Martha's So-Called Life

Budapest

Saturday

Since our plans to go to Auschwitz were foiled by the rain, we had a lazy morning in our hotel (we were able to have a late check out). Once we finally packed up and checked out, we left our bags with the front desk and went to find some lunch. After lunch we headed across the river (the Vistula) to Schindler's Factory where there is a museum. The exhibit was really good, all about Jews in Poland during World War II. It was a very well done exhibit with a good mix of multimedia and technology alongside original artifacts (letters, postcards, report cards, etc.). We spent almost two hours going through the exhibit. Some of it was art installations that were meant to represent something, but a lot of that was lost on us as there were not English translations for everything.

After the exhibit we got some dinner, picked up our bags, and then headed to the train station. While waiting for our train to arrive we witnessed the local train station riffraff attempting to drink beer in public. It's illegal to consume alcohol in public in Poland so it was kind of funny to watch them attempt to be sneaky with a 40oz bottle. The security guards were just around the corner and most likely knew what these guys were up to, and I am pretty sure one of them even asked about it when they made their rounds.

When our train arrived, we got on and settled into our sleeper car for the night. It wasn't the best accomodations, but it was much better than the overnight train we took from Bucharest to Istanbul last year.

We both got mediocre sleep. It was hard to stay asleep with all the stopping and starting and slowing down that goes on. At one point, when the train split the first time (certain cars were going to Vienna, and others to Prague - remember that when traveling on a night train...know where the cars split or just stay in your car or you risk ending up in the wrong city without your belongings!) we were stopped for a very long time (Bohumin, CZ) and when we picked up new cars we drove back and forth slamming into things several times. It was also snowing so the whole thing was very dramatic for 2am. After that I slept pretty well until our alarm went off.

When we got off the train in Budapest, we got some cash...and then attempted to get some change because the ATM gave us 10,000 forint notes and we were fairly sure that we would be unable to buy metro tickets with bills that large. The exchange rate is ~220 forints to 1 US dollar. So we bought a 400 forint drink with a 10,000 forint bill. Turns out there was a window at the Metro station so we didn't need to go through the trouble. Oh well. We arrived at our apartment and fortunately were able to get into it right away despite being much earlier than we said we would be. We were even earlier than we thought becasue apparently it was "fall back" night while we were on the train. After showers and a nap we went in search of lunch and coffee. Then we went to see St. Stephen's Chuch, which houses St. Stephen's right hand in the Chapel of the Holy Right Hand. He was the founder of the Hungarian State so he is very well loved around here.

This is Parliament, which is apparently modeled after the British Parliament but one meter bigger in all dimensions.

After the church we went to the House of Terror, which is an exhibit about the German and Russian occupation of Hungary. It's housed in the former secret police headquarters. It was another very well done exhibit.

Monday

Yesterday we went across the river (the Danube) to Castle Hill where we walked around in the rain and wind (it was quite cold...even for us Alaskan's). We went inside St. Matthias Church which was very pretty inside.

After lunch we walked one hill over to the Citadel, but ended up just walking around the outside because we couldn't figure out how to get in without paying for the WWII Bunker exhibit that was there.

Parliament and the Danube at night...

Tuesday

Today we manged to get a bit of late start. We started our morning off with coffee and strudel at a delicious bakery recommended by our guide book.

Then we ventured out of the city to Memento Park. This is where all the unwanted statues from Communist times went to live. It is kind of a funny place with a random collection of very large statues.

When we got back to Budapest, we ate lunch at the Hummus Bar (recommended by WikiTravel).

Then climbed the tower at St. Stephen's Chuch since it was a clear day.

We managed to go back to the Hummus Bar for dinner and the strudel place for dessert...so that means my day in food was strudel, kebab, falafel, strudel. It's been a delicious day!

Tomorrow we are headed to Vienna for several days, then back to Prague for a night, and home on Tuesday afternoon.

I hope all my East Coast friends are staying dry and safe! At least your storm got a name...we don't get that sort of recognition in Alaska...

Krakow

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we got up early, ate breakfast, checked out of our hostel, and caught the tram to the bus station. We found the platform where the bus was supposed to arrive and waited. Our bus showed up around 8:30, we paid the driver, and got onboard. The ride to Krakow was long (3 hours), but uneventful. When we got off the bus in Krakow, we made our way to the train station to buy our tickets for the night train to Budapest. However, this was easier said than done (especially considering that the two are right next to each other). We finally made it to the train station - down to the bottom level of the bus station, through the underground tram station, through a giant shopping mall, and around the corner. Fortunately, buying our tickets was the easy part.

After we had our tickets, we made our way to our hotel. As usual, we seemed to have a problem getting off in the right direction (you'd think that the three college degrees and numerous countries visited between the two of us that we'd be more proficient at this kind of thing). Once we figured out what tram stop we were getting off at, then what trams went there, we had to find a tram stop that was serviced by the tram we wanted (the one we were at was not). We ended up walking one stop in the wrong direction before we figured out that we needed to go the other way. Turns out that we could see the stop we needed from where we were standing originally (but not the tram numbers, so we wouldn't have known that was the correct one). Once on the tram it was easy to get to our hotel.

After checking into the hotel and eating lunch, we went to the main square in the Old Town.

And to St. Mary's Cathedral (originally built in 1220 and houses a rather impressive altar).

After that we did the Rynek Underground exhibit which is a tour through the medieval market (set in the actual market that was excavated under the square) and various other bits of medieval live in Krakow. It was really well done with lots of hands on and video enhancements. After we finished with the Underground exhibit, we decided that we were not hungry enough to eat a whole dinner (due to a late lunch), and were too tired to go back to the hotel and then leave again when we were hungry. We ended up getting kebab on the way home.

Thursday

After breakfast in the hotel, we went to a bookstore in the Jewish district and picked up a book that our guidebook (Lonely Planet's Central Europe) said would give us a decent walking tour of Kazimierz. We followed one of the routes in the book and saw the new cemetery, the old cemetery, several synagogues that we did not go into, and the Old Synagogue (which we did go into). After stocking up on our Jewish culture we enjoyed some lunch and then headed to Wawel Castle.

At Wawel Castle, we saw the Royal State Rooms, the Armory, the cathedral (including the bell towerand the tombs - which included Chopin's tomb), and the Dragon's Lair (including a fire breathing dragon...photos of that later).

Here's the view from the trip up the bell tower and the super steep stairs we had to go up and down.

As we were leaving, our waiter (who I presume was also the owner, it appeared as though his wife was the bartender and his son was the other waiter) followed us out and produced this little figurine from his pocket, handed it to me and said, "for you, madame," with nod and a bow.

Friday/Saturday

Yesterday we took it pretty easy. We hung around our room until we were forced (by hunger) to find lunch. We ate at a restaurant that we found via Wikitravel and then had coffee and cheesecake at a cafe found in the same way.

We had dinner at another restaurant recommended on Wikitravel and stopped for ice cream on the way back to our hotel. Apparently we needed both lunch dessert and dinner dessert!

The plan for today was to get up early and go to Auschwitz, but it is raining very hard so we decided to skip it. Instead we are hanging out in our hotel until the last possible minute (fortunately we are able to check out late), then we will brave the rain and go to Schindler's factory (there's a good museum there), and then possibly go see the new James Bond movie before we get on our train for Budapest at 10pm.

Wroclaw

Sunday

We left Prague around 10:30am via train. The first train we were on was very nice...unfortunately for us it was headed to Warsaw...and we were not. So we got off about an hour later in Pardubice for our first transfer. It was relatively easy. Walk off one train, find the next and get right on. The train was much older and not as nice or comfortable. That ride lasted just over two hours. Our second transfer was in Klodzko. That train was much like a school bus. It got to be even more like a school bus when 10,000 college kids heading back to Wroclaw (pronounced vro-tz-lav for those of you who were wondering) for school (there are about 600,000 residents in Wroclaw, and about 100,000 students at the university here). When we arrived we were very happy to get off the train.

The next challenge was getting to our hostel. It would have been much easier if we had actually followed the first part of the directions they sent with the confirmation rather than thinking we knew what we were doing. We went from train station to bus station to metro station when we really needed to go to the bus stop. Not to mention the fact that we had only 50 and 100 zl (zloty) notes and the bus ticket machine would only let us pay with 10 zl or 20 zl...so we had to go back to the bus station and buy something to drink to get change and then go back across the street to the tram stop to get a ticket and then back across the street to get to the bus stop in the right direction. When we got off the bus we attempted to follow the directions, something about cross Ruska street on your left, but Ruska street was only on our left if we turned 180 degrees after getting off the bus. Anyway, long story short(er), after much wandering around we discovered the hostel was right next to the bus stop.

Monday

After a light breakfast at our hostel, we went in search of coffee - which we enjoyed in the shadow of a 14th century church.

After coffee we went gnome hunting (see here and here for some information).

After a bit we headed to the University Museum and the Mathmatician's Tower (one of the few things around here that was open on Monday or Tuesday). The exhibit at the museum was small but very well done. Mostly it was a random collection of things from the university throught it's history. It was a good mix of old and new in the displays (photos on touch screens mounted in 100 year old wooden slide storage cases, for example).

The view from the Mathematician's Tower would have been better if it wasn't so foggy...but it was still impressive. We also had the pleasure of learning about the 17th meridian which runs right through the tower (unfortunately they plugged the hole that was lined up with the sun at noon when they reconstructed the tower)

There were also some pretty spectacular photos of what Wroclaw looked like after WWII. Most of the city was destroyed and had to be rebuilt.

In doing some research on other things, we discovered that there was a free walking tour starting at 5pm (freewalkingtours.com, they offer tours in Krakow as well). So after regrouping in our room (i.e. getting jackets because it was a bit chilly), we headed out to find the tour. It was just us and one other lady from France and our tour guide. We spent 2 hours walking around the city and learning about it's history.

We had dinner at a restaurant recommended by our guide. Traditional Polish food and good prices. I had meat filled perogi with cheese. John had schnitzel. His dinner came with pickled beets and pickles...neither of which he likes...so I took care of those for him (those are two of my favorite things!)

Tuesday

This morning we got a late start. I guess we needed some extra rest. After breakfast and coffee we attempted another museum that we discovered was closed on Monday and Tuesday (silly Poland!).

Instead we headed to the Panorama of Racalwice which was interesting and pretty cool (as cool as a giant cylindrical painting can be).

Since our ticket to the Panorama incuded entrance to the National Museum, we attempted to go there next, but soon discovered that it is also closed on Monday AND Tuesday. So instead we had lunch at the same place we had dinner last night.

Next, we headed out the Centennial Hall to look around (we didn't expect anything to be open there). We saw the giant mulitmedia fountain (they have light shows there in the summer and a skating rink in the winter) and walked through the Japanese garden. Then we came back to our room and rested until dinner.

Our dinner was mediocre, but filling.

Now it's time for bed so we can get up early and catch our bus to Krakow!

Prague

Pardon my absence...after Vermont, I worked, ran a half marathon, worked again, and then left the country. I guess I've been busy.

Wednesday/Thursday

We left Anchorage at 1:30am on Wednesday, flew to Seattle, then to LAX. In LA we had to hike across the airport in 80 degree weather...in our sweatshirts...to get to the international terminal. Once we got there, we had to check in and then wait in the not very long, but extremely slow security line. We had some coffee and lunch while we waited to board our flight to Amsterdam.

We flew KLM, on a 747, which turned out to be relatively comfortable given the number of people they manage to mash into the airplane. The entertainment (personal TVs) selection was good and they fed us at least twice (I was asleep most of the time, so I don't know if they fed us more than that). KLM might be my new favorite airline. Pretty much the least amount of nonsense I have ever seen on a plane. We took off out of LA and very shortly after we hit 10,000 feet (or got out of LA air traffic) they turned off the seat belt sign and did not turn it back on until we were landing in Amsterdam. Also, as we neared the gate in Amsterdam, people stared getting up before we stopped and no one said anything (quite the contrast from the big scene that was caused on our flight into LA when the guy behind us tried to get up to take his daughter to the bathroom while we were stopped waiting for traffic on our taxi into the gate).

We had a few hours to kill in Amsterdam, so we walked around a bit and had a snack. We were both so tired when we got on our flight to Prague that we fell asleep before we left the ground and pretty much didn't wake up until we arrived in Prague.

When we arrived in Prague we collected our bags (we didn't have to go through customs because we had done that in Amsterdam and the Czech Republic is also a Schengen country) and then took a bus to the Metro, took a train, transferred to a different line and went another few stops and then walked to the apartment we are staying in. The owner of the pension took us to our room gave us keys and a whole bunch of information about what to see.

Then we decided to take a short nap...which turned into a longer nap. Finally we got up and went in search of dinner. There was a reasonable looking Italian place just down the street where we had delicious freshly made pasta and gnocci (I have since learned that Italian food is everywhere here...even the Afghan restaurant we went to had pizza). It was delicious!

After dinner we stopped at the grocery store to get some breakfast food items and snacks and then headed home to bed.

Friday

We got up around 8, had breakfast in our apartment (yogurt, muesli, and rolls with salami) and then headed out for our day. Along the way we stopped for coffee.

First we went to the Old Town Square where we saw the Astronomical Clock and a couple of churches.

Then we went to the Jewish Museum (several sites around Josefov, the old Jewish town). We saw several synagogues and a cemetery that supposedly has 100,000 people buried in it, 12 layers deep (you can see approximately 12,000 gravestones at this time). Some of the oldest graves are from the 14th century and it was last used in 1787. The synagogues had collections of Jewish historical items (from religious items to people's report cards), and our guidebook said that the only reason those things are even there is because the Nazi's collected them with the intent of making a museum of "an extinct race."

After brushing up on our Jewish history, we had lunch - goulash for me and chicken in some delicious sauce for John. After lunch we walked across the Charles Bridge, went to the bridge museum, then walked along the river to a fortress that has a cemetery where Dvorak is buried.

After doing a lot of walking...we were tired and took the Metro home. We laid down with the intention of taking a short nap, but we both fell asleep for longer than expected and when we woke up, neither of us felt like going anywhere or eating anything for dinner, so we ate a granola bar and went to bed.

Today (Saturday) we had breakfast at the Cafe Imperial (in the Hotel Imperial) and then went to Prague Castle. We poked around there for a while, saw St. Vitus Cathedral, which was rather impressive. It's where St. John of Nepomuk is buried, he's famous for getting pushed to his death off the Charles Bridge because he wouldn't tell King Wenceslas I the Queen's confessions.

We had another delicious lunch - John had goulash and I had dumplings stuffed with smoked meat and sauerkraut on the side, and then headed to the train station to inquire about tickets to Poland for tomorrow.

Turns out it's cheaper to buy them tomorrow (some kind of Sunday special). Then we headed back to our apartment to regroup, I had a nap, John did not. Then it was time for dinner. We found a delicious Middle Eastern restaurant, I had lamb kebab and John had ravioli stuffed with meat and mint.

Now it's time for bed because we have to get up and going in the morning so we can catch our train to Poland (Wroclaw...we'll be hunting for gnomes there...stay tuned!).

 

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today's run brought to you by h^2

That would be heat and humidity (technically, I supposed it would be heat x humidity)

It was 65+ degrees and 90% humidity...I prefer 40 degrees and raining!

At least we finally got some nice weather though. We've been stuck in a fog back (literally) for the last four days or so, so it was nice to see the blue sky.

The last couple of days we have been busy with John's dad. Tuesday we found out that he could stay at the facility he's at until Friday (don't even get me started on insurance companies right now). Wednesday we did a home evaluation with the Physical Therapist, she came out to their house and observed the logistics of getting him into the house and worked out the details of showering, sleeping, eating, etc. It went better than expected with a few minor hiccups (that will hopefully be non-issues if he gets more therapy before he comes home). Thursday John and I drove his dad up to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (about 1.5 hour drive) to get him fitted with prisms to help correct his double vision (temporary while his brain continues to heal, but hopefully will allow him to do some reading and help improve his balance). Today we found out that he gets to stay at the facility for another 16 days!

It seems counter intuitive to want someone to be away from home longer, but he is getting much more intensive therapy where he is than he would be getting if he came home.

Today we went to visit him for a few hours, and since it was so nice, we sat outside and played a couple of games of cribbage. He said he had fun and it was good to play cribbage with us because it keeps him sharp!

Today was also first Friday in Brattleboro, so John and I decided to wander around a bit before we headed home for the evening. Not much to report, but we did eat some delicious Vietnamese food from a food wagon in a parking lot.

We both had cold noodle salads. Mine was with mushrooms and John's was with crispy pork. They were delicious!

We don't have any plans for tomorrow other than going to visit his dad. Then I head home on Sunday...but not before having lunch with Amanda!! I'm super excited that I get to see her (AK people...try not to be jealous, and don't worry I will give her all of your hugs as promised)!

 

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being an adult is lame

Do you ever get yourself into a situation and think, how on earth did I become qualified to handle this? That's where I am right now. The only thing that qualifies me is the fact that I am...an adult.

Let's start more towards the beginning. Friday night we headed out of Anchorage on our trek to Vermont. John was supposed to go a few days before me, but circumstances changed and he left the same day as me. We were both on the same flight from Portland to Boston...the only difference is that he had to fly to Seattle first.

My flight was relatively uneventful (thank you Xanax and a bulkhead aisle seat), other than the fact that I sat next to one of the coolest people I have ever sat next to on a plane. The guy was a pilot for Alaska Airlines, and was one of those people that you instantly want to get to know better. We didn't spend much time talking since I was falling asleep (and so was he, he had just flown some ridiculous route from Sitka to Barrow to Fairbanks more than once in the same day...bummer). But I hope I run into him again, because he was rather fascinating.

Being that I am an excellent girlfriend, I made sure that John had breakfast and coffee when he arrived at PDX, especially since he had about 15 minutes between flights...and I had two hours.

The view as we were leaving PDX was amazing!

Thankfully, I slept most of the flight to Boston as well. When we arrived in Boston, we collected our bags, got our rental car and hit the road. Other than having to stop for cash (we ran out due to the extensive number of tolls we had to pay on the way out of town) and dinner, we made pretty good time.

Once we arrived at John's dad's house, we chatted with Linda (his wife) a bit and then headed to bed.

Sunday we got up late, returned the rental car (they had an extra car for us to use, but we had to get from Boston to their house), and then went to visit with John's dad.

Today was more of the same. We grabbed some groceries and then went to see his dad. While we were there we found out that his insurance will no longer pay for him to stay at the facility he is at because they have decided that he is "independent" when in fact, he is not. He still relies heavily on the use of a wheelchair and a walker and needs supervision and assistance to do many things. He needs PT, OT, and speech therapy to continue improving, and he will not get as much of those if he is discharged home.

Anyway, I do not know when I became old enough to have to deal with these sorts of things. I'm glad we are here to help take care of him if he does, in face, come home tomorrow, but it seems like a lousy decision on the part of the insurance company.

At least I have beautiful fall colors to enjoy...

 

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