Prague 09/29/13 - 10/02/13

Ah, Prague. This is Darryl's favorite city he's visited in Europe and it has a special place in my heart. I was excited to come back and see if I could maybe bump it up to number one on my list to align with Darryl. :)

Let me start off by saying that smiles are few and far between in the Czech Republic. The same can be said for Germany, but in Germany more people will proactively try to help you out or start up a conversation. There's simply a cultural gap between my cultural norm (American) to smile at people, and this doesn't mean that either is the "right" way.

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen and everything is ridiculously inexpensive. It is commonly known that beer is cheaper than (bottled) water in Prague: this was the case 2 years ago, and the prices haven't changed much since then.

Driving into the city was absolute insanity and I don't think it's something we would attempt again. Seriously, it's like something out of the Bourne Identity, where you expect a mini cooper at any moment to come barreling down a narrow set of stairs. Thankfully I was not behind the wheel, but I don't think any of us have ever feared more for our lives.

We finally got our car to our "hotel," which was booked on Airbnb, but there was a front desk with doorman and daily cleaning services. It was a nice enough place, but Dustin thought it had a "smell'" to it and privacy was a little lacking. :) We had to park our car about a 15 minute walk away in the closest paid secure lot we could find.

Praha is equally if not more stunning at night because of how the buildings and statues are illuminated. I admittedly cannot identify most of them due to the sheer volume of sights in the area.

Some.. important building we parked near?

Some..statue?

I've got this one - the Charles Bridge

The next day we walked to a few common Prague tourist spots - walking across and around the Charles Bridge, and then taking the steep climb up to the Prague Castle (hoping to make up for Dustin's lack of castle-ing). Some event was happening at the castle so we ended up walking around the moat while we waited for it to clear out, even going under the grounds through this tunnel:

We took in the regular Castle sights.. St.Vitus Cathedral is always impressive:

The castle guards/changing of the guards is also great. It's really hard to resist the temptation of poking the guard to try to make him smile.

We also went back to the area where our friends had their wedding reception (Strahov Monastic Brewery) and took a few pictures at the same place we were 2 years ago.

One of our college friends, Allen, has lived in Prague for over a year as he fell in love with the city after our last trip. You have to give him credit for wanting something and going after it, and he now teaches English while acting on the side. We met up with him that night and it was good to catch up and get his perspective on Prague and the Czech people as a whole - I was definitely not alone in my impression that it is a difficult group of people to try to get to open up to you.

The next day we headed to one of the most famous spots in Prague (and one of my favorites), the Astronomical Clock. It is the oldest astronomical clock in the world that is still working, though it has had to be restored many times, including after it was pretty much destroyed during the Prague Uprising. You can walk up to the top of the tower that contains the clock for amazing views of the city.

And then one of my favorite random spottings... later I saw this shark-person in a mini mart sans the shark top, but I recognized them by their blue fuzzy pants.

This night was a good night to introduce Dustin to the world of absinthe. We stopped at an Absinthery and had a drink to try to decide a small bottle to buy for home. They put on a show with one of the traditional preparations, which involves dipping a sugar cube in the absithine, lighting it on fire and letting the sugar drip over the shot to add a sweet, caramelized taste. Thinking we had mastered this, especially as I had previous experience from our last trip, we went home and thankfully did not burn the building down. We did, however, make the worst burnt absinthe shots known to man that were rendered undrinkable.

For months I had been bragging to Dustin about this club that we went to during a pub crawl on our last trip and their unique preparation of absinthe, so I dragged him and Darryl there around 9pm. On a Tuesday. This is probably not surprising to any Europeans out there, but we got there and we were literally the ONLY people there. I ordered 3 shots expecting a show, and the bartender simply poured 3 gross looking shots into disposable cups. We drank them and I sheepishly led them out of there, but right across the street was a real absinthe bar. 

We grabbed a table and the bartender proceeded to provide a detailed history and education of absinthe (also noting the guys at the Absinthery earlier had also prepared it wrong) - this was the real deal. I wasn't feeling much like drinking so I only tried one, but Dustin and Darryl got to try a few kinds as there are sweet or bitter varieties depending on their taste. 

We headed home and packed for the drive to Berlin, with no visions of green fairies or sugar plums in our heads.

-Erin

Drive from Munich to Prague - 09/29/13

Because Dustin is awesome, he decided to rent a car to drive from Munich to Prague, where we stayed for a few days, and then dropped the car off in Berlin.

A fantasy of mine from our previous Prague visit was to get to see the countryside. I was really excited to get out of the cities and see how people lived outside of the major metropolitan areas.

Dustin wanted to drive down the "castle road" which would take us via many German castles to Prague, but as an outdoor enthusiast, I made a request to go to the Bavarian Forest to see the world's largest tree tower walk. Unfortunately we didn't realize how long our detour would take us so we did not get to see the castles Dustin requested - sorry Dustin - but sometimes that's just how travel works when you deviate from a plan!

The countryside of Germany is perfectly manicured and spotted with picturesque towns and red thatch roofed homes. It truly is something out of a Disney movie (as was Munich). Thankfully we had a (confusing at first) GPS in the car - without that, we would have certainly been more lost. Either the GPS or German roads are insane, though, I am not sure which, as it took many windy, tiny roads to end up at our location.

While on our way, I was surprised to see signs for "Grafenau" - the second of many sightings involving my last name in some way or another - so requested we pull over for a quick photo:

Shortly after, we arrived at Baumwipfelpfad - the tree walk. The pictures only ALMOST do it justice - the only con was that it was extremely cold and windy, but that didn't stop us!

One lovely thing about Baumwipfepfad is that it is accessible to almost anyone - you can push strollers or take wheelchairs almost to the very top. Dogs are not allowed unless you put them in a box (which they provide for you - this would not work well for Axle.

A few trees grow in the middle of the structure, all the way to the top. This was only built in 2009 so I felt lucky that it was ready for us to explore.

The view from the top was amazing and helped make up for the fact that I did not take enough pictures of the countryside while in the car.

Now onto the Czech Republic! We had our passports ready for the border crossing, but it was something like my experience of entering Mexico - there was no one there and no stopping.

Very anti-climactic. The Czech countryside is beautiful as well, but not perfectly manicured like Germany. As soon as we crossed the border it was very apparent that we were in a different country - a little bit more run down and there were strip clubs and bars at the first town past the border.

We decided to head to Pilsen (Plzen in Czech) before Prague because hey, it sounds like a nice beer town, right? No. It was run down and a factory town. We got some McDonald's because well, it's required when in a foreign country, and we were starving and looking for a quick bite. We entered Plzen about as quickly as we entered it, and then made the short drive to Prague.

Long, but beautiful day! Remaining set of photos here.

-Erin

Munich, Germany and Oktoberfest - 09/23/13 - 09/29/13

On a lovely Monday 2 weeks ago, Darryl and I made our way over to the country of my "people," as my father is German. I'm not sure if you've noticed before, but my last name sounds pretty commanding/German and translates to "Count". I used to think this meant something like Count Dracula or The Count from Sesame Street, but it still impressively is a title of nobility.

Our first night in Munich was fairly low key as we were the first to arrive, and it was nice to have some alone time before the festivities began. Knowing our diets would consist of meat, bread and beer over the next 2 weeks, we found a Pakistani restaurant around the corner. The menu was in German only, though, and as my one year of German in college was subpar at most, we helplessly asked them to choose their favorite dishes. We are so glad we did - it was one of the best meals I have ever had!

Once most of the group of friends from around the world (shout out to Mikki for organizing this!) arrived the next day, we headed to the Hofbräuhaus brewery in central Munich. The hall boomed with chatter and a live band, interrupted multiple times for traditional song and dance, including 2 American songs which we would hear on repeat the entire trip: "Hey Baby" and "Country Roads". It was a little surreal seeing Germans in full on lederhosen/dirndl jumping up on tables, chugging large beers and singing in English on and off.

By the way, if you ever go to Oktoberfest and are wondering if you will be an outcast dressing up - don't worry about it! Almost everyone, especially the locals, is dressed up.

The next morning we went on a unique walking tour of Munich where the birthday boys (Brian and Dustin's 30th birthdays were both approaching) pulled a wagon with 2 kegs of beer. Our guide provided us with a historical perspective of the city while enforcing drinking games. There aren't laws against drinking in the streets and the other folks on 'normal' tours were extremely envious. Our tour guide, Lenny, drank as well - I think he may have come up with the most genius income generator of all time, if he doesn't die of a heart attack or liver failure before making his first million. 

After the street tour, we had a beer tent reservation at the actual Oktoberfest grounds. On our way, it almost started monsooning and we were all soaking wet by the time we made it into our (tiny for Oktoberfest) tent. I think my shoes are still drying out. Each tent ticket came with 2 liters of beer and a half a chicken - the most delicious chicken of my life! 

The fairgrounds are huge and have multiple beer tents, food and souvenir vendors and carnival rides. I ended up on an awesome roller coaster and swing ride with Darryl, which both provided a spectacular view of the lit up grounds at night.

Kenny and Kristin on the swings before take off

We went to bed pretty early after a day of fatty meats (seriously, so much meat...) and beer as we had another tent rented the next day. We wandered onto the grounds that morning and I was finally able to get a picture of the main entry because we were not trapped in a torrential downpour.

It was time for one of the BIG tents (Schottenhamel Spatenbrau) that holds around 10,000 people, and we spent the next 3.5 hours there eating another half chicken each (not as good this time) and drinking more beer. We had 2 tables upstairs with a view and it was the one of the most intense events I have ever experienced - about 10 times as large and loud as Hofbräuhaus: drunken Germans singing, roaring and dancing with a HUGE band in the middle playing all of the German (and again American) classics. 

View of the tent from our table

Brian and Ryan getting the party started

The first of many of Brian's amazing dance moves

After our time in the tent was up, we headed to another outdoor tent and split up into a few tables as our group was too large to accommodate. This is where one of the the true beauties of Oktoberfest lies - meeting people from all over the country and world, and I made a few friends from New Zealand/Australia/England, which made me even more excited about who I will run into in Thailand.

The next day, Saturday, was our last full day as a group so we decided to try to take another waking tour through Munich (self guided), since we didn't make it very far with Lenny's beer 'cruise'.  We ate some delicious bratwurst in the park and perused the local outdoor market, which was full of fresh produce, cheese, meat and various knickknacks.

One of my favorite spots after this was the Englischer Garten, which is a park larger than Central Park in NYC!

Not sure what is going on here, but it was fantastic

It was (compared to previous days) a fairly lazy one in anticipation of the main event of the evening, which was a medieval meat feast in a basement cellar of Feldherrnhalle. The street level of Ferdenhalle is where a confrontation between Hitler's followers (in an attempt to take over Bavaria) and the Bavarian Police escalated and resulted in the arrest of Hitler, which made for a peculiar location.

The cellar was filled with large tables and designed for big groups, and was catered to German tourists (always a good sign!). Most of the information was given in German first, then relayed specifically in English to our subset. You were only given a knife, cutting board and large napkin wrapped around your neck for eating and the intent was to use your hands for eating as much as possible. 

As it was Brian's official birthday, they took him in the back and dressed him up as a friar (fake beer gut and all) and he came out and threw water at the crowd, much to the displeasure of some of the other tourists. The food was ridiculously good and filling... if you ever go to Munich, it was highly entertaining!

We had a lot of hardcore Husky fans in our group, so the trip to Munich closed with a 1am viewing of the Husky vs. Arizona football game. I passed out pretty quickly in and we said most of our goodbyes then.

In closing, here are some fun facts about Oktoberfest in 2011 - seriously, how does someone lose an electric wheelchair?!?!:

• 6.9 million people drank 7.5 million litres of beer
• 48 children were lost
• 226,000 steins were recovered by security as people attempted to steal them from the tents
• Police attended 2175 incidents and made 487 arrests
• Lost property items included: live 8cm grasshopper, viking helmet, crutches, an electric wheelchair, 1300 items of clothing, 520 wallets, over 1000 ID cards, almost 500 mobile phones, 370 pairs of glasses, 90 cameras and 425 sets of keys - not forgetting a set of dentures (every year there is at least one set of dentures!).

Full set of photos can be found here.

-Erin

Ripping the bandaid off

Ready? Yes? No? OK.

As I sit here in this posh Berlin apartment rental (thanks again, Dustin!), I can't help but to feel silly about my mixed bag of emotions. But I remember something I learned from my days at the Crisis Clinic - we all define our own crisis. If a woman calls crying because her Thanksgiving turkey was burned in the oven and she can't see a way out of her misery, you just have to take everything in context and support them as best as you can.

So it's not that I'm having a crisis, persay, but very early this morning I put Darryl in a cab and we said our goodbyes, knowing it would be probably about 4 months before he can come visit me. This might not seem like a long period of time to those who have endured/endure a long distance relationship, but we have been together almost non stop for 5 and a half years. But after this trip and this last month of working toward this, we have become closer than I ever imagined possible.

We had a spectacular day together yesterday, but as the giant click ticked down, we both became more and more anxious and upset. So as he said, "should we just rip the bandaid off now"? ... and fairly soon after, we did. And though I still don't feel great, it felt better to at least get past that moment that we've so dreaded over the past few months.

He is still thankfully adamant that that a) I need to do this and b) this is not a mistake (as I may or may not have said last night. :)

Onto happier posts hopefully moving forward - I just have one more large hurdle before going into the land of unknown, and that's hopping on a plane by myself to Phuket on Monday. Dustin and I are still here in fabulous Berlin for another 2 nights, so I still have a partner and crime and crutch to use for the last stages of this transition!

By the way - what an AWESOME vacation and way to kick off this trip. I will be uploading photo sets to Flickr and make a few separate posts about the great time we have had in Munich, Prague and Berlin shortly.

Tschüss!!

-Erin