The Ghost of Christmas Present! (In Austria. Coming home soon.)

So much to write about. We're running behind on the blog, but we're getting there. I just wanted to speak in present tense for a bit to share our experiences as our trip comes to a close...

Our last week on this continent. We're in Salzburg, Austria, and I can only interpret the weather here as nature's way of easing us into what we have in store back home, in Minnesota. We hear it's been rather chilly there, especially Thanksgiving night. We were in Venice, where on Friday it rained more or less constantly. You want to know what's worse than a cold winter? A cold fall rain. The tide in the bordering Adriatic Sea goes in and out, as tide does, and in November, the rainiest season in Italy, many of the streets are covered in a few inches of water from the canals flooding just a bit. At times, even my waterproof shoes, which have braved the most threatening puddles from Berlin to Rome, couldn't withstand the overflowing canals. Whole streets unpassable for anyone who wanted to maintain some semblance of sock-dryness.

But that's another blog. Thanksgiving has passed, my parents have come and gone, Rome was created, and then fell. Much to blog about, but we can't wait. It is officially the Holiday Season, and, being freshly snowed upon by Alpen flurries, I am sitting, six floors up, watching white-covered trains pull into and out of Salzburg Hauptbahnhof.

Our hotel is right above a hundred-year-old brauhaus - admittedly young, by European standards - so Karina and I headed down there right-quick. Stieglbrau. Karina had a Goldbrau, I had their Dunkelweisse. Both delicious. As we sat there, the snow started falling. Our first snowfall of the year. While we've seen it here and there, in patches, and coating an Alpen field, we had yet to seen it fall.

We hoped it would still be snowing when we headed out to the Christmas Markets. Hours later, after we visited the markets as I write this, it's still falling, accumulating, making everything look beautiful. A couple mugs of gluhwein - a spiced, warm, red wine - held by mittened hands as we peruse the Christmas ornaments made from glass, carved wood, and fabric. On a whim, I had a baked potato, which, proudly, I ordered by using, soley, my German language knowledge:

"Eine kartoffel," I said, leaving out "bitte," accidentally.

"Mit?"

"Uh...alles," I said, requesting it be loaded with cheese, some kind of herbed sauce, and sour cream. It was delicious, and I regret nothing, even though I spoiled my dinner, burned the roof of my mouth, and neglected to keep my hand sufficiently warm while operating the plastic spoon.

Now, looking down from six flights up onto Austrian train tracks with frequent traffic, listening to the xmas music on my iPod (Sinatra, Crosby, Krall, Guaraldi, Springsteen, McCartney, Lennon, Sufjan, Low), I can't help but recognize how lucky I am, that we could do this thing we've been blogging about, and, mostly, and more importantly, that we have a home to come back to, close to our friends and family.

Cesky Krumlov

Something about the trip to Cesky Krumlov made me feel like we were really far away from home. Perhaps it was the 45 minutes we spent in the Ceske Budejovice train station, waiting for our connecting train.

It was one of those “Where am I moments” particularly enhanced because I wasn’t sure how to pronounce the name of the city that I was momentarily visiting. Perhaps it was the small three car train which clearly indicated the remoteness of our final destination. Perhaps it was a realization of just how many miles we’ve traveled via train on this trip. Or perhaps it was the teeny tiny Czech towns we passed through on our incredibly scenic trip to Cesky Krumlov.

Plzen

We felt a slight tinge of homesickness when John and Amanda left Prague for home. They're back to real life, Minneapolis, the holidays, friends, family. But then we were off, too, leaving Prague for Plzen, a city often ribbed for its lack of things to see and do. I suppose compared to Prague, the city of a hundred spires - and gift shops - it may seem that Plzen pales in comparison. It's harder to find out what's worth checking out in Plzen, to be sure, but with the right resources, and an open mind, one can find plenty to see in the birthplace of the Pilsner Beer.

Plzen Picnic

We got a late start to our first full day in Plzen, so we decided to start our day with a picnic. We stopped by a grocery store to pick up some goodies. This grocery store in Plzen most closely resembled the huge grocery stores we have in MN (as well as across the U.S.A) and don’t ask me why, but I found it strangely comforting. The grocery store was also located next to a McDonalds with a drive-thru! That was the first we’d seen here as well. Perhaps the picture I’m painting for you is not of an idyllic European town, but believe me this was not the case. Jacob and I had walked through the city’s town square the night before on our quest to try some local Czech brews (other than Pilsener Urquell) and it was quite nice. We thought it would be a nice spot for our picnic.

Prague Picnic #2

Sometimes picnics happen when you least expect them. John and Amanda headed back to the Minnie-apple early that morning, so this time we were John-and-Amandaless :( As Jacob explained in an earlier post, the 4 of us took a taxi into Prague. But with only 2 people, the taxi option was too pricey, so we had to do it the old fashion way—public transportation. Normally, we love to take public transportation, but when it involves carrying our enormous bags and squeezing ourselves into packed trains, it’s not very pleasant. On our way to the underground station we stopped by a bakery to pick up breakfast for our train-ride to Plzen. Jacob purchased a pastry with some crunchy-crumblies (that’s the technical definition I think) on top, and I got a cheese-covered pastry.

We hopped on the underground and arrived at the train station much faster than we had expected. That left us good 45 minutes to kill before we boarded the train. It was a beautiful day so Jacob suggested we eat outside in the sunshine.

Czech Prague Out!!!

While it's not really a representation of a city, it's hard for me not to step off of a train and into a train station and think, "So, this is what this place looks like." Prague is no exception. For what it's worth, I'm glad Prague doesn't look like its station, which resembles what people in the 80s imagined the future to look like. The look of the station made me wonder if I'd happen upon a thrice-endowed Martian woman, and an automated taxi driven by Johnny Cab.

Prague Picnic #1

Our pal John suggested that we all picnic in a park just on the edge of the old city, and not far from Prague Castle where we walked earlier that day.

Aaaaand we're back!

We've been without internet for a while now, but we're in Rome and we're back online! Since our last post in Dresden, we've been in Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Munich, Fussen, Cinque Terre and Siena. Hoping to get some posts up this next week, so check back soon. We're also updating photos so check those out too.

Cheers!

Dresden

Jacob and I have been to Dresden before but only at night and only for about 4 hours. We thought it would be a nice spot to stop between Berlin and John and Amanda’s terminus European city, Prague. After purchasing our tickets from a pink-haired lady in the Wittenberg station, we hopped aboard a packed commuter train. We had a hard time finding spots, especially for our luggage, but we managed. Amanda and I spent about 45 minutes talking about soup, stews, and other hearty winter food which made us even hungrier than we already were.

Packed trains make for quality friendship time

Happy Belated Reformation Day!

Did you know that Halloween is also Reformation day? Did you know that Berlin is only an hour away from Wittenberg, home to Martin Luther and the famous Castle Church where Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door starting the Reformation? Did you know that Wittenberg has a huge Renaissance festival celebrating the Reformation on the 31^st? Our original plan had been to leave Berlin and head straight to Dresden, but with the previously stated facts, we decided we pretty much had to go to Wittenberg. It was pure serendipity. So with our traveling buddies, John and Amanda, we said Auf Wiedersehen Berlin und Guten Tag Wittenberg.

Our last week in Berlin

Wow, time flies. Or should I say time flew. When we signed our contract for our month-long stay in an apartment in Berlin, we were really, really excited. But at the same time, we wondered “ Is a month too long? What are we going to do with all that time?” We also wondered if it sounded too extravagant: “We’re going to travel for a month, then stay in Berlin for an entire month, and then finish it off with another month’s worth of travel, pass the caviar and Winston, can you pour me another scotch and soda? No not that scotch, the 100 year old bottle!” But as you’ve read in prior posts, staying in one spot saved us a lot of money in terms of room and board, and also gave us a needed break. And as you’ve also read in prior posts, we kept ourselves very busy. After three weeks we were still finding plenty of new things to see and explore, and I can honestly say I was never bored.

By the time our 4^th week rolled around, we had a lot “housekeeping” to do. We had to nail down the details on the last month of our travel (Where are we going? Where are we staying?), clean the apartment, and do laundry, all on top of trying to enjoy our last week in Berlin. Much of this work was front loaded to the beginning part of the week because our dear friends John & Amanda were coming to Berlin and would be traveling with us for our next few stops! Amazing! We were so happy to see them and to have them traveling with us for a bit! When they finally made it to Berlin we took them on a site seeing extravaganza!

Ich liebe das Nachtleben, Ich mag zu Boogie

To say nothing of Berlin's evening and night scene would be sheer negligence. Berlin is as alive in the night as it is during the daytime.

Berlin Picnic #3

There are places to picnic besides Mauer Park, so we thought we should try one out (even though it was another beautiful Sunday afternoon and no doubt Mauer Park was hopping). Having spent the majority of our time in East Berlin, we thought we should check out a park in the West. The owners of the apartment we were staying in had recommended Schlosspark Charlottenburg—conveniently located in Charlottenburg, right next to the Charlottenburg Palace. We we jumped on the S-bahn and made our way west.

Charlottenburg Palace and its surrounding grounds was the former residence of King Friedrich I. Now it belongs to the people of the Berlin. And of course, the park is well used. There were lots of people out for a nice afternoon stroll enjoying the fall colors and weather.

So Schmeckt Berlin

After nearly a month of travel with our fair share of picnicking and eating out, we were eager to arrive in Berlin where we could actually do some of our own cooking—and do it on the cheap (We were still off on our budget—thanks a lot, Switzerland!). We’ve been doing our best to prepare a lot of cheap meals at home, and then sprinkle in some affordable and moderately priced meals here and there to make sure that we know what Berlin tastes like. So schmeckt Berlin…

(Translation: Tastes like Berlin)