Back to Santiago de Compostela (or S-d-C, as I like to call it). On our full day there we went to see the cathedral (surprise, surprise), and all the museums it includes. It is quite a fantastic piece of architecture, and the museums and the cloister were interesting. The cathedral was full of people--there was a line out the door at one part, and services were going on. There were also confessionals scattered around inside where people could confess in an array of languages. We tried to find a way to get to the roof (guided tour only, it turns out), but ended up just wandering around the huge cathedral. We stopped for lunch at a place nearby and got traditional spanish empanada and flan, then did as the spaniards do and took a siesta! We both decided we could get used to daily siestas.
In the afternoon I wandered back to the cathedral and went to the door that had previously had a huge line leading to it. There was no line then, so I wandered in, right as it was about to close. I saw from the signs that it was the way to the crypt, which I had been wanting to visit! I walked up some stairs and came upon a priest who asked me a question (I forget what) so I responded "no se" (I don't know). My answer must have sounded portuguese, though, because the priest then switched to portuguese and we went on to talk about iberian languages. "Are you a pilgrim?" he asked. I told him I was just a tourist, but tried to look less touristy (I refrained from pulling out my camera). A security guard was standing by, looking impatient and waiting to end our conversation so he could close up the crypt. "Ok," said the priest, "now go and hug the statue of Santiago (Saint James), go thank God and pray." I thought "Maybe this isn't the time to tell him I'm not religious" so I marched up to the gold statue covered in jewels that overlooked the whole church and gave it a quick squeeze. The security guard then signaled that they were about to close, so I hurried through the crypt, which I believe houses the relics of Saint James, but I couldn't really figure out where (it wasn't very crypt-like). I rushed outside again, happy and amused to have discovered what it is like to be a pilgrim in Santiago de Compostela. I love the places wandering and curiosity can take me.
Jackie and I had dinner at an Italian place that night, and struck up a conversation with some Irish people at the table across from us. It turns out they had come (by boat) from the same province where my relatives live! It's fun finding connections like that. That evening we headed to a pub with traditional Galician music (similar to Irish and Scottish--bagpipes, even!), which was so much fun. We came out from the cramped stone cellar reeking of cigarette smoke, but it was worth it.
Early the next morning we hopped on a bus to Salamanca, again passing through the beautiful Galician countryside. After a brief siesta in Salamanca we headed to the Plaza Mayor, a big square surrounded by archways that makes Salamanca famous. The plaza was gorgeous and bustling with tourists and locals. We walked around the archways, eating some spectacular ice cream and window shopping. We wandered from there down the street to the old and new cathedrals, which were beautiful, like the rest of the city. Many of the buildings in Salamanca are ornately-carved sandstone, and many have signs written on the stone in red ink in a beautiful old-fashioned script. We passed by many university buildings (another thing that puts Salamanca on the map). After a quick dinner we returned to our hotel to watch a bit of spanish TV and go to bed. By this time we had discovered that castilian spanish is much harder to understand than many dialects of south american spanish that we had studied. Getting out of galician-speaking areas made it a bit easier, but was still no piece of cake.
Our spirits were revived the next day when we stumbled upon Marcos, a peruvian guy selling scarves and jewelry on the street. I could understand his spanish almost perfectly, and he was certainly a talker! He asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Spain, then told us about his life in Salamanca and all the other friends he had made. Finally we bought some souvenirs and tore ourselves away from the conversation (it was fun, but it had been 40 minutes already...). We visited the inside of the cathedral, which was gorgeous, then after a brief siesta, decided to try to find a part of the university we could tour. Though the guidebook instructions were pretty clear, none of the buildings it mentioned seemed tour-able. The clerks in the university store didn't even seem to know! So we gave up and just admired the outside of some university buildings. We spent a beautiful evening in the still-bustling Plaza Mayor, then headed to Madrid the next morning!
After small-town S-d-C and Salamanca, Madrid certainly felt huge. We wandered a bit on the first evening, but decided not to stray too far from our hostel. The next day we slept in, then wandered through the streets near our hostel, stopping to buy some spanish books (mine was €2 and awfully written, but still fun). We saw the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, two big squares, then had another siesta. In the evening we walked by the Prado (museum) and past many fancy hotels in that area, stopping for a quick bite at a restaurant that was too expensive for our budgets. The next morning we had tortilla española (like an omelette) for breakfast and then followed a walking tour in my guidebook that took us back to the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, but also gave us some good info about the sights around Madrid. We ended up at the palace, where we took a tour. It was huge and gorgeous--maybe the prettiest palace I've seen.
That evening while Jackie took a siesta I wandered to the Retiro park, which used to be the park of the royal family but is now just a wonderful place for Madrileños to hang out, take a walk, or paddle around in the pond there. I enjoyed people-watching for a while, then met Jackie and walked to the Plaza Mayor for dinner. It was a touristy restaurant, to be sure, but a wonderful location to admire the beautiful plaza and watch people and street performers in the square. After dinner we wandered to an area that my guidebook had praised as a wonderful place for nightlife, but not much was happening. We also explored another square that was much less exciting than my guidebook had made it out to be. Though we didn't find much of interest, it was still fun to wander around the streets of Madrid at night.
The next morning we had our regular breakfast of chocolate and pastries, then headed to the airport. First, a quick note on Spanish hot chocolate--it is delicious. So thick and rich that it seems like someone just melted chocolate bars into a cup. It became our morning staple, and was sorely missed when we flew back to Portugal, where the idea of delicious hot chocolate doesn't seem to have taken hold.
We hung around Madrid airport for longer than we'd hoped because a luggage cart crashed into our first plane and made it un-flyable, but finally we arrived in Lisbon and headed back to my host family's house for dinner. The next morning we finally got to Careca (best croissants in the world), and then took a taxi to the airport, where Jackie flew home and I headed back to Copenhagen!
Scandinavia, part two is coming soon :)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Lisbon, Porto, and our "pilgrimage" to S-d-C
Back to Portugal...
So my friends' first full day was certainly full... and fun. In the morning we headed to Restelo to go to my favorite pastry shop for breakfast, but unfortunately it was closed! (on Thursdays). We settled for another pastry shop down the street, which was fine, but not as good as Careca, of course. After lunch we went to Belem (again) and finally got to see the Tower of Belem, which is always such a treat. It was windy and full of tourists, as usual, but of course lots of fun. Afterwards we unfortunately had to drop Becky off at the airport so she could catch a flight to Morocco, but then Jackie and I continued our touristy fun. We went to the center of Lisbon, where we explored the Praça do Comércio and had lunch in a little café during an absolute downpour (the downpour decided our lunch location). When the rain eased up a bit we took the tram up the hill to the castle--another must-see in Lisbon. I don't think I'll ever get tired of exploring castles. We walked down through Alfama (the old part of Lisbon), which was all decorated for the Festa de Santo António (big festival in June in Lisbon), and saw the Cathedral of Lisbon--including a beautiful ruined cloister that I never knew existed! That was a treat for me. We had lanche (traditional portuguese afternoon snack) in a café in Alfama, then headed home for a late (even on portuguese time!) dinner.
The next day we had breakfast with my friend Marisa, then walked around central Lisbon again, exploring Baixa, Rossio, and the Avenida da Liberdade. We met two of my portuguese friends later and walked around Bairro Alto to a beautiful garden and overlook, then had pastries with them in a very very slow service café. After finally paying a bill we shouldn't have had to pay (heh) we headed home on the train, taking time to admire the cute stray dogs and cats by the Cruz Quebrada train station. We had dinner with some of my host sisters' friends, then had a nice long sleep and a lazy saturday morning. When we finally managed to lug ourselves out of bed we went to Pão Pão Queijo Queijo, a great sandwich shop in Belém (best falafel ever!) and then visited the Palácio da Ajuda, a palace near my old high school that proved quite tricky to find. It was nice to see, but nothing compared to the palace we visited later in Madrid.
That afternoon we took the train to Cascais, and Jackie finally got to see a portuguese beach! It was pretty late, so it didn't feel very beach-like, but it was still quite pretty. I had forgotten how picturesque Cascais can be. We strolled through some tourist shops, then had dinner at a British pub (why not) that was mostly full of tourists. The best part of the evening was what was on the screen at the pub: US vs. UK world cup game. We were surrounded by brits and some americans, who of course got very into the game.
Dessert was at Santini, a "famous" ice cream place with delicious ice cream--all the portuguese rave about it. We decided to skip the big Santo António festival because it was pretty late, so we just went back to my host family's house to get ready to take the train to Porto.
Our ride to Porto was uneventful, though when we got there we had to drag our suitcases up one of Porto's many cobblestoned hills to find our hostel (I had forgotten how hilly Porto is!). The hostel was nice, though, and the hill provided for a wonderful view of the city. After a quick rest-up there we had dinner at a little informal, very portuguese café down the hill, then called it an early night.
Our full day in Porto made me realize what a great city it is. I had been there once before, but only for a few days, and it was great to get to visit it again. We saw a beautiful old bookshop that I had remembered from my last trip and had lunch by the water after hopping on a wonderful boat cruise down the river. In the afternoon we did some more wandering, got some pastries for lanche (of course!), and discovered a shopping street full of shoe stores and jewelry stores that begged us to go in. After a full day on our feet we decided to have dinner early--around 6:30--but the waitress at the café we chose had a difficult time understanding the idea of dinner at 6:30 (normal portuguese dinner time is 9). We finally got some sort of food and called it a night.
The next day we were off to Santiago de Compostela! We took a 4-hour bus ride north and ended up changing time-zones, even though we hardly traveled east or west. The Galician countryside was so beautiful, and reminded me a bit of Ireland (that wasn't the only thing that reminded me of Ireland... see my next post). When we got there, I was surprised to see that most of the signs and information was in the galician language, which seems closer to portuguese than spanish (though neither of us could figure out which cues to follow in terms of pronunciation). We got to our tiny room on the fourth floor of the hostel, dropped our bags, and then walked to the center of the town (not too far--it's pretty small!). The town was beautiful, but the most exciting part was of course seeing the cathedral! We feasted our eyes on the famous landmark, then wandered through the old archways and alleys, enjoying watching the pilgrims, tourists, and street performers. We had dinner at a bar (watched Brazil beat North Korea) and then had a good night's sleep in our tiny room.
More on Spain to come! I hope you're enjoying reading, even though my blog posts are so much after-the-fact!
So my friends' first full day was certainly full... and fun. In the morning we headed to Restelo to go to my favorite pastry shop for breakfast, but unfortunately it was closed! (on Thursdays). We settled for another pastry shop down the street, which was fine, but not as good as Careca, of course. After lunch we went to Belem (again) and finally got to see the Tower of Belem, which is always such a treat. It was windy and full of tourists, as usual, but of course lots of fun. Afterwards we unfortunately had to drop Becky off at the airport so she could catch a flight to Morocco, but then Jackie and I continued our touristy fun. We went to the center of Lisbon, where we explored the Praça do Comércio and had lunch in a little café during an absolute downpour (the downpour decided our lunch location). When the rain eased up a bit we took the tram up the hill to the castle--another must-see in Lisbon. I don't think I'll ever get tired of exploring castles. We walked down through Alfama (the old part of Lisbon), which was all decorated for the Festa de Santo António (big festival in June in Lisbon), and saw the Cathedral of Lisbon--including a beautiful ruined cloister that I never knew existed! That was a treat for me. We had lanche (traditional portuguese afternoon snack) in a café in Alfama, then headed home for a late (even on portuguese time!) dinner.
The next day we had breakfast with my friend Marisa, then walked around central Lisbon again, exploring Baixa, Rossio, and the Avenida da Liberdade. We met two of my portuguese friends later and walked around Bairro Alto to a beautiful garden and overlook, then had pastries with them in a very very slow service café. After finally paying a bill we shouldn't have had to pay (heh) we headed home on the train, taking time to admire the cute stray dogs and cats by the Cruz Quebrada train station. We had dinner with some of my host sisters' friends, then had a nice long sleep and a lazy saturday morning. When we finally managed to lug ourselves out of bed we went to Pão Pão Queijo Queijo, a great sandwich shop in Belém (best falafel ever!) and then visited the Palácio da Ajuda, a palace near my old high school that proved quite tricky to find. It was nice to see, but nothing compared to the palace we visited later in Madrid.
That afternoon we took the train to Cascais, and Jackie finally got to see a portuguese beach! It was pretty late, so it didn't feel very beach-like, but it was still quite pretty. I had forgotten how picturesque Cascais can be. We strolled through some tourist shops, then had dinner at a British pub (why not) that was mostly full of tourists. The best part of the evening was what was on the screen at the pub: US vs. UK world cup game. We were surrounded by brits and some americans, who of course got very into the game.
Dessert was at Santini, a "famous" ice cream place with delicious ice cream--all the portuguese rave about it. We decided to skip the big Santo António festival because it was pretty late, so we just went back to my host family's house to get ready to take the train to Porto.
Our ride to Porto was uneventful, though when we got there we had to drag our suitcases up one of Porto's many cobblestoned hills to find our hostel (I had forgotten how hilly Porto is!). The hostel was nice, though, and the hill provided for a wonderful view of the city. After a quick rest-up there we had dinner at a little informal, very portuguese café down the hill, then called it an early night.
Our full day in Porto made me realize what a great city it is. I had been there once before, but only for a few days, and it was great to get to visit it again. We saw a beautiful old bookshop that I had remembered from my last trip and had lunch by the water after hopping on a wonderful boat cruise down the river. In the afternoon we did some more wandering, got some pastries for lanche (of course!), and discovered a shopping street full of shoe stores and jewelry stores that begged us to go in. After a full day on our feet we decided to have dinner early--around 6:30--but the waitress at the café we chose had a difficult time understanding the idea of dinner at 6:30 (normal portuguese dinner time is 9). We finally got some sort of food and called it a night.
The next day we were off to Santiago de Compostela! We took a 4-hour bus ride north and ended up changing time-zones, even though we hardly traveled east or west. The Galician countryside was so beautiful, and reminded me a bit of Ireland (that wasn't the only thing that reminded me of Ireland... see my next post). When we got there, I was surprised to see that most of the signs and information was in the galician language, which seems closer to portuguese than spanish (though neither of us could figure out which cues to follow in terms of pronunciation). We got to our tiny room on the fourth floor of the hostel, dropped our bags, and then walked to the center of the town (not too far--it's pretty small!). The town was beautiful, but the most exciting part was of course seeing the cathedral! We feasted our eyes on the famous landmark, then wandered through the old archways and alleys, enjoying watching the pilgrims, tourists, and street performers. We had dinner at a bar (watched Brazil beat North Korea) and then had a good night's sleep in our tiny room.
More on Spain to come! I hope you're enjoying reading, even though my blog posts are so much after-the-fact!
Monday, August 2, 2010
I Love Portuguese Ducklings
Hi again! Shall we go back to Lisbon?
On Sunday afternoon I went to Belém to meet my friend Mariana for a picnic in the gardens there. It was wonderful to see her, spend an afternoon catching up, and wandering around beautiful Belém. I had walked from my host family's house to Belém and after a nice afternoon, walked back (about an hour each way--keeps transportation prices down!).
For dinner my host family and I went to Alfama, the old, moorish part of Lisbon. The next Saturday was the festival of Santo António, one of the biggest festivals in Lisbon, so Alfama was full of people, music, decorations and stands selling sardines, beer and ginja (portuguese cherry liqueur). We had sardines at a cute little restaurant across from a church (in a residential area--during the festivals the people who live in Alfama just give up their front stoops to the celebration). It was a lot of fun and very, very portuguese.
I spent a relaxing Monday afternoon at the Tropical Garden in Lisbon (also in Belém--one of my favorite areas), admiring tropical plants and cute families strolling around. At one point I found a cute little stream full of ten ducklings and spent the next 45 minutes staring at them and taking videos of them. I was absolutely in love.
That evening I met up again with Mariana and another friend, Inês, and went with them to their latin dances class. It was great to spend time with them, and I got a free dance class on top of that! After dance I went back to my host family's house for dinner with my host grandparents, which was fun--always nice to reconnect with the rest of the family.
The next day I reconnected with the other side of the family--I had lunch at my host grandfather's house. It was just like old times; I used to go to his house at least a few times a week for lunch, and each time various aunts and uncles and cousins would come and eat with us. After lunch I headed into Lisbon to Santa Apolónia train station to check about train tickets, which involved a lot of walking around construction zones, but it was fine. Afterwards I had some time to explore Lisbon, so I decided to check out the "University City" part of town and the national library. That was a sort of funny afternoon, because there's really not much to see. The library is nice enough, but I looked quite creepy walking around upstairs to areas where there were just offices or random exhibits that I didn't have much interest in. The rest of the university area was mostly big blocky buildings and busy streets.
The next day was much more exciting--my friends Jackie and Becky arrived! I met them at the airport, then after lunch and a quick rest at my host family's house we walked around Belém (again!) where we saw the Jerónimos Monastery (absolutely beautiful manueline architecture, and it houses the tombs of Vasco de Gama and Luís de Camões) and had a snack. We missed out on the Tower of Belém because it closed early, but nearby we stumbled upon a funny TV program that was being filmed outside in the gardens. It was quite hard to tell what was going on, but it was still fun to see.
That evening we got a beautiful view of Lisbon at a miradouro (viewpoint) and went back to my host family's house for dinner and an early-to-bed for my jetlagged friends (who thus far had done an amazing job with the jetlag!).
Well I do have much more to write but I figure it has been so long since I posted that even this little bit is good enough. I'll try to get caught up to Oslo, but you may just have to wait until I'm back in the states to hear about my norwegian adventures. Sorry!
On Sunday afternoon I went to Belém to meet my friend Mariana for a picnic in the gardens there. It was wonderful to see her, spend an afternoon catching up, and wandering around beautiful Belém. I had walked from my host family's house to Belém and after a nice afternoon, walked back (about an hour each way--keeps transportation prices down!).
For dinner my host family and I went to Alfama, the old, moorish part of Lisbon. The next Saturday was the festival of Santo António, one of the biggest festivals in Lisbon, so Alfama was full of people, music, decorations and stands selling sardines, beer and ginja (portuguese cherry liqueur). We had sardines at a cute little restaurant across from a church (in a residential area--during the festivals the people who live in Alfama just give up their front stoops to the celebration). It was a lot of fun and very, very portuguese.
I spent a relaxing Monday afternoon at the Tropical Garden in Lisbon (also in Belém--one of my favorite areas), admiring tropical plants and cute families strolling around. At one point I found a cute little stream full of ten ducklings and spent the next 45 minutes staring at them and taking videos of them. I was absolutely in love.
That evening I met up again with Mariana and another friend, Inês, and went with them to their latin dances class. It was great to spend time with them, and I got a free dance class on top of that! After dance I went back to my host family's house for dinner with my host grandparents, which was fun--always nice to reconnect with the rest of the family.
The next day I reconnected with the other side of the family--I had lunch at my host grandfather's house. It was just like old times; I used to go to his house at least a few times a week for lunch, and each time various aunts and uncles and cousins would come and eat with us. After lunch I headed into Lisbon to Santa Apolónia train station to check about train tickets, which involved a lot of walking around construction zones, but it was fine. Afterwards I had some time to explore Lisbon, so I decided to check out the "University City" part of town and the national library. That was a sort of funny afternoon, because there's really not much to see. The library is nice enough, but I looked quite creepy walking around upstairs to areas where there were just offices or random exhibits that I didn't have much interest in. The rest of the university area was mostly big blocky buildings and busy streets.
The next day was much more exciting--my friends Jackie and Becky arrived! I met them at the airport, then after lunch and a quick rest at my host family's house we walked around Belém (again!) where we saw the Jerónimos Monastery (absolutely beautiful manueline architecture, and it houses the tombs of Vasco de Gama and Luís de Camões) and had a snack. We missed out on the Tower of Belém because it closed early, but nearby we stumbled upon a funny TV program that was being filmed outside in the gardens. It was quite hard to tell what was going on, but it was still fun to see.
That evening we got a beautiful view of Lisbon at a miradouro (viewpoint) and went back to my host family's house for dinner and an early-to-bed for my jetlagged friends (who thus far had done an amazing job with the jetlag!).
Well I do have much more to write but I figure it has been so long since I posted that even this little bit is good enough. I'll try to get caught up to Oslo, but you may just have to wait until I'm back in the states to hear about my norwegian adventures. Sorry!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Canals, more trains, and back to Lisboa
Hello again!
Amsterdam, as I said, was beautiful (when the sun came out!). I arrived at the central train station, got a bite to eat, and wandered around until I found the public library (which was open, unlike that of Hamburg). A quick google search later, and I was on my way further down the dock to a hotelboat, where I could spend the night for not much more than the cost of a hostel. It was so cute! I had my own room to myself, so I dropped my stuff, picked up a map from the "captain," and headed out to explore Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is full of canals, which I loved, and wished I had a boat to explore them with! I wandered into the red light district (this is around noon), which is notable mainly because it is the center of town. I saw mainly cafés and shoe stores, and decided that a visit in the day time was plenty. I stopped at a cute café for lunch and had a sort of croquette in a bun (I believe it's a specialty of Amsterdam), then continued wandering around the canals, watching out for bikes, which are much more plentiful than cars and a bit of a danger to the unwary pedestrian. I headed back to my boat (hehe) for a quick rest, which turned into a nap (oops), then headed out again, stopping at a grocery store for dinner (when one has been eating sandwiches every day, it's nice to get a yoghurt for variety). It was still quite light out, so I was surprised to discover that it was already 8 o'clock! I speed-walked to the other end of town to see the Anne Frank house, which unfortunately closed 5 minutes before I arrived. It was a shame, because that was the only real "sight" I wanted to see. I had taken a peek at some cathedrals and churches but figured I'd seen enough religious buildings, and I didn't want to pay the expensive entrance fees.
So my wanderings took me on a winding path through cute squares and around canals back to my boat, where I had a nice night's sleep and then got up early to catch a train to Belgium. Thus began my adventures involving train reservations....
I had gone to the Amsterdam train station the day before to ask about train reservations, since I was using a rail pass to get around. I was told I didn't need a reservation to get to Brussels, so the next day I hopped on an early trian to Brussels, in spite of the intercom message "This train requires a seat reservation. " Well, that train was going through Brussels to Paris, so I was kicked off at Schipol (Amsterdam airport) and from there caught a different, slower, (non-French) train to Brussels. At the ticket office in Brussels I learned that all the seat reservations for Eurail pass holders were taken, so I could either buy a normal ticket or get to Lisbon some other way--my plan was to take the trains from Amsterdam to Lisbon.
Luckily, I have a friend who lives near Brussels, so I met up with her (as we had planned) and ended up buying a plane ticket to Lisbon for the next morning and staying the night at her house (not as planned). So besides the money lost on my rail pass, which was certainly annoying, everything worked out as planned and I had a lovely day in Brussels and Halle, picknicking in front the cathedral, wandering around the Grand Place, and enjoying speaking a bit of French. The next day I took the 5:50 AM train to the airport and caught a flight to Lisbon!
In Lisbon my host mom picked me up at the airport and took my back to my host family's house after stopping at my favorite café for a croissant. It was fun to be back and great to speak portuguese again (which fortunately came back to me pretty quickly). That afternoon I spent resting, grocery shopping with my host mom, and reminiscing about my time in Portugal.
Meanwhile, I've already spent a week in Oslo and I'm excited to begin writing about it! But first: Iberia!
Amsterdam, as I said, was beautiful (when the sun came out!). I arrived at the central train station, got a bite to eat, and wandered around until I found the public library (which was open, unlike that of Hamburg). A quick google search later, and I was on my way further down the dock to a hotelboat, where I could spend the night for not much more than the cost of a hostel. It was so cute! I had my own room to myself, so I dropped my stuff, picked up a map from the "captain," and headed out to explore Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is full of canals, which I loved, and wished I had a boat to explore them with! I wandered into the red light district (this is around noon), which is notable mainly because it is the center of town. I saw mainly cafés and shoe stores, and decided that a visit in the day time was plenty. I stopped at a cute café for lunch and had a sort of croquette in a bun (I believe it's a specialty of Amsterdam), then continued wandering around the canals, watching out for bikes, which are much more plentiful than cars and a bit of a danger to the unwary pedestrian. I headed back to my boat (hehe) for a quick rest, which turned into a nap (oops), then headed out again, stopping at a grocery store for dinner (when one has been eating sandwiches every day, it's nice to get a yoghurt for variety). It was still quite light out, so I was surprised to discover that it was already 8 o'clock! I speed-walked to the other end of town to see the Anne Frank house, which unfortunately closed 5 minutes before I arrived. It was a shame, because that was the only real "sight" I wanted to see. I had taken a peek at some cathedrals and churches but figured I'd seen enough religious buildings, and I didn't want to pay the expensive entrance fees.
So my wanderings took me on a winding path through cute squares and around canals back to my boat, where I had a nice night's sleep and then got up early to catch a train to Belgium. Thus began my adventures involving train reservations....
I had gone to the Amsterdam train station the day before to ask about train reservations, since I was using a rail pass to get around. I was told I didn't need a reservation to get to Brussels, so the next day I hopped on an early trian to Brussels, in spite of the intercom message "This train requires a seat reservation. " Well, that train was going through Brussels to Paris, so I was kicked off at Schipol (Amsterdam airport) and from there caught a different, slower, (non-French) train to Brussels. At the ticket office in Brussels I learned that all the seat reservations for Eurail pass holders were taken, so I could either buy a normal ticket or get to Lisbon some other way--my plan was to take the trains from Amsterdam to Lisbon.
Luckily, I have a friend who lives near Brussels, so I met up with her (as we had planned) and ended up buying a plane ticket to Lisbon for the next morning and staying the night at her house (not as planned). So besides the money lost on my rail pass, which was certainly annoying, everything worked out as planned and I had a lovely day in Brussels and Halle, picknicking in front the cathedral, wandering around the Grand Place, and enjoying speaking a bit of French. The next day I took the 5:50 AM train to the airport and caught a flight to Lisbon!
In Lisbon my host mom picked me up at the airport and took my back to my host family's house after stopping at my favorite café for a croissant. It was fun to be back and great to speak portuguese again (which fortunately came back to me pretty quickly). That afternoon I spent resting, grocery shopping with my host mom, and reminiscing about my time in Portugal.
Meanwhile, I've already spent a week in Oslo and I'm excited to begin writing about it! But first: Iberia!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Happy Birthday Utrecht! (+ lovely Bremen)
Hello again! I'm now settled in my dorm at the University of Oslo. I'll spend the next couple days writing in installments about my adventures the past few weeks, then I'll be caught up and continue writing about Norway as my adventures here progress.
After I left Hamburg I hopped on a train to Bremen, where I spent a couple hours in the afternoon and wanted to spend more. Bremen is lovely! It's full of beautiful old buildings like the City Hall and old churches. I has rostbratwurst for lunch (sausage in a roll), and then wandered around town, exploring, as usual. I went into a nice church at one point and noticed that it seemed to have strange background noise. The noise changed at one point, and sounded like an organ, but without a tune. I went into one of the ancient crypts and discovered that someone was tuning the organ! That was entertaining. I also explored the schnoor, the old part of Bremen that has some extremely cute 400-year-old houses, narrow alleys, and delicious ice cream.
I wouldn't have minded staying in Bremen for another day, but I decided to stick to my (rough sketch) schedule and hop on a train to Amsterdam. When I arrived at the station in Amsterdam it was overcast and pretty dreary, so I took a spontaneous decision to skip Amsterdam for the day and head to Utrecht, about a half-hour train ride away. Utrecht was also overcast, and I wandered around for a while before finally finding an OK hostel, all the while wishing I knew some Dutch. I was placed in a 14-bed room with 5 guy roommates, but the hostel had wifi (none in Germany whatsoever), so it was fine (and I switched to a smaller room the next night).
Utrecht the next day was warm, sunny, and beautiful (I now understand how much the weather effects my perception of a place...). It's a cute university town/city with a lot of history, and as luck would have it, I was there on its 888th birthday! I got into museums free and got to watch people gathering in a square listening to someone important speaking Dutch. After hot chocolate and a croissant I wandered around the canals, narrowly getting run over by bikers (a common theme in that area of the world... more bikes than cars). I saw a church and a museum called the "Utrecht Archives," that was certainly not like any other archives I've heard of. It actually seemed like a few modern-art exhibits scattered around with a bit of history. But it was free, so I can't complain.
After having turkish food for lunch (another common activity) I climbed up Utrecht's beautiful church tower (the tallest in the Netherlands), which has more than 400 steps. The tower is separated from the rest of the church because the connecting section collapsed in 1674, and they haven't bothered to rebuild it yet. As usual, I took a handstand picture at one of the lookout points. Later that afternoon I had ice cream at one of the many stands around town, and was surprised to receive exactly two scoop-sized scoops. Anyone who has ordered ice cream in America will realize how strange that seems.
The next day I took off to Amsterdam, where this time it was sunny and welcoming. In the next few posts I'll take you through my travels in Amsterdam, an impromptu night in Brussels, two weeks in Spain and Portugal, a quick stop back in Denmark and Sweden, and finally my arrive in Oslo.
For now, ha det bra! (That's bye in Norwegian).
After I left Hamburg I hopped on a train to Bremen, where I spent a couple hours in the afternoon and wanted to spend more. Bremen is lovely! It's full of beautiful old buildings like the City Hall and old churches. I has rostbratwurst for lunch (sausage in a roll), and then wandered around town, exploring, as usual. I went into a nice church at one point and noticed that it seemed to have strange background noise. The noise changed at one point, and sounded like an organ, but without a tune. I went into one of the ancient crypts and discovered that someone was tuning the organ! That was entertaining. I also explored the schnoor, the old part of Bremen that has some extremely cute 400-year-old houses, narrow alleys, and delicious ice cream.
I wouldn't have minded staying in Bremen for another day, but I decided to stick to my (rough sketch) schedule and hop on a train to Amsterdam. When I arrived at the station in Amsterdam it was overcast and pretty dreary, so I took a spontaneous decision to skip Amsterdam for the day and head to Utrecht, about a half-hour train ride away. Utrecht was also overcast, and I wandered around for a while before finally finding an OK hostel, all the while wishing I knew some Dutch. I was placed in a 14-bed room with 5 guy roommates, but the hostel had wifi (none in Germany whatsoever), so it was fine (and I switched to a smaller room the next night).
Utrecht the next day was warm, sunny, and beautiful (I now understand how much the weather effects my perception of a place...). It's a cute university town/city with a lot of history, and as luck would have it, I was there on its 888th birthday! I got into museums free and got to watch people gathering in a square listening to someone important speaking Dutch. After hot chocolate and a croissant I wandered around the canals, narrowly getting run over by bikers (a common theme in that area of the world... more bikes than cars). I saw a church and a museum called the "Utrecht Archives," that was certainly not like any other archives I've heard of. It actually seemed like a few modern-art exhibits scattered around with a bit of history. But it was free, so I can't complain.
After having turkish food for lunch (another common activity) I climbed up Utrecht's beautiful church tower (the tallest in the Netherlands), which has more than 400 steps. The tower is separated from the rest of the church because the connecting section collapsed in 1674, and they haven't bothered to rebuild it yet. As usual, I took a handstand picture at one of the lookout points. Later that afternoon I had ice cream at one of the many stands around town, and was surprised to receive exactly two scoop-sized scoops. Anyone who has ordered ice cream in America will realize how strange that seems.
The next day I took off to Amsterdam, where this time it was sunny and welcoming. In the next few posts I'll take you through my travels in Amsterdam, an impromptu night in Brussels, two weeks in Spain and Portugal, a quick stop back in Denmark and Sweden, and finally my arrive in Oslo.
For now, ha det bra! (That's bye in Norwegian).
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Marzipan, Turkish Food and Starbucks (Lübeck and Hamburg)
Hello again! This time from Lisbon. It's wonderful to be back, but before I go raving about Lisbon, I'll write about how I got here.
The morning of my departure to Germany I took the train to Copenhagen and bought a Eurail pass, which gives me 10 days of rail travel in the span of two months. Pretty awesome, though we'll see later that it does have setbacks. Anyway, from Copenhagen I boarded a train bound for Lübeck. That was very entertaining, because the train went on a ferry to get to Germany! We were on the ferry for about 45 minutes and could get off the train and hang out on the boat. I arrived in the afternoon in Lübeck, Germany, which is a beautiful town. It's full of beautiful, 500-or-more-year-old churches and houses and, of course, Germans. It was pretty exciting to get to use a bit of my German (I checked into the hostel all in German!) but also tiring since I really don't know much German.
While in Lübeck I did what I do best: wander. That has become my #1 way of visiting places and I really enjoy it. I had dinner at "Tony's Pizza"--very German, right? I actually ate a lot of non-german food while in Germany (especially turkish, there's turkish food all over the place). The next day I saw two churches, two museums, and Lübeck's famous Holstentor gate. It rained, unfortunately, so I went into a cafe and read some H.P. Lovecraft that I had downloaded to my iPod (very handy when one doesn't want to bring books on trips!). I also ate some of the marzipan that Lübeck is famous for.
The next morning I hopped on a train to Hamburg (all these trains were paid for with my rail pass). I got to Hamburg with no map or idea of the city, so I procured a map at the tourist office and wandered around looking for a dry place to read it, because it was raining again. The public library was right next to the train station which I thought was fantastically lucky, until I discovered it was closed. I wandered around the library building, which contained other offices, hoping to find a dry space with a table and chair. This is where I looked super sketchy, by hopping into an elevator with someone going up to an office, randomly pressing the button for floor 3, and discovering that floor three was barren except for blocks of cement and construction materials.
So, lugging my suitcase, I left the library building and walked into the center of Hamburg, where I found a place with dry tables and chairs--Starbucks (oh, how American of me!). At Starbucks, I ran into a classmate from college! Such a coincidence. We sat and chatted a while, and she helped me figure out my Hamburg map. I ended up finding a decent hostel and then commenced my wandering again. I climbed a huge church tower (St. Michael's) and saw the crypt of the church, which had an odd exhibit about copper. Walking towards the center of Hamburg, I came upon the ruins of St. Nikolas church, which is now a war memorial and has a beautiful gothic tower. I ended up walking the whole day, who knows how many miles, all over Hamburg. I found a neighborhood full of portuguese restaurants and was relieved to be able to speak a language that I know better than German! I had a lovely Portuguese dinner, then walked around Hamburg until around 10:00, when, of course, it was still light out.
The next day was spent mostly on trains--it took 5 to get from Hamburg to Utrecht. But... at the moment I'm quite sleepy and it is almost 1 AM, so I think I'll write about the rest of Germany and the Netherlands later. Thanks for reading!
The morning of my departure to Germany I took the train to Copenhagen and bought a Eurail pass, which gives me 10 days of rail travel in the span of two months. Pretty awesome, though we'll see later that it does have setbacks. Anyway, from Copenhagen I boarded a train bound for Lübeck. That was very entertaining, because the train went on a ferry to get to Germany! We were on the ferry for about 45 minutes and could get off the train and hang out on the boat. I arrived in the afternoon in Lübeck, Germany, which is a beautiful town. It's full of beautiful, 500-or-more-year-old churches and houses and, of course, Germans. It was pretty exciting to get to use a bit of my German (I checked into the hostel all in German!) but also tiring since I really don't know much German.
While in Lübeck I did what I do best: wander. That has become my #1 way of visiting places and I really enjoy it. I had dinner at "Tony's Pizza"--very German, right? I actually ate a lot of non-german food while in Germany (especially turkish, there's turkish food all over the place). The next day I saw two churches, two museums, and Lübeck's famous Holstentor gate. It rained, unfortunately, so I went into a cafe and read some H.P. Lovecraft that I had downloaded to my iPod (very handy when one doesn't want to bring books on trips!). I also ate some of the marzipan that Lübeck is famous for.
The next morning I hopped on a train to Hamburg (all these trains were paid for with my rail pass). I got to Hamburg with no map or idea of the city, so I procured a map at the tourist office and wandered around looking for a dry place to read it, because it was raining again. The public library was right next to the train station which I thought was fantastically lucky, until I discovered it was closed. I wandered around the library building, which contained other offices, hoping to find a dry space with a table and chair. This is where I looked super sketchy, by hopping into an elevator with someone going up to an office, randomly pressing the button for floor 3, and discovering that floor three was barren except for blocks of cement and construction materials.
So, lugging my suitcase, I left the library building and walked into the center of Hamburg, where I found a place with dry tables and chairs--Starbucks (oh, how American of me!). At Starbucks, I ran into a classmate from college! Such a coincidence. We sat and chatted a while, and she helped me figure out my Hamburg map. I ended up finding a decent hostel and then commenced my wandering again. I climbed a huge church tower (St. Michael's) and saw the crypt of the church, which had an odd exhibit about copper. Walking towards the center of Hamburg, I came upon the ruins of St. Nikolas church, which is now a war memorial and has a beautiful gothic tower. I ended up walking the whole day, who knows how many miles, all over Hamburg. I found a neighborhood full of portuguese restaurants and was relieved to be able to speak a language that I know better than German! I had a lovely Portuguese dinner, then walked around Hamburg until around 10:00, when, of course, it was still light out.
The next day was spent mostly on trains--it took 5 to get from Hamburg to Utrecht. But... at the moment I'm quite sleepy and it is almost 1 AM, so I think I'll write about the rest of Germany and the Netherlands later. Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Summer 2010 Starts in Scandinavia
...and the summer 2010 European adventures begin.
I'm in the Netherlands! Utrecht, specifically. But I'll start from the beginning.
I flew over with Icelandair, which gave me beautiful views but no food. After a brief stop in Iceland I flew to Copenhagen (all the while looking for Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano, but I didn't see it). Some family friends picked me up at the airport and took me across the bridge to Malmo, Sweden where I stayed with them for three days. It was so much fun to experience Denmark and Sweden at the same time, and really nice to stay in a house with friends while I got over jetlag.
The first night I slept a hearty 14.5 hours, then went to see Malmo, which is beautiful! Nice cobbled streets, squares with cafes all around, and lots of bikes! (My gosh I have been overwhelmed by bikes this trip!). I saw the castle/fort, which is now a museum, as well as the train station and some of the cute squares. Then I headed to the workplace of my family friends in Malmo, a daycare center. The kids were so cute, but not sure what to make of me! It was fun to just watch them play and listen to all that Swedish.
The next two days were spent in Copenhagen, around which I must have walked 10 miles a day! The first day I saw Rosenborg castle, which has some of the most beautiful decorations, artwork and treasures I have seen. I had falafel for lunch and wandered for the rest of the evening, then took the train back to Malmo for the night. The next day I did even more wandering, this time in the rain! I had seen rain was predicted so I just trudged through it in teh morning and did a self-guided Copenhagen walk from a guidebook. It was centered around the Stroget, the main pedestrian street in Copenhagen, which I loved. I also saw the University (and tried to look like a student since they don't seem to welcome tourists), and the Radhus (city hall), which was a strange experience. The Radhus is open to tourists and they do give guided tours, but you can also just wander around. So that's just what I did, and I passed all these people dressed in suits, carrying papers, working in offices, and speaking Danish. I felt like such a trespasser! I had already started planning some great mystery movie with thieves dressed as tourists wandering around the Copenhagen city hall.
In addition I walked through Nyhavn, which is the place on all the guidebooks (besides the Little Mermaid). It's a row of cute, colorful buildings along a canal. (Do an image search for Copenhagen and I'm sure it'll come up). I walked all the way to Amalienborg palace, which is gorgeous (I didn't go inside, though), and could have walked to see the Little Mermaid, except she's currently at the world expo in China, so it wouldn't have been worth it to walk all that way. Besides, my feet were sore!
That afternoon the sun miraculously came out, but I went to the national museum (should have switched my schedules!). I also wandered around another palace--Christiansborg--and ended my afternoon with a visit to the Copenhagen library to look up train schedules. The library is a black, modern glass building shaped liked a diamond.
Back to Malmo for the night, and the next morning I was off to Germany! But I think I've written enough for now. Coming up next: Germany and the Netherlands, including marzipan, train rides, coincidences, and more bikes.
I'm in the Netherlands! Utrecht, specifically. But I'll start from the beginning.
I flew over with Icelandair, which gave me beautiful views but no food. After a brief stop in Iceland I flew to Copenhagen (all the while looking for Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano, but I didn't see it). Some family friends picked me up at the airport and took me across the bridge to Malmo, Sweden where I stayed with them for three days. It was so much fun to experience Denmark and Sweden at the same time, and really nice to stay in a house with friends while I got over jetlag.
The first night I slept a hearty 14.5 hours, then went to see Malmo, which is beautiful! Nice cobbled streets, squares with cafes all around, and lots of bikes! (My gosh I have been overwhelmed by bikes this trip!). I saw the castle/fort, which is now a museum, as well as the train station and some of the cute squares. Then I headed to the workplace of my family friends in Malmo, a daycare center. The kids were so cute, but not sure what to make of me! It was fun to just watch them play and listen to all that Swedish.
The next two days were spent in Copenhagen, around which I must have walked 10 miles a day! The first day I saw Rosenborg castle, which has some of the most beautiful decorations, artwork and treasures I have seen. I had falafel for lunch and wandered for the rest of the evening, then took the train back to Malmo for the night. The next day I did even more wandering, this time in the rain! I had seen rain was predicted so I just trudged through it in teh morning and did a self-guided Copenhagen walk from a guidebook. It was centered around the Stroget, the main pedestrian street in Copenhagen, which I loved. I also saw the University (and tried to look like a student since they don't seem to welcome tourists), and the Radhus (city hall), which was a strange experience. The Radhus is open to tourists and they do give guided tours, but you can also just wander around. So that's just what I did, and I passed all these people dressed in suits, carrying papers, working in offices, and speaking Danish. I felt like such a trespasser! I had already started planning some great mystery movie with thieves dressed as tourists wandering around the Copenhagen city hall.
In addition I walked through Nyhavn, which is the place on all the guidebooks (besides the Little Mermaid). It's a row of cute, colorful buildings along a canal. (Do an image search for Copenhagen and I'm sure it'll come up). I walked all the way to Amalienborg palace, which is gorgeous (I didn't go inside, though), and could have walked to see the Little Mermaid, except she's currently at the world expo in China, so it wouldn't have been worth it to walk all that way. Besides, my feet were sore!
That afternoon the sun miraculously came out, but I went to the national museum (should have switched my schedules!). I also wandered around another palace--Christiansborg--and ended my afternoon with a visit to the Copenhagen library to look up train schedules. The library is a black, modern glass building shaped liked a diamond.
Back to Malmo for the night, and the next morning I was off to Germany! But I think I've written enough for now. Coming up next: Germany and the Netherlands, including marzipan, train rides, coincidences, and more bikes.
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