The Road to Budapest - Day 6

26/03/09
Well the time had come to leave this magical town and head off to the City of a Hundred Spires – Prague. We left very early in the morning and took a small two-carriage old open plan train to Linz. We then caught a modern cabin style train for the rest of the journey. Our accommodation in Prague is apartments, and they were in a great location – about a street away from the heart of the old town centre. Soon after we got to Prague, we met up for lunch at a Bagel place and then started our orientation walk of the city. Not long after starting the walk, Antonio had noticed that his wallet and phone had been stolen from his jacket! He recalled seeing his jacket on the floor of the cafe and thought that it must have just fallen off this chair, but this must have been the moment the theft occurred!! Poor bugger – all his money (including the trip money), his card, Europe traveller ID and mobile were gone. We stopped the orientation and let Antonio go and sort his stuff out and place a police report. We continued walking around the Old Town, walked over one of the bridges and along the river towards the castle and then back over the amazing Charles Bridge. The bridge is lined with large statues of saints, one of which is known for its powers of granting wishes. The buildings in Prague are truly amazing – the style of the spires pointing up the skies give the city a mystical feel. They are currently setting up the Easter Fare – the market squares are being filled with decorations, wooden cabins and a stage.
That night, Gail & I decided to do the city Ghost Tour. The meeting point was at the Astronomical Clock – we were there to see in perform its hourly ritual. On the hour, bells start to sound and the two windows at the top open to reveal the 12 disciples – they slowly pass the windows, as the skeleton figure below pulls the rope to ring the bells. It is an amazing to know that the clock has been working every hour since being built in the 1400’s. The ghost tour was great; the tour leader was in a long dark coat with hood, holding a lantern. She told some great stories of some of the people that have been haunting parts of the Old Town for hundreds of years. The buildings of which the ghosts haunt are still standing and so they keep haunting the buildings and surrounding streets throughout the night in search of their loved one or saviour. We walked to through the Jewish Quarter, where it is believed that a resident of the old cemetery walks through the gate and towards the river ever night. It tour was really interesting and put a great spin on the city, so in the following days when I walk the same streets I will also be thinking of the ghosts that walk the streets at night.

The Road to Budapest - Day 5

25/03/09
My wish was granted – it had continued to snow and I woke to a wonderful scene of snow covered roof tops. Gail & I quickly dressed and went out for a walk in the snow. The town looked even more beautiful than it had the day before – this truly is a fairytale town. We have had the best of it all – bright sunny day, twilight tour and view over the town and snow covered landscape. We walked through the cobblestone streets, catching snowflakes and just loving the scenery. We walked over the little wooden bridge looking at the snow covered banks of the river and then walked up to the castle and had a fantastic outlook over the town. The rooftops were covered in snow and the surrounding parkland was a blanket of white. The sun was starting to melt the snow by now and water was slowly dripping from the gutters of buildings, off the handrails of walkways and off the sides of the bridge – I even found that pretty.
Our scheduled bike ride through the hills and forest had to be cancelled due to thick snowfall in the hills, so I went for a walk up past the castle, into the hills and along the outskirts of town. Later in the day, I met up with Gail and we went to a local cafe and enjoyed some hot wine – my new favourite drink. It is hot spiced red wine, with cloves and cinnamon and a slice of orange – absolutely delicious!! For dinner we went to a restaurant/museum next to the river – it was filled with heavy wooden furniture, and had old pots, fire blowers, baskets etc hanging from the ceiling. This time I tried another traditional food – potato pancakes, but I had to say no to the beer.

The Road to Budapest - Day 4

24/03/09
Today we left Vienna and took a train and a taxi to my favourite place of the trip – Cesky Krumlov - it is like something out of a fairytale . The landscape along the way was a mixture of green fields, bare winter woods and snow covered villages. Cecky Krumlov is a colourful town built along the bends of the Vlatva River; there is a Castle with a brilliantly colourful tower that overlooks the town; beyond the town are rolling hills covered in dense forest – it is a magical place. The streets are cobblestoned and go in every direction, the buildings are of every colour - many have frescos painted on the outsides.
Our accommodation there was very cute - we had to climbed narrow stairways to our rooms. There were thick wooden doors to our rooms, a stone walled hall leading to the bathroom, then down some steps to another wooden door to the room. The room was decorating with a wooden robe, duchess, settee and beds. I loved it. Soon after we got there we changed over some money (one of the many currencies of this trip) and then went for a walk through the town. We stopped at the Eggenberg Brewery for lunch, and yet again I stuck with traditional food and drink – I had beef goulash with dumplings and my second beer of the trip – the local Eggenberg Beer. The atmosphere in the brewery was very welcoming and relaxing, so we spent most of the afternoon there chatting, enjoying a few drinks and just absorbing the ambience of the town and its people.
Later that afternoon it started to get very cold, so we added some more layers of clothing before heading out to take a walking tour lead by a friendly local guide. The tour guide was fun and full of interesting stories of the history of the town. She had some quirky ghost-like stories and some other fables to tell along the way which really added to the fairytale like feel of the town. Because the town hasn’t been damaged by war, fire or natural disaster, there are buildings that date back to as far as the 13th century. Most of the buildings were originally decorated in beautiful frescos, but were covered over during the communist era. They have started to restore the buildings back to their former glory and it wonderful to see the original art on the quaint buildings. Some of the buildings are from the Renaissance period and have patterns like a stencil on the outsides of the buildings, each one being a little different to the other. The tower of the castle is a breathtaking piece of architecture that has been restored to show some of the original frescos and use of colour that make it so wonderful. Underneath one of the bridges that lead out of the castle, a family of bears have lived there since the 16th century – the Bears Moat (I never saw the bears, but I am told that they are there). Another interesting story was from the times of the Rosenburg Family – a statue of Rosenburg on his horse was erected in the main alter of the church. Later, in the 1700’s, they removed it and built a new altar – as they found it strange to come to church and to pray looking at him and a horse! Because of this, the church is a mixture of architecture – the gothic exterior and main interior of the church with a baroque altar. The symbol of the rose – for Rosenburg, is prevalent throughout the town – on the town crest, and on the plumbing covers in the road. We visited some great vantage points and were able to enjoy different views of the town, which became even more magical as twilight came upon us. From the heights of the castle, we were able to look back down upon the river and the town as the sun went down and the lights of houses, paths and steeples came alive – it was an exquisite view.
For dinner that night we went to the ‘cave restaurant’, and enjoyed some open wood-fired cooking and then went to the Cocktail bar near our accommodation. The cocktail bar is on a corner and part of the building is under street level – there is a window where you can just see legs & feet as people walk past – it was quite strange. While we were there, it started to snow – I was very excited and hoped it would continue over night.

The Road to Budapest - Day 3

23/03/09
We took a day trip to Bratislavia, Slovakia today by train and tram and visited the ‘Old Town’. The town was so colourful and there was a jumble of building styles through the cobblestoned streets. We walked up the hill to see the Castle – the Castle was being heavily renovated, so we couldn’t see it, but the view from up on the hill was great. We could see the terracotta coloured, pointed roofs of the old town with a few pointy spires and beyond the old town was the square flat roofed buildings of the ‘new’ town. The bridge across the Danube River was quite cool – a weird modern UFO like design that linked the old town to the communistic buildings of parts of the newer areas.
We stopped for lunch in the Slovak Pub – a quirky bar that serves cheap beer and cheap food (but mainly aimed at tourists). I had the traditional food – pirohy, it was spinach pasta parcels filled with chicken meet, served with sour cream and leeks. I even tried a traditional Slovakian beer while I was there – a dark beer, it was okay, but I am not a beer drinker, so I couldn’t finish it.
We stumbled across a statue of Hans Christian Anderson; it was an eccentric statue with a mixture of Hans and his fictional characters – it was very cool. We then made our way back to Vienna. You may have noticed that I have been trying out many of the ‘Traditional’ things ... I want to have the real experience, but even that goes so far ... I was already getting sick of eating meat (sausages) and potatoes, so Gail and I decided to try and find a vegetarian restaurant (we found one but it was closed) and then found an Asian restaurant and enjoyed a vegetable stir fry. Detoxed ready for some more traditional stuff to come.

The Road to Budapest - Day 2

23/03/09
This morning the group met for an orientation walk through Vienna. We passed amazing, huge and decorative buildings (most of which are now Museums) and gardens that still look beautiful even in the bareness of winter. The history of this city is quite interesting ranging from stories of the beginnings of musical greats, the rule of Communists and the presence of Hitler. We were also told that on the balcony of the Imperial Palace – Hofburg Palace, Hitler made an important address to the nation during his reign of terror. St Stephen’s Cathedral is an amazing structure – the gothic style, with brightly tiled roof and the gold interior were all equally beautiful and is what makes it such a striking building. For lunch we had the traditional Frankfurt in a roll – the sausages are huge, and actually quite oily, yet still enjoyable. We stopped during our walk and watched a video of from the Spanish Riding School – the dancing White Horses, the talents of the horses and riders was awesome and I was a little disappointed that I would have time to see an actual performance while I was there, but of well, you can’t do everything.
Gail & I then went to the outskirts of the city to visit the Kunst Haus Wien – a unique gallery for the artist Hundertwasser. The building is full of curves and randomly shaped and located windows, with black and white tiles in various sizes creating a funky design. The poles of the portico are made of colourful balls, poles and shapes of tiles. The building is like nothing I have ever seen – it was magnificent. The floors of the gallery were curves and uneven, either wooden or cement and stone and the walls were lined with a biography of the artist, blurbs written by Hundertwasser and then of course his art. His art is a mix of paintings and models of townships and buildings he has either just dreamt of or actually seen come to life. His paintings are very unique and are a mixture of shapes, lines, people (similar to how Picasso draws them) and pieces of foil – to create a wonderful piece of artwork.
That night I went to a Viennese Orchestra performance in the beautiful Vienna Imperial Hall. On the way I passed the famous ‘Mozart Cafe’. The performance was of music by Mozart, Strauss, Beethoven etc and was accompanied by Opera Singers and Ballet Dancers. It was a great night and it felt good to see such a traditional performance in the city that classical music began and is still so prevalent in today.

The Road to Budapest - Day 1

21/03/09
I had to leave very early in the morning to catch my flight to Vienna, and Richard was very kind to drive me even though it was at 4:15am! At the airport people were sleeping across bench seats and I even passed to guys in their sleeping bags on the floor. The flight out of the UK and across parts of Europe was beautiful – the patchwork of colours of the fields below changes from random shapes into that of perfect rectangles as far as the eye could see. The landscape on my journey was very flat; there were no hills or mountains in view. My flight with Air Berlin had a short stop-over at the Hanover Airport in Germany and then we continued onto Vienna. The trip notes from Intrepid (Tour Company) made the journey from the Airport to the hotel quite easy despite having to catch a bus, a metro and then a tram. I had a few hours after arriving at the hotel before meeting up with the group so I ventured into the heart of the city and wandered around the clean, pristine streets of Vienna.
The buildings here are very extravagant, the streets are very clean and tidy and the musical culture is spread across the city. There are trams running around the centre of town and many horse and carriage rides on offer. They have stars on the ground outside the main Opera House (like the Hollywood Stars) with musicians such as Strauss on them. There is a statue of Mozart in a garden with the musical clef in bright yellow flowers in front.
I later met up with the group – it is a very small group: 3 of us plus the tour leader. There is me; Gail – an Aussie girl who is a Lawyer for a bank; Sean – a Canadian on an extended holiday and Antonio the Tour Leader – a free spirited guy from Barcelona. We went out for dinner and met up with two of Antonio’s friends who live in Austria but were educated in Britain, so they had a very posh English accent with the hint of German. For dinner we went to a cute little restaurant and I order the traditional Weiner Schnitzel – it was huge, it covered the entire plate and I had to get my potatoes on a separate plate! After dinner we went to a bar that they love – an Irish Bar!

Autumn in the UK

Hi everyone, I suppose you are all wondering what I have been doing since my last update - so I am going to give you all a quick run down now and share a few photos with you. I have found a temporary job at the Cambridge Assessment Centre doing basic admin tasks. It is not the most riveting job in the world, but at least I am earning some money to help pay for my future adventures. I have also organised an appointment with the Cambridge University to be put on there books for some temp work too - I have looked at a few jobs they have available and it looks as though they might have some interesting stuff to do in interesting divisions of the University. It is getting really cold here already - the locals have told me that it normally isn't this cold yet, so at least I have longer to get used to the cold before it starts to snow etc. One day last week, my early morning train was cancelled and the next one was delayed, so I spent an hour a the station waiting for the train. This morning the temp was 0 - the puddles on the side walk were frozen over, the station platform had been sprinkled with rock salt to help melt the ice - but it was still frozen and slippery in some parts! My feet and legs were that cold that they went numb and stung once I was in the warmth of the train.

I have joined a Jazzercise class in the village which is a really fun class to do - and it is a great cardio workout. I ride to the class, so that is also good for the waistline - and I also feel quite proud of myself for venturing out in the frosty air :-) Richard & I went to a pub for a few drinks in Cambridge on Friday night called The Flying Pig. The whole place is decorated with old music posters, pictures & statues of pigs of course, the beer taps had a little pig head on them and each table was lit by a candle in a bottle - it was very cool and had a great atmosphere. Afterwards, we went to a Salsa class in Cambridge and that was heaps of fun, although a little awkward at times. You change partner continually throughout the class, so you get to know some of the people and have a little fun. But my question is: when you are salsa dancing with a strange guy - where do you look? Do you look into his eyes the whole time, look at the wall, watch everyone else around you, look down (but be careful of where you are looking!). It was funny too when the instructor added a final touch for the guys - to drop down to the girls crutch height and do a seductive swivel back up, while the girls shake their booty - when it was Richard & my turn to dance together - we had to draw the line with that one!!!! It was Halloween that night also, so they had a party after the class, and some people were all dressed up in the spooky gear. It was fun to watch the experienced dancers on the floor - they can really move!! The teacher said that you can get to that level in a few months - I am not sure about that, but we are going to go again, so I will soon see how fast the improvement happens. I met a nice German guy there too who has been going for a few lessons, he asked me to dance and we had a bit of a chat. Before we went out we went to our regular chinese/japanese restaurant for dinner - as we were leaving a group of little kids came down the street all dressed up in their Halloween costumes - it was so cute!!! Richard bought Lucy a pumpkin outfit - it is adorable.

I have been researching holiday destinations in Europe, UK and Canada - I have found a few good trips to do, but I am not too sure which ones I want to do yet. I will have to spend a bit more time on them and just pick one and book it in. Richard & I are going to Sicily in November for a week - I am really looking forward to it. It will basically be the last part of Italy that I have not yet seen, and it will be quite cool so it will also be a different outlook on the country - in a changing season. We are going to hire scooters while we are there to hoon around the streets on - I will definately want to ride a Vespa - I am in love with Vespas!!!! A pink one would make it even better :-)

I have been to a few local spots recently too - little museums / tea houses set in an orchard, walks through fields and along the canals. I find it really amazing that you can walk through fields with cows grazing in the same paddock and through private property like angling clubs as you follow the Fen walking trail throughout the region. The walk goes for miles and branches off into many directions, I want to keep taking different paths to explore the local vicinity from many angles. It was funny one day when I walked through a paddock with cows grazing. It must have been close to feeding time, because when I was heading back the cows had all gathered at the fence and I couldn't get through. I petted a cow and waiting for a little bit, but they weren't budging, so I had to go down close to the canal and climb over the fence there to get through!!!

A few weeks ago Richard, Lucy & I went to the miniature trains in Cambridge - it was there final weekend for the year. It is a club that makes small trains for people to ride on - it is very British and the kids had an absolute ball. Today we went for a ride along the canal and then to the Milton Country Park and stopped for lunch. The park is set around a few large lakes, has a cafe there and also a kids playground. The ride was quite chilly, but it was good to be able to ride to such a large park and have a picnic.

I have been spending my spare time working on a project I cannot disclose at the moment, because I am hoping to have it finished before Christmas. It has turned out to be quite a time consuming task, so I am not quite sure if I will reach my deadline, so Santa may come late for a few people this year! I will let you all know what Sicily was like when we get back and I will put up a few photos.

It is quite beautiful in the village and Cambridge at the moment, as Autumn takes hold. The trees are changing from green, to red, to orange, to yellow and then becoming totally bare. I have been for a few walks through the streets of Cambridge and there are some really stunning buildings, with most of them being some sort of college, school or university. One of the most popular forms of transport is bicycle - the train station has a large area for them to be parked and you also see shelters for them outside businesses.

Til next time ... take care