Monday, October 23, 2006

Eastern Europe photos

Prague

Vienna

Bratislava

Budapest

Istanbul

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Eastern Europe, part 5 (Istanbul)

We arrived at the airport in Istanbul a little after noon, met up with a friend, and took a shuttle to our hotel. We were staying in Sultanahmet, which is the most touristy area of Istanbul (it's actually a huge city, with tons of small neighborhoods, and over 12 million people!). The rest of that day was pretty chill; we walked through the area next to the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, and made our way down to Eminönü, next to the Galata Bridge. We checked out the Spice Bazaar (very colorful and very crowded) and then went to Hamdi for an early dinner. It turned out to be a good thing we were early; the restaurant is apparently quite popular, but because it was Ramadan, hardly anyone was eating until sunset. They told us we could stay for about an hour, which we did. We all ordered kebabs of different types (I ordered lamb, or "shish") and shared a Turkish pizza. Afterwards, we hung out by the water for a bit before heading back to the hotel.

The next two days were quite busy; we spent several hours at the Topkapi Palace (more impressive than I had expected, and slightly reminiscent of the Alhambra), and then visited the Aya Sofia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Suleymaniye Mosque, and took ferries to Üsküdar and Kadiköy. I particularly liked the Aya Sofia; apparently, after it was converted from a mosque into a museum, they started examining the walls, and eventually, excavated several 14th century Christian mosaics. Now, these are on display right next to all of the Islamic symbols that decorate the interior.

We also had some interesting food experiences. The first night, after dinner, we went to a cafe where they had water pipes and served apple (and other flavors) of Turkish tea, and we saw whirling dervishes on stage. The second night, we grabbed dinner in Kadiköy; we were in a hurry not to miss the last ferry back, so we walked into the first decent restaurant we saw. We were definitely the only tourists there (people kept giving us curious looks) but the food was cheap and yummy, and the service was good, although the staff spoke no English at all. Luckily the food was on display, and all we had to do was point, and they would dish out plates for us. Afterwards, we went next door, bought a huge box of baklava and other sweets, and then rushed back to the docks in time to catch a ferry back.

On the last day, we didn't have as much of an agenda, so we wandered around Karaköy near the Galata Tower, and then went to check out Istiklal Caddesi, which is a large, modern shopping boulevard in Beyoglu. The locals in this area wore almost entirely modern dress; it was hard to find a woman wearing a headscarf, and many women were wearing sleeveless shirts and tank tops. In fact, we passed by a group of twenty-somethings all dressed in Goth gear. This was in stark contrast to the area by the mosques, where women in full burkas were sometimes seen. At the end of the street is Taksim, where there is a small park and a monument commemorating Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey.

From there, we walked all the way to the Dolmabahçe Palace, built in the 1800s in the European style of the time. It cost an arm and a leg to enter the various museums, so we just walked around the exteriors and had some Turkish coffee at a cafe outside, on the water. We had a grand plan to walk over the Bosphorus Bridge from Europe to Asia, so we kept walking all the way to Ortaköy, where the bridge begins. Unfortunately, we were told the bridge was now closed to foot traffic, so we just hung out there for awhile. We had some yummy snacks that reminded me of scallion pancakes (but more doughy), had kebabs again for dinner, and checked out an arts-and-crafts market by the water. I liked Ortaköy perhaps the best of all the neighborhoods that we visited in Istanbul. Unlike Sultanahmet, Eminönü, and Karaköy, there were almost no tourists, so consequently there were no hawkers trying to sell us boat cruises and trinkets. On the other hand, it was a fairly modern area, so we weren't quite as out of place as we had been in Üsküdar and Kadiköy, where people tended to stare curiously at us.

We flew out of Atatürk International the next morning, after a set of very thorough security checks; a full baggage screen before even entering the airport, then a manual search through carry-on baggage and a very strict pat-down at the gate. Amazingly, it was all very efficient and took almost no time at all, which was a stark contrast to the TSA treatment we got at JFK when we caught our connecting flight.

Anyway, after almost 20 hours of travel, we finally arrived home in the Bay Area, having had no major travel mishaps during the two weeks, and with over 1200 photos to look through. I'll post a few of my favorites in a few days.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Eastern Europe, part 4 (Budapest)

I got off to a rocky start with Budapest; we arrived at the train station a little after noon, and were promptly accosted by dozens of people trying to convince us to take their taxi or to stay at their hotel. We finally made it out of the train station, and into the subway.

We checked into Adina Apartment Hotel, which was really nice; our suite had a kitchen, a huge living room, two half-bathrooms, and a bedroom. We managed to meet up with a friend from London, who had arrived earlier, and spent the rest of the day walking around. We saw the Opera House, St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Parliament (complete with protestors, that week), and then walked up Castle Hill to check out St. Matthias' Church. We wound up the day with a late dinner and some Tokaji wine, and then headed off to bed.

The next day, we hit the Royal Palace (also on top of Castle Hill, and gorgeous), and then walked over the bridge to Vaci utca, a touristy shopping street. At the end of the street was the Central Market Hall, where we found even cheaper souvenirs, spices, wine, and lots of other stuff. Then, we walked up the Gellert Hill and checked out the Gellert Statue and the nice view. Afterwards, we had dinner on a floating restaurant on the Danube, which was nice.

The last day was pretty chill. We did laundry in our hotel room (which took way longer than necessary) walked around a bit, eating at a cute falafel place for lunch, and checking out a bookstore (with Internet access). We went to the Gellert Baths, to try out the famous thermal baths. I was underwhelmed, but then again there are lots of thermal baths in Taiwan. That night, we bought 400 Ft (~$2) tickets to the symphony, which was playing at the Opera House. We heard the first half; a piece by Bartok, and then cut out so we could eat dinner and get to bed in time for our early flight to Istanbul.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

another awesome radio morning

Two of my favorite songs, One Hundred Years by Five for Fighting, and How to Save a Life by The Fray, played back-to-back on Alice this morning. Such a lovely way to start the day.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Eastern Europe, part 3 (Bratislava)

I had read somewhere that Vienna and Bratislava were the two closest capital cities in the world (or maybe in Europe) and I couldn't pass up the chance to visit a whole other country only an hour away, so on our last day in Vienna, we headed to Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic.

We arrived around lunchtime, and walked the 2km or so from the train station to the waterfront. There is a bridge in Bratislava, built in the later half of the 20th century, that somewhat resembles a UFO. We took some pictures of that, grabbed a quick (and very cheap) lunch, and headed to Devin Castle, about a 20 minute bus ride away.

The castle ruins are located at the juncture of the Danube and one of its tributaries, the Morava. It was constructed by the Romans sometime before the 800s, and was destroyed only in the 1800s. I enjoyed our visit to Devin Castle even more than Karlstein (near Prague); it was somehow more picturesque, and nothing beats a view over two gigantic rivers.

Afterwards, we took the bus back to the city and then walked up to Bratislava Castle, which is not that exciting to look at, but does also have a nice view; we took some pictures and bought some souvenirs up there. Finally, we ate dinner at a pub, where we tried to spend the remainder of the $60 we had exchanged for the day.

We got back to Vienna sometime after 10pm, and went straight to bed, since we were catching another morning train to Budapest.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Eastern Europe, part 2 (Vienna)

We arrived in Vienna around 2pm, but it took us the better part of an hour to get to our hotel, partially because Vienna has a variety of public transportation options, and they're not all that easy to decipher and/or well connected. Our international train arrived at Sudbahnhof, but we wanted to take the U-bahn to our hotel. It was about a 500-meter walk between the two stops, but it seemed much longer since we were dragging suitcases and backpacks.

Anyway, we finally arrived at our hotel, the NH Wien. It's located in a great area, off of a large shopping street, and just on the border of the Museum Quarter. We took advantage of the small onsite gym, and then showered just in time for dinner. The restaurant we went to was in the University area, so it was relatively inexpensive, and still yummy. Then, we spent the rest of the night walking around the Hofburg Palace and thereabouts.

We had only planned to stay in Vienna for three more nights, and wanted to take a daytrip to Bratislava, so the next two days were pretty packed. We walked around outside the Museum of Fine Arts and the Natural History Museum, saw the Hofburg by daylight, hung out in the Volksgarden and Rathauspark, and took the elevator to the top of Stephansdom. We spent nearly 3 hours at the Schonbrunn Palace, but even that was barely enough time to explore the interior of the palace as well as the expansive gardens. Afterwards, we went to the Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) to queue up for standing room tickets (3.50 Euro), which was a really great experience.

First of all, we waited in line from 5:15pm until 6:15pm to get the tickets, and then immediately went to the standing room to claim our spots. We hung around there for the next hour or so, until the 7:30pm curtain, and then stood for the remaining 2.5 hours of the performance, finally heading out to dinner around 10pm. Sounds like fun, right? Okay, the standing itself wasn't so great, although we were quite impressed with all the 50 and 60-year-olds standing there with us. However, we did meet lots of interesting people while in line, including a couple of college guys from London who had some awesome cheap travel stories, some girls from Australia, and a Taiwanese student studying music in Vienna (who spoke only Chinese and German). The good thing about standing/sitting for 5 hours is that it makes people pretty chatty, so there were lots of good conversations to be had.

When we finally got out, we were starving, so we headed to Centimeter, a bar near our hotel. They had a 2-meter wurst on the menu, which we just had to try, and I ordered a chicken schnitzel which was excellent, as well. It was a satisfying end to an extremely busy day.

The second day, we hit the Belvedere (Austrian National Gallery), which has quite an impressive collection of Klimt's work, including The Kiss, and then Zentralfriedhof, which is a huge cemetery where Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and Strauss happen to be buried. We wound up the day watching a performance by the famous Spanish Riding School (again standing room), which was interesting but not quite as impressive as I had hoped.

The next morning, we caught an early train to Bratislava, which is an hour away.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Eastern Europe, part 1 (Prague)

I got back from Eastern Europe almost two weeks ago, but due to my subsequent San Diego/Los Angeles trip, I haven't had time to organize my photos and/or (until now) post anything about the trip. I've decided that I'm going to write about each city separately, in chronological order, which means I start with Prague.

We arrived in Prague early in the morning, and spent three days there. Prague is an eminently walkable city, especially the "Old Town" touristy areas, and is very charming; the buildings have character and the bridges are gorgeous. In some respects it doesn't feel like Eastern Europe at all; the locals are trendily dressed and speak English fairly well, it's easy to find international cuisine, and even the restaurants serving Czech food have creative decor (for example, we went to a medieval-themed restaurant serving huge platters of meat).

We spent the first two days covering the main tourist attractions: the Town Square with the astronomical clock, the Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, the St. Nicholas Cathedral, the Jewish Quarter, etc. We also walked up a fairly large hill with an observation tower at the top, to get a bird's eye view, and to take lots of pictures.

On the third day, we took a day trip to Karlstein Castle, which was about an hour away. It was nice to get out of the city, away from the hordes of tourists (really the only downside of Prague) and see a smaller town. The castle was sufficiently historic (having been the home of Charles IV, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the King of Bohemia), the hike was quite pretty, and the nearby restaurants served even cheaper food than we had found in Prague.

That night, we checked out Radost FX, a cafe/lounge/bar/club in the "New Town" area, which is where most of the locals live and work. It was really fun; the mostly vegetarian menu was yummy (coming from me, that's a big compliment), they had cheap cocktails (Brandy Alexander for $5), there were live band advertisements strewn on the tables, and best of all, we were probably the only tourists there.

The next morning, we took a 5-hour train to Vienna, arriving in the mid-afternoon.

 

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