Easter in Czech Republic

I hope everyone had an excellent Easter weekend! Laura and I spent easter in the Czech Republic. After we left the Derksens in Buren we spent a solid 2 days on several trains going across Germany, through Austria, and into the Czech Republic. Our first stop was Cesky Krumlov. It's another small midieval town with a 13th Century castle. It was quite cold out the day we spent there so we tried to make the best of it by staying indoors as much as possible. We took a tour through the castle (which was even colder inside), checked our emails and drank some warm tea in a Tea House in town. Our hostel here was the first one we've had that has a kitchen, so we were thrilled to pop a pizza in the oven our first night there. Laura and I also discovered an english book store just down the street from our hostel. Since I finished the book I brought along in Austria already I was due for some new reading material. After Cesky Krumlov we stopped in Prague. I have heard so many good things about this city so I was pumped to get there. It was quite overwhelming to arrive at the train station there and be swarmed by crowds of people. But we managed to navigate our way around the station and through the city to our hostel, with very few signs in English to help us. Our hostel was pretty new, it had just opened the week before, which would explain the missing shower door, the blinds without a string to close them, and the bed rail pieces under my matress (which I didn't even notice were there until the second night..haha). It was a good hostel though, it was clean and there were always people buzzing in and out. We had 2 full days to wander through Prague and I think we were able to see all the main sights. Prague has a very recent history iwth communism and we stopped in their communism museum to check it out. It feels like this trip has been one big history lesson so far, I've been learning so many new things and am totally interested in reading further on some of this stuff when I get home. The museum was pretty interesting, they showed video clips of a riot that occurred in Prague in 1989. It occurred in Wenceslas Square where thousands of people gathered to protest the communist government, we happened to walk through this place on our way to the museum. The video showed people getting attacked by the soviet run police for protesting. This is something that has happened in my lifetime, most of the things we've been seeing are hundreds of years old, which makes it all the more interesting to read about. Now, in Wenceslas Square there are huge easter markets set up. They were selling everything from cheesy souveniers, food, paintings, to hand painted easter eggs. It was difficult to resist spending a lot of money here but I was able to limit myself to only a few things. I picked up a Czech patch to add to my collection, a small painting of the Charles Bridge in Prague, and a pair of earings & a ring that had an amber stone in them. The Czech Republic doesn't use the Euro so we were using Koruny's ( I don't think that's spelt right) and the exachange in something wierd like 18 korunys to 1 cdn dollar. So it was tricky to know exactly how much I was spending, since my mental math is not so great! Either way things were a bit cheaper out here. They had a stage set up where Laura and I stopped to watch a group of kids dressed in traditional clothes singing and dancing. It was quite cute. We went on to the Old Town Hall to check out the Astonomical Clock. Tourists pack this area full every hour on the hour to watch the apostles float past the 2 little openings above the clock. This clock records three different kinds of time, Old Bohemian time, time as we know it today and so called Babylonian time. Thie clock also shows the movement of the sun & moon through the 12 signs of the zodiak, it's a very complex clock! just down the road, and past a few more Easter market shops we walked up to the Charles Bridge. At any given time during the day this bridge is packed with tourists, artists drawing caricatures, vendors selling art and other souveniers, and musicians playing music. The bridge was built in 1357 so it's extremely old. Prague also has a castle that we climbed up a steep hill to see. We didn't go inside the castle itself but it hada really nice Cathedral in the middle of its courtyard. The whole place was really crowded with tour groups so we didn't linger there for too long. Next we walked up Nerudova Street. This street was interesting because before people used numbers to distinguish houses they had signs above the doors. There were things like a Swan, 3 Fiddles, two Suns, and a Shoe for the shoe makers house. Laura and I also found this building called the Ginger & Fred building. I'm not sure why it's called this but it was neat because it was had a different look to it. I'll let the picture show you what I mean. It was designed by a Fred Gahry. Overall Laura and I enjoyed Prague a lot, there was a lot of cool things to see but I think after a few days it's nice to get away from all the crowds of tourists ! After Prague we move up to Crakow, Poland !

Long Lost Relatives !

We arrived in Frankfurt to meet up with our second cousin Olga for a few days when for some reason we couldn't get her cell number to work. So, with no way of communicating with her besides with emails Laura and I stayed in a hostel our first night in Frankfurt. Apparently there was a Music Festival going on in the city so most of the accomodations were pretty much full. We lucked out and got 2 beds in a hostel just accross the street from the train station. Olga had tracked us down in our hostel and we were finally able to touch base with her. We met her the next day at the train station as she had to go to school and she directed us to her flat. It was so nice to be able to settle in someone's house for a bit. It was a nice change from being at a hostel. We settled at her place for a bit caught up on some emails, did some laundry, and met Olga downdown later that day. The last time I had seen Olga was about 5 years ago when she had come to Winnipeg for the summer, so there was much to catch up on! Olga took us to the University where she attends and we grabbed some lunch, we wandered the downtown streets for a bit, checked out a really old church, and of course stopped for some Ice Cream ! We went to this cafe that has a full menu on all the different types of ice creams you could get. They had some really fancy items there, I'd never seen anything like it! We also went to a Film History Museum that was pretty interesting. It displayed some of the first cameras used, they had a set set up that you could check out, and they had an interesting display of costumes and stage makeup ! That evening Olga took us to her Bible Study group that she attends every week. It was just a small group but it was nice to meet some of the people that Olga knows and hangs out with here in Frankfurt. Laura and I finally sent home a box home with stuff that we've picked up along the way and didn't need. Wow, that helped a lot and cleared up some space in my bag! Our visit with Olga was really fun and our next stop was in Buren to visit the Derksens, also second cousins of ours. There's our Uncle Johann and Tante Sara and they have 5 kids Victor, Peter, Klara, Willy and Daniel. They were all able to join us and spend some time with us over the weekend! They are such a friendly family it was hard not to feel at home there. Johan took Laura, Klara and myself to this Castle that is not too far from their house. Apparently Hitler wanted to make this castle the centre of his empire, as it's the centre of Germany. There is some really amazing history just in their backyard! After that we stopped at Klara's apartment not too far from Buren, did some shopping, stopped for some coffees and that evening we watched Deutschlands Super Star!! On Sunday we went to church with them. It was nice because we haven't been to church this whole trip so far and with Easter coming up it was nice to be there. We stopped in to meet Johann's mother (who was married to my Opa Derksens brother) and she was quick to tell Laura and I how much Laura looks like a Derksen and that I look more like my moms side! The Derksens in Buren didn't speak any english either so my german got a good workout for the weekend. It's tricky when I have so many things I want to say but can only say half of it because translating it is kinda difficult, but I made the best of it. Overall, we had a great visit with our relatives in Germany and it was probably one of the highlights for me. Our next stop will be in Czech Repulic to see Cesky Krumlov and Prague! So until then, Take Care in Winnipeg !

Deutschland!

Wow is it nice to be in Germany! The scenery is beautiful, the trains are on time, and most importantly I understand the language! We took the train from Milan to Augsburg and passed through Switzerland. It was cool because it was almost as if we were in sunny Italy one minute and we passed through a tunnel and on the other side were snowy mountains. It was so pretty. Our first stop here was to see Schoß Neuschwanstein. There was another castle there called Schwanau that we toured through as well. What a perfect place to have a castle, right on top of a hill with the niew of the valley and a beautiful lake below. Ahhh to have been Germany royalty back then and live in such great places! The Schwanau castle was used until 1912 so it was fitted with electricity already. After our tour of the first castle we stopped to have some Frankfurters and salad on the patio outside! It was a gorgeous day to be outside. The hike up to Neuschwanstein was about 30 minutes uphill, so we were definately getting a workout today! That castle was really interesting to see. Apparently the castle itself was designed by a stage designer instead of an architect, which I thought was kind of interesting. King Ludwig II had dedicated the castle to the works of Richard Wagner. He had parts of Wagners operas painted on the walls in some of the rooms, he had a Singers Hall built so that Wagner's pieces could be performed. He even had a hall built that looked like a cave to resemble a piece of Wagners Operas. It was really quite interesting to see it! After Neuschwanstein we took the train to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. It's a little town that still has an old medevil city still fully intact. All the buildings looked that same as they would have back in the day from the outside but on the inside they had all been modernized. It was such a cute little town, but very touristy. Something that was great about this town was that there was a bakery around every corner you'd pass. It smelled amazing in each one, and they had such great displays in their front windows. It was tough passing by a bakery and not going in them to load up on pastries! We stopped in the Crime Museum they had in the town, it was all about Mideval laws, punishments and they also had the torture tools they used to get confessions from people as well as for punishments. It was really cool to check that out and see how strict their laws on behaviour was. An example is if someone missed attending church one Sunday they had to stand on a Pillary, in the middle of town, with a huge rosary necklace around their neck for a certain period of time so that people ridicule and mock them. They would notice that you weren't in church because everyone had an assigned seat and if you were not there it would be pretty obvious. We wandered around the town for the rest of the day. They had an excellent little Christmas store in town as well that was full of Christmas decorations and ornaments that were all made in Germany! From Rothenberg ob dem Tauber we are on our way to Frankfurt to meet up with my cousin Olga! It's been almost 5 years since we've seen her last so it'll be nice to visit with her again, and hopefully I'll get to shape up on my German a bit.

Hope everyone is doing great back home ! Take Care :o)

Pompeii, Pisa, and Milan

Wow, I have some catching up to do here. Pompeii was an excellent stop on our tour of Italy! I´m so glad we did it. The town itself is really nice and just a few minutes from our hostel was a really beautiful Church, where it seemed a lot of young people were hanging out. We spent a solid 5 hours visiting the Pompeii ruins ! That place is huge, and there was so much to see. We were able to see a part of history that was so neatly preserved by volcanic ash and lava. It froze a moment in time when it erupted. They had mad casts of a few bodies that were in the buried rocks as they were when they had died. It definately made things a bit more real that´s for sure. The narrow cobblestone streets even had little grooves in them from the carts that were wheeled down them so long ago. It was an excellent stop and all day was just enough to see everything! Our second night in Pompeii we had met a German girl who was staying in our dorm room, she was travelling on her own for a week just to get away for a bit. We spent an evening outside visiting with her, an Aussie fellow, and an American ! It was really fun to share stories of our travels and experiences so far! From Pompeii we spent a solid day on the train towards Pisa. Our hostel in Pisa was a bit of a challenge to find but a short hour and a half later Laura and I had figured out which bus to catch to get to our hotel ! Pisa was a nice town as well, but unfortunately the 2 days we were there it was cold and rainy. Kinda miserable weather to go outside and see the leaning tower, but we went out anyways. We didn´t make it to the top of the tower but we got a few pics and head inside to a much warmer musuem ! Further on to our Pisa experience, Laura and I wanted to get some laundry done at our hotel so we paid the few Euros and put our stuff in the machine. I guess the machines in Italy are a bit different, because when it was done our clothes were still soaking wet ! So we paid a few more Euros to use the dryer and 2 hours later our clothes still weren´t dry. We had things hanging in our room overnight even and our things were still damp in the morning. So an unpleasant experience of packing damp clothes later I think we´ve learned our lesson! The train ride from Pisa to Milan was about 4 hours, and the scenery we passed along the way was amazing! We were going right along the coast so we had a nice view of the beaches! Definately a spot I´ve noted for future vacations to Italy. Laura and I had made sure to pay extra attention to directions to our place in Milan, so we were able to find the place with no problem! We were greeted to Milan at the train station by a huge Dolce & Gabbana ad on the wall which included some very nice 6 packs ;o) We´re off to a good start! Our mission in Milan was to see all the main shopping spots and maye buy a few things as well! We managed to walk on Via Napoleane where all the high end shops (places I can only ever dream of shopping in) such as Versace, Ralph Lauren, Dior, Prada, Armani... and the list goes on. We saw a sweet Lamborghini parked on this street, it was an ugly neon green colour but a nice looking car to the say the least! So after aday of looking at $2,000 purses we made our way to the slightly more affordable shops just a few blocks away. We made a final stop at a Gelati place, who knows when we´ll find more of that good stuff! So of course we took a very cheezy pic of ourselves with our Gelati´s, mmmm. Milan was our last stop in Italy, next it´s up to Germany for us!

Buonjourno !

On our last day in the Alps Laura and I picked up a few souveniers and planned our trek through Italy. We ventured out for dinner to a cute restaurant called the Kasser-Mandl where the servers wore Lederhosen ! The Schnitzel there was excellent! Laura & I were sad to be leaving the Mountains, ecspecially when it was snowing huge flakes the morning we were leaving. It was actually really pretty! Our first stop in Italy was Bolzano. The train ride there was awesome, we were cruisin right through the mountains so the view was awesome. Grape vines filled the country side. Bolzano was a really nice place, but we came to see one thing, The Ice Man. Laura had discovered this in one of the books she was reading and made sure that we stopped in to check it out. It was really quite interesting. Two mountain hikers had discovered the torso of a frozen man sticking out of the ice while on a hike through the moutains. As it wasn't uncommon to discover lost hikers who didn't make it frozen in the ice, the two hikers thought nothing of it. Although, upon closer inspection the body they found was actually 5300 years old. They kept the body in a temperature controlled room with a viewing window so we could see him. Kinda gross looking but interesting that he's so old ! The discovery of this ice man and the items found around him helped archeologists learn more about the people who lived at that time. So after a few hours in the museum we head out for our first Italian Pizza ! From Bolzano we head out to Verona. In Verona we met up with a German girl, Maline, who was travelling alone and wandered the streets of Veronal. We saw the balcony of Juliette and her tomb, Verona also still has a really old Arena that is still in use for Opera's ! There were 2 men outside the arena dressed in cheezy Roman soldiers outfits, we thought it'd be fun to get a picture with them until they wanted either some money or a kiss for the picture ! We skipped the picture and continued on our way. We stopped for some Pizza, again, for dinner. It was nice that we were able to spend the day with Maline. She was a really cool girl who's only 22 and already has done so much travelling. She's taking a business degree in Germany and is doing an internship at Addidas which is pretty impressive. From Verona we head to Venice ! Venice was great, and the temps were warm ! It was nice to be able to walk around without a sweater on. There wasn't a single car in Venice, you either had to walk everywhere or take a water bus. We pretty much walked everywhere we need to get to from our hostel. We saw the Rialto bridge, St.Marks square and Doge's palace. St.Marks square was filled with Pigeons, I'm suprised we made it through there without getting pooped on ! Phew... There were tons of tourists there, it's wierd to hear other people speaking english. I'm used to not understanding what everyone around me is saying that when I hear english it catches my attention. We had to stop for some gelati along the way as well ! mmm, it's so good here. The gelati places have really fancy displays for their flavours, it's quite impressive. We took a water bus from St. Marks square back to our hostel, it was a great view from the canal ! A lot of the buildings look dull from the outside b ut once the doors are opened there are elegant restaurants and hotels inside. It was interesting, all the streets are so narrow that people just dissappear into another alley infront of you. Laura and I enjoy a nice fire roasted pizza along the canal one evening ! After Venice we stopped in Rome ! Rome is a huge city and we had a bit of an experience trying to find our hostel, which was supposed to only be a block away from the train station. There was no sign for the hostel, and the address we found was a Chinese restaurant. It turns out the hostel was above the restaurant, and the Asian lady in charge didn't speak english. We pulled out our Phrase book and attempted some Italian but it seemed she didn't speak Italian either. We were finally able to communicate to her what we wanted and settled in for the night. Our first day we took a tour of the Colleseum and the ancient Roman forum. Wow, although there wasn't much left to see in the Colleseum it's still amazing to imagine what happened there so long ago ! We stopped at a few other sites, Palatine Hill, Trevi Fountain (which was packed with people but really nice), and the Spanish steps. We've been really lucky with the weather, it's been clear sunny days ! The next day in Rome we spent at the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. The line just to get in was huge, we waited over an hour! The museum was packed with people so it was hard to really look at everything closely but the main thing we wanted to see was the Sistine chapel ! It was pretty cool to see something in real life that I've only ever just heard about. On our way back to the hostel that night Laura and I stopped in at a blockbuster. I can now say I am the offical owner of a blockbuster membership in Rome ! We rented the Gladiator... how suitable ! Anyways, we continue our tour of Rome to Pompeii next which should be an interesting stop.
Take care !

Ciao !

Life is good in the Austrian Alps !

So on our last day in Paris I had taken Erika's advice and Laura and I went to the Crepe stand by the Louvre. Wow, that was an amazing crepe! Thanks for the tip Erika.

After a long wait in a cold train station, an 11 hour overnight train ride (which I got barely any sleep on) and a few train rides we finally made it to our next destination, The Austrian Alps! We caught a cab from the train station to where were staying, and totally overpaid, but we were in no mood to figure out the bus system. We settled into our little apartment and pretty much passed out right after dinner. Our place here is really nice, we've got a little kitchen, our own bathroom, we definately lucked out with this place. After a solid nights rest we were ready to explore the area we arrived in, and to soak up the mountain views ! I love being in the mountains and the fresh air, being here reminds me a lot of our trips out to the Rockies. At the end of our first day here we picked up our rental gear for snowboarding. Laura was skiing and I was boarding. Unfortunately, much to my dissappointment the neon pink one piece snow suit was no longer available! lol, I think I saw someone else sporting one on the mountain though ! haha, The gear we got was actually pretty good. They definately have better rentals up here than you'd find at Holiday Mountain. There isn't much snow left in the town we're staying in so we had to go up a gondola first and keep going higher on chairlifts to get to where there was good snow. I was just so pumped to be snowboarding in the Alps I wasn't much too concerned about the conditions. But conditions were as to be expected in the first week of March. All 3 days we were out on the Mtn the sky was clear and the sun was warm, so the snow was pretty sticky at most parts. But that didn't stop us from going out ! We had 3 gondolas to choose from to try different parts of the area and we went up each one. The Hintertux Gondola was the highest one and the busiest, there were so many people up there (mostly skiers too, not many people snowboarding) and not one person spoke english, that we heard anyways. this Gondola took us up to a point where we caught 2 more gondolas to reach 3250 m above sea level. It was really windy up there and you could hardly see a thing, partly because we were literally in the clouds and all the snow was blowing around. We were way above the treeline too so all the runs were open and exposed, there was no way Laura and I were going to ski down from the top of this gondola. We went up for the Photo Op and that was it. A little lower down, where we were actually skiing we stopped in an Alpine Hütte for a hot chocolate. I think that was the best hot chocolate I've ever had, although food has a way of tasting better in the Mountains. We've definately been getting our exercise out here, aside from snowboarding we've got a bit of a hill to climb to get to where we are staying. It's far enough up that we've decided it warrants a break half way up. We only spent 3 days boarding because lift tickets were pretty pricey to do any more than that. Of course today we're not skiing and it's snowing outside ! Everything is snowcovered again, but it's a wet snow so it'll probably melt in the next day or two. It's so beautiful to see everything up here with fresh snow on it.

So at the end of it all, having now snowboarded in the Austrian Alps, I think I'm going to have to stay true to my Canadian roots and say that I enjoy riding in the Rockies better. Not that it hasn't been amazing up here, too bad the conditions weren't the greatest, but in terms of the snowboarding experience I enjoy the Rockies ! Either way though you can't lose by being in the mountains. We've gotten some great pics out here ! We're another day and then we're off to a bit warmer Italy!

I hope everyone is doing great in Winnipeg ! And if you want to check out Laura's blog to fill in some details that I may have missed it's : www.europebylaura.blogspot.com.

Take Care :o)

Je ne parle pas Francais !

I honestly think I've done more walking in the past 3 days than I have in the entire last year. We've been walking pretty much everywhere here. The Metro has been really easy to get around on, it actually reminds me a lot of the trains in Sydney ! We've seen sooo much in the last couple of days I don't know where to begin. Unfortunately we haven't had a proper connection to upload our pics yet.. those are yet to come ! We've seen all the major stops that one would see in Paris. The Eiffel Tower was first, it looks just like I've seen it in the movies! It's pretty cool to see it up close and in real life. We took the elevator all the way to the top, it was kinda gloomy out that day so the view wasn't optimal but it still was pretty cool to be up there. We stayed a bit later tonight and saw the Tower lit up in the evening, it was pretty nice. We spent most of yesterday at the Louvre. Wow that place is huge ! I had no idea, we got lost a few times in the museum but we saw a lot of really interesting art pieces and sculptures. It was pretty rainy yesterday so we didn't get a chance to stop at the Crepe shop that's just near by. Although I definately want to stop for one before we leave, they look too good to resist. We've just been wandering around and finding things as we pass by. That's how we stumbled upon this really great restaurant tucked away in a tiny little street. It was delicious ! We also saw the Notre Dame. The architecture of that place is amazing, and the stained glass windows inside are spectacular. I could spend hours just looking at all the detail on the walls and windows. So far we haven't had any major issues with line ups which is great, I don't have much patience for that kind of thing. Laura and I have found our new favorite dessert, Pain du Chocolat ! mmmmm, it's pretty much a croissant with chocolate inside. It's got chocolate, you really can't go wrong with that. We spent most of today in Versailles ! That place is huge and elaborate. It'd be a lot better to see it in the summer when the gardens are all blooming but we got a good sense of what the place would like. They were doing some renovations to the palace so we didn't get to see the whole Wall of Mirrors, which is supposed to be really pretty. I am becoming painfully aware at how terrible my french has become. I did take the language up until grade 9, but i guess it has been a few years and I've lost most of what I learned. I tried ordering something at a cafe and I just got a blank stare, maybe she didn't hear me, so I tried again, she still seemed kind of confused. It turns out the girl at the counter speaks english and I spent the last few minutes embarassing myself. Haha, at least I tried right?
Our luggage did show up at our hostel yesterday morning, which is a huge relief because I don't know how long I could've gone without my things !
Anyways tomorrow is our last day in Paris and from here we move on to Austria to do some snowboaring in the Alps ! I can't wait !
Have a good one ;o)