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subscribeSunday, July 15
Munich
I said almost nothing about Munich before. The Germans are okay, if a bit brisque. Their language is harsh, as is their toilette paper, but many were friendly and helpful. I found them much more pleasant than the Italians (which I'll talk about in a bit).
On the second day in Munich I did more walking around, took a lot of pictures, and the like. I had some meatloaf, which was really just 150 grams of meat. Also some more sausage and a local Hefenweisen. Everyone in Munich is easy to communicate with, as they understand enough of what I said and I actually knew more German than I thought.
The beer is fantastic and Munich is a very professional and interesting city. It is safe to say I like Bavaria, the land of sausage and big lion statues everywhere, plus great markets with fresh produce on a lot of street corners. Amazing strawberries and cherries, really amazing. The strawberries were not even that sweet, just really wonderful and fresh. I need to visit more farm-to-market places in the States, if fresh produce is always this good. Oh, that reminds me. In Zurich behind the train station where we would wait for the train from Phil's house into the town, there was s row of apple bushes. One day I saw an old man, about 70, removing apples that were ripe to sell in the market. It was beautiful.
Anyway, back to Munich, on the last day I took the train around a bit and got caught in the rain when we were killing some time before the late train out to Venice. There was some incredible and large Beer Garden with a Chinese tower in the middle of a park that we visited after they had closed for the day. It was stormy and dark and probably not a good idea to be walking around a park. But I took an interesting photo of it I think. We'll have to see once I can upload some pictures.
Also while in Munich I recieved some very interesting directions to an internet point 'around the corner', and ended up walking a couple miles in my flip flops in the cold night. But all this walking builds character, so it's alright. We stopped for directions after a bit at what turned out to be a gay bar, called Bar Jeans, and got directions to a different internet place. This seems to be happening a lot, as it happened all the time in Venice. Everyone knows a different place for internet and one ends up wanding around a lot.
My legs are very, very strong these days.
Venice
What can I say about Venice? I was not that impressed. Firstly, I slept in a sitting car for a night transfer from Munich with six other people in the car. We pulled out the seats and layed out but a German woman on vacation occasionally nuggled or snuggled into me a few too many so it was hard to rest. Dramamine we helpful. And when it was time to wake up, the train attendent poked me about six times with his finger because someone wanted to step over me to sit on the other side for one stop. I would have appreciated a verbal warning. Italians, what can I say? They are aggressive, even if you account for the cultural difference in personal space.
Anyway, back to Venice... it was so crowded during the day with tourists that I felt like I was in Disneyland. Venice, I think, it two cities. First, it is a fantastic and romantic place with all the canals and water and good wine (really really good wine, except the house wine at the restaurants which was cheap-ish, and okay, but not great). The tourists flock to that first description of Venice. But second, it is a dead city. There are windows boarded up and so many buildings that are most certainly vacant. If you took away all the shops, there would be almost no one left in the city. You can tell at night, if you go out to the wine bars and have a pizza (I recommend getting one with Blue Cheese, Mozzerela, perhaps another random cheese you have never heard of---you American, and artichoke hearts) and walk home after the bar closes, it is surprisingly quiet. I ran into many three people on the way to the hotel. Besides the lack of locals, it does smell. It is basically a sinking city. That adds to its charm somehow, I suppose.
On the last day I toured and prayed in the Basilica di San Marco, a famous church in a city full of churches, and evidently one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. It lies on St Mark's Square, which I recognised from about a dozen movies, I am sure.
If you visit Italy, have the gelato. If you are tired and feel that you can't move, have some gelato. If you are beginning to get a cold and just want to find your way to the next place on the map, have some gelato. I recommend the fruit flavored ones, especially when you have no idea what fruit it is due to not understanding Italian.
When we got to Venice we had no room so payed way too much for the one night we stayed. But we left super late the next day so had a full two days in the town. I have a ton of pictures of Venice.
Got a night train, in a sleeper car, because I have now learned to reserve things ahead of time, from Venice to Prague because after calling around for a couple hours to other parts of Italy. Wanted to visit Italy much more, but Prague seemed a good alternative. In the sleeper car met several young Canadian males itching to get to Prague and pour some beer on their heads. Two are from Toronto and two from Alberta. I liked them. They are in some club where if they drink alcohol out of their dominant hand then they are required to finish the drink. This rule evidently applies for the rest of their lives. They are biking around Europe for their summer, but when they get to Prague one of them, Tim, is going to have his bike stolen. Poor guy.
Also, about an hour from Prague the train slowed down and looking out the window, I saw what looked like an entire small village of Czech people staring into my train car. I looked behind me and saw an upcoming train car on the track next to ours which had had a terrible accident. One car was sitting on top of another car, evidently there was a collision. There were police and ambulance workers there, but no other people. It must have not been too recent. A terrible thing to see, and especially in a strange land where you can't look up the details in the local paper.
Prague
Prague has great Pilsner beer, if you like Pilsner, which I don't. But that's nice to know. There are plenty of people wanting to scam you, but they really can't since I have overdrawn my checking account by $600 to maybe $800. I have the cash, just in the wrong account. Oops.
Anyway, mostly so far Prague has been for sleep to get over this cold and doing laundry and the like. But that is okay. Actually, that is a blessing. I love doing nothing. I am an American and it's my right.
Well, maybe going to look for some goulash for dinner, and maybe visit the largest club in Europe, some 5 story monster, later. I don't have the energy for it, but I haven't seen much of this place yet so I'll at least go walk around.
Ciao from the Czech Republic!
I said almost nothing about Munich before. The Germans are okay, if a bit brisque. Their language is harsh, as is their toilette paper, but many were friendly and helpful. I found them much more pleasant than the Italians (which I'll talk about in a bit).
On the second day in Munich I did more walking around, took a lot of pictures, and the like. I had some meatloaf, which was really just 150 grams of meat. Also some more sausage and a local Hefenweisen. Everyone in Munich is easy to communicate with, as they understand enough of what I said and I actually knew more German than I thought.
The beer is fantastic and Munich is a very professional and interesting city. It is safe to say I like Bavaria, the land of sausage and big lion statues everywhere, plus great markets with fresh produce on a lot of street corners. Amazing strawberries and cherries, really amazing. The strawberries were not even that sweet, just really wonderful and fresh. I need to visit more farm-to-market places in the States, if fresh produce is always this good. Oh, that reminds me. In Zurich behind the train station where we would wait for the train from Phil's house into the town, there was s row of apple bushes. One day I saw an old man, about 70, removing apples that were ripe to sell in the market. It was beautiful.
Anyway, back to Munich, on the last day I took the train around a bit and got caught in the rain when we were killing some time before the late train out to Venice. There was some incredible and large Beer Garden with a Chinese tower in the middle of a park that we visited after they had closed for the day. It was stormy and dark and probably not a good idea to be walking around a park. But I took an interesting photo of it I think. We'll have to see once I can upload some pictures.
Also while in Munich I recieved some very interesting directions to an internet point 'around the corner', and ended up walking a couple miles in my flip flops in the cold night. But all this walking builds character, so it's alright. We stopped for directions after a bit at what turned out to be a gay bar, called Bar Jeans, and got directions to a different internet place. This seems to be happening a lot, as it happened all the time in Venice. Everyone knows a different place for internet and one ends up wanding around a lot.
My legs are very, very strong these days.
Venice
What can I say about Venice? I was not that impressed. Firstly, I slept in a sitting car for a night transfer from Munich with six other people in the car. We pulled out the seats and layed out but a German woman on vacation occasionally nuggled or snuggled into me a few too many so it was hard to rest. Dramamine we helpful. And when it was time to wake up, the train attendent poked me about six times with his finger because someone wanted to step over me to sit on the other side for one stop. I would have appreciated a verbal warning. Italians, what can I say? They are aggressive, even if you account for the cultural difference in personal space.
Anyway, back to Venice... it was so crowded during the day with tourists that I felt like I was in Disneyland. Venice, I think, it two cities. First, it is a fantastic and romantic place with all the canals and water and good wine (really really good wine, except the house wine at the restaurants which was cheap-ish, and okay, but not great). The tourists flock to that first description of Venice. But second, it is a dead city. There are windows boarded up and so many buildings that are most certainly vacant. If you took away all the shops, there would be almost no one left in the city. You can tell at night, if you go out to the wine bars and have a pizza (I recommend getting one with Blue Cheese, Mozzerela, perhaps another random cheese you have never heard of---you American, and artichoke hearts) and walk home after the bar closes, it is surprisingly quiet. I ran into many three people on the way to the hotel. Besides the lack of locals, it does smell. It is basically a sinking city. That adds to its charm somehow, I suppose.
On the last day I toured and prayed in the Basilica di San Marco, a famous church in a city full of churches, and evidently one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. It lies on St Mark's Square, which I recognised from about a dozen movies, I am sure.
If you visit Italy, have the gelato. If you are tired and feel that you can't move, have some gelato. If you are beginning to get a cold and just want to find your way to the next place on the map, have some gelato. I recommend the fruit flavored ones, especially when you have no idea what fruit it is due to not understanding Italian.
When we got to Venice we had no room so payed way too much for the one night we stayed. But we left super late the next day so had a full two days in the town. I have a ton of pictures of Venice.
Got a night train, in a sleeper car, because I have now learned to reserve things ahead of time, from Venice to Prague because after calling around for a couple hours to other parts of Italy. Wanted to visit Italy much more, but Prague seemed a good alternative. In the sleeper car met several young Canadian males itching to get to Prague and pour some beer on their heads. Two are from Toronto and two from Alberta. I liked them. They are in some club where if they drink alcohol out of their dominant hand then they are required to finish the drink. This rule evidently applies for the rest of their lives. They are biking around Europe for their summer, but when they get to Prague one of them, Tim, is going to have his bike stolen. Poor guy.
Also, about an hour from Prague the train slowed down and looking out the window, I saw what looked like an entire small village of Czech people staring into my train car. I looked behind me and saw an upcoming train car on the track next to ours which had had a terrible accident. One car was sitting on top of another car, evidently there was a collision. There were police and ambulance workers there, but no other people. It must have not been too recent. A terrible thing to see, and especially in a strange land where you can't look up the details in the local paper.
Prague
Prague has great Pilsner beer, if you like Pilsner, which I don't. But that's nice to know. There are plenty of people wanting to scam you, but they really can't since I have overdrawn my checking account by $600 to maybe $800. I have the cash, just in the wrong account. Oops.
Anyway, mostly so far Prague has been for sleep to get over this cold and doing laundry and the like. But that is okay. Actually, that is a blessing. I love doing nothing. I am an American and it's my right.
Well, maybe going to look for some goulash for dinner, and maybe visit the largest club in Europe, some 5 story monster, later. I don't have the energy for it, but I haven't seen much of this place yet so I'll at least go walk around.
Ciao from the Czech Republic!
