Denmark

A few short days after bidding a sad good-bye to Marie (after spending a last weekend in Leipzig with her at her friend Pauline's), we headed to Denmark. Our friends Calin and Susanne had been there already for a week and a half when we arrived, as they were vacationing at Susanne's parents' home there.

We didn't want to spend a fortune on train tickets (and believe me, it can cost a lot to take the train only a few hours here), so we were thrilled when we were able to find some cheap 29 euro tickets from Jena to Rostock, where we could catch the ferry to Falster island, where Susanne's parents live. The only catch was that we had to take 7 different trains from 22:50 Wednesday night until 8:03 Thursday morning, and the longest single train ride was one hour and thirteen minutes. On the upside, it meant that I could work all day on Wednesday and still get to spend Thursday in Denmark, so I was all for it. And for once, Deutsche Bahn didn't let us down with hopelessly late connections. (One train was somewhat late, but the train we had to catch after was also slightly late so it all worked out.) To remember our foolishness, we decided to take pictures at every train station we stopped at.

So here's Jer in Jena at around 22:45, waiting for the first train to arrive...
And then half an hour later here I am in Naumburg...
And then in Halle (an der Saale) waiting for train number 3...
I even managed to sleep a little on that train, when I wasn't being bothered by Jeremi photographing me.And then at 1:22 we made it to Magdeburg, where we got to hang out for around 3 hours waiting for the next train. We managed to find a bench in the station, but the doors were left open all night. Luckily we'd thought to bring a blanket, so Jeremi was able to get some warm sleep. Unfortunately it was continuously interrupted by a few really drunk men who decided to hang out at the train station all night, occasionally singing and shouting to experience the excellent accoustics. Ah, Magdeburg.
And from there the next stop was Stendal...
and then Wittenberge.
Yup, it's really getting lighter now. And then we transferred trains again in Schwerin,
until finally we made it to Rostock!But our transportation was not over. We actually took another regional train up to the ferry terminal, and then boarded the ferry to Denmark. We didn't get a picture of the last regional train, but Jeremi did take a picture of these enourmous windmill blades that were on the ground at the port:
Here's a picture of the ferry after it arrived:
And here's Calin and Susanne's car, when they came to pick us up:
Finally, we made it to Susanne's parents' house. We were staying in their guest cabin in the backyard, which was just perfect. (Her dad originally built it as a shed, but he did too good a job, so it became a cabin for guests.) Here's me unpacking my bag, getting on my swimsuit before we spent the afternoon swimming in the warm (and surprisingly fresh!) waters of the Baltic sea.
On Friday they took us to yet another island, to a park where there were huge chalk cliffs going into the sea. We'd never seen chalk "in the wild" before, and that was pretty damn cool. So we took a whole bunch of pictures.
On the way there we stopped in another town, had some beers at a local brewpub, and looked at shoes and sunglasses. Calin and I tried on sunglasses that made us look like celebrities:
(These sunglasses were actually pretty cool, because I couldn't see the frames at all while I was wearing them, but they fit really tightly to my face, so they fogged up from the moisture of my eyes. They also shifted around like crazy when I smiled because they were sitting halfway down my cheeks. Maybe this is why Victoria Beckham never smiles.)

On Friday night we went to a village party nearby so that Susanne could meet up with an old friend from high school. The village was really small, and the party was in someone's backyard in a big tent. When we first arrived a really drunk man who didn't speak English at all sort of adopted me, and we sort of made conversation in German while he brought me around to introduce me to people, and then he sat me down and brought us beers. Here's the tent from the party:
After a while the mosquitoes came out a bit so we headed back to Susanne's friend's parents' place for a few more drinks and conversation. (We really want Susanne and Calin to visit Canada with us sometime, but we think it might be better in the late fall or winter, because I think they'd die if they had to put up with our mosquitoes. Calin's been to Minnesota before, so at least he knows what it'll be like...)

On Saturday it was Hans' (Susanne's dad's) birthday. They have a belief in Denmark that if you're good during the year then the weather is nice on your birthday. Hans must have been really, really bad, as it poured rain for much of the day, making a small lake in their backyard.

We went to visit a nice little harbour town during the day, with a beautiful castle that some rich people actually own, and maybe even live in from time to time. Here we are in front of the castle:
And on the walk along the waterfront we found a big old teeter-totter which provided us with no end of entertainment. The handle was really low, such that if you were getting bumped while at the top holding on to the handle just made you fly forward instead of only up. And of course with me teeter-tottering against Jeremi, I was getting bumped a lot. They got a great picture of me looking terrified here:
And another of Jeremi's graceful dismount. He's really all leg, I swear.
On the way home we stopped for ice cream at a place we'd seen earlier that made their own waffle cones that smelled so good. But since it had been raining all day the sidewalk and patio were somewhat flooded, so we had to ditch our shoes and go wading to the cafe.
And there we were served the biggest ice creams I have ever seen in my whole life. And we only got the medium size! They also came with about a cup full of either whipped cream or marshmallow fluff on top. I finished it, but it hurt. And I never want to eat ice cream again.
Here's Susanne hiding behind hers:
Then that night we had a big delicious birthday supper for Hans. Actually, every meal that we ate there was big and delicious. We were truly well fed, and pretty well never hungry.
It was sort of like visiting my family in this regard, where there is sometimes too much food. I forgot to mention the supper on Thursday night, which was a traditional Danish meal of potatoes with a white sauce with parsley, beets, and something like really thick slices of bacon cooked until crispy. And the restaurant even had a thatched roof, which was pretty common there (and in norther Germany), but a huge novelty to us. And the breakfasts and the lunch that met us when we got back from the ferry were huge arrays of breads and toppings. It seems that these toppings are sort of a set thing though, and a particular sauce goes with a particular cheese or meat, and it's not really done to mix and match them in strange and different ways, which of course we did. (Usually Susanne's dad gets scolded for doing this, so he was happy to have someone even worse than him.) And now we're sort of in overeating detox, at least for now. Though all this talk of food is making me hungry... ...but not for ice cream.

Prague: not a cultural experience

I have to admit that the title came from Marie, and not us. The problem was not Prague lacking culture, it's practically dripping with it, but rather the way in which we experienced Prague that may have been less edifying than it might have been.

We were really there as tag-alongs with Marie. Four years ago she took a month-long course in Barcelona to teach English as a foreign language, and she and three of her classmates were having a reunion in Prague at the end of July. (They had another reunion two years ago in Beijing, and the next one is planned for Montreal in 2009.)

But it wasn't just Marie, her three friends, and us. Here's the rundown of our travelling companions: Vicki, English, around 30, living in Barcelona; Joanna, also English and around 30, living in the UK; Robin, American, around 45, been living in Beijing for the past 20 or so years; Addy, from Hong Kong, around 35, Robin's boyfriend; Harvey, 8, originally from the Philippines but adopted son of Robin living in Beijing; and Nick, 18, from North Carolina, Robin's nephew (and who he introduced to us as his niece). And of course the three of us.

And so everywhere we went we were 9 people, continually doing headchecks and trying to negotiate large tables at cafés. And we were a loud and boisterous group of 9, not exactly blending in smoothly. Here's a picture of our motley crew, less Jeremi:
From left foreground, moving clockwise, that is Nick, Marie, Addy, Harvey, me, Vicki, Robin, and Joanna.

We took the train to Prague Wednesday night after work, and got in fairly late. Jeremi and I were supposed to be staying at some sort of apartment, as there was no room left at the hotel where the others were booked. From the train station we went there but it was really an apartment building, with no check-in or anything like it. (This was a bit of a mistake on our parts - we were supposed to go to another office to pick up the keys.) After a phone call to the emergency contact number of the booking agency we found out that (a) we had to go pick up our keys somewhere else and (b) the place we booked was occupied, but there was another apartment for us only a block away from where Marie and the others were staying. Though it meant a lot of walking around town after midnight, it did really work out well for us in the end. We had a huge 2 bedroom apartment, complete with a full kitchen (even a North American-sized fridge!), an eating area, a living room, and a TV with a few channels. It was perfect, and cheaper than the hotel. We didn't take any pictures of the apartment from the inside, but here's a view from the street.

Thursday we spent walking around the old city, seeing some of the sites, such as the famous Karlov bridge. We ate and drank well of course, partaking in much of the famous Czech beer and their tasty meat-centred traditional dishes. Among the sites we saw was the astronomical clock on one of the churches in the old city square:
and this crazy statue of upside-down trees by the river:
And a nice view of the castle from the old bridge:
Friday was our day of actual cultural experiences. We took a bus an hour northwest of the city (almost a third of the way back home, actually), to the town of Terezin, or Theresienstadt as it's called in German. This is an old fortified city that was designated a Jewish ghetto by the Nazis during the war. Jews (and people married to Jews or designated Jews for whatever reason) were shipped there from all over Europe, and held before being moved onto labour or death camps. Naturally many people died there, often from disease brought on by malnutrition, overcrowding, and poor sanitation. Something like 145 000 people were brought to Theresienstadt during the war, 33 000 of them died there, and only 17 000 were left when the Soviets liberated it. It was a difficult place to visit, and I found it incredibly upsetting. I can't believe that people still live in such a place. (The last non-Jewish residents were forced out in the early 1940s, but people moved back after 1948, when the Soviets stopped using it as an internment camp for ethnic Germans.) What it made me realize is that I should never go to Auschwitz, no matter how good an idea it seems at the time. We didn't really take any pictures here.

After returning to Prague Friday evening we went out for supper to a restaurant where there just happened to be a drag show that evening. After some consultation we decided to stay for it. For Marie and Jeremi it was their first time at a drag show, and it was fabulous. The people at the bar had no problem with Harvey staying as well as long as his dad didn't mind, so everyone got to enjoy it. And enjoy it we did, singing along and dancing on benches as the night wore on. Here's one of the lovely ladies:
and Marie and I whispering secrets to each other...
and Addy and Vicki singing along for all they're worth...
and Marie up on the bench, singing, and holding up someone's lighter...
Ah yes, good times were had by all.

Saturday was somewhat slower after a night like that, and Jeremi and I only met up with the rest of the group for supper. I also only stayed out until 1:00 or so on Saturday night, while Jeremi, Joanna, Vicki, Nick, and Marie stayed out until around 5:00 at a neighbourhood bar where people kept trying to sell us drugs.

Sunday morning the others weren't really up before lunch, so Jeremi and I took the opportunity to visit an old fort only about 5 minutes from where we were staying. Inside there was a gothic cathedral with really beautiful mosaics on its doors, as well as the national cemetary, which is filled with writers, poets, musicians, and artists.
We also found it really funny that all along the outer sides of the walls of the fort they'd built clay tennis courts, and there was a tennis club just outside the ancient fort's walls. Here's a view from the top of one of the walls:
On Sunday our big group outing (before leaving on the train in the afternoon) was to the Museum of Communism. This museum was located in the same building as a casino next to a McDonalds, so you might be able to guess that they weren't looking back fondly at the good old days. In fact, the level of pro-capitalist propaganda was really quite amazing. Still it was interesting thing to see, and they had a really fabulous sign:
as well as great old statues of Carl and Lenny (Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin):

Sunday we headed back on the train, and we'd made reservations as the train is often busy on Sundays. When we got to our seats we found that we were three out of a group of four (two pairs of chairs facing each other), but that the fourth seat was taken up by a man who was sleeping very heavily. He'd also left some of his things on one of our seats, so we were trying to gently wake him up so that he could move them. But there was no waking this guy up. We tried talking and even gently shaking him, but there's only so much we felt comfortable doing to a complete stranger who was much older than us (around 60) and with whom we may or may not share a language.

And so instead we moved his things to the floor and Jeremi climbed in carefully to the place beside him where his legs barely fit, while Marie and I were sobbing with laughter.Once back at home we needed a couple days to take it easy (while I was working, of course), so Marie and the cat chilled out and studied German while drinking sangria.

Bern, Switzerland

Here we met Kathy, Gerd's girlfriend who is a costume designer for dancers. She also does many other things like making shoes. She made us a wonderful supper with bread and cheese and a million delicious salads. She lives in a wonderful house on the side of a hill just outside of Bern with a splendid view of a field with cows. One of the cows is highly agoraphobic and grazes far away from the other four. Here you can see the enormous patio where we ate while enjoying the view.

Gerd showed us some very interesting fountains in Bern that look like this.

They all have different top pieces that represent certain people or myths.



The strangest of which was the baby eater.


Freaky.

And this is the artsy photo Marie wanted of us drinking out of a fountain at the same time.



The next day we went to Brienz which is a nice little town in an alpine valley and on lake Brienz. There we had a lovely walk along the lake


and took a ferry to the other side.



Kathy was only with us for the walk as she had to go help give a shoe making course. On the other side was the oldest funicular in Europe. We didn't take it since it only went up to a hotel and cafe and we had just had ice cream. Instead we walked up a little path and saw some waterfalls.







During her vacation, Marie often spoke of "Blog Worthy" pictures. The next one is a nice photo of her but I'm obviously wearing too much shirt in the one of Julia and I for it to be blog worthy.

Montreux, Switzerland

Last week, Marie, Julia and I went to Switzerland via Tübingen to see Kevin and Gerd. Me and Julia know Kevin from Halifax. He studied in the physics department at Dalhousie University with Julia. As it sometime happens, we forgot the camera in the car and thus have no photographic evidence. But we can tell you that we had a great time. We went to see where Kevin and Lisa (his girlfriend) worked, the Max Plank Institute for crazy brain science, where we could buy cold beer from a vending machine (first time buying cold beer in germany!). We drank them next to the lake. It might be important to mention the incredible dimensions and state of the “lake”. We were standing next to an algae congealed 0.5 m by 1.5 m pond when Kevin said “ oh yeah, and this is the lake” and then proceeded to bounce rather than skip a rock along it’s length. Then we played ping pong and went back to Kevin’s place were we drank until 3 or 4 ish. Good times, and a good start to our Swiss vacation. Thanks, Kevin and Lisa.

Next stop, Switzerland. We drove to Lausanne the next morning to go see Gerd. Gerd was a regular on our blog as he was a friend of ours in Victoria and was one of Julia’s officemates. Now he lives in Lausanne and works at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. We met him at his work also and went to the student union pub which sells a hundred different types of beer. Of course the first four I tried to order they were either out or the brewery had stopped brewing a long time ago. The next day we went to Montreux another city along Lake Geneva (or Lac Léman in french). There was a Jazz festival there that is apparently famous.

We walked along the lake to the Château de Chillon, which looked pretty well maintained compared to our experiences so far with German castles (except maybe for the Rococco one). Very fairy tale-looking, being on a lake and everything.

The day was hot and the water was pretty warm, but unfortunately we'd forgotten our bathing suits in the car. This didn't stop us from going as close to swimming as we could without soaking our clothes, however.
As the evening came we were able to see some of the first evidence that there really was a music festival town, and we caught the end of a set by a salsa band from the University of Texas at the free outdoor stage. We considered staying to see more later, but opted for supper instead, which ended up being a good idea as there were severe thundershowers while we were eating.

And what was supper, you might ask? Naturally a heaping pot of cheese fondue for Jeremi, Marie, and myself, to finish off our Montreux experience. (Gerd chose not to partake, having instead a quite tasty Rösti, which is a bit like a swiss latke or potato pancake.)


and finally one last image from Montreux - the statue of Freddy Mercury along the waterfront. He wasn't actually from there (he was actually born in Zanzibar, of all places), but it seems that Queen's record label had a recording studio in town, and he felt very much at home there, and appreciated the discretion accorded by its citizens regarding his lifestyle.
Our next stop (and our next post) was in Bern. Stay tuned...