I made it to Prague!

I am now in Prague. But getting here was a little adventure.

Yesterday evening Elwira took me to the bus station where I waited for my bus to depart at 5pm. So far so good... We drove through central Vienna for one last glance at the beautiful city on the way to the highway. I got a great look at Austrian countryside as we headed towards Czech. Fields of sunflowers, corn, wheat, lots and lots of grass and farms. The border crossing was a joke really, it looked more like a highway toll station then an international border. We had our passports briefly checked and we were officially in Czech Rep.. Almost immediately after the border we had a little stop where I met some of my fellow travellers, a group of 4 60'ish year old women New Zealander friends travelling around Europe together. Very friendly and chit chatty. Everyone got back on the bus and we left. WE drove about 35 mins through little towns, fields a beautiful sunset and then we noticed our bus driver making a U-turn. The Kiwi women and I speculated that there must be an accident ahead and we were finding another route. After 30 minutes we asked some young guys on the bus to ask the driver is Czech what the deal was. They did and it turns out the bus driver left a passenger at the rest stop. We had only driven 35 minutes (yes, i was actually keeping an eye on the time) but it took over an hour to return to the get the lost guy. We ended up 2.5 hours behind schedule somehow and arrived after 11pm.

Its not that dramatic except a bunch of us were thinking the metro was going to be closed and for me, as a single female traveller, arriving by 9 was reasonable but travelling around 12am not so much. Thankfully the guys showed me how to use the tram, where to get on and for how long and helped me locate a ticket purchasing machine (at night this can prove to be quite a task). I made it too the hostel by 12.15am after getting off at the wrong stop, walking the deserted streets a little afraid of my own shadow and being stared at by drunken Czech guys. Not a bad night!

Now for a day of sightseeing...

Cream coloured ponies and crisp APPLE STRUDEL...

door bells and sleigh bells and SCHNITZEL with noodles....

Today was my last day in Vienna. Elwira and I met early and went to Kaisergruft or the Imperial Vault as they call it in English, but I would more accurately describe it as the imperial crypt. They give you a map as you walk in and a family tree of the Hapsburg's so you can track what coffins you are looking at. The coffins are really ornate and almost works of art themselves. Usually the Emperor or Empress is in the center of a big room in a giant coffin surrounded by his or her children in more modest homes. I found out that their bodies were kind of mummified, their organs were taking out and are housed in containers in the catacombs of St. Stephens Cathedral (which I already saw) and their hearts are buried somewhere else. I tagged along a little to an English tour and heard some stories about the families, Sisi, Napoleons wife (a Hapsburg) and Napoleons son.

As the lyrics of My Favorite Things suggest apple strudel and schnitzel are considered Austrian delicacies. During my stay here I have made an effort to taste both, along with fresh horseradish (its actually dry and really liked shaved radish), sauerkraut, wiener schnitzel and apfelstrudel. YUMMY!

Now its Bye Bye to Elwira and off to Prague!

The hills are alive, with the sound of music...

..or they were yesterday as I serenaded Elwira on our walk up through the wine region to the top of the mountain on our way to Kahlenberg.

I have just spent three and a half great days in Vienna, with my friend Elwira as my personal tour guide. When I arrived on Sunday she immediately took me to my apt. (actually her friends empty apt.) which she arranged for me to have to myself for the week. It was such a pleasant surprise to have a place to myself and it was such as welcomed relief from communal, hostel living. In the three days I have been to the oldest brewery in Vienna (Salm Braeu), visited the Summer palace (Schönbrunn) and winter palace (Hofburg) of the Hapsburg's, seen the bodies of dead Austrians that were buried under Stephendom Cathedral in the main square during the plagues in the 17th C, and enjoyed a mini tour of the wine region in Vienna.

The wine region tour was called Heurigen Express. During this tour we took a hop on, hop off choo choo train from Grinzing up the mountain a little where we decided to hop off and walk to the top. Well, after 5 minutes Elwira was struggling (not me of course..hehe) and to lessen the physical stress I started my rendition of the Sound of Music Soundtrack. For those of you who know and love the movie as much as I do, you will appreciate that I started with The Sound of music, moved on to the group song of How do you solve a problem like Maria, followed by I have confidence and so on. I only made it to the end of the first half of the movie (So Long, Farewell sung by the children..in my best voices) before Elwira was laughing so hard and begging me to stop because together we were a scary sight, but it worked and we made it to the top in good spirits. At the top the view was spectacular. Wineries in the foreground, the Danube to the left, mountains to the right, and the city of Vienna at dusk in the background. Not bad!

The weather was less then perfect today so we took it a little easier starting with Seegrotte, or the biggest underground lake in Europe. It is an old mine that was flooded after some accidental explosions thus ending its typical use. The neat thing about this place is that during WWII the Nazis had control of it and actually pumped all the water out and used the empty mine as a location for the production of airplane parts. OH and 20 minutes of the 1993 flick The Three Musketeers with Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and Chris O'Donnel was filmed there. Other then the mine it was a relaxing day of 'just taking Austria in' for me. Now its an early night in my apt. Excellent!

I'm leavin on the midnight train to Georgia...

Now just replace Georgia with Vienna, and midnight with 7am. Tomorrow morn bright and early im leaving Krakow and heading to see Elwira in Vienna. She is going to meet me on the platform when my train arrives around 1:30pm. I am very excited to see her and I am looking forward to our 4 days of events!

Will keep you posted....

"he's leavin, on the midnight train to Georgia. Said he's goin back to find the simpler place and time...I'd rather live in his world, then live without him in mine....all aboard all aboard..i've got to go...i've got to go..."

I had a seat on the hot tamale train!!

OK, that's just a cheesy shout out to ballroom dancing guru and judge of So You Think You Can Dance, Mary Murphy..I love mind numbing reality TV.

But really, today I had an amazing Polish experience...no ...not Auschwitz, although I did go there too....you'll never guess so I'll just have to tell you! I rode on the Pope John Paul II train! No, dont rewind, you read it right! There is actually a train called The Pope Train (in Polish of Course). It runs from Krakow's main station to Wadowice, John Paul II's hometown. Its faster then the normal local train and has built in entertainment in the form of TV screens with movies playing of various Pope'ish events. I felt a little wrong reading my book and not giving my full attention to the local hero, but others fell asleep so I figured I wasn't the most disrespectful. I rode the train to Kalwaria (where the Pope was just before he died) where I met Gabi and Elwira's mom. They drove me to Auschwitz and waited around for me for 4 hours then took be back to Kalwaria for dinner.

I will write later about Auschwitz and Birkenau. It doesn't really go hand in hand with my Pope Train experience.. so fun!

Schindlers List

Aside from a movie that I still have never seen, Schindler was a man who influenced many peoples lives and today, I saw his factory. My friend in Vienna, Elwira, also lives near Krakow in a place called Kalwaria and through email she got me in touch with her cousin, Gabi. I met Gabi this morning and she walked me around Krakow, a wonderful little private tour by a local. We hit many sites including Wawel Castle, Schindlers factory, The Jewish area of Krakow (that was a Jewish ghetto during the war), the main town square and Krakow's biggest church. I also sampled delicious Polish food today, Polish Pierogies and borscht. My pierogi were filled with mushrooms and cabbage and Gabi ate Russian style cheese, onion and potato ones. Yum is the word!

Tomorrow I am off to meet Elwira and Gabi's family in Kalwaria and to visit Auschwitz.

Mata ne!

Polska

Hey All! Yes that's right ..I'm in Poland now! Polska is Poland in Polish not to be mistaken with the polka, for all you Oktoberfest loving people who might have made that mistake.

Back tracking a bit, despite the terrorist bombing on the train tracks between Moscow and St. Petersburg last week, our train made it to the old capital in one piece. St. Petersburg was amazing. All the buildings are old, European and steeped with history. We got going right away with a walking tour of the city. Our local guide, Vera, gave us a rather cultural tour instead of the typical historical building view and I enjoyed it immensely. In this previously secret artist corner called Pushkinskaya there is actually a guy who for decades now has been raising money for his temple, "The Temple of Love, Peace and Music named after John Lennon". The height of his building has been named John Lennon St. and actually has an official (OK, maybe not so official) street sign. Catherine the Great...who's she?? hehe

One the second day we were let loose in The Hermitage. What a huge building! They say it would take a person a decade to actually glance at every work of art in the entire building. I spent a long 4 hours walking around and taking it in. The building was just incredible, and the most interesting part for me. When I was standing in one of the big state rooms, I just looked at the ceiling (to escape the views of tourists) and imagined being there for a ball, wearing one of the dresses I saw at the Kremlin, dancing with some Russian Prince. Just for one day...what a life!

I worked it out and I reckon I've been walking on average 12-15km a day. Not bad eh? Moscow and St Petersburg are two totally different cities, so I can't honestly compare, but St. Petersburg is easy to navigate on foot and I'd much prefer that.

Our tour ended on Saturday and I spent one more night there with an older Australian couple. We went to an Uzbek restaurant and drank vodka in the hotel bar, with 3 Russian prostitutes sitting behind us waiting for work. Gotta love Russia!!

So, now as my title suggests, I am in Poland. I arrived in Warsaw on Sunday afternoon and stayed at the Oki Doki Hostel for three nights. Funky hostel and friendly staff. I also met some really cool people. Yesterday I spent the day walking around with an Argentinian guy and a guy from the UK. I really enjoyed their company and after an exhausting weekend (ending the tour was emotional) it reaffirmed what I love about travelling. THE PEOPLE YOU MEET!! And I feel when I travel alone I actually meet more people because I am more approachable and I'm not just focused on having a good time with the one friend. Yeh for good hostels!

This morning I made my way to Krakow and as far as actual sights go, this is the place to be! Its an old, quaint city with lots of character. Today there was some kind of festival in the main old town square with local groups performing dances and skits and all around the square are hundreds of open air cafes.

I could go on but this is already a book and you probably had to come back the site three different times just to finish it all. Ive found a good Internet cafe now(you get dirty looks for taking a long time to write at the hostels), so hopefully I'll keep you all more informed of my comings and goings.

Do widzenia!

All roads lead to Moscow...

and we arrived in sweltering bus yesterday! Our hotel is Hotel Ismailovo. It is a huge hotel complex with 5 buildings (i think) each one with hundreds of rooms. Zoe (my roomy) and I lucked out and got a newly renovated room on the 9th floor with the best shower Ive used since I was home at Christmas and air conditioning. After arriving we quickly refreshed ourselves then took the metro to Red Square. What an amazing city! The sky was clear last night and while it was warm it was comfortable. St. Basil's Cathedral was picture perfect with the clear night sky as a backdrop. After dinner we sat on the grass in front of the Kremlin and enjoyed the light. It was 10:00 when I started heading home and the sun was just setting. There were hundreds of people out on the street, sitting around us on the grass and swimming in the famous horse statue (cant remember the name at the moment).

Today we rose early to line up to see Lenin's Mausoleum. Yup...nothing like a waxed dead guy to start your day! Unreal! We had a few hours free time to wander at will then met at 3pm for the never ending (OK..so it was only 3 hours) tour of the Kremlin. Most of the explanations of the buildings and churches just went right over my head, but in this one Cathedral 6 monks stood up at the front and started to sing minutes after we walked in. Now I don't think Ive ever felt goosebumps like that before. And, the suck that I am had tears streaming down my face by the end of their song. Just beautiful! Of course I bought their CD!

The Armory was overall the most impressive. All the exhibits are original artifacts in impeccable condition. We saw Catherine the Greats Robe, Ivan the Terribles throne, carriages, you name it..its there! Just really well presented and interesting.

That's Moscow! Tomorrow is another free day, then its off to St. Petersburg at night!

Thanks all for the comments too...i look forward to reading them!!

Suzdal

After a 75 epic train trip from Irkutsk Siberia to Vladimir we are now in Suzdal, a kind of Russian Niagara-on-the-lake sort of town. Because of a train mix up we left Irkutsk a day early and caught the Baikal train (the best train in Russia) and landed in Suzdal a day early. It worked out amazingly for us because we arrived yesterday to Suzdals 1000year Anniversary bash and we got to celebrate with the Russians, Russian style! All around the town square were babushkas selling their wares beside great food stalls. Let me tell you, the Russians love their meat!! Every stall was selling the same thing, fresh BBQ'd pork (various types) and chicken. If you ordered the meat, which you paid for by the pound, you got a potato and pickle for free! My new favourite food is Russian pickles, I think I ate about 6! We sat outside in the park from 5pm till 11pm drinking beer, people watching and sampling fine Russian vodka. So far outside of riding the horse in Mongolia, Suzdal is the BEST!!

Happy Anniversary Suzdal!

I got my blog back!!

Thanks to the helpful people at Blogger I got my blog back!! And now I have added all the posts (okay..so only three posts..) to the old blog. Phew!!

This train is bound for glory..

...or maybe just Russia. Today we leave Mongolia and get on a train for a 40 hour journey to Russia. The last few days have been amazing. I rode a horse in the Mongolian country side for 2 hours and it only cost $10. I also had a stroll on the back of camel for $1 and held an eagle for $1. I love this country! Truly Beautiful!I must get going, haven't had lots of time to write. But have been keeping a hand written journal this time and will give better updates in Russia.

Happy August!

My itinerary Take 2

Aug 2- I am now in Mongolia..Ula an Baa tar (UB), the capital.
Aug 3- we are going to a Ger Camp in Terelj National Park and staying overnight.
Aug 4- back to UB
Aug 5- after a day of sightseeing we are back on a train (this time 40 hours)
Aug 6-train
Aug7- we arrive in Irkutsk and Listvyanka. We visit Lake Baikal and have a home stay
Aug8- Irkutsk
Aug 9- train to Vladimir- 75 hours!!
Aug 10-train
Aug 11- train
Aug 12-arrive in Vladimir and Suzdal
Aug 13- 16Moscow
Aug 16-19 St Peters burg
Aug 19-22 Warsaw
Aug 22-26 Krakow (Auschwitz and more)
Aug 26-Aug 30 Vienna (visiting Elwira from my tour last summer)
Aug 30-Sept 2 Czech Rep. Prague
Sept 2 -overnight train to Budapest Hungary
Sept 3-6 Budapest
Sept 6-12I fly budapest to London, London to Dublin where I'll see Liz!!
Sept 12+24 I'm in London visiting Jenny
Sept 24....BACK TO CANADA

Dad...this is specially for you!! love you!! Ill be posting regularly now!! Love ya!

My Itinerary

Here is what Ive been up to and what I'm going to be doing...
July 28- I flew from Japan to Beijing on a 6:25pm flight. I stayed at Beijing Far East International Youth Hostel for the night.July 29- I made my way to the Harmony Hotel where I met my intrepid roommate Zoe (from Australia) and relaxed for the day before I met the rest of the group at 6. We followed our initial group meeting with Peking Duck! yum!

July 30- Happy Birthday to ME!!!! To celebrate my turning 26 years old I climbed the great wall. This year the visibility was worse and the view not as good, but the climb seemed easier. I didn't chicken out this time and took the 1km long luge type slide down from the wall! so fun! We enjoyed free time in the afternoon and met for dinner and a birthday beer.

Jul 31- our local tour guide Forest (a Chinese guy, not our tour guide E.J who is from the UK ) have us a tour of Tienanmen Square (which was blocked off for the day) and the Forbidden City. The weather was cooler then last year although still really hot. It didn't seem as crowded either..hmmm. I am happy to report the Starbucks is no longer there! Apparently Starbucks inside the FC opened in 2000 and had a seven year contract that conveniently ended not too long ago. We finished our day at the night market (a first for me) and saw a street that specialized in street meat, fruit kebabs and even scorpion kebabs...gross! none of us were brave enough to try it, although I did have a yummy stick of meat that I was told was beef.

Aug 1- we got up early and made our way to our first train. Our trip to Mongolia started at 7:30am at Beijing West station. We were in Car 13 in three separate berths along with these Chinese guys who packed their entire bunk with boxes of 'stuff'. It was hilarious watching them just chuck it in. They then spent at least 12 hours sorting it and spreading it out throughout the train. Very interesting! Some of my group followed them a couple of times to see where else on the train they were taking the unidentified boxes but we never really figured it out. We also had acrobatic Shaolin Monks on our train. We couldn't miss 'em as they were dressed in florescent orange plastic looking monk uniforms. They were all wearing snazzy designer label runners too! Fantastic! Again I was pretty impressed with the train. This time around we only had 4 to a bunk and until we crossed the border into Mongolia we even had a dining car. Not to shabby!
Aug 2- Today...will write more later.

I deleted my Blog

Yes, I am stupid and in my haste trying to keep in contact with you all on my first day in Beijing I pressed a button that i thought was post, that was actually a 'delete entire blog' button instead. I am totally annoyed at myself and a little upset because my old blog was all my thoughts on japan that made it into words and it was my intention to print a lot of the posts out etc when I got home. However, I have created this account so I can still keep in touch. If you can search in your Internet history or something and find my old website and save any of it, I would be eternally grateful! Thanks!