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| Summer 2008 - Japan to Milton Keynes |
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
The Netherlands, Holland, Amsterdam
14th September 2008
The Netherlands is the country, Holland is the district and Amsterdam is the capital city, in case you didn't know, I didn't. We arrived here a day earlier than expected and had a total of four days here. I think I was still in Berlin as the first day was just spent wondering around. Actually of the four days I can't quite remember exactly what we did, the time just went. We had planned to go biking, didn't happen, we also planned to walk/bike around the big green park right next to the hostel, again, didn't happen. The smell of weed was everywhere and after being in Japan for three years it was a little bit of a shock being somewhere quite so liberal but nice at the same time, one must have their eyes opened now and again.
We took a little trip out to the fake windmill village of Zaans Schans, very pretty windmills with very flat land dotted with cows and sheep. Took another day trip out to Dem Haag, The Hague, where all the government stuff happens to go the Mauritshuis where The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer is housed. Having seen the film it was great seeing the real thing.
It was quite rainy while we were there so we spent one day going to the Van Gogh Museum and saw his sunflowers and iris pictures among others. The pictures they had in the museum were in chronological order so we could see how his style developed. Some of the writings about Van Gogh's life I could identify with, especially this.
'..Van Gogh at 26 and at a complete loss...' Van Gogh began painting with no experience of drawing/painting, he didn't get famous till after his death but he did something he liked to do and tried to make it successful in his lifetime, which I guess is all anyone can do.
One the same day we went across town to the Anne Frank House, which was a nice round up of our WW2 history in context tour Hannah and I were kind of on since Poland. It's extremely sad to see the house and where she lived for two years and at the same time makes everything more real in that it puts a few faces to some of thousands who lived like Anne and were taken to the concentration camps.
Took the free city tour, not as good as Berlin, but informative none the less. One interesting thing our guide told us was that because of pressure from the EU, The Netherlands aren't giving any more permits to open the coffee shops for smoking weed and within the red light district. As a result, our guide thinks that the coffee shops and the red light district would slowly start to disappear.
On the last day of my train trip I crossed boarders between four countries, took three trains, a tram and a tube to arrive in Milton Keynes Central in time for my Mum's home cooked lasagna. It was the longest way home, but it was well worth it.
P.S
The day after I got back to UK there was a fire in the Chunnel so I was lucky to be travelling on the 10th as I would have been stranded in France until the trains were back up and running.
The beach trip I was planning to take was called off the day before I was supposed to be flying due to the company, XL.com, going bankrupt. XL.com was the third largest tour company in the UK so for it to go bust there must be serious troubles going on.
''Ich bin ein Berliner.''
13th September 2008
This train was only Hannah and I in the cabin, so it was basically a twin.... private room, ahhh, something that was so nice among all the hostels sharing the space with at least 10 other people.
We arrive in Berlin in an uber clean, new, glass train station - how German. As we arrived so early in the morning we went to do the free walking tour of Berlin, well worth it, the guide was really good. It's quite a world wind tour of the cities main sites but the guide gave us enough history so we had some context to appreciate the sights better. As well as the more serious sights he showed us the hotel where Michel Jackson dangled his baby out the window.
I really liked Berlin, even though it is the capital city it never felt overly busy or crowded. There is always something to do. The tour was a good start as we went back to a few of the sites to have a better look at them. The Reichstag, the home of the German Parliament was re-designed in the 90's by British Arechtech, Norman Foster, with it there is a giant glass dome that people can walk up. It's free to enter so we spent most of the morning queuing and getting to the top to see the views of Berlin.
We ate the compulsory bratwurst and drank the Berlin beer which has a bear for the logo as many many years ago during the beginning of Berlin it was called bear town because there were so many bears in the forested wood where the founding community choose to settle.
Museums are free on Thursdays from 6pm so we took advantage and went to the Atlas museum to see a Egyptian and Ancient Greek exhibition. The following day we went to the Babylon: Myths and Truth exhibition which was a really interesting look at the myths surrounding the city then to contrast that a seperate exhibition into the reality of life in the city.
The evening of the 5th September Hannah and I were waiting to go to the cinema and I was checking our on going train ticket when I noticed our train was half past midnight on the 6th. Basically I got confused with times and dates, I thought we had one more night and the whole day in Berlin, but turns out we didn't. We figured this out about two hours before the train was supposed to depart. We went to the station to try to change the ticket to the 7th, but no luck - that's what I got for getting the cheap special price tickets. So we raced back to the hostel, packed in a matter of minutes and were out the door. We ended up being early for the train which turned out to be delayed for departure by nearly an hour. Then in the morning, there was a problem with the brakes so we were delayed in arrival to Amsterdam and had to switch to a non-German train once we got to The Netherlands. How ironic, the society where everything is 'punkthlich' was the one train I took that wasn't.
This train was only Hannah and I in the cabin, so it was basically a twin.... private room, ahhh, something that was so nice among all the hostels sharing the space with at least 10 other people.
We arrive in Berlin in an uber clean, new, glass train station - how German. As we arrived so early in the morning we went to do the free walking tour of Berlin, well worth it, the guide was really good. It's quite a world wind tour of the cities main sites but the guide gave us enough history so we had some context to appreciate the sights better. As well as the more serious sights he showed us the hotel where Michel Jackson dangled his baby out the window.
I really liked Berlin, even though it is the capital city it never felt overly busy or crowded. There is always something to do. The tour was a good start as we went back to a few of the sites to have a better look at them. The Reichstag, the home of the German Parliament was re-designed in the 90's by British Arechtech, Norman Foster, with it there is a giant glass dome that people can walk up. It's free to enter so we spent most of the morning queuing and getting to the top to see the views of Berlin.
We ate the compulsory bratwurst and drank the Berlin beer which has a bear for the logo as many many years ago during the beginning of Berlin it was called bear town because there were so many bears in the forested wood where the founding community choose to settle.
Museums are free on Thursdays from 6pm so we took advantage and went to the Atlas museum to see a Egyptian and Ancient Greek exhibition. The following day we went to the Babylon: Myths and Truth exhibition which was a really interesting look at the myths surrounding the city then to contrast that a seperate exhibition into the reality of life in the city.
The evening of the 5th September Hannah and I were waiting to go to the cinema and I was checking our on going train ticket when I noticed our train was half past midnight on the 6th. Basically I got confused with times and dates, I thought we had one more night and the whole day in Berlin, but turns out we didn't. We figured this out about two hours before the train was supposed to depart. We went to the station to try to change the ticket to the 7th, but no luck - that's what I got for getting the cheap special price tickets. So we raced back to the hostel, packed in a matter of minutes and were out the door. We ended up being early for the train which turned out to be delayed for departure by nearly an hour. Then in the morning, there was a problem with the brakes so we were delayed in arrival to Amsterdam and had to switch to a non-German train once we got to The Netherlands. How ironic, the society where everything is 'punkthlich' was the one train I took that wasn't.
Poland
11th September 2008
The train from Moscow to Krakow had the best sheets and blankets, really thick and cosy. There were three beds to the cabin in this train so it was pretty squished but we were lucky that the third bed was ub-occupied. We figured out that you could move the middle bed down to make a seat, this didn't really please the train officer as when he walked past our cabin he started shouting at us. He was gesturing wildly to our beds and saying the word 'ticket' over and over. The only conclusion we could come to was that he was annoyed we weren't in our allocated beds. Speaking to a Polish family in the morning they wouldn't tell us all the details, no idea why, but apparently we should have asked the train officer before we moved the beds.
After Moscow, Krakow was a much nicer place, the sun was also shining and it was hot which is always a plus. Really small centre, loads of cafes and shops to go to around the Rynek Glowny central square. Spent the first day wondering around in the sun, shopping for amber, soaking in the lively atmosphere. The hostel we were staying in was a really nice place to meet people and they always had some kind of event going on in the evening. At the vodka tasting event Hannah and I had a shot with vodka, Tabasco and raspberry juice, I didn't think it was too bad.
Our first day trip from the town was to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where we went on a guided tour with someone who was 25 when she was imprisoned there. It was a very haunting, somber experience going to the site of massive human imprisonment, torture and death. The brick houses where they 'lived' have been made into a museum showing the history, progression and the reality of what happened there between 1941-45, showing displays of some of the suitcases, shoes, cooking utensils, hairbrushes of the thousands and thousands people that entered into the camp. Being there affected me more than any war film, documentary, museum and it is something that should be seen.
Our second day trip from the town was to the mountain ski resort of Zakopane, down in the south near the Slovakian boarder. Obviously it's summer so there was no snow, but all the houses looked cute and wood cabiny and I could see them all covered in snow. (Would like to go back when it is snowy.) We took the cable car up to the top after looking for it most of the day, saw some lakes in the middle of the mountains and took in the clean, fresh air.
Spend the last day in Krakow looking at the amber again and I am pleased to tell you all that I successfully bought a green amber pendant that I am very happy with. This is where I said good-bye to Sarah and continued on to Berlin with my sister, Hannah.
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