we weren’t “coming home” any more… we were “moving”… again.

it was one of those feelings that wasn’t quite right, but wasn’t wrong like I was telling myself it should be. it was, I think, the first time that this place felt like home, really home, not just the place we were living. I have become comfortable used to being here and it’s a strange sensation.

it is definitely going to be a huge change coming back, and not that it is, but it almost feels like a step backwards; moving back into our old place, getting back into our old routine (well, mostly), and returning to the place where we were a year ago.

I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad thing, I’m still more than eagerly awaiting that day we go to Vienna for the last time and get on that plane headed home, but it’s not going to be the big “coming home” that I had imagined, but more like a “moving away” in a sense.

very strange.

The Schönbrunn Palace is where royals used to live and the surrounding gardens definitely portray this. The palace and grounds are so expansive that we could have spent all day exploring those areas alone. But we thought Skye would enjoy the zoo (the world’s oldest) more, so we started out there and never had to time to do any of the other million things they offer there (marionette shows, concerts, strudel show, touring the palace itself, etc).

I thought the zoo was really big, but Benjam thinks that Hogle might be bigger. I haven’t been to Hogle in ages, so I have no idea. All I know is that it kept going and going and going.  (They’re actually just about even at ~42 acres.)

I was bummed we missed the tree-top trail and train ride, but there wasn’t time and probably not enough space with the stroller. But we had a lot of stuff to do and see. The panda’s and “ice bears” were of course cute, as well as the elephants. There was an insect exhibit that gave me the heebie-geebies. I really liked the bird exhibit where the birds are not closed off from patrons, but just flying all around you. We made some “panda-cow” buttons for Skye (according to Skye every animal makes the sound of a cow).  I also had my first experience (and hopefully last!!) thinking Skye was lost. Aaaand of course had more frankfurters.

We’ve been wanting to see more of Slovakia than just Bratislava for a while. Several weekends ago we went to Liptovský Mikuláš in the lower Tatras about 3 hours east of Bratislava. Wow, this little town had everything outdoorsy one could want. It had a large ski resort, a few caves, a really big lake, and all of the other small activities that go along with those. We stayed at our first B&B (Chalet Slovakia, highly recommended) in Europe and it was perfect and so much fun. The family was from the UK (yay, they spoke English) and they had a small boy a few months older than Skye, which was really fun watching them interact. They drove us around, had a backyard and garden complete with a rabbit. We had our own room and Amber even got her own room which must have been wonderful after our small quarters in BA. It was really, really nice having all of the accommodations of home. They were really nice and provided just enough hovering and freedom. It was one of our better traveling experiences because of all of their personal touches and not having to deal with public transit and hotel rooms.

The train took a little longer getting up there (of course).  So the first day we just got settled in and walked around the small village and watched some professional river kayakers practice for a while. It was just so great being outside in this stunning valley. It kind of reminds of Heber Valley a bit.

The next day Amber wanted to do a really rigorous, 8 hour hike to the countries emblem peak, Kriváň.  While she did that, the three of us went to the largest show cave in Slovakia. The caves were on the way up the mountain to the ski resort, and the tree line was encroaching on the road because it is so absolutely lush and rain-foresty. The caves were really fun and cool to walk through. We of course didn’t know what the tour guide was saying, but it was neat nonetheless. Skye was in the backpack and for the most part seemed to enjoy it to. The B&B guy picked us up and took is back to the chalet for Skye’s nap. Then we just lounged around while the kids played. We wanted to do more things that Skye wouldn’t have to be stroller tied to so we went to the town of relocated buildings from when the lake was created. Kinda like the This Is The Place park. Skye loved the freedom and it was cool seeing this culture’s heritage a bit. The B&B lady and her son went with us and it was all and all just a nice day being outdoors but not anything crazy. That night after Amber came home and we swapped daily stories before we went to dinner at an “American” restaurant.

The next day was just a half day since we wanted to be home Sunday night. Again Amber had such a good hike, that she went to do another one. Benjam, Skye, and I took the B&B’s bikes and rode to the lake. I wish we would have had time to stay and play. They use lakes the way we use swimming pools, so it had slides and picnic areas and boats. We only had time to stay for a bit before riding back through the Slovak countryside before getting to our train.

We said our goodbyes to the cool family and dashed to the train, which was of course 40 min delayed. It was a really great weekend where we all got to do what we wanted but still be together. I wish we would have tried the B&B’s before, but this place didn’t have any other occupants, so we had the place and owner’s to ourselves, which I don’t think would have been the case in Italy, for example.

Salzburg.  Wow, what a breath of fresh air after 2 days of stuffy train rides. The train ride through the Alps helped set the scene and mood of what was to come. So I suppose spending an unexpected night in Milano was a blessing in disguise, because the Alps train ride was definitely a highlight and had we taken the night train, we would have missed the Alps during the day. The steep mountains just surge out of the ground and go straight up. There are no foothills like Utah, it’s just gorgeous, bright green hilly valleys and then rocky mountain. It was so stunning, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of them. At times, I felt like I was in a train model with all of the bridges and charming villages, all centered around an old church steeple. We had a stop in Innsbruck, and it was a scene from the Sound of Music; was green as Hawaii, more exaggerated mountains than Utah, and the small European city. It help our sour mood too to see something worth seeing. This is one of those places where pictures would never do justice.

Salzburg, like a lot of other European cities, has a river bisecting it. It’s also on the northern boundary of the Alps so it’s very green with enormous outcrops throughout the city. On top of the one of the largest hills in the city sits Hohensalzburg Castle, looming over the city. Mozart was born here, Hitler had his Eagle’s Nest retreat near here, and the Sound of Music was filmed here, among other trivia. We got to Salzburg pretty late in the afternoon, after traveling for 7-8 hours. So we just found our hotel and then went to dinner. Our hotel had two great features that most don’t. In our room we didn’t have any air conditioning or a fan. It was already pretty warm, so I was a bit worried about that night with the noise of the creaky old building and the heat. I went to open the window and discovered a large stream right beneath our window!  It cooled the room off right away and drowned out background noises. It was so charming. I loved it. This hotel also had a pretty large garden area with kids bikes, balls, toys, and rabbits, and all right next to the almost-river that went past our window (but it was fenced off, because, well, safety first).  I really appreciated it for the open, green area that Skye could play in and explore after being cooped up in the stroller and trains for days. It was wonderful. This is actually where walking clicked for her and she took off and hasn’t stopped since.

The following day we woke up to some pretty intense rain. Our little river was now reaching its banks. But we didn’t have time to sit inside all day so we just dressed for it. We grabbed some breakfast from the hotel and off we went. By the time we finally got out the door and to the bus stop (conveniently located across the street from the hotel) the rain had stopped. It was a little drizzly by the time we reached old town, but the sun was beginning to peak through. To get to the top of the castle we took a funicular (cable car) up the side. I guess the rain scared away the swarms, because we we got to the top, it was deserted. It was so gorgeous being on top of that hill, with the mist and rain clouds being pushed aside by the sunshine and to have it be so peaceful and quiet left quite an impression. The cobblestone floors were still a little wet and the restaurants were just setting out their chairs and getting ready for the masses. It was so extremely nice and peaceful up there. The castle is very large, and we discovered that we were merely on one of it’s flanking “decks”.  It kind of winds around until you end up in the center of the castle. They renovated it, so it seemed right out of the story books. It was really fun and by the time we left, everyone was just starting to arrive because it was safe, the rain was going to stay away. We walked down the hill instead of taking the funicular which dropped us back into old town around noon. We were lucky to be there at noon when every cathedral bell rang at once and for about 5 minutes. Benjam was in heaven. We sauntered around the maze of small streets and shops and had a great lunch of local food. We slowly worked our way back to the hotel to play in the garden and just relax for a bit.

We still had a few hours of daylight so we went to the Hellbrunn Palace, an early Baroque villa of palatial size (thanks Wiki).  Really though, besides the residence/villa of some Archbishop it was also a sprawling park and garden with a lot of fountains and statues. We wanted to take the tour of the trick fountains, so we walked around the immaculate grounds and let Skye practice walking more while we waited for the tour to begin. The trick fountain tour was actually pretty fun. The archbishop built all of these trick fountains to play pranks on his guests when he had parties. Pretty impressive actually. The outdoor dining area had holes in the seats where water would squirt up guests behinds and then along the garden path fountains would surprise you. Pretty fun.  

We worked our way back to the hotel, walking most of the way in that perfect time of dusk. We grabbed some Chinese food to eat back in the room since Skye was getting tired and there was no way I was going to take her to a restaurant at her bed time. She really seemed to love the walk home, too, because she wasn’t ornery at all, even though it was 3 hours past her bed time. Got back and tried to put her to bed. It was so cute, she was rolling around, looking for the edge of the crib like at home, but because they didn’t have a crib, only a bed, she rolled right off. Benjam nearly caught her in time but it was still really cute. She slept with us both nights. We brought the mattresses to the floor, right beneath the window and let the river put us to sleep.

The following day, we were off on another packed train home to Bratislava via Vienna. The last leg of traveling is always pretty hard and we dropped to the floor when we got home. We had a great time though and made some terrific memories and some not so terrific memories. Here are the highlights:

]]> http://iohelix.net/blog/2009/07/salzburg/feed/ 0 http://iohelix.net/blog/2009/07/tirrenia/ http://iohelix.net/blog/2009/07/tirrenia/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:42:22 +0000 chelsea http://iohelix.net/blog/?p=2262

Tirrenia is a small, busy, beautiful beach town near Pisa.  There was no direct train to the town, so we took a train to Livorno, just a bit south of the beach.  This train appeared to drop us off in the middle of podunk nowhere!  I was seriously half expecting to see sage brush blow by in the wind.  We had to then find a way from the train to the hotel.  This part of every city we visited usually turned out to be the most adventurous, since there just wasn’t enough time pre-trip to plan every detail of transportation.

So we’re in podunk Livorno and looking for a public transit bus that will take us to Tirrenia.  Public transportation in any city takes a bit to get used to, so having to do it in half an hour always took longer.  After wandering around in front of the semi-deserted train station, not getting any help from the maps since Tirrenia is just outside the city limits, someone finally directs us to a bus.  The bus driver was helpful, but I think he was either a little annoyed, or amused at me trying to get our just-a-little-too-big stroller down the bus aisle. So after finally getting to our seats, it literally drove us about 100 yards before we had to switch to another bus.

When we got to the other bus stop, there was an older Italian man sitting on the stoop of a business and he asks me something in Italian.  I say “I’m sorry, no Italiano.”  He gestures, ahhhh, but then keeps talking.  We gesture and banter back and forth, “No Italiano”, “Aaahh” laugh.  He pulls out his bus ticket and we figure out that he is just making sure we have our tickets!  So cute.  Then 2 minutes later, this little old lady literally does the same thing and just keeps smiling at Skye and saying “Ciao, Bella” and trying to ask us something and I say No Italiano and she laughs and just keeps going on in Italian.  Our second bus shows up and we realize it is a different bus company and we need new tickets, but the bus driver couldn’t have cared less.  The bus was seriously 100 degrees, not exaggerating, so it only took about 3 minutes before Skye started screaming and the old lady was yelling to the bus driver to turn on the AC and he’s saying it’s broken and he is braking all over the place so I’m trying to keep my balance with Skye crying and the old lady and the bus driver yelling.  Of course we also had no idea which bus stop to get off at since we were lucky to even get on the right bus in the right place.  There was only one main one-way street near the beach so the hotel was easy to spot.  Phew, we get off and deeply exhaled and when we inhaled, the smell of the Mediterranean greeted our noses.  Ahh, time to relax.

We checked into our beach-front hotel.  The room was pretty basic except that it had a balcony, looking straight out to the enticing water.  I planned a little late in the season, so it wouldn’t have been my first choice and was a little more money than I wanted to spend, but I did want to be right on the beach since I knew we’d be so tired from Rome.  We changed and went to grab a bite to eat at a little restaurant.  Can’t beat lobster ravioli’s and asparagus sauce with another fantastic bruschetta.  After dinner, it was about 6p so we went to the beach.  It was totally deserted and fabulous.  There were no rocks or seaweed anywhere.  The sun was setting through a slightly overcast sky.  We took off our shoes and stepped into the delectable water.  Perfect.  Warm.  Gentle waves.  Perfect.  Skye didn’t agree with her first experience with the big water, but that changed the next day.  We played for a bit until we headed off to put the little one to bed.

The following day we had another great continental breakfast on the veranda of the hotel.  After that, the day was filled with swimming in that glorious water, playing in the sand with Skye, swimming in the pool, and again swimming with Skye in the water, and I’m glad to say that she loved it, after our failed attempt at swimming in Budapest, and her disagreement with it the evening before, we were a little worried that whe wouldn’t take to the water, but she did, even when she was shivering, she seems to really enjoy it.  When she went down for a nap, Benjam got a takeout pizza and some Corona’s and we sat on our balcony enjoying the view and the quiet.  It’s those little times that you remember.  Then we went back into the water and played for a bit before eating at a family run Italian restaurant, where there house was literally attached to the back of the restaurant.  Good stuff.

The following day, things took a turn for the worse when we left Tirrenia.  We left the stunning Mediterranean beach and spent the next two days on long, hot trains.  If I would have know what was coming, we would have just stayed at the beach for 2 more days and then went straight to Salzburg.

]]> http://iohelix.net/blog/2009/07/tirrenia/feed/ 1 http://iohelix.net/blog/2009/07/rome/ http://iohelix.net/blog/2009/07/rome/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:43:06 +0000 chelsea http://iohelix.net/blog/?p=2189

Rome, Rome, where to begin with Rome.  This was one place we definitely wanted to get to while we were in Europe.  It had the quintessential European big city vibe, but with a major difference; artifacts and ruins throughout, actually embedded within, the city.  We’re talking about huge, show-stopping sights: the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the largest monument I’ve ever seen, Piazza Navona, Arch of Constastine, and more.  I can only imagine how much a real history buff would enjoy that place.  The presence of the Roman Empire is just staggering and impossible to deny.  While we were in Prague, I remember reading that it had been the capital of the Roman Empire in the 14th century.  Prague is so far away and to think that the empire’s reach extended to the Czech Republic really says something.  And then seeing the Colosseum in true form, it really puts it all into perspective.

Our first stop when we arrived that late Friday afternoon was just a jaunt around our hotel neighborhood.  St. Paul’s Basillica resided a few blocks from us so we walked over to it in the early evening after settling into the hotel.  It was a beautiful summer evening with people eating gelato and playing soccer and walking their dogs, no one in a hurry to get anywhere, including us.  The church is next to a park, so we walked around a GIANT wall and the clock tower.  We were hungry from the side effects of not eating – starvation – so we decided to find a bite before we went into the church.  All we could find was some pretty dissapointing, heat lamp pizza.  Not to worry though, our Italian palates would be quelled the following evening.  When we finally went into the courtyard, it was stunning; not very large, but well kept, and green and refreshing, with huge marble columns lining the courtyard.  Then we heard music from within the chruch.  We thought we would soon be kicked out because of a concert or something.  Turns out it was a free concert open to the public – AWESOME.  To hear people singing in those acoustics was simply amazing.  We hung at the back of the gigantic hall, drowning in marble and an Italian choir. It was pretty insane.

The next day was our big, jam packed, see-it-all-in-a-day day.  The Colosseum was our first stop and geez, is it formidable.  We got trapped into a tour, but thought it might be worth it.  It was €20 each, but that included the €12 entrance fee and we got to jump to the head of the line, which was pretty long even as early as we were.  It was our only paid tour, so it was kind of nice hearing about its history.  It’s too bad it was such a place of bloodshed for all of those poor lads, Christians, and tigers.  We walked inside, and around the different tiers, and each vantage point held a unique perspective on the city.  I thought it would look the same everywhere, but surprisingly, you saw something different from every angle.  None of the stadium flooring or the inner, central flooring remained because of some fires and earthquakes, but it still retained its dominant quality.  They restored a few sections here and there to help give you a feeling of what it would have been like back in the day.  Very, very cool.

Near the Colosseum was a huge, unbroken arch, the Arch of Constantine (of Constantinople).  Near the grounds, there was also a huge archeological site. And I mean huge. Many, many city blocks worth of ruins and toppled pillars.  We missed the exit (and the entrance) and still had much more to see, so we just walked alongside it as we worked our way through Rome.  The next imposing structure to catch our eye was this humongous Monument.  The statues that sat on top of it must have been the size of stadiums.  People were walking up the stairs and they looked like ants.  We continued walking down the busy Roman street, with all of the other tourists I imagine.  Eh, but who cares, when in Rome…

It was really hot though and there weren’t really any grassy areas, and the humidity was too much, but we pushed on.  We went to find the Trevi Fountain, thinking the mist might cool us off.  Apparantly  everyone else had the same idea.  The fountain was tucked away in a small crossroads of alleys, so it was just packed with people sitting and standing around it.  But we did find some yummy gelato to cool us off before we headed off the find the Pantheon.

Even though it’s a big building, the builldings around it stand taller and there aren’t any main streets near it, only building alleyways.  It would have been hard to find except for it’s spherical top.  It has grand marble pillars guarding its entryway as well as a fountain (those Romans like their fountains).  Inside are gorgeous fresco’s and intricate mable floors and walls and the “eye” poking sunlight through.  Pretty amazing.

We then found a couple other famous piazza’s with fountains, more marble pillars, and ornate statues on our way to the Castle St. Angelo.  We crossed a short bridge, also decorated with roman marble statues leading up to the gates.  We walked inside a bit with absolotely stunning fresco’s before viewing the city from the best vantage point.  Why is everything so cool looking at those perspectives? Vatican City was some distance away, but it reached the height of the top of the castle because it is so grand.

After the last of our sightseeing, we went to find a spot for dinner.  We ended up in a resutrant in one of the smaller alleys.  Lots of foot traffic, but not too much, and only a vehicle or two.  The alley’s are fairly narrow and the quaint buildings that frame the alley all have flower boxes in the windows and people are talking loudly in their melodious Italian.  We had a fantastic dinner of the best ever spaghetti and meatballs and mouth-watering bruschetta with perfectly soaked olive oil and basil. Oh man, so delicious, and a bottle of wine to boot that helped relax the joints after walking all day.  Everyone was happy and Skye was having a ball eating perftectly cooked spaghetti with parmesan.  She absolietly loved it.  It was that perfect time of the evening when everyone is transistioning to night time.  It was a perfect meal with my adoring family and charming Italian atmosphere — one that I will not soon forget.

We made it back to the hotel and the anxiety of Skye in a hotel room started to set in.  But she slept like a doll and went right down and stayed down all night!  Since we weren’t quite ready to go to sleep, we started watching the last few episodes of the last season of Battlestar Galatica.  Geeks no matter where we are!

Our last day in Rome we planned on going to Vatican City before heading to the train and the beach.  We had our first experience with a real “continental breakfast” and boy does it put the state’s to shame! We’re talking meats, cheeses, pastries, fruit, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, yogurt, a variety of juices, sausages, bacon, a variety of baker’s bread, fabulous Italian coffee, pomodorro and on and on.  Filled us up quite right before heading out into the sun.

We were told to head out pretty early, but it’s always sooo hard to get out of those hotel beds.  You know it’s a bad sign when the subways are empty except the one you are on and everyone gets off at the same stop as you.  The line into the Sistine Chapel was ridiculous, like 2-3 hours in the sun, there was no way we needed to see it that badly.  We went instead to St. Peters Basilica and the big area you see on TV where the Pope comes out and waves to everyone.  The entire city is monumentous.  It was a modern-day religous region similar to that of some of the relics we had seen in other cities and civilizations of the past.  Some day people will look at the Vatican with the same awe and wonder that we did in the Pantheon.

So after our two days in Rome we boarded our 3 hour train ride to Tirrenia, a small beach town near Piza.  It was pretty exciting watching the city fall behind us and the coast and screamin’ blue water ahead of us.  The train went right along the coastline and at times we were only a few meters from the water.  It was one of the better train rides of the million we took on this trip.

Rome was a highlight of the vacation and I would do it again in a second.  It was unforgettable and so much fun.  However, the loud, busy, lived-in city would be too much to stay in for too long, especially at that time of year and in that heat and humidity.

so I’m going to break up this trip into a few posts because the trip spanned several cities (in a couple countries), and if we tried to cram all the pics and info into one post, it would be huge. so this post is a basic overview of the trip as a whole, with the individual city posts linked in this one.

we left for italy on friday, and it took us three buses, one plane, an inner city train, two metros, and a fair sized walk to get to our hotel in Rome… talk about exhausted. it didn’t help that we didn’t really know where our hotel was, where we were, where the train was going, where the metro stops were, and all that…  but we got there. we did the Rome thing, which was seriously amazing, if you ever get a chance, I highly recommend it, although I definitely would not want to live there. it’s a bit too dirty and touristy and crowded for my tastes.

after Rome we headed off to Tirrenia (a little beach town between Livorno and Pisa), where we took in some beach and sun time because, even though the weather forecast said rainy in italy for the whole week, it was a blazing 30C (~85° F), which is really nothing compared to the 100+ heat of Utah, but add in 100% humidity and it will suck the sweat right out of you. but again, highly recommended, the water and beach were perfect.

after Tirrenia, that’s when the fun began…  there was a pretty major train accident in Viareggio (not too far from La Spezia, our next stop), which caused all the trains to La Spezia to be cancelled. because of this, our 1 hour train ride became a 4 hour bus ride, and Skye is not too fond of trains, and doubly so for buses. we got there quite late, and were completely frazzled from the bus ride, so we went to our hotel. we had planned to do a little day trip to Cinque Terre, and take in the amazing sights there, but just couldn’t make it, it was too late to do anything, and our train for Milano left pretty early the next day, so we stayed in.  =(

we left for Milano the next day, and again, because of the train accident, had to take a longer train, so we got to Milano a bit later than we had hoped. we had planned to go to the science museum in Milano, and check a few other things, but only made it to the museum. the museum was supposed to have a bunch of hands-on stuff for me and Skye to play with, but they were only available on the weekends (it was Wed.), and the rest of the museum kinda sucked. after the museum we headed off to the train station to catch our night train to Salzburg.  unfortunately, the “night train” was actually 3 trains, and none of them had sleeper cars. so we really didn’t want to be sitting up with Skye all night and switching trains at 4 in the morning, so we got a nearby hotel and stayed the night in Milano with train tickets that left at 7 the next morning.

after the 7 hour train ride through the Alps via Innsbruck to Salzburg, we arrived at around 4-5 in the afternoon, went to our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and grabbed a bite to eat. it was already too late to do anything, but that was ok, because we were there for as long as we wanted, no more early morning trains, and no more rushing to get somewhere.

Salzburg is probably my favorite place in Europe so far. it is simply breathtaking. The mountains were amazing, the country was amazing, and the city was amazing. we left Salzburg and headed home late Sat. morning. the train we were going to catch was about to leave, and we were hoping to get an empty coach to let Skye nap in, but the ticket girl said it was probably full, so we got tickets for the next one. as we walked out on the platform, we saw the train we skipped, and it was nearly empty, and as I was about to go back and exchange tickets, it pulled away. our train arrived from another city, and was packed solid. the only reason we got a seat at all was because we had reserved some. but we finally made it home, and crashed.

overall, it was a good trip, there were some poopy parts about it, mostly due to the train accident and not wanting to travel for extended periods with a toddler, but the cities we were able to see were pretty amazing. i highly recommend any of them.

Right away we ran into trouble, the roads from Bratislava all the way to Nitra were packed, and moving at an average speed of about 10-15 mph. It took us about 2-3 hours to go the distance it should have taken us 30 minutes. We finally got to semi-open road and still had a nice 2-3 hours to go. We stopped at a little place on the way there and I finally had some halušky (kinda like a gnocci with sheep cheese, a national dish here in Slovakia).  We finally got to the cabin around 9:00p.  We picked out our beds, had a glass of wine, and everybody fell asleep, but not before I got outside to check out the stars for a little bit.

We woke up around 9-10a and started to get ready for what I was told was a nice flat 3 hour hike.  Well… it wasn’t flat.  Not by a long shot.  The road we were walking on was inclined enough that if it were an actual road, it would have had warning signs all over it.  Then we got to the trail, and it increased to nearly 45°.  Unfortunately my body is not built for long bouts of strenuous hiking like this.  Back in my scout days, I could have run up this hill, but no longer.  My body gave out about half way up the trail.  I was egged along by the others, and I barely made it up the hill.  It had a really nice view, and the path to the cave was relatively flat from here, but the return path was not, so it was suggested that because I was having issues with this portion, that I would have issues with that portion and shouldn’t go to the cave (a decision I still regret).

So instead, my boss’ son had a kayak race that I went to.  We came back, had dinner around the fire, and went to sleep.  When we woke in the morning, it was time to do it all again.  Except this time, we were looking for the river origin, so it wasn’t just once up the hill…  it was up the hill to the top to meet some people, then down, then up a ways, then down, and up and down, and all over the mountain.

We finally got back to the cabin, but we weren’t all there, so we had to wait for the rest of our group to return, which took about 3 hours.  We finally left, and at least it was smooth sailing all the way home, even if we did take the long way around the mountains.

All in all, an alright trip, but I’m still bummed I never made it to the cave.  At least the views were cool…

We went to Prague (Praha) this weekend, and what an adventure that was…

Chelsea’s sister, Amber, came into town, and is going to be living in the Czech Republic for a few weeks, and we thought it would be perfect to travel out to Prague with her and spend a few days there.

We packed our stuff, set our alarm (4:30a) and went to bed that night. We woke up in the morning (didn’t miss the alarm this time), and did our morning stuff. Then we looked at the clock… it was now 5:15a, the bus we need to catch is about a 10 min walk away and it comes at 5:29a !!  We rush out the door and practically run to the bus stop, with a ton of bags in tow. We get to where the bus goes by, and there isn’t a stop right there, it’s down the street about 75 m (yards).  So we start walking towards it, and when were about halfway to it, the bus rounds the corner. I try to flag the bus down, and he points at the stop with a gesture like, “it’s up there, I’m not stopping here”, and I think, oh crap, we’ve missed the bus, the train, and will have to wait at the train station for an hour or two for the next one. But luckily, he stops and lets us on, yelling at us (in Slovak) the whole time.

We get to the train station in time, and board the train. After we board, the attendant walks by asking for tickets. We hand him ours, and he tells us that the train we are on is a reservation train, and we have the wrong tickets. He lets us stay on the train, but doesn’t seem very pleased about it. The train we were on was the fastest train to Prague (about 4 hours), and it was one of those trains that leans as it goes around corners, except that it leaned the full tilt that it could, even when going around very gentle curves, which did nothing to improve my motion sickness. I got pretty ill, not to the point of throwing up, but I was pretty much useless the whole time. I’m just glad Amber was there to help Chelsea with Skye.

We got off the train, and hopped on a taxi to our hotel, thinking it would be the easiest. We got about halfway to the hotel, and I looked down at the little price sheet the guy had in his car, and it was €30 for the trip downtown (about a mile or two away (if that), a trip that normally would cost maybe €5) !!!  What a robbery !  We dropped our bags off at the hotel, grabbed a map, and headed off to do some sight-seeing.

A lot of these Central European cities look quite similar.   Prague combines the step-back-in-time feel of Budapest and the grandness of Vienna.  It is huge and sprawls seemingly forever, with the Vltava river bisecting the city.  All of that water makes for a very lush, green, beautiful backdrop for the Christmas-town-miniature like buildings.  The streets are all cobblestone and the sidewalks, if there were any, are only about a foot wide, so most people just meander through the streets.  It was pretty busy on the main tourist routes, but it was amazing how just a few streets off of the beaten path, you’d see maybe one or two people every few streets.  The buildings all share adjoining walls, so it creates this charming maze.  It is absurdly picturesque and impossible to take a bad picture, but the photo’s do not do any kind of justice.  It was overcast and drizzly on Saturday and a little better on Sunday, although it didn’t help the lighting of the pictures.

We started Saturday at Prague Castle, saw the gorgeous Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral, and a vineyard along it’s slope while sipping on hot wine and a quiet, serene garden at its base.  But Skye was also impressed with the castle…

She was doing that the whole time, looking up and saying “wow” in a whisper. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. And she did it the whole time, not just once or twice. So she must have been very impressed with Prague.  (This current instance of “Wow” was at the NE corner of St. Vitus Cathedral)

We then went across Charle’s Bridge, named after Charles IV, the Holy Roman Empire and king of Bohemia back in the old glory days of Prague.  There were artisans and street performers and no one was in a hurry to get across, taking in the old statues that lines the bridge.  It was fun being a part of this hustle and bustle, but I bet this bridge, all lit up at night when it’s quiet, is spectacular.  We had a rather disappointing lunch and then worked our way back to the hotel because we were all starting to feel the effects of waking up so early.  After a jaunt to a shopping center nearby, in search of an adapter for Amber, we returned to our cute hotel room.  We were upgraded to the attic suite, and it was perfect, so much charm.  We put Skye down to sleep and surprisingly, she did quite well, going right to sleep, and only waking a couple of times in the morning.

We finally woke up around 10a (!!!) on Sunday and got our crap packed, stored in the hotel lock boxes, checked out, and headed out to see more of the town, getting lost once or twice (yes, it was my fault).  The streets were much quieter, until we hit the main touristy areas.  We went to the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) with this amazing Astronomical Clock, got some iced Chai and then stumbled onto a cute street market with little unique knickknacks, fruit, and the like for sale.  Again, we weren’t in any hurry to get anywhere and just enjoyed walking the streets.  We stopped at the New Town Hall, which had a tower we climbed to get a great view of the city, from within the city.  Our last stop was the impressive Vyšehrad castle and the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul.  It’s curious how people, when they enter a sacred place, automatically get quiet.  The only sounds were hushed voices and a “wow” whisper from Skye every now and then.  The incredibly preserved castle grounds really felt like we were back in the tenth century.  The castle is perched on a hilltop, overlooking the river and the views were amazing and so peaceful.  It was a great day.

Before heading back to the train to go home, we needed to get some food.  There was a “Mexican” restaurant near the metro station that we had seen and wanted to go to (we haven’t had Mexican food in a long time).  So we went there and ordered… 45 minutes later, our food came out, and this was at around 5:30p (we had missed the 4:30p bus for Amber, so we were waiting for the 7:30p bus).  We had a train at 4:30p that we also missed and again every hour after that. We finished eating the “Mexican” food (not even close, it had tortillas, and that was about it for the “Mexican”, spices were wrong, my enchiladas had no sauce (or cheese) and were baked, and there were no refried beans. It was good, just not Mexican) and headed out.

We were running a bit late for our 6:30p train, so I ran down the street to grab our stuff, and met the girls on the way back. Skye was asleep, and we were debating on whether or not we should wake her to take a cab to the train, or let her sleep and take the metro. We opted for the metro, and headed to the metro station, got on, made our transfer, and got to the train station about 10 minutes late. We missed our train. We looked on the departure board for the next one, and didn’t see it. And since we had had some trouble with our ticket on the way in, we asked for information on the next train and if we needed to set up a reservation on the train. They told us the next train was at 21:40. For those of you not used to military time, that’s 9:40p !  We had 3 hours to kill at the train station. Apparently there was a misunderstanding about the train times. Chels had checked a bunch of train times and noticed that it was leaving every hour on the half hour, she had checked up to 18:30 (the 6:30p we missed) and stopped there. Not checking anymore and assuming the pattern would continue, we didn’t think anything of it. But alas, we were wrong. We hung out in a park, and Skye took her first unassisted steps.  Then it began to rain so we went in and waited, and waited, and waited…

I went up and asked the ticket person how long the train would be, because it wasn’t the same train we had taken here, and some of them can be quite long, she told me the train would arrive in Bratislava at 5:00a (again… !!!  that’s 8 hours on the train).  So we asked if we could upgrade to a sleeper car, because there was no way we were going to spend 8 hours in a train seat with an tired, ornery little girl. We got our sleeper car, and Skye actually did pretty good. She slept most the night not really crying at all, and fell back asleep easily after we got home around 6:00a (the train arrived at 5:40a).

So that was our short, but long, Prague adventure. Despite the few setbacks, it was a great weekend!  Prague definitely lived up to it’s reputation.

Here are the obligatory pics and links:

Dancing House (which we only saw up close in passing on the Cab ride, which I’m a bit bummed about)
Lennon Wall

This is my morning commute to the bus stop.

I am beginning to understand their ways too. In Utah, people are polite and courteous to others getting on the bus (elevator, etc.) because there is plenty of room on the bus for the No You Go Ahead gestures. Here, you snooze you lose. On rare occasion, if you’re lucky enough to be on first, you can grab a seat of an off-going passenger. More though than just getting a seat for the bumpy ride (since the bus drivers here must all be new and not accustomed to their brakes), you could actually not make it on the bus because it is so full. Hey, I’m not afraid to admit I pushed over an old lady with a cane, I did what I had to do!!

Sometimes I forgot that I’m even in a foreign land. I am used to not knowing what any of the signs mean and I don’t hear the language babbling as much either. It’s actually quite shocking when I do hear someone speaking English and I know what they’re saying. The little things bring it all back though, like when someone asks if I want ketchup on my ham and cheese sandwich or spaghetti (and I though I loved this divine condiment), or if I want corn on my pizza. For the most part, they are a very fashion forward culture (must be the close proximity to Paris), but some of their fashions just kill me. Nylons and tights are HUGE here. Not just tights with skirts, actually, that’s quite rare. Usually though it’s either Daisy Dukes or just-below-the-knee rolled-up pants, both, with some type of leg wear; black, fishnet, bright pink, nude, those jazzercize ones that are kind of shiny… you name it, they wear it here. And it’s not the teenage kids trying to be different, it’s the professional women.

I know it stands without saying, but I love how central our location has been for traveling. Compared to Vienna, Budapest (and I can tell by the looks of Prague, which we are going to next weekend), Bratislava is the ugly runt of the group. It’s a beautiful city, but it really pales in comparison to it’s neighbors. It is the one trying to keep up with the Jones’.  I wish we could explore some of these cities more, but at least we get to have a little sample of each one. Except for Vienna, it is too close and amazing to only go there once.

OK, so then what is so terrible about being over here?  Nobody else is here.