Month: June 2006

no Córdoba after all

The Sevilla night bus was stinky and miserable as could be expected, and then we got kicked out of the bus station for 15 minutes because it wasn’t open yet… insult added to injury. After the city woke up I introduced Alana to chocolate con churros and we found our hostal, miraculously equipped with a full ensuite. enSWEET. Much laundry followed, and then some sleep, and then the Cathedral and Alcázar (of which gardens I waxed lyrical on my last trip). And then a LOT of sleep… it was time to decompress a little.

After about 15 hours of sleep last night, A. decided that she did not want to pay the 8 euro for the Mezquita in Córdoba. Personally I think it’s worth it once, so it works out for me since I have seen it. She is missing out though. As a result we took a bus straight from Sevilla to Granada.

So here we are in Granada, ready to queue for hot hours at the crack of dawn tomorrow to try to get into the Alhambra–by the time I thought of trying to reserve it online it was too late, but they save some tickets for the day of entry. We went up to the Mirador de San Nicolás in the Albaicín (old Arab quarter) for a stunning view of the Alhambra (with Sierra Nevada backdrop) and then somehow came down in a very different direction. We seem to be alive somehow.

That trip marks our last significant bus travel (except for the hike out to BVA near Paris) and the last travel that had not been pre-booked.

Food is cheap here and so is the Net–both good things.

got to admit it’s getting better

OK, so after a decent meal and the crazy Holland x Portugal match last night, and some late night walking, I think we are patched up for a few more days of 24/7 friction-building travel. We we neither the first in bed nor the first up at the hostel, which was gratifying. Ran into the Royal Palace and that area before dinner last night, which was an area I had not seen here.

We checked out, went to the post office, and then day-tripped off to Toledo and rode the cheesy but effective zocotren. Food prices off the beaten path were fabulous. The cathedral was expensive but cathedralrific.

After a little downtime in a park (with working water fountain!) we trekked back down to the bus station and got back to Madrid. Went to the Reina Sofía for a bit, had some Doner Kebap, and now we are internetting for a bit before our 23h night bus to Sevilla. That should be a pack of fun, with 5h arrival. Hopefully we will be up to enjoying the city on arrival.

Weather is classic Spanish. Warm but bearably dry and incredible in the evenings.

Hasta pronto.

quick Madrid update

We are in Madrid. It is still here. Saw most of the paseos/Gran Vía/Plaza Mayor type stuff yesterday and today went to the Prado and walked far too far in the Retiro park.

Things have hit a new low as far as the not getting deathly sick of being around each other 24/7 but there may be improvement after a park conversation… I sure hope so. Got some lazing to do then hopefully some plaza will still be lazy and nice on a Sunday evening for some unwinding.

Looks like we will daytrip (yeah, I know, ugh) to Toledo tomorrow since A. seems to like the really old buildings and such (which Madrid is rather short on). We booked the bus tickets to Sevilla and the later train tickets to Barcelona so I think all our remaining travel en route is booked, and that is something of a relief.

The weather is a little warm but absolutely gorgeous.

Cat’s hostel is very high tech but a bit partied out for my taste… at 17.30 someone was still sleeping in the room. Do not get to see much of Madrid that way.

The painting I had been wondering about for the last two years in the Prado is called Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, by Goya. I’m putting it here so I won’t forget it again.

OK, big line and I have been on for around my 20 mins. Until we meet again.

Live from Bruges at bad prices

After q hqrrozing series of trqins I q, in Bruges qnd boy is this keyboqrd tired:

(love this belgian keyboard)

So to avoid typing much… AMS Centraal is lousy. Schipol airport is a great alternative. Rotterdam is cold at 4 am. Ah, English mode… now to avoid looking at keys.

Luxembourg was very… Luxembourgy. Lots of Grand Ducal pictures, with the country shutting down or setting up for the national birthday party the day after. Neat castles, scary thousand-year-old tunnel systems, nice bridges and valley views, and so on. All that and a train station full of (potable!!!) water fountains.

The Bauhaus inn rooms in Bruges are right over the bar, which is a bad thing at night. Bar is a bit overpriced for food and drink… I may never get to redeem the drink voucher provided on check-in.

Bruges is very pretty and medieval (is that right? I hate spelling that one). The belfry was back-breaking but the churches have provided nice opportunities to relax.

The 2,70 euro for a cup of pasta was fantastic… we might see a 4,50/kg pancake place later. Good ice cream but hard to find. And now that I’ve covered the important food groups (chocolate is a little out of my price range, but I’ll try some of that / waffles / fries in Brussels tomorrow), a little rumination.

The parts of semi-northern Europe I have visited so far have been nice… safe, clean, etc. But tomorrow evening, if all goes well, I’ll be in my old stomping grounds in Madrid (a bit grittier, a lot hotter, and so on). It will be interesting to see how they compare.

I will also be delighted to throw away my Eurail pass after we get to the Brussels airport. What a pain… everyone wants to stamp it, forgets they stamped it, isn’t sure if the dates are marked correctly (they are, not rocket science), wants a passport… It saved a lot of money for this routing, though.

Actually I don’t much feel like ruminating right now. Without a notebook the opportunities (?) for intense introspection are not there, but since I’m blogging in public I should not be publishing those anyway. Traveling with another person is not impossible, but it is easy to get on each others’ nerves. Functionally during long night train rides it isn’t much different if you are solo or have a travelmate who puts on the music, starts writing, and shuts you out for a few hours… but everyone needs a break some time, and without that sort of thing the atmosphere might end up more on the poisonous side. Good or bad, I don’t know. I guess in a couple weeks I’ll be able to tell you whether Europe works better alone or with a friend, but I will probably wuss out with “it’s different.”

To preview, tomorrow involves an early train and grazing in Brussels on traditional Belgian street food (and I still have not had a Hoegaarden during this trip, sadly) followed by a flight from BRU to Madrid Barajas, a ride on the Metro system, a check in at Cat’s hostel, and hopefully a heck of a good time in blistering-hot Spain summer.

Costly Amsterdam (and Berlin, Prague reports late)

Here I am in Amsterdam, an uncognizant (word?) poet.

The public library has a free 30 minute Internet access period so I’m typing away furiously here.

Amsterdam is expensive, expensive, expensive. If you want to go in anywhere, it’s at least 5€. Food is silly too. At least it’s relatively compact and walkable, so we wasted (in retrospect) even more money on our public transport passes. Oops.

The Resistance museum was pretty good but frightening as it didn’t (completely) dance around the complacency of much of the populace. The Anne Frank Huis was very well-done, with stairs in their back-breaking original setup.

It’s true: literally everyone in Amsterdam (for my sample, anyway) speaks perfectly good English.

Tonight the luggage lockers close at 23h but our train won’t leave until… 04h or so? So you might see me on the Internet later for pay. Yes, I am staying awake until then just to see Luxembourg: got a problem with that?

Most of the sights I’ve seen so far are about what you’d expect, so since time is limited I’ll confine my writing to surprises. The Van Gogh museum is, in my opinion, badly overpriced: 10€ for a collection not nearly that big. Prices at most places about about 0,50 or 1 over what the guidebooks thought at the beginning of the year. Our hostel, the Shelter Jordan, has cheap and good food in its café and provided a very nice, non-pushy interpretation of Christianity’s ideas on hospitality and fairness. It’s also extremely well-run for the low cost, and provided… be afraid, dear reader… full-strength orange juice! Sure, fresh from the box, but not unrecognizable like most hostel breakfast swill.

Muddled impressions from the last few cities… I liked Berlin. We ended up stumbling into a free game-watch at a cultural center which has been taken over by Brazil for the duration and watching the Brazilian victory. We also saw the Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and all the normal Berlin stuff. Hmm, what else… Jewish museum, monument to the murdered Jews of Europe, lots of World Cup excitement, tasty bratwurst, exciting ticket inspection raids on the U-bahn, the world’s new largest train station in Berlin Hbf, a unreasonably reasonably priced drugstore/mini-grocery in the same, the amazing free view from the Reichstag dome, a few rides on bus 100 including the Tiergarten and statue in middle, the (entrance to the) Zoo, the Olympic Stadium, the Alexanderplatz area and TV tower… OK, I had a good time, anyway.

In Prague we mostly tried to keep up with the German guided tour, which didn’t work too well–I understood the Latin in the churches better–but it was still interesting. We ate at some place which I will later shame in these pages for the shameless hidden 30 czk cover charge applied per person, and had earlier been cheated (even on the receipt) at a change-house. That is to say, Prague served as a wonderful reminder of the Euro’s usefulness.

My time is drawing to an end and I still have some stuff to look up, so that’s all for now.

prague, berlin, amsterdam

You’re going to have to wait for those, maybe forever… I’m tired and in a very bad mood from the trip here (Amsterdam) from Berlin.

Actually, you will have to wait for a lot, since the Internet doesn’t grow on trees here.

The server was down for a bit. It happens. It will probably happen even more often when I am not keeping an eye on it. Traveling is hard and getting where I need to be and seeing what’s around is my first priority. If I ever remember to buy a notebook, it might get updated later.

Briefly: Prague was pretty, badly overtouristed, and cheatful. Berlin was very nice, great Reichstag view and nice views from the ground too. Amsterdam… well, I just got here, and I’m not all tulips as you may be able to tell. We’ll see if I can do better–I’m planning to recharge with some art today if I can help it.

prague, or not, or maybe

An ongoing bit of drama has been the issue of our daytrip to Prague. Things keep working and then not working, and the same for their alternatives. The current plan is to wake up in time for a 6h15 departure on a 26€ all-in semi-guided-bus-tour tomorrow. We will see.

Pilnitz was nice but not a must-see. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, so that might have been a factor. Lunch was most excellent–Saurbraten, some very tender meat served with red cabbage and a sour sauce, with a Weissbier to wash it down… both extremely German I am told.

Before, stopped by the train station and reserved seats on an EC train around 10h Sunday to Berlin’s shiny new Hbh.

It should be interesting to be in Prague on game day but I think we will be out of town before the 18h kickoff v. Ghana. We should also be back in time to watch the US play (I hope they play) Italy at 21h.

The GEO grant check partially reimbursing me for the Hong Kong flight has thankfully landed in checking back home, so that will not hurt at all.

Better get a shower for the early wake up tomorrow.

dresden part 2

Yesterday was a day of fairly standard sightseeing… the Church of Our Lady, the cathedral, the Saxon jewelry vault and painting collections, and the various sights of the Altstadt. Also saw the hosts’ son’s school, in GDR concrete glory. The streetcar system is nice and fairly foolproof.

Last night, after stuffing ourselves at a late lunch with food from the Müller butcher shop/deli operation across the street, we went out with Maria and Stefan to the Neustadt (more dirty and free-spirited and fun) for… Mexican food. Well, not food, because I barely dented an appetizer plate of potato wedges. It is interesting and tasty to discover that the caipirinha has made it (with real cachaca, no less) big in Germany… the place we went to had a whole page of caipi drinks on the list.

After dinner, we walked back along the tram route (quite a long haul) thanks to Alana’s navigation skills developed the last time she was here. It was nice and breezy and offered the chance to sneak onto the grounds of some grand building and catch a nice view of the city… very pleasant walk, easily the trip’s highlight for me so far.

Today we are headed for Pilnitz castle and Meissen, I believe, before another heart attack off the grill in the evening.

Ecuador is playing a heck of a world cup if you haven’t been watching. ECU/GER should be a blast.