Let's Gallivant

6-61

2006-08-29T23:54:00.000+02:00

I’m home. Rather in my brother’s empty apartment, living it up in this bachelor pad of sorts. The world basketball championship is on in Japan (who knew) and I started my day in true Lithuanian fashion with a basketball game (Lithuania-Spain) this morning. And morning is now to be defined by 11am – I’m also back to my natural daily schedule. Sadly we lost the game pretty badly and the best Lithuania can do now is get fifth. No medals. But what this really means is that the basketball craziness has basically ended before I really got to see it. There are still cars all over town with these nifty miniature flags though.

I hit up the local public transportation network today, of course not without an adventure. Inspired by all the people who read on the S-Bahn in Berlin, I got the local daily newspaper (Crimson level paper – bah) and got onto my bus. I was reading the somewhat tabloid news, random articles and was trying to get the general feel for what is happening in the country. Before I knew it is was time for me to get off the now pretty crowded bus. I excused myself, got past the lady I was sitting next to and walked to the door I was planning on getting off at and pressed the STOP button – you know so that the bus would stop at the next stop and that the doors that I was standing at would open. Like in every other country I had been to this summer.

But I’m back in Lithuania. A loud beep followed my pressing the button, a big STOP sign started flashing on the info board, the whole bus turned toward me. I just smiled back. The bus stops at every stop and all the doors open every time - some things never change. And the trolleybus is still a “love machine” that gets packed way beyond capacity. But I love pubic transportation, especially when rumor has it that there are four trolleybuses that play classical music en route. I’ll have to explore some more to find out what routes they run.

Today I was back in the neighborhood where I spent most of my childhood. I had some time to kill so I wandered around wondering how much I still remember. The miniature hill (very fit for sledding) in the apartment building complex “backyards” is still the highest in my backyard. The recycling station from way back in the day is now an apothecary and the building next to which my brother broke his wrist now fittingly belongs to the “Medicine Bank.” And the whole neighborhood is so green! I guess the short stumpy trees grew up within the last decade. So much so that I felt like I was exploring a completely new neighborhood. And it’s so weird to be really looking at Vilnius with “foreign eyes.” Eight months (six years?) is really a long time.

But I’m excited to be back. It rained twice already since I got back. I got hassled by bums within minutes of getting off the bus from Berlin. And most importantly there is nothing I really actually HAVE to do here. Except get my visa renewed on Thursday. Otherwise I’m stuck on this side of the Atlantic forever. ; )

PS Brandon, I think “Finger Disko” should be experienced and not be given away by a description. And my blog entry titles most of the time only make sense to me I think – it’s just a way of jogging my memory for me as to why I wrote the entry in the first place. Und “das ist mir zu sexuell” is just one of the many reasons I miss my German class classmates.

"das ist mir zu sexuell"

2006-08-27T00:59:00.000+02:00

I miss my German classmates, I miss LGing - I miss not being on vacation. And I can’t believe I’m going back home in less than a day; I wasn’t supposed to end up there until the end of summer. But as Zu and I were walking along the dark bank of one of the many canals in Berlin tonight [enjoying the “Lange Nacht der Museen” (long museum night)] the very cool, almost subterranean sidewalk lighting in front of the “Bombardier” building was casting an eerie light on the yellow leaves that had already made it to the ground. It seems that summer had only gotten into full swing and now it’s suddenly drawing to an end.

2 + 4 = Eins. Kapiert?

2006-08-18T03:46:00.000+02:00

These 2euro, 2kilo Angebote are going to kill me. Today it’s raspberries – I don’t think I’ll be able to eat them again anytime soon. But today has been an amazing food day. It all began with me deciding to skip the museum visit this morning and instead make myself some breakfast – wurst and potatoes. I peeled the potatoes, cut them up - all I needed to do was fry them. What I had before me was a gas stove and the lighter I melted a couple weeks ago. My Swiss lighter has disappeared into thin air and my flatmates weren’t at home. I tried to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together – well no, I went on a lighter/match hunt. For a smoker WG (Wohngemeinschaft – living together/sharing apartment thing) they sure don’t leave lighters/matches around. Plus ever since one of my flatmates took off for Sweden I have no clue what’s going on in the apartment – new people seem to have moved in? I get back too late and leave too early to keep up with daily life here, which is sort of too bad.

Continuing with the good food - I rediscovered Ritter Sport chocolate squares today during one of my breaks between classes. I sadly don’t think I have enough time to try all the flavors in the time that I have left here – there’s over 30 of them! After class, as we waited for the last history lecture in the lecture series (rock on Antonis Hilbers), I got to try these super amazing, somewhat spicy Indian cookies that my fellow table-mate had brought all the way from Mumbai. As I was savoring their goodness, I remembered that I had been invited to a cheese tasting by one of my former C1 classmates.

I rushed to the back courtyard (secret meeting place) to find that the cheese eating had already begun. The Italian woman’s husband had come up from Italy and brought with him the most amazing mozzarella-like cheese from southern Italy that tasted like a piece of heaven - so juicy, yet so light. Tomorrow Venezuelan dessert is on the menu for yet another back courtyard post-class rendezvous. I need to find a Lithuanian specialty, and fast. Time is running out!

But my eating didn’t end with the cheese from the gods – no, I decided I was still hungry as I was heading back home. I stopped by the Chinese/Thai place I had hit up in the middle of the night a couple days ago. I ordered some simple vegetable dish and ended up walking out with a bag full of stuff, including amazing Thai soup. The lady running the place (the same one I talked to for a while last time I was there) said I looked like a hungry student that needed to be fed. Why are people so nice and caring here?!

glotzt nicht so romantisch

2006-08-17T00:20:00.000+02:00

What a week thus far! And so much work ahead of me still, so here’s an attempt at least a list style description of what I did since Friday (?!)

Samstag:

short trip to Köpenick – the hood

met up with Zujus in KaDeWe – HUGE shopping center

architecture tour of Potsdamer Platz – the ugliests buildings of Europe’s best architects. I don’t quite agree

dinner at the KulturBrauerei

kino! “Sommer vorm Balkon” so Berlinerisch

Sonntag:

Concentration camp Sachsenhausen

Montag:

Mauerspaziergang – tour of the former wall with the awesome Historiker Antonis Hilbers

Deutsch, Deutsch, Deutsch – I don’t quite remember what we did in class, but it was fun. The Russian teacher and I spent the whole first two lessons giggling over prepositions. Well I guess I was the one giggling, but man can they be funny if used correctly! And I don’t think I’ve ever been as conscious of the words people use to express themselves. Favorite adjective-noun pair of the day – “handmade condoms.”

German history lecture #3 – more of the awesome Historiker Antonis Hilbers. I also now have a new favorite song thanks to the amazingness that is Antonis Hilbers.

“Brecht – Die Kunst zu Leben” – alright biographical movie at the Brecht fest in town. The outing itself was much more of an “event” than the screening. And the discussion afterwards with an actress who had actually worked with Brecht, Regine Lutz (Swiss!), was amazing. I should get more sleep though.

Dienstag:

group outing to Köpenick – the neighborhood that my group is investigating for our final project. So many great moments, but the random interviews were by far the best.

[interviewing an old lady who happened to be looking out her window]

[here she is! so sweet]

[waterworks dude telling us about his Cuban girlfriend]

mehr Deutsch - staying amused at our table constantly cracking language jokes. It’s surprising how well one needs to know the vocab to be able to make fun of it. The other two tables have like 72.5% less fun. The French dude even migrated over for a bit ; )

Alex – amazing area, amazing architect tour guide and an amazing long night talking to him. I’m not the only one who cries on the inside about the tearing down of the Palast der Republik - this guy was in charge of running the place for six years! And he still owes me two euros, so I’ll be seeing him again…

Mittwoch: the middle of the week, aka now

Deutsche Welle – the BBC of Germany. Amazing studio visit with the “toaster” machine for video footage input actually smelling like toast. Supposedly this has never happened before. And the Australian, Owen, is so amusing - CNN ‘n NN anyone?

Knut Hamsun auf Deutsch – the Norwegian presented Hamsun’s work today and was surprised that I knew about this Norwegian author’s work. He also approached me after class and proposed yet another time. This time without flowers ; )

Mutter – Brecht’s staging of Gorky’s “Mother” performed by the Berliner Ensemble. My hands still hurt from all the clapping.

I've also developed a number of food addictions over the last week or so. I can't go a day without Türkische Pizza (Brandon, that's your fault), I eat way too many mozzarella and tomato sandwiches (as in at least one per day), drink too much milk coffee and Metropol Imbiss could basically be called my kitchen. So sketchy, so good.

Ohne Titel

2006-08-11T02:29:00.000+02:00

So I missed both the walking tour this morning and my movie date tonight, but still had an amazing day. It might have to do with newly developed theatrical skills, way too much coffee, excellent dinner and yet another late night out on the town. And now sleep!

2006-08-10T02:22:00.000+02:00

Everyone should take a late night “wurst pause” – there’s nothing like toast, “European wurst” from Lithuania and the last olives out of a jar to top off a great day. I also love the assortment of food that I have at my disposal in my apartment. It consisted of said wurst, toast and olives. (past tense)

I woke up this morning to see Sheila off, and seeing as I was already in the center of the city at 8:30, I decided to stay there until my class this afternoon. I found an excellent café for breakfast – zum Rosa – with yellow, unevenly painted walls, random strips of five different kinds of wall paper, plastic roses, plush chairs, 60’s lights, and amazing coffee. I sat there for over an hour reading a newspaper, people watching, enjoying the interior.

I then headed to the history museum, to the refugee exhibition. I was expecting current refugee problems I guess, but seeing as this is a history museum after all it focused on the expulsion of Germans over the ages. Interesting stuff, but quite honestly I found the building of the museum more fascinating than the exhibitions. The glassed in inner courtyard was so peaceful and bright that I spent an hour there reading. Aesthetically pleasing spaces make me overly happy, as does the city of Berlin in general.

What makes me even happier are the people I spend my time with here. My little sister, Sheila and Brandon. Josh is coming in a week or so. And the people in Berlin are so friendly! Plus my classmates and fellow Goethe Institut people are amazing - simply amazing. I really enjoy being around people of all ages, from all over the world, with such different opinions that they express with such conviction. And people know so much about history, art and in general seem to really care about living their life and not simply being alive.

Class was amazing as always. We discussed the different newspapers that are at the press stands in Berlin and the Norwegian once again blew my mind with how many details he knew about all these random papers and the people behind them. We then talked about coeducation, Einbürgerung, gay couples adopting children, terrorism and terrorized our minds with copious amounts of grammar. A scary, scary language fluency test awaits me in two weeks so all this will hopefully do me good. As will hopefully all the lectures I’ve been attending including the one today on DDR art – long, but thorough and well done. Sadly I ended up missing the Greenlandic pop music concert. Every time I miss a cultural program event, I end up wanting to kick myself. That’s why I’m getting up early tomorrow and going on yet another walking tour. I love walking.

I spent the remainder of the night until around midnight conversing with fellow Goethe Institut people at the good ol’ Eastern Comfort boat, gazing over at the Oberbaumbrücke on which the districts of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg play a never-ending rock-paper-scissors game with the help of randomly generated neon signs.

I really got to know the Australian, Owen, whom I met the day before. Who the hell studies history and computer science as a double major?! Fascinating guy and just as enthralled by Berlin as I am – I foresee many a hanging out session with him in the future. He’s also an avid walker, especially at night and I’m sure he’ll be on the tour tomorrow morning. And I already have movie watching plans for tomorrow night with the Egyptian man and Italian woman. European kino, watch out!

I love this city, this crazy pace of life, the lack of sleep, and even the endless grammar exercises.

Jut! (continued)

2006-08-10T01:17:00.000+02:00

[Contrary to what some people may think, when things start to double and float out of focus for me I’m just simply overly tired. I almost fell asleep hugging my computer last night- as in I drifted in and out between paragraphs, then sentences and finally words of the last post. So sorry about the abrupt ending and leaving out the best part of the day yesterday!]

… after class I called Sheila who turned out to be already back in my hood, at the Lidl across the street and then chilling out the Laundromat café at the corner of my street. I picked up some “2euro für 2kilo“ grapes and headed home right after class for the first time since I’ve gotten here. It felt weird.

We dropped off stuff at the apartment and headed out for some dinner. We had thought we wanted to go to one of the Indian places, but I walked by it on my way back and there were only two people eating there. So we headed for Ubereck, a place on the corner of Sonntagstr. (Sunday str.), like a block and a half from my apartment. We looked at the menu written out on the chalkboard and then sat down at an outdoor table. Looked at the menu at the table and it seemed to only have drinks and was advertising a Monday night movie night at some café called Bettenhaus. Weird. Well, actually it turns out that we had sat down at a Bettenhaus table as the outdoor seating for the two cafes just sort of blends together!

We got up, moved around the corner (I'm coming back for the movie on Monday though...) to a table hidden from the Betterhaus view and waited once again for the menu. Turns out the menu doesn’t exist in print form, but the homemade goulash doesn’t belong on a menu – it was out of this world. As was the very friendly server and the guy living in the apartment building next door to the café, who rolled up on his bike, ordered his drink as he rode by and then came down after taking in his bike and stuff. Or the guy sitting behind Sheila who instead of looking at the menu, looked at our food as he was sitting down and also ordered the goulash and then proceeded to comment to the waiter later that we were speaking “some foreign language.”

After a very enjoyable, long dinner, Sheila and I headed home so that she could pack. During that super long (not at all) one block walk, we walked by a t-shirt printing place that I’ve walked by numerous times on my way to the subway and where the “heavy mädel” (mädel = girl) shirt on a funky creepily smiling mannequin has intrigued me for some time now. At first we saw nothing of interest really, but then upon leaving, the “kann karate” shirt with the cute yellow chick running across the front caught Sheila’s eye. What followed was the confirmation that people in Europe (read store owner) think that Calgary is famous and I made a new friend who promised to print an extra shirt for me if any cool new designs came in over the next two weeks. And he gave Sheila a 20 cent discount. Sweet.

Jut!

2006-08-09T00:42:00.000+02:00

They (yes the omnipresent they) are laying down a new square right outside my window and were using a “random pounding machine” this morning to really get those cobblestones into place. Basically it sounded like a jack hammer and I slept through it for a couple of hours. Eventually I had to drag myself out of bed if I was going to go on a neighborhood tour this morning and by ten I was already with a group heading to Prenzlauerberg.

The tour guide – a very interesting man who has lived in Prenzlauerberg for the last 35 years – told us so much random stuff about his neighborhood that I’m not quite sure what I will remember in a couple of days. But his focus on “Straßenmöbel” (street furniture) included a picture collection of the chalk signatures chimney cleaners leave; he also pointed out like five different kinds of street lamps as well as public toilets.

The tour ended with in a visit to a currywurst stand for THE Berliner Currywurst. The stand’s location was excellent – under the U-Bahn tracks and with busy streets on both sides and a huge line of people was still waiting for their fix. So maybe I ended up being 15 min late for class, but I have now had a very typical Berlin experience, talked to some of the people standing around and met yet another couple of cool people from the Goethe Institut – today it was an Australian dude who’s planning on staying in Berlin and an aspiring French film actress.

Once I did get to class I was faced with a day filled with presentations and getting assigned a psychological disorder. I got to be a Kleptomaniac, which was sort of fun but not as fun and entertaining as Mario who got to be addicted to sex. I love my class and learning random psychology vocabulary while stealing neighbors’ pens. By the end of the day nobody had anything to write with. Also Makoto, the guy from Japan, made a super hilarious film about the painting he has analyzing set to some amazing pop music which he proceeded to first turn up and the scream over. His presentation was like a piece of art in and of itself and the whole class was laughing uncontrollably, especially at every tree in the landscape painting getting its own number as a label.

Ok, shit, things are starting to double and float out of focus. I’m going to bed. To be continued…

wissbegierig

2006-08-08T03:26:00.000+02:00

Reading endless articles auf Deutsch about yet another excellent artist Ron Mueck (Tegan – he’s Australian; Fuon – he designed the special effects for Bowie’s Labyrinth), then moving on to reading Freud's theories (auch auf Deutsch), then onto essay corrections, vocabulary (learning to distinguish between a Skulptur and Plastik), reading up on the history of the town/district of Köpenick – what a night! And I’m far from done. I’ve yet to analyze the layout, language use, news coverage, etc. of the Frankfurter Rundschau. Amazing amounts of work, but so much fun! (the coffee helps too)

Today has sort of been a work day in general. Got up, actually ate breakfast and after writing yet another essay headed into town with Sheila to “shop.” This really just meant wandering around Hachescher Markt, stumbling across a pretty amazing chocolate store, a very sketchy seeming, Garment District resembling store that had an amazing “Individualized Mass Product” shirt, all culminating with a visit to the “Trash” store. No, what really topped the morning off was a Russian store that carried the wheat/coffee that I used to drink as a kid.

Then class, a lot of catching up for lost time with former/current classmates, the Bosnian, Mario, (who I thought was Serbian until today) secretly drinking out of a flask and loosing coherency by the end of the day, and the Norwegian of course providing endless entertainment and staging a singing and dancing fest with the Italian as we waited for the lecture on Nationalsocialismus to begin. I know more about the 1933-1945 time period than I ever really wanted to know. But the historian’s take was interesting and presented a different angle from the one I’ve usually come across. Plus I was sitting by an open window this time and the stuffiness of the room didn’t put me to sleep.

An outing to the Balkan Grill with Sheila and some amazing 1.50euro Turkish pizza killed my way-past-dinnertime hunger and we headed into town to the Gauklerfest. A huge area in the center has been put to use as a huge fair ground for adults basically with tons of bars, live music and circus-like performances as well as dancing and such. We walked around, watched some stuff, tried the strawberry punch, listened to some Spanish music and then headed home munching on popcorn. Berlin at night on a Monday is not too bad a scene.

schicken und schneiden

2006-08-07T01:15:00.000+02:00

50MG of sent email attachments and a watermelon later, Sheila and I are finally heading to bed. Since seven this evening all that we did was eat dinner, get a bit lost on the way back home and then “schicken und schneiden” – a process that involved an endless number of email attachments for turning in her project (schicken) and the constant cutting (schneiden) and consumption of watermelon while waiting for the technology to do its magic. I feel slightly sick and a bit over hydrated.

We also sent off a couple of people today – Zu back to camp and Brandon off to Münster. The highlight of his departure (which at the time was just a very stressful situation) was the fact that with 10mins before his train was to depart he still didn’t have a ticket. He bought one online and we needed a printer to print it. The people at the Deutsche Bahn told us they couldn’t help us, the internet station at the Burger King was also printerless, and the lady at the T-Punkt cell phone store (I don’t really know why I decided that they might have a printer) told us that there wasn’t an internet café within miles of the train station. Great. But there’s a solution to every problem and this time it was the photo printing shop and the use of one amazing USB stick. We even had enough time to get some coffee (mainly because his train was leaving 15min later than we thought).

The rain clouds were still hovering above Berlin today, so after sending Brandon off and a short sojourn to the river side bar café to just breathe and relax for a moment, Sheila and I headed to the Jewish Museum. It’s huge and the building is very modern and there is a lot of information there. After spending almost 3 hours there, we only really made it through one of the three floors of the permanent exhibition and the temporary Freud exhibition. After it I’ve decided that bloging is like online psychoanalysis.

Finger Disco

2006-08-06T00:38:00.000+02:00

I woke up to my mother telling me to get my butt over to the museum Zujus was going to be visiting today. The plan (which is in execution as we speak) was to pick her up after her day excursion today and then drop her off at her camp day excursion tomorrow. It’s pretty convenient – they bring her to and from the city and then only thing she really missed was dinner tonight. Instead she, along with Brandon and Sheila, was subjected to my cooking.

After warding off like four subsequent calls from my mother who was super stressed out I finally got around to getting dressed and leaving my apartment to pick up Sheila and Brandon. I talked to Zujus, and they hadn’t even left camp and after a call from one of her counselors I was told to come pick her up from the museum at one. Plenty of time seeing as it wasn’t even eleven yet.

Before heading to my S-Bahn station, I wandered around the neighborhood making it all the way to a mall complex – my goal was to walk until I found something and the hard metal and screaming behind graffitied nailed up windows didn’t really do it for me as a find. On my way back to Ostkreuz, I was approached by two guys who after asking me for money said “I kill you.” I shrugged my shoulders and kept on going. Now, had they said “shoot you” I might have reacted differently. But this was in broad daylight along a busy street – alles im grünen Bereich.

We schlepped Brandon and Sheila’s stuff to my apartment and after me hassling them out of the door headed to the vegetable market in Kreuzberg – the Turkish neighborhood. On the U-Bahn ride to the heart of this hood, we were treated to some excellent live subway music and we rode over the Oberbaumbrücke! Now all I have left to do is drive over it in a car and then I’ll have fully experienced it. Would it be weird to hitchhike across a bridge?

The market turned out to not be where I was expecting to find it. Instead we ate falafel in a hole in the wall joint across from a “Bollywood Fashion” store. Almost half an hour before one we started heading towards the museum. At ten of I thought we were almost there, but then Zujus called. “Where are you?”. Shit. We ran for a block, stopped to look at the map and I realized that blocks are way longer in Berlin than I thought – I think I haven’t yet really taken in the fact that this city is HUGE and that the scale of any map is very different from all those I used and edited this summer. So we hailed a cab and right at one we were at the museum, but Zu and her group weren’t.

What followed was a lot of running around on our part, an endless calling back and forth, climbing fences while on the phone, and finally finding Zu with her camp people at a park like around the corner from the museum. She needs to learn to stop making places that are two seconds away seem like they’re almost at Potsdamer Platz. But all is good, what ends well, and we had gotten ourselves a Zujus!

After a bit of chilling out on a bench because Sheila and Brandon had to deal with a stressed out me before, we headed to the nearest U-Bahn station and headed for a supermarket to buy food. We ended up purchasing a lot of vegetables and such for dinner tonight along with a watermelon. Sheila and Brandon also got a lesson on picking out a good watermelon (well actually we don’t yet know how good it actually is as we haven’t tried it yet).

[Knock, knock, knocking]

We headed back to the apartment where Sheila and Brandon got to work writing their papers (and napping on Brandon’s part), while Kornelija and I got busy with preparing dinner. First we ran across the street to the local supermarket to get some chicken and emerged with a kilo of turkey which I was convinced was chicken until my mother, whom we had called to tell that I picked up Zujus on time and with no hassle ;), told me that a one kilo, one piece chicken filet can’t actually exist. So right from the outset we were dealing with meat that doesn’t really taste like much and is super easy to dry out.

What followed back in the kitchen was a continuous laughing fit on Zujus’ part and a typical Ieva cooking experience. It all began with me realizing that we had no large pot. Next I had trouble with the gas stove, as in I melted a lighter and had to go looking for my Swiss one. Finally we had the frying pan going, cooking the chunks of turkey – I’ve never cooked turkey before. Next, after the turkey was put in the pot, I decided to use some spices. Zujus was rolling on the ground when I dumped almost half of the bottle of chili powder onto the meat by accident. And this is hot, not savory chili. Next, as the onions were frying, I got a bit sidetracked with the red pepper, and only Zu’s comment on the “burning smell” got me back to the somewhat charred onions and the boiling of the ketchup. Mixed all that in to the pot with the meat and then covered it with paprika and grated zucchini and let it simmer.

Meanwhile Zu made the salad without actual salad and I peeled the potatoes and cut them into strips. The original side dish was going to be boiled potatoes, but not only did we not have a big pot, we only had one pot to work with. But tons of frying pans. Next I took to frying the potatoes and a mini fire later dinner was ready. Well, I hadn’t really looked at the “stew” like concoction yet.

What we found upon dishing out the food was that the bottom layer pretty burned to the pot, but it wouldn’t be my cooking without something burned. At least after trying it, the chili powder wasn’t really all that apparent. And according to Brandon and Sheila, had I not told them it was turkey, they would have never known. I hate the bland taste of turkey, so I took it as a compliment. The best part of dinner was however the “vom Fass” (on tap) wine we had purchased for less that four euros. Nothing like cheap wine in a milk bottle and a little sister who thinks that you’re drunk from just a couple of sips. But the relaxation was limited to one glass each – Brandon and Sheila still had work to do.

A post dinner kitchen cleaning session followed, with Brandon making the stove shine in the dark with its blinding cleanness. While a watermelon and mango eating was planned for dessert, the food actually kicked in during the cleaning. Feeling stuffed we headed back to our previous tasks – Brandon and Sheila to their writing (and napping on Brandon’s part) and Zu and I to, well doing nothing in particular. I put together the puzzle she made me and after feeling like we were being distracting with our having-nothing-to-do, Zu and I headed out for a walk.

We walked around in the light drizzle, talked, explored. Looked for a café with no smokers and finally found one and had some excellent hot chocolate with some of the best whipped cream I’ve ever tasted – so light, so fluffy. We walked some more with Zujus wanting to take the longest route home – she seems to really enjoy this streets at night deal. She even suggested going into this sketchy, very dark, abandoned and overgrown inner courtyard with tons of broken glass. At that point I had to explain to her the difference between cool and outright dangerous.

We came back to a Sheila and Brandon hard at work. I sat down and did a couple grammar exercises myself, while Zu read a book. Soon the tiredness kicked in for everyone and it was agreed that going was a good idea. They’re fast asleep as I type this and I’d better hit the sack myself. I need to rest all those muscles that have been overworked with all the laughing today – Zujus even needed a face massage as she said her face hurt from constantly laughing. What an excellent rainy day with such a large dose of awesome people!

Tutto Va Bene

2006-08-04T23:48:00.000+02:00

I had a splitting headache today for about an hour – my head usually never hurts. It followed a question Toni asked me as part of a grammar exercise – we were rephrasing stuff, playing word games, asking silly questions. And then next thing I knew I was asking him to ask me a very personal question and he looked at me and said “bist du verliebt?” (are you in love?). I blushed, looked down and said “leider nicht” (unfortunately/sadly no).

Today was an odd day. It rained, I was very cold, my lungs now hurt. Instead of being out in the city, I’m sitting curled up on my couch with wool socks on, a mug of hot tea in hand. The apartment is empty and it’s just me tangoing with my thoughts.

I did the dishes a while ago, cleaned the kitchen. I swept my room, organized some papers, folded laundry and then made a mess again. This room, this city, the people here - they make me exceedingly happy; I wake up in the morning and I actually want to get out of bed. It’s not stress that keeps me going, it’s something else.

In class I was like a whirlwind. We talked about Beuys’ artwork today and I was all over the place drawing parallels to Christos’ Gates in New York, Hundertwassers’ architecture, the removal of trees from the main boulevard in Vilnius im Gegensatz zu the planting of 7000 oaks in Kassel. Hating on synchronized swimming, defending the integrity of pantomime artists. I felt like I wasn’t really just answering the questions but trying to explain myself. To myself, really. And the others just looked on, thought I was crazy. I blamed it on the coffee.

But tutto va bene. Better than ever.

das Tobuwabohu

2006-08-04T09:29:00.000+02:00

Also (spoken with a German accent). I just recently got back to my apartment to do my homework for the day. I was originally going to actually make it to the 9am tour of the Berlin “wall” (now more like a line on the pavement) but I missed my U-Bahn stop last night and ended up at Sheila and Brandon’s hostel – but that was the end of the day. Let’s start at the beginning.

I woke up late. Like I flew out of bed, ran around like a chicken that had just gotten its head chopped off, but then still managed to get all my homework done, do my laundry and even learn tons of vocabulary on the train ride over.

I started out the day with much more energy than most of my classmates – it might have been the caffeine in the tea or something. The Serbian guy, Mario, spent a while apologizing for having gotten pretty drunk last night and wondering what sort of magic powder they had sprinkled into his drink. By the afternoon he headed home as he did not look good at all. As is a pale, almost green face. He claims it was the cheese he ate for breakfast, but we all know the real reason.

Class was super interesting as we discussed the influx of English words into the German language. I learned that in Italy and France, jogging is referred to as “footing” – and of course pronounced with a very adorable French or Italian accent. Oh and in Spain, the language isn’t as affected by English basically because they have problems with English pronunciation, which I think is awesome. Here in Deutschland, in Dormund, there’s a group that has been formed to fight off the Anglizismen. But they’re “hitting the sack instead of the ass” (I love German idioms) and speaking about linguistics rather than the real fear of rapid development and globalization and of losing their identity.

We had an amazing conversation over steaming cups of coffee during our break about languages in general, the five different languages and alphabets in the chaotic Caucasus, Catalan, differences between Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. For the last part it was just the Norwegian dude changing his voice every time he changed languages thus making some of them sound beautiful and others god awful. Interestingly enough he finds Norwegian to be the ugliest one. And, by the way, he “only speaks three languages – Norwergian, English and German” according to him. He’s so full of shit, but in an adorable way. Plus he just looks like a large cuddly bear and has some amazing dance moves.

We also planned our group project that we’ll be presenting at the end of the four weeks. I ended up in a group of all women whom I hadn’t really talked to before, but they turned out to be super cool too. A Germanistics student at UPenn (like doctoral student) originally from Russia, a teacher from Catalonia, and two women from Japan and India who don’t talk very much. But that will change, and I’m sure they’re just as interesting. As our project, we’re going to investigate a neighborhood of Berlin and look into it’s history, present, people, culture, ethnic composition, etc. We’re planning on taking it full force, conducting interviews, maybe even making a short video. I’m super excited, especially about also drawing up a map of the hood. ; )

After class I headed to Potsdamer Platz to meet up with the Sheila. Thursday night is free night at the city museums and we were going to make a little Rundgang through at least the Musical Instrument museum if not many others. I was pretty mude (tired) though, and after finally hunting down each other I proposed that we just go see this supposedly cinematographically amazing German movie that came out last year. As we were talking the elevator down to the ticket counter, we were also trying to figure out where the dance club that we were going to hit up later was located and ended up asking the guy in the elevator with us about it. Rather than getting the info we wanted, we got roped into seeing his show.

I don’t even know what to call it – video improvisation? It consisted of us sitting in rows at the window, facing the street with headphones on. The action was literally talking place outside, among the people, but was also videoed. A general story line was already in place, but the actor on the street also stopped random people walking by and asked them questions. The topic was Heimat (homeland). I don’t know if it was the fact that the topic was relevant for me – the finding of ones own identity in a foreign place and what it really means to be from somewhere, what role languages play, integration – the piece was excellent. And unconventional, experimental, new and of course in German.

Still in the German mindset and speaking auf Deutsch, Sheila and I headed to Prenzlauerberg where we were to meet up with a number of other Harvard people who’re in Berlin at the moment. A bunch of ex-Let’s Go people (well three of us), a couple of guys from my German lit class showed up at one point, and then just other random people, one of who claimed to know me from somewhere, but I swear I’ve never seen him before.

We started at the Erdbeer (strawberry) which was in one word – red. Sat around made “small talk.” Then we headed over to Kaffe Burger – a very eclectic, eastern European type place with also red lighting, but a lot more character. After a couple of drinks and the rolling in of ten more Harvard people, we hit the dance floor. Sadly the S-Bahn stops running at a certain point (yet to be figured out when exactly, but I sort of don’t want to learn from first hand experience) so sadly the crazy dancing had to be cut short a bit. But another night out awaits tonight – tango!

And now onto my Deutsch homework. Ausgezeichnet.

Eastern Comfort

2006-08-03T02:44:00.000+02:00

Another long day, so long that I don’t remember how it began but I do remember looking at my alarm clock before it went off and I was planning on getting up at seven. I had homework to do and a morning city tour to get to. I woke up, spent almost two hours correcting stuff for my brother and speaking to family and then had very little time to get ready before speeding out the door. At the S-Bahn station I actually debated not buying a ticket (it was 9:30 and I have a 10am onwards monthly pass), but I’m glad I shelled out the 2.10euro as there was a ticket control. And very sneaky and much more effective than the ones I saw in Switzerland. What really struck me tough, was that the people who schwarzfahren (ride black – without a ticket) didn’t argue at all when caught and just accepted their fate. It was sort of amazing because Berliners actually swear and curse a lot on the streets.

I did my homework on the train and made it to the Institut accumulating quite a group of people on my walk over – people were streaming in from all directions, walking, cycling, smoking on a bench. We headed to the oldest part of Berlin. Well that general area as there isn’t much that’s left of medieval Berlin – more like there’s nothing left of medieval Berlin. But the tour was pretty good, although we all agreed that we needed a Pause afterwards and not the five hours of lessons.

I changed classes today, so I was with a different group, with a very different group dynamic. At least half the class is German teachers who need the highest level test in order to teach higher level classes. The rest of the class seems pretty crazy, like my former group. Sadly between grammar exercises and discussing the Holocaust monument in Berlin, I didn’t really have time to get to know anyone, but the people at my desk pod. The Serbian guy from my former class moved up with me and we ended up together with this really, really chill man from Barcelona, Toni (in his 40’s I think) who is very soft spoken but says amazingly insightful things. I didn’t really figure out what the American girl from Chicago was about, but I hit it off well with the Russian teacher sitting next to me within seconds of sitting down. I think he’s the reason I don’t make a complete ass of myself when we do fill in the blank grammar exercises and I have no clue what the answer is. The other “character” in my class who could not go unnoticed was the Norwegian historian who speaks slowly, but therefore also very correctly. More on him later.

Also class, and then at six, although I was pretty brain dead at that point, I decided to go to the lecture on the Weimar Republic. It was raining outside and I took that to be a sign. The lecture was excellent and I was sitting next to a Swedish guy from Lund who was most definitely sniffing Snus. Oh Scandinavia.

After the lecture, I headed to buy some paper (as I literally had nothing to write my homework on) and then headed to the Stammtisch on a ship close to the Oberbaumbrücke. Wednesday nights are get together nights for Goethe Institut students at this bar so that we can just sit around and speak German and such. I arrived fashionably late – an hour and a half or so. But it was a good choice as that’s when the “party” was really starting to take off. And by that I mean people had consumed enough alcohol to have begun speaking semi fluently – well the lower levels. The higher level people were using tenses and vocabulary that was definitely stored in the back of their brains in class.

I spoke with a guy from Mauritius for a long time – he had gone to MIT, lived in New York and now has been on holiday for the past eight months in Europe. I sort of want to sell my soul to do that, but after hearing his horror story of 22-hour days as a lawyer, I’ve decided I don’t actually really want to do it. The Norwegian historian from my class joined us, together with the Italian who’s a basketball playing actor. We talked and talked and talked, they kept on offering to get me drinks, offering to roll me a cigarette. In the meantime they themselves downed an endless amount of beer and wine and had managed to “impregnate” me with cigarette smoke that I can still smell after having taken a shower. And my right eye is killing me – this contact lens and smoke thing doesn’t really go together.

Eventually we branched out from our private party to a larger number of people sitting down at a table – really mainly because we had been standing for a long time. The dancing sitting down began, as well as a short episode of singing. Then we started speaking a mixture of German and English and soon French and Serbian also came into the mix. I finally figured out what the Swiss guy from Lausanne is about – he’s very cool and chill. And actually not from Lausanne itself, but a small town close by. Eventually he and a bunch of people took off as it was getting late and our private party shrunk down to its original members plus a Polish guy who lives in the Netherlands at the moment. We talked about excellent movies, theatre, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Böll and good German literature in general. I felt like I got more out of our conversation than then five hours of class. But the grammar exercises from today might still give me nightmares. Gute Nacht!

PS - Now that I'm done with this post I realize how much better it could have been. I could have sprinkled in the leather conversation, the hand kissing on the part of the Norwegian, the flower proposals, the Estonian hate, happy birthday, nationality impersonations, forgetting stuff and just gesticulating like crazy to fill in the gaps, Madonna, the old ladies from the West. Oh man this post sucked. Sorry.

Oberbaumbrücke

2006-08-02T02:39:00.000+02:00

So my plan for sleeping failed miserably – to bed a bit before 4am, awake by a little after seven. I feel like I’m on crack, and although I have no clue what that would feel like, it’s unnatural to just wake up at a crazy early hour like that without a good reason. Well I did do the reading in the morning thing and then headed out the door at ten for some exploration before class. I was originally just going to explore my neighborhood, find a supermarket, buy some detergent and go back before heading out into the city. And it all started according to plan with me walking by the park that I discovered a couple days ago.

[Hippo fountain in front of the park – the most noteworthy part are the two hunters on its back looking for it. And of course the fact that to make sure that people don’t drink the water from the fountain, they just shut it down. I love the German ways]

But after I hit up the local bakery I was ready for more excellent discoveries, so I weaved through the streets and soon found myself way farther off than I expected at a huge rail line crossing. And then I knew I was heading toward Berlin’s prettiest bridge, the Oberbaumbrücke. I followed a barefoot dude for a while and in less than ten minutes I was there.

[Oberbaumbrücke and my barefoot guide]

Calatrava has also had a say in the reconstruction of this bridge, designing both the center piece and mainly just deciding to restore it to its original condition. It is beautiful beyond words and I’m definitely coming back once the open air gallery opens in a couple of days.

[pedestrian walkway]

[Calatrava’s center piece]

[beautifully restored towers]

[neon rock-paper-scissors sign. have to see it at night]

Without even really meaning to I of course ended up at the East Side Gallery on my way to the center. It’s basically a stretch of the Berlin wall that’s still up and is covered in graffiti.

[die Mauer]

[the Kiss]

[Strand, Palmen und Sonne- what more could one want]

I eventually made to an S-Bahn stop and decided that maybe I shouldn’t walk for the remaining hour and half and instead hunt down some food. In my hunt I stumbled across an amazing liquor store that had wine “on tap” – these huge glass jugs and so many to choose from. But I decided that drinking before class was a bad idea and settled for this hole in the wall Brazilian place I found that had the most amazing (and cheap!) mango juice. And of course newspapers to read.

After this short break, I headed to the Goethe Institut for my lessons of the day. I got placed into the C1 level, just a level below the highest level they offer, and seeing as they have so many students they sent away us advanced peoples to another building on the other side of the city. The bus ride over was crazy, meeting people from all over the world and from five different classes, getting confused, forgetting peoples names and getting utterly confused when other languages started flying around and the Poles broke into Turkish and the Greeks into Italian. But it all came back to German and we could converse in relative peace.

My class ended up being an amazing mix of people. With an Iranian teacher (born and raised in Berlin) between the 18 of us, we represented 16 different countries. The Italian lady was obsessed with salsa, the Swiss guy who loves to cook was from Lausanne (!), the Poles understood the eastern European woes too well, the Serbian architect is coming exploring with me, the Tunisian guy who sang and drummed in class is planning a gathering for our super friendly table with food and dance of course, the Venezuelan German language teacher knew way too much about Almodovar, the guy from Egypt thought I was from Italy, and I think I scared the French guy after I downed a cup of coffee during our break and started speaking way too fast, etc, etc. Sadly I’m getting bumped up to the higher class tomorrow, so I’ll have to hang out with my buddies from today only over a cup of coffee and not in class, cracking jokes, singing, and in general causing a ruckus. If the other class sucks, I might just have to “forget” some German because my group today rocked major time.

We all gathered in the courtyard after class for the official welcome, the insider tips on the cultural scene and went for a drink. I was thus a bit late meeting up with Sheila, but we did find each other and headed to the open air kino in my hood. The movie “We Feed the World” (a German one) was a documentary on the food industry featuring everything from eggplants and tomatoes to chicks and slaughterhouses – all made all the better by the bottle of wine that Sheila and I split. I was going to do my German homework tonight but I guess it will just have to wait until tomorrow morning as I was bit too creative an hour ago. Early wake up!

Fluffy White Pink

2006-08-01T02:36:00.000+02:00

I woke up this morning and I knew it would be a good day – I love that feeling. I don’t really know what I did with my morning, but I think I spent it organizing my life, showering, cleaning up my room and well, sleeping. That’s right, I’m finally sleeping. Eventually I did have to make it out to the Goethe Institut and register for my classes and such though, so I headed out after 11 towards the center. I bought myself the 10-Uhr monthly pass for the public transportation – about 2/3 of the price of the whole day monthly pass and I just can’t ride before 10am and I’m not planning to. I’m going to get enough sleep for once or read in the mornings. Or go for walks.

I walked around the district Mitte today sort of lost looking for the Goethe Institut. I had a general idea of where it was and I wasn’t really in any rush to get there, so I wandered the streets lined with random little stores and tons of cafes. There was even a Village Voice café that had stacks and stacks of newspapers and magazines. I might hit it up at some point if I can find my way back to it. I ate breakfast/lunch on a bench in a random park soaking in the neighborhood. As I was getting up leave I noticed this metal table and chairs at the edge of the park. It turns out it is one of the many small Holocaust memorials scattered throughout the city. Later on in the day I also walked by the main Holocaust memorial in Berlin, the “Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas” by Potsdamer Platz, but I haven’t really visited it yet. It is however interesting that it’s huge and right in the heart of the city and that just the “walking by it” type of experience and contemplation was intended on the part of the planners.

I finally found the Goethe Institut around one and it was overrun by stressed out people who had just arrived in Berlin today. I strolled in, registered, picked up my welcome packet and headed to the Media Center to take my placement test. The grammar part came first and I sort of didn’t do too well on it. Then the essay. Better. By the time I was at the interview stage the lady interviewing me was telling I should be in the highest level. Reassuring, but I have a lot of grammar work ahead of me, yet at least the random conversations with Austrian country folk and Swiss herdsmen paid off. I checked out the Cultural Program office and then headed to the library to check out a book to read on my rides on the S-Bahn and those relaxing pre-10am reading mornings. W. Kaminer is amazing- “Schönhauser Allee” is just as good as “Russendisko.” Or maybe I just relate too well to a Russian immigrant writer writing about the crazy little details of life in Berlin und das alles natürlich auf Deutsch.

Book in hand I headed out of the Institut and towards Hauptbahnhof where Sheila and Brandon were to arrive after three. The new main train station in Berlin is amazing and after ripping through a couple more short stories I just wandered around admiring the solar panels and such. With a bit of a Verspätung, their train rolled in and we embarked on a 40min walk to their hostel. It was wonderful lugging stuff again; I sort of miss the weight on my back. After settling them in at the hostel, the three of us headed out to explore Berlin.

We hit up Potsdamer Platz since it’s like one, no, two, minutes from their hostel – the place is pretty impressing, although a bit too impersonal and modern for me. But the Film Museum is there, so I’m definitely coming back.

[Inside Potsdamer Platz]

We then walked along where the wall used to cut Berlin in half and even through the Topographie des Terrors. Sort of by accident, but that’s what happens when just wandering.

[Brandon sticking his head down a random lady's jacket. She might have lost her head]

After a bit more wandering we were at the large musical note sculpture and we had to climb them of course. Sadly the Buddy Bears were gone but we did get dizzy on the “Break Dance” amusement park ride. Life isn’t much different than when Zujus was around. ; )

[Pretty Dom and Sheila]

[Lounging on the notes]

We even hit up a Vietnamese place for dinner, but only after a long search for the most hole-in-the-wall place we could find. We settled on My Hanoi which turned out to be quite nice and the food was excellent. What was more excellent was the Hello Kitty store across the street called “Fluffy White Pink” juxtaposed to the jazz concert at the bar next door. I love Berlin.

Sorgen

2006-07-31T00:56:00.000+02:00

Too old to be at camp, too young to be a parent – I dropped Zu off at camp today. I don’t think I’ve ever really worried as much about anything recently except for maybe picking Zu up from the airport. It is weird how worrying about people is so different from worrying about other stuff – it’s so exhausting that I feel like the last four days have been more trying that some of the toughest days on my route. It seemed like having Zujus go to camp near Berlin while I’m here would be super easy, but it’s actually a lot of responsibility. And I worry. A lot.

I know she’s tough. I know she’s been to camp before but never somewhere where she doesn’t really speak the language. Maybe it’s just because I did it myself back in the day and I remember what it felt like – the highs, the lows. But I feel like I’m the one more “homesick” in this case and I was the one getting teary eyed as I said goodbye. And camp is fun, right? She’ll be alright and I’ll just worry silently.

Unter den Linden (continued...)

2006-07-30T00:21:00.000+02:00

(what is this with the picture quota on Blogger?!)

Each of the huge sculptures on the "Walk of Ideas" is meant to symbolize “the richness of ideas and the spirit of invention which characterizes Germany’s composers, writers, scientists, engineers and perfectionists.” We just had a ton of fun climbing all over them, taking silly pictures and making the embarrassing Ieva-as-slug video.

[Zu ponders the “Theory of Relativity”]

[I can’t wait to get around to reading some more of these authors published by “Modern Book Printing”]

[Crazy musician among the scattered notes of the “Masterpieces of Music”]

[I just sit back and listen]

[The “Innovative Football Boots” are meant for the Fussball giants of the future]

[Taking a bite out of the giant pill that’s part of the “Milestones of Medicine”]

[Where did "the Automobile" go?!]

On our away from sculpture to sculpture we also walked by the Reichstag and one of Calatrava’s bridges. I was getting a bit too excited at the first taste of the Berlin that I’d been studying in the fall. I feel like once I’m Zuless. the never ending walks may become daily routine again. (I love walking a bit too much.)

It has also been very weird living in a bubble of two, with Zujus and me conversing in Lithuanian and not at all feeling like we stand out very much. It’s weird though, because in Berlin it almost seems natural to be a foreigner. I also love already having my own neighborhood to return to, with a very own fruit dealer. And I'm already recognizing faces on the street - this living in one place deal is weird, but very pleasant.

Unter den Linden

2006-07-29T23:51:00.000+02:00

I’m utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally. And I’m homesick in a very weird, I don’t want to let go of Zu tomorrow type of way. But our adventures in Berlin will be on halt for three weeks while she’s at camp. She will however rejoin me for the last week and we’ll rock this Stadt.

We finally hit up the center today. We started at Alexanderplatz by the TV tower and worked our way down the boulevard Unter den Linden. We walked past the Palast der Republic – a building built during the DDR days – that’s being torn down at the moment. I cried on the inside.

[Palast der Republic – maybe it was ugly, but it’s part of Berlin’s history that’s now just being erased]

After a bit more wandering, we realized that the Linden bit of Unter den Linden wasn’t really working out for Zujus’ allergies. Nor the 99% smoking rate for Berlin inhabitants. I don’t know if it’s Berlin, or if I just never notice people smoking, but Zujus reacts even to smoke residue on people who had been smoking previously (subway train rides are quite a lot of hassle, constantly moving away from new people that get on after just having smoked). And then any doors to a non-smoking area are always surrounded by crowds puffing away – try getting out of that without a coughing fit. And now every time someone raises their hand up to their face I think they’re about puff away and my immediate reflex is to grab Zu and drag her away from them. But sometimes people are just fixing their hair or something, but that's only about 2% of the time. This town runs off nicotine.

Well, so we needed to get away from the Linden and the café lined streets, so we embarked on the “Walk of Ideas,” with a pit stop at the square filled with Buddy Bears. The represent a bunch of countries and are meant to promote a bunch of good stuff like peace and such, but they also just look funny standing around in circle.

[I love Switzerland. And Sweden is next to me too.]

[We are the winners, we are, we are…]

[Under the sea in Croatia]

[Bears in Bolivia?]

[Love and happiness make the world go round]

[Einstein was smart]

Rund um den Ring

2006-07-29T00:03:00.000+02:00

Two great feats accomplished today, well more than that really, but in the span of less than twelve hours Zujus and I managed to ride all the way around the „Ring“ circling around Berlin and still have time to make it to New Mexico. The US is much closer than you think it is sometimes, especially when the Amerikanischer Volksfest is in town - it opened today and attempts to recreate the feel of NM in the form of an amusement park. There had been a request on Zujus’ part for an amusement park and after hours of searching a month ago I was disappointed to find absolutely no permanent amusement parks in the Berlin vicinity, so a temporary one had to do.

Seeing as the place only opened at two, we spent the morning shopping at a random mall that we found because I once again screwed up with the S-Bahn trains and the system isn’t even that complicated. Well, actually, there are renovation works going on, so on the way to the amusement park Zu and I had to get off a stop early. This just led to a detour through a local park, me vandalizing a tree and ripping off this round fruit thing which then ended up serving as the ball in a pick-up game of baseball with a Pfand plastic bottle as the bat. Fun times, but quite exhausting in the summer heat.

[Looks like Zu is angirly swatting a fly]

[Post-game exhaustion]

The amusement park itself was a german version of a carnival type thing in the US, with half meter long bratwurst, corn on the cob, caramel apples and rides that would never pass the safety standards in the US. At one point on the centrifugal force ride I was holding on for dear life (no strapping in of any sort) and was happy I had been throwing around my pack this summer and actually have some upper body strength. I mean I did lift up my feet and jumped up from my seat, but I wasn’t really expecting to almost fly off the darn thing. I also overcame my fear (more like childhood trauma) of those clown house things where stuff moves around and there’s a big slide at the end. And little siblings are a great cover up for going on rides that seem a bit too childish, like bumper cars - we let it rip on that one.

[The lady behind Zu doesn’t know that a backwards slam awaits her]

It’s funny how time flies by so fast, yet at a much slower pace with Zu around. We chilled at the park on the way back too, eating gummy bears and discussing stuff like the beauty of a light drizzle (it was starting to rain), telling jokes, and simply not rushing anywhere. We finally made it back to my hood a bit before nine still in time to stop by our new favorite Obst (fruit) stand/store place. We bought a melon there yesterday (and Zu got a free lollipop for looking too tired to carry it ;). Today we were after some apples and the friendly salesman was like “oh, no, you don’t want to buy those, they’ve been sitting out in the sun all week, they’re smooshy.” I love it how salespeople here aren’t really out to sell stuff to people – the lady at the supermarket convinced us not (more like didn’t really let us) buy the overpriced Studentenfutter ("student feed" = gorp mix). But Zu had promised to eat those super oily Brazil nuts and I was looking forward to the cashews. Oh well.

Tiergarten

2006-07-27T21:35:00.000+02:00

To bed just before 3am (after a late night discovery of the balcony I have in my room) awake by 4:30 out of fear that I would miss picking up my little sister from the airport. I got to the airport an hour and a half before her flight and Tegel is a tiny airport. So tiny that in just harmlessly walking around trying to see every corner of it I ended up in an off limits area. Got escorted from there and then decided to just stay put and wait at the gate.

Zujus arrived, escorted by a German lady who was demanding an Ausweis (ID) with my address in Berlin on it before she handed by sister over to me. As I didn't have one, I had to take to plan B and kidnap my sister. Well no. I just had to pass the "so what is your address in Berlin" test as if that was the secret code to setting Zujus free. I was luckily awake enough to remember.

We whisked her super light (only 21kg!) suitcase to my hood. A super nice lady even helped me carry it down the maze of stairs at the Ostkreutz S-Bahn stop. I love my neighborhood - it's a bit sketchy like all places should be, but the people I have had encounters with have been amazingly nice, even the overpierced punks smoking up at 6am.

The two of were back at the apartment before my roommates were even awake yet. But they basically get up and walk out the door. They're the type that like to get as much sleep in the morning as possible - I think we're very compatible. ; ) And luckily my German lessons starting next week are in the afternoon. I finally get to sleep!!!

But my sister is not the type who needs to sleep after getting off a 6am flight - "I slept on the way here" is what she told me. So we hit the streets, more like the S-Bahn. After a short debacle that resulted in us riding between Ostkreutz and Warschauer Str. three times, we were on our way to the Zoo side of the city. If someone can explain to me why some S-Bahn trains just decide to change direction randomly, it would be greatly appreciated. But we had a major laugh about the whole situation and did our day's worth of train hopping.

After lunch at a Vietnamese place (ok, my sister is 11, she's still picky about what she eats and I learned my lesson - no new food from now on), we wandered the streets looking for a good shopping center to buy some supplies for both of our future studies. Sadly all we stumbled across was Gucci and the like - not many pens or paper on sale there... But we had a bunch of fun just walking around and being goofs.

[My little sister - cooler than I ever was or ever could be - telling me that one should not take pictures of people when they're eating.]

After a couple of hours of wandering the streets we made to the Zoo - the main attraction for the day. Now I don't really like zoos - I feel sorry for the animals - but Zujus just has a way of making everything wonderful. She told me endless random facts about random animals, was super excited about the bears (as was I) and then just told me chill out and relax, buying me ice cream along the way and then proposed a feet soaking session in the fountain across from the panda and the flamingos. I felt like I was supposed to be taking care of her, but instead she was making sure I was staying hydrated enough ; )

[Me and an overheated sloth bear. Just too many similarities.]

[Monkey rock out]

Zoos can also be beautiful places it turns out, if one just lingers long enough by the animals and I was finally slowed down enough to just take it all in. No really, who else but a little sister would tell you to crouch down by a bird cage and look right into a cage hole, thus eliminating the bars and bringing the bird all the closer. Or to just spend almost half an hour watching jellyfish float around the tank.

[Peacock and jellyfish]

The most memorable part of the day for me though was when were walking by the zoo's children's playground and Zujus simply got super excited. Yet another hour was spent on swings, the trampoline, and just being a kid. Sometimes I forget, I guess, that she is still eleven and that the goofing off is more than natural.

Ankunft

2006-07-27T00:12:00.000+02:00

So, ich bin schon in Berlin! It almost feels wrong to be writing in English here - it seems like my brain has naturally already slipped into German mode. Well except for the fact that I was still convinced that the train stop announcements were in French - but I think that was just confusion.

Anyway, I woke up in Geneva this morning, had breakfast, hit up the city. Spent tons of quality time at the Red Cross museum, listened to an amazing free jazz concert and then headed to the train station to catch the train to the airport. I feel like I have become so used to this traveling thing, that I was not at all stressed out about the whole deal. But I set a goal of catching the train that was pulling out of the station in three minutes and an incompetent ticket buyer was between me and the correct machine. So what do I do? Buy a ticket for the local bus to the airport and instead ride the train. I figured if I got checked I could pull the whole confused traveler deal...yeah. I like stressing myself out.

The plane ride was like a blur - one minute we were boarding, the next already getting the jumbled stuff out from the overhead compartments. And easyJet is like the most efficient airline I've flown on - the check-in is all automatic, except for the worried glance and multiple phone calls when one pulls out a Lithuanian passport. I love being eastern European. The guy at the border control in Berlin also spent a lot of time comparing me to my passport picture, and the whole time I just stood there and smiled, taking in the fact that I was indeed in Berlin.Now I don't know how I would have reacted even a year ago to coming here. But right now, it seems like exactly the right place.

I got off basically in the middle of the woods, trekked over to the S-Bahn station, waited there for the German trains that do not at all run according to schedule. After a 30 min. ride through the city's outskirts I was at Ostkreutz - THE stop that I'll be getting off for the next month. Now, on the transportation map (which I studied long enough I guess, to be able to answer a random question I was asked on the train), on this map, Ostkreuz is sort of a major stop. Well in a city as large as Berlin, a major stop means endless levels and platforms with trains running in all directions, people buzzing around. I tried to follow the arrows for the street I was looking for, but had to give up and ask the newspaper salesman who once again just pointed me in a general direction - but it was the opposite one I was going in, so at least that was helpful.

I followed the very simple, yet perfect directions through the streets to my new abode and the whole time I was trying to think positive thoughts, but somewhere in the back of my mind there was fear. I had never seen this apartment, been to this neighborhood, met these people. I climbed the four flights of stairs (no elevator) and found myself in front of an old looking huge green door.

I rang the doorbell and heard footsteps going down the hall - this would be the moment of truth. The door opened, a surprised look, then an "ohhh," friendly handshake and welcome to the apartment. I took of my shoes while still wearing my pack in a small, but welcoming vestibule area, and then I was shown to my room (like two steps away).

Now I feel like all of this sort of needs a very long preface to really make sense, but I'll cut it short to the fact that the first time I had my own room was when I got to boarding school. And that only lasted for a year. And a Mather single - well it's more like a closet compared to my place now. No, my room is HUGE! Wood floor, double bed, couch, very cool leather ottoman, ancient looking chair thing in the area that I guess in the US would be a window seat. But most importantly - a large desk. I can't wait to spread my stuff out and let all that germanness envelop me. I'll take pictures when it's not so dark outside so that the natural light can flood in through the enormous windows. Oh, yeah, at the ceiling height - there is no way I could jump and reach it, even if it was off a chair. Oh so much space, so much air and so clean and nice!!!

The kitchen across the hall is yet to really be explored (as is the bathroom), but I've already hit up my roommates rooms. Sort of not really intentionally, but it took almost two hours to set up my internet (my roommate has endless patience) and it involved moving between every possible cable and room. But now I have sweet, sweet wireless. I love this apartment.

My roommates are yet to really be met though. Tomek seems really nice, helped me with my internet woes and is actually jealous of my room. His room is pretty sweet too though - and much more lived in with a very organized creative mess. He was writing something or other when I interrupted him.

My other roommate, Heike, just got back a little while ago with her boyfriend. At least it seemed like he was her boyfriend ; ) Very friendly, very energetic and yet to really be talked to. Can't do everything within 3 hours of arriving. But it looks like this month is going to be totally sweet and if not, if Berlin really sucks major time or something, I can just chill out on this comfy couch, listen to the stereo system and take in the aesthetic beauty of my room. No, you don't understand. I love it. So much.

Well, I'd better go test out that bed. An early wake up call awaits me since I'm picking up my little sister at the airport tomorrow morning - and then the sister adventures shall begin!

PS - the bathroom has BOTH a shower stall (with steps leading up to it - very majestic) and a bathtub!!! And washing machine, drying rack, etc., etc. Oh my, oh my.

Adjö

2006-07-24T21:24:00.000+02:00

Chicken hearts, cow tongue, liver, chicken legs, using boiled pig hoof broth as gelatin– all this is still on my mind after a dinner at the local Bierhalle where I had Leber-Geschnetzeltes (liver cut into strips in amazing sauce) with a glass of gespritzter weisswein (white wine diluted with sparkling water). I was sitting at a table with a group of Zurich University students who are finally enjoying the summer heat as well – they weren’t last time I was here. And the heat here – yes it’s actually enjoyable. 27 degrees actually feels cold. Being an outsider in their group, having basically just plopped myself down at a table over from theirs, obviously alone, obviously looking for company, and then of course invited to join them, it took a little bit for the conversation to wander from the usual discussion of what I do, where I’m from, what languages I speak, etc, etc.

I’ve found that there’s usually a bridging topic between the very direct personal and current to just random conversation. And this time it was on the subject of food – easily discussed when eating. Seeing that I was actually choosing to eat liver, they were pretty impressed and were asking me how much food was different in the US. I realized that I’ve never eaten liver in the US, as far as I can remember. Nor cow tongue. Or chicken hearts. Or caught, gutted, cleaned and eaten a fish, head and all. I’ve never even been fishing on the other side of the Atlantic. I’ve never chased around a chicken there or really even seen a cow. No I must have seen a cow, right?!

Now I realize that’s probably because I don’t really have time to chase chickens when I’m at school. But at the same time I feel like my life is very polarized with very different experiences on the two sides of the Atlantic. Sometimes I think that maybe in my head I just associate the US with studying a bit too much – stressful exams and such, while I’m always on vacation when I’m on this side. It might be skewing my perception of things a bit. But even then, I can’t really imagine an opposite setup. We’ll see how the German studying in Berlin is going to go – but I feeling even that will be a different experience. It’s Berlin after all!

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now – the fact that so much depends on one’s mindset. It’s easy for a place to be wonderful if you already come to it loving it. Like Switzerland – I knew I was going to love it, but I didn’t set any real expectations, and it naturally superseded any that I could have set. And Scandinavia last year – especially Iceland – there was no way it wasn’t going to be super. And Austria and Slovenia surprised me with their awesomeness because I was waiting to be surprised. No, not waiting – reaching out for that surprise. That’s another thing: mindset is just part of the equation. But the rest is easy, as it sort of just comes in a form of positive energy. Just have to put it to work.

I think that’s the main difference between this and last summer - staying a lot more positive about my work even after getting pretty hurt. Last summer a computer crash and lost copy batch sort of ruined the end in terms of mood. This summer, I think I slept less hours, talked to more strangers, walked more streets, climbed more mountains – yet at the same time I’m actually physically and mentally still a lot more here. Come on, I passed out on a subway last year, and now I can still walk the streets of the old town in Zurich. Well, it may be a bit more comfortable without those blisters on the bottom of my feet. Yeah, walking on hot black pavement is not the best idea in the long run…

I think this summer got me thinking a lot more too, and seeing as most of the writing I did was for LG up to this point, the musings might come out in writing when I’m in Berlin. Stay tuned or wired (or not) or whatever. I'm off for a last taste of Zurich before I head back to Geneva tomorrow and then onto Berlin on Wednesday. How is it the end of July already?

Rilassamento

2006-07-23T03:25:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was my last day of street work. Having lingered too long in Geneva, gotten basically literally cooked in the 35+ degree weather, I was left with two cities for my last day – Lausanne and Montreux. And I don’t think I could have had a better day to round off my route.

It started at the late hour of 7am, but having gone to bed just a couple hours before that, getting up wasn’t quite the easiest thing to do. But unlike last year I think I still had a last burst of energy left and as Allen and I headed out of his apartment, I was ready to hit the streets. So much so, that I couldn’t even bear to wait for the bus and I got to the center just as it was pulling up behind me. So yeah, I can walk as fast as a bus – well sort of if you just reason the right way.

Now Lausanne is a city on a hill slope, so much so that supposedly in winter actual “climate” differences exist within the city. While it may snow in the higher up altitudes it may be a “sunny” day by the latke (we’re talking like 400m altitude difference) Anyway, so cities on non-level areas really intrigue me because the streets usually not only wind but also undulate. In Lausanne though, between the center and the train station the gentle street curvature ends and there’s a road down the hill that I think would be fun to sled down in winter. I’m sure though that busy people trying to get to the city from the train station don’t really associate it with fun…

So anyway, I’m walking down this street, not really quite sure how I’m going to tackle my day. And the next thing I know I’m being given a rose and being told to “have a good day” (well that’s at least as much as I understood, there was more, but big French words were beyond the level of my meager first-year-five-years-ago skills). At first I thought that it had something to do with Swiss train promotion and encouragement to use public transportation and being “green” (I always think positive things about Switzerland, I’ve noticed.) It turns out that it’s actually a promotion for hair care (www.goodhairday.ch) – and the Miss Switzerland blog is on that site if you want to check it out. But once again thinking positive things about this country, I think it’s a non-commercial thing. They just want people’s hair to look beautiful, as if the country isn’t amazing enough already. But I just have to say that just looking around and seeing all the women coming toward the station carrying roses was beautiful. And so many smiles.

Sooner than I thought, I was excited again as I caught the train leaving within 1min of getting to the station. I love the jumping in through the closing doors – word of warning: have to watch that should bag. For the rest of actual morning work time – visiting hostels, tourist offices, supermarkets, excellent creperies – I was super efficient and got the boring stuff done pretty painlessly. I then paid my respects to the building that Nabokov lived in (very upscale hotel even now) and walked up the shore away from Montraux, past the Freddie Mercury statue (!), to the local castle. Before a full on conquest attempt, I passed on my rose to a little girl that was looking longingly at it. I now could storm the castle full force, speeding through and almost running over a little kid! It was great - yet another new vertical maze with amazing atmosphere.

By not very much after noon I was heading back to Lausanne. I was on top of my day, like major time. In Lausanne, I indulged in some art at the museum de l’art brut, but more than anything, I liked the actual building. I must say that it blows my mind how many excellent museums there are in Switzerland; they just seem to get the whole package down and there’s usually very little one can pick on. Except for dusty stuffed animals, but even then the polar bear and tiger are still somehow a highlight…

Following a slight detour to the edges of the city, I headed for the heart – the old town, and more specifically the city hall. There was supposed to be a city tour leaving from there and I thought I’d ask the guide a couple questions, make sure these tours actually existed and then go on my way. But no – things aren’t this simple on an excellent day.

As I was waiting by the town hall, watching weddings come in and out, I was also keeping close watch on what seemed like a degustation type of event. I was watching the people getting pieces of cake, getting wine poured and no monetary transactions talking place. And after a little while it was clear that it was not an official event as some people just walking by stopped in. So I went in for the kill and came of with excellent cake and “glass” of wine. What can I say – amazing.

The tour I was waiting for didn’t happen. But no, nothing to be upset about. No other tourists showed up. So what happens? I get a personal tour. Amazing. Holy crap I was having a great day.

As things were starting to slow down in the city, I headed to check out my last hostel of the season. Walking over, following the actually pretty good Let’s Go directions I was overcome by melancholy. This was basically it – the 56 days were over. I even had to sit down and just chill out for a moment, take it in, be ok with it and realize that this is not the end of my summer.

But there’s nothing like ending on a high note – this hostel was super! As I sat there getting myself together to research it, like 8 trains rattled by – this hostel is right on the tracks basically. How could it have a thumb pick in Let’s Go?! Well, it has amazing views of the lake, the whole side facing the tracks is bathrooms and other spaces that don’t need to be quiet and keep the noise out from the rest of the building. And the courtyard – roses! Perfect.

Bouncing out of the hostel, heading down towards the lake I chased down yet another bus to make the journey a bit quicker. I took off my shoes to soak my feet for a minute and then decided to just keep my shoes off as I walked along the shore toward the swimming area. Sadly not on nice sand, or even rocks. No, hot black pavement, but somehow even that was so enjoyable and I walked for long enough to get blisters. But what doesn’t kill you makes you tougher right? Well, I’m still alive.

At the swimming area place, I was wandering around aimlessly, sort of undecided if I was going to go swimming. I must have been conveying that through the expression on my face, because a group of people called out to me “so are you going swimming or not?” (en francais, but I got what they were saying). They offered to watch my bag and poster for me, seemed trustworthy, so I went in for a swim. What followed was a good hour of grilling and hanging out by the lake. And then another great walk and random bus (no I had no clue where it was going, but seemed to be going in the right direction) ride back to Allen’s. What a day!

Now I’m finishing up copy since I crashed pretty early last night (as in actually before midnight! (4 mins: )) and then slept in this morning. I must really say that sleep is one of the most wonderful things on earth, so I’m going to get some now because a hike and a 4:30am wake up call awaits tomorrow. Oh wait, no. Today. ; )

Merci Vilmal

2006-07-15T20:21:00.000+02:00

Last night I ran into someone I met on the road last year. But the odds were actually higher than ever of this happening as there’s a HUGE pop music festival in Bern at the moment. But it was weird to see someone I though I would never see again, and that of course called for celebration which took the form of escapade through the city at night to commemorate our former adventure in Stockholm. It maybe lasted a bit too late into the night, but I love cities at night and they’re a lot more fun (and safe) when not explored alone. But Bern is safe overall – except for maybe the train station district. And with so many people in town there’re people out at all hours of the night.

Another late night in a row of a week of ever more extreme sleep deprivation is about the last thing I needed though, and when I woke up and there were people playing a game of volleyball outside my tent I knew I had overslept and missed that 7:30am train to Basel. I should really just have stayed in center of Bern and gone from there. But I was also in need of a shower – 3 days in 35 degree is stretching it a bit. And wearing a black shirt was not the brightest idea I’ve had in a long time. But everything else I own is dirty at the moment – not really much time or energy to wash stuff. Except for socks – clean socks are sacred.

The weather has cooled down a bit today and as I was tying up loose ends in Bern it was actually quite nice to stroll about. I made my way over to the city’s bear bit (it’s their symbol). I felt sad and sorry for the bears that live on display among concrete walls, but the more I learn about bears, the more my suspicion is confirmed that in another life I was bear. They’re basically vegetarians (80% of their diet), but also eat meat. They sleep in the winter and eat a lot of berries in the fall. And in general they’re really relaxed animals and loners to some extent. And they look so cuddly and have really cute feet. I never wanted a pony as a little kid, but I want a bear of my own.

I’ve also been in front of my computer for the last five consecutive hours which is a bit too much. I like writing in spurts as stuff happens, but the days have been too full of research to keep up with the writing. I was both in Neuchatel and Fribourg yesterday. At one point I just sat down in the middle of the gravel path leading into the depths of the gorge in Fribourg and was ready to take a nap. But I made it to the heart of the old town (after a really round about way of getting there) and the free street jazz festival was what I needed to round off my day tripping.

I feel like I have so much more to say when I start writing these posts, but after striking through so many wrong tel. numbers and prices I feel like my brain is numb to exciting things that happen in my life or things that I reflect on as I walk the streets. I love walking, especially now that it’s not as painful anymore.

Well, I’m off to hit the streets. Who knows whom I might meet this time.

Prossima Fermata

2006-07-13T02:44:00.000+02:00

Phew. I think the day is finally over. And the next one starts in less than 4 hours.

Just wanted the world to know that I'm still alive. The last week and a half have been a rollercoaster - definite lows with awful, awful leg pain (I fell off a train for all those that don't yet know). But I think as a result there have also been amazing highs and I'm loving this country more than ever. The people are so amazingly helpful and friendly - people have offered to carry my pack (more like stipped it off of me - well without seeming like they were going to steal it. more in a nice "I'm going to help you even if you think you can do it" sort of way). I think I would have missed like 100% more train connections if it wasn't for that. And whenever I'm working late into the night at such locations as the campsite's laundry room, some nice soul finds me in the middle of the night and then comes back with chocolate. And this has happened more than once, including tonight. But different intentions tonight because I'm now in English-speaking backpacker land - Interlaken. Can I just say that I enjoy the locals here more than fellow travellers... but to be fair some of these people have been all around the globe and have some interesting stories.

Which brings me to the fact that there's a fire right outside my tent and I'm going to head out to chill out and relax a bit before getting some sleep.

And there's little in the world that some Louis Armstrong can't fix. No, really - "what a wonderful world"...

Grüezi

2006-06-30T17:34:00.000+02:00

That night on the pier in Stein am Rhein seems ages away, but when I think about it that was just Monday night. Since then I've hit up Switzerland's smallest canton (walked around a lot of it, took a super rickety train through the rest). I stormed a monarchy yesterday (Liechtenstein) and despite the drizzle and storm clouds braved climbing the Schöneberg. More like instead of walking along the road to the next town I needed to research (45min) I walked up and around the mountains (4h). But it was most definitely worth it, even if I was then super happy to be sitting down in the Liechtenstein Kunsthaus listening to a speech being given by the director of the Museum Moderner Kurnst in Vienna. Super interesting because I was just there a month ago and had a pretty critical view of his collection and exhibition. But his speech cleared some things up and I now feel a bit more at ease about the Vienna Activism exhibit.

I made my way back up north today and I'm in Luzern at the moment. At a super cool pulic library that has a whole huge section of the building dedicated to environmental issues. I wish I has more time to romp around. Also in the same building is a pretty amazing 360 degree painting depicting scene from the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. It's so well drawn that the effect of the painting being on all sides also makes it seems 3-D. Supposedly panorama paintings were like the movie equivallent before cinema came around. Pretty cool stuff.

I'm heading up Mt. Pilarus tomorrow, up the world's steepest cog railway and then maybe wizzing down on the roddelbahn - basically a slide. And then hitting up Zürich for some Saturday nightlife. And then off to the far east.

I curretly living in a shack basically. Every time I try to branch out from living in my tent I either get close to bankupcy or sketchyness. The last campsite I was in though was pretty amusing because I was the only under 60 aged person there so I had all these pseudo grandparents taking care of me. Which was super nice, especially when I came down to being able to use their mechanical wringing machine. Oh the beauty of clean socks.

Dankhe

2006-06-27T21:58:00.000+02:00

So this is a race against time. More like battery life. I'm in Jakobsbad at the moment, inside my tent. I think I'm mooching off of some vacationer's wireless because my tent is pretty close to a small hut and otherwise I'm sort of in the middle of the mountains. But maybe this campsite is just that advanced.

I've been awake for way too many hours for my own good today, but I started the day off with a sunrise swim in the Rhine which was pretty amazing. The spandex and t-shirt swim wear was getting a bit annoying though as it takes a long time to dry, so I caved in today and got a swim suit. Bodies of water in Switzerland - watch out. Oh, and rivers have currents. I had forgotten about that (Naila - I think my killer 8 was trying to get back to shore ;) But I swam back out again. It was just unexpected. I wasn't like drowning or anything. Nobody get worried ;)

I also took a boat ride up the Rhine skiting the German border over to see Europe's largest waterfall. Well it was about an hour further than LG claims it is. But the walk was worth it. Also, I think it's quite amusing when people on the street ask me if my pack is heavy and they do that a lot. It also took me a whole 30 mins this morning to take apart my pack in order to stuff it into a train station locker. A bunch of red duct tape had to come off and my anti-theft buckle duct tape wrap is effective. A bit too much so. I was swearing by the end.

Anyhow, here's yesterday's entry before my battery dies. I don't want to go back to the men's bathroom to mooch off the "razor" outlet again:

Stein am Rhein 26.06.06

[It feels almost sacrilegious to have my laptop out, but it’s getting a bit dim to be writing by hand.]

I feel like I’m home. I’m soaking my feet in the Rhine and little ducklings are circling around. The sun is setting in the valley, turning the sky a soft pink and the castle up on the hill just lit up. Everything is so silent, so still - except for the fish and the birds going on about their end of day rituals. And everything is so peaceful, so harmonious – and for the first time in a long time I feel totally relaxed.

But I really think it’s more a state of mind than the actual location I’m at. I haven’t slept more than 5 hours a night for the last week, so it can’t actually be that I’m actually physically feeling this well. But in my head, I’m back in Lithuania, sitting at the end of the pier soaking my feet in the Aiseta lake. Or the Nemunas delta in fall, watching thousands of birds fly by on their annual migration to warm lands. It feels like everything has a cycle, and as the last slivers of light disappear on the horizon, the day has finally reached ultimate closure.

I’ve been on the road for exactly a month now and I’m in Switzerland for exactly another month. I’m in the middle of things, but at the same time every day is a new beginning.

[Holy crap! I just pulled out my feet and I thought that they were just covered in gunk. And for the whole time I was soaking them, I felt this constant tickling and I just thought that it was little pieces of grass floating by. But having brought my feet up to my laptop screen I saw the little black things moving. Baby leeches!!! But I think that some rigorous feet washing got most of them off. Yeah, this isn’t exactly what I mean by new beginnings and experiences…]

But. I think traveling, well not even traveling… just moments like these where I just sit back (leaning against a post in the river along the pier that initially moved like a foot back when I leaned against it, almost send me and my computer into the water) Moments like these where I’m not thinking about anything in particular, but at the same time about so much, that bring a feeling of balance and peace. For once I feel like I not only seem, but actually am composed.

I feel like life is too hectic. Not that we do too much or that we’re busy all the time – I enjoy pushing myself to the limits be it climbing mountain after mountain, or writing papers (or copy) late into the night. I feel like it’s not all that needs to get done that makes life unbearably crazy, but all the things that we forget to do.

Like breathe. And blink. And get a mosquito bite. And scratch it. And just realize that the world doesn’t revolve around us at all. We’re just a teeny, tiny part in it – seemingly meaningless in the long run, but constructing a whole existence around this ephemeral being. And I think that’s the beauty of it. It’s not that I can capture this particular moment and keep it forever, or that it has some higher meaning – it’s that I’m living it here. And now.

And now hopefully I can find my way back to civilization; it is pitch black out here. And somewhere, galaxies away, Switzerland is playing the Ukraine in the World Cup. And I couldn’t really care less who wins. Ok enough clichés, rambling and mass psychosis hate. Where are my shoes?

Spätzli

2006-06-26T12:37:00.000+02:00

[My battery died while I was writing this...]

[I’ve tried to hack into all the secured wireless networks in the area, but I think I have to give up my attempts and come to terms with the fact that I’ll just have to post this tomorrow.]

It’s my second day in Zürich and I’m in love with this country. It’s too expensive, it’s true, but oh my god is it worth it (except for the 38CHF hostel – I’m moving back to my tent which is drying underneath my bed ; ).

The people on the streets speak of mix of Swiss-German, French, Italian and who knows what else. I even used my Russian language skills today when “renting” my free (!) bike. There’s a bank, jewelry or upscale clothing store on every corner, but at the end of the main ritzy shopping street, the Saturday flea market was the most amazing jumble of useless but amusing stuff. And the Top Hit radio actually plays more than just the same three songs over and over again (unlike in Austria). The morning news in Swiss-German were also the cutest thing to be waking up to at 6am.

The days are hot, but the there’s water all around. With two rivers and a huge lake, Zürich has more places to go swimming than one’s heart can desire. And there are tons of free swimming “pools,” which turn to bars at night. (I’m sadly yet to go swimming – I’ve waded through a number of fountains though).

The highlights of my time here thus far have bee n the Kunsthaus (art museum), Coffee Museum and the cycling tour through the city today. The Kunsthaus’ Munch collection is superb, I’ve always wanted to see Alberto Giacometti’s bronze sculptures (they even had the plaster casts on display!), and the video experience of Andy Warhol’s “disco” in the Expanded Eye temporary exhibition was like being in a trance. And up to this point I wasn’t a big Warhol fan (not that I am now, but…)

The Coffee Museum was an indulgence – mainly because the current exhibition is on Viennese cafes and I had spent over a week sipping coffee in so many of them. And now I know the history behind them too. Also, anyone who can tell me the difference between a Teeschale and Schale Tee or what a Schale Gold is needs to go on a coffee drinking adventure with me. I think I’m officially addicted – not to coffee necessarily, but coffeehouses most definitely. Zürich’s Oedeon is getting a visit tomorrow – even if a cup of coffee ends up being my lunch.

But while I may have told my brother this morning that eating isn’t really “worth it” in Zürich (meaning too expensive), I did eat today. The supermarket was closed so I had to actually go eat real food. I found the most amazing and cheap place with heaping portions of Spätzli drowned in melted cheese. And the beer was almost cheaper than water – and good too. (Ever since I learned at Salzburg’s Stiegl brewery that beer is like the best thing for ones health, I’ve taken it up as an integral part of my diet ; ) – well not really).
I also feel like even after cycling around all day long my muscles are actually finally getting some rest. I think hiking every day out in the Alps wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had; by the time I got to Innsbruck I was so burned out I couldn’t drag myself out of my tent for the sunrise hike I wanted to do. But there are plenty of sunrises and sunsets ahead… and Alps too! But for now I’m soaking in the city life and loving it.

PS And that Swiss tourist board advertisement with the hay bailing – it’s a pretty accurate depiction of the population. ; ) Except for the not paying as much attention to soccer bit; World Cup craziness is rampant in this country.

Electricity

2006-06-25T22:06:00.000+02:00

Holy crap I wasn`t prepared for this: the current is right but the socket is too small for my computer plug. Ironically I can`t do my work when I`m technically living in the most upscale hostel thus far.

Otherwise loving this country.

Trockner

2006-06-23T14:58:00.000+02:00

This is sort of in response to Brandon´s laundry entry...

So I tried to do laundy two days ago too for the first time since I´ve been on the road. Usually I just handwash my clothes from the previous day early the next morning and hang them up on my tent to dry before I head out (and pray that my clothes don´t get stolen). I washed my jeans a couple weeks ago with the Grime Bar and washed most of the dye (but not dirt) out. Well two days ago I decided that my fleece was just a tad too dirty.
So I loaded all of my clothes - every last bit, but the dress I was wearing (my "laundry" dress) - and after figuring out the complex system of dials and buttons, pressed the ON button. Two hours later the cycle was done. I opened up the door and out came a flash flood!!!
I guess the machine hadn´t drained or something. Nor done the spinny thing that gets the clothes not soaking wet. So I wrung them out by hand. Put them into the dryer. 80 mins later (and it´s like 2am at this point) the drying was done and my clothes were still soaking wet.
As I was moving on to a diffrent town early in the morning, I put the wet clothes into a plastic bag and took them with me on a day in the Austrian Alps (all while wearing my laundry dress and hiking boots (with no socks!)).
Finally, after getting into my new campsite last night, in the middle of a rain storm, even my laundry dress was wet after putting up my tent and such.

But I had forgotten that I had another piece of cloth - my sleep sack! (basically a sheet folded in two and the edges sown together - thanks Fuon!). So wearing a "toga," I watched my clothes dry for yet another 2 hours while a crazy rain storm raged outside.

You cannot imagine how good a dry, warm fleece feels.

And doing laundry turns out to be auf eigene Gefahr auch in these parts of Europe. I´m sticking to hand washing - it´s by far the cheapest and most reliable way.

Keesberge

2006-06-21T21:20:00.000+02:00

So I don’t have much time nor energy, which seems to be a recurring pattern in the last week or so. But it has been amazing (apart from being stranded in the middle of nowhere waiting for train connections). I’ve been to many parts of the Austrian Alps already and my Austria gallivanting should come to an end within the next two days. Sadness, because Austria has really grown on me (especially the people out in the rural areas) and I’ve finally figured out what cheap food at the supermarket actually tastes good (decided to branch out once again today – egg and onion spread = not so hot).

I uploaded my pictures from my camera and for once I have wireless, so here’s a photo reportage of my gallivanting over the last couple of days:

Hallstatt

Got in via train across the lake at the jutting out peninsula…

…climbed the mountain I’m taking pictures from to go to the world’s oldest salt mine. If you look really hard in the bottom right corner, you can see my tent (not really in the photo, but I could in real life).

Hiked up and around the salt mine, past places no one really goes…

…climbed down yet another alpine ladder thing (this time downwards, eeek) to see the waterfalls.

The highlight of the day was the glacial garden, however. No actual glaciers, but the most beautiful carved out rocks and the purest water I’ve ever seen (freezing cold too!).

Obertraun Caves – turns out there’s a hidden daytrip from Hallstatt that I was unaware of until I got there.

There’s three of them – water, ice and rock. Pictures I took inside didn’t really come out, above is the best one.

After the ice and rock caves, I set out for the water cave which is supposedly 15min away. I was there an hour later, granted with a detour to a local “inn.” More like where the people living in this middle of nowhere valley get together to chit chat over some radler. Being dehydrated I downed about two liters of homemade apple juice. Sour stuff, but I impressed the locals, who were very chatty, but also spoke something other than German…

Having detoured for so long, I missed the last train and bus back to my tent. So walked yet another 8km back. Scariest experience = walking through a tunnel with cars speeding past. (In the picture I’m about half way home. I was in a valley to the right of the rocky mountain.)

Krimml Waterfalls

Four kilometers up a zigzagging slope. My head got dizzy, but amazing waterfalls.

Grossglockner (today!)

Highest Austrian mountain – an no, I didn’t climb it. Takes actual gear and grossing a glacier to do it (would have, had I had more time (and money)).

Basically, there’s a road most of the way up. Cheating, but amazing. After almost thirty 180 degree turns on a bus, I though I had altitude sickness, but turned out to be just motion sickness (pictures from part way up).

At the top of the road there’s a tourist mecca with restaurants, gift shops, telescopes, ect. Below the huge parking lot lies the glacier though. Vertical incline = alpine climb. After researching what I needed to research, I headed down.

Around the bend (about 40mins away) was a basin where the glacial river water collected. I decided to cut across to save on time and discovered that fording a glacial stream is a bad idea for two reasons – the water is freezing (!!!) and a murky white color so when the drop off is huge, you don’t see it coming. But it was cool just taking off my shoes because the ground was all bouncy and rubbery and stuff. I took a video, but it turned out to be pretty lame (features my feet, boots and socks ; )

After crossing the glacial waterfall cascading into a crevasse, I got lost.

I was lost and I knew within 5 mins that I was not on the path I was supposed to be on, but I was hoping to take a short cut again. (in the picture, instead of continuing on the visible path, I turned left into the crevasse)

(great views from that direction though)

My rock climbing skills came in handy for a while (probably against better judgment), but once I hit a never ending cliff that ended in the water, I turned around.

My bus was leaving in 50mins. I was over an hour away (walking). Well I ran. Note to self: never get lost when there’s one bus per day leaving from where you are in the middle of a national park. Before a thunder storm. But all turned out well – just the bus driver had quite a laugh as I sprinted to the bus.

Winter in Deutschland

2006-06-15T21:29:00.000+02:00

[I'll post pictures once I have my camera cable with me. For now just the marginallia. Sorry, too tired to write anything original. Sort of falling off the stool I'm sitting on. But it has tricky wheels.]

Untersberg (15.June.06 9:30am-3:48pm) [I write this literally looking at Untersberg (the mountain I was climbing today). I’m at the local castle, which LG claims is open until 7:30, but actually closes at 6, but the ramp around it is still open. And I got here 3 mins after six. I think my luck was in the mountains today. And maybe I should give up researching respectable establishments when I look and smell like I’ve just escaped from a zoo ;)

So my day today began at 5:30am, when I woke up for no good reason. My alarm was set for 6:30, so I still had a whole hour to go. But I think moving outdoors - that’s right I’m now living in my tent, and loving it - has switched up my daily rhythm a bit. I can’t really stay up very late anymore since I have no light installation in my tent itself (weird adjusting to non-24-hour daylight like up in Scandinavia) and the TV lounge area is packed with soccer fans, so I can’t really get much work done there at night anyway. And going to bed before midnight actually makes waking up at 5:30 a decent amount of sleep I guess. Anyway, well nothing is open at that hour, so there was no point in heading out earlier and writing copy for an hour that early in the morning didn’t seem very appealing to me. And I had a long day ahead of me. So, to pass the time I washed some socks so that they’d be dry (and hopefully not stolen) by the time I got back. Crazy camping people were already doing their laundry when I got to the washing room. Some people are ridiculous.

I headed out from the campsite at 7:30, and just I was getting to a major street in the outskirts of Salzburg that I’m living in, my bus sped by. Today being a Feier Tag (holiday) and all, I was left to wait for another 30mins for the next bus. I walked to the next bus stop and on the way gave myself a discount on the newspaper (basically stole one, since I only put like 6euro cents into the payment box). Read the news and tried to figure out what the hell was going on in the world. Found out that there was yet another shooting back in Vienna, on the same street the shooting happened when I was there! I guess Vienna is the hood now, or something.

The bus finally came and like two other poor souls awake this morning joined me for the ride into town. I got to the center and began looking for this bus #16 that we say leaves from the center of the city and ends up at the trailhead for the hike up Untersberg. That’s right - I was going to hike those three hours up the mountain. But my plan was foiled by a non-existent bus. Bus 16 - yeah. Ghost bus.

So after a wasted hour (because the bus I then took only runs every half hour) I was finally on bus 25 heading for the Unterbergsbahn, the cable car up to the top of the mountain. Cheating, I know. But in the end I ended up cheating myself into exhaustion. Like always. A short-cut leads only to further exploration.

The ride up was terrifying because I’m scared of heights, and there I was floating higher off the ground than I’d ever really want to be in this small box. But I got over it, as I chatted with this really nice lady from Scotland who had taken the bus with me out here. We had some coffee before our ascent and between the two of us got to try two wonderfully delicious desserts. I love food, but I should have probably had a more substantial breakfast than espresso and cake.

The cable car doesn’t run all the way to the top, so I still had the 45-60min ascent to the summit. Well that turns out to the suggested round trip time. I got to the top in 15mins. I was out of breath, but I beat the cable car crowd and had the summit all to myself. Plus I had a crazy idea in mind, which after like 2 mins of doubt I carried out. I embarked on the 5.5hour hike around the surrounding summits that was mentioned on the info stand. Over 6km total. I figured they were just overestimating the amount of time it took. Well for the first leg of the trip I was alright:

10:05 - I was on the summit of Salzburger Hochthron (1853m)

10:30 I was “45 mins from the Schnellenberger Eishöhle” - Oh yeah, the reason I decided to go on this hike was for these ice caves. A very good choice. But more about that when I get there ; )

10:40 - I was at yet another intersection. Now mind you I didn’t have a map of the area (today is a holiday, so nothing is open), so I just figured I didn’t want to the Fürstenbrunn. I didn’t.

10:48 - I was descending stairs into a tunnel. I thought it was pretty cool for like the 3 tunnels. Hundreds of steps later my legs where shaking. I was basically running down the Thomas-Eder Steig, hand chopped out of the mountain by Thomas Eder back in 1934-35. Must have been hard work. Just getting through it was challenging, and a bit scary.

10:52 - I was at the bottom of all the stairs.

11am - At the sign up to the Eishöhle. That’s right - 45min hike in 30mins. I was efficient.

Schnellenberger Eishöhle (11:05-12:05) So I made it there just in time, as the hour tour of the ice caves leaves on the hour. It was me, a couple that had I had seen hiking ahead of me for a while and another middle-aged couple. The guide was amazing! First of all he let me breathe for 5mins after running up the hill to the entrance of the caves. Then he took my bag away from me and locked it way in his hut. My back got some rest. And he inquired where everyone was from, and after I told him I was from Lithuania, anytime he used words that I didn’t understand (like Alpendohlen - Alps somethings? A type of bird.) he explained what it was. I appreciated it major time. But for the most part since he spoke pretty Hoch Deutsch I was fine.

While leads me to the fact that the sign on his hut said “Schnellenberger Eishöhle - größte Eishöhle Deutschlands” What? Germany’s biggest ice cave? I though they were just confused. But on the tour I found that I indeed was in Bayern! I had crossed a country border without even realizing it!!! (Once again... I should pay more attention to where I go...)

The ice cave is amazing though! It just opened last Saturday because of all the snow fall in the region two weeks ago (there’s still snow in the mountains). Usually open until Nov. from Pfingst (the other holiday on which I researching Lipizzaner Horses. I’m glad I spent last week in Slovenia and got here when the caves are open; ) Supposedly the very beginning of the season is most impressive, as the ice is still very clean, and there are still ice crystals all over the rocks too, so everything glistens. The cave complex contains 60,000 cubic meters of ice and it’s actually not melting like all the glaciers in the alps! The ice just shifts and reforms every year. And new ice columns (which break by August) appear too.

So after descending into winter (-3 degrees Celsius - so refreshing after hiking out in the sun!), we were first in a not so very impressive cave, half filled with snow that we descended down and ice on the other side. But after an introduction to the caves (there’s tons of them! A whole labyrinth, but they get very narrow and exploring them is very dangerous) we were ready to literally descend into the ice. Oh, but first the guide told us where the really tall ladder went to - an Aplendohlen cemetery! These Alpine birds have chosen one particular cave to come and die in. So when the day is coming to close and eeriness settles in, all these black birds flutter to their death. A bit creepy, but supposedly the whole cave is packed with their little bones and decaying bodies. No kidding.

So anyway, we walked down the wooden steps (they put them in and pull them out every year. Hard work as they have to hack the pathways and such. But the ice has melted away from the rock, so there’s a pretty wide passageway to get though). We walked by the ice into the depths, were to told the story behind the naming of the cave below us that we were going to descend into. Basically this dude fell into an ice crack and years later they discovered that the crack led to another cave. A nice way to discover something and get it named after you. Except not.

But to this point we were still hugging rock. I was like, where’s the ice cave - like you know a whole cave made of ice. Well that came next. Climbing up ice steps (that’s right, steps carved into the ice, we came into a large opening with domes of ice and curvy walls - everything so polished, so shiny, so cold! Even the magnesium strip wouldn’t light, so we couldn’t really take pictures. But it was like being in an ice church or something. There was even a piece of ice that looked like an altar. (Which reminds me that there’s a church in Helsinki that’s basically in a cave. A rock cave. Also amazing, but actually a legit church. I by accident climbed all over the top of it.)

After a couple more pathways through the ice, we climbed some winding stairs right through the ice to exist to the cave we originally started in. Wow! That was one of best hours spent thus far. And something that you really have for yourself to really get the entirety of it all. I want to come back sometime later in the summer sometime just to see how the ice changes over the season. But then again it changes year to year...

We resurfaced, and at a very specific point it seemed like we hit a wall of heat. The closest experience I’ve had to this has been walking out of an air conditioned room outside in Florida in mid summer. But that lacked the crunching snow underfoot. It’s just unbelievable. Not only did I cross country borders, I went back to winter! (for a short period of time ;)

I lingered at the hut, drinking water and bought a map of the mountains from the guide. Now at least I’d know where I was headed. 12:20 I left the ice cave and headed for the Toni Lenz Hutte (hut). Got there within 15 mins. All these people drinking beer and chilling out. I talked to them for a bit and headed out, still walking downhill. Oh yeah, apart from the initial climb to the first summit and the run up to the ice cave entrance, I was pretty much walking downhill all the time. And the whole time I was thinking, well this circle around the mountains can’t really take 5.5 hours, now can it. But what goes down must come up I learned ;)

1:05pm the uphill began just as I was thinking how pleasant this hike was.

1:20pm I took a lunch break in the middle of the path. I felt like I was on a vertical incline and I was out of breath like no other. Two hikers walked by me, asked me if I was ok, tried to force me to drink their water. I said I was fine, drank some of my own water, and told them I’d scream if anything was up. I like friendly people in the mountains. But they had poles and after an hour I had lost track of their whereabouts. They were going pretty fast. After 5mins, I put on some more sunscreen and headed uphill again.

1:37pm I was on a ridge and looking at Salzburg. I must have been back in Austria at this point. And ahead of me, all I could see was a descent. But looking way up, I saw the cable car station. I was confused, and sort of concerned. I had to make up there to get down, right?

Well I walked a steep bath, over ice and snow. More like slid on the ice and snow. And Austrians don’t put in ladders or wires into the mountain unless it’s basically a 90degree incline. Crazy people.

I stopped writing down the times I was places, because I found myself at the bottom of an incline again. Walked up that. Tired, and at the bottom of 90degree wooden ladder with a wire “handrail”. I basically pulled myself up these stairs, constantly passing commemoration to people who had died because they had fallen off in the particular places. But I’m guessing they were going down, because going up it was actually really stable, but just really tiring.

2:25pm - I quote from my notebook “At the top of the fucking stairs. Unbelievable!” I basically got to the top and then fell on the rocks completely exhausted. Opened my eyes and saw a dude laughing at me. I must have looked ridiculous. But I rested for a much shorter time than him, because I left just as he was leaving too.

I then came to a junction of a number of paths. The arrow pointing to where I came from said - “alpine experience necessary. Closed in winter.” I guess I have alpine experience now ; )

After hiking up a pretty crowded path (everyone was up on this hill today - it’s the beginning of the season and a holiday!)

2:50 - I finally made it to yet another mountain hut. Bought myself some goulash. The best goulash I’ve ever had. With some side dish that I’m still unsure of what it was until now. Didn’t taste like horse meat though ; ) Chowed it down and walked up the rest of the way with a guy from Salzburg who told me a lot about places to go hiking in the area, how long the hikes take. Also told me that the weather was miserable until like 3 days ago. I’m glad I missed all the cold and rain.

3:15 I was back at the cable car hut eating my environmentally friendly bio-oranges from Italy.

On the cable car down, I proudly stood right at the front, looking down to a possible death, but really just excited to trace where I had walked. A wonderful feeling. And the cable car was going pretty fast, so it was almost like a zip line.

[At the bottom caught bus #25 to Lustschloß Hellbrun.]

Lustschloß Hellbrunn (4:10pm) I was sweaty and smelly. What I needed was some water - and I got plenty of it here! Hellbrunn is not called a Lustschloß (fun palace) without a good reason. It was built by Archbishop Markus Sittikus back in the early 1600’s, and is a summer palace that was built for pleasure, with the water works (Wasserspiele) as the central attraction. And oh my, do tourists flock to it like flies to honey. But I ended up in a group of very stately Italians and some Austrian Amish or something, because they were all wearing really old fashioned clothes and shoes and such. But then again today is a Feiertag.

Well being in a group of tourists is a weird experience for me and I was starting to get claustrophobic with all these people around being all touristy and stuff, taking pictures, being annoyed at things and just complaining a lot in general. But then we got to the first trick fountain and my visit to this palace when I was 12 flooded back to me.

Basically the first fountain (not to ruin it for anyone going there or anything) is a marble table (made of Untersberg marble! I had just seen some in the mountainside) with a bunch of marble stools around it. Now the guide lady (speaking in three languages at the same time) basically asked if there were any volunteers to try this table out. And I knew that water would come sprouting from the middle of the chair. But I wanted to get wet, so I volunteered (along with two kids under the age of 10). And in front of like 40 tourists, I got soaked. It was amazing.

Then walked around through a number of grottoes, past some figurine theatres run by water, all while constantly being sprayed with water from the most unsuspecting places. Except that well I guess all the wet ground sort of gave a way the places not to walk if one didn’t want to get soaked. But I was not shunning the water.

Other than the refreshingness factor though, not a place for me.

Oh, I meant to write about this and I promised myself I would, no matter how tired or about to miss my last bus to the campsite:

I've been having a great time LGing again, but it's not all as exciting as it may seem. I feel exhausted most of the time. Underhyrated because the stores close super early (or it's a holiday like today) and I can't lug around more than 2 liters of water and I definitely need more with all the walking I'm doing. I have moments of despair - like today after getting back to Salzburg. The freaking castle closed just before I got there - means I have to climb the hill again tomorrow. And tomorrow I was supposed to be in Hallstadt. I also lost a day just travelling between Austria and Slovenia. And the ice cream I ate from a Chinese fast food restaurant an hour ago tasted like cardboard.

In the end, I guess I know that I'll get it all done, that I'll get to the next town, that I will hopefully actually eat breakfast tomorrow.

And hopefully my socks didn't get stolen. I'm going to go check on that.

Guet

2006-06-14T19:02:00.000+02:00

I'm back in German (or should I say Ãsterreichisch) speaking lands - I'm in Salzburg! I'm almost not broke anymore and I ate 15euros worth of food at 3 different establishments for lunch/dinner today. I feel sort of sick. But at one point I was hard core vegetarian eating at a place that shunned coca cola products, or anything with sugar really. Their vegan dessert was amazing. Then I downed a bowl of rice and curry (with chicken, so much for being vegetarian) and topped it all off with a Mozart Kugel dessert at a cafe. And at the moment I'm drinking my 3rd liter of sparkling water. Life is amazing. (Sorry about food ranting, I'm just really excited ; )

Life over the last two days has been sort of blah. It took me a whole day to get out of Slovenia (should have only taken about 5 hours). Mainly due to having to run around between banks/post offices/gas stations and such trying to get a Western Union money transfer. And not taking the morning train resulted in a long train ride with regional trains within Austria. But I chilled out with a bunch of beer-drinking and chain-smoking Austrian youth for about 4 hours, so it was good times. I think my Austrian slang got a lot better ; )

The most exciting day in recent history was probably Monday. I was still back in Slovenia, in the Triglav National Park. And unlike National Parks back in Lithuania, a National Park in Slovenia (there's actually only one ;) means mountains!

Here are some marginalia excerpts.

Intro: Basically I was in Bled. I needed to reseach Bled (a town with a huge lake) and Bohinjsko Jezero (lake 26km away with a number of towns around it). The plan was to rent a bike and bicycle like crazy. I still bicycled like crazy, just not the 26km in each direction between the two towns...

So I rented a bike this morning. I was going to bicycle to Bohinjsko Jezero - bad idea. The guy renting me the bike (who the next day was pretty insistent on taking me out for a coffee ;), had warned of the 20km incline, but I was like “I can totally do it” But when I had to get off the bike and push it uphill at a place where on the map there wasn’t even really altitude change, I realized that the 60km+ ride that I had set out for wasn’t going to happen. So instead of heading towards Lake Bohinj, I decided to check out this gorge we mention. I though it was like just outside Bled. But it’s not - well on a bike it is, but not by foot. I ran into a number of people heading in the direction - this place is popular! But also gorge-ous ; ) I will send pictures sometime. Basically the way it rolls, is that there’s a ticket booth at the trail head and then for 1.6km there’s a winding path/a series of wooden bridge pathways that wind through the gorge. The paths are sometimes narrow, and depending on the number of people congesting them it can be a bit slow going. But the surroundings are pretty amazing, so the lingering isn’t too bad. Or else you just push the old people out the way, like I did : ) Oh, come on, I like old people. I nicely asked them to pass by and they were really nice and let me : )

At the end of the gorge there’s a second ticket booth and a bridge that leads to the bathrooms. There’s also a path leading further uphill (which I of course took), but aside from a freaky cave-like thing (that I of course explored, and almost broke a leg when I slipped in the pitch black darkness. Also luckily there were no bears lurking in there). Yeah, besides the cave thing, there’s nothing on this path. After about a kilometer it ends up in a little town north of the Triglav National park. The actual waterfall, which falls underneath the bridge (so can actually be missed), can be reached by the hidden stairs behind the second ticket booth. Took me a 2km detour to realize it ; )

So inbetween the gorge and swimming in the lake by Bled, I basically bicycled between the two and researched a campsite and some other boring stuff. Oh, and there's a church on an island in the middle of Bled lake - that's what I tried to swim to.

So I attempted to swim to the church on the island today, but then I remembered that I can’t really swim. And there were boats and gondolas all around, so it was dangerous too. Also the swimming area was roped off at a certain point, so I’m not even sure it’s legal to swim all the way out there. Doable though. Yeah, so not bringing a swim suit was an interesting idea on my part. I figured last year the only time I used it was in thermal pools in Iceland and then I just went skinny dipping in Scandinavia. A lot more people around these parts of Europe ; ) But improvisation (as long as it’s not theatre related) has become a personal strength. Plus, let me just have it known that Ziploc bags are the most genius invention. I love them too death and cry when one of them gets a hole.

I guess I never actually elaborated on my swim apparell. In my bag that day, I basically had clothing for all seasons. I was wearing shorts and a tanktop with a collared shirt on top. In my bag I had jeans and a fleece, a t-shirt and spandex. I went swimming in the spandex and t-shirt. And other imprtant articles of clothing, but elaboration on that would be information overshare ; )

So then onto Bohinjsko Jezero:

This is basically how my reaserach of Lake Bohinj went: I took the train from Bled and got into Bohinjska Bistrice after 3pm. I hit up the tourist office, then the Mercator for some food and set out for the 6km ride to Ribčev Laz. At 4:30 I was there. I sat down by the lake to eat my food, and mapped out where I was going to go. I had the campsite at the other side of the lake to check out (4km in each direction) and another 4km past is the Savica Waterfall. Seeing as we say it’s underwhelming and hoping to give people other options, I decided that it was more important to research a new addition. So at 4:45 I set out to cycle out to the camp site. Got there completely out of breath just before 5. My plan was to head back to Bohinjska Bistrica at 7, because I knew I would be slower at the end of the day and I didn’t want to risk missing the last train and being stranded 26km away from Bled. So yeah, with two hours to go, I couldn’t do two hikes. So I cycled back to Ribčev Laz and headed north to the Mostnica Canyon. In Stara Fužina, I got to the place with the signs for what was in what direction. And the arrow for Mostnica points in the opposite direction (I found out like an hour later). Anyway, the direction that it does point lead to a bicycle path that runs at the top of the canyon (woods, so no view). I cycled on this path almost all the way to the hut at the end of the canyon, but rustling in the bushes and the fact that is was getting dark and I hadn’t seen any people in over 2 hours sort of freaked me out. But I think it was mainly the grumbling noise in the woods. I’m either paranoid, or there was a big animal there. I don’t want to think about what it could have been.

Anyway, so I cycled back and then decided to take this neck-breaking gravel path down into the canyon, as I was determined to find at least the trail head for the actual canyon hike. I cycled for a bit, then decided that I really was going to break my neck (this “gravel” I speak of is more like huge rocks. But there are so many of them that it looks like a gravel road from the distance). So I got off the bike and attempted not to twist out my ankle on these really treacherous rocks. BUT after a bit of suffering, I ended up at the bridge leading to the beginning of the hike that I suggest. And even from the bridge the view was amazing! This gorge is deep and carved out in a very interesting way. I doubt that there are paths zigzagging though it like at Vintgar next to Bled, but it’s pretty darn cool even when not in the middle of it. Plus it gets pretty narrow at times. Had it not been getting dark on the eastern side of the mountains (sun blocked by mountains = darkness) I would have run up at least a km to check it out. Sadly, too dark and I need to get back. So after trying to decipher what the introductory sign for the canyon says (I got the 2km in length bit), I headed back to town to try and figure out how to guide people to the trail head. Having stayed well hydrated all day however, I was sort of in need of a bathroom. And now this being a national park and all, I was looking for a way to leave the least impact. Well just up a little hill from the trail head there was a wooden shack. In Triglav National Park there are usually bathrooms at the parking lots at the bottom of the trails. Well I figured this was a bathroom too. So I climbed up the little hill and the closer I got to the house, the less it resembled a bathroom. Mainly, it was missing the signs. Anyway, so I figured maybe I was at the back of the building. Well I ducked around what I though was the front, just to end up in a cloud of bees!!! This was a freaking bee hive (or house, or whatever it’s called when they’re domesticated)!!! Somewhat scary experience, but luckily I’m not allergic or anything, so not really that dangerous and encounter. And as far as I can tell, I only got stung once. ; )

Following the cycling by the canyon it took me a while to get out of the area and head back to the train station in Bohinjska Bistrica. Here's some marginalia about failed research:

So after a long day of cycling around the national park, I was ready to head back to Bohinjska Bistrica, where we say this place [insert name of Café] is supposedly at and enjoy a good cup of coffee (hopefully cheap too). Well, I got back to Bohinjska Bistrica, and following our directions from Ribčev Laz street (which is the street the tourist office is on (but also the town that this cafe is in, it turns out)). And in Bohinjska Bistrica there’s even a stone bridge! (it was under renovation though, so I cycled uphill to another crossing to get over to the other side and walk those seven minutes through the woods). But there are no woods. Just train tracks. After like 20mins of cycling in a daze, I realized that we’re actually talking about a cafe in a different town. But it’s 6km way, and I had really no more energy go all the way out there. Very confusing in a somewhat amusing way is that it is completely possible to read it the directions as directions within Bohinjska Bistrica. Even more ironic is that when I was in Ribčev Laz (where the cafe is actually at), I actually ate my cheese and bread lunch on the path left of the stone bridge. I was just minutes away from this cafe and didn’t even know it! (And remembering the location, it must have been an awesome view). Shit, this is what a typo can do to a researcher. Think about what it can do to a poor traveler.

Instead of drinking my coffee at the cafe I was supposed to research, I ended up having coffee in a road-side bar by the train station in Bohinjska Bistrica. The World Cup was on, but the game ended minutes after I got there and with all the Slovenian I couldn't even figure out who had played...

(Thanks for keepting me updated Tegan!)

Sunshine!

2006-06-10T22:25:00.000+02:00

I'm so tired that I can't really put words together into coherent sentences. I've been awake since 5 this morning, have traveled 150km by bus and it feels like the same amount on foot. But the day has been amazing!

I got into Piran (small town on the small Slovenian coast) a little after nine. The tourist office that was supposed to be open was closed of course. And I didn't know where my hostel was supposed to be at. So I just wandered the winding medieval streets and by accident stumbled across the place I'm staying at. Great luck. I then hit up the local Mercator (supermarket), bought my 1.20euro share of bread and yogurt. Ate breakfast in the main square, entertained by an old man on roller blades, who was going jumps and stuff. Belongs to the rollerblade society of Slovenia it turns out.

After I got info from the tourist office (which is really pimp - orange leather couches and everything in Italian), I spent 3 hours researching these salt extraction fields. I almost ended up in Croatia on my way there, then once I got the bus to stop where I needed it to stop, found out that there was no bus heading in the opposite direction today. According to the bus schedule there was, but seeing as I was the only person on the bus heading out, I guess there wasn't really great demand, as it's not quite the high season here yet. Plus I don't speak Slovenian and the driver didn't speak English, so just figuring out the fact that there was no bus was excellent. Well, I was 12km away from Piran - that's walkable if need be, right?

It turns out these salt extraction fields sort of blow, despite the excellent brochure that advertises them. After an hour of wandering between pools of water and spending some quality time in the gift shop, I decided to head back to Piran. I had two choices: hitchhike to Piran or find my way to Lucia from where it seemed like there would be buses. I tried option one - not that many cars on the road and most heading in the opposite direction. So set out for Lucia.

After walking through a number of peoples' back yards, two vineyards, a mini-forest and a field of poppyseeds, I ended up on the outskirts of some settlement. I walked toward the big blue metal tower just because it looked interesting and ended up at the main bus station in Lucia. And 5 mins later the bus to Piran pulled up (there's one every 2 hours on weekends). I think today was my lucky day.

Back in Piran, I navigated the narrow winding streets for a while, doing some run of the mill research. Then I set out for the scenic view and finally in search of a sandy beach. It's in the next town over. : ) Finally I collapsed on the rocks, couldn't keep on going. I though I was going to pull a me-in-Gotland, where I woke up on the beach not knowing how I got there. (I had fallen asleep when I just meant to sit down for a moment...). But not this time. After soaking my feet in the Adriatic (first time!) I actually was able to get some map work done! I love being productive (and doing work in super scenic places).

When it started raining in the evening, I though I was going to call it a day, but I still hadn't gone to the city wall. I pulled the last bits of energy I had together and headed up the freaking hill. But this wall is amazing! It's like a huge vertical maze with towers and tunnels... I felt like I was back in Gotland (Sweden), one of my favorite places on earth.

I love this job. Because even when I'm broke, exhausted and being rained on, amazing places are still there to be discovered.

Ok, I think that was my last burst of energy. I'm heading to bed.

Horse Burger

2006-06-07T00:06:00.000+02:00

That's right, I ate horse meat for dinner today. It was cheap, and I was hungry enough not to care. I can still sort of taste it hours later.
I'm also sort of broke at the moment. I have $21 to my name in my bank account, 50euros of emergency money and 20euros down as a key deposit. Oh and like 6 euros more in the local currency. I should be golden for a couple more days. ;)
But being broke has also made me much more aware of cheap food options out there. Like horse meat. It actually doesn't taste half bad. Tomorrow I shall seek new foods, maybe rat or squirrel meat is to follow. Or else I could always turn vegetarian and start grazing on the vines that are all over the building walls here.
The options are endless...

Extrawurst = Ausnahme = exception : )

2006-06-06T19:30:00.000+02:00

Day 11: Graz - Ljubljana

I'm back in eastern Europe! Well sort of. But it sure as hell looks like eastern Europe, smells like eastern Europe, and I'm hungry for meat and potatoes like a real eastern European. So I'm going to run along and get some food, but I thought I'd catch up on posting. Here are a number of posts about the last couple of days. The internet here is free (Extrawurst :), but really finicky. Sorry about the horrible formatting.

Here it goes:

I woke up in a very crabby mood this morning, mainly because it was5:30am and I had set my alarm for 7:30 (I was going to sleep in for once!). I felt like crap, so I rolled around in bed for a while, thengot up, packed my stuff up, ate breakfast, cross-examined thereceptionist and headed out with my huge pack on my back. After a bitof wandering looking for the bus stop, I finally found it hidden in this park (more like I basically ran after the bus and followed itinto the park). Eventually I got the train station, dismantled mypack, then arranged the pieces to fit into the smallest (readcheapest) train station locker. My poster tube sadly didn't fit in, so with it in hand I head out to take on Graz before my train toLjubljana this afternoon. (I write this as I sit at the border ofAustria and Slovenia).

I've been based out of Graz for the past three days, two of which I spent on daytrips (read the relevant parts of my marginalia for thosetwo days below. I edited out some of the boring price correction bitsand such). I basically left early in the morning and got back to Grazby late afternoon, spending some time every day out in different partsof the city. The first day I was in town, I basically just walked fromthe train station to my hostel, wrote for a while and went to bed.From what I had seen Graz seemed like the sleaziest town I've seen. There were striptease clubs on each corner and the neighborhood I wasliving in was basically the Austrian ghetto equivalent – mostlyforeigners on the streets, and skin heads every once in a while too.Interestingly the bus that goes to this district from the city center also runs to the University district. So I guess during the academicyear, students must live in this ghetto too.

After my wanderings over the next two afternoons, however, I came tolove the city of Graz (I feel like I love every place I visit, but for different reasons). The first afternoon, after a visit to the touristoffice, I took a tour of their outlandish "friendly alien" Kunsthaus(Modern Art Museum – which basically looks like an alien ship that landed in the city. I'll try to post pictures). On the tour I foundout a lot not only about the building itself (which is super cool) butalso about the city in general. It turns that the side of the Mur(river) that I was living on has always been the worker districts and the district I was living in particular is pretty well known as thered light district. Funny that the family (!) and youth hostel wouldbe located there ; ) Today, I made my way to the top of the hill in the center of the city to the castle up there. The Schloßbahn to the top of the hill is partof the city transportation network, so I didn't have to climb thealmost 400 steps to the top (ran down them though). I tagged alongwith yet another guided group of old people. They eventually caught on that I was doing this illegally – I guess I didn't quite blend in as Idon't look like I'm 70 quite yet. So I left them behind once theystarted giving me evil looks – plus they move soooo slow. Ran aroundon top of the castle mountain for a while, checked out the garden where they used to grow grapes for their wine (a very self sufficientcastle! – even Napoleon was unable to overtake it).

I then spent almost in hour in vain looking for a budget hotel thatturned out to not be all that budget. This job can be quite frustrating sometimes, but at least I got to explore the other part ofthe red light district. And I discovered a farmers' market and talkedto a couple of them about how the cold weather is affecting theircrops. Hard times as the weather here is the coldest in recorded weather history for this time of year. The strawberries aren't doingso well. Before the hotel escapade, I had my caffeine fix in the Murinselwhich was designed by the New York artist Vito Acconi in honor of Graz being the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2003 (the whole city gotrevamped before 2003, actually). Anyhow, the Murinsel is basically aman-made metal island in the middle of the river that looks like amussel and has a very exciting climbing playground. Sadly I was 6 years too old and a number of kilos too heavy to make use of it.Instead I read a newspaper in the café and stole part of it quitesneakily for work related purposes. I also just like stealing things.I stole a menu a couple of days ago and got a 45% railway discount card yesterday by pretending to have studied abroad for a term inVienna (stole an identity? Well my permanent discount card will alsobe sent to a random address in the center of Vienna – to "Sun-rock" street. Oh, how much I miss the sun…)

But I think I might see the sun soon! As I'm heading south inSlovenia at the moment, the rain that I left behind in Graz seems tobe slowly fading and I can even see some blue behind the clouds. Which reminds me: I was sitting at the Graz train station, waiting for mytrain (which was running late) and watching the rain while eating abun with melted cheese on top (the best kind). I've had some sketchy(bordering on scary) encounters at train stations, so I avoided speaking to anyone. Instead I focused my attention on keeping away thesparrow that was pretty obnoxiously trying to get some of my bun. Atone point it was basically flying at me. But I tried to make it quiteclear that I wasn't going to give any food – first of all becausebirds should not eat cheese (that's unnatural) and secondly because ifI fed one sparrow, I'd have to feed all it's friends too. I rememberone time last summer when I was basically in a scene of Hitchcock's Birds as sparrows were catapulting at me (more like the bread I waseating). I shall never feed a bird again. Plus it's frowned upon inAustria, at least according to a sign I saw today.

As I was finishing my bun, I saw a piece of bread fly past me and land on the platform. I turned to see a middle aged lady giving me anevil stare. She made me feel like I was a bird hater or something.(Mind you I was member of the Lithuanian Ornithology Society for awhile…) Anyway, as my conscience was eating at me, I watched the tiny bird try and tackle the piece of bread almost the size of its head. Itdragged in into the rain (smart move, as making it wet would make iteasier to peck apart). But then I realized that its hurry probablydidn't have to do only with being hungry. A pigeon soon showed up and it seemed to be a known bully on platform #3. The little bird tried toevade it for a while dragging the bread around as the pigeon leisurelystrolled around, puffing up it feathers and just looking plain evil.Eventually, without even have to make an attacking move, it got thesparrows bread. The sparrow gave the pigeon one last glance, pecked atthe bread one last time and flew away. The pigeon waddled over and atethe tasty bite of bread. A couple of minutes later, after the pigeon had retreated, the sparrowcame back, with four other friends (I knew this would happen!). Theylooked at me and the lady longingly, but as a train pulled in atanother platform they all flew over to greet it, probably expecting new deposits in the trash bins and such. As my view of the birds gotobscured by the train, I was forced to turn to people watching. Thepeople drama on the platform was only half as interesting however…

Surm

2006-06-06T19:26:00.000+02:00

Day 10: Eisenerz (Graz)

(still formatting errors...)

I was up until 2am last nightwriting copy, finally al¬most fell asleep at the lounge area table, soheaded to bed. Meant to wake up at 6am this morning, as I still wantedto finish off some stuff, take a shower, maybe hunt down some foodbefore my train ride. Oh, and withdraw some cash. Woke up just beforeseven. The 7:26 train/train/bus connection to Eisenerz was basicallymy only option as far as transporta¬tion is concerned, since I hadbooked a spot on the Abenteur Eizberg for 10am. So I got ready fasterthan a bolt of lighting. By 7:04, I was out the door (not havingshowered, sadly ;) I had my morning run to the train station which isa 20 min walk away. I got to the ticket machine, keeled over fromhorrible, horrible abdominal pain - like I thought I was dying. As Iwas slowly dying, I bought my ticked and dragged by body over to thetrain. Got on, got my seat and then felt like I was going to throw up.The boy sharing the train compartment with me (his mom and sisterlater joined us) looked ter¬rified, since I probably also looked likeI was dying - or at least turning green. So I put my meager origamiskills to work and folded a neat paper bag, just in case. The boycontinued to look at me like I was an alien. (maybe not brushing myhair helped with that too...). Any¬way, lesson of the day - never runright after waking up, on an empty stomach and at speeds that you'venever run at before. The horrible physical pain aside (which passedafter 15 mins of rest) I was amazed at my turn around time thismorning.So I was on the train headed to Bruck am Mur, debating if I should buythe 4,2euro breakfast that was being offered. But cheapness kicked inand I decided I could do better, even if it was a religious holidayhere, and even if everything was closed. A train switch later, as Ipulled into Loeben I saw my savior - the SPAR. For a lit¬tle less than3 euros I stuffed myself on won¬derful "bio" bread and Austrian Gouda.Good times. All done while riding on the bus too - super efficient.Now the bus ride was amazing. Granted that I usually hate busesbecause I get motion sick¬ness, the scenery actually kept my mind offof it for once. As we got further and further north, the mountainsemerged, and after half an hour the bus was basically on a windingmountain road. As we got closer and closer to Eisenerz, the scenerygot ever more intense, with more and more snow covered peaks (somewhatob¬scured by the rain clouds) and beautiful coniferous forests (whichseemed to be listed off the slopes by an amount just big enough to beable to crawl under this thick tree cover. in reality, the branchesprobably start about 2-3 meters off the ground).The actual ride into Eisenerz consists of descending into the valleyit's located in on this wonderful bridge thing (can't remember whatthe more precise name is in English at the mo¬ment). So coming intothe town hugging one of the mountains, the actual carved up Eizbergcomes slowly into view and the town itself seems completely dominatedby the mountains around it. Mountain brooks carve up the green slopesand the occasional grazing cow seems to be defying the laws ofgravity.The "main street" of Eisenerz on which the bus drives into the cityisn't much of a sight. Actually, it's quite ugly. And it was raining,which didn't add to it, especially since I decided not to bring alongmy rain jacket today. Didn't rain yester¬day, won't rain today, right?Wrong.Found my way to Abenteur Eizberg, realized that the 50euros of cash Ithough I had with me, I had left behind at my hostel in Graz. Can'tpay with credit card. So head out to the Alt Stadt (Old town) insearch of an ATM. Turns out there seems to be only one, at the veryfar¬thest end, beyond the post office. I combed the streets, believeme. Even stuck my card into a bunch of machines at the openself-service section of the bank, which for some odd reason had everyother machine possible but an ATM (shred your card, anyone? glad Iunderstood that).After a somewhat stressful, but very scenic run through the old town,I went back to the Aben¬tuer place ready for my adventure. First inthe line up was a 1.5km descent into the innards of Eizberg on theoriginal (but now with seats) train to the old iron mines. They nolonger need to actually transport iron from the inside of the mountainanymore (they had his elaborate sys¬tem of shoots and stuff. hard toexplain, but a neat system). They now just eat up the moun¬tain anddrive the iron down in these huge trucks that with new tire technologyand stuff don't fall off the slippery slopes in the winter. But aboutthe slopes later.Inside the mine, which is no longer a function¬ing part, they have setup a pretty nifty museum-like walk tour experience. There's videopro¬jections (about how the mountain was formed (understandable evenif you don't speak Ger¬man) and also the myth behind the discovery ofthe iron. Then a bunch of the machinery they use, a cool demonstrationof a blast (with sound and shacking effects) and a magical appear¬anceof a deepening of the mine afterwards. Pretty cool, pretty cool. Butit was cold down there! And a bit muddy. Not only do I need to take ashower, I also need to wash my shoes...So after 1.5 hours of that (the train ride is awe¬some by the way.somewhat frightening, but with everyone having a bright yellow helmetand rain jacket on, it almost seemed like we were all in uniformheading to our work station. Except for the little kids, I guess.)The second part of the mountain tour consists of actually driving upthe mountain in this HUGE (like HUGE, HUGE) truck-like thing that'sbig¬ger than all the other trucks around (and those are big too). I'llsend you pictures or some¬thing. The guide spoke with too much of alo¬cal accent for me to basically understand anything he was saying,but the view out the window was amazing. While carving up the mountainto mine iron might be somewhat of a desecration, the way that's carvedup is mag¬nificent though. Almost like a huge art installation becausewhen they separate the iron from all the other junk, they pour thefinely ground up debris down the different levels, leading to thesestripes of color on the mountain. And the water collected at thebottom was the most beautiful turquoise.Being back on the ground after an hour in this huge truck seemed alittle odd, as the surround¬ing mountains once again grew to theirfull size instead of being at eye level. I still had a bit over anhour until my bus, so I went for a stroll around the old town, whichis was completely abandoned, very old, and pretty easy to get lost in.The church from the 1500's overlooks the town and steeples from thesurrounding moun¬tain slopes (there are so many of them) seemed toalso be constantly watching. After a bit of wandering I found my wayback to the bus sta¬tion with a half hour still to go.It being a holiday today (Pfingst), everything in the city was closed,so I had not found a place to get my caffeine fix. Right next to thebus station there was a local bar though, that seemed to be open! Moreexcited than ever to see run down bar, I walked into the smoky (butwarm!) establishment hoping that they would have coffee since I reallydidn't feel like consuming alcohol before a bus ride. And they didhave coffee! (it tasted like ass, but did its job pretty well). I satthere sipping on it, being watched by the two men at the bar drinkingtheir beer and heuriger wine (I can now tell, be¬cause it's served ina glass with a handle!). Their watching me started to get awkward, soI decided to talk to them. Asked them if they knew if the bus wasrunning today.This was the beginning of yet another conversation with the truelocals. One of the guys, the younger one (in this early 40's I'mguess¬ing) is a train conductor, but ironically takes the bus to workevery day (the train station in Eisenerz is very old and doesn't haveregular trains). The other dude (60 maybe?) was very knowledgeable inlocal history. Told me all about how the Romans used to come toEisen¬erz to get iron and where in the city they had found the Romancoins to prove this. We then talked about archeological digs,traveling, hiking, the best season to visit Eisenerz. Sup¬posedly thespring drags out here every year, so the cold weather in June isn'tall that weird. Prettiest in the autumn and there are plenty of scenichikes around.The conversation soon degenerated from being on historical matters andthe sur¬rounding area, to the personal. I heard all about their lifestories, they tried to guess my age, and then apologized profusely forthinking that I was older than a mere 20. I didn't under¬stand whatthey were saying as they were apologizing, which made the situationever more funny. A digression about the German language ensued. Sadly,time ran by pretty quickly and I soon had to run catch my bus, which Ineed to get off now. Shit.

Gaudee

2006-06-06T19:17:00.000+02:00

Day 9: Piber (Graz)

(Warning: contains many formatting errors. That's what happens when transfering between diffrent text formatting programs. Sorry...)

Lipizzaner Stud Farm (8am-3:30pm 4.June.06) So I woke upin the middle of the night to one of the people in my room screaming"nein, nein, nein, nein" at the top of their lungs. It turns out theywere having a bad dream, but sort of scary when sleeping in a basementroom at the end of a long hall on the top bunk, in the far corner.Next time I'm going to arrive at a hostel first thing in the morningand choose my room and bed. Anyway. I woke up early this morning, tooka shower in the "communal" showers (there's a whole row of them, butthe door locks), ate breakfast (which is the only thing I've eaten sofar today), drank my coffee, headed out to the train station. Boughtmy ticket - which is definitely 5.90 euro, not 5.60 as we list. Thetickets for inter-city train travel are quite interesting since youbasically pay for the amount of time you are traveling and the numberof zones you cross. So basically the bus that we say is included withthe train ticket is included because Pibor (where the stud farm is) iswithin the same zone as Köflach and it doesn't take the whole 1.5hours alloted for the 5.90euro ticket to get to Pibor. Now since thebuses only run every two hours or so, the listing of the bus as beingpart of the train ticket is a bit problematic. If people miss the busthat leaves within 5 minutes of the train getting there, then they'resort of screwed since their ticket will not be valid. Even morescrewed because these intercity buses only run like every two hours.Or don't run on Sundays, which I found the hard way.Well, actually, it was an experience in itself: it takes the morningcoffee a couple of hours to kick in (more like for me to actually wakeup), so I'm sitting on the train, the con¬ductor comes by checks myticket. Asks me with a very heavy regional accent if I'm going toPiber, which he made sound like Biber (Bea¬ver auf Deutsch) so I'mthinking, so I'm not going to see beavers, I'm going to go seehorses. And he then mumbles, mumbles some¬thing, and says somethingabout seeing horses. So I'm like totally, I'm going to go see horses,that's right. He's like "you're taking a bus?" (I mostly just got theword bus and constructed the rest from context. the dialect here islike an¬other language). I'm like "ja, ja, den Bus." Looks at me,smiles, walks away. Comes back a couple of stops later with a folderand sits down next to me. Continues talking about this bus thing. I'mlike - ja, ja den bus. And then he says something about having to callthe bus. And I'm like, "anrufen?". And he's like, "it doesn't comeunless you call it ahead of time. should I call for you? or gehst duzu fuß?" And I'm like, well this bus stuff seems like a lot of hassle,LG says the farm is just one 1km out¬side the city, sure I can walk.How long is the bus ride (just to gage distance). 4mins. I'm totallyall over this - 4mins is like nothing. 12 mins tops walking time. SoI'm all over it. Get back to my half-sleeping slumber, since thebus-like train is making me motion sick. The conductor walks by acouple of times, tells me that I look "müde". I don't get why he won'tget off my case.Well I got to Köflach and find the town completely abandoned exceptfor of course the train station drunks. Get off the train, cross tothe other side of the street to make sure this bus thing reallydoesn't run on Sundays. It indeed doesn't. So decide to really set outon foot. Now which direction do I go? Good question, noone around tobe asked it. So cut through this park thing towards the Zen¬trum. 10mins later end up on the same high¬way that the train station is on,just on the border of city. Now there are signs with Piber this, Piberthat, but nothing actually seems like Piber itself. Hotels, motels,camping....See a lady scrubbing some chairs in the back of the closed restaurant.Approach her, brace myself for yet another encounter with the localdialect. I got the fact that I was heading in the wrong direction, butall she did was point me back to the train station. So I went back.Attempt to take a diffrent approach - that of being a car. Now thisentails pretending like I'm going to drive to Piber - they must haveroad signs to towns and stuff, right? Well they do, but it's sort ofsilly to be human car. After following the highway out of the city andwalking down a highway ramp half illegally (I think), backtracking alot, since cars tend to do that, I ended up in the city center againand on Piberstr. which actually leads to Piber. But the town is morelike 3km away from Köflach. After the initial 15 min walk, seeing theKöflach city limit sign in the distance, I busted out my i-Pod equivalent (an iRiver ;). I don't usually walk and listen to music(which was confirmed is in general a bad idea, after a cyclist almosttook me out), but this was like the most enjoyable walk I've had since getting to Austria. Mainly because it wasn't raining for once! That'sright, there's flooding in this region and torrential down¬pours hadbeen forecast, but I guess the holy spirit that is to descend tomorrow(5 June) took pity or something. It was so beautiful, that I wasgetting pretty pissed off at myself for for¬getting to charge mycamera battery. But then again I rarely ever take pictures anyway.After a good 40mins I got to the town of Piber, which basicallyconsists of a church, a castle and a bunch of stables, horse arenas,and the information/shop building. Watched a huge group of old peopledepart with a tour guide, so went to the info/ticket lady to ask her abunch of questions. (Lipizzaner Welt Piber: 10:35am 4.june.06) Tryspeaking in English (just to gage her language proficiency - shedidn't re¬ally understand me), so switch to German. She turns out tonot know anything about the bus thing either, as most people don't goto Piber by public transportation. They either arrive in tourist busesor in private cars. Some of them come for a visit to pick out a horseto buy. It's that sort of place.Well it sort of makes sense, since the Lipizza¬ners are the oldestdomesticated horse breed. And they're beautiful! I never really likedthe Spanish Riding School in Vienna and I don't really like horses,but these are gorgeous! Once adults they're the purest white (wellactually they come in many shades), but they're born completely black!And at Piber one can see the horses from like days after they are born(there was a foal that was born on May30!) to when they're back toPiber for retirement from Vien¬na (one was 27 years old!). I taggedalong with a tour for a while, switched tours a couple of times, wentto the horse shoe makers' work¬shop where he explained to me in greatdetail the peculiarities of horse hoofs and the history of the horseshoe. Everything down to the rea¬sons behind the shape of the nail.I'm now an expert. All I need is horse ; )Anyway, the way the place works: this guided tour that we say ismandatory, isn't actually mandatory. And it's carried out in German,and it's like 25 old people per group, so the moving is super slow (Iliterally hopped from one station to the other always catching adifferent group at each one, as they move like tur¬tles). There are abunch of information signs in English, so one can generally getaround, but the museum and more extensive stuff is auf Deutsch. Sowhile one technically has to get a ticket for a "guided tour", forEnglish speakers it's basically self-guided.Besides the stables (which are cool to wander around in) and museums,in the granary there's also a mock stable with a full sized, fur andall, Lipizzaner horse that one can try putting a sad¬dle on andsitting on top of. I just went over to pet it. Not quite as nice asthe real horse (which one can pet at the "meeting place for horse andman" station. i kid you not.). Also next to the mock stable is adisplay of all the different kinds of feed that the horses get (Ilearned the difference between straw and hay), but that's by far notthe coolest of the interactive options. The imitation carriage ride isby far the best. Made to be quite realistic (except for the graphicsmaybe), it's pretty cool to get a feel for what it would be like to bea carriage driver. I was do¬ing ok for a while until I got overconfident, messed up and ran my horses into the river. I left theirelectronic selves in a distressed state (all accompanied by soundeffects) and ran away.Checked out the bus station on my way back, got down the bus times. Itis not a 4 min ride to Kö¬flach... walked to the train station. Gotthere at 12:30. The train had left at 12:17. For some odd reason, Ithought it was leaving at 1:17. Oh wait, that's the weekday schedule.I guess Sun¬day isn't a work day for everyone... so I headed to thenearest place I could find that could give the coffee addict that I'vebecome my after¬noon fix. Ended up in the city Kunsthaus, which wassadly closed. But the cafe was open. The melange was just not the sameas in Vien¬na, but the local newspapers were pretty enter¬taining. Iloved the world news section - headline: "Frog in her salad upsetsyoung wom¬an." (this happened at a Burger King in the Netherlands).Oh, and I stole a newpaper out of one of those pay-on-your-honorthings right in front of the dude refilling them, but that's an¬otherlong story...Anyhow, I went back to the train station, spent some quality time withthe local train station population, called Eisenerz to figure tomorrowout and then headed out on the bus (that's right, no train until after4pm) back to Graz. Fun carsick times.

Ausg'steckt

2006-06-01T20:40:00.000+02:00

Day 5 and 6: still Vienna

I've been pretty crazy busy lately, researching everything from yet another serving of Wiener schnitzel to train station lockers (they come in many sizes, and many an old man is willing to help you find one if you look like you're looking for an unoccupied one).

I had put aside this afternoon, however, to once again attempt the trek out to the heuriger (wine taverns). I left early (4pm ish) and after a half hour tram ride (the ten stops fly by during daytime) I was on the outskirts of the city, in the middle of the vineyards. After a leisurely stroll up the winding streets, with the sky threatening a downpour at any minute, I made it (unsoaked!) to the small, cobblestone side-street that the heuriger we recommend is on.

I meandered down, almost expecting to miss the place, as the street seemed far from overused by the non-locals. At one of the houses, a sign reassured me that I had arrived, although from the look of things I was just breaking into somebody's backyard. Somewhat uneasily I walked past the two super cute cats which scurried under the run-down old school jeep parked in the driveway. I walked around the vine-covered house and found myself in front of a small, unassuming door leading to what seemed like a countryside kitchen. It felt like I was back in the Lithuanian countryside...

I even knocked, not wanting to be rude (just in case) and walked in to find, basically, an oversized countryside kitchen. Two old men were sitting sipping their wine out of glasses with handles (the traditional kind at a heuriger) and three old ladies were hanging out in the kitchen area / behind the counter. I pretended to speak little German, to see how they would react to a foreigner (and I sort of didn't really know what was going on. In my mind, I had just broken into their kitchen).

A communal effort lead to me getting a quarter liter of their white heuriger and a selection of bread spreads (all of which were super amazing). I sat there devouring the food and examining my surroundings, especially mesmerized by the moose antler chandelier. A number of other locals walked in, got their gepritzter (wine and sparkling water), drank it, walked out. Then walked in this younger guy, who delivered a number of guides to Vienna. And this is where my hour long conversation in German began...

One of the older ladies walked over to me, handed me one of the guides, and looked at me with this glance of "I know you speak German, speak German to me, now." But in a nice way. And I don't know what got me started, the wine or my affinity to old ladies (especially German speaking ones. One tried to kidnap me when I was eight and visiting a little town in Germany with my family). An hour later, I had gathered a wealth of information on everything from how Vienna has changed over the last 50 years, to good mountains to climb in Switzerland, to smoking etiquette (did you know that women aren't actually supposed to smoke on the street! (thus the uproar from this old lady about the ban on smoking inside that might come into place in Austria soon - where do women get to smoke now, damn it!)).

Punch line: some old people are much younger at heart than people half their age. I want to grow up to be one of them. But before then I have mountains to climb and copy to write...

(Sorry about a somewhat boring post. I just enjoy old people and good wine sometimes. Especially when the two mix well.)

Wuchtl

2006-05-30T22:04:00.000+02:00

Day 4: Vienna

I went back to the womb today. And I don't mean Wombats hostel - that would be an awful pun that most of you wouldn't understand. Plus I'm not staying there yet (will be in a couple of days), so it's not like I could have gone "back" there anyway...

I went to the Haus der Musik, a museum that starts "in the womb" (I almost fell asleep in the dark room with undulating sounds and moving floor). I then traveled through the ear, through the brain, listened to perfect surround sound, composed some of my own music and even got to direct an orchestra (I sucked major time, so I guess one career option has been eliminated for me ;). Now the womb was pretty amazing (and I think they should have one at the end of the museum as well (as it's this five floor exhibition that you can only go forward in), but I think the by far the best part of my experience there didn't even have to do with the museum installation, well not completely.

So I got the Haus der Musik after 8pm, after the tourist crowd had died down, so I was taking a pretty leisurely, unpressured walk through the museum basically on my own (although an Austrian dude stuck around to cheer me on as I failed again and again at conducting the orchestra)... On the third floor of the exhibition, there were a number of rooms dedicated to each of the great Viennese composers. I was strolling through, listening to the free audio guide and then Schubert's Blaue Donau started up around the corner. I waltz-strolled into the room, thinking that I would be the only one there, just to run into a guy also waltzing around on his own. After a moment of awkwardness, I guess we both acknowledged the fact that we are waltz geeks, and waltzed together until the end. Now the room was small and constantly spinning in circles made my head dizzy, but it was by far the highlight of my day...

Kotsch

2006-05-30T15:47:00.000+02:00

Day 3: Vienna

So by day three, I've broken my routine of posting every day. Not surprising. But here's part of the reason why:

After a long day of research, I finally headed back to my hostel around 8pm yesterday to put on some more clothes, drop off my laptop and head out to do more research. I spoke to both my parents while heading back/heading out, not really paying attention to what I was doing since I had a plan in my head - head out the "heuringen" (wine taverns) at the city's outskirts, research/try some of the produce then head back to the city to do some nightlife research and head back to my hostel before the subways stop running at midnight.

Now at 9:30, as it was starting to get dark, I was still only approaching the fourth stop on the route of the tram which I was taking to the end of the line (another 10 stops, followed by a bus ride, followed by a walk. And that's just one of two establishments). The train was almost empty as most of the people who had packed it before had gotten off in the last couple of stops. The people remaining consisted of: 2 homeless people who obviously didn't have tickets (one quietly standing by the door, the other acting somewhat crazy and speaking to himself), 2 middle aged men and like 3-5 women. A stop later, all but one of the women and the two homeless people got off.

And this is when I realized that I probably had almost an hour of travel time ahead of me to get to these wine taverns, and that I was basically riding out to unknown and seemingly unpopular (except with the homeless) outskirts of the city. I was basically getting myself into a situation I probably didn't want to be in, and, I'm proud to say, I did realize this and gave up on being macho and decided to head back to the city.

As the tram approached the next stop, the last non-homeless lady got up to leave and I decided this was probably an opportune time to get off for me too. So I get off, and am about to cross the street to wait for the tram on the other side, when I realize there is no stop on the other side. The choice thus was to either head in the direction the tram was going, hoping to find the stop for the tram heading in the opposite direction (but there was sharp turn in the route and all that was ahead was dark bushes and trees, as very opportunely, the route crossed some sort of park or something. I couldn't really tell, it was pretty much pitch dark, and there was very little street lighting.)

So I headed back towards the city on foot, hoping that at some point I'd see a tram stop. This couldn't have been a one-way tram to doom, could it?

Now Vienna is a pretty safe city, on the whole. Well at least the central districts where I had been spending most of my time. These suburban areas - which are very different from the American suburban area (as they're still multiple story apartment building type of houses) - were a little creepy at night though. There weren't really any people on the street, and there was like one street light at every intersection. After a ten minute walk, with only one incident of a dude looking suspicious and me thus avoiding him by crossing the street, I got to the tram stop. Now I don't know what's worse, walking in the dark alone or standing around in the dark alone. Actually I do know - standing around. When walking it at least seems like you're going somewhere, getting away from where you are at the moment.

15 minutes later (spent pacing back and forth just like in my RAD training attack simulation) the tram finally got there. I got on and was glad I wasn't stupid enough to ride out all the way to the wine taverns. Common sense does sometimes kick in...

Ok, but I didn't really feel unsafe, maybe just a bit uneasy about being all alone on a dark street. More than anything, I just felt like a fool for having made a very time efficient plan and then having wasted almost 3 hours riding around on public transportation...

But being an RW sort of entails making a plan but always ending up changing it. Following my failed night escapade to the outskirts of the city, I spent a number of hours trying to research/find a place to eat in a part of town I was going to research in a couple of days, so didn't at all know. A lot of time was spent swearing at the LG map for plotting places where they don't exist (well also swearing at myself because I didn't bring all of my tear-sheets which have the addresses for all the places) and after 3 failed attempts to get food (I realized this morning I hadn't eaten since breakfast yesterday), I got angry, and as a result so carried away with other research, that I missed the last U-Bahn. I ended up having to figure out the night buses, which are alright, although get a bit sketchy the closer to you get to Westbahnhof (one of the train stations - my hostel is close to it). But there's nothing like walking with a sharp pen in hand...

Ok, time to go use that pen for reasons other than possible self defense.

Pallawatsch. Sort of.

2006-05-28T21:29:00.000+02:00

Day 2: Vienna - REST DAY

I began my rest day in a fashion very typical of me - woke up at 6am. I was out and about last night and only got to bed at around 1am, so this made getting up this morning all the easier (but also gave me an excuse to drink copious amounts of coffee - about that later).

Ok I'm kidding about the waking up being easy - I think I woke up half the people in my room as I wrestled with my alarm clock (but one dude was already up and showered and putting on his suit (!!!)). I had a good reason to torture myself so - I went to mass this morning. Now once again, I'm not kidding. I spent 2 hours out in the rain waiting to get in, and then over an hour and a half standing.

It was all for a very good reason - I really wanted to hear the Vienna Boys' Choir perform and the cheapest way to do this (free) is Sunday mass. So I went to mass. Now mind you this mass was not the typical mass. It was actually quite an experience.

It all began with getting there way too early. In the freaking pouring rain, nobody shows up over an hour and a half before the doors open (which in itself is an hour before mass begins). But I had company as another fan was there even before me (pre 6:45!)! A quarter to 8 (just as Let's Go suggests) people started rolling in. And I had thought that maybe the rain really had scared everyone away... By the time the doors opened at 8:15 there were hordes of people, but it turned out not all of them were there for standing room. A bunch had reservations and were ready to take in some pre-mass organ music.

So they let us in, and since after conversing with the lady running the place who showed up at 7:15 I had figured out exactly which of the three doors to stand in front of, my buddy and I ended up in the front row of the standing area. Now the chapel the mass took place in is a sight of its own - mainly because it looked more like it was set up for a concert than for mass. The front rows were all red plush, there was side and back balcony seating, with the seats all numbered and ushers tending to seating people. By 9:15 everyone was seated and ready for the show to begin.

And I say show because the crowd was composed only of tourists (it seemed), who taking pictures (with flash!) throughout did not act like they were at a Sunday service. But the people running the show were also no less aware of the fact that although they were holding mass in German (Hochdeutsch, kein Wiener Accent!) the masses they were preaching to were there mainly for the Boys' Choir. And the choir was amazing! They sang for the opening bit (accompanied by an orchestra!) and then stood silent for a long time. In the meantime the service was held, with all the liturgy nice and clear and audible to everyone as every speaker had a wireless mic on!

As Communion was being distributed, many an impatient tourist had given up on hearing the boys again and took this as an opportunity to leave, some even trying to sneak the Communion out of the church! Anyway, these "super-tourists" (who mind you paid for the ticket to be there, but I guess had many more places to go in the pouring rain) missed out on the most touristy part. The choir actually came down from the balcony up above where they had been hiding, and performed one last piece right in front of the altar! Even I couldn't hold back the touristy urge to take a picture. And the clapping at the end of the singing was really more appropriate and enthusiastic, than the half-hearted "Amen"s coming from the crowd throughout the mass...

After mass, I headed over to a Jesuit-run establishment to round out my Sunday morning. I settled on the Norwegian polenta, but even I couldn't tackle the smoked salmon - who would have thought this was possible!

I spent the rest of my "rest day" working, but seeing as it was my rest day, I did the fun parts of my job. Like checking out Viennese cafes which I've become obsessed with. But the coffee is strong, and it took me a couple of hours of peppermint tea drinking to stop my brain from shaking at the end of my coffee escapades. From now on, no more than 2 cups of coffee per day and I'm going to stop drinking coffee once I'm done with Vienna. For real, because it may stunt my growth or something. It's strong stuff! (which is why I'm still awake)

Anyway, I'm off to do some map work and plan my day for tomorrow. This city is huge and there's still so much to do!

Servus!

2006-05-27T21:52:00.000+02:00

Day 1: Vienna

Ok, so it's not exactly my first day in Vienna. I got here yesterday after a number of trials and tribulations en route. First it turns out that my British Airways flight out of Logan was actually an American Airlines flight (maybe the US has also annexed Britain and I just haven't noticed, or something. But I'm sure Niall Ferguson would have noticed that and let the world know ; ). So yeah, I was already sort of late getting to the airport (packing, packing, packing. thank you, thank you, thank you Fuon and Tegdon for coming to my rescue) and then I get to terminal E, check the departures board and my flight isn't on it. Plus the line in front of British Airways is way too short for a transatlantic flight to be departing in 2 hours. Turns out I needed to be in terminal B, which is all the way around on the other side of the airport and mind you finding American Airlines amidst such pretender airlines as American Eagle is very difficult. Especially with dilated (aka diluted ; ) eyes. But I finally hunted down the other peoples heading over to Manchester. Many of them had at some point paid tribute to terminal E (international fights anyone?) as well.

Anyway, so I got over the Atlantic to Manchester, UK, where my plane to Vienna turned out to have major technical problems. Good that they figured this out before we took off - a pretty close call as we were already on the runway. Something to do with one of the engines - they didn't scare us too much. Finally got to Vienna - the plane or maybe the airport was just small enough to warrant the get-off-the-plane-and-take-a-bus-to-the-terminal routine so common back at home in Vilnius. But I think I'm deluding myself thinking that Vienna is on par with Vilnius - they do start with the same letter. Well at least in English...

I spent the bus ride over to the city chatting with this very chatty Austrian football player (and I'm not being all European and shit and not saying soccer. He was an American football player). This was the beginning of my German use and it hasn't stopped since. Not only am I speaking German while doing work or when telling the surveyors on the street that they don't want to speak to me (there's like a survey for everything here. or they're collecting money for a good cause. or they want you to buy a newspaper which they secretly whip out of their bag once they've managed to stop you offering you some phony lucrative deal). And I did cave in and got the Kurier (a newspaper whose headquarters I walked by today).

So after the hitting the streets for a couple of hours yesterday and walking over to Stephansdom at the dead center of the city, I ended up trekking all the way out to the area my hostel is in because I was so disappointed with the food options that I found elsewhere. The place I was aiming for turned out to be a chain restaurant (I got a little suspicious when I passed the second pizza place with its exact same name). The place I ended up eating in was awesome in its own way. I don't particularly like kebabs, and I wasn't really aiming for something dirt cheap, but this place turned out to be the Viennese equivalent of cheap kebob without being kebob. (In my wanderings today I saw a number of other places a lot like the one I ate at last night). So basically what these eaters do, is take the scantiest approach to deferring. Using fish and chicken, they bread it, and then deeper it. Simple and actually tasty. And with a side of rice, a mere 5euros. And this being my first meal of the day (I was ravenous as it was 9pm) I couldn't finish the Scholle (some sort of fish) that I got.

As for today - I dedicated the day to hostel and map research. I reverted back to my on the road vegetarian self for lunch and had some delicious "meat" (the Vietnamese vegetarian place insisted on calling everydish _____fleisch (fill-in-the-blank followed by the word fish) but its all vegetarian food). Being somewhat comatose after eating so much at this all-you-can-eat-buffet I headed back to my hostel to change out of my hiking boots which I had put on because it was pouring this morning. The rain stopped for a bit later, but it's back to downpours again tonight.

I headed to the center next, wandered some back streets, checked out cafes and ended up drinking melange after melange (ok only two) at my now favorite cafe (this could change tomorrow ; ) There's nothing like writing copy while ingesting caffeine and starting to feel my brain shake. Seeing as I was literally pretty much shaking by the time I left (the coffee is strong, and I shake easily ;), I decided to try to curb its effects by eating a hearty Austrian meal. And I think it sort of worked. After a pork schnitzel (no more being vegetarian for me. or I'm just a vegetarian who eats meat) at a very typical Austrian eatery I was once again in a food coma and was left to face the pouring rain. I ducked into a number of underpasses on my way over to the U-Bahn (subway) and ended up conversing with a number of grumpy locals. And man do they get grumpy and speak very schnell. But I think I got the gist of what they were complaining about.

Ok, there's actually a lot more to my day, but I'm running out of internet time. If my grand project works out, more details on my Vienna research are yet to come. At the moment though, technical problems stand between me and awesome use of technology as wireless is nowhere to be found. Except at McDonalds and Starbucks, both of which I refuse to visit while in Vienna. There's just better fast food and coffee here than they have to offer...

PS So I read the newspaper I bought on the subway today. Random fact 1: Most expensive burger in the world in Madrid at the "Estik". 85 euros! Made with steak from a Japanese Kobe-Ox which along with other ridiculous food drank beer and was massaged every day. Random fact 2: there's a competition on in the Netherlands for the "lasyiest person." It's all about being the one to spend the most time just laying around in hammock. It's been raining there recently though ; )