This will likely be my 2nd or 3rd to last post.  I’m working on a very long post to summarize my 10 amazing days in Chania.  I have a ways to go, followed by some fact checking, so it might be a couple days or longer before that one is posted.  My trip home was a bit strenuous, especially when factored in with the emotions that accompanied the journey.  Last Tuesday I boarded a bus from Chania to Heraklion, an amazing 3 hour bus ride along the northern shore of Crete, at sunset no less.  I had an interesting time at the passport gate in Heraklion.  As I might have mentioned, the only stamp on my passport was for departing London almost a full month before.  I was a little disappointed that my passport wasn’t filled with accounts of my entrance and departures to the 9 nations I visited.  Aside from the nostalgia, having those stamps would’ve helped with the conversation with the passport agent.  It was about a 20 minute conversation of “where were you before that?  and before that?  and before that?” to trace back through.  The problem was the Swiss were supposed to stamp my passport and didn’t.  Fortunately the agent was ok with that omission and let me go on.

I landed back in London at 1am realizing that I didn’t put much consideration into finding where I’d sleep that night.  I had so many offers at my leaving party a month before, but had so many other plans to worry about that I didn’t make concrete plans.  Given that I was there at 1am on a weeknight, I opted not to bother anyone and curled up in a corner of the terminal and fell asleep.  At about 3:15am, I got a text from James, who lives up in West Hampstead and said I’d be welcome to crash there.  Fortunately there was a 3:30 train that got me a couple blocks from his flat at about 4:30am.

I had a full day in London before departing the next morning.  I stopped by the office to have lunch with my friends, then made the trip out to Loftus Road Stadium to pick up some gifts for friends and family.  That evening I had one last evening in the Ship.  The next morning I picked up my bags from the basement of the office and jumped in a cab.  There was no way I’d be able to lug all my bags onto the train and make the changeover.  It was interesting to thing, though, that this marked the second time I took a cab in London.  The first being the day I arrived.  It’s definitely a testament to how incredible the public transport is, that I was there for 6 months, without a car, and never took a cab.  I enjoyed the car-less lifestyle so much that I’ve been contemplating trying the same here.  It certainly won’t be as easy but isn’t impossible either.

Arriving back in the States, after being away for nearly 7 months was very interesting.  My dad was waiting at the airport and we made the drive down the Kennedy to my flat in Wrigleyville.  There were plenty of differences immediately noticeable, and the concept of “reverse culture shock” existed.  There is a lot that I was very excited to come home to, but a lot that I was sad to be leaving behind in London.  Being able to see my family soon after landing was great, even though by the time I got home I was battling jet lag pretty bad and felt sick.  That evening, as I fought to stay awake until a reasonable hour, I was reminded of one of my favorite aspects of my flat, hearing the roaring Wrigley crowd while watching the game on a 5 second delay on tv.  It cuts out the element of surprise, especially when Aramis Ramirez hit an 8th inning grand slam to give the Cubs the lead, but it still makes watching the game fun.

I hijacked my folks’ dog, Billy, for my first few days back.  Since I was wide awake at 5am my first morning back, we decided to take a walk down to the lake.  It was a great reminder of how incredibly beautiful a city Chicago is.  Watching from Belmont Harbor as the sun rose over Lake Michigan and illuminated the skyline rivaled any of the amazing sights I’ve seen in the past 7 months.  I initially planned to detail the rest of my feelings on leaving London and returning to Chicago, but I’m going to take a pass on broadcasting that and save it for the personal conversations I have with friends and family in the coming days, weeks, and months.

I have a bit of work to do to push out pictures from northern Italy and Greece.  I’m also hoping to work on compiling some best of folders so that those who want a quicker recap of a city or the entire trip, can get that.

Today I start my two part journey home.  At about 5:30pm Greek time (9:30am Chicago), I’ll get on a bus from Chania to Heraklion to catch a 10pm flight to London.  I get into London about 1am, will find a place to crash, then will spend tomorrow in London to catch up with everyone there before flying back at noon on Thursday.  A friend used a good term to summarize my return home, reverse culture shock.  Being away from something so familiar for so long will make it interesting to return to, especially since I’ve gone almost 4 weeks without even being in a country where English is the first language.  The next couple days will be interesting.

Chania has been nothing short of phenomenal.  I hope to work up a very detailed write up during the 13+ hours I’ll have on planes in the next 60 hours.  I haven’t been able to load pictures for a while, but I hope to have those out by this weekend.  I look forward to catching up with everyone when I get home.

Phil

I have a connection today for the first time since Milan, but not too much time to type since its just at a little internet cafe in our hotel.  I have been in Chania the past couple of days and it is as amazing as it was when I was here a couple weeks ago.  The weather usually hits close to 100 degrees each day, but there’s always a nice breeze to make it comfortable.  The average day so far has included a trip to one of the many beaches here, then a walk around Old Town, followed by a late dinner and a couple drinks at an outdoor bar.  Unfortunately since I can’t connect from my laptop, I likely won’t be able to push the remaining Venice, Verona, Milan, and Chania pictures out for quite a while.

Thanks to the many notes I have already received for my birthday.  I won’t have time to respond to them today, but will try over the next day or two.  We spent the day at the beach and tonight will be going out to a nice traditional Cretan dinner, then to a couple of the clubs.  Tomorrow I think we’re going to drive down to South Crete to check out the mountains out there, then Thursday we’ll be going to see some ancient ruins.  Friday is the wedding reception, then I have a couple more days before starting my two part journey back home.

Here’s the site for our hotel where we are staying.  The main scolling pictures are our view, top (3rd floor) overlooking the harbor.  It’s pretty amazing http://www.thehotel.gr/lucia-hotel

Take care,

Phil

As some of you know, for some reason when I wake up I’m always very disoriented and need a good couple of minutes to figure out where I am, what day it is and what I need to do. I don’t think I had ever been more confused than when I woke up at about 4:30am yesterday. I sat up, looked around for a light and was really struggling. I finally found some window shades and opened them to look out onto an empty farm. I was very confused and concerned at this point.

The fact that the train was stopped made it more confusing. If it was moving along, then I would’ve at least been able to deduce that I was on a train. After a couple minutes, I finally figured out where I was. Waking up in a different bed or couch, in a different city, in a different country, every day, definitely plays some fun games with me and trying to figure out where the heck I am.

Anyway, when I added Venice to my itinerary, many warned that it would be very hot and full of tourist. No problem, I figured, I’d just get there super early and see the city before the tourists wake up. Aiding the plan was that I found a hostel on a separate island, San Erasmo. I hit the city at 6am and it was nearly a ghost town, even though in 4 short hours, it would be jam packed. This was perfect for walking around the entire island and exploring such an incredible, unique place.

As I’m sure many of you know, Venice is a city without paved roads or motorized vehicles. The only two forms of travel throughout the city is by boat or foot. Since I was there so early, I was able to see how the shipments are just that, brought by ship. Boats filled with food, drinks, and whatever else needed, were navigating the canals and restocking the various restaurants. By about 10am I visited the naval museum since I had learned about how powerful the Venetian navy was a couple hundred years ago.

When I left the museum, it was almost 11am and the city was absolutely packed with tourists. It was sweltering hot and maneuvering around the packs was getting to be too annoying. Since its high tourist season, there are many travel groups. I’ve overheard the leaders of the groups warn the people to stay in a tight knit pack and not let anyone in, as its common to have pickpocketers around some of the major tourist attractions. The leader is often holding a big colorful umbrella or a simple hankerchief on a stick, so that people can follow. These inpenetrable packs of 40-50 people make navigating even tougher.

So I stopped by the train station and collected my bags to head off to the port and catch a boat to the hostel. One thing that is really handy for travelling is being able to use lockers at the train stations. Since I’m in places for a short period of time, I can usually leave my big backpack behind and throw a couple of things in my man-bag for easy travelling. That has been extremely helpful.

Venice’s public transportation is, of course, boats. They circle the island and also go down the main canal that splits the island. The travel card covered the boats to the other islands too, so I made my way to San Erasmo. At this point, I was getting battered in my attempted battle, sunblockless against the Venetian sun. So it was good to get to the cover of the hostel, which was just a big country house. San Erasmo is a very slow paced and much less crowded island, just a 20 minute boat ride from Venice. The hostel is simply a big house with many bedrooms. It had a huge porch, which was perfect for relaxing during the afternoon. There were families, couples and individual travellers alike.

The hostel also had free bikes to use to tour the island, so I figured it would be ridiculous to pass up that great benefit. The problem was that the bikes were pink women’s bikes, but that wasn’t going to stop me. I’m sure the locals enjoyed, or were scared of, the sight of a bright white skinned, topless American guy cruising the island in his lady Schwinn. And I enjoyed it just as much. Of course, I didn’t take into account that I knew nothing about the island or its roads and aimlessly wandered. After about 2 hours I started to regret not paying attention to where I was going as I was thoroughly lost. However, like any times that I find myself lost, like a man, I figure that the most practical way to get out of my predicament is to continually wander rather than ask directions.

For once, that planned work as I stumbled on the hostel. That evening, they served an incredible 4 course dinner, for a bargain price. I met a Canadien couple, Vince and Marylou, and Carissa from California. After dinner, we decided to head back to the Venice, only to have a huge storm break out when we were on the boat. Fortunately it only lasted about a half hour and scared off the crowds, making the island a little more comfortable. After a couple hours of wandering, we realized that the phone number we needed to call to book a boat back wasn’t working and we had to catch the last public boat. The problem is that it was leaving in 15 minutes and we were nowhere near the station. So the four of us, in dress clothes, on a hot Venetian night, sprinted through the city and luckily got to our boat about 5 seconds before it departed.

I really enjoyed Venice, it is phenomenally beautiful and surreal to walk around given how unique it is. Obviously it’s much more suited for couples, girls and their moms, or old people, not quite the number one destination for someone like me, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

Right now I’m on my way to Milan, but upon a friend’s recommendation I’m going to stop off in Verona, which is conveniently on the same train line. This evening I’ll get into Milan and am staying at a hostel right by the train station. The ride out to the airport is a bit of a jaunt and I want to get there well before the flight time after missing my last flight to Greece weeks ago.

I land in Athens at about 2:30pm and have about 7 hours to burn before getting to Piraeus, the port city outside of Athens, to take my boat down to Chania. I’m really feeling quite fine about my intense travel schedule. As I’ve said, I find the trains incredibly relaxing and a nice way to experience the many countries I’ve been through. Admittedly, it’ll be nice to settle into Chania for the next 10 days, but I’m not feeling nearly as worn out as I thought I might.

Phil

The train from Munich down to Venice is an absolute blast. There are about 24 cars on the train, and throughout the journey we’ll be dropping off cars here and there, some at cities, some at junctions to head another way.

I just took a walk from one end of the train to another and it took about 45 minutes, mainly because I stopped off at two mini parties to meet a group of Aussies and a group of Germans starting their holiday. While I probably should’ve gone to bed at a reasonable hour to be refreshed for Venice, the atmosphere here is too much fun to just lock myself in my cabin.

To back track a little bit, the trains in Germany were unique and cool. The 4 hour journey from Dresden to Nuremburg was really cool because you can actually sit in the front car and watch the journey from over the shoulder of the conductor. It was a cool vantage point that made the journey extra cool. The train from Nuremberg to Munich is an absolute bullet, reaching 300 km per hour/186 mph. The Eurostar and TGV Elyria got near those speeds but were not as smooth as the ICE German train. The weis bier I picked up from the cafe car could sit on my table and you’d barely see a ripple in the water. I’d always heard a bit about the high quality of German engineering and this was a great way to experience it.

Munich far exceeded my expectations. I had heard some mixed reviews on the city, so I was lukewarm on what to expect. The perpetual rain that accompanied me throughout the 8 hours of train rides through Germany had me less than optimistic about the experience. I arrived in the evening and grabbed dinner with a friend. We went to one of the most traditional restaurants in the city and I enjoyed some delicious weinerschnitzel. The combination of the early wake up call in Prague, the long day of travelling, and the beginning of an evening of showers, had me a bit worn out when nightfall hit.

Unfortunately the next morning was a reflection of the weather from the night before, so I was worried Munich wouldn’t even get a fair chance. I tried to ignore the light showers and start seeing the sights. At 11:15, it came time to make a decision, whether to go on a bike tour or not. Mike’s Bike Tour is actually pretty popular in both Munich and Amsterdam. Many of my friends who have experienced it were big fans. So despite the gloomy skies, I decided to set off and hope it was worth the 24 euro pricetag. In most cities, I’ve tried to avoid the offers that feel like a tourist trap. Every city has their double decker tour buses with a guy with a megaphone talking about the city. However, most cities also have unique experiences, you just have to find them.

The bike tour was to be a 4 hour journey. Dave, our tour leader had just moved to Munich from the States after one of his college teammates talked him into testing the German baseball leagues. Dave had a strong passion for the city and the opportunity he had to play ball and lead bike tours and make a living out of it. His excitement over showing off the city really made the tour. We had a group of about 15, mostly Americans and Canadiens and all of them were great to meet and get to know throughout the tour. We made our way through the historical sights, usually biking for 10 minutes, then stopping for 15 to be told about the significance of the monuments and buildings we were seeing.

The highlight was a simple monument, in tribute to a small group of students and a professor that started an informational campaign to expose the Nazis. Some of you may know this story already, but I’ll go through it anyways. They would secretly distribute leaflets throughout campus, which was reminiscent of what I read in Freakonomics about how anti-KKK people would use the most powerful weapon against the group, information. This had the Nazis infuriated as the public was starting to learn how evil they were. One day, though, the group made a fatal mistake. They decided to put leaflets outside of every dorm room so students would wake up and learn more about the Nazis. The problem was that a janitor spotted them, and realizing that they appeared after the dorm was locked down, that the people distributing them must’ve been in the building.

The dorm was locked down and the gestapo showed up to go room to room and find out who was doing this. The pack of about 5 students and the professor all huddled in a room to talk about what to do. The professor told the students he’d take all the blame, since the students were young and had their lives ahead of them. The students refused though. As the students were led out, the professor went to a balcony with a stack of pamphlets and in dramatic fashion flung them over the hundreds of students who were watching the seige. After 4 days of intense interrogation and torture, the students and professor were killed by public beheading.

The city of Munich is full of tributes to the brave souls. Streets and parks are named after each individual. The central monument is simple but effective, it’s a 4 foot high black cube with the inscription of one of the letters they passed around. In tribute, people walk by the cube and place a stone on top. Every two weeks, the stones are removed and the stack is started all over again. It was a really fascinating story to hear told. There’s a movie about it that I plan to watch. I don’t know the name off hand.

It is very interesting to see how much Munich, the place where Hitler started his path to power, is ashamed of their path and has done and said many things to show that they’ll never let it happen again. The Parliament which was leveled during the war, except for the middle section, was rebuilt in all glass to signify a transparent government with no secrets, a novel concept. The German government often ranks very highly in the independent studies on transparency in government.

The tour gave a nice framework for afternoon hiking. The Bavarian lifestyle is quite fun to learn about. The city is full of beer gardens and other outdoor sitting. The second biggest beer garden in the world is where I spent part of my afternoon. A mere 8,000 person capacity with many long picnic tables makes for an outstanding atmosphere. The biggest beer garden in the world is a couple of kilometers away, but a bit out of the way. It fits 15,000 people. Eventually I wandered my way to the train station to take the overnight to Venice.

Phil

* Sorry I had to go rapid fire, I haven’t had an internet connection for a couple days, so the reviews of Budapest, Vienna, and Prague are all below*

I was a bit worried when the Rail Europe rep suggested that an 11 minute changeover was enough between trains. My train from Vienna to Prague yesterday arrived about 30 minutes late, and it’s that same route I picked up to go on from Prague to Dresden. If a 30 minute delay was standard for that route, than an 11 minute changeover was far less than likely to be enough time. When I got to the train station in Prague, they were already reporting that the train from Vienna was 10 minutes behind, leaving me a whopping 60 seconds to change trains. By halfway through the trip from Prague to Dresden, they were calling it 15 minutes. I didn’t know how frequently the Dresden to Nuremberg train ran, but given I got the right one, I had 45 minutes in Nuremberg. It’s a 4 hour trip from Dresden to Nuremberg, so chances are that it’s a route that only goes every couple of hours.

If I miss that connection, then I’m staying in Dresden or Nuremberg for the evening. I wouldn’t have been too fussed because both are meant to be great places, but I was really looking forward to Munich and already have a friend of mine meeting me at the train station. Therefore, making the connection was ideal, but looking grim.

Worse yet, despite the two hour trip, border patrol (since we crossed from the Czech Republic to Germany) entered our car about 10 minutes before we were to arrive in Dresden. As the car was slowing into the Dresden station, one of the guys sat next to me and started quizzing me. Now I was warned well in advance that the Germans were by far the tightest when it came to border control. The trouble here was that this guy barely spoke a word of English and had a full page questionnaire to go through with me. I could see the station on the horizon and we were arriving a little ahead of the delayed schedule, meaning I would have my precious 60 seconds change time back. However, the last thing I was going to do was tick off a German border patrol agent by rushing him.

I patiently went through each question and tried the little bit of German I had picked up to aide him with our huge communication divide. On top of everything, I’m very far from an ordinary traveller. I’m not a citizen of an EU nation, I’m presenting a passport for a country I haven’t lived in or even been to in almost 7 months, I’m presenting a visa that is already expired, and I was going to be in 3 German cities in one day. Everything I was doing was fully legal but took a heck of a lot of explaining and I didn’t have the time. I still tried to stay as calm as possible and keep a positive attitude, as rushing the guy would certainly lead to him being suspicious about my many irregularities with respect to my travel.

The doors to the train opened at the Dresden station and at that point I had no choice but to be a little pointed since once the train doors closed the train would be leaving Dresden for whatever northern German destination it was continuing onto, likely Berlin. For a split second I thought, “I could do Berlin for a night, it would make the remainder of my travel tough to figure out, but wherever this takes me, I’ll go”. I told him that my ticket ends in Dresden and he looked up and said in broken English, “You’re a good kid, I trust you, enjoy our beautiful country”. And just like that, I was off.

I breathed a short sigh of relief but only had about 30 seconds to make my connection. Running through a train terminal with 26 different gates, while wearing a huge backpack, then finding the right gate in about 15 seconds, isn’t quite the simple task. When I got off the train, there were gates in 4 different directions and I didn’t have time to find the board to find Nuremberg. So I had a 25% chance, guessing wrong would guarantee I missed my connection. As luck would have it, I spotted Nuremberg but the doors started to close while I was still about 50 meters from the first opportunity to get on the train. That was it, I missed it by 10 seconds, but figured why not try, I ran up and hit the button and the doors opened half the way but started to close again. Two people grabbed my arms and pulled me onto the train and helped make sure my backpack made it on. The train was moving within 3 seconds after that. Completely unreal. I’m still catching my breath, 15 minutes later.

Backtracking a little, I knew that 20 hours in Prague wouldn’t be nearly enough. Then again, if I stayed there a week, I think I would still say that it wasn’t enough time. When I was plotting out my holiday, I was down to one of three options, cut into my time in Crete, not see Prague at all, or stay in Prague for 20 hours. The latter seemed like the best option, given the circumstances. I definitely see myself making another trip to Prague at some point in the future.

Most travellers I’ve spoken with put Prague in their top 5 for European cities. Many have called it their favorite, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a ridiculously beautiful city, full of amazing architecture and just has an aura of cool to it. The capital of the Czech Republic sits on the Vtlava River which runs north-south through the center of the city. The most dominating structure, the Prague Castle, sits on the northwest side of the river. It is the largest castle in the world but isn’t quite what most people imagine when they think of grand castles. It’s a complex of amazing narrow cobblestone roads with beautiful residences circling a large Gothic chapel. You could spend a full day exploring the castle, but of course I was a little limited on time and settled for a 4 hour hike. After that, my friend was called into work to cover for someone who called off for the overnight shift, so I was on my own for the rest of the night.

I made my way into the Old Town, and like most places, was eager to sample the local food and drink. The most traditional Czech meal involves pork or lamb with dumplings and red and white cabbage. I settled into a nice place with a four piece band and went with the lamb and a half liter of a mix of the local brews, the Czech version of the black and tan. It was one of my favorite meals of the trip so far.

After a night walk through the city, I settled at a nice riverside pub with an acoustic guitarist playing. One interesting fact I learned was that the citizens of Prague consume more beer per capita than any city in the world. That surprised me a bit, along with the idea that they take their beer very seriously. I watched one woman argue with the bartender for 5 minutes and ask to see his manager, simply because the head on her beer was keeping the liquid a hair below the half liter marking on the glass. Normally I would find that pretty amusing, but I was behind her in line, so after a few minutes I came close to offering to buy her beer. And that wouldn’t have been a problme, because the beer is cheaper than the water in Prague. A half liter of beer was less than $2. As tempted as I was to take full advantage of the economic opportunity that brought about, the skies were starting to fill with lighting and it was just after midnight, so I decided I’d find my friend’s flat.

One negative about Prague are that the tram stations aren’t all that clearly marked. I learned after the fact that half the trams are newer and have a nice video board displaying the stops, but I had hopped on an old school one, not knowing any better. So I was left to listen closely, over the conversation of the crowd to hear the station’s name in Czech. Once I heard one that sounded close, I jumped out, only to find out from someone that I was 4 stops shy. And at that point, the skies opened up. I had left my backpack in a locker in the station but still had my leather man bag. Plus I’d have to wear the same clothes for the first 3 hours of the next day. So as much as I love a jog in the pouring rain, I had to take cover and wait for the next tram. 20 minutes later, one arrived and had the video board, so I got off at the right station, but still had a 4 block jaunt with the precipitation pounding the pavement. I ran awning to awning and finally made it, just slightly damp.

As has been the norm, I traded getting a full night’s sleep for an early morning walk. And as has been the norm, it was the right decision. Hiking through the city well before it woke up was a blast.

A couple of random thoughts about my travels, it’s very cool to hear how many languages everyone speaks. Everyone I’ve met along the way is fluent in at least 2 or 3 languages with some reasonable knowledge in another 2 or 3 beyond that. The local language and English are almost guaranteed, but it rarely stops there. It makes me feel uncultured (if that’s a word) for knowing just English and my leftover Spanish. Also, I read this in a couple books, and have tried to be mindful of it, but any comment made, specifically in Eastern Europe, is taking at face value. So if you tell someone “I’ll definitely visit _____ again!”, you better plan on doing it. It goes for most other things too, as I’ve learned when my various friends say “Do you want to see A, B, and C?” when asking about sights. If you say “yeah, they all sound great”, you will see them all. It sounds like a simple thing, but can lead to awkward conversations if you change your mind.

Anyway, I desperately need to catch up on some sleep over the last 3 hours of the train ride to Nuremberg. I want to be fresh for dinner and drinks tonight in Munich and make it a full day before taking my overnight train to Venice.

Phil

I’m feeling ok about only getting about 22 hours in Vienna. Vienna is a very beautiful city with plenty of sights to see, but it’s pretty easy to get to see them all in just a couple hour hike, which is what the afternoon was used for. The city is very elegant, in tribute to its rich musical past. The touristy areas were full of street performers dressed as Mozart.

I was staying with a friend who was also hosting 3 Barcelonian guys, who were quite the comedians. They also spoke Spanish rather than Catalonian which made it possible for me to somewhat be able to follow and participate in the side conversations. However, most of the talking was in English. Spain won the Euro Cup this summer and the final was in Vienna, so I hiked with them out to the stadium, which was in the middle of a huge park.

On our way back, we saw one of the most amusing sights I’ve ever seen. We were waiting for the underground train and when it pulled up, the door opened and two dogs walked out, leashed to each other. It really appeared that one dog was taking the other dog for a walk and it wasn’t apparent that they had an owner. They just walked off to the exit and up the stairs. The Barcelonians and I just stared at each other in amazement and a “did that really just happen?!” look. It was just classic and I still can’t believe what I saw.

That evening, the Spanish trio fired up a delicious traditional Spanish dinner and we engaged in a fierce game of Uno over a couple of Austrian beers that night. Since it was a Sunday night, it was pretty quiet in the city, so it was nice to just hang out and joke around.

The next morning I got up very early, about 6am, to take another hike around the city before getting on my train to Prague. The Belvidere Gardens were a great destination, void of tourists at such an early hour and full of plush green lawns, white statues, and elaborate fountains. It was a perfect morning and well worth the wake up call.

Now I’m on my way to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. I keep hearing people on the train calling it Czechoslovakia, a country that hasn’t existed in over 15 years. Not calling a country by the right name is a sure fire way to let everyone know you’re a tourist, something I’ve been trying to avoid as much as I can during my travels. Its more to feel somewhat like a local and also prevents any dodgy merchant from trying to take advantage of you.

A friend of mine gave me a great book as I started travelling, called Behave Yourself. It has 2-4 pages on about 50 different countries, complete with a rundown on the cultural differences between each country. The sections are divided into Meeting and Greeting, Conversation, Eating and Drinking, Out and About, Dress, and Gifts and Tips. Its perfect reading on the train rides as it gives you some of the basic sayings in the local language, how to properly greet someone, tipping, customs, and much more. It has been fun to have each of my hosts read it and comment on how accurate (or inaccurate) they find the book.

The section on the US is pretty good and accurate. It talks a bit about how hospitable and welcoming Americans are and that the question “How are you?” is more of a greeting rather than an inquiry into someone’s well being. Some interesting common statements in the central and eastern European nations include deflecting compliments rather than accepting them and that walking around with your hands in your pockets is less of a sign of being laid back and communicates that someone is timid and unsure of themselves.

I’ve also been reading a great book that was given to me by a good friend in London, called Yes Man by Danny Wallace. It’s ironic that I was given the book out of the blue because it’s a bit reflective of my attitude going into my time in London and a big reason why I’ve really enjoyed my time. I highly recommend the book and will be interested to see the movie which is coming out a week before Christmas. I wasn’t thrilled to hear that it will star Jim Carrey, but given the story, I think it can overcome the lead actor decision.

I’m pretty content with the decision to bring along my laptop. The decision was made official when my coworkers gave me the outstanding leather bag as my going away gift. It perfectly fits my laptop and I figured that was a sign. With the long train journeys, it provides me an opportunity to document my trips while they’re still fresh in my head. I had a great music swap with Tilman in Zurich as well. Wireless is sometimes available in the flats and cities I’ve been staying in, that it helps me with keeping up with everyone else. As nice as it would be to just go the next couple of weeks forgetting about the world outside of the one I was experiencing, I think this is better. Plus it gives me a way to upload and organize my pictures so I can keep space on my memory card. And one of my siblings, who will remain nameless, conveniently hocked my iPod charger while helping me pack for London. So I can keep that charged as well.

Its also great for storing my travel info, rather than having to print everything and ending up with a huge pile of papers in my luggage. When I get the chances, I research and save out as many web pages as I can about my future destinations to be able to review offline. My laptop is light enough that I don’t feel it’s weighing me down while I hike around.

Anyway, I’m going to try to catch a little bit of sleep along with enjoying the view. The train ride from Vienna to Prague has definitely been the most scenic so far. The Austrian and Czech countrysides are just very plush with wooded hills in the background and the ocassional rolling through a peaceful little town.

You won’t get a much sharper contrast in European cities than the first three stops of my trip. This was slightly intentional, because one of my favorite parts of travelling is being able to quickly compare and contrast cultures. It has been incredible to go from the posh and grand city of Paris, to the naturally beautiful Zurich right into the ancient Budapest on the banks of the Danube and it’s volatile history.

For those who want to read more about happy travels, sun filled beaches and the local food and drink, I suggest ignoring the starred section at the end of this post, as it could be a bit dark, but it would be unfair to leave out the thrilling aspect of learning about the history of Budapest.

Ok, on to the fun parts of Budapest. I was again very fortunate to have a great place to stay and personal tour guides. It helped on so many levels, whether it was interpreting Hungarian, planning a day, getting around town, finding the right places to eat, cleaning my clothes, having a traditional Hungarian dinner cooked for me, and most importantly, having a great place to sleep in a perfect location.

A couple months ago, on a random night out in London, I met Krisztina and Gabi. Kriszti is a fashion designer and artist who lives in the hills on the outskirts of the city. Gabi works in sales and lives just blocks from the Danube and Parliament, which is a stunningly beautiful building. They’re both incredibly friendly and graciously offered to host me if I ever made the trip to Budapest. So after hearing many positive reviews of Budapest from various friends, I made sure that it made its way into my August itinerary.

Upon arriving, we went to a very traditional Hungarian restaurant for lunch, where my meal consisted of a peeled potato covered in spinach, and two pancakes with fillings, one with mushroom and chicken and the other with apples. It was delicious. Later that evening we went out for drinks to a neat outdoor place overlooking one of the main train stations and intersections. A couple of Gabi and Kriszti’s friends met us out. I wouldn’t be able to spell their names, but they were really nice guys, just a year or two younger than me. Ironically, one of the first topics with them was Michael Jordan’s minor league baseball career. It was so odd, I haven’t even thought of that in many years and here it comes up twice in conversation in two days, in an Eastern European nation. Crazy. Later that night, we went to an island on the Danube where there is some great nightlife. The places were primarily outdoors and on the banks of the river, making for a cool setting.

The next day, I was on my own, while my hosts were working. So I took the underground out to a park with a couple museums and bath houses. The bath houses are very popular in Budapest. Basically they’re more elegant swimming pools, usually situated in a very cool old building and the actual pools are surrounded by stone sculptures. Many of the bath houses have been around for a very long time and are kept unchanged over the decades. It’s a very relaxing environment and a great way to start my day.

Afterwards, I walked to Heroes Square, full of monuments to the history of Hungary (the bright parts). The square is so scenic that it was left untouched by the occupying regimes. The square was at the northeast end of Andrassy st, walking down the street takes you past many embassies, museums, and other great sights.

We went out again that evening, and met up with one of their other friends, who is an advisor to the president of the European Union. So that led to some very interesting conversations about the past and current political climate in Hungary and the EU. My last day in Budapest included a trip to Statue Park (described below) and a night hike around the city.

Right now, I’m on a train to Vienna. There was a slight change of plans as one of the two people who was going to drive with me up to Vienna, has been sick, so I had to make the journey on my own. The train is very crowded, so it’s not quite as relaxing as my previous journeys. However, it’s just a 3 hour trip to the Austrian capital, so it’s no big deal. As much as I want to catch a quick nap, I’ll probably take a pass given some of the dodgy characters in my immediate vicinity. When I got to the train station in Budapest a couple days ago, I overheard two people talking to a policeman about their bags being stolen, and I’ll be cautious to avoid the same fate.

As I said in my last post, I’m starting a period of intense travelling. I will not spend consecutive nights in the same place for the next 8 days. Starting with spending last night in Budapest, my next 7 nights will be spent in Vienna Austria, Prague Czech Republic, Munich Germany, on a train between Munich and Venice Italy, then in Venice Italy, Milan Italy, and on a boat between Athens and Chania.

I uploaded my Zurich and Budapest photos. I didn’t get time to label them and I think unlabelled pictures will be the norm going forward. It just takes too long to load them onto Flickr and I rarely have time to do even that, let alone label them.

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I will try my best to accurately portray the history of Budapest and Hungary. Admittedly, I was relatively unaware of the depth of Budapest’s long and oppressed history. I knew that Hungary had fallen into the hands of the Nazis of Germany and the Communists of the Soviet Union. I didn’t realize that it had been less than 20 years that Hungary has been a democratic society. Due to this fact, there is a lot to be learned and the landscape and mentalities of the people are well versed in the dark past of the land.

I had some great conversations with my Hungarian hosts and their friends. One interesting concept is how a city and a nation handles emerging from a very dark past. The main decision is whether you destroy the relics of the past to try to erase the bad memories, or whether you retain it to help remember the accomplishments of emerging from the dark days and even to mock your former oppressors. Budapest chose the latter and it was interesting for a foreigner like myself to become educated as much as possible over a short period of time.

No place was more chilling than the House of Terror. This was nothing like the tourist trap haunted houses you find in many European cities, it was the real thing, the home address of the dark history of Budapest.

There are two main dark and bloody periods in Hungary’s past. Being that Budapest is the capital city, the fascist and communist regimes, both foreign and home grown, setup shop on Andrassy street, the main drag in Budapest. The exact address is 60 Andrassy and a visit to the museum was nothing shy of chilling. Upon entering, there is a background of Soviet and German music that sets the atmosphere immediately at a very dark and serious sense. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed, so I can only describe the inside. An old Soviet tank is in the main lobby of the building, with a wall detailing all the names of those who were murdered inside the house. Then the first half of the tour winds through the upper levels with offices and broad stories of the inhabitants.

The second half of the tour is where it gets downright scary. After going through a couple of the upper level rooms and learning about the history in well lit rooms with more of a history book account of things, it was time for the elevator to the basement. I didn’t know this was coming, which helped set the intense atmosphere, but we were led into a glass elevator to head to the basement. It was bright until the doors shut, at which time the lights went out and a television in the elevator came on. It was of an old man giving a detailed first hand account about how prisoners lived their last moments before being hung in the basement. The combination of my slight case of claustorphobia and the context of the words, made for an absolutely freaky environment.

Once the elevator reached the basement, we were released into an area of great horror. The below ground level contained the prison cells and torture rooms, complete with actual artifacts. The audio guide described the methods and processes used to torture and kill the Hungarians. It was definitely not a museum for the light hearted, but a great experience all the same.

The second most memorable site was the Statue Park out in the suburbs of Budapest. Over the years of occupation, many monuments were constructed around the city commemorating the “great friendships” created by the nazi and communist foreigners who controlled Budapest. In 1989 when Hungary achieved a democratic state, they were still left with a city littered with these statues. They decided to take them down and put them all in a park for the locals and visitors to see. Fortunately I had an interpreter to help me with understanding what some of the inscriptions said. Most of them were along the lines of “We are so grateful for the Soviets for making our life great” or “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”. Since those days are long in the past, the park serves the purpose of mocking the dictators of the past.

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My first experience on an overnight was pretty good, to be honest.  The ride from Zurich, Switzerland to Budapest, Hungary is just shy of 13 hours.  So we departed Zurich at about 10:45pm and will get to Budapest in a couple hours, before noon.
 
There were only three people in my six berth couchette, so that helped make it a little more comfortable, as we each had our own level.  The setup is that it is a little cabin that converts from a sitting setup to a sleeping setup.  In the sitting setup, there are two rows of 3 seats, facing each other.  There is a narrow aisle between them, so with 6 people sitting, it would be a bit crowded.  The upper level of beds seems to stay folded down but is over 6 feet off the ground, so they’re barely noticable when sitting.  The seat level then folds down into the lower level of beds, and finally there’s a middle level that’s can be folded down out of the wall.

When the beds are all out, there is only about a foot and a half between them.  So it did feel a little bit private to have only one of us on each tier.  They supply sheets, a small pillow and a blanket, and it’s all pretty clean for the most part.

I have two Hungarians in my car, but the third one had family next couchette over so only came in to sleep.  The other guy is Andrash (sp), a really nice chap who was in Germany interviewing for a position with a hospital.  He’s just wrapping up his PhD, studying to be a physicist.  He felt pretty confident that he had the job, so we split a bottle of wine to celebrate and had a great conversation.  Like many of the guys I’ve encountered while travelling, he knows a bit about American sports and enjoys talking about it.  He even knew all about Michael Jordan’s professional baseball days.  He also was happy to hear I was a Queens Park Rangers supporter, as one of their top players, Akos Buzsaky, is a Hungarian.

Anyway, we have about 3 hours until Budapest, and since many of the passengers got off the train at Vienna and other stops, there are a few open couchettes.  This has allowed us to be able to spread out and most of us have our own cabins at this point.  The ride is a very nice one as we make our way through the Hungarian countryside.  Cornfields and prairies are predominant, with the ocassional small town.

I debated how much I would utilize overnight trains.  There are definitely pros and cons.  The pros are that they are pretty cheap and you don’t burn a day travelling.  The options to get from Zurich to Budapest are an all day train or an all night train.  While I would’ve really enjoyed seeing the Alps after leaving Zurich, it was pitch black during that leg of the trip.  So that’s the one downside.

Zurich itself was an amazing place to see.  After spending time in tourist havens like London, Paris, Roma, Amsterdam, and Barcelona, it was nice to go to a more relaxed destination. There are tourists, but not as many, and most of them are outdoorsy types.  The city itself is exceptionally clean and scenic, it’s easy to tell why it gets the #1 ranking for best quality of life.  The people are very happy and very active.

My friend Tilman hosted me.  Tilman’s a great character, he was actually born in Chicago but raised in Germany.  He’s quite the musician, having played drums in a couple of moderately successful bands.  But now he works for GM and was sent to Zurich on assignment.  His flat was pretty incredible and he quickly admitted that it only was so posh because his company was picking up the tab.  It was right in the city, so it only took 5 minutes on the tram to get there.

Immediately after I arrived, he took me on a biking tour of the city.  The city center is at the north end of Lake Zurich, a very scenic lake surrounded by mountains.  On the horizon you could see the snowy tops of the Alps.  Then a river runs into the city, making for some very scenic walks.

The most interesting part about the river is that it’s so clean that they have “swimming pools” built into the river.  They are wooded structures that are built into the river and provide a deck around a rectangular swimming pool made up of the river water.  It looks just as clean as a man made swimming pool and at nighttime, they double as a very nice and relaxed bar.

After the bike ride and a walk around the city, I took off to grab some dinner.  Tilman is in the middle of a week of fasting, being done to test himself and his limits, not at all for any religious reason.  The interesting thing is that outside of German, there is a lot of Spanish, Italian, French, and English spoken in Zurich.  So I found a Spanish tapas place and was able to easily converse with the waiter.

That evening, another one of Tilman’s friends arrived, Daniel from Venezuela.  Like Tilman, Daniel is a pretty phenomenal character and having a day and a half with three people of very different backgrounds made for great conversations.  Part of Daniel’s vacation around Europe is to study the various European governments because he wants to use that to help improve his nation’s system.  He already lived in Minnesota for a year and observed the US government.

The next day the three of us went for a hike up into the mountains.  There will eventually be a number of pictures on my Flickr account that show the absolutely incredible views that the trip lent us.  Then later that evening we decided to go swim in the lake.  Being that it was a beautiful August day, the parks around the lake were packed.  There are lots of stairwells that just lead right into the lake, making it easy to just jump in for a refreshing dip.

I found Zurich to be fascinating.  For a couple reasons that I won’t go into here, I had to cut the Swiss leg of my trip a bit short, as to not get too attached.  I was able to resolve my train ticket situation by purchasing the original overnight itinerary that I tried to get in the first place.  I don’t understand why they prevented me, but it saved a messy situation with being penalized an extra day on my rail pass for the route that took me through Munich.

I have the next three days in Budapest and will be staying with one of my two Hungarian friends I met months ago in London.  I know they have a bit planned, including a birthday party of one of their friends, an evening boat ride down the Danube and a bit of hiking around the city.  Since they have to work today and tomorrow, I will have some time on my own.  On inspection of the Hungarian language, it may be a bit of a struggle, but it’s that kind of experience that I’ve valued the most.  So I look forward to fending for myself, having people stare at me blankly if I speak English or make a poor attempt at speaking the local language, and using the advanced form of conversation I’ve had to resort to a few times, pointing at what I want.

Sunday morning, we will be making the 2 hour drive up to Vienna, the Austrian capital.  That starts the most travel intensive part of my trip, one evening in Vienna, a 10am train to Prague the next day, arriving at 2pm, less than a day in Prague, then a rough 3-train 7 hour trip to Munich, a day and a half in Munich, then an overnight train to Venice, a day in Venice, then to Verona and Milan before flying to Athens with a couple hours to see the city before the overnight boat to Chania.  Then I can relax for a while.

I’ve been teased a bit about the plethora of pictures on my flickr account.  Sorry about that, I know it makes it tough to navigate.  I just haven’t had the time to clear out pictures, so I just take a bunch, load them up, then plan to get it sorted later.  I do realize that 210 pictures of Paris, especially about 100 of the Eiffel Tower, is excessive.

Anyway, we’re about 15 minutes from Budapest, so I’m going to get packed up and enjoy the view of the ride into the city.  I hope to be able to check back in Monday or Tuesday.

Phil

At the present time, I’m on a TGV Elyria train, racing it’s way south to southest through the eastern countryside of France. Our destination is the city that holds the title of “Best Quality of Life” in the world, Zurich, Switzerland. Switzerland doesn’t have their own language, so the primary language is dictated by geography. The western part of Switzerland speaks French, the southern region speaks Italian, and the rest of the country speaks German. From what I’ve heard, English is commonly the second language, so I don’t anticipate any problems, but my host knows German, so I should be ok.

The hardest part of the train ride is staying awake, the ride is so incredibly smooth and quiet that when combined with my early wake up call in Paris, has already led to two relaxing naps. However, now I’m definitely awake for the rest of the ride, the scenery is just too nice to sacrifice any of it in the name of sleep. The huge windows of the train afford an incredible view of the rolling hills supplemented by a lush blue sky.

Rewinding back to Saturday afternoon, after officially locking up my flat one last time and passing my keys off to the key warden (who wasn’t nearly as intimidating as his title would suggest), I took the short tube ride over to St. Pancras International. The station in North London is the new English hub of Eurostar, a high speed train that primarily connects London and Paris, but also makes it’s way to Belgium. One interesting trick of the Eurostar, when I went to book the one way trip to Paris, the cost was over 200 pounds, or more than $400. However, if you book at as a roundtrip, it’s only 59 pounds. If you ever have to travel that route, obviously buy the roundtrip and chuck the return ticket.

The trip itself was an incredibly smooth one, about 45 minutes above ground from London before reaching the southern border and spending 30 minutes in the tunnel below the English Channel. Then another hour ride through northern France before the train pulled into the station on the northern part of Paris. A friend of mine picked me up at the station and we went through a nice evening stroll through the central part of the city, stopping off to see Notre Dame. The sun setting on the western facing church made for an incredible view. As dusk hit, we decided to make my way to my friend’s parents’ house out in the near southern suburb off the Juvisy stop.

The suburb is pretty posh, and given that it was August, the month when most of the Parisians leave the city on holiday, the town was empty. Blocks and blocks of large houses asleep for the month, with some obvious exceptions when a family’s kids were watching the house and naturally having big parties. The houses were very unique and stratified along the hillside town, so it was about 200 steps up pedestrian passageways to the place I was staying. This started my run of about 2,500 steps ascended in my 60 hours in Paris.

The next morning opened with dark clouds and a promise of a perpetual threat of rain from the weatherman. The good news is the heavy downpour never really arrived, but the clouds were pretty menacing all day, which took a bit away from the scenery. Nevertheless, we explored the Sacre-Couer, an incredible basilica at the highest point in Paris. To get to the church, it involved climbing a couple hundred steps. Then of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take the 350 step climb to the top. After that we spent the day hiking around the city, which was perfect for setting me up for an efficient following day, given I was going to be by myself. Navigating the city was second nature by that point. A look at the metro map would give the impression that Paris is as massive as London, but it is much smaller. The train stops are very short distances from each other, when compared to London. This made getting around super easy, even if the metro map wasn’t as intuitive geometrically as London.

In the evening, I was on my own and wandered the city. The rain was becoming more imminent at that point, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me. I made my way through an amazing cemetary, with elaborate marble coffins/tombs, often adorned with a family name and the various family members buried there. From there, I grabbed some dinner and stopped into a pub to watch an outstanding traditional Irish band before making my way back to the suburbs.

The skies finally opened up overnight and it was pretty violent, leading to a virtually sleepless night, since I was staying in a spare bedroom in the attic. For hours Paris was pounded by this storm and it led to a wet start to my last full day in Paris, so I made my way to the Louvre, formally a royal palace, now one of the most famous museums in the world. The museum itself is massive, and one could easily spend a full day or more, but I was a bit limited on time, so I had to do a more fast paced run through. I did see the biggest attractions, including the Venus di Milo, Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, and of course Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. However, my favorite parts of the museum were Napoleon III’s apartment and the French sculptures in the very open and bright sculpture rooms.

The rain finally ended its punishment which gave way to an incredibly beautiful afternoon and evening in Paris. I walked along the Seine, enjoying a delicious crepe de jambon e fromage (ham and cheese) and eventually came back to Notre Dame, this time with an opportunity to explore the inside. After that, I settled my bags into the hostel I would be staying in that evening. I decided to take advantage of the availability of a room at a great hostel who’s proximity helped me get home at a decent hour and saved me a lot of time commuting in the morning. That evening, I walked down to the Arc de Triumphe, and of course, climbed the stairwells to the top. The view was incredible as Paris and its roadways treat the arc as the epicenter. The main drags, including Champs d’Elysees, all meet at the arc, so walking around the top is great for watching how each road points to each area of Paris.

Then I was ready for the highlight of Paris, a trip up the Eiffel Tower. As expected, the lines were pretty long, but that was perfect for letting dusk settle on the city, allowing for an amazing nighttime view of Paris. There are three levels of observation decks, the first two accessible by stairs or elevator, but the only way to get to the third level is by elevator. Unfortunately, they had stopped selling tickets to the top about the time I got halfway through the line, so I was left to enjoy the view from the 2nd level. It was definitely enough to get the experience though. You’re already pretty high up and the summer breeze making pushing through the tower, made for an incredible setting. The tower was lit in blue for the night with the front of the tower displaying the circle of stars found on the Euro flag. I believe the 10th anniversary of the Euro was just a couple weeks ago, leading to a unique display of the Eiffel Tower.

Every hour, on the hour, for about 10 minutes, the hundreds of strobe lights on the tower are set off. I have some video of it that will be displayed (here) when I get a chance to upload it.

All in all, Paris was a great time. It felt a bit like London, with Notre Dame being a lot like combining Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s, the Louvre similar to combining London’s National History museum with the National Gallery, the Seine much like the Thames, and the Eiffel Tower a much older and more exciting version of the London Eye.

Of course, you hear quite a bit about the relative unfriendliness of Parisians. While I definitely didn’t witness the warmth of Londoners, I never really felt like anyone was rude, either. It helped that I had a translator for the first half of the trip, but I was on my own for the second half, not knowing anything more than a few key phrases in French. However, what I’ve learned through all my travels is that as long as you have a good attitude, people anywhere are going to be really nice to you.

As for my travel details, the good news is so far my concerns about using my InterRail Pass, given it slightly bends the rules, should be ok. There was only a brief once over of my travel documents before they were quickly handed back to me. The problem I’m facing though could get a bit annoying. The representative at the office I hit in London to book everything, made a mistake. My pass allows travel for 5 days over a 10 day period. Overnight trains are supposed to account for travel only on the day that you arrive. However, if the travel originates before 7pm, it counts as 2 days. Originally my Zurich to Budapest trip was supposed to depart at 11pm and arrive in Budapest at 11am. However, that train wasn’t available, for some reason, so I accepted a route of heading up to Munich in the evening, then changing over to an overnight train to Budapest. The problem is the Zurich to Munich train leaves at 6:15pm. So I’m going to have to research buying the original overnight train, but for tomorrow night. We’ll see. It’s just a bit annoying that the girl at the travel center went through her whole series of checks to prevent something like this, and it happened. Oh well.

I had been wondering how exactly border control is happened when you are taking a train from city to city. Just now, some border police jumped on the train when we made a brief stop in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. They took a quick look at each person’s passport, then move on. Much like at other passport gates, I get quizzed quite a bit more. It’s not surprising as I’m not a standard traveller. I’m presenting a passport for a country I haven’t been in for over 6 months. So they’re required to research a bit deeper when trying to figure out exactly what I have going on.

Anyway, we’re making our way through the mountains on our way to Zurich, where we’ll be arriving in a half hour, so I’m going to close up and get packed away. The next leg of my journey, an overnight train from Zurich to Budapest, is by far my longest. However, I have good friends there and am really excited to see Budapest for a couple of days. Anyway, I hope to be able to punch up a Swiss recap during that trip and will try to publish it when I get to Budapest. It might be tough for me to push my pictures out to Flickr because it’s a long process, one I usually let run overnight while I was in London, but I’ll try to get at least the highlights out there when I next get a connection.

Phil