarten - an old greenspace of the Hapspurgs at the Hofburg Palace complex. Walked through, took some pictures, sat on a bench and watched all the Austrian families in the park for a while, which was nice. Found the Mozart statue and went a couple blocks to the Heldenplatz, yet ANOTHER Square in the Hofburg complex. There are a couple more museums there that I have no interest in and it's a across the street from the Museumsquartier where there are a bunch MORE museums… yikes. Anyway there was some kind of festival going on in the Heldenplatz - everyone was drinking beer lol. But I didn't feel like walking around too much in the sun to actually figure out what it was so I checked it out and found the closest tram stop
4:15pm - following the helpful directions of someone on the travel boards, I took the Tram D out to Gunoldstrasse, then the bus 39A to the end at Sievering, then a 10minute or so walk through the gorgeous hilly wooded vineyards to the Heuringer (aka wine tavern) called Weinhof Zimmermann. Took just over an hour all told.
5:20pmish - Very beautiful setting right in the vineyard. The waitress spoke enough english to tell me what to do - order the food at a buffet and pay for it, then take it outside on a tray to a picnic table where she would take my drink order. OK cool. Got a bunch of stuff (well, mostly the same as what my picnic lunch the other day was), paid the 12 something euros, and went outside where I ordered the same type of wine I got last night. Everyone around me was locals, so that was nice, but a little intimidating at the same time. They had all kinds of interesting drinks that I wish I had known what they were lol. I bet some of them were nonalcoholic and tastier than wine. I think it's clear, I just don't like wine, no matter how "good" other people tell me it is. :p Sat for a while enjoying the local peaceful atmosphere and gorgeous scenery, avoiding the FUCKING BEES, and just chilling.
6:30pm - I paid for my wine (2.20 - cheap!), couldn't stand the bees anymore, so I left. I had been hoping to stay long enough to see the sun setting over the vineyards, as I'm sure it would've been beyond stunning. but I couldn't take it anymore. So I walked back to the bus station where one was just about to leave, hopped on, got off at Gunoldstrasse, got the D tram and took it all the way to right around the corner from my hotel, hurrah! Arrived around 7:30pm. I was so thirsty, before going to the hotel I went to McD's and sucked it up and got a 1 euro soda. The cold icy fizziness hit the spot.
7:45pm - Eurosport is showing tennis, yay! Looks like the sorbet came out of my pants, double yay! I'm very tired today but not sure why. At least my feet aren't killing me too badly today, triple yay! Gonna take it easy tomorrow too, I'm VOWING To finally go to a real Viennese coffeehouse and just do a bit of shopping and one last "back streets" walking tour and that is about it.
8:15amish - woke up, went to breakfast, etc. etc.
9:30amish - went to Karntnerstrasse and Graben to look for something specific to buy. Found it. Won't say what it is here because the person it's for will be reading this :p but hopefully they will like it.
10:00am - of all the Swarovski stores on the Karntnerstrasse (by my count, at least 3), the biggest one of all opened at 10 so I went in and I go up to the lady and I ask sheepishly, "Is there anything I can buy here in Austria that I can't buy in the US?" She kind of looks at me funny and I try to explain that I collect them and have millions of them but wanted something special that I can't get at home in a Swarovski store. So she shows me these Austria and Vienna-specific keychains and paperweights. That's it. So I can't leave Austria without my favorite Austrian crystal so I bought a paperweight that has a famous image at the bottom of Vienna's amusement park's ferris wheel that says "Wien" (the way they spell Vienna here). It was 30 euros, whatever, I had to have it LOL!!!!!!!!
11:00am - Made my way to the Synagogue, which his not particularly far away. On the way I got a pretzel and sat down in a little square and ate it. Got to the synagogue, which looks like a normal building except for the chains and concrete blocks at each end of the street it's on and the little bit of Hebrew on the outside. Not exactly like the major churches. I was early (tour at 11:30) so I went and sat down under the shade close by.
11:20am - went to the synagogue and there was a line! Wow. Whole family from Israel with a "so-ugly-it-was-cute" baby with them. This british lady came up and wanted to know how to get into the Synagogue. We told her and she starts telling me how her grandmother was from Vienna and probably went to this temple and blahblah and she was upset that she couldn’t get in. She was all emotional and asking me to say a prayer for her inside because she didn't have time as she and her friends were going home that day or whatever. I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't particularly pray, so I was just like "sure sure"
Anyway, the security to get inside this temple was more than anything I had encountered on my trip so far!! Had to show a picture ID and the security guard asked questions. He asked me why I was in Vienna, where I was from, where I had been before that, blahblah. Then he asked if I liked it and I said I loved it it was beautiful and he asked me if everything I was carrying was mine and if anything could be used as a weapon. I was like, DUH LOL. I figured it probably wouldn't have been smart to say "if I did, don't you think I wouldn't tell you anyway"
Then through a metal detector where you put your bags on a table for another guard to look through. I should mention these guys were in black suits and looked like FBI agents in Washington DC. Anyway he looks through my bags and sees the Swarovski box, so I'm like, you can look in it if you want to. He goes "I don't want to but I have to." so he starts to open it and he's doing it upside down so that if he opened it up that way the round paperweight would just fall right out. I was like please, let me do that. And so I open it and he sees it's a crystal thing and he looks at a THIRD guy behind a window, and they just laugh. Then he looks through my purse and I'm like, that's just a water bottle, you can throw it away if you need to. And he laughs at me and says "no maybe I'll just make you drink it" and I said "hey if you want me to I will." It was funny but.. Well… didn't have to do any of that to go into any church that is for sure.
12:00 noon - finally everyone is inside - maybe close to 75 or so people - and we get to go into the sanctuary which is actually a lot smaller than I expected. It's an Orthodox temple so the lower part is for men and the upper part is for women so the men can't see the women during the service. The girl explained the history of the temple (it's the only one that survived a 1938 Nazi raid and it did that because it was "hidden" within a building pretty unnoticeable from the outside, it's only one of 12 today in the whole city, etc.), answered some questions and then we got to look around. It was built in 1826 and has been renovated. It looks kind of like a round theater and that's because it was designed by an architect who did theaters at the time.
Anyway it was very interesting.
12:30pmish - saw a little restaurant around the corner from the temple that looked pretty busy, called Bermuda Brau. So I was hungry and went. They had a chicken wing dish for 7.20. Sounded good, so I got it. Asked for a glass of water and got a bottle of mineral water, ah well. Then the bees came. One of the dipping sauces they brought with the wings (which was, btw, just a huge plate of about 50 (ok maybe not 50 but you get the point) pieces of wings and nothing else. They should probably have it on the appetizer menu but anyway it was tasty nonetheless). So the bee comes. And doesn't leave. I got up and went to the bathroom, and when I got back, it had gone away but shortly came back. Finally I got so tired of sitting there I wasn't even hungry anymore. Paid and left.
Conveniently on my way back, once again, I passed by Zanoni and since I knew I wouldn't be by there later, I had my daily Blumentute! I was a good girl again, and I had 3 sorbets - raspberry, blueberry, and LEMON! Omg, the lemon tasted like eating a lemon :D It was sooooo sour and tasty!! Of course, since it was during the day, it was hotter and sunnier, so I was like, please please just don't make a mess on yourself. So what do I do, I look down and see pink spots going down the front of my pants. Of course LOL.
1:45pm - so I went back to the hotel, sprayed some OxiClean on it and put the pants in the sink, changed, and went back out a while later.
2:30pmish - went back out, walked to the Kaisergruft - aka the place where ALL of the Hapsburgs are buried. Ok, can we say CREEPY. I got the map for 50 cents and like, omg, there are like hundreds of them. It's so creepy. I don't know what more I can say but to see all of the tombs of ALL of these powerful people all in one place. Yikes. Took a picture of the map so you can see how big and how many there are, since my pictures don't show the sheer size of it I don't think.
3:15pmish - walked a few blocks to the Burggarten - an old greenspace of the Hapspurgs at the Hofburg Palace complex. Walked through, took some pictures, sat on a bench and watched all the Austrian families in the park for a while, which was nice. Found the Mozart statue and went a couple blocks to the Heldenplatz, yet ANOTHER Square in the Hofburg complex. There are a couple more museums there that I have no interest in and it's a across the street from the Museumsquartier where there are a bunch MORE museums… yikes. Anyway there was some kind of festival going on in the Heldenplatz - everyone was drinking beer lol. But I didn't feel like walking around too much in the sun to actually figure out what it was so I checked it out and found the closest tram stop
4:15pm - following the helpful directions of someone on the travel boards, I took the Tram D out to Gunoldstrasse, then the bus 39A to the end at Sievering, then a 10minute or so walk through the gorgeous hilly wooded vineyards to the Heuringer (aka wine tavern) called Weinhof Zimmermann. Took just over an hour all told.
5:20pmish - Very beautiful setting right in the vineyard. The waitress spoke enough english to tell me what to do - order the food at a buffet and pay for it, then take it outside on a tray to a picnic table where she would take my drink order. OK cool. Got a bunch of stuff (well, mostly the same as what my picnic lunch the other day was), paid the 12 something euros, and went outside where I ordered the same type of wine I got last night. Everyone around me was locals, so that was nice, but a little intimidating at the same time. They had all kinds of interesting drinks that I wish I had known what they were lol. I bet some of them were nonalcoholic and tastier than wine. I think it's clear, I just don't like wine, no matter how "good" other people tell me it is. :p Sat for a while enjoying the local peaceful atmosphere and gorgeous scenery, avoiding the FUCKING BEES, and just chilling.
6:30pm - I paid for my wine (2.20 - cheap!), couldn't stand the bees anymore, so I left. I had been hoping to stay long enough to see the sun setting over the vineyards, as I'm sure it would've been beyond stunning. but I couldn't take it anymore. So I walked back to the bus station where one was just about to leave, hopped on, got off at Gunoldstrasse, got the D tram and took it all the way to right around the corner from my hotel, hurrah! Arrived around 7:30pm. I was so thirsty, before going to the hotel I went to McD's and sucked it up and got a 1 euro soda. The cold icy fizziness hit the spot.
7:45pm - Eurosport is showing tennis, yay! Looks like the sorbet came out of my pants, double yay! I'm very tired today but not sure why. At least my feet aren't killing me too badly today, triple yay! Gonna take it easy tomorrow too, I'm VOWING To finally go to a real Viennese coffeehouse and just do a bit of shopping and one last "back streets" walking tour and that is about it.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Day 30
Wow, 30 days!?
Sunday August 26
8:15am - woke up, blahblah went to breakfast just after 9. Same as yesterday
9:30am - take the tram 2 to the far end of the ring and walk a couple blocks to Judenplatz - the old medieval jewish quarter. There's a big holocaust memorial designed in the style of a reversed library. Not sure if I get it, but who am I to judge. Went into the museum, got the combo ticket for 10 euros because I want to go into the big synagogue (which I have to do tomorrow and apparently have to bring my passport yikes), so it included this museum, the temple, and another Jewish museum right near the opera house etc. This museum was about medieval Viennese jews and they had a video about the 14th century temple that was destroyed in a raid against Jews. There was some stuff that had been recovered like pieces of gravestones, pottery, keys, things like that. Interesting enough, but to be honest not much there (which is really quite a shame since the building the museum is in is absolutely gorgeous all sleek with stainless steel and stuff. It's just mostly empty lol. Then you get to see the archaeological site where they have dug up the ruins of the temple. More of it was there than I imagined. They labeled the parts like the ark and Bimah and the mens part and the womens parts, etc. Pretty amazing. No one said I couldn't take pictures and not a single other person was there so I snapped a couple.
10:45amish - walked back towards the Graben, which was just a few blocks away. Stumbled on a church I meant to see yesterday - St. Peter's Church. Very beautiful inside. Went down the street to the other Jewish museum. This one was more of a collection or history. They had thousands of things that had been collected and they let you go up into their archives and see a lot of it. Ok it was nice, but it was kind of like a smaller Jewish version of the Hapsburg silver museum I saw yesterday. So, kind of boring. In fact the whole thing was kind of boring, but there were some pretty things to see. They had a café with what they called "Real bagels" and also matzah ball soup…LOL. Too bad I wasn't hungry yet.
So, OK. This entire city is closed on Sunday. Supermarkets, the vast majority of the stores on the touristy streets, even some cafes. Amazing!!!!! I mean, even all supermarkets?!? So I wandered around for a while and started getting hungry.
12:15pm - found an Italian café right off the Karntnersrasse that had cheap pastas and stuff. Had spaghetti and ordered a thing off the page of pizzas that said garlic and olives. I had no idea what it was going to be but it sounded good. Turns out it was just pizza dough baked with tons of garlic and olives and a little too much dried oregano lol. All very tasty and total of 10 euros including small tip (I drank tap water) - a little too much food but ah well :)
1:00pm - came back to the hotel for a few min just to sit in the a/c for a while and grab some cold water from the fridge. The place I was going next was on a tram that left right at my hotel, so it was convenient to come back here just for a few.
1:15pm - took the tram 71 all the way to the Zentralfriedhof - the big cemetery. I knew to take the tram to the 2nd entrance (it stops at at least 3 of the entrances, maybe the 4th too). Took about a half hour to get there. But holy crap this place is HUGE. So I got a plan, wandered around, found the musicians (Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, Brahms, etc.). Walked around a little more. Passed a section for kids :( went into the church, which was so huge and quiet that if someone hit a chair or something, it sounded all through the whole church. Very creepy.
Walked over to the old Jewish section and it was interesting how the place changed. As soon as you got to those groups, the grounds weren't kept as well, and there were a lot more ruined graves :( I'd explain more of what I saw but there were some signs and they were in German.
I took pictures of the musicians I recognized (and one I didn't), I know there are other "famous" people buried all over the place in there but I either didn't know where they were or didn't recognize any of the names.
3:20pmish - left through gate 1 and caught the tram back, it didn't seem to take as long this time but I don't know why. I'm feeling very tired so just going to chill at the hotel for a while. There is a restaurant I had read about on TripAdvisor and wanted to try but I don’t have their address written down and don't feel like paying a euro for 15 minutes just to look it up so maybe I will just go tomorrow or the night after. Plus I don't even know if they're open on Sunday.
5:15pm - got the address of the restaurant I wanted and set out. Took the Tram 2 a couple stops and got off, to find a little square with a statue and some of the old city walls (the ring road used to be the old city walls, which were torn down and the grand ring was built). And there was a little model of the old town with the cathedral towering over everything, kinda neat. Found the restaurant named Purstner (with the .. over the u of course) on a quiet little side street. Looked nice and thankfully were open, but a little too early and not quite hungry enough to eat. So I wandered the back streets on this side of the cathedral a bit - hadn't been there before. Seemed nicer and quieter, lots of little restaurants that could be an option for a couple days.
5:50ishpm - time to eat, went back and got a table. Very dark but adorably cute and Austrian inside - dark wood, nice decorations, etc. The waiters were all wearing those long shorts and tall socks that you imagine German or Austrian people wearing in the old times. The waiter was very nice, and the menu had English descriptions despite it not being particularly touristy, hurrah! I had heard a lot about the local wine called "Gruner Veltliner" and it was the house wine so I got a glass (well it was .25l actually). Plus it's white wine and I don't hate it as much as red wine so I figure, when in austria and when FINALLY eating real Austrian food…lol. So for a "nice" restaurant, it was fairly inexpensive, most dishes under 15 euros. I had something with an incredibly long name that I told the guy there was NO WAY I could pronounce - basically it was pan roasted chicken breast with herbs and rice. It was served in a little metal pan (like a little paella pan). Very cute. And very tasty. Was totally stuffed and the wine was not that bad (for wine ;)). Total including tip was 17.40, not bad at all for a "nice" restaurant recommended highly by locals, etc. After I ate I sat for a while in the nice atmosphere and looked in my Vienna materials to try to plan my next couple days here.
7:00pm - conveniently enough, just a few blocks away is the Zanoni gelato place ;) so I got my 2-euro flower cone (I noticed the name - Blumentote - again with the .. over the u), tonight I had chocolate, coffee, and Nutella. Yum, of course. It's funny because their regular cone with 2 flavors is 1.80 (cup 1.90), so for like 10-20 cents more, you get much more ice cream and an extra flavor. Interesting. Maybe it's just their gimmick but it's tasty so I ain't complaining (OK I'll complain about the fact that I hate eating ice cream from cones and made a mess, but not about the taste or the price ;)).
7:30pm - walked back and caught the Tram 1 where I had gotten off earlier and took the 2 stops back to the hotel. When I got there, a woman was using the laptop in the lobby (same cost as in my room) and her time ran out apparently just as she was sending (what looked like) a long email. She was so mad. Lol. I mean if it's that important and long you'd think you'd check the clock before hitting the send button no!? Anyway. Will do a little laundry tonight as I have worn the lighter-weight capris and want to have those clean for Venice, which I think will be even hotter and stickier :( Plus since things seem to be drying pretty fast here, they will (hopefully) be dry by the time I need to pack them up in a couple days.
Sunday August 26
8:15am - woke up, blahblah went to breakfast just after 9. Same as yesterday
9:30am - take the tram 2 to the far end of the ring and walk a couple blocks to Judenplatz - the old medieval jewish quarter. There's a big holocaust memorial designed in the style of a reversed library. Not sure if I get it, but who am I to judge. Went into the museum, got the combo ticket for 10 euros because I want to go into the big synagogue (which I have to do tomorrow and apparently have to bring my passport yikes), so it included this museum, the temple, and another Jewish museum right near the opera house etc. This museum was about medieval Viennese jews and they had a video about the 14th century temple that was destroyed in a raid against Jews. There was some stuff that had been recovered like pieces of gravestones, pottery, keys, things like that. Interesting enough, but to be honest not much there (which is really quite a shame since the building the museum is in is absolutely gorgeous all sleek with stainless steel and stuff. It's just mostly empty lol. Then you get to see the archaeological site where they have dug up the ruins of the temple. More of it was there than I imagined. They labeled the parts like the ark and Bimah and the mens part and the womens parts, etc. Pretty amazing. No one said I couldn't take pictures and not a single other person was there so I snapped a couple.
10:45amish - walked back towards the Graben, which was just a few blocks away. Stumbled on a church I meant to see yesterday - St. Peter's Church. Very beautiful inside. Went down the street to the other Jewish museum. This one was more of a collection or history. They had thousands of things that had been collected and they let you go up into their archives and see a lot of it. Ok it was nice, but it was kind of like a smaller Jewish version of the Hapsburg silver museum I saw yesterday. So, kind of boring. In fact the whole thing was kind of boring, but there were some pretty things to see. They had a café with what they called "Real bagels" and also matzah ball soup…LOL. Too bad I wasn't hungry yet.
So, OK. This entire city is closed on Sunday. Supermarkets, the vast majority of the stores on the touristy streets, even some cafes. Amazing!!!!! I mean, even all supermarkets?!? So I wandered around for a while and started getting hungry.
12:15pm - found an Italian café right off the Karntnersrasse that had cheap pastas and stuff. Had spaghetti and ordered a thing off the page of pizzas that said garlic and olives. I had no idea what it was going to be but it sounded good. Turns out it was just pizza dough baked with tons of garlic and olives and a little too much dried oregano lol. All very tasty and total of 10 euros including small tip (I drank tap water) - a little too much food but ah well :)
1:00pm - came back to the hotel for a few min just to sit in the a/c for a while and grab some cold water from the fridge. The place I was going next was on a tram that left right at my hotel, so it was convenient to come back here just for a few.
1:15pm - took the tram 71 all the way to the Zentralfriedhof - the big cemetery. I knew to take the tram to the 2nd entrance (it stops at at least 3 of the entrances, maybe the 4th too). Took about a half hour to get there. But holy crap this place is HUGE. So I got a plan, wandered around, found the musicians (Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, Brahms, etc.). Walked around a little more. Passed a section for kids :( went into the church, which was so huge and quiet that if someone hit a chair or something, it sounded all through the whole church. Very creepy.
Walked over to the old Jewish section and it was interesting how the place changed. As soon as you got to those groups, the grounds weren't kept as well, and there were a lot more ruined graves :( I'd explain more of what I saw but there were some signs and they were in German.
I took pictures of the musicians I recognized (and one I didn't), I know there are other "famous" people buried all over the place in there but I either didn't know where they were or didn't recognize any of the names.
3:20pmish - left through gate 1 and caught the tram back, it didn't seem to take as long this time but I don't know why. I'm feeling very tired so just going to chill at the hotel for a while. There is a restaurant I had read about on TripAdvisor and wanted to try but I don’t have their address written down and don't feel like paying a euro for 15 minutes just to look it up so maybe I will just go tomorrow or the night after. Plus I don't even know if they're open on Sunday.
5:15pm - got the address of the restaurant I wanted and set out. Took the Tram 2 a couple stops and got off, to find a little square with a statue and some of the old city walls (the ring road used to be the old city walls, which were torn down and the grand ring was built). And there was a little model of the old town with the cathedral towering over everything, kinda neat. Found the restaurant named Purstner (with the .. over the u of course) on a quiet little side street. Looked nice and thankfully were open, but a little too early and not quite hungry enough to eat. So I wandered the back streets on this side of the cathedral a bit - hadn't been there before. Seemed nicer and quieter, lots of little restaurants that could be an option for a couple days.
5:50ishpm - time to eat, went back and got a table. Very dark but adorably cute and Austrian inside - dark wood, nice decorations, etc. The waiters were all wearing those long shorts and tall socks that you imagine German or Austrian people wearing in the old times. The waiter was very nice, and the menu had English descriptions despite it not being particularly touristy, hurrah! I had heard a lot about the local wine called "Gruner Veltliner" and it was the house wine so I got a glass (well it was .25l actually). Plus it's white wine and I don't hate it as much as red wine so I figure, when in austria and when FINALLY eating real Austrian food…lol. So for a "nice" restaurant, it was fairly inexpensive, most dishes under 15 euros. I had something with an incredibly long name that I told the guy there was NO WAY I could pronounce - basically it was pan roasted chicken breast with herbs and rice. It was served in a little metal pan (like a little paella pan). Very cute. And very tasty. Was totally stuffed and the wine was not that bad (for wine ;)). Total including tip was 17.40, not bad at all for a "nice" restaurant recommended highly by locals, etc. After I ate I sat for a while in the nice atmosphere and looked in my Vienna materials to try to plan my next couple days here.
7:00pm - conveniently enough, just a few blocks away is the Zanoni gelato place ;) so I got my 2-euro flower cone (I noticed the name - Blumentote - again with the .. over the u), tonight I had chocolate, coffee, and Nutella. Yum, of course. It's funny because their regular cone with 2 flavors is 1.80 (cup 1.90), so for like 10-20 cents more, you get much more ice cream and an extra flavor. Interesting. Maybe it's just their gimmick but it's tasty so I ain't complaining (OK I'll complain about the fact that I hate eating ice cream from cones and made a mess, but not about the taste or the price ;)).
7:30pm - walked back and caught the Tram 1 where I had gotten off earlier and took the 2 stops back to the hotel. When I got there, a woman was using the laptop in the lobby (same cost as in my room) and her time ran out apparently just as she was sending (what looked like) a long email. She was so mad. Lol. I mean if it's that important and long you'd think you'd check the clock before hitting the send button no!? Anyway. Will do a little laundry tonight as I have worn the lighter-weight capris and want to have those clean for Venice, which I think will be even hotter and stickier :( Plus since things seem to be drying pretty fast here, they will (hopefully) be dry by the time I need to pack them up in a couple days.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Day 29 pics
here
It was quite dark in the Treasury with the jewels. So I lightened some of the pics so you can see them. that's why they're so icky grainy.
It was quite dark in the Treasury with the jewels. So I lightened some of the pics so you can see them. that's why they're so icky grainy.
Day 29
Saturday August 25
7:10am - woke myself up :(
7:40am - went down to breakfast, which is actually a REALLY lovely room with lots of tables (take note Hotel Axel Guldsmeden!). Breakfast was similar to the past few places - quite excellent. An array of cheeses and meats, soft-boiled eggs, many kinds of yummy pastry (and nutella cups amanda!!) and breads of all kinds, several juices, cereals, yogurts, and my favorite, tons of kinds of fruits!! Grapes, plums, nectarines, strawberries, a fruit salad, bananas, apples. and when you come down they ask if you want coffee or tea and bring you a little pot - with hot steamed cream! So I ate and took a banana for later and a nectarine for the room. Put it upstairs and set on my way.
On my way back down from the elevator and older woman was going down and I come to find out she's from Worcester. HAHA! She was like "have you ever heard of it?" and I am like "I grew up in Peabody" LOL! She proceeds to tell me that's where her sister-in-law grew up (didn't recognize her name)… Anyway, small world.
8:15am - Walked to the opera house (had just missed a tram so walking would be faster than waiting and I wanted to get to Schonbrunn as close to 8:30 as possible), went down to the subway U4 line and 6 stops to the Schonbrunn stop, which is a short walk from the palace. Got to the palace around 8:35. Wow. Wow wow. It's HUGE (actually most of it is apartments for civil servants! Craziness!). I mean you know it's huge before you go, but even standing all the way at the entrance it's impossible to get it into one picture.
8:40am - Found the ticket office, and there was NO LINE!! Made getting up so early and rushing through breakfast worth it! Mostly the other people there were tour groups who had prebooked. So I got my ticket, chose to do the "Grand Tour" which lets you into about 15 more rooms than the lower one, it was 12.90 (expensive but one of the few best palaces in all of Europe sooooo), charged it, and saw the time on my ticket was 8:45am! LOL! So I went to the gate and stuck my ticket in and I guess the machine knows if you've missed your time or something. Anyway went through and got an audioguide. Normally I hate those things but hey it was "free" (and when you pay 12.90 just to get in, free really means, included with your ticket ;)). And it was relatively interesting I guess. I was caught behind a FUCKING JAPANESE TOUR GROUP I WANTED TO KILL THEM THEY KEPT BLOCKING THE WALKWAYS IN THE ROOMS SO I COULD NOT GET BY. Finally I just shoved my way through. Shoved my way past another group too, and could then enjoy the rooms ay my own pace, which are absolutely stunning. Fancier and more intricate than any of the other palaces I've seen. So, there was this group of teenagers, maybe it was some kind of school trip but it's a Saturday in August so I dunno. A couple girls kept taking pictures and there are signs as you walk into EACH room that say no pictures. The guards were getting SO PISSED. Honestly the girls really just looked like bitches. This is one of the world's great royal sights and there are employees all over the place, why would you be so stupid.
9:45am - finished the tour and browsed through the huge shop. Bought a couple things and special Schonbrunn water - because it was cold and in a cool-shaped bottle and not nearly as expensive as I would've guessed (1.50) LOL. Then I went around to the gardens. Wow. Not quite as great as what I remember of Hampton Court's gardens, but bigger and still quite gorgeous. Didn't feel like walking around all of them in the hot sun so I just looked from afar. You could go up on a staircase at the back of the castle to see down on the gardens - this provided the best view. A girl asked me to take her picture so I did and I figured hey I should ask her to take mine. Haha.
10:30am - hopped back on the U4 but only 5 stops this time - was stopping at the famous Naschmarkt. I knew Saturdays were different because there was also a flea market, but WHOA. It was crazy busy and there were TONS OF STALLS. No way could I ever see them all lol. Found the food area and started collecting for lunch. The biggest problem, besides the crowds, were the BEES. Especially on all the many stalls of dried fruits. OMG mom you would have had to leave LOL. So I started buying things here and there to build a lunch - a soft pretzel, some cheese, salami, tomatoes, grapes, and some fresh pickles. But the best part were the OLIVES. OMG! I knew they sold them there but I didn't realize like every 3rd stand would be selling olives!!!! So I bought some big greek ones and a black and green spicy salad mix and restrained myself thereafter ;) Some of the people were creepy. They'd offer a sample of something so you'd take it and then they'd get mad if you didn't buy anything. Like hello! Anyway, it was much fun and the prices were by and large pretty cheap. 1.00-2.00 euros a KILO for gorgeous tomatoes, depending on the type. About the same for grapes and other fruits. Remember a kilo is like 2.2 pounds. And the deli places made it easy by pricing things by the 100 gram (about 4 ounces, so pretty much just the right size). All told I probably spent about 15 euros or so, but for tons of stuff.
Buying the tomatoes was the funniest one because I just go up to one of the stands (many places sold tomatoes mostly for about the same price - these were 1.80 a kilo I think), so the guy starts talking to me in German, not just a hello or what do you want, but something long. And I just look at him and I'm like "I’m sorry, I don't speak German!!" So he's like (in German of course) "WHERES THE KID WHO CAN SPEAK ENGLISH" LOL!!!!!! So they bring this young kid over and he gives me my tomatoes. It was absolutely hilarious. OK Perhaps you just had to be there. But it was hilarious to me :p
Went back to the flea market area and found a nice silver ring with - shocker - a purple stone. The guy was a little bizarre but the ring is pretty and only 9 euros so whatever. And it's stamped with the .925 so it's real.
11:30amish - went over to Karlsplatz, a park near the market. Sat for a while and reorganized all my crap - which was now getting a little heavy at this point.
Right around noon I walked around the park more and saw some picnic tables! Perfect! Laid out all my stuff (and of course took a picture of the feast ;)) and ate. Mmmmmm it was all so good. The salami in particular was a Milano Salami and really good. So was the cheese (some kind of white cheddar). The pickle was different, but tasty, obviously the olives are great, and the pretzel and grapes were also quite good. The only problems were the intermittent bees lol. So I have enough food for at least one more full picnic lunch (especially if I steal a roll and butter from breakfast ;)) and probably plenty of snacking too.
12:30ish - I figured before I set out on a walking tour or something, I should get rid of all this stuff and get it into my fridge, etc. Walking around with it for the rest of the day would've been a complete pain. So on my way I decided to the supermarket I found yesterday. And on the way I saw an internet café, 3.5 euros for an hour - so really, not much different than the hotel. Anyway, went to the market and bought a 1.5l thing of water, and a .75 sports bottle. Total 1 euro haha.
1:00ishpm - get back and see the woman from Worcester again LOL - in the elevator she was talking to her husband about the shirt she took out for him this morning. I was like, OMG. Put everything away and go to refill my water bottles when I see that the bottle I bought is carbonated. WTF. Usually the cheaper bottle is flat water. Oh well. Actually the tap water here is not bad so I filled a bottle with that to see how it is.
1:30pm - just relaxing and refreshing in the a/c before heading out to do a walking tour of the main part of the city in a bit.
2:00pm - went back out, took tram 1 to the opera (one big stop lol) and started the Rick Steves walking tour - which had gone to a lot of the places I had went but took some detours, etc. Went down the Graben, a street off the Karntnerstrasse (I was spelling it wrong, my bad), to the end where there is this fancy schmancy supermarket. I was hot and saw that the gelato place I tried last night had a branch, so I had my daily ice cream a little early.;) but to be a good girl, I got a 2-flavor cup of raspberry and blueberry sorbets. And wow. You could see little pieces of each of the fruits. Very tasty. Went into the supermarket and bought a cold bottle of water for half a euro and made it to the Hofburg Complex
4:00pmish - the Hofburg complex is now public buildings but it used to be where the Hapsburgs lived and all. There are too many people with too many similar names for me to remember, but one of the big sights is the Kaiserapartments or where the Emperor and Empress lived in the 1800s or so. The 9.90 euros ticket includes a "silver" museum (basically it's room and room and room of plates and dinnerware), a little museum about "sissi" (I still can't figure out who she is mind you), and then the apartments, which are similar to the ones I saw this morning at Schonbrunn, except because they are where the emperor and empress actually lived, you got a real sense of what they actually did every day. The empress had floor long hair that took 2 hours to prepare every morning. Her exercise "equipment" was this bizarre wooden bar, and the emperor slept on a bed about the same size as the one in my current hotel room (fancier décor, of course ;)). Anyway the silver museum was first and I blew through that, there was no way I could stand and listen on the "free" audioguide about plates. They were pretty so I just meandered and looked, til by about room 15 I got bored and whizzed through. I didn't have the patience or energy to learn about Sissi's apparently very bizarre and celebrated life, and the rooms were dark and kind of creepy to be honest. So I just spent the bulk of the time (about an hour) in the Kaiserapartments, which like I said were very cool. Something about being able to see things like the toilet and bathtub makes you feel like you're actually getting a good experience.
5:15pmish - the complex is so confusing and after the tour they drop you through a gift shop (of course) and right onto a street, who has a clue where! But luckily Rick Steves's guide had directions ("two quick lefts" and under a particularly ornate arch) to get to the treasury, aka the crown jewels. The price had gone up since the guidebook was published (well almost all the places have to be honest but this one went up 2 euros), so it was 10 euros. Yikes, had an expensive admission prices day - over 30 euros to go into the 3 Hapsburg sites alone. Geez - even many of the similar places in Denmark weren't this expensive (ok, you get to see a lot more in the ones here since the empire no longer exists unlike the Danish royal family). So anyway, it is over 20 rooms of stuff and you are allowed to take pictures, so that was cool. Got some of the crowns and stuff, we'll see how they turn out. It was interesting and always nice to look at pretty stuff, but not sure it was worth more than the pretty snazzy 20 or so apartments I had just seen.
Wandered around a little more and went into a couple of gorgeous churches in and around the Hofburg complex. Came outside St. Michaels and there were these girls dressed in traditional costume balancing wine on their heads and dancing. Interesting. Walked back up the couple blocks to the Graben, where I'd seen a café earlier that had stuff on the menu that looked interesting. I know I know, horrible to eat on such a touristy street, but I could sit outside and people-watch and that's half the fun. On my way, there was a huge wedding procession! It almost sounded like the wedding had been in the HUGE St. Stephan's cathedral that is the center of the whole city. I wonder how you get to have your wedding in that place! But anyway the whole party and guests were all walking down the Graben. I could've taken pictures as they walked right by me but I thought taking pictures of someone's wedding and putting them online would be a little tacky.
6:00pmish - found the Chattanooga grill and found their bathroom inside first, then sat outside in the big patio. Unlike in Spain and in some places in Portugal, no extra charge for sitting outside. So I had some water and a "chicken basket" - aka chicken fingers and fries. I know I know how American can you get!! But honestly, they sounded good, I don't even remember the last time I had regular old chicken fingers… over a year maybe? Anyway and only 7.50 so I could justify going to a touristy place and sitting outside to watch and listen while not even paying that much. So anyway the food was actually really good, whatever they breaded the chicken in was really tasty and crispy. Total was 11 euros including the 1 I left on the table.
7:00pm - instead of having ice cream a second time, at the end of the Karntnerstrasse behind the opera house is the Hotel Sacher - the place that created the Sacher Torte. So of course it's way touristy and way overpriced but if you're going to eat something you might as well eat it at the place that INVENTED it, especially for something like this. Anyway they sell little squares of chocolate-covered cake to go for 2.60. Expensive, but you only live once.
Took the tram 2 back to the hotel to have an early night because I had a crazy long day, my feet hurt so bad, and I am tired! I did a lot of stuff that I had planned for other days so now I will have to decide whether to stick in an unplanned day trip or just take it easy and people-watch in cafes. I think the latter might be a better option. Just see the sights in Vienna really well and try to rest up just a teeny little bit for Italy where I am pretty much going to be on the go nonstop for 2 full weeks. I can have more relaxed mornings and long lunches and afternoon coffee breaks in some of the famous cafes I've read about. I haven't really done the "sit in a coffeehouse and people-watch for 2 hours" thing yet, and Vienna then all throughout Italy are supposed to be the best places for that, so maybe I will do it now;)
7:30pm - sitting on the toilet with my feet in the shower, letting it just run hot water over my feet LOL!! Btw I forgot to mention (some people will find this amusing, I think). Last night I was trying to find something to watch and I am back in the land of the dubbed english stuff, so all the stuff is dubbed into German. EXCEPT. The Flavor of Love. HAHAHAAHHAHAHA. They have Austrian (I'm just assuming, I suppose it could be German) QVC here, and that amused me greatly.
And what's very interesting - my laundry is drying way faster here than in copenhagen. Bizarre.
7:10am - woke myself up :(
7:40am - went down to breakfast, which is actually a REALLY lovely room with lots of tables (take note Hotel Axel Guldsmeden!). Breakfast was similar to the past few places - quite excellent. An array of cheeses and meats, soft-boiled eggs, many kinds of yummy pastry (and nutella cups amanda!!) and breads of all kinds, several juices, cereals, yogurts, and my favorite, tons of kinds of fruits!! Grapes, plums, nectarines, strawberries, a fruit salad, bananas, apples. and when you come down they ask if you want coffee or tea and bring you a little pot - with hot steamed cream! So I ate and took a banana for later and a nectarine for the room. Put it upstairs and set on my way.
On my way back down from the elevator and older woman was going down and I come to find out she's from Worcester. HAHA! She was like "have you ever heard of it?" and I am like "I grew up in Peabody" LOL! She proceeds to tell me that's where her sister-in-law grew up (didn't recognize her name)… Anyway, small world.
8:15am - Walked to the opera house (had just missed a tram so walking would be faster than waiting and I wanted to get to Schonbrunn as close to 8:30 as possible), went down to the subway U4 line and 6 stops to the Schonbrunn stop, which is a short walk from the palace. Got to the palace around 8:35. Wow. Wow wow. It's HUGE (actually most of it is apartments for civil servants! Craziness!). I mean you know it's huge before you go, but even standing all the way at the entrance it's impossible to get it into one picture.
8:40am - Found the ticket office, and there was NO LINE!! Made getting up so early and rushing through breakfast worth it! Mostly the other people there were tour groups who had prebooked. So I got my ticket, chose to do the "Grand Tour" which lets you into about 15 more rooms than the lower one, it was 12.90 (expensive but one of the few best palaces in all of Europe sooooo), charged it, and saw the time on my ticket was 8:45am! LOL! So I went to the gate and stuck my ticket in and I guess the machine knows if you've missed your time or something. Anyway went through and got an audioguide. Normally I hate those things but hey it was "free" (and when you pay 12.90 just to get in, free really means, included with your ticket ;)). And it was relatively interesting I guess. I was caught behind a FUCKING JAPANESE TOUR GROUP I WANTED TO KILL THEM THEY KEPT BLOCKING THE WALKWAYS IN THE ROOMS SO I COULD NOT GET BY. Finally I just shoved my way through. Shoved my way past another group too, and could then enjoy the rooms ay my own pace, which are absolutely stunning. Fancier and more intricate than any of the other palaces I've seen. So, there was this group of teenagers, maybe it was some kind of school trip but it's a Saturday in August so I dunno. A couple girls kept taking pictures and there are signs as you walk into EACH room that say no pictures. The guards were getting SO PISSED. Honestly the girls really just looked like bitches. This is one of the world's great royal sights and there are employees all over the place, why would you be so stupid.
9:45am - finished the tour and browsed through the huge shop. Bought a couple things and special Schonbrunn water - because it was cold and in a cool-shaped bottle and not nearly as expensive as I would've guessed (1.50) LOL. Then I went around to the gardens. Wow. Not quite as great as what I remember of Hampton Court's gardens, but bigger and still quite gorgeous. Didn't feel like walking around all of them in the hot sun so I just looked from afar. You could go up on a staircase at the back of the castle to see down on the gardens - this provided the best view. A girl asked me to take her picture so I did and I figured hey I should ask her to take mine. Haha.
10:30am - hopped back on the U4 but only 5 stops this time - was stopping at the famous Naschmarkt. I knew Saturdays were different because there was also a flea market, but WHOA. It was crazy busy and there were TONS OF STALLS. No way could I ever see them all lol. Found the food area and started collecting for lunch. The biggest problem, besides the crowds, were the BEES. Especially on all the many stalls of dried fruits. OMG mom you would have had to leave LOL. So I started buying things here and there to build a lunch - a soft pretzel, some cheese, salami, tomatoes, grapes, and some fresh pickles. But the best part were the OLIVES. OMG! I knew they sold them there but I didn't realize like every 3rd stand would be selling olives!!!! So I bought some big greek ones and a black and green spicy salad mix and restrained myself thereafter ;) Some of the people were creepy. They'd offer a sample of something so you'd take it and then they'd get mad if you didn't buy anything. Like hello! Anyway, it was much fun and the prices were by and large pretty cheap. 1.00-2.00 euros a KILO for gorgeous tomatoes, depending on the type. About the same for grapes and other fruits. Remember a kilo is like 2.2 pounds. And the deli places made it easy by pricing things by the 100 gram (about 4 ounces, so pretty much just the right size). All told I probably spent about 15 euros or so, but for tons of stuff.
Buying the tomatoes was the funniest one because I just go up to one of the stands (many places sold tomatoes mostly for about the same price - these were 1.80 a kilo I think), so the guy starts talking to me in German, not just a hello or what do you want, but something long. And I just look at him and I'm like "I’m sorry, I don't speak German!!" So he's like (in German of course) "WHERES THE KID WHO CAN SPEAK ENGLISH" LOL!!!!!! So they bring this young kid over and he gives me my tomatoes. It was absolutely hilarious. OK Perhaps you just had to be there. But it was hilarious to me :p
Went back to the flea market area and found a nice silver ring with - shocker - a purple stone. The guy was a little bizarre but the ring is pretty and only 9 euros so whatever. And it's stamped with the .925 so it's real.
11:30amish - went over to Karlsplatz, a park near the market. Sat for a while and reorganized all my crap - which was now getting a little heavy at this point.
Right around noon I walked around the park more and saw some picnic tables! Perfect! Laid out all my stuff (and of course took a picture of the feast ;)) and ate. Mmmmmm it was all so good. The salami in particular was a Milano Salami and really good. So was the cheese (some kind of white cheddar). The pickle was different, but tasty, obviously the olives are great, and the pretzel and grapes were also quite good. The only problems were the intermittent bees lol. So I have enough food for at least one more full picnic lunch (especially if I steal a roll and butter from breakfast ;)) and probably plenty of snacking too.
12:30ish - I figured before I set out on a walking tour or something, I should get rid of all this stuff and get it into my fridge, etc. Walking around with it for the rest of the day would've been a complete pain. So on my way I decided to the supermarket I found yesterday. And on the way I saw an internet café, 3.5 euros for an hour - so really, not much different than the hotel. Anyway, went to the market and bought a 1.5l thing of water, and a .75 sports bottle. Total 1 euro haha.
1:00ishpm - get back and see the woman from Worcester again LOL - in the elevator she was talking to her husband about the shirt she took out for him this morning. I was like, OMG. Put everything away and go to refill my water bottles when I see that the bottle I bought is carbonated. WTF. Usually the cheaper bottle is flat water. Oh well. Actually the tap water here is not bad so I filled a bottle with that to see how it is.
1:30pm - just relaxing and refreshing in the a/c before heading out to do a walking tour of the main part of the city in a bit.
2:00pm - went back out, took tram 1 to the opera (one big stop lol) and started the Rick Steves walking tour - which had gone to a lot of the places I had went but took some detours, etc. Went down the Graben, a street off the Karntnerstrasse (I was spelling it wrong, my bad), to the end where there is this fancy schmancy supermarket. I was hot and saw that the gelato place I tried last night had a branch, so I had my daily ice cream a little early.;) but to be a good girl, I got a 2-flavor cup of raspberry and blueberry sorbets. And wow. You could see little pieces of each of the fruits. Very tasty. Went into the supermarket and bought a cold bottle of water for half a euro and made it to the Hofburg Complex
4:00pmish - the Hofburg complex is now public buildings but it used to be where the Hapsburgs lived and all. There are too many people with too many similar names for me to remember, but one of the big sights is the Kaiserapartments or where the Emperor and Empress lived in the 1800s or so. The 9.90 euros ticket includes a "silver" museum (basically it's room and room and room of plates and dinnerware), a little museum about "sissi" (I still can't figure out who she is mind you), and then the apartments, which are similar to the ones I saw this morning at Schonbrunn, except because they are where the emperor and empress actually lived, you got a real sense of what they actually did every day. The empress had floor long hair that took 2 hours to prepare every morning. Her exercise "equipment" was this bizarre wooden bar, and the emperor slept on a bed about the same size as the one in my current hotel room (fancier décor, of course ;)). Anyway the silver museum was first and I blew through that, there was no way I could stand and listen on the "free" audioguide about plates. They were pretty so I just meandered and looked, til by about room 15 I got bored and whizzed through. I didn't have the patience or energy to learn about Sissi's apparently very bizarre and celebrated life, and the rooms were dark and kind of creepy to be honest. So I just spent the bulk of the time (about an hour) in the Kaiserapartments, which like I said were very cool. Something about being able to see things like the toilet and bathtub makes you feel like you're actually getting a good experience.
5:15pmish - the complex is so confusing and after the tour they drop you through a gift shop (of course) and right onto a street, who has a clue where! But luckily Rick Steves's guide had directions ("two quick lefts" and under a particularly ornate arch) to get to the treasury, aka the crown jewels. The price had gone up since the guidebook was published (well almost all the places have to be honest but this one went up 2 euros), so it was 10 euros. Yikes, had an expensive admission prices day - over 30 euros to go into the 3 Hapsburg sites alone. Geez - even many of the similar places in Denmark weren't this expensive (ok, you get to see a lot more in the ones here since the empire no longer exists unlike the Danish royal family). So anyway, it is over 20 rooms of stuff and you are allowed to take pictures, so that was cool. Got some of the crowns and stuff, we'll see how they turn out. It was interesting and always nice to look at pretty stuff, but not sure it was worth more than the pretty snazzy 20 or so apartments I had just seen.
Wandered around a little more and went into a couple of gorgeous churches in and around the Hofburg complex. Came outside St. Michaels and there were these girls dressed in traditional costume balancing wine on their heads and dancing. Interesting. Walked back up the couple blocks to the Graben, where I'd seen a café earlier that had stuff on the menu that looked interesting. I know I know, horrible to eat on such a touristy street, but I could sit outside and people-watch and that's half the fun. On my way, there was a huge wedding procession! It almost sounded like the wedding had been in the HUGE St. Stephan's cathedral that is the center of the whole city. I wonder how you get to have your wedding in that place! But anyway the whole party and guests were all walking down the Graben. I could've taken pictures as they walked right by me but I thought taking pictures of someone's wedding and putting them online would be a little tacky.
6:00pmish - found the Chattanooga grill and found their bathroom inside first, then sat outside in the big patio. Unlike in Spain and in some places in Portugal, no extra charge for sitting outside. So I had some water and a "chicken basket" - aka chicken fingers and fries. I know I know how American can you get!! But honestly, they sounded good, I don't even remember the last time I had regular old chicken fingers… over a year maybe? Anyway and only 7.50 so I could justify going to a touristy place and sitting outside to watch and listen while not even paying that much. So anyway the food was actually really good, whatever they breaded the chicken in was really tasty and crispy. Total was 11 euros including the 1 I left on the table.
7:00pm - instead of having ice cream a second time, at the end of the Karntnerstrasse behind the opera house is the Hotel Sacher - the place that created the Sacher Torte. So of course it's way touristy and way overpriced but if you're going to eat something you might as well eat it at the place that INVENTED it, especially for something like this. Anyway they sell little squares of chocolate-covered cake to go for 2.60. Expensive, but you only live once.
Took the tram 2 back to the hotel to have an early night because I had a crazy long day, my feet hurt so bad, and I am tired! I did a lot of stuff that I had planned for other days so now I will have to decide whether to stick in an unplanned day trip or just take it easy and people-watch in cafes. I think the latter might be a better option. Just see the sights in Vienna really well and try to rest up just a teeny little bit for Italy where I am pretty much going to be on the go nonstop for 2 full weeks. I can have more relaxed mornings and long lunches and afternoon coffee breaks in some of the famous cafes I've read about. I haven't really done the "sit in a coffeehouse and people-watch for 2 hours" thing yet, and Vienna then all throughout Italy are supposed to be the best places for that, so maybe I will do it now;)
7:30pm - sitting on the toilet with my feet in the shower, letting it just run hot water over my feet LOL!! Btw I forgot to mention (some people will find this amusing, I think). Last night I was trying to find something to watch and I am back in the land of the dubbed english stuff, so all the stuff is dubbed into German. EXCEPT. The Flavor of Love. HAHAHAAHHAHAHA. They have Austrian (I'm just assuming, I suppose it could be German) QVC here, and that amused me greatly.
And what's very interesting - my laundry is drying way faster here than in copenhagen. Bizarre.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Day 28
Friday, August 24
5:40am - woke up… urrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
6:20am - checked out. The guy at the desk, who I hadn't met before, was so funny. He was like "I am so sorry for - pardon my language - our fucking awful weather." LOL!!!! There are two ways to get to the hotel from the train station - one is a little bit longer and on a busier street. So I ask the guy if I should go that way (because the other way is ostensibly a "red light district" although maybe it was b/c I just came from Amsterdam or because it's mostly gone, I didn't even see anything except one bar and one shop. LOL.) but the guy goes "pardon my language, but there are too many whores that way. This way is only 50 meters more." OMG, I DIED. This guy is so funny!!! When I was paying, we talked about how US credit cards have no chips and no PINS and I said we were behind all of Europe and he is like "We have had these PINS and cards for like 30 years!!!" Damn US, no need for us to be so behind the times. Anyway, checked out and walked to the train station. It was already light out, so that was nice.
6:45am - hopped on train to the airport - it was busy considering the hour. Made it to the airport in 15 min or less.
7:00amish - made it to the SAS check-in kiosks (which are everywhere). I checked in last night and picked my seat so I just needed to print the boarding card and drop luggage. When the guy took my luggage he was like "ok" and I was like "is that it?" and he was like "yep" - too easy LOL. Followed the signs to security and made it through in about 2 minutes, even though it was quiet they had about 20 different lines/detectors open. LAX could learn a little lesson from this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7:20am - sitting with my cappuccino - hey I have krones to waste. Ate my pastry from yesterday with my foamy cappuccino and waited for them to put up the gate # for my flight. After drinking and eating, I walked around a bit. CPH airport is so modern and big and bright. You have to walk through the duty-free shop to even get to the gates. How SMART LOL!!!! Had about 45 krones left - a bottle of water, a bottle of (very tasty) strawberry-lime juice, and a pack of gum later, I have 1.75 krones (or oh, about a quarter) left. Nice. Interestingly, the place selling the water was a chocolate shop (irrelevant LOL). It was for 15.95. That's all I bought, so I handed her 16 krones, and didn't get any change. Ok I didn't want the 5 ore, but what's interesting is that the smallest denomination of danish krones is 25 or (or 1/4 of a krone). So if you buy something that is 16.95 or whatever, you won't get the 5 ore, ever. So what do these places do with this 5 ore? Interesting, and a little shady methinks.
8:15isham - gate for the flight finally showed up. Went and sat there and waited. Boarded around 8:45am and wow, this plane is like new. First of all because I checked in last night, I got row 6, which is the first row of economy seats - and the 5 rows of economy "extra" seats are ALL empty. HA! The plane is like brand new, tons of leg room and even enough space to be able to actually open up my computer. OK so this flight was more expensive than a lot of the others, but still it is better than most US flights that are plenty expensive. Flight time is 1h20. Ah, everything in Europe is so close. :)
As an aside observation and/or rant: Something I have noticed now on my 5th flight inside Europe. First of all, even though you don't pick a seat when you book your flight, you get assigned one when you check in. even on the cheapest crappiest low-cost carriers. None of this Southwest airlines free-for-all bullshit. Europe is far too civilized for that kind of crap. Alternatively, you don't board by rows here. In fact, they don't even ANNOUNCE boarding. You just sort of get up and get in line and board. And you know what? It doesn't take any longer to board than in the US with the 5 rows at a time junk. Seriously, they know what they are doing over here.
10:45am - plane arrived pretty much on time uneventfully. Followed the signs to baggage claim etc, and waited for my luggage. Took a while for it to start but once the luggage started coming, mine came pretty fast. Ahhhh lovely, I won't have to fly again until I fly home in almost 3 weeks!! Nice! All 5 flights were uneventful and successful in terms of baggage. After getting my luggage I saw a tourist info window right there at baggage claim so I got in line and got a free map and an 8-day transport card. I know I know I won't be here for 8 days. But the other option was a 3-day card, which isn't long enough. Thing is, everything I read about the transport here is that it's amazing and efficient so I figure I will use it quite a lot to try to save my feet for Italy coming up. Plus it gave me a discount on the S-bahn (aka commuter rail) from the airport, I only had to pay a 1.70 euro supplement. So I bought the card for 27.20 and she showed me how to validate it and I was on my way.
11:35am - Found the train and one was ciming shortly, at 11:39. Was a couple min late and I noticed, NO A/C! omg! Anyway it was ok at least it has windows that open. So about 20 min later I was at the Landstrasse/Wien-Mitte station, which I thought was just a couple min walk from my hotel. Turns out it was almost 10 min walk, which was not enjoyable (and I could have hopped on a tram right to my hotel if I had known) but anyway found it with no problems. The hotel is RIGHT on the major ring, and it is RIGHT in front of a major tram stop. Perfect.
1:00pmish - got to the hotel and my room was ready! They sent one of the maids to come help me, I don't think she spoke english. LOL But she showed me how to open the window (it opens automatically since the rooms are on the top floor and it opens up. My room faces the back, so that's nice, will be quiet (but there is a/c here anyway, one of the main reasons I booked this place and considering it's in the 80s here, thank god I did). So that's cool. The room is very nice, pretty spacious for a single and furnished in a really classic sort of Viennese style. Has a fridge and a bathroom with a nice-looking shower (no feet-soaking :( ). TV gets enough English to keep me busy. Ok but, internet is 1 euro for every 15 minutes or 18 euros a day. WHAT THE CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I will buy like a half hour or hour a day I guess, just to update the blog and all, but geez. That's crazy. There are internet cafes but they're not right around the corner, and probably not all that much cheaper anyway. No point in bothering. Anyway, that's the only thing about the room I can find to complain about. There's a nice closet with plenty of hangers (good since I need to do laundry later), a mini-bar with a fridge (hooray I can buy stuff at the street market, like um OLIVES!?!? Hahaha). And unlike my last hotel, there is a table beside the bed so I don't have to put my stuff on the FLOOR. Also, enough lighting and the a/c seems to work very well, thank goodness as it is pretty hot here (Especially coming from the coolness that was Brussels, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen!)
1:30pmish - Anyway, I settled in and went back out to find the Opera house, which is at the end of the main pedestrianized area - the nice thing about Vienna is that the vast majority of the sites are really close to each other. First, I saw an ATM right across the street, paid that a visit while I thought of it. It gave me Euros as 100 bills, great. No one will take those. LOL
In the Rick Steves book he mentions a cafeteria type place right by the opera, figured I could find it and grab some lunch. Found the opera - well, it's hard to miss. Found the street right behind it and there was a big sign for this cafeteria. Holy crap, it's on 3 levels and the place was freaking PACKED at 1:30pm. It's a big cafeteria and they had Viennese things like schnitzel and stuff like that, but it was fairly expensive. For the salads and fruit you pay by the plate. So a small plate is the same price if you put one piece of tomato on it or if you stack it up 6 inches high. Anyway I got a medium salad plate and a small fruit bowl and a "pretzel bread" roll and a small soda and a little thing of butter (which they charged about $1 for *rolls eyes*) - total was like 12.55 euros. Ouch - for salad. Anyway it was ok and since I had flown I had that "hungry but feeling weird" thing so it was good. Plus I'm back in the land of the Euro so I figure I can find cheaper dinners.
2:15pmish - find the guided tour office for the opera and find out how to join the 3pm tour. Actually the person talking about it was working with the Mozart orchestra, who has rented out the opera house and was trying to hawk tickets. There were people all around the opera house all dressed up (in the heat!) trying to sell them. My guess is they even got a commission on top of it. Annoyingggggg. So I would take the tour of the opera house. Woohoo! Wasn't planning to do that today, but hey why not. So I sit in the shade til 2:45 when you can buy tickets (6.50 for a combo ticket to the house itself and the museum, which I might go to later I guess, the ticket isn't date-stamped so I don't see why I can't use it on different days lol) and went inside, blahblah. The tour was quite good and the Opera house is indeed absolutely stunning (though I didn't realize most of it was rebuilt after the war - she said it was over 80% damaged and that it had been much much fancier before then :( :( :( :( ). It was supposed to be like 35 minutes but it was more like an hour because she answered questions and because the opera is not in season, we got to go onto the stage and stuff! Anyway it's absolutely stunning inside and the nice thing is that she was like, you can take pictures anywhere! Nice!
4:00pm - hopped on the tram #2 right outside the opera house and followed the "Self-guided Tram tour" in the Rick Steves stuff - yay for stuff to do while sitting down! Took about 40 minutes and it circles the entire ring, where most of the important sights are. Wow, this is a beautiful city. It is a bit newer than many of the others because it got fucked over so badly in WWII, but the stuff is really quite beautiful. It was a nice way to orient myself with the city center for when I want to go back and actually go into a lot of the places. But like, even their stock market is in a gorgeous colored building!!
4:45pm - took the tram all the way around and got off right in front of my hotel. I mean wow, it is literally 4 steps away!!!!!!! Just perfect :) and around the corner there is a stop for 2 other trams that I will probably take. Couldn't be a better location really, quiet enough because it's still a few min away from the really major stuff but literally on the doorstep of it all. Also I noticed in the materials that this is ostensibly a 4-star hotel. A 4-star hotel that charges this much for internet!!!?!?!? Even in Copenhagen it was less than $4 a day! And they didn't even end up charging because they said they are still doing construction so they wouldn't charge for the internet yet!!! Well, whatever. It has a/c and actually that is more important LOL.
5:15pm - took the tram the one stop back to the opera and walked down the main street Kartnerstrasse. Crazy busy with expensive restaurants and all kinds of other places. There is a mall at the opening end of it, the bottom floor of which is a supermarket and gourmet kind of food court. I found some water for 49 cents for a bottle. Yay! I will go back and buy a big bottle tomorrow. I also bought a little jar of pickles for all of 79 cents. I checked the ingredients and didn’t see anything resembling sugar, so I am assuming they'll be OK hahaha.
Kept wandering up until I hit the church St. Stephans. Holy crap, it's monstrous and beautiful. I'll go in it maybe tomorrow or so. Now I was hungry because I had just eaten salad and fruit for lunch lol. So I found one of the places in the Rick Steves book and it actually looked good but it is like a cold buffet (though they had some hot stuff and some good-looking roasted chicken of some kind), but I was just too tired and not in the mood to attempt to deal with spotty english and I certainly don't know any german beyond "danke" so I walked out and I will return when I am less sleep deprived. I had seen an Italian restaurant on the main drag that looked okay (pastas and pizzas that weren't TOO overpriced), so I figured I'd just be lazy and go back there, when I saw peeking above a truck on a side street, the word "Trattoria" - so they had pastas and whatnot that were less than the place on the main drag (duh) and it looked cute despite the fact that there was only one full table so I decided to give it a shot. I got a spritz and some pasta and it was quite good. Wish I remembered the name :( But then the lady (and I say lady because she and the cook were the only people there in this teeny place), picked up her phone and spoke in Italian. So when I asked for the bill I asked where she was from and she told me she and the cook were from Puglia (place in italy). Anyway she was sweet and I felt good about spending my money there. Plus it was tasty and just enough to eat, all for 12 euros including everything. Hooray for being back in euro-land! That meal in Copenhagen probably would've been double LOL
7:30 - already getting dark here. Same time zone as the rest of Europe but further east, guess that's why. Anyway back to the main drag where there are all sorts of street performers (like a human statue female Mozart LOL) and people playing clarinets and violins and banjos and other string instruments I don't recognize at all, so I find the gelato place listed in Rick Steves's book. Only a couple blocks away and quite busy. The options for cups and cones and blahblahblah were endless and I didn't understand it at all, I was like OH GOD! Then I saw this one kind of cone that looked flowery and it said it was 2 euros for 3 something. I was like, a cone with 3 flavors for 2 euros!!?! No surely that was impossible. But NO, it WAS possible. So I asked for it, and oh my, he spoke english hooray HAHAHA. So it wasn't really scoops but more like paddles full, and I got chocolate, coffee, and hazelnut and oh man it was good. And SO CHEAP. I will probably go back there every night. LOL!!
8:00pm - walked back down to the Opera and caught the Tram 2 one stop back to the hotel. I am tired. And I tried wearing my Crocs sandals for the first time tonight. Well the good news is that the bottoms of my feet feel great in them. The bad news is that the straps cut into my feet. So I think I will not be wearing them again :( Or maybe I can put some padding on the problem parts. We'll see. It'd be nice to be able to wear something open and comfy now that I will be in hotter climates from now on. Anyway, got back to the hotel and talked to the guy (different from the guy who checked me in, and much nicer). I asked about the internet and got a code for a half hour which I will use later after doing laundry to update the blog and let people know I'm alive :p Also he kindly changed one of my 100s for me, which I greatly appreciated. Then I was like, I have one more dumb question, "where is breakfast?" LOL Because I had read in the materials in the room that it is from 7-10 which is perfect, but it didn't say where. Anyway it is downstairs from the lobby lol. He was like, didn’t they tell you this when you checked in? And I was like no. And then he gave me a whole sightseeing packet that they hadn't given me either. anyway it sounds like I was really stupid not to pre-book the Schonbrunn palace. So I will pay by wasting time waiting all day and stuff to get in. But it is a can't-miss thing, so I will just suck it up and do it. I have plenty of time here anyway as I have no daytrips planned and there are gardens around the palace so I think I will go super early one morning (it opens at 8:30am, apparently before the tour buses arrive at like 9:30) and I will do it.
OK Ski jumping on ASTROTURF is on eurosport again. What the CRAP.
8:45pm - yay. Laundry time again :'(
5:40am - woke up… urrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
6:20am - checked out. The guy at the desk, who I hadn't met before, was so funny. He was like "I am so sorry for - pardon my language - our fucking awful weather." LOL!!!! There are two ways to get to the hotel from the train station - one is a little bit longer and on a busier street. So I ask the guy if I should go that way (because the other way is ostensibly a "red light district" although maybe it was b/c I just came from Amsterdam or because it's mostly gone, I didn't even see anything except one bar and one shop. LOL.) but the guy goes "pardon my language, but there are too many whores that way. This way is only 50 meters more." OMG, I DIED. This guy is so funny!!! When I was paying, we talked about how US credit cards have no chips and no PINS and I said we were behind all of Europe and he is like "We have had these PINS and cards for like 30 years!!!" Damn US, no need for us to be so behind the times. Anyway, checked out and walked to the train station. It was already light out, so that was nice.
6:45am - hopped on train to the airport - it was busy considering the hour. Made it to the airport in 15 min or less.
7:00amish - made it to the SAS check-in kiosks (which are everywhere). I checked in last night and picked my seat so I just needed to print the boarding card and drop luggage. When the guy took my luggage he was like "ok" and I was like "is that it?" and he was like "yep" - too easy LOL. Followed the signs to security and made it through in about 2 minutes, even though it was quiet they had about 20 different lines/detectors open. LAX could learn a little lesson from this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7:20am - sitting with my cappuccino - hey I have krones to waste. Ate my pastry from yesterday with my foamy cappuccino and waited for them to put up the gate # for my flight. After drinking and eating, I walked around a bit. CPH airport is so modern and big and bright. You have to walk through the duty-free shop to even get to the gates. How SMART LOL!!!! Had about 45 krones left - a bottle of water, a bottle of (very tasty) strawberry-lime juice, and a pack of gum later, I have 1.75 krones (or oh, about a quarter) left. Nice. Interestingly, the place selling the water was a chocolate shop (irrelevant LOL). It was for 15.95. That's all I bought, so I handed her 16 krones, and didn't get any change. Ok I didn't want the 5 ore, but what's interesting is that the smallest denomination of danish krones is 25 or (or 1/4 of a krone). So if you buy something that is 16.95 or whatever, you won't get the 5 ore, ever. So what do these places do with this 5 ore? Interesting, and a little shady methinks.
8:15isham - gate for the flight finally showed up. Went and sat there and waited. Boarded around 8:45am and wow, this plane is like new. First of all because I checked in last night, I got row 6, which is the first row of economy seats - and the 5 rows of economy "extra" seats are ALL empty. HA! The plane is like brand new, tons of leg room and even enough space to be able to actually open up my computer. OK so this flight was more expensive than a lot of the others, but still it is better than most US flights that are plenty expensive. Flight time is 1h20. Ah, everything in Europe is so close. :)
As an aside observation and/or rant: Something I have noticed now on my 5th flight inside Europe. First of all, even though you don't pick a seat when you book your flight, you get assigned one when you check in. even on the cheapest crappiest low-cost carriers. None of this Southwest airlines free-for-all bullshit. Europe is far too civilized for that kind of crap. Alternatively, you don't board by rows here. In fact, they don't even ANNOUNCE boarding. You just sort of get up and get in line and board. And you know what? It doesn't take any longer to board than in the US with the 5 rows at a time junk. Seriously, they know what they are doing over here.
10:45am - plane arrived pretty much on time uneventfully. Followed the signs to baggage claim etc, and waited for my luggage. Took a while for it to start but once the luggage started coming, mine came pretty fast. Ahhhh lovely, I won't have to fly again until I fly home in almost 3 weeks!! Nice! All 5 flights were uneventful and successful in terms of baggage. After getting my luggage I saw a tourist info window right there at baggage claim so I got in line and got a free map and an 8-day transport card. I know I know I won't be here for 8 days. But the other option was a 3-day card, which isn't long enough. Thing is, everything I read about the transport here is that it's amazing and efficient so I figure I will use it quite a lot to try to save my feet for Italy coming up. Plus it gave me a discount on the S-bahn (aka commuter rail) from the airport, I only had to pay a 1.70 euro supplement. So I bought the card for 27.20 and she showed me how to validate it and I was on my way.
11:35am - Found the train and one was ciming shortly, at 11:39. Was a couple min late and I noticed, NO A/C! omg! Anyway it was ok at least it has windows that open. So about 20 min later I was at the Landstrasse/Wien-Mitte station, which I thought was just a couple min walk from my hotel. Turns out it was almost 10 min walk, which was not enjoyable (and I could have hopped on a tram right to my hotel if I had known) but anyway found it with no problems. The hotel is RIGHT on the major ring, and it is RIGHT in front of a major tram stop. Perfect.
1:00pmish - got to the hotel and my room was ready! They sent one of the maids to come help me, I don't think she spoke english. LOL But she showed me how to open the window (it opens automatically since the rooms are on the top floor and it opens up. My room faces the back, so that's nice, will be quiet (but there is a/c here anyway, one of the main reasons I booked this place and considering it's in the 80s here, thank god I did). So that's cool. The room is very nice, pretty spacious for a single and furnished in a really classic sort of Viennese style. Has a fridge and a bathroom with a nice-looking shower (no feet-soaking :( ). TV gets enough English to keep me busy. Ok but, internet is 1 euro for every 15 minutes or 18 euros a day. WHAT THE CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I will buy like a half hour or hour a day I guess, just to update the blog and all, but geez. That's crazy. There are internet cafes but they're not right around the corner, and probably not all that much cheaper anyway. No point in bothering. Anyway, that's the only thing about the room I can find to complain about. There's a nice closet with plenty of hangers (good since I need to do laundry later), a mini-bar with a fridge (hooray I can buy stuff at the street market, like um OLIVES!?!? Hahaha). And unlike my last hotel, there is a table beside the bed so I don't have to put my stuff on the FLOOR. Also, enough lighting and the a/c seems to work very well, thank goodness as it is pretty hot here (Especially coming from the coolness that was Brussels, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen!)
1:30pmish - Anyway, I settled in and went back out to find the Opera house, which is at the end of the main pedestrianized area - the nice thing about Vienna is that the vast majority of the sites are really close to each other. First, I saw an ATM right across the street, paid that a visit while I thought of it. It gave me Euros as 100 bills, great. No one will take those. LOL
In the Rick Steves book he mentions a cafeteria type place right by the opera, figured I could find it and grab some lunch. Found the opera - well, it's hard to miss. Found the street right behind it and there was a big sign for this cafeteria. Holy crap, it's on 3 levels and the place was freaking PACKED at 1:30pm. It's a big cafeteria and they had Viennese things like schnitzel and stuff like that, but it was fairly expensive. For the salads and fruit you pay by the plate. So a small plate is the same price if you put one piece of tomato on it or if you stack it up 6 inches high. Anyway I got a medium salad plate and a small fruit bowl and a "pretzel bread" roll and a small soda and a little thing of butter (which they charged about $1 for *rolls eyes*) - total was like 12.55 euros. Ouch - for salad. Anyway it was ok and since I had flown I had that "hungry but feeling weird" thing so it was good. Plus I'm back in the land of the Euro so I figure I can find cheaper dinners.
2:15pmish - find the guided tour office for the opera and find out how to join the 3pm tour. Actually the person talking about it was working with the Mozart orchestra, who has rented out the opera house and was trying to hawk tickets. There were people all around the opera house all dressed up (in the heat!) trying to sell them. My guess is they even got a commission on top of it. Annoyingggggg. So I would take the tour of the opera house. Woohoo! Wasn't planning to do that today, but hey why not. So I sit in the shade til 2:45 when you can buy tickets (6.50 for a combo ticket to the house itself and the museum, which I might go to later I guess, the ticket isn't date-stamped so I don't see why I can't use it on different days lol) and went inside, blahblah. The tour was quite good and the Opera house is indeed absolutely stunning (though I didn't realize most of it was rebuilt after the war - she said it was over 80% damaged and that it had been much much fancier before then :( :( :( :( ). It was supposed to be like 35 minutes but it was more like an hour because she answered questions and because the opera is not in season, we got to go onto the stage and stuff! Anyway it's absolutely stunning inside and the nice thing is that she was like, you can take pictures anywhere! Nice!
4:00pm - hopped on the tram #2 right outside the opera house and followed the "Self-guided Tram tour" in the Rick Steves stuff - yay for stuff to do while sitting down! Took about 40 minutes and it circles the entire ring, where most of the important sights are. Wow, this is a beautiful city. It is a bit newer than many of the others because it got fucked over so badly in WWII, but the stuff is really quite beautiful. It was a nice way to orient myself with the city center for when I want to go back and actually go into a lot of the places. But like, even their stock market is in a gorgeous colored building!!
4:45pm - took the tram all the way around and got off right in front of my hotel. I mean wow, it is literally 4 steps away!!!!!!! Just perfect :) and around the corner there is a stop for 2 other trams that I will probably take. Couldn't be a better location really, quiet enough because it's still a few min away from the really major stuff but literally on the doorstep of it all. Also I noticed in the materials that this is ostensibly a 4-star hotel. A 4-star hotel that charges this much for internet!!!?!?!? Even in Copenhagen it was less than $4 a day! And they didn't even end up charging because they said they are still doing construction so they wouldn't charge for the internet yet!!! Well, whatever. It has a/c and actually that is more important LOL.
5:15pm - took the tram the one stop back to the opera and walked down the main street Kartnerstrasse. Crazy busy with expensive restaurants and all kinds of other places. There is a mall at the opening end of it, the bottom floor of which is a supermarket and gourmet kind of food court. I found some water for 49 cents for a bottle. Yay! I will go back and buy a big bottle tomorrow. I also bought a little jar of pickles for all of 79 cents. I checked the ingredients and didn’t see anything resembling sugar, so I am assuming they'll be OK hahaha.
Kept wandering up until I hit the church St. Stephans. Holy crap, it's monstrous and beautiful. I'll go in it maybe tomorrow or so. Now I was hungry because I had just eaten salad and fruit for lunch lol. So I found one of the places in the Rick Steves book and it actually looked good but it is like a cold buffet (though they had some hot stuff and some good-looking roasted chicken of some kind), but I was just too tired and not in the mood to attempt to deal with spotty english and I certainly don't know any german beyond "danke" so I walked out and I will return when I am less sleep deprived. I had seen an Italian restaurant on the main drag that looked okay (pastas and pizzas that weren't TOO overpriced), so I figured I'd just be lazy and go back there, when I saw peeking above a truck on a side street, the word "Trattoria" - so they had pastas and whatnot that were less than the place on the main drag (duh) and it looked cute despite the fact that there was only one full table so I decided to give it a shot. I got a spritz and some pasta and it was quite good. Wish I remembered the name :( But then the lady (and I say lady because she and the cook were the only people there in this teeny place), picked up her phone and spoke in Italian. So when I asked for the bill I asked where she was from and she told me she and the cook were from Puglia (place in italy). Anyway she was sweet and I felt good about spending my money there. Plus it was tasty and just enough to eat, all for 12 euros including everything. Hooray for being back in euro-land! That meal in Copenhagen probably would've been double LOL
7:30 - already getting dark here. Same time zone as the rest of Europe but further east, guess that's why. Anyway back to the main drag where there are all sorts of street performers (like a human statue female Mozart LOL) and people playing clarinets and violins and banjos and other string instruments I don't recognize at all, so I find the gelato place listed in Rick Steves's book. Only a couple blocks away and quite busy. The options for cups and cones and blahblahblah were endless and I didn't understand it at all, I was like OH GOD! Then I saw this one kind of cone that looked flowery and it said it was 2 euros for 3 something. I was like, a cone with 3 flavors for 2 euros!!?! No surely that was impossible. But NO, it WAS possible. So I asked for it, and oh my, he spoke english hooray HAHAHA. So it wasn't really scoops but more like paddles full, and I got chocolate, coffee, and hazelnut and oh man it was good. And SO CHEAP. I will probably go back there every night. LOL!!
8:00pm - walked back down to the Opera and caught the Tram 2 one stop back to the hotel. I am tired. And I tried wearing my Crocs sandals for the first time tonight. Well the good news is that the bottoms of my feet feel great in them. The bad news is that the straps cut into my feet. So I think I will not be wearing them again :( Or maybe I can put some padding on the problem parts. We'll see. It'd be nice to be able to wear something open and comfy now that I will be in hotter climates from now on. Anyway, got back to the hotel and talked to the guy (different from the guy who checked me in, and much nicer). I asked about the internet and got a code for a half hour which I will use later after doing laundry to update the blog and let people know I'm alive :p Also he kindly changed one of my 100s for me, which I greatly appreciated. Then I was like, I have one more dumb question, "where is breakfast?" LOL Because I had read in the materials in the room that it is from 7-10 which is perfect, but it didn't say where. Anyway it is downstairs from the lobby lol. He was like, didn’t they tell you this when you checked in? And I was like no. And then he gave me a whole sightseeing packet that they hadn't given me either. anyway it sounds like I was really stupid not to pre-book the Schonbrunn palace. So I will pay by wasting time waiting all day and stuff to get in. But it is a can't-miss thing, so I will just suck it up and do it. I have plenty of time here anyway as I have no daytrips planned and there are gardens around the palace so I think I will go super early one morning (it opens at 8:30am, apparently before the tour buses arrive at like 9:30) and I will do it.
OK Ski jumping on ASTROTURF is on eurosport again. What the CRAP.
8:45pm - yay. Laundry time again :'(
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Day 27
Thursday August 23
7:45am - woke up and took a shower, making more mess of course
8:45isham - went down to breakfast. Same as previous days. Went to the train station and caught the bus 26 to near Amalienborg Palace.
9:40am or so - walked over to the place where the palace is - it is a huge complex with silly-looking guards and everything. The palace has a museum that has some kings' studies and the like opened to the public. It opens at 10am and at about 5 til, more guards came out and they did some stuff. A tour group of (what I am just assuming were) Japanese people scurried around the guards like mice to cheese LOL But what was funny is that they didn't go in the museum when it opened at 10. What's the point?!
10am - went into the museum. It was neat to see the kings' studies just as they were apparently left. They also had an exhibit of something to the effect of 60 years of fashion of a particular queen. Anyway it was nice but once again if I had paid 50 krones to see it I would've been pissed.
10:30ish am - walked a few blocks to the Kastellet - it's like a star shaped area. I still don't understand what it was but it looked like some kind of army barracks or something. But very pretty area, snapped some pictures, and kept walking. Found St. Alban's church, an Anglican church. It was open and when I walked in these two ladies offered me this sheet to read about the church. One of them goes "Do you want Korean?" If I had been drinking water, I would've spit it out. The other lady says something to the effect of "Does she look like she'd want korean!?" so I am laughing and I am like "no I am from the US" and she laughs and says "Sorry, there were a whole bunch of people who wanted a Korean card" - I was very amused. Anyway, pretty church, took a couple pics, yada yada yada. Right next to it was a gorgeous fountain - that's where all the Koreans were LMGDFAO!!
Right across the street was the Museum of Danish Resistance, I knew it was free, so I figured I'd check it out. It chronicles what Danes did to undermine the Nazis. Interesting perspective and pretty interesting museum - considering it was free, it was better than a lot of the things that charged! Plus something that was nice was that there was a sign specifically ALLOWING pictures. I was pleasantly impressed by that, so I snapped a few. I didn't realize all the things they did, like printing things illegally, sabotaging railroad lines, making their own rudimentary weapons, etc. It was interesting, and I liked the place's attitude, so I dropped a 10 krone coin in the donations box.
11:30ish am - caught a bus to Kongens Nytorv and walked across the square to Nyhavn - the recently gentrified old sailors part of town that used to be all strip clubs (only one left now lol). Saw the Canal boat company's main dock so I bought my all day hop on hop off ticket for 50 krones. Saw one was leaving at noon so I waited around and got on that one.
12:50pm - got off the waterbus at Gammel Strand, which is right by the Stroget. A local on TripAdvisor had recommended this little restaurant right near there as a great place for lunch so I tried to check it out. Found the place easily enough but it was so busy that if you didn't have a reservation the wait looked like it was going to be long :( Bummer. Reservations to eat at what is essentially a sandwich place. LOL!! No way was I going to wait, so I decided to go the short distance to the Stroget to try another kind of polse after my disappointment the other day. On the way, I passed one of the Konditoris (bakery) that I bought the yummy bun thing with chocolate and nuts, so I went in and bought another one of those for tomorrow morning when I have to leave really early for the airport before the hotel's breakfast starts. I also bought something that looked like an oblong sugar donut called a "Berliner" - ah well, an experiment :p Found a polse cart and bought the "polse ristet" - ristet means fried. I had assumed deep fried, but really it just means cooked on a griddle instead of boiled or whatever. Found this out again from the local on TripAdvisor. Anyway this hot dog was MUCH Better than the first one. Quite yummy actually :)
Walked around a little bit and bought my magnets - one is a wooden and fuzzy viking. HAHAHA!!! I went all the way down the Stroget to City Hall Square and took a bus back up to Nyhavn (ok, I was literally the only person on the bus the entire time I was on it - 6 stops. It was really weird!). Wandered a bit and got a little cone of ice cream. I wanted to make it out to see the Little Mermaid and a waterbus going there was leaving at 3pm so I just wandered around into the big department store on Kongens Nytorv and into some little shops in and around Nyhavn until the bus arrived.
3:00pm - got on the waterbus and it drove around the harbor the opposite way from the one I took earlier so that was nice. One place it went was this fortress in the middle of the water. Wild!! And then, something that was a surprise was that today is The Little Mermaid statue's 94th birthday! So instead of just wandering around going to the stops and back to Nyhavn, around 3:40, it stopped at the Little Mermaid and let us off to watch the festivities. There were people dressed up like Hans Christian Andersen and some kids and teenagers dressed up to act out some of his more famous fairytales, complete with singing and music. Then there was a little band. But the main attraction was that there were 94 girls who would jump into the (cold, not terribly clean) water and form the numbers 94. Wow. LOL. So we stayed and watched this and it was a fun little surprise. Copenhagen is obviously a very quirky little place LOL
4:00pm - got back on the boat and back to Nyhavn. Walked back across the Kongens Nytorv square and got on the Metro (very modern, sleek, and space agey) to Christianshavn, I wanted to see this "Freetown" of Christiania that I have read and heard a lot about. What happened was in 1971, a group of hippie potheads took over this deserted military barracks and turned it into a little community. More complicated than that but you get the idea. Well, wow. It's…interesting. When you leave, there is an archway that says "you are now entering the EU" LOL!! There was a market square with some stalls - some were selling some pretty jewelry and stuff, and some were much much sketchier. Anyway this was not really my thing so I stayed about 15 minutes. Nearby there is a church with a tower you can climb - the stairs are on the OUTSIDE. ARE YOU SHITTING ME.
5:15pmish - caught a bus to Norreport station - the closest place to where I had decided to have dinner. Got there and went to the restaurant (after missing the street by not paying attention LOL). Decided to try Det Lille Apotek, the place where they give you beef on a hot stone that you cook yourself.
5:45ish - get there and the place is really adorable inside. The placemat says it has been a restaurant since the 1700s and that it hasn’t changed in over 100 years. Cool. So I order the beef and since there's nothing particularly for the kitchen to cook, they just bring it out really fast. I mean wow, I had read about what it was, but it really was just a piece of meat (a nice hung of filet mignon no less!) plopped on an inordinately hot stone. You then cook it up how you want. It's not even seasoned, and they bring you a bowl of what looked like Béarnaise or some other creamy sauce (I say this because they have a filet already prepared with this sauce on the menu, I can't determine sauces just by sight. LOL). It also came with a little salad, a tomato plopped onto the stone, and potatoes. Well, I was hungry! LOL!! So it was very interesting and the tables around me looked at me like I was nuts, but it was very tasty and I managed to not overcook it and stuff.
So I get the bill and there is a 100 krone charge on there (I had gotten a liter of water for 15 krones plus my meal which was 158 krones), so I ask the girl "what's this" and she says "It's wrong, that's what it is" LOL. Anyway, she fixes it and I pay and that's that. I still have over 120 krones that I am not sure what I will do with before I leave (need 28.50 for the train to the airport tomorrow). So I leave the restaurant, which is right behind the church/university area in my pictures from a few days ago and there is a market!! It is a handicrafts market, probably the most beautiful crafts fair/market I've ever seen. All kinds of ceramics and some of the most beautiful jewelry I've ever seen. I was like oooohhh maybe I can spend about 80 krones here. HA, as if. Maybe 800 krones ;) So it was nice to walk through and look at all the absolutely gorgeous stuff, but that's all. On my way back I stopped at the Lagkagehuset bakery attached to the TI office right near my hotel and bought a "Sarah Bernard" pastry - NO IDEA what the name is about but it was a cookie topped with chocolate mousse enrobed in chocolate, or so the girl behind the counter said. I bought it the moment she described it (I asked what was inside since it could've been anything). Hey when you have extra money to spend might as well spend it on chocolate goodies right HAHA
7:30pm - came back to the hotel to start packing. Ate my "Berliner" and it was filled with something fruity, so I ate around it. LMAO. Weird thing, they didn't give me clean towels today (they had been giving me THREE a day!). Weird. I don't really need them but still it was odd.
going to Vienna early early early tomorrow. not sure what the internet situation will be there.
7:45am - woke up and took a shower, making more mess of course
8:45isham - went down to breakfast. Same as previous days. Went to the train station and caught the bus 26 to near Amalienborg Palace.
9:40am or so - walked over to the place where the palace is - it is a huge complex with silly-looking guards and everything. The palace has a museum that has some kings' studies and the like opened to the public. It opens at 10am and at about 5 til, more guards came out and they did some stuff. A tour group of (what I am just assuming were) Japanese people scurried around the guards like mice to cheese LOL But what was funny is that they didn't go in the museum when it opened at 10. What's the point?!
10am - went into the museum. It was neat to see the kings' studies just as they were apparently left. They also had an exhibit of something to the effect of 60 years of fashion of a particular queen. Anyway it was nice but once again if I had paid 50 krones to see it I would've been pissed.
10:30ish am - walked a few blocks to the Kastellet - it's like a star shaped area. I still don't understand what it was but it looked like some kind of army barracks or something. But very pretty area, snapped some pictures, and kept walking. Found St. Alban's church, an Anglican church. It was open and when I walked in these two ladies offered me this sheet to read about the church. One of them goes "Do you want Korean?" If I had been drinking water, I would've spit it out. The other lady says something to the effect of "Does she look like she'd want korean!?" so I am laughing and I am like "no I am from the US" and she laughs and says "Sorry, there were a whole bunch of people who wanted a Korean card" - I was very amused. Anyway, pretty church, took a couple pics, yada yada yada. Right next to it was a gorgeous fountain - that's where all the Koreans were LMGDFAO!!
Right across the street was the Museum of Danish Resistance, I knew it was free, so I figured I'd check it out. It chronicles what Danes did to undermine the Nazis. Interesting perspective and pretty interesting museum - considering it was free, it was better than a lot of the things that charged! Plus something that was nice was that there was a sign specifically ALLOWING pictures. I was pleasantly impressed by that, so I snapped a few. I didn't realize all the things they did, like printing things illegally, sabotaging railroad lines, making their own rudimentary weapons, etc. It was interesting, and I liked the place's attitude, so I dropped a 10 krone coin in the donations box.
11:30ish am - caught a bus to Kongens Nytorv and walked across the square to Nyhavn - the recently gentrified old sailors part of town that used to be all strip clubs (only one left now lol). Saw the Canal boat company's main dock so I bought my all day hop on hop off ticket for 50 krones. Saw one was leaving at noon so I waited around and got on that one.
12:50pm - got off the waterbus at Gammel Strand, which is right by the Stroget. A local on TripAdvisor had recommended this little restaurant right near there as a great place for lunch so I tried to check it out. Found the place easily enough but it was so busy that if you didn't have a reservation the wait looked like it was going to be long :( Bummer. Reservations to eat at what is essentially a sandwich place. LOL!! No way was I going to wait, so I decided to go the short distance to the Stroget to try another kind of polse after my disappointment the other day. On the way, I passed one of the Konditoris (bakery) that I bought the yummy bun thing with chocolate and nuts, so I went in and bought another one of those for tomorrow morning when I have to leave really early for the airport before the hotel's breakfast starts. I also bought something that looked like an oblong sugar donut called a "Berliner" - ah well, an experiment :p Found a polse cart and bought the "polse ristet" - ristet means fried. I had assumed deep fried, but really it just means cooked on a griddle instead of boiled or whatever. Found this out again from the local on TripAdvisor. Anyway this hot dog was MUCH Better than the first one. Quite yummy actually :)
Walked around a little bit and bought my magnets - one is a wooden and fuzzy viking. HAHAHA!!! I went all the way down the Stroget to City Hall Square and took a bus back up to Nyhavn (ok, I was literally the only person on the bus the entire time I was on it - 6 stops. It was really weird!). Wandered a bit and got a little cone of ice cream. I wanted to make it out to see the Little Mermaid and a waterbus going there was leaving at 3pm so I just wandered around into the big department store on Kongens Nytorv and into some little shops in and around Nyhavn until the bus arrived.
3:00pm - got on the waterbus and it drove around the harbor the opposite way from the one I took earlier so that was nice. One place it went was this fortress in the middle of the water. Wild!! And then, something that was a surprise was that today is The Little Mermaid statue's 94th birthday! So instead of just wandering around going to the stops and back to Nyhavn, around 3:40, it stopped at the Little Mermaid and let us off to watch the festivities. There were people dressed up like Hans Christian Andersen and some kids and teenagers dressed up to act out some of his more famous fairytales, complete with singing and music. Then there was a little band. But the main attraction was that there were 94 girls who would jump into the (cold, not terribly clean) water and form the numbers 94. Wow. LOL. So we stayed and watched this and it was a fun little surprise. Copenhagen is obviously a very quirky little place LOL
4:00pm - got back on the boat and back to Nyhavn. Walked back across the Kongens Nytorv square and got on the Metro (very modern, sleek, and space agey) to Christianshavn, I wanted to see this "Freetown" of Christiania that I have read and heard a lot about. What happened was in 1971, a group of hippie potheads took over this deserted military barracks and turned it into a little community. More complicated than that but you get the idea. Well, wow. It's…interesting. When you leave, there is an archway that says "you are now entering the EU" LOL!! There was a market square with some stalls - some were selling some pretty jewelry and stuff, and some were much much sketchier. Anyway this was not really my thing so I stayed about 15 minutes. Nearby there is a church with a tower you can climb - the stairs are on the OUTSIDE. ARE YOU SHITTING ME.
5:15pmish - caught a bus to Norreport station - the closest place to where I had decided to have dinner. Got there and went to the restaurant (after missing the street by not paying attention LOL). Decided to try Det Lille Apotek, the place where they give you beef on a hot stone that you cook yourself.
5:45ish - get there and the place is really adorable inside. The placemat says it has been a restaurant since the 1700s and that it hasn’t changed in over 100 years. Cool. So I order the beef and since there's nothing particularly for the kitchen to cook, they just bring it out really fast. I mean wow, I had read about what it was, but it really was just a piece of meat (a nice hung of filet mignon no less!) plopped on an inordinately hot stone. You then cook it up how you want. It's not even seasoned, and they bring you a bowl of what looked like Béarnaise or some other creamy sauce (I say this because they have a filet already prepared with this sauce on the menu, I can't determine sauces just by sight. LOL). It also came with a little salad, a tomato plopped onto the stone, and potatoes. Well, I was hungry! LOL!! So it was very interesting and the tables around me looked at me like I was nuts, but it was very tasty and I managed to not overcook it and stuff.
So I get the bill and there is a 100 krone charge on there (I had gotten a liter of water for 15 krones plus my meal which was 158 krones), so I ask the girl "what's this" and she says "It's wrong, that's what it is" LOL. Anyway, she fixes it and I pay and that's that. I still have over 120 krones that I am not sure what I will do with before I leave (need 28.50 for the train to the airport tomorrow). So I leave the restaurant, which is right behind the church/university area in my pictures from a few days ago and there is a market!! It is a handicrafts market, probably the most beautiful crafts fair/market I've ever seen. All kinds of ceramics and some of the most beautiful jewelry I've ever seen. I was like oooohhh maybe I can spend about 80 krones here. HA, as if. Maybe 800 krones ;) So it was nice to walk through and look at all the absolutely gorgeous stuff, but that's all. On my way back I stopped at the Lagkagehuset bakery attached to the TI office right near my hotel and bought a "Sarah Bernard" pastry - NO IDEA what the name is about but it was a cookie topped with chocolate mousse enrobed in chocolate, or so the girl behind the counter said. I bought it the moment she described it (I asked what was inside since it could've been anything). Hey when you have extra money to spend might as well spend it on chocolate goodies right HAHA
7:30pm - came back to the hotel to start packing. Ate my "Berliner" and it was filled with something fruity, so I ate around it. LMAO. Weird thing, they didn't give me clean towels today (they had been giving me THREE a day!). Weird. I don't really need them but still it was odd.
going to Vienna early early early tomorrow. not sure what the internet situation will be there.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Day 26 Pictures
Pictures from 4 different cities and 2 different countries! Not too shabby for a day's work ;)
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Day 26
Wednesday August 22
6:45am - woke up. Don't know why :(
7:45am - went to breakfast.
8:15am - went to train station and hopped on the 8:38 train leaving to Helsingor (yes again I know the O should have a slash through it :p). Very quiet smooth train! Not too much in the way of countryside to see.
9:45am - arrived in Helsingor, exited the station, turned right, and BAM there is Kronborg Slot. I decided I didn't feel like walking all the way to actually go in it (it wasn't covered by CPH Card), so instead I walked around the town itself, which was just opening up at 10am. There were Danish flags everywhere. It is a very very cute little medieval downtown area. Even the train station building was pretty. Spent about an hour wandering, went back to the train station and bought my 15.75kr ticket for the ferry across the Oresund (again, O needs a slash) to go to Sweden! It's weird, the sound at that point is only about 2 miles wide - you can stand in Denmark and see Sweden :)
10:50am - got on the ferry for the 20 minute ride. Holy crap, this boat is like a freaking cruise ship. There's multiple cafes, a foreign currency exchange desk (I got 122.50 Swedish Krones for 100 Danish Krones), a Duty-Free shop, a full-service restaurant, etc. My lordy. Also, you can drive on and there were many huge trailer-trucks on it too. Huge!
11:10am - train arrives in Helsingborg. I find the City Hall which is a gorgeous building across from the train station. I get a map and walk up and down the pedestrian area. Seems very similar to Denmark really - the shopping area is the Storoget instead of the Stroget. Haha. Most of the words are pretty much the same too. Didn't find anything outstanding to buy but found a bakery called Carl Perssons Bageri and bought a little thingy which was like a cookie covered in chocolate. It was in the shape of a ball, so something was obviously under the chocolate on the cookie, but I didn't know what! It was only about 9 Swedish Krones. There are almost 7 Swedish Krones (SEK) to the US Dollar, so not bad. Prices in Sweden as a result are not nearly as expensive if you think about it in terms of dollars! I spent about an hour wandering the cute pedestrian area.
12:15pm - found the train ticket office and went up to the lady and said, "I am confused." She said "I am confused too" LOL!! Anyway, I found out what ticket I would need to get all the way back to Copenhagen, it is an all-day ticket so I could stop in Malmo on the way. Perfect. And only about 23 USD!
12:27pm - got on the train, had no clue how long it was going to take or anything HAHAHA! But the Swedish countryside was GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!! So the time passed quickly. I ate my little chocolate ball pastry, it was filled with some kind of chocolate cream, it was soooooo good :D I was considering stopping in Lund, just one stop before Malmo, because I had read about it being a nice city, but my feet were already hurting, I was starving (hadn't eaten lunch yet). So I just stayed on til Malmo and arrived just before 1:30.
1:30ishpm - got to the station and looked at the map I had picked up in the Helsingborg TI office. So like, it was really warm, and sunny, and humid in Malmo - all the opposites of the weather in Denmark LOL. So I was cursing the fact that I hadn't put on sunscreen. Ah well. Found this huge park area - with a Dutch windmill and little canals/rivers running through it, very pretty. Made my way to the main square and was so hungry and I bought an ice cream. But this is where the fun began. Right now is the Malmo Festivalen - the city's annual festival! So the main squares and streets in the old city were filled, with allllllllllllll kinds of food, amusements, music stages, and stalls to buy stuff. If I only had walked around a bit more I would've found everything from candies to Cajun food. Oh well, the ice cream was tasty ;) Found this bizarre guy selling really pretty beaded jewelry. He had earrings that he said were real silver for 80 Krones, or just under $12. He had purple, which means I bought a pair :D
So I am seeing all this food and stuff to buy and I need more money, so I find an ATM and just take out 100 krones, which means with the ATM fees it is actually a pretty bad deal but oh well, only money right LOL. I bought a big soft pretzel and this long rope sour candy thing to save for later. Was hot and thirsty so I bought a coke and then I saw these mini donuts being freshly fried - 10 krones for 6 with powdered sugar. Oh my gosh. Yum. What more is there to say. lol. So I was trying to spend all the 100 krones since they'd be useless back in denmark so I bought a Malmo magnet and after all was said and done had 10 krones left. Oh well! After a nice couple hours exploring Malmo and enjoying the festival. Amusingly enough, one of the very busiest stands was a Cajun place called Louisiana - this amused me to NO end lol!
5:02pm - hopped on a train going back to Copenhagen. This goes over the fairly new Oresund bridge - a low, 8km bridge connecting the two countries. The train ride was a little over a half hour. It wasn't covered, the train just has a lower level underneath where the cars drive over. So mom, you would not have liked it at all :)
5:40pm - arrived at the Copenhagen train station, not really hungry since I ate shitty junk food (but oh so tasty) all day long, so I just decided to walk across the street to Tivoli. Wandered around a little and took some pictures of things that didn't come out the other night when I tried to take pictures after dark and I remembered a food stand that had a "chicken wings deal" for not too much money. I remembered vaguely where it was so I found it after a bit of searching. For 64 krones I got some fried chicken wings that were seasoned with some kind of spices and very tasty, a ton of fries, and a soda. Well for Copenhagen that's about $12 which is double what it'd be in the States but hey it was tasty and not too much food (although more fried goodness LOL). Anyway it was very tasty. What's interesting is that the drink comes in this plastic cup with a bar code on the bottom. When I bought it I had to pay 5 kr extra. Then you put it into one of these red things that are all over the place, and you get your 5 kr back as a coin. The recycling machine showed things in English and it explained that it is for the environment and all this stuff. Hey, as long as I get my money back (which I did), that's fine by me. I just thought it was an interesting idea.
Sat for a while and just people-watched. The kids on the rides are so funny. Wandered around and bought a cute magnet.
7:30pm - started getting really tired. Before in my wandering I found ONE place in ALL of Tivoli that said they had CHOCOLATE soft serve. I was so excited I decided I had to have some ;) there are probably 20 places in tivoli that has what they call "Soft ice" but NONE of them have chocolate!!! Oh gosh, it was so good. Probably the best soft serve I have ever had. I took my cone, went out the back exit of Tivoli that faces the train station, went through the train station (nice shortcut to my hotel) and out the back exit, and came back to the hotel around 7:45pm. Feet killing.
Good thing I came back as it started to absolutely pour anyway. Had a very long but nice day, seeing 2 countries and 3 different cities!
I did not see an IKEA in Helsingborg or Malmo. How sad :(
6:45am - woke up. Don't know why :(
7:45am - went to breakfast.
8:15am - went to train station and hopped on the 8:38 train leaving to Helsingor (yes again I know the O should have a slash through it :p). Very quiet smooth train! Not too much in the way of countryside to see.
9:45am - arrived in Helsingor, exited the station, turned right, and BAM there is Kronborg Slot. I decided I didn't feel like walking all the way to actually go in it (it wasn't covered by CPH Card), so instead I walked around the town itself, which was just opening up at 10am. There were Danish flags everywhere. It is a very very cute little medieval downtown area. Even the train station building was pretty. Spent about an hour wandering, went back to the train station and bought my 15.75kr ticket for the ferry across the Oresund (again, O needs a slash) to go to Sweden! It's weird, the sound at that point is only about 2 miles wide - you can stand in Denmark and see Sweden :)
10:50am - got on the ferry for the 20 minute ride. Holy crap, this boat is like a freaking cruise ship. There's multiple cafes, a foreign currency exchange desk (I got 122.50 Swedish Krones for 100 Danish Krones), a Duty-Free shop, a full-service restaurant, etc. My lordy. Also, you can drive on and there were many huge trailer-trucks on it too. Huge!
11:10am - train arrives in Helsingborg. I find the City Hall which is a gorgeous building across from the train station. I get a map and walk up and down the pedestrian area. Seems very similar to Denmark really - the shopping area is the Storoget instead of the Stroget. Haha. Most of the words are pretty much the same too. Didn't find anything outstanding to buy but found a bakery called Carl Perssons Bageri and bought a little thingy which was like a cookie covered in chocolate. It was in the shape of a ball, so something was obviously under the chocolate on the cookie, but I didn't know what! It was only about 9 Swedish Krones. There are almost 7 Swedish Krones (SEK) to the US Dollar, so not bad. Prices in Sweden as a result are not nearly as expensive if you think about it in terms of dollars! I spent about an hour wandering the cute pedestrian area.
12:15pm - found the train ticket office and went up to the lady and said, "I am confused." She said "I am confused too" LOL!! Anyway, I found out what ticket I would need to get all the way back to Copenhagen, it is an all-day ticket so I could stop in Malmo on the way. Perfect. And only about 23 USD!
12:27pm - got on the train, had no clue how long it was going to take or anything HAHAHA! But the Swedish countryside was GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!! So the time passed quickly. I ate my little chocolate ball pastry, it was filled with some kind of chocolate cream, it was soooooo good :D I was considering stopping in Lund, just one stop before Malmo, because I had read about it being a nice city, but my feet were already hurting, I was starving (hadn't eaten lunch yet). So I just stayed on til Malmo and arrived just before 1:30.
1:30ishpm - got to the station and looked at the map I had picked up in the Helsingborg TI office. So like, it was really warm, and sunny, and humid in Malmo - all the opposites of the weather in Denmark LOL. So I was cursing the fact that I hadn't put on sunscreen. Ah well. Found this huge park area - with a Dutch windmill and little canals/rivers running through it, very pretty. Made my way to the main square and was so hungry and I bought an ice cream. But this is where the fun began. Right now is the Malmo Festivalen - the city's annual festival! So the main squares and streets in the old city were filled, with allllllllllllll kinds of food, amusements, music stages, and stalls to buy stuff. If I only had walked around a bit more I would've found everything from candies to Cajun food. Oh well, the ice cream was tasty ;) Found this bizarre guy selling really pretty beaded jewelry. He had earrings that he said were real silver for 80 Krones, or just under $12. He had purple, which means I bought a pair :D
So I am seeing all this food and stuff to buy and I need more money, so I find an ATM and just take out 100 krones, which means with the ATM fees it is actually a pretty bad deal but oh well, only money right LOL. I bought a big soft pretzel and this long rope sour candy thing to save for later. Was hot and thirsty so I bought a coke and then I saw these mini donuts being freshly fried - 10 krones for 6 with powdered sugar. Oh my gosh. Yum. What more is there to say. lol. So I was trying to spend all the 100 krones since they'd be useless back in denmark so I bought a Malmo magnet and after all was said and done had 10 krones left. Oh well! After a nice couple hours exploring Malmo and enjoying the festival. Amusingly enough, one of the very busiest stands was a Cajun place called Louisiana - this amused me to NO end lol!
5:02pm - hopped on a train going back to Copenhagen. This goes over the fairly new Oresund bridge - a low, 8km bridge connecting the two countries. The train ride was a little over a half hour. It wasn't covered, the train just has a lower level underneath where the cars drive over. So mom, you would not have liked it at all :)
5:40pm - arrived at the Copenhagen train station, not really hungry since I ate shitty junk food (but oh so tasty) all day long, so I just decided to walk across the street to Tivoli. Wandered around a little and took some pictures of things that didn't come out the other night when I tried to take pictures after dark and I remembered a food stand that had a "chicken wings deal" for not too much money. I remembered vaguely where it was so I found it after a bit of searching. For 64 krones I got some fried chicken wings that were seasoned with some kind of spices and very tasty, a ton of fries, and a soda. Well for Copenhagen that's about $12 which is double what it'd be in the States but hey it was tasty and not too much food (although more fried goodness LOL). Anyway it was very tasty. What's interesting is that the drink comes in this plastic cup with a bar code on the bottom. When I bought it I had to pay 5 kr extra. Then you put it into one of these red things that are all over the place, and you get your 5 kr back as a coin. The recycling machine showed things in English and it explained that it is for the environment and all this stuff. Hey, as long as I get my money back (which I did), that's fine by me. I just thought it was an interesting idea.
Sat for a while and just people-watched. The kids on the rides are so funny. Wandered around and bought a cute magnet.
7:30pm - started getting really tired. Before in my wandering I found ONE place in ALL of Tivoli that said they had CHOCOLATE soft serve. I was so excited I decided I had to have some ;) there are probably 20 places in tivoli that has what they call "Soft ice" but NONE of them have chocolate!!! Oh gosh, it was so good. Probably the best soft serve I have ever had. I took my cone, went out the back exit of Tivoli that faces the train station, went through the train station (nice shortcut to my hotel) and out the back exit, and came back to the hotel around 7:45pm. Feet killing.
Good thing I came back as it started to absolutely pour anyway. Had a very long but nice day, seeing 2 countries and 3 different cities!
I did not see an IKEA in Helsingborg or Malmo. How sad :(
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Day 25
8:00amish - woke up and took a shower - made a terrible mess in the bathroom but that was unavoidable really LMFAO
9:15amish - went to breakfast. Had a few different things today - (tasty) brownies instead of the chocolate coffee cake, some different kinds of fruit. I tried a passionfruit. It was really sour and normally I would probably like it, but I wasn't really in the mood haha.
9:45am - went to the train station and took the S-tog (aka commuter rail) 2 stops to Norreport station. Covered by my CPH card but no one checked tickets anyway - that seems to be a common thing here - no one has checked lots and lots of my train tickets, it's a little annoying actually. Anyway, Yes I know the first o of Norreport (and Norrebro) is supposed to have a slash through it, but I'm lazy :( :p
10:00amish - found Rosenborg Slot (castle) and got my ticket - free with CPHCard. Went into the castle with the Rick Steves self-guided tour, only to find that only the first floor (of 3) of the castle was open. It was nice, but only like 4 rooms. Disappointing :( But it was interesting to see a really old toilet…. Aka a wooden hole in the ground? LOL! Something I found interesting was that they allowed pictures, if you paid 20kr for a license. Didn't care enough. Saw someone taking pictures of stuff that was behind glass. With a flash. Good one dude, those pictures are gonna come out well. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
So after the disappointing castle I went downstairs to the Treasury. Here we go. The crown jewels. Amazing. Not much else to say but of course pretty expensive stuff from hundreds of years ago is awesome. Plus it was kinda cool to be in like the basement of a super old castle hahaha.
Then I discovered that there were these huge gardens behind the castle. Lovely and open to the public, which seemed really nice as they could easily charge or at least make it part of the castle ticket. Wandered around a bit and took some pictures. There was a Hans Christian Andersen statue that was actually made during his life and he approved it, so that is kinda cool. Walked through the much smaller but pretty Queens Garden, sat down and read some materials and looked at the map and left. When I was walking through the big gardens, I saw this family of parents and 2 young kids and each parent was taking a picture of the other parent with the two kids. I heard them speak English, and it was obvious what they were trying do, so I was like, "would you like a picture of all of you together?" They were very grateful, it was cute. They spoke English well, but weren't American. So maybe they were like "Wow that American girl was so nice" and they will think better of Americans or something :P Anyway that was my good deed for the day. HA!
11:15am - wandering back to the Norrebro area, found this thing that looked like a park. No, it was some kind of free and open to the public botanical gardens!! It looked HUGE. There was some map/guide to poisonous plants throughout the garden. Oh my. I wandered just for a little bit, quite beautiful but the one in Amsterdam was better (of course, that one cost to get into. LOL). Didn't want to waste precious feet energy looking at more plants.
Made my way to the Norrebro area, which I read was fun and multicultural. I felt a little let down. It was multicultural indeed, but I was expecting a lot of action at this time of day (around noon), and a lot more eateries. I thought there would be street vendors selling falafel and things like that, but nothing :(
12:30ishpm - walked around a bit and found a bus stop with a bus going to the train station. Waited for it and then got off at the station and started walking down the Vesterbrogade - a main street going away from the station - my hotel is off of this street. I was getting hungry so I looked for a place to eat. Finally I found a place that wasn't too expensive called "Vagabondo's" - yes the name made me nervous but I was hungry, my feet hurt, it was raining, this place had pizza, and it was cheap (by copenhagen standards). So this is what it would be.
1:30ishpm - had a pepperoni pizza. Not the world's greatest but it was fine. They charged me 10kr for a glass of water. LOL! I had read in Rick Steves's book that they might charge for tap water here because it is so expensive, but I thought it would say on the menu or that she'd tell me. Anyway no big deal, still cheaper than a soda :)
Got on the bus and took it back to the City Hall Square and walked up the Stroget again. Sorry mom, no Holmgaard (or anything similar) store, nor any store that I could see that sold little glass animals :( Maybe they are gone and your little guys are worth a lot of money :D Took a detour (on which I found a lovely bakery and bought tonight's wienerbrod!) to see the Christiansborg Ruins (underneath the palace I went to yesterday which was built in the early 1900s, there are ruins from old castles that burned down). There's not much there and if it were included on my CPH card I wouldn't have bothered, but it was, so I went. It was interesting to see this underground ruin from the 1100s, underneath the opulence I walked through yesterday. Made my way back to the Stroget and walked to the end where Kongens Nytorv is. Had read a lot about how nice this area was but maybe I'm missing it. Maybe it's stuff off the square or something. The square is pretty don't get me wrong, I just don’t see a whole lot there.
Realized I had missed the road to go to the Round Tower (a, well, round tower that you can go to the top of not by going up stairs but by walking up a circular uphill ramp. Covered by my CPHCard but no freaking thanks!). So went back and discovered that the road to get there off the Stroget is also pedestrianized and has a ton of stores. So stopped and browsed along the way. This road actually goes out to the Norrebro area where I had been this morning. Guess it is a pretty small city center area if I keep stumbling upon places I already went haha.
3:30ishpm - For the rest of the afternoon I just walked around this area and browsed in the shops, went into a church or two that I had missed yesterday, sat for long periods and people-watched, which was interesting and restful for my feet. Found a store called Netto, which is like a discount supermarket. Found CHEAP water! 1.75 krones (or like 20-25 cents or something) for a smaller glass of water, about double that for a 2-liter bottle…. If only I had been near my hotel! But it was reassuring to know that there was cheap bottled water LOL.
5:30pm - Passed a restaurant just off the Stroget called Det Lille Apotek that I wanted to try but they serve pretty big meals so I might save it for my last night here in a couple days. But right next door was a place I had read in Rick Steves's book and some other places called Riz Raz. It is a Mediterranean type place that has a lunch and dinner vegetarian buffet for pretty cheap (79kr at dinner). They also have meat dishes for not that much more money (a chicken skewer including the buffet was 119kr - cheap for copenhagen I guess lol). But since I wasn't all that hungry, I just went for the buffet. Even though I don't eat a vast majority of the things on it (lots of different grain salads - couscous, rices, some other grains, and all kinds of weird cooked veggies and salads), I had PLENTY to eat - pastas, regular salad and raw veggies, greek olives (mmmmm), homemade pita bread, and FALAFEL!! Yummy. On their menu they would give you a half liter of water (advertised as "with ice and lemon" LOL) for 5kr (or just under $1) or a full liter for 8kr. At least it was on the menu. Anyhoo, I got the full liter so my big expensive meal was 87 kr or about half of what it was last night. Not nearly as fancy or high-quality of course, but very tasty nonetheless. And the people next to me had a chicken skewer, it looked quite good.
7:15pm - walked back towards my hotel on the Stroget - earlier I had noticed that something included on my CPH Card was some kind of Hans Christian Andersen thing that was open til 10pm, so I was like hey, I'll check it out. It was in the same complex as Ripley's Believe it or Not, right in the City Hall Square, so my expectations were low. But wow, it sucked. It was like a fantasy thing touring you through some of his stores and tales. It was so lame I can't even really describe it. Maybe I was in there 15 minutes. If I had paid specifically for it (which of course I never would've anyway), I would've been sooo pissed. Walked by Tivoli and was planning on going in again but didn't really have the energy. Tired and going to Sweden tomorrow for a long daytrip so figured I'd be better off just coming back to the hotel, eating my wienerbrod and catching up with my blog and pics and just relaxing a little tonight and try to get to bed early.
7:45pm - so here I am back at the hotel for the night. Something interesting is that my laundry is just NOT drying here!!! It's been 2 days and it's still mostly all wet. What a pain. But at least I did it my first night here so it will be dry by the time I have to pack it up and leave. Just remembered. I walked by this place today (A Chinese food buffet) that had a sign by the menu hanging on the outside that said something to the effect of "only take what you can finish or you will be charged double!" That really just blew my mind.
Oh and the other night I saw this hilarious game show from Sweden called Big Words (the show is in English) - check it out http://www.ur.se/Ung/Bigwords/Startsida/ - if you click on "Titta på Big Words »" you can watch episodes!!! You won't regret it!!! LOL!!!
9:15amish - went to breakfast. Had a few different things today - (tasty) brownies instead of the chocolate coffee cake, some different kinds of fruit. I tried a passionfruit. It was really sour and normally I would probably like it, but I wasn't really in the mood haha.
9:45am - went to the train station and took the S-tog (aka commuter rail) 2 stops to Norreport station. Covered by my CPH card but no one checked tickets anyway - that seems to be a common thing here - no one has checked lots and lots of my train tickets, it's a little annoying actually. Anyway, Yes I know the first o of Norreport (and Norrebro) is supposed to have a slash through it, but I'm lazy :( :p
10:00amish - found Rosenborg Slot (castle) and got my ticket - free with CPHCard. Went into the castle with the Rick Steves self-guided tour, only to find that only the first floor (of 3) of the castle was open. It was nice, but only like 4 rooms. Disappointing :( But it was interesting to see a really old toilet…. Aka a wooden hole in the ground? LOL! Something I found interesting was that they allowed pictures, if you paid 20kr for a license. Didn't care enough. Saw someone taking pictures of stuff that was behind glass. With a flash. Good one dude, those pictures are gonna come out well. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
So after the disappointing castle I went downstairs to the Treasury. Here we go. The crown jewels. Amazing. Not much else to say but of course pretty expensive stuff from hundreds of years ago is awesome. Plus it was kinda cool to be in like the basement of a super old castle hahaha.
Then I discovered that there were these huge gardens behind the castle. Lovely and open to the public, which seemed really nice as they could easily charge or at least make it part of the castle ticket. Wandered around a bit and took some pictures. There was a Hans Christian Andersen statue that was actually made during his life and he approved it, so that is kinda cool. Walked through the much smaller but pretty Queens Garden, sat down and read some materials and looked at the map and left. When I was walking through the big gardens, I saw this family of parents and 2 young kids and each parent was taking a picture of the other parent with the two kids. I heard them speak English, and it was obvious what they were trying do, so I was like, "would you like a picture of all of you together?" They were very grateful, it was cute. They spoke English well, but weren't American. So maybe they were like "Wow that American girl was so nice" and they will think better of Americans or something :P Anyway that was my good deed for the day. HA!
11:15am - wandering back to the Norrebro area, found this thing that looked like a park. No, it was some kind of free and open to the public botanical gardens!! It looked HUGE. There was some map/guide to poisonous plants throughout the garden. Oh my. I wandered just for a little bit, quite beautiful but the one in Amsterdam was better (of course, that one cost to get into. LOL). Didn't want to waste precious feet energy looking at more plants.
Made my way to the Norrebro area, which I read was fun and multicultural. I felt a little let down. It was multicultural indeed, but I was expecting a lot of action at this time of day (around noon), and a lot more eateries. I thought there would be street vendors selling falafel and things like that, but nothing :(
12:30ishpm - walked around a bit and found a bus stop with a bus going to the train station. Waited for it and then got off at the station and started walking down the Vesterbrogade - a main street going away from the station - my hotel is off of this street. I was getting hungry so I looked for a place to eat. Finally I found a place that wasn't too expensive called "Vagabondo's" - yes the name made me nervous but I was hungry, my feet hurt, it was raining, this place had pizza, and it was cheap (by copenhagen standards). So this is what it would be.
1:30ishpm - had a pepperoni pizza. Not the world's greatest but it was fine. They charged me 10kr for a glass of water. LOL! I had read in Rick Steves's book that they might charge for tap water here because it is so expensive, but I thought it would say on the menu or that she'd tell me. Anyway no big deal, still cheaper than a soda :)
Got on the bus and took it back to the City Hall Square and walked up the Stroget again. Sorry mom, no Holmgaard (or anything similar) store, nor any store that I could see that sold little glass animals :( Maybe they are gone and your little guys are worth a lot of money :D Took a detour (on which I found a lovely bakery and bought tonight's wienerbrod!) to see the Christiansborg Ruins (underneath the palace I went to yesterday which was built in the early 1900s, there are ruins from old castles that burned down). There's not much there and if it were included on my CPH card I wouldn't have bothered, but it was, so I went. It was interesting to see this underground ruin from the 1100s, underneath the opulence I walked through yesterday. Made my way back to the Stroget and walked to the end where Kongens Nytorv is. Had read a lot about how nice this area was but maybe I'm missing it. Maybe it's stuff off the square or something. The square is pretty don't get me wrong, I just don’t see a whole lot there.
Realized I had missed the road to go to the Round Tower (a, well, round tower that you can go to the top of not by going up stairs but by walking up a circular uphill ramp. Covered by my CPHCard but no freaking thanks!). So went back and discovered that the road to get there off the Stroget is also pedestrianized and has a ton of stores. So stopped and browsed along the way. This road actually goes out to the Norrebro area where I had been this morning. Guess it is a pretty small city center area if I keep stumbling upon places I already went haha.
3:30ishpm - For the rest of the afternoon I just walked around this area and browsed in the shops, went into a church or two that I had missed yesterday, sat for long periods and people-watched, which was interesting and restful for my feet. Found a store called Netto, which is like a discount supermarket. Found CHEAP water! 1.75 krones (or like 20-25 cents or something) for a smaller glass of water, about double that for a 2-liter bottle…. If only I had been near my hotel! But it was reassuring to know that there was cheap bottled water LOL.
5:30pm - Passed a restaurant just off the Stroget called Det Lille Apotek that I wanted to try but they serve pretty big meals so I might save it for my last night here in a couple days. But right next door was a place I had read in Rick Steves's book and some other places called Riz Raz. It is a Mediterranean type place that has a lunch and dinner vegetarian buffet for pretty cheap (79kr at dinner). They also have meat dishes for not that much more money (a chicken skewer including the buffet was 119kr - cheap for copenhagen I guess lol). But since I wasn't all that hungry, I just went for the buffet. Even though I don't eat a vast majority of the things on it (lots of different grain salads - couscous, rices, some other grains, and all kinds of weird cooked veggies and salads), I had PLENTY to eat - pastas, regular salad and raw veggies, greek olives (mmmmm), homemade pita bread, and FALAFEL!! Yummy. On their menu they would give you a half liter of water (advertised as "with ice and lemon" LOL) for 5kr (or just under $1) or a full liter for 8kr. At least it was on the menu. Anyhoo, I got the full liter so my big expensive meal was 87 kr or about half of what it was last night. Not nearly as fancy or high-quality of course, but very tasty nonetheless. And the people next to me had a chicken skewer, it looked quite good.
7:15pm - walked back towards my hotel on the Stroget - earlier I had noticed that something included on my CPH Card was some kind of Hans Christian Andersen thing that was open til 10pm, so I was like hey, I'll check it out. It was in the same complex as Ripley's Believe it or Not, right in the City Hall Square, so my expectations were low. But wow, it sucked. It was like a fantasy thing touring you through some of his stores and tales. It was so lame I can't even really describe it. Maybe I was in there 15 minutes. If I had paid specifically for it (which of course I never would've anyway), I would've been sooo pissed. Walked by Tivoli and was planning on going in again but didn't really have the energy. Tired and going to Sweden tomorrow for a long daytrip so figured I'd be better off just coming back to the hotel, eating my wienerbrod and catching up with my blog and pics and just relaxing a little tonight and try to get to bed early.
7:45pm - so here I am back at the hotel for the night. Something interesting is that my laundry is just NOT drying here!!! It's been 2 days and it's still mostly all wet. What a pain. But at least I did it my first night here so it will be dry by the time I have to pack it up and leave. Just remembered. I walked by this place today (A Chinese food buffet) that had a sign by the menu hanging on the outside that said something to the effect of "only take what you can finish or you will be charged double!" That really just blew my mind.
Oh and the other night I saw this hilarious game show from Sweden called Big Words (the show is in English) - check it out http://www.ur.se/Ung/Bigwords/Startsida/ - if you click on "Titta på Big Words »" you can watch episodes!!! You won't regret it!!! LOL!!!
Monday, August 20, 2007
Day 24
Monday August 20
8:00amish - woke up, went downstairs and got the internet code. Caught up online, they give one free day so it's 60 kroners for 4 days, not bad.
9:00am - went down to breakfast - wow. Full array of like EVERYTHING. Many kinds of cheeses and meats (including what looked - and tasted - like American pepperoni!), many kinds of breads (including loaves like chocolate) and pastries, fresh juices, coffee, tea, cereals, yogurts, cereals, soft-boiled eggs, spreads, and even a couple kinds of chocolate. It is all organic and is served on this Mexican ceramics. Wow.
9:30am - set out for the Rick Steves walking tour. Went up to the City Hall Square and had a look around and inside the City Hall, which is really quite lovely.
Set up the Stroget, a series of pedestrianized shopping streets, browsed, found the biggest H&M ever and bought a shirt for 30 krones, or a little over $5, took some detours per the walking tour and saw a couple churches, and made it to the end. It had started raining and of course I didn't bring my jacket OR umbrella so I passed the time in a big department store til it stopped. Then I made it up to the square at the other end Kongens Nytorv, and took the bus back to the train station, outside of which I bought my first polse, or hotdog - they are famous here. Only 17 Krones. Pretty tasty but not quite as good as I was expecting. I'll have to try another from a different cart. Came back to the room for a few, then went out to get some water at the supermarket, where it was cheaper, a pastry at the bakery next to the supermarket, and bought a Copenhagen Card for 72 hours for the expensive price of 429 krones - expensive but should end up to be a good deal over the 3 days because it includes Tivoli, etc.
2:30pm - went to Christiansborg to see the Reception rooms - they only let you in via a tour and it was at 3pm. I barely made it. The tour was run by an older woman and she was really sweet and funny. Got to see all the fancy schmancy rooms that they still use today.
4:15pm - tried to figure out what to do - looked in the CPHCard guide to see what else I could get into for free - found the Danish Design Center, which was right near the train station on my way back to the hotel so I figured I would hop in there since it was open til 5. Oh man if I had paid 50kr to get into that I would've been so pissed lol. The best part was the shop, which had all kinds of neat stuff with the theme of traveling light. The exhibits themselves were mostly clothing design - shoes by the ecco company, etc. Not at all worth almost $10 but hey it was free for me LOL.
5:00pm - went back to the hotel for a while. Took my laptop to the lobby and hung out there, getting my free welcome glass of wine - some organic greek white wine. Whatever, it's all just wine to me. LOL!!!!
6:45pm - went to Bryggeriet Apollo for dinner, which is right outside Tivoli and right next to the place I ate last night. Had chicken which had been marinated in herbs and stuff. Was huge and filling, it also came with TWO baked potatoes (seriously, see the picture). To save some money I just got a glass of tap water - they even put some ice in it without me asking, woohoo! So total was 170kr including a small tip, or about $30. Ah well. Lunch was really cheap. LOL!!! (looked it up when I got back to the hotel - Bryggeriet Apollo is owned by the same people I ate at last night. HAHA! Oh well, they were both tasty :) )
8:00pmish - went into Tivoli (normally 75kr) with my CPH Card. Ahhh. It's so cute. I mean it's an amusement park but hardly like any we have in the US. It has lakes and gardens and a whole area designed like Chinese-style architecture. Food all over and there are rides too but those cost separately. There are also performance stages (saw two different classical type things going on in the hour and a half or so I was there). Got a berry-type of sorbet for 17kr - very tasty. Just walked around and wandered and pretty much saw the whole park - it is not all that big, not compared to US parks anyway. But it is different. It is… well, very Danish. LOL. Classy and understated but cool and fun in the same time. Anyway it was nice. There was an illumination show over the lake at 10:30 but I was getting tired and didn't want to be walking to my hotel that late so I just left around 9:30 and came back to the hotel.
9:30pm - came back here, Skyped with my mom, and ate today's pastry which was sort of like a cinnamon roll or something with some chocolate goo on top. Very tasty - better than the one from yesterday actually. Lots of pictures, they will be up tomorrow :)
8:00amish - woke up, went downstairs and got the internet code. Caught up online, they give one free day so it's 60 kroners for 4 days, not bad.
9:00am - went down to breakfast - wow. Full array of like EVERYTHING. Many kinds of cheeses and meats (including what looked - and tasted - like American pepperoni!), many kinds of breads (including loaves like chocolate) and pastries, fresh juices, coffee, tea, cereals, yogurts, cereals, soft-boiled eggs, spreads, and even a couple kinds of chocolate. It is all organic and is served on this Mexican ceramics. Wow.
9:30am - set out for the Rick Steves walking tour. Went up to the City Hall Square and had a look around and inside the City Hall, which is really quite lovely.
Set up the Stroget, a series of pedestrianized shopping streets, browsed, found the biggest H&M ever and bought a shirt for 30 krones, or a little over $5, took some detours per the walking tour and saw a couple churches, and made it to the end. It had started raining and of course I didn't bring my jacket OR umbrella so I passed the time in a big department store til it stopped. Then I made it up to the square at the other end Kongens Nytorv, and took the bus back to the train station, outside of which I bought my first polse, or hotdog - they are famous here. Only 17 Krones. Pretty tasty but not quite as good as I was expecting. I'll have to try another from a different cart. Came back to the room for a few, then went out to get some water at the supermarket, where it was cheaper, a pastry at the bakery next to the supermarket, and bought a Copenhagen Card for 72 hours for the expensive price of 429 krones - expensive but should end up to be a good deal over the 3 days because it includes Tivoli, etc.
2:30pm - went to Christiansborg to see the Reception rooms - they only let you in via a tour and it was at 3pm. I barely made it. The tour was run by an older woman and she was really sweet and funny. Got to see all the fancy schmancy rooms that they still use today.
4:15pm - tried to figure out what to do - looked in the CPHCard guide to see what else I could get into for free - found the Danish Design Center, which was right near the train station on my way back to the hotel so I figured I would hop in there since it was open til 5. Oh man if I had paid 50kr to get into that I would've been so pissed lol. The best part was the shop, which had all kinds of neat stuff with the theme of traveling light. The exhibits themselves were mostly clothing design - shoes by the ecco company, etc. Not at all worth almost $10 but hey it was free for me LOL.
5:00pm - went back to the hotel for a while. Took my laptop to the lobby and hung out there, getting my free welcome glass of wine - some organic greek white wine. Whatever, it's all just wine to me. LOL!!!!
6:45pm - went to Bryggeriet Apollo for dinner, which is right outside Tivoli and right next to the place I ate last night. Had chicken which had been marinated in herbs and stuff. Was huge and filling, it also came with TWO baked potatoes (seriously, see the picture). To save some money I just got a glass of tap water - they even put some ice in it without me asking, woohoo! So total was 170kr including a small tip, or about $30. Ah well. Lunch was really cheap. LOL!!! (looked it up when I got back to the hotel - Bryggeriet Apollo is owned by the same people I ate at last night. HAHA! Oh well, they were both tasty :) )
8:00pmish - went into Tivoli (normally 75kr) with my CPH Card. Ahhh. It's so cute. I mean it's an amusement park but hardly like any we have in the US. It has lakes and gardens and a whole area designed like Chinese-style architecture. Food all over and there are rides too but those cost separately. There are also performance stages (saw two different classical type things going on in the hour and a half or so I was there). Got a berry-type of sorbet for 17kr - very tasty. Just walked around and wandered and pretty much saw the whole park - it is not all that big, not compared to US parks anyway. But it is different. It is… well, very Danish. LOL. Classy and understated but cool and fun in the same time. Anyway it was nice. There was an illumination show over the lake at 10:30 but I was getting tired and didn't want to be walking to my hotel that late so I just left around 9:30 and came back to the hotel.
9:30pm - came back here, Skyped with my mom, and ate today's pastry which was sort of like a cinnamon roll or something with some chocolate goo on top. Very tasty - better than the one from yesterday actually. Lots of pictures, they will be up tomorrow :)
Amsterdam Wrapup
Amsterdam strikes me as "two cities" - the busy crazy young hippie parts in the big squares and main city center with all the "coffeeshops" and sex shops and litter and all this stuff, and the areas farther out by the canals that are peaceful, beautiful, friendly people and families, clean, comfortable, etc. If a town could embody Jekyll and Hyde, I think Amsterdam would do it.
I enjoyed Amsterdam but not quite as much as I had expected. After I made my plans I kind of thought, maybe I should have only done 3 nights in Brussels and 5 in Amsterdam instead of 4 each but in hindsight I am kind of glad I did it this way. On messageboards when people would ask about "should I go to Brussels or Amsterdam" everyone always said Amsterdam. Well I must say I think I preferred Brussels. If I had stayed in Amsterdam another day, I would have left and gone to Edam or Den Haag as another day trip.
Don't get me wrong, the people were all lovely, it was fantastic that everyone spoke english and that they were really nice about it, etc. but I think it's just not my kind of city. I will say though, that the food was good. The steak dinner I had at the TER Steakhouse is probably the single best meal I've had so far (and for an absurdly reasonable price considering the quality of the meat and service in this little place), and the cafeteria at the V&D department store in Haarlem was absolutely stunning. I thought Amsterdam was going to be a little more expensive, but we managed to eat pretty darn cheaply.
Something that baffled me is that the churches mostly cost to go into. I think that's kind of sad. No where else did we encounter churches that cost just to go inside and see them. Museums and cloisters, yes, but not the churches themselves. Kind of too bad. The Anne Frank House is of course a must-see despite the fact that considering you are in and out in an hour or less and might wait in line longer than you are inside, it is quite expensive, but I'm glad I went. I also particularly enjoyed the boat tour because it was so relaxing and also the De Hortus botanical garden because it was so quiet and peaceful and really an oasis just as Rick Steves described it in his book. The Jordaan area is quaint and picturesque and you get the feeling you are walking amongst the real people who live there. We walked by one place where a family was eating a meal and because you can see down into the lower level canal houses right at street level, you could see right inside and see them enjoying their meal as we walked by. It was very nice.
Haarlem was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe because we got lost or maybe because there was some festival of sorts going on in the main square so it was too busy to enjoy and appreciate, but I thought it was kind of a smaller Amsterdam with nothing particularly different or unique to offer. But don't get me wrong, it's still lovely and quaint. Maybe Saturday is just not the best day to go.
All in all, I enjoyed my time in Amsterdam but I think I liked Barcelona and Brussels a little more. Still happy I went though, as it was certainly unique and fun.
I enjoyed Amsterdam but not quite as much as I had expected. After I made my plans I kind of thought, maybe I should have only done 3 nights in Brussels and 5 in Amsterdam instead of 4 each but in hindsight I am kind of glad I did it this way. On messageboards when people would ask about "should I go to Brussels or Amsterdam" everyone always said Amsterdam. Well I must say I think I preferred Brussels. If I had stayed in Amsterdam another day, I would have left and gone to Edam or Den Haag as another day trip.
Don't get me wrong, the people were all lovely, it was fantastic that everyone spoke english and that they were really nice about it, etc. but I think it's just not my kind of city. I will say though, that the food was good. The steak dinner I had at the TER Steakhouse is probably the single best meal I've had so far (and for an absurdly reasonable price considering the quality of the meat and service in this little place), and the cafeteria at the V&D department store in Haarlem was absolutely stunning. I thought Amsterdam was going to be a little more expensive, but we managed to eat pretty darn cheaply.
Something that baffled me is that the churches mostly cost to go into. I think that's kind of sad. No where else did we encounter churches that cost just to go inside and see them. Museums and cloisters, yes, but not the churches themselves. Kind of too bad. The Anne Frank House is of course a must-see despite the fact that considering you are in and out in an hour or less and might wait in line longer than you are inside, it is quite expensive, but I'm glad I went. I also particularly enjoyed the boat tour because it was so relaxing and also the De Hortus botanical garden because it was so quiet and peaceful and really an oasis just as Rick Steves described it in his book. The Jordaan area is quaint and picturesque and you get the feeling you are walking amongst the real people who live there. We walked by one place where a family was eating a meal and because you can see down into the lower level canal houses right at street level, you could see right inside and see them enjoying their meal as we walked by. It was very nice.
Haarlem was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe because we got lost or maybe because there was some festival of sorts going on in the main square so it was too busy to enjoy and appreciate, but I thought it was kind of a smaller Amsterdam with nothing particularly different or unique to offer. But don't get me wrong, it's still lovely and quaint. Maybe Saturday is just not the best day to go.
All in all, I enjoyed my time in Amsterdam but I think I liked Barcelona and Brussels a little more. Still happy I went though, as it was certainly unique and fun.
Day 23
8:00am - woke up a few min before I had set my alarm. Interestingly, I didn't really sleep well any of the nights in Amsterdam. Not sure why as the bed seemed comfortable enough and all. Anyway, I hadn't packed last night at all so I packed up.
9:30amish - went to breakfast where it was the same nice guy as yesterday. Ate the same food as all previous days. I was the only one there so we chatted a bit. He is a dancer and going to Lebanon soon to practice some project. He mentioned getting callbacks for a part in a Utrecht production of Dirty Dancing!!! So of course, we talked about that for a while. LOL!!! He's not affiliated with the owner of the hotel at all - he is just working there periodically doing breakfast and whatnot. After I ate, I went back to my room and finished packing up.
10:30am - went across the hall again and checked out. Was no problem and was nice that this small hotel happily took the credit card. I pulled my bag up through the breakfast room because it was about 4 stairs instead of a whole flight. Took the Tram 4 to the station, then bought my ticket to the airport for 3.60 using coins in the machine. Made a 10:59am train and was at the airport by 11:15. Pretty nice let me tell you.
11:15am - found where my airline checkin was and went there even though I am like 3 and a half hours early for the flight (not like I had anything else to do!). This airport is big, shiny, sleek, and modern. My flight was already up on the screen (as were many flights even later!). I found the transavia.com (my airline) desks and they had computer kiosks! So I just checked in on there and picked an aisle exit row (hey the flight is just over an hour but might as well be comfortable lol). Then I could just drop off my suitcase at the baggage and go through security. They had interesting multicolored trays for all your stuff. I set off the metal detector but since I had zero metal on me besides a necklace and a ring, I was a little baffled. Anyway, she patted me down and said thanks for cooperating. I was like, well duh I have nothing to hide search me all you want LOL!
At the bank they had an exchange machine. I figure it was probably a pretty bad deal but I exchanged a little under 20 euros for 100 Danish Krones. I feel better about it because now at least I have a little money upon arrival in case my ATM Card or something doesn't work in the airport. The 5 or so euros I probably wasted is worth it for peace of mind knowing that I have some money to arrive with. The Danish Krone bills are so fancy! One side has like a Viking man/animal creature on it LOL
Inside security there's a huge shopping area - anything you could want! There's even a big communications area where you can buy internet access, etc. 16 euros for a whole day of wireless or 6 euros for a half hour. Well forget that LOL
11:45am - found a table with an outside view in the Food court. I will get something to eat in a little while and just chill and read about Copenhagen before the flight takes off.
12:30pm - got a slice of pizza at Sbarro (yes SBARRO LOL) and a bottle of water, it was expensive but good preparation for Copenhagen I guess.
1:15pm - find my gate, which is at the end of the earth (although on the signs, the airport so kindly tells you how long the walk to the gate area is LOL). No plane yet.
2:15pm - supposed to board, no plane yet. Finally the plane comes around 2:30pm. Then it takes forever to get the people off, then it takes an even longer forever to get boarding open. Finally on the plane about 3:00pm - only 15 min after the plane was supposed to take off. Flight time was actually just about 1 hour so we ended up landing not too late.
4:15pm - land and I find a restroom and go to the luggage carousel my flight was on and the carousel was moving but there was a whole lot of luggage on the belt ready to drop down, and I see my suitcase sitting there as if it was the first one from my flight or something. Awesome. LOL. Follow the signs to the train and buy a ticket, it was 28.50 DKK or about $5 - not bad for an expensive city, when you consider that London's equivalent is still like 7 pounds or almost triple that. Apparently I could have paid for the ticket in one of pretty much any major currency, and they would give the change in DKK. I should've paid with a US$ note or something LOL. Anyway, made it to the platform just before 5pm and a train to copenhagen station was leaving in about 5 minutes. Perfect. It came, I got on, and in about 15 min it smoothly and silently glided towards the main Copenhagen station.
5:15ishpm - get off the train and the station is HUGE. Follow the exit signs and BAM there is Tivoli Gardens. Took me a few minutes to find the tourist office and I was kind of rushing because I knew it closed at 6pm on Sunday, but I made it. Took a map and a whole other ton of paperwork. Little did I then discover that one of the city's famous bakeries had a little outlet ATTACHED TO THE TI office. How convenient :) So I bought a "chocoladebolle" or something like that - aka a CHOCOLATE BALL hahaha. A round pastry with chocolate on top (and maybe in it). It was 12DKK, which is around $2 I think. Not sooo bad considering this city. Set out to find the hotel, which I knew was just a couple blocks away. Found it and checked in. It just opened in a refurbished capacity with new owners on June 1, so I expected everything to be in good condition and it was.
Gave me a room and I went up. And I open the door. And the bed is like a bunk bed. And I pretty much freaked out. There were TWO TVs, one facing underneath the bed where there was a cute little couch, and one up top where the TV was. Wow. There's also a fridge/minibar and a complicated looking safe. Small but quaint. The bathroom was even smaller and the shower was just a little cube that wasn't even separated by the rest of the bathroom with a curtain or anything to keep water out of the entire bathroom. What a mess. I was like, wait, maybe if I just ask right away, I can get a new room with a bed down on the ground. So I go down and I am like… is there any way I can get a single room with a bed on the ground!!?!!?! So she looks and finds me one. Room 209. It also faces the courtyard so it should be pretty quiet at night. But. Omg. The bed is almost twice as wide, the bathroom has a fancy stone sink and bathtub (but again with no curtain of any kind so I still envision a terrible mess tomorrow. Only one TV but it is bigger. I can't believe these rooms would have the same price but I guess one has a bigger bed and fancier bathroom and is on a higher floor and the other has an extra TV and a couch? I dunno. Anyway I look forward to their breakfast which is apparently amazing. She told me when I checked in that I get one free drink of some kind at the bar, so I will have to take advantage of that tomorrow. I snapped a couple of pictures of the first room before I left for the new one, so you can really see the difference. One interesting thing is that the first room had a key slot to put the keycard in to turn on the lights like our hotel in Barcelona did. This one doesn't. Weird. Anyway the hotel is nice. So that's good. And they give you bathrobes! lol!
Also the wireless is not free but is 20DKK a day. That's less than $5 so I think tomorrow I will take advantage of it at least a couple days, because it's really helpful and would be cheaper than an internet café anyway.
6:50pm - I was hungry but also tired, so I set out to try to find something not too far and not TOO Expensive or big. On the way I stopped at a 7-11 and got a bottle of water for 17DKK. That's like $3 for a 750ml bottle of water. I paid about 40 eurocents for a bottle twice that big in Barcelona and Amsterdam. Oh geez. OK I just have to forget the price and not worry about it. I have gone cheaply enough this trip that I can splurge (unintentionally, really) for 5 days.
So I get to Tivoli, which is just about 3 blocks from my hotel, and the restaurants start coming. I see a bunch of names I recognized from my research and decided to eat at a steakhouse I had read good things about called A Hereford Beefstouw. I decided on it not because I wanted steak but because they had a salad bar for 103 DKK - ok that's really expensive for a salad bar, but it was probably the best salad bar I've ever seen. You name it, it was on it. Including 4 yes FOUR types of olives, whole filbert nuts, all the normal standard salad bar fare, . Things I don't even like, but that are expensive, such as roasted peppers, cooked onions, sundried tomatoes. A small glass of soda was 25DKK or a little less than $5. Oh my. OK, I'm forgetting about the cost. Anyway, it was really really good and kind of just what I needed. I filled myself but with lighter stuff like vegetables, and they had great watermelon and fresh pineapple that I had as "dessert." the restaurant itself is really neat. The steak knives were unique and the salt and pepper dispensers were wild. It's hard to explain. I should've taken a picture. Anyway. It was really good.
8:30pm - came back to the room and flipping through the tv stations to see what I get. Tons of english options, even some US channels like VH1, Discovery, TNT, plus plenty of other English options like the omnipresent CNN International, and several BBCs and Eurosport.
9:00pm - laundry time. This will be interesting in the little stone sink. LOL.
10:00pm - ended up doing it in the tub, much easier. LOL.
9:30amish - went to breakfast where it was the same nice guy as yesterday. Ate the same food as all previous days. I was the only one there so we chatted a bit. He is a dancer and going to Lebanon soon to practice some project. He mentioned getting callbacks for a part in a Utrecht production of Dirty Dancing!!! So of course, we talked about that for a while. LOL!!! He's not affiliated with the owner of the hotel at all - he is just working there periodically doing breakfast and whatnot. After I ate, I went back to my room and finished packing up.
10:30am - went across the hall again and checked out. Was no problem and was nice that this small hotel happily took the credit card. I pulled my bag up through the breakfast room because it was about 4 stairs instead of a whole flight. Took the Tram 4 to the station, then bought my ticket to the airport for 3.60 using coins in the machine. Made a 10:59am train and was at the airport by 11:15. Pretty nice let me tell you.
11:15am - found where my airline checkin was and went there even though I am like 3 and a half hours early for the flight (not like I had anything else to do!). This airport is big, shiny, sleek, and modern. My flight was already up on the screen (as were many flights even later!). I found the transavia.com (my airline) desks and they had computer kiosks! So I just checked in on there and picked an aisle exit row (hey the flight is just over an hour but might as well be comfortable lol). Then I could just drop off my suitcase at the baggage and go through security. They had interesting multicolored trays for all your stuff. I set off the metal detector but since I had zero metal on me besides a necklace and a ring, I was a little baffled. Anyway, she patted me down and said thanks for cooperating. I was like, well duh I have nothing to hide search me all you want LOL!
At the bank they had an exchange machine. I figure it was probably a pretty bad deal but I exchanged a little under 20 euros for 100 Danish Krones. I feel better about it because now at least I have a little money upon arrival in case my ATM Card or something doesn't work in the airport. The 5 or so euros I probably wasted is worth it for peace of mind knowing that I have some money to arrive with. The Danish Krone bills are so fancy! One side has like a Viking man/animal creature on it LOL
Inside security there's a huge shopping area - anything you could want! There's even a big communications area where you can buy internet access, etc. 16 euros for a whole day of wireless or 6 euros for a half hour. Well forget that LOL
11:45am - found a table with an outside view in the Food court. I will get something to eat in a little while and just chill and read about Copenhagen before the flight takes off.
12:30pm - got a slice of pizza at Sbarro (yes SBARRO LOL) and a bottle of water, it was expensive but good preparation for Copenhagen I guess.
1:15pm - find my gate, which is at the end of the earth (although on the signs, the airport so kindly tells you how long the walk to the gate area is LOL). No plane yet.
2:15pm - supposed to board, no plane yet. Finally the plane comes around 2:30pm. Then it takes forever to get the people off, then it takes an even longer forever to get boarding open. Finally on the plane about 3:00pm - only 15 min after the plane was supposed to take off. Flight time was actually just about 1 hour so we ended up landing not too late.
4:15pm - land and I find a restroom and go to the luggage carousel my flight was on and the carousel was moving but there was a whole lot of luggage on the belt ready to drop down, and I see my suitcase sitting there as if it was the first one from my flight or something. Awesome. LOL. Follow the signs to the train and buy a ticket, it was 28.50 DKK or about $5 - not bad for an expensive city, when you consider that London's equivalent is still like 7 pounds or almost triple that. Apparently I could have paid for the ticket in one of pretty much any major currency, and they would give the change in DKK. I should've paid with a US$ note or something LOL. Anyway, made it to the platform just before 5pm and a train to copenhagen station was leaving in about 5 minutes. Perfect. It came, I got on, and in about 15 min it smoothly and silently glided towards the main Copenhagen station.
5:15ishpm - get off the train and the station is HUGE. Follow the exit signs and BAM there is Tivoli Gardens. Took me a few minutes to find the tourist office and I was kind of rushing because I knew it closed at 6pm on Sunday, but I made it. Took a map and a whole other ton of paperwork. Little did I then discover that one of the city's famous bakeries had a little outlet ATTACHED TO THE TI office. How convenient :) So I bought a "chocoladebolle" or something like that - aka a CHOCOLATE BALL hahaha. A round pastry with chocolate on top (and maybe in it). It was 12DKK, which is around $2 I think. Not sooo bad considering this city. Set out to find the hotel, which I knew was just a couple blocks away. Found it and checked in. It just opened in a refurbished capacity with new owners on June 1, so I expected everything to be in good condition and it was.
Gave me a room and I went up. And I open the door. And the bed is like a bunk bed. And I pretty much freaked out. There were TWO TVs, one facing underneath the bed where there was a cute little couch, and one up top where the TV was. Wow. There's also a fridge/minibar and a complicated looking safe. Small but quaint. The bathroom was even smaller and the shower was just a little cube that wasn't even separated by the rest of the bathroom with a curtain or anything to keep water out of the entire bathroom. What a mess. I was like, wait, maybe if I just ask right away, I can get a new room with a bed down on the ground. So I go down and I am like… is there any way I can get a single room with a bed on the ground!!?!!?! So she looks and finds me one. Room 209. It also faces the courtyard so it should be pretty quiet at night. But. Omg. The bed is almost twice as wide, the bathroom has a fancy stone sink and bathtub (but again with no curtain of any kind so I still envision a terrible mess tomorrow. Only one TV but it is bigger. I can't believe these rooms would have the same price but I guess one has a bigger bed and fancier bathroom and is on a higher floor and the other has an extra TV and a couch? I dunno. Anyway I look forward to their breakfast which is apparently amazing. She told me when I checked in that I get one free drink of some kind at the bar, so I will have to take advantage of that tomorrow. I snapped a couple of pictures of the first room before I left for the new one, so you can really see the difference. One interesting thing is that the first room had a key slot to put the keycard in to turn on the lights like our hotel in Barcelona did. This one doesn't. Weird. Anyway the hotel is nice. So that's good. And they give you bathrobes! lol!
Also the wireless is not free but is 20DKK a day. That's less than $5 so I think tomorrow I will take advantage of it at least a couple days, because it's really helpful and would be cheaper than an internet café anyway.
6:50pm - I was hungry but also tired, so I set out to try to find something not too far and not TOO Expensive or big. On the way I stopped at a 7-11 and got a bottle of water for 17DKK. That's like $3 for a 750ml bottle of water. I paid about 40 eurocents for a bottle twice that big in Barcelona and Amsterdam. Oh geez. OK I just have to forget the price and not worry about it. I have gone cheaply enough this trip that I can splurge (unintentionally, really) for 5 days.
So I get to Tivoli, which is just about 3 blocks from my hotel, and the restaurants start coming. I see a bunch of names I recognized from my research and decided to eat at a steakhouse I had read good things about called A Hereford Beefstouw. I decided on it not because I wanted steak but because they had a salad bar for 103 DKK - ok that's really expensive for a salad bar, but it was probably the best salad bar I've ever seen. You name it, it was on it. Including 4 yes FOUR types of olives, whole filbert nuts, all the normal standard salad bar fare, . Things I don't even like, but that are expensive, such as roasted peppers, cooked onions, sundried tomatoes. A small glass of soda was 25DKK or a little less than $5. Oh my. OK, I'm forgetting about the cost. Anyway, it was really really good and kind of just what I needed. I filled myself but with lighter stuff like vegetables, and they had great watermelon and fresh pineapple that I had as "dessert." the restaurant itself is really neat. The steak knives were unique and the salt and pepper dispensers were wild. It's hard to explain. I should've taken a picture. Anyway. It was really good.
8:30pm - came back to the room and flipping through the tv stations to see what I get. Tons of english options, even some US channels like VH1, Discovery, TNT, plus plenty of other English options like the omnipresent CNN International, and several BBCs and Eurosport.
9:00pm - laundry time. This will be interesting in the little stone sink. LOL.
10:00pm - ended up doing it in the tub, much easier. LOL.
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