As a city that, in its current modern and united state, is only as old as me, Berlin has always been a place that I have wanted to visit and experience for myself (being the setting of one of my favourite books 'Stasiland' may also be a contributing factor!). Although the transport system in Berlin wins the prize for having the most confusing network of any capital city in Europe, we still managed to see quite a lot while we were there. There were numerous times when I was completely and utterly mystified as to the whereabouts of both my location and my destination! The system is not as clearly colour coded as it is in other cities, and the underground and aboveground lines overlap and merge and cross over on the map and in the stations and to change trains you have to go up two levels, cross a street (or walk around the block), go down one level, walk down a tunnel (the stations are like rabbit warrens, with tunnels everywhere!), go down more escalators, around a corner and along another tunnel and then hope that you choose the right side of the platform to get on the train going in the direction you want to go! For someone that is navigationally challenged-to put it mildly-I spent most of the time in Berlin completely disoriented and bewildered, but thankfully we made it to a few of the major icons of the city and back to our hotel in one piece.
In Berlin we saw the standard sights-government buildings, skyscrapers, historical relics, parks, shopping districts and monements including the Reichstag, the TV Tower and Brandenburg Gate. The two most impacting moments for me were seeing the Holocaust Memorial and the East Side Gallery. The Holocaust Memorial consists of rows of large cement blocks of varying heights (many of them are a lot taller than me) and wandering between and around them was quite sobering and chilling as we reflected on the loss of so many innocent lives all in the pursuit of an ideal. The sheer number of blocks and being surrounded by a maze of rows of cold hard cement and only just being able to see the sky through the top helped me to grasp a deeper understanding of the scale and heartlessness of the Holocaust and to reflect on the horrors of it. Experiencing that has made me convinced of the need to respect all humans, regardless of their race, religion, culture, language, background, physical condition, social and economic status and to ensure that human rights are protected in order to prevent such tragedies occurring again. There certainly are valuable lessons to be learned from history if we would only listen and stand up against injustice.
Visiting the other iconic landmark of Berlin, the Wall was another impacting moment for me. The longest remaining section of the Wall is known as the East Side Gallery and was painted by artists from all around the world after the Wall came down as an expression of the joy and freedom that people felt. One of the artists, Fluvio Punha, painted this quote on the wall, and I felt that it summed up the significance and symbolism of the Wall in modern Berlin:
"I painted over the wall of shame, so freedom is ashamed no more. Inferno ruled too many years, until the people chose the light. I put my faith in you Berlin and give to you my colors bright."
It was quite remarkable to be standing next to a wall that completely divided a city for so many years and is a very visible reminder of the stark realities of the Iron Curtain and Communism in Europe. Berlin was certainly a noteworthy place to visit as there is so much recent history with visible reminders of it scattered throughout the city.
I was able to put my four years of high school German to good use one evening in Berlin as an elderly lady stopped us as we were walking and asked for help to get her trolley down the steps as it was too heavy for her to lift and she didn't want it to fall-I was very glad that I was able to understand her and respond appropriately and to be able to help! Another highlight of our time in Berlin was the buskers everywhere-even on the train! I loved hearing music everywhere (predominantly accordions-like Hans in 'The Book Theif' another of my favourite books set in Germany!) but we were pleasantly surprised to get on the train one afternoon and hear a violinist playing incredibly well in spite of the jolting and bumping of the train! Another of my favourite things in Berlin was the pedestrian traffic signals-the green and red men have hats on!
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Ambling Ramblings #17-'Purfect Prague'
Warning: According to Marnie, her blogs are the storybook version of our travels, while mine are the encyclopedia/novel versions so if you want a more condensed and entertaining recount of our adventures, please head over to her blog (marnie-abroad) and save yourself from having to scroll all the way to the bottom of my blog to get to the interesting story!
We arrived in Prague fairly late in the evening, but thanks to Marnie's fantastic navigating skills, we made it to out hotel incident free (she has finally learned to not listen to me-I would have sent us in the wrong direction entirely and we never would have got there!). Our hotel itself provided us with much entertainment-even the name (Hotel Purpur) made us giggle! The decor of the hotel is bright pink-a rather uncommon colour scheme in a hotel! We were upgraded to a triple room when we arrived, so it was nice to have a bit of extra space (and an extra bed to dump all our paraphernalia on!) but the highlight of our room for me was that we didn't just have a kettle, but we had a little kitchenette! I thoroughly enjoyed being domestic again and cooked dinner, washed dishes and played 'house' (Marnie seemed all too willing to leave the cooking to me so I had fun experimenting and improvising with our 4 saucepans, 3 place settings and 2 hotplates). On our first night I made soup using some things we had brought with us, and then the next day we went grocery shopping so that I could make a pasta dish and then a rice casserole, both with lots of veggies in them,-it was very nice to eat 'home cooked meals' and to eat off a plate with cutlery!
Outside of the hotel, Prague is a charming city, situated on a river (as most old cities are) with beautiful buildings with ornate windows and doors, winding streets, statues of famous heroes from years gone by and of course, it's fair share of steeples, churches, bridges, town squares and even a castle thrown in to even out the mix! I took aver 300 photos on our first day of exploring-I think that's a record for me!
On our first full day, we went walking through Old Town, finding lots of beautiful little shops selling exquisite Bohemian crystal amongst other things, as well as seeing Wenceslas Square, the Astronomical Clock, which is well worth waiting for it to chime on the hour-first a bell rings, and then images of the apostles parade around the top of it, a golden bird 'cuckoo's' and then a horn player trumpets from the top of the tower-all in all, the chiming process takes about 5 minutes! We then walked to the river and along the Charles Bridge (which is very, very old) and saw many other old buildings that we assume are significant, but are not sure what their stories are! Methinks I will have some research to do when I get home in order to find out about all of the things that I have seen.
The next day, we made our way to Prague Castle which is situated on a hill-it was quite a steep climb to get up to the castle complex, which is quite extensive, having a large gothic cathedral and numerous other buildings which we enjoyed wandering around. The views of the city from the castle complex were well worth the climb as Prague is indeed a lovely city. We then went shopping as we had converted some Euros into Czech Crowns and since we can't use them anywhere else, we thought the best thing to do would be to spend them! We spent quite a few hundred Crowns on beautiful scarves alone, as well as buying a few other little things, but the scarf shopping was by far the most fun! Our only dilemma was narrowing down the selection as they were all so lovely (and scarves are my one weakness!).
We did learn one important thing in the Czech Republic-a country where neither of us knows any of the language, which did make us feel somewhat alienated but we got by and just smiled a lot (at least smiling is fairly universal!). We learned that just because you are in a foreign speaking country, you cannot assume that the people around you don't speak English. On the train to Prague, Marnie and I were engaged in a very girly discussion, about very girly topics which we continued even when we were joined in our compartment by a Czech gentleman whom we assumed didn't speak English as he greeted us in Czech and didn't seem to understand our 'hello'. This very innocent, but extremely girly conversation lasted for well over an hour and covereed numerous topics (not a difficult feat for us girls!) until the train stopped and the gentleman rose to leave, saying in very clear English 'thank you for allowing me to travel with you in the compartment. I wish you a pleasant journey'. Marnie and I just stared at each other and then (after he had left the carriage) burst into laughter and giggled for the rest of the way to Prague! (Note to self, confine yourself to sensible conversations in train carriages, even when you are far away from English speaking countries! Thankfully, we won't ever have to see him again!) Hopefully we have learned our lesson....for now....let's see what adventures we can have on our next journey!
If you chose to read on, regardless of my warning at the top, I congratulate you and thank you for your time and effort!
We arrived in Prague fairly late in the evening, but thanks to Marnie's fantastic navigating skills, we made it to out hotel incident free (she has finally learned to not listen to me-I would have sent us in the wrong direction entirely and we never would have got there!). Our hotel itself provided us with much entertainment-even the name (Hotel Purpur) made us giggle! The decor of the hotel is bright pink-a rather uncommon colour scheme in a hotel! We were upgraded to a triple room when we arrived, so it was nice to have a bit of extra space (and an extra bed to dump all our paraphernalia on!) but the highlight of our room for me was that we didn't just have a kettle, but we had a little kitchenette! I thoroughly enjoyed being domestic again and cooked dinner, washed dishes and played 'house' (Marnie seemed all too willing to leave the cooking to me so I had fun experimenting and improvising with our 4 saucepans, 3 place settings and 2 hotplates). On our first night I made soup using some things we had brought with us, and then the next day we went grocery shopping so that I could make a pasta dish and then a rice casserole, both with lots of veggies in them,-it was very nice to eat 'home cooked meals' and to eat off a plate with cutlery!
Outside of the hotel, Prague is a charming city, situated on a river (as most old cities are) with beautiful buildings with ornate windows and doors, winding streets, statues of famous heroes from years gone by and of course, it's fair share of steeples, churches, bridges, town squares and even a castle thrown in to even out the mix! I took aver 300 photos on our first day of exploring-I think that's a record for me!
On our first full day, we went walking through Old Town, finding lots of beautiful little shops selling exquisite Bohemian crystal amongst other things, as well as seeing Wenceslas Square, the Astronomical Clock, which is well worth waiting for it to chime on the hour-first a bell rings, and then images of the apostles parade around the top of it, a golden bird 'cuckoo's' and then a horn player trumpets from the top of the tower-all in all, the chiming process takes about 5 minutes! We then walked to the river and along the Charles Bridge (which is very, very old) and saw many other old buildings that we assume are significant, but are not sure what their stories are! Methinks I will have some research to do when I get home in order to find out about all of the things that I have seen.
The next day, we made our way to Prague Castle which is situated on a hill-it was quite a steep climb to get up to the castle complex, which is quite extensive, having a large gothic cathedral and numerous other buildings which we enjoyed wandering around. The views of the city from the castle complex were well worth the climb as Prague is indeed a lovely city. We then went shopping as we had converted some Euros into Czech Crowns and since we can't use them anywhere else, we thought the best thing to do would be to spend them! We spent quite a few hundred Crowns on beautiful scarves alone, as well as buying a few other little things, but the scarf shopping was by far the most fun! Our only dilemma was narrowing down the selection as they were all so lovely (and scarves are my one weakness!).
We did learn one important thing in the Czech Republic-a country where neither of us knows any of the language, which did make us feel somewhat alienated but we got by and just smiled a lot (at least smiling is fairly universal!). We learned that just because you are in a foreign speaking country, you cannot assume that the people around you don't speak English. On the train to Prague, Marnie and I were engaged in a very girly discussion, about very girly topics which we continued even when we were joined in our compartment by a Czech gentleman whom we assumed didn't speak English as he greeted us in Czech and didn't seem to understand our 'hello'. This very innocent, but extremely girly conversation lasted for well over an hour and covereed numerous topics (not a difficult feat for us girls!) until the train stopped and the gentleman rose to leave, saying in very clear English 'thank you for allowing me to travel with you in the compartment. I wish you a pleasant journey'. Marnie and I just stared at each other and then (after he had left the carriage) burst into laughter and giggled for the rest of the way to Prague! (Note to self, confine yourself to sensible conversations in train carriages, even when you are far away from English speaking countries! Thankfully, we won't ever have to see him again!) Hopefully we have learned our lesson....for now....let's see what adventures we can have on our next journey!
If you chose to read on, regardless of my warning at the top, I congratulate you and thank you for your time and effort!
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Ambling Ramblings #16-Vacationing in Vienna
A highlight of our stay in Vienna was having a kettle and teacups in our hotel room....needless to say, we had many cups of tea each day we were there (I think I averaged 4 cups of tea per day!). Finding our hotel however, was no cup of tea (if you'll excuse the pun) and it was only thanks to the help of a very kind stranger who showed on her map where we should go to find our hotel. The directions that we had acquired from the tourist information centre at the train station did not get us where we wanted to go and this lady obviously noticed our very bewildered and 'lost little girl' looks on our faces and offered her assistance and set us in the right direction. We have been constantly reminded of God's care and protection over us throughout our trip, but it is especially clear that He is watching over us when we arrive in a strange city when it is already dark, and He sends someone to help us find our way. We have truly been blessed and are so very thankful for having the protection of the creator of the world and to know that Someone who is greater than every situation we find ourselves in is watching over us. We certainly appreciate all the prayers of those of you who have been praying for us.
Our stay in Vienna was relatively relaxing (once we got our bearings and figured out the underground metro system, as well as the trams, above ground trains, buses and long distance trains) and we both enjoyed bubble baths in our hotel, along with the many cups of tea (I'm very glad that Marnie appreciates tea jut as much as I do and therefore can join me in sampling new kinds of teas!). We were also finally able to find a bandage for my ankle (something that was quite a feat to find as they aren't very easily available!) as well as mail home some postcards (finally! Hopefully they will beat us home and not get lost in the mail).
As a city, 'old Vienna' is encircled by 'new Vienna' and most train lines and trams take you right into the heart of the old section where many of the main sights are located (and where I, being a history teacher and therefore interested in all the 'old stuff', am more interested). There is a change from paved streets to narrower, cobblestoned streets lined with old buildings and with spire of cathedrals and bell towers marking the skyline. Vienna is a very modern city, and yet they haven't diminished the richness of their past, but built upon it and incorporated it into the city. The sights of Vienna were well worth seeing and we enjoyed St Stephens Cathedral, the Rathaus and the Hofburg as well as Schonbrunn Palace (the previous residence of the Habsburgs-the imperial family of Austria) where we spent quite a while wandering in the extensive gardens. In our wanderings in the city, we stumbled across quite a few lovely little antiques shops in which the antiques are really, really old (at least by Australian standards) and beautifully preserved as well as being exquisitely beautiful!
Something that made me giggle was a lot of tourist paraphernalia promoting 'no kangaroos in Austria!' (I assume that Austrians must have problems with tourists expecting to find kangaroos and other such Australian icons there!) As Australian tourists, Marnie and I were very much amused at seeing signs, posters, shirts and a big, yellow plastic kangaroo all with 'no kangaroos in Austria' emblazoned across them!
Another highlight of our stay in Vienna was a visit to the Spanish Riding School (somewhere I just had to go on behalf of a certain little sister of mine!) where we watched a morning exercise routine which was accompanied by classical music. The Lippizaner horses are truly magnificent and beautiful animals and their riders have such control over their every move. I think my favorite part was when they had the horses skipping!
It was then time for us to load ourselves up like packhorses and make our way to the train station to move on to our next city. We only have a few weeks left of our nomadic lifestyle but I'm sure there are still many adventures awaiting us!
Our stay in Vienna was relatively relaxing (once we got our bearings and figured out the underground metro system, as well as the trams, above ground trains, buses and long distance trains) and we both enjoyed bubble baths in our hotel, along with the many cups of tea (I'm very glad that Marnie appreciates tea jut as much as I do and therefore can join me in sampling new kinds of teas!). We were also finally able to find a bandage for my ankle (something that was quite a feat to find as they aren't very easily available!) as well as mail home some postcards (finally! Hopefully they will beat us home and not get lost in the mail).
As a city, 'old Vienna' is encircled by 'new Vienna' and most train lines and trams take you right into the heart of the old section where many of the main sights are located (and where I, being a history teacher and therefore interested in all the 'old stuff', am more interested). There is a change from paved streets to narrower, cobblestoned streets lined with old buildings and with spire of cathedrals and bell towers marking the skyline. Vienna is a very modern city, and yet they haven't diminished the richness of their past, but built upon it and incorporated it into the city. The sights of Vienna were well worth seeing and we enjoyed St Stephens Cathedral, the Rathaus and the Hofburg as well as Schonbrunn Palace (the previous residence of the Habsburgs-the imperial family of Austria) where we spent quite a while wandering in the extensive gardens. In our wanderings in the city, we stumbled across quite a few lovely little antiques shops in which the antiques are really, really old (at least by Australian standards) and beautifully preserved as well as being exquisitely beautiful!
Something that made me giggle was a lot of tourist paraphernalia promoting 'no kangaroos in Austria!' (I assume that Austrians must have problems with tourists expecting to find kangaroos and other such Australian icons there!) As Australian tourists, Marnie and I were very much amused at seeing signs, posters, shirts and a big, yellow plastic kangaroo all with 'no kangaroos in Austria' emblazoned across them!
Another highlight of our stay in Vienna was a visit to the Spanish Riding School (somewhere I just had to go on behalf of a certain little sister of mine!) where we watched a morning exercise routine which was accompanied by classical music. The Lippizaner horses are truly magnificent and beautiful animals and their riders have such control over their every move. I think my favorite part was when they had the horses skipping!
It was then time for us to load ourselves up like packhorses and make our way to the train station to move on to our next city. We only have a few weeks left of our nomadic lifestyle but I'm sure there are still many adventures awaiting us!
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