Just a quick post to say that Tom and I are both in Salzburg, about to watch the Sound of Music at the hostel.
It feels great and was like coming home landing in Austria. Nothing like crisp air and snow-capped mountains to make me feel better :)
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Monday, 17 November 2008
rainy and cold
So far today has been pretty disappointing. The plan was first to check out the National Museum. After navigating my way there in the rain, I found out it was shut on Mondays. So due to my own under-researching I was left with not much to do. And the weather was MISERABLE. (As one would expect from Ireland.) I am embarrassed to admit it, but I actually ended up on a bus tour. I wanted to get out and explore the city but in bad weather by myself badly researched I didn't know where to go. The tour was interesting enough and I did learn a few things about the city, but it was overpriced and I would have preferred a Sandeman's tour had there been one. I did get to see Trinity College, Ireland's smallest pub, the Guinness stockhouse, Wellington Monument, and St. Patrick's cathedral amongst other things. From my bus. I'm off to dinner tonight with Tim and Mik again (I could totally go a nice stew or pie - now I know why they enjoy hot heavy bland meals!)
Last night ended up being terrific though! We went to a pub with live Irish music and dancing, which I really enjoyed. None of my photos of the dancers came out nearly well enough :( and the music made a great atmosphere with everyone clapping along.
Flying back to Germany tomorrow. I'm a little bit disappointed with Dublin - not the city itself, which I quite like - I just havn't had the best time here and I was really looking forward to it. I guess I've learned my lesson and I'll plan better next time.
Ciao
Maz
Last night ended up being terrific though! We went to a pub with live Irish music and dancing, which I really enjoyed. None of my photos of the dancers came out nearly well enough :( and the music made a great atmosphere with everyone clapping along.
Flying back to Germany tomorrow. I'm a little bit disappointed with Dublin - not the city itself, which I quite like - I just havn't had the best time here and I was really looking forward to it. I guess I've learned my lesson and I'll plan better next time.
Ciao
Maz
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Hamburg and Dublin
I'll continue this one chronologically:
I really enjoyed my day alone in Hamburg. I bought a day pass for public tranport and explored bits of the city we didn't do there last time. I took the S-bahn out to a cute suburb called Blankenese where I found a little market selling flowers, meats and cheeses. I bought myself a sausage, chatting to the lady in German but I ended up eating it with mustard because there wasn't help-yourself ketchup and I couldnt remember what it was in German. It was really nice to wander around the suburbs, it felt really genuine, I didn't see a single other tourist out there. The weather was terrible but I was starting to be used to it. I also bought myself a comic to help practice my German, its the Donald Duck XXL-Winter-Spass book. Has cute duck comics and children's puzzles in it which are useful for my level of German.
Then I went to the famous harbour and following directions from my guidebook took a few ferries to get a decent tour of the harbour. It was really nice in the cold and mist to sit inside the boat with my iPod and just chill and watch everything go past. Hamburg harbour is pretty memorable - its not particularly cute or scenic because it is a real functional harbour, I saw tons of tugs and container ships and machinery which was interesting.
Back at the hostel I met some other people travelling alone and we got on really well. There was Nelson, from Darwin, and Riley from Vancouver. We ended up all going out Friday night to an Irish pub, it was a good fun night and it was nice to have some people to talk to after spending the whole day alone.
The next day I was up reasonably early to catch my flight to Dublin. The airport was a serious hike from the hostel - the bus took over an hour getting there. Services at the airport were terrible because I was flying on a budget airline from a tiny airport. The flight crew were Irish which was really bizarre after struggling with foreign languages all year. After arriving in Dublin airport I took a sandwich break and ordering in English felt so so wierd. I caught the bus to my hostel without problems. It was a green double decker :D
I am staying in the Kinlay House which is a giant hostel in a really cool part of the city. I am in a 6 bed dorm with people who arent particularly interesting, but hey, you cant win em all. The hostel has free internet which is incredibly useful. It also has breakfast, tv, dvd player with a massive movie library and a shared kitchen. So there is no shortage of things to do here. Last night I ended up chilling here and watching some movies with the other travellers. Not knowing anyone here it was hard to find people to go out on Saturday night, unfortunately.
Today I had a bit of a wander around the city and got my bearings. I had lunch with Tim (the Canadian I met in Paris) and it was nice to see a familiar face. We had bangers n mash with Guinness (trying to be as Irish as we could) but I thought the Guinness tasted terrible. I'm back at the hostel now for a short break (I might finally get my laundry done) but I'm going out tonight with Tim and Mikaela (who is arriving here this evening from Paris!). We're going to go check out some Irish dancing which I am pretty excited for. No more Guinness for me though.
I had a look into walking tours here and there is a serious lack of good ones. They are all very expensive and area or theme specific, leaving a perfect spot for Sandeman to open up. They'd do well here.
One of the things that strikes me here though is that its even harder for me to meet people, which is counter-intuitive, I thought the English speaking would have made it easy. But in Holland and Germany, the English speakers cling to each other at the hostel and its really easy to find people to chat to. At the hostel here I've met Germans and French and Spaniards, but I don't know where the English speakers have all got to!
That's my travels up to date!
I might post again tomorrow, but if not, until Salzburg!
xoxox Amanda
I really enjoyed my day alone in Hamburg. I bought a day pass for public tranport and explored bits of the city we didn't do there last time. I took the S-bahn out to a cute suburb called Blankenese where I found a little market selling flowers, meats and cheeses. I bought myself a sausage, chatting to the lady in German but I ended up eating it with mustard because there wasn't help-yourself ketchup and I couldnt remember what it was in German. It was really nice to wander around the suburbs, it felt really genuine, I didn't see a single other tourist out there. The weather was terrible but I was starting to be used to it. I also bought myself a comic to help practice my German, its the Donald Duck XXL-Winter-Spass book. Has cute duck comics and children's puzzles in it which are useful for my level of German.
Then I went to the famous harbour and following directions from my guidebook took a few ferries to get a decent tour of the harbour. It was really nice in the cold and mist to sit inside the boat with my iPod and just chill and watch everything go past. Hamburg harbour is pretty memorable - its not particularly cute or scenic because it is a real functional harbour, I saw tons of tugs and container ships and machinery which was interesting.
Back at the hostel I met some other people travelling alone and we got on really well. There was Nelson, from Darwin, and Riley from Vancouver. We ended up all going out Friday night to an Irish pub, it was a good fun night and it was nice to have some people to talk to after spending the whole day alone.
The next day I was up reasonably early to catch my flight to Dublin. The airport was a serious hike from the hostel - the bus took over an hour getting there. Services at the airport were terrible because I was flying on a budget airline from a tiny airport. The flight crew were Irish which was really bizarre after struggling with foreign languages all year. After arriving in Dublin airport I took a sandwich break and ordering in English felt so so wierd. I caught the bus to my hostel without problems. It was a green double decker :D
I am staying in the Kinlay House which is a giant hostel in a really cool part of the city. I am in a 6 bed dorm with people who arent particularly interesting, but hey, you cant win em all. The hostel has free internet which is incredibly useful. It also has breakfast, tv, dvd player with a massive movie library and a shared kitchen. So there is no shortage of things to do here. Last night I ended up chilling here and watching some movies with the other travellers. Not knowing anyone here it was hard to find people to go out on Saturday night, unfortunately.
Today I had a bit of a wander around the city and got my bearings. I had lunch with Tim (the Canadian I met in Paris) and it was nice to see a familiar face. We had bangers n mash with Guinness (trying to be as Irish as we could) but I thought the Guinness tasted terrible. I'm back at the hostel now for a short break (I might finally get my laundry done) but I'm going out tonight with Tim and Mikaela (who is arriving here this evening from Paris!). We're going to go check out some Irish dancing which I am pretty excited for. No more Guinness for me though.
I had a look into walking tours here and there is a serious lack of good ones. They are all very expensive and area or theme specific, leaving a perfect spot for Sandeman to open up. They'd do well here.
One of the things that strikes me here though is that its even harder for me to meet people, which is counter-intuitive, I thought the English speaking would have made it easy. But in Holland and Germany, the English speakers cling to each other at the hostel and its really easy to find people to chat to. At the hostel here I've met Germans and French and Spaniards, but I don't know where the English speakers have all got to!
That's my travels up to date!
I might post again tomorrow, but if not, until Salzburg!
xoxox Amanda
Toms turn.
Well Amanda tends to sum things up pretty perfectly, so I wont say to much about Brussels, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. I cant say nothing though can I. Brussels was yummy. Best waffles in the world. Though I think waffels where the easiest things to find over there. Any other type of food was crammed together. So we found 8 lobster speciality restaurants within 30 meters of each other. And at least 20 Belgian speciality restaurants on the same narrow street. Was great as they all offered 12 euro 3 course meals to compete and actually faught to get you in. The waiters would stand out front and offer you deals to come in. I was being offered cheep meals with free drinks shop after shop. Felt much like heaven.
Brussels as otherwise much like many other cities. The graffiti everywhere was awesome though. Huge comic strip walls, from Tin Tin, Asterix etc etc, as well as more modern graffiti which was also cool.
Amsterdam is a city like no other. So small, quaint, environmentally friendly (little would have loved it) , business orientated, dangerous (bikes do save the environment, though they also sneak up on you.), tourist filled, non-sleeping, multicultural and fun. I wish it hadnt rained so we could have seen the whole place, though everything we saw on foot was amazing. As maz said, not really a city though. Rotterdam on the other hand was a real city. Huge buildings with wild architecture, people that actually speak dutch and seriously good food with reasonable prices. I believe that Amsterdam is litterally their just for the tourists, to create money. The dutch people working there take the train every day from Rotterdam (which took less time as our train into town from Paris).
The history in Rotterdam is very cool, with a serious juxtaposition of the really old buildings that they rebuilt exactly, and the buildings of the last 50 years. They rebuilt a church in the center of the business district, seriously clashes, but is otherwise cool.
Then we split, maz went north to Hamburg, and I went to Hannover. Stayed the first 2 nights in a really nice hotel. That came witha breakfast buffy. I happened to be the only guest, so this brekky buffet became a breakfast fit for a king, and I couldnt let the food go to waste could I. Sadly it was a bit pricy at the hotel, so I sacrificed the brekky and will stay with different friends for the rest of the week. Last night I stayed with Timo, and we had a small party. Around 10 of us chilling in his room with a very silly PS3 quiz game till around 3am. Was loads of fun, though I didnt get much sleep. Tonight Ill be staying with Janick, which means Dvds and dancing till the wee hours of the morning. Should be great.
Otherwise I have been playing basketball, dancing, ice skating and catching up with everyone.
Cant wait till the 18th when maz comes down. Miss her lots.
Love you all! And miss you!
Tom.
Brussels as otherwise much like many other cities. The graffiti everywhere was awesome though. Huge comic strip walls, from Tin Tin, Asterix etc etc, as well as more modern graffiti which was also cool.
Amsterdam is a city like no other. So small, quaint, environmentally friendly (little would have loved it) , business orientated, dangerous (bikes do save the environment, though they also sneak up on you.), tourist filled, non-sleeping, multicultural and fun. I wish it hadnt rained so we could have seen the whole place, though everything we saw on foot was amazing. As maz said, not really a city though. Rotterdam on the other hand was a real city. Huge buildings with wild architecture, people that actually speak dutch and seriously good food with reasonable prices. I believe that Amsterdam is litterally their just for the tourists, to create money. The dutch people working there take the train every day from Rotterdam (which took less time as our train into town from Paris).
The history in Rotterdam is very cool, with a serious juxtaposition of the really old buildings that they rebuilt exactly, and the buildings of the last 50 years. They rebuilt a church in the center of the business district, seriously clashes, but is otherwise cool.
Then we split, maz went north to Hamburg, and I went to Hannover. Stayed the first 2 nights in a really nice hotel. That came witha breakfast buffy. I happened to be the only guest, so this brekky buffet became a breakfast fit for a king, and I couldnt let the food go to waste could I. Sadly it was a bit pricy at the hotel, so I sacrificed the brekky and will stay with different friends for the rest of the week. Last night I stayed with Timo, and we had a small party. Around 10 of us chilling in his room with a very silly PS3 quiz game till around 3am. Was loads of fun, though I didnt get much sleep. Tonight Ill be staying with Janick, which means Dvds and dancing till the wee hours of the morning. Should be great.
Otherwise I have been playing basketball, dancing, ice skating and catching up with everyone.
Cant wait till the 18th when maz comes down. Miss her lots.
Love you all! And miss you!
Tom.
Friday, 14 November 2008
Rotterdam and Hamburg
Rotterdam was unfortunately a very short stop. We were staying in a really great hostel there. On our first night we went out for a big dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us and it was fantastic. It was called Bazar and served mediterranean/north african food. We shared this giant meaty rice platter. On our one full day there we did a self-guided walk around the city, stopping at the Boijmans van Beuningen museum (conveniently free on Wednesdays) where there was an exhibition of the artist Charley Toorop, who I'd never heard of before we got there but I really enjoyed the art! Rotterdam was a really cool city - because most of it was destroyed in 1940 it didn't feel old and quaint like Amsterdam or Paris. It has a lot of really crazy modern art and architecture and it felt like a really buzzing city. We checked out both the new and old harbours, and there was an amazing park that was full of cool modern art and a big long windy duckpond, which of course I enjoyed. We ended up having a really quiet night back at the hostel, they had a lounge with tv and board games, so we watched a few movies with the other tired travellers. After a quick breakfast with the ducks the next morning we headed to the train station. We split in Hannover where Tom got a train to Barsinghausen and I caught the ICE to Hamburg. My train was delayed 15 minutes, which scared me a lot because trains kept arriving at the platform that weren't mine and they weren't making any announcements about mine. I arrived at my hostel here JUST as the receptionist was leaving so I managed to check in. Phew! My hostel is clean and friendly, but nothing special. The only common room has just a table and chairs in it, they don't offer internet or tv or other services. Except laundry and they charge a whopping 10 euros for it, so I think I'll be going elsewhere. I did have a nice long hot shower this morning though, which I really needed. It´s a disgusting day here so I think I´ll do a self guided city tour on the public transport. My travel guidebook tells you a scenic ferry line to take. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Lübeck which is where my flight leaves from and hopefully when I post again I'll be in Dublin!
Much love always
Amanda
Much love always
Amanda
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Amsterdam
After 4 days in Amsterdam it is time to write a little bit.
I have really mixed feelings about this city. It is really beautiful and quaint, lots of canals and little bridges and lots of ducks and everyone rides bikes. But it also doesn't *feel* like a city. It's hard to imagine people actually living here, which is fair enough because it only has a population of 750 000. To that extent Brussels felt more real, more livable. But Amsterdam is really beautiful and like always I am a bit sad to leave. We were going to rent bicycles today but it rained, AGAIN. grr.
One of the things that really is unique here is the red light district. We had a wander during the daytime and then did a guided tour with a group at night. It really is the only place in the world like it. Prostitution is legal here - they pay tax and have their own union. They pay to rent out windows on the street and then charge men whatever they want to. Even in the daytime there were girls in the windows. The best word I can come up with for it is unique.
We did the walking tour with New Amsterdam (the Dutch branch of the company we worked for in Paris) and it was really odd to be on the receiving end of the 'free' tour. We made friends with the guide Micaela (from New York) who we spent an afternoon with. We also checked out the famous floating flower market on the one sunny day we had here. It was great, although we didn't actually buy anything - our ski instructor's apartment in Kaprun isn't really the place for a garden.
Amsterdam is also a LOT cheaper than Paris. To put that more intelligently: leaving Paris has made me realise how expensive it was. Food here, tram tickets, everything is cheaper which is a pleasant surprise. We also managed to find waffles just around the corner from the hotel which cheered me up cause I was going to miss the great waffles we had in Belgium. While we're on the topic of Belgium, I just want to add my last remarks on Brussels - one thing that I found amazing were the languages. We were in a Flemish part of Belgium but the 'official' language of Brussels is French -that meant that different parts of the city chose which language to use so it was hard to remember which country we were in. It was wierd ordering in French off a menu written in Flemish (which to us just looked like Dutch - loots of douuble vooweels.) One of our highlights in Brussels was going up to the top floor of a giant parking garage in the middle of the city (following the advice of our budget travel guide) to get a fantastic view of the city. A lot of it looked and felt like Paris, but more real at the same time. The cute old buildings were broken up by newer ones and skyscrapers as well - it felt like a realer version of Paris. If that makes any sense at all. It even made Tom use the word 'juxtaposition' in conversation which I was very impressed with.
Hopefully he will write something sometime as this is still technically his blog as well.
Love always
Amanda
I have really mixed feelings about this city. It is really beautiful and quaint, lots of canals and little bridges and lots of ducks and everyone rides bikes. But it also doesn't *feel* like a city. It's hard to imagine people actually living here, which is fair enough because it only has a population of 750 000. To that extent Brussels felt more real, more livable. But Amsterdam is really beautiful and like always I am a bit sad to leave. We were going to rent bicycles today but it rained, AGAIN. grr.
One of the things that really is unique here is the red light district. We had a wander during the daytime and then did a guided tour with a group at night. It really is the only place in the world like it. Prostitution is legal here - they pay tax and have their own union. They pay to rent out windows on the street and then charge men whatever they want to. Even in the daytime there were girls in the windows. The best word I can come up with for it is unique.
We did the walking tour with New Amsterdam (the Dutch branch of the company we worked for in Paris) and it was really odd to be on the receiving end of the 'free' tour. We made friends with the guide Micaela (from New York) who we spent an afternoon with. We also checked out the famous floating flower market on the one sunny day we had here. It was great, although we didn't actually buy anything - our ski instructor's apartment in Kaprun isn't really the place for a garden.
Tom has been trying to learn a little bit of Dutch with hilarious results. He strugggles to pronounce anything correctly, ends up ordering mostly in German and then chucks in a 'oui' or 'merci' or 's'il vous plait' at the end which REALLY confuses them. He also tried to buy banana milk at the supermarket the other day, managed to make the wrong choice between 'melk' and 'vla', and ended up drinking a litre of custard because he wanted to get his money's worth.
Amsterdam is also a LOT cheaper than Paris. To put that more intelligently: leaving Paris has made me realise how expensive it was. Food here, tram tickets, everything is cheaper which is a pleasant surprise. We also managed to find waffles just around the corner from the hotel which cheered me up cause I was going to miss the great waffles we had in Belgium. While we're on the topic of Belgium, I just want to add my last remarks on Brussels - one thing that I found amazing were the languages. We were in a Flemish part of Belgium but the 'official' language of Brussels is French -that meant that different parts of the city chose which language to use so it was hard to remember which country we were in. It was wierd ordering in French off a menu written in Flemish (which to us just looked like Dutch - loots of douuble vooweels.) One of our highlights in Brussels was going up to the top floor of a giant parking garage in the middle of the city (following the advice of our budget travel guide) to get a fantastic view of the city. A lot of it looked and felt like Paris, but more real at the same time. The cute old buildings were broken up by newer ones and skyscrapers as well - it felt like a realer version of Paris. If that makes any sense at all. It even made Tom use the word 'juxtaposition' in conversation which I was very impressed with.
Hopefully he will write something sometime as this is still technically his blog as well.
Love always
Amanda
Monday, 10 November 2008
Photos
Bigger update coming I promise, but just quickly, some photos are up!
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.jane.cohn/NovemberTravels is the link for Brussels and Amsterdam.
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.jane.cohn/Paris for the rest of the Paris photos.
I am safe and sound in an internet cafe in rainy grey Amsterdam. Off to Rotterdam tomorrow!
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.jane.cohn/NovemberTravels is the link for Brussels and Amsterdam.
http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.jane.cohn/Paris for the rest of the Paris photos.
I am safe and sound in an internet cafe in rainy grey Amsterdam. Off to Rotterdam tomorrow!
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Day 1: Brussels
Tom and I finally left Paris yesterday morning. I'll post later about our last week there and our last tours etc...I just wanted to try to keep up with our travels for once. We had breakfast at St Christophers hostel in Paris amongst the celebration about the American election. All of the travellers were pretty pleased. It was a really miserable day yesterday to lug all our stuff through the Metro system to the Gare du Nord. The train ride was surprisingly short and we spent it reading our guides to Brussels. We didn't do anything remarkable yesterday, just wandered around the city. It feels totally different to all the other cities we've visited so far. Parts feel really old and beautiful like Paris, but thats all mixed in with newer stuff, its not quite as neat and tidy. We found what has to be my favourite street in the whole world. It was a tiny little cobbled road with nothing but restaurants on it, and because there is so much competition the advertising is intense. They all lit up brightly, had giant menus outside, and staff members trying to convince us to eat there...Tom literally got stopped several times by people offering us meals or free drinks or special deals. My favourite one was 'It's free for the princess but double the price for you!' hehe. I wanted to go to that one :( There's also a really cool skyscraper here that lights up at night...each window is like a separate pixel that changes colour so they have text and pictures on it at night.
It's a much nicer day today so hopefully we can see some more of the city. We were going to head to Bruges but then decided that would prevent us seeing Brussels properly. We did have waffles last night as we were wandering after dinner - photographic evidence to follow.
Just to keep you guys updated on the travel plans, here they are:
5-7 Brussels
7-11 Amsterdam
11-13 Rotterdam
13-19 Tom in Hannover
13-15 Amanda in Hamburg
15-18 Amanda in Dublin
19-21 Salzburg
21- Kaprun
Will post photos as soon as I can - I'm back to the old story of not being able to connect the camera to internet kiosks.
It's a much nicer day today so hopefully we can see some more of the city. We were going to head to Bruges but then decided that would prevent us seeing Brussels properly. We did have waffles last night as we were wandering after dinner - photographic evidence to follow.
Just to keep you guys updated on the travel plans, here they are:
5-7 Brussels
7-11 Amsterdam
11-13 Rotterdam
13-19 Tom in Hannover
13-15 Amanda in Hamburg
15-18 Amanda in Dublin
19-21 Salzburg
21- Kaprun
Will post photos as soon as I can - I'm back to the old story of not being able to connect the camera to internet kiosks.
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