Newt's Travel Log

Dreaming of Romania

2006-10-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

This place really has a grip on me.. I can't stop thinking about it, and soon i can visit again and explore everything that i missed. i've started reading romanian blogs and searching out any pictures i can find..

My book list

2006-10-12T11:06:00.000-04:00

Before it slips my mind, here's what i read while traveling europe; * = favorite

mort - prachett
*neverwhere - gaiman
neuromancer - gibson
da vinci code - brown
foundation - asimov
istanbul: memories and the city - pamuk (skipped)
fancies and goodnights - collier
40 watts from nowhere - carpenter
barrel fever - sedaris
hells angles - thompson
*another bullshit night in suck city - flynn
the man in the high castle - dick
slaughterhouse 5 - vonnegut
death in the afternoon - hemingway (skipped)
gangland - williams
the joy - howard

Final thoughts?

2006-10-10T20:40:00.002-04:00

Here are some rambling and perhaps final thoughts...

I really appreciate toilet paper, both the existence of, and quality, in most public restrooms in the US so far. Yes yes, what a thing to say but its really the small things that make the most difference. In Romania they had either 1) none or 2) party streamers. seriously.

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At the beginning of our trip someone told us that for him traveling was all about meeting people (to party with). Bah! what are you talking about?!, we replied, its all about the sites and scenery. Now after a month of solo travel i see exactly what he meant. Some of my destinations were made great because of the people i met there.

Simple living was another wonderful part of my trip. I lived out of a medium sized backpack for 2 months and shopped for food at tiny markets... and now i'm home with dozens of tshirts, 4 pair of pants and 2 pairs of sneakers! so much stuff... and i went to walmart yesterday. it almost drained all the europe out of me. good lord. what a giigantic crapfest of useless junk. hmmm. i see that i'm back to my cynical self. :)

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post trip resolutions
- stop being an anti-social bastard and meet more ppl
- walk more (although i just bought a new car, doh!)
- avoid TV and over-working, do more "living"

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Top 5 things to bring when backpacking europe:

1. earplugs (check!), for the loud snorers in ever hostel
2. flip flops (didn't bring), for use in showers... sometimes the soles of my feet itch when hiking, is it a longing for europe or shower foot?
3. small compass (didn't bring), would have help me get oriented with maps many many times.. instead i got lost
4. flash light (didn't bring), to avoid getting killed at night on unlight irish roads and for late night rummaging in hostel dorms
5. toilet paper (check!), for eastern europe (see above) or long hikes only

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My favorite places:

Bucharest, Romania

Jungfrau Region, Switzerland (aka interlaken, lauterbrunnen and gimmelwald)

Doolin, County Clare, Ireland (off season only, i've heard its hell in the summer)

Ireland, Finally

2006-10-10T19:41:00.000-04:00

Here are a few favorites from Ireland, see more in my ireland photoset.

thatched roof on St. John's Peninsula

Giant's Causeway
Giant's Causeway
Irish breakfast aka heart attack
zen/buddhist adam in galway
session in The Crane, galway
dangling on the cliffs of moher
socializing at the aille river hostel, doolin
buring peet and wood in the hostel, toasty
Our hostel in dingle
Good music at The Small Bridge pub in dingle
A rainbow over the dingle peninsula

Home!!

2006-10-02T16:00:00.000-04:00

Got in last night, weird feeling to be home, to wear different clothes and hold a cell phone. More commentaries, pictures and a full recap of ireland on the way. stay tuned.

A few pictures (which i did not take)

2006-09-26T09:56:00.000-04:00

I saw this women and the man below play at McDermotts pub last night. They were joined by an irish bagpipe and acoustic guitar. They were phenominal.

The Cliffs of Moher. I had hike the bottom half of the cliffs yesterday and today i drove out the far end (see upper right hand of picture) and hiked around an old tower that is still standing.
This is the Aille River Hostel where i am staying.

Doolin

2006-09-25T12:16:00.000-04:00

I'm staying at a wonderful hostel on a small river in the tiny town of Doolin, in county clare. They are renowned for their traditional music which is performed at informal jam sessions in the few local pubs in town. So far this place is perfect, a coffee shop, a small deli/grocery and a crafts store which sells used books. Coffee, food and books. Perfect. Awesome scenery as well and this hostel is really cosey. Went to see Cliffs of Moher today, which are close by to Doolin. Pretty good but i liked Giants Causeway and Fair Head much better. Tons of tourists at Moher. Last night i went to The Crane in Galway city and saw a traditional music set, with about 10-12 musicians and singers. All improv, unplaned jam. It was wicked. 3 fiddles, 2 accordians, 2 banjos, 1 guitar, 1 madolin (thingy), a small flute, and later two people who sang and played guitar along with everyone else. Talked with an older women from galway about life and such. Upstairs "crooked still" from Boston was playing.. what are the chances that a boston band plays while in the same pub as me.? sold out though. too bad. Internet is expensive and the free kind usually doesn't let you upload pics.. Maybe, soon. Just think: green.

Giants Causeway, NI coastline and Galway

2006-09-24T10:40:00.000-04:00

Hello from Galway!

For the last few days i've traveled from dublin, west to county Sligo then north along the coast curving around eventually to the Giants Causeway which is in North East Ireland. I saw so much beautiful countryside, rolling hills, mountains, oceans calm and rough, and drove out onto a few peninsulas. Giant's Causeway and Fair Head were the best so far. Giants Causeway is a set of huge cliffs which interesting rock formations. From there you can see Fair Head to the east. This is another massive cliff which i hiked to the top of and peered over the edge. The hike was through farm land with only tiny trails to guide your way and nothing on the cliff to stop you from failing off. Wait till you see pictures. The east coast of northern ireland was also very beautiful, extremely rugged seas and some forests. I drove all the way down to belfast and was going to spend a few hours but parking was problematic so i drove diaganol west back to Sligo and stayed in the same hostel as a few days ago.. luckily i left some food there by mistake and it hadn't been thrown out, so i had free dinner that night after a long drive. Right now i'm in Galway city. Very nice place, small, nice square in the middle and some wonderful looking pubs. I watched a women playing a traditional irish instrumental that looked like a cross between a bag pipe and accordian. Tonight i'm going to "The Crane" which is supposed to have the best jam session for trad. music in galway. Tomorrow i may go to the Aran Islands and then head south to The Burren area, to Doolin because i've been told by numerous people that they have _the best_ music in all of ireland in the pubs there. If i don't get stuck there, then south to county clare and kerry (yes, cliffs of moher, dingle, et al). So far i've only had 1 traditional irish meal, breakfast. What a heartattack. 1 egg, 6 pieces of toast, 2 sausages, 2 _slabs_ of bacon, 3 or 4 pieces of some type of sweet bread, beans, a grilled tomato, half dozen whole mushrooms. i didn't eat lunch or dinner. really. Sometime soon, i'll have some "pub grub"...

Green, Green and Green

2006-09-21T10:19:00.000-04:00

Now i see why green is for irish... All the hills and valleys are a thick patchwork of green, segmented by old stone walls or bushes. Its very beautiful so far.The hillsides are full of cows and sheep of all different colors. Right now i'm in Donegal town in Donegal county, near the west coast, north of Sligo County, where i spent the night in a youth hostel with a frenchmen, dane, aussie and kiwi, watching simpsons, southpark and other american tv. it was very relaxing. I'm driving a little Fiat Punto 4 door. Not as small as i hoped but good enough. Driving on the left side of the road was quick to pick up, although there are times where you have to double check before turning,, a hint of doubt coming into your mind as to what side you should be on. Besides being green here, its expensive, on par with London i would imagine but with far fewer hostels and "cheap" accomodations. My current plan is to continue north along west coast and come around to the Giant's Causeway and then cut a diagonal back to the west coast again. I'm also pondering Iceland after realizing that ireland is a small island. I'll see how far i've made it after 5 days and maybe geta cheap flight to iceland.

Work Will Free (you)

2006-09-18T16:11:00.000-04:00

Today i visited concentration camps in Oświęcim, Poland. There is Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II aka Birkenau. The following are the only photos i took. Ask me more about it in person.

Beautiful tree covered lane.. The grounds and buildings here are "relativley" nice because it was not designed as a death camp but rather a campus for soldiers.

One of the entrances to Auschwitz with the words "arbeit macht frei", meaning "Work Will Free" (you) or "Work Liberates".

Israeli students visiting, flying many many flags.

This is Birkenau, which was designed from scatch for the purpose of extermination. The main entrance/guard tower sits at the end of this rail line, look hard and you will see it and realize how large this place is.

Inside the latrine houses, "Behave Calmly"

Poland Pix

2006-09-18T15:53:00.000-04:00

In Vienna, Austria, the old men play chess. In lublin, poland, they play cards in the park.

Countryside, travling by train to Krakow from Lublin

A hazy morning in Polska

Walking down the mine shift at the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Recently closed in 1996, started production in 1300s and the area has been used for salt since 3000 BC.

Inside the mines are incredible statues and monuments carved out of the salt rock by common workers. This women is the patron saint of the mine and is recieving a diamond ring (which she had thrown into the mine early)... i think.

Mine tunnels, note white salt walls. they also mine "grey" salt.

We were allowed to lick the walls if we so inclined... i was not.

A carving of a gnome. Miners believed these creatures lived and worked in the mines.

The church inside the mine.. Crazy!! Gorgeous carvings all over the place and it is still used as an active chapel. notice the carving at the middle top of the picture (in the middle of the altar), it is glowing. The grey salt is so pure that it can be illuminated almost as if it were a clear substance.

Dedicated to the workers

A miners prayer. I think it is the other prayer (not pictured), which ends in "God Bless". Miners would not say hello or goodbye but rather God Bless.

Romania pix

2006-09-18T15:36:00.000-04:00

View from "palace of the people" in bucharest.

concrete apartment buildings at the other end of avenue seen above, built during communist rule. now sprouting all types of adverts.

The Infuriated Donut. i'll take this over dunkin donuts any day.

Another church in bucharest. People to left of church are lining up to hand in prayers and intentions to be said by priests inside.

Carpathian mountains, on the train to Brasov. If you look closely at the high peak on right, you will see a cross. Placed there in memory of all the romanians who died in war.

Church art in Brasov

From a cemetary in Brasov

Brasov is the second biggest city in Romania... this entitles them to a HOLLYWOOD type sign in the mountains. You can hike or take cable car up there for great views.

Peleş Castle in Sinaia

Can you tell which bill is worth more?

So called Turkish Toilet..

Ireland ahoy! - update

2006-09-17T12:38:00.000-04:00

Krakow has been really nice so far.. Took the redeye train (5:30am) from lublin to krakow, staying at Nathan's Villa Hostel (run by nathan from lowell, ma). Went to see the big salt mine 30 minutes away. It was wicked. Tons of statues and even a church carved out of salt rock. Wait for the pics. Tomorrow i will go to auschwitz early and then hopefully start my journey to Ireland. I'm going to skip berlin.. just not feeling the big cities anymore. After buying the lonely planet book on ireland i meet a couple from ireland in the big plaza here. They filled me in on the best part to visit and what to avoid.. I will attempt to rent a car and travel the west coast, going as far north as Mayo area. Wish me luck! Hopefully upload some pictures soon, don't hold your breath though.

UPDATE:
just booked my flights and car; i will land in dublin on 19th, rent a "mini" car (e.g. really small, not mini the brand), drive to northwest and then make my way down coast to catch a flight on 30th from Cork. This will be my first time driving on left side of road (on purpose) and with a stick shift at that (automatics are uncommon and expensive).. Wooohoooo!!

I'm hoping my car will be about this size:

Also - Good Lord is ryanair cheap!! My flight over was expensive cause i booked last minute but my flight back to london was roughly $17. That is great.

Lublin, Poland

2006-09-16T14:21:00.000-04:00

Hello from Lublin, another quaint city/town.. I just booked a super early train to Krakow (5:30am), I will stay there for a day or so, then to berlin and then i think i will fly to ireland for a week or so.. europe is starting to all look the same. I'm yearning for more country settings but that is difficult when traveling by train, without a car, so i've decided to bang out the last few cities i'd like to visit and hopefully get over a week in ireland. If anyone has lovely spots for me to see, please email or leave comment, ASAP. I will be home in two weeks from now. It will be a nice change of scenary and i cant wait to see everyone and for caitlin and i to share stories.. we'll need to have a massive slide show party.

To repeat - send ireland suggestions now!!

Bye!

Warsaw, Poland.

2006-09-15T13:55:00.000-04:00

I landed a few hours ago in Warsaw. 1 hour flight from Bucharest. My bank card works and staying at a nice hostel. So far the city seems nice.. It was almost totally flattened in second world war, so most is new. There is a small old town that i may visit tomorrow but my priority is to get out of here and into the country. Will be heading south and stop in a few towns on my way to Krakow. Meet a couple from NY and two businessmen from CT and an older married couple from Ohio who were helping at an orphanage in bucharest.. Got yet another stamp in my passport and picked up some more weird money. I will hopefully have a nice collection when i get back.

Okay - trivia time. First person to answer correctly will win a trinket from europe.

Below is a picture of the "palace of culture and science" in Warsaw. It was a gift to Poland from Stalin during polands domination by Russia. Many poles have a strong dislike for the building. The question: why do these same poles say the best view of warsaw is from its observation deck?

Romania

2006-09-14T12:41:00.000-04:00

The wild ride that is bucharest...

I met a woman in budapest (who has a boyfriend, don't worry!) who was supposed to spend 6 weeks there.. budapest (in hungary) is a great city but i suggested that she is slightly nuts to spend all her time in one place.. And so the short of it is that she asked to travel with me, and we ended up flying to bucharest, capital of romania. It was great to have someone to travel with and ended up being a total life saver, when, at bucharest airport (decided to skip the 12+ hour train ride) i discover that my bank card does not work.. i have never gotten into teh habit of taking out huge sums of money because its so easy to just hit the ATM. i also did not have a return ticket, 1 way, in order to be flexible with where i go next. If i hadn't been traveling with her, shirley, then i would be pan handling at the airport, now still.. I did end up figuring out a way to get money out of my credit card (there is 1 bank big enough which allows you to withdraw on your card at the bank counter). phew. I, we, stayed in a great hostel called the funky chicken. The accomadations were okay but the people i meet were great. Talked with 2 germans, 3 guys from holland (where if you are 6ft in height, you are considered short, seriously), dave the rave from UK (wonderful guy), 2 brit women, and a bunch of others, including a guy from finland who lives in argentina but has spent the last 3-4 months in bucharest. Also randomly meet a german (who lives in vienna) on the way to see the palace (see below). People drank, played chess, read books, watched english language TV :) Wonderful. Some short images to describe Bucharest: loud, dirty, poor, congested, smog, communist style concrete buildings, huge "palace of the people", wonderful othrodox churches, friendly people, a lot of stray dogs.. This is definitely Eastern Europe. Budapest (hungary) had 1/8 of the eastern feel this place does. Mixed heavly into the commie vibe is capitalism booming strong, with huge billboards on the old communist built apartment complexes. very odd constrast. The major redeming factor of this place for me was visiting the orthodox churches, experiencing the people practicing their religion: everyone makes sign of cross when passing the church, they kneel on the stone/marble floors (ouch), their are no pews, big golden pictures of religious figures which are touched and kissed, huge lines of people writing down prayers and offers to be said by multiple priest all at the same time..

Also today and yesterday i spent a day and night in Brasov, 3 hours north bucharest. This is second biggest city, wonderful place, reminds me a bit of old town in prague. In the morning we paid the hostel owner, a wonderful man named gabrielle to drive us to Sinaia, 1 hour south to see the castles (thanks maryann!!). They were fantastic, ornate decorations, a lot of gorgeous carved wood, marble, all types of design. Couldn't take pictures inside, so look up Sinaia castles or something (they actually have different names but you'll find them). Then he drove us back to bucharest so shirley could get a flight back to budapest (and eventually back to california where she is from). There were no flights going to ukraine or Poland and I decided to skip Turkey because my bank card won't work their either.. (my bank doesn't support a few countries, including the above mentioned.. small detail i forgot about, will be fine once in poland). I'm also skipping ukraine until further notice because the visa details are still a little sketchy and the airport women said they may hassle if i don't have a return ticket (and i only book 1 way!). I'm also skipping Republic of Moldova and Trainsdneistr after speaking with an ex-pat who said the visa price will be infalted because i'm American, he paid 130 euro to get entry. So I am heading to Poland, Warsaw, tomorrow afternoon. I'm back at the chicken hostel for tonight. It was good traveling with someone for a few days but i am well ready to get back on my own.

Look, me! in a photo! Standing in front of the gienormous "palace of the people" built by last commie dictator of romania (who was overthrown and put to the firing squad in 89). This is the 2nd largest building in the world, the first being pentagon.
Ortho Christian church. I don't think i took any pictures inside, but wonderfully different from the churches of western europe. very dark, heavy painted walls with designs and pictures. Most are black inside from soot from being light by flame before dawn of electricity.
This is also bucharest. Perhaps one of the worse looking buildings, but things generally don't get too much better.
Another shot of the palace
Another concrete apartment block. Go communism!

In green, dave from england, others: from holland, clockwise: a journalist, a nueropycsh doctor, a medical doctor. Spents a few hours talking about english language dialects, politics and life. wonderful.
Our tour guide for the palace, an awesome guy. A native of bucahest. He always asked us "why do you act like this is a funeral?". Everyone was very quit on the tour.. I felt it was partly because of his... voice.. attitude.. mannerisms. which i've found to be typical of the city. He gives off a vibe of being serious, perhaps monotone at times.. but then he cracks jokes and other stuff and you see he's really not like you first thought. Its slightly hard to explain.. In the end , i really liked the romanian people.
These are two models of the Dacia automobile company. WHen the communists were in power, everything was controlled, rationed and manufactored by The State. You want a car? You go on a waiting list to get a Dacia. I learn later that only one model was made at a time, for a run of several years. Our host in Brasov could tell us how old any car on the street was just by the model.. You wouldn't of even had the choice between the two above, or color. Just CAR. On top of all this, they are pieces of junk and feel like a tin can. That was all was available during the communist rule. Nothing else. So really, not to sound cliche, and not that i like everything about the US car market or capitalism, but this alternative sucks.. period. It was very eye opening.

Another wonderful church.

Hello from Bucharest

2006-09-12T08:59:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update, i am currently in bucharest, romania. Tomorrow i travel to brasov (in the country) and then back to bucharest. Afterwards i will either do:

1. republic of moldova, to see the "country" of transdienstr (which officially does not exist) and that is supposed to be like visiting USSR, they use rubbels, have statues to lenin, stalin, old russian tanks, etc. wild. then perhaps onto ukraine and back around to poland and berlin
or
2. south to istanbul and other parts of turkey (and maybe jordan?). and then who knows where..

Love you all
jon

Vienna Pics

2006-09-09T15:25:00.000-04:00

This poor dog could hardly keep up with slow paced owners..

the golden cabbage on top of art musuem

nicely decorated subway station
opera house

segway store! you could buy or rent, they had different models for sale including one fitted for off-roading

Budapest

2006-09-09T14:50:00.000-04:00

Budapest is made up of two parts, buda and pest. Really. Buda is the older section and Pest the more modern. I arrived this afternoon and after an hour of trying to obtain hospitality, i am now lodged at the mellow mood hostel in downtown pest. These past two days have been quite strange indeed. Last night in Vienna i went to a johnny cash tribute show in the first rock club i've found so far in europe. it was out on the outskirts of vienna (e.g. west roxbury in boston) and had a steep door fee, 15 euro, and i missed all the opening bands 'cause i figured it said 8pm, so that means doors at 8 right? Wrong. They start early in vienna. I got there around 10:15 and the last band went on at 10:30.. They did a great job with the covers. Opened with folsom prison blues, played that song "jackson" (not real title) and a really sad slow number about a girl named rose. Good stuff. felt like i was home again... until they started speaking german and people started singing along in sometimes broken english :) that made it quite surreal. The band was made up of the following characters: Rick Steve's (travel guide on pbs) german cousin was on acoustic guitar, his black haired brother on bass, and their grey haired father on lap steel. The singer looked like John Belushi and the drummer.. well, he was nothing special. They also had guest appearances by a british women who did vocals and some older gentleman who played the recorder (??). And also two young guys on trumpets for Ring of Fire, which they played twice, once to close and then again as an encore.. at which point i left. they also played folsom prison blues, again. I guess they don't have that many songs under their belt. or they like to really please the crowd. Great time though. Part two of the strangeness, or rather, americana wave i've been experiencing - tonight i walked around pest for a few hours and ended up taking the metro (oldest in europe by the way) to heroes square. And what do they have there but the biggest motorcycle rally i have ever seen in my life!! :) A conservative guess would be 1000 bikes. The majority were sport (non-cruisers) but i saw ever style imaginable, scooters, mopeds, dirt bikes, 4 wheelers, harleys, old military bikes, etc etc etc.

I like this building, real eastern europe flavor.
Basilica of Saint ???

Opera House
This was only half of the riders.. Heroes square to the right

At 8, everyone lined up on both sides of this street all the way until the buildings at the very very end. Maybe 8 city blocks

Guess the answer, win a prize - WINNER!!

2006-09-07T16:28:00.000-04:00

Guess the famous person who is visiting Munich this weekend.. No cheating, Ie no googling for the answer.

1 answer per person, leave as a comment on this entry.

First person to answer will win a prize souvenir from Europe.

Runtt takes it without a sweat!! Good job.
yes, the pope is probably arriving in munich as i type. huge preparations where underway the second day i was there.

Technical Difficulties in Munich

2006-09-06T18:29:00.000-04:00

Well i just uploaded a nice set of pics but my journal entry will not post for what ever reason.. A quick roundup of todays activites then, and i will try for pics in Vienna which i leave for early tomorrow.

Took my bike to the Royal Palace and strolled its huge garden. Read a bit more of Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, excellent book! Then i went to see the Frauenkirche Church, the landmark church of munich. It is designed in such a way that you can only see the window in back of the altar when standing at the back of the church. Its a neat effect and a unique church overall. There is also the "devils foot print" in the back of the church, made my the devil himself when he saw this "windowless" church. I also saw Asamkirche church, which is a small chapel ornately decoroted beyond all belief.. i:ve got a few nice pics. Later on i went to the Viktualienmarkt or as i call it "virtual alien market", a large traditional marketplace with butchers, produce, beer stands and everything else in between. While walking back from the market i saw a young guy about my age with a modern style of dress, from the waist up.. below his waist he was wearing lederhosen, leather shorts! They were for real, no dress up costume shorts, you could tell they were broken in.. again i have pictures, if only this friggin computer!! Later that night i went to the jazz club, unterfahrt (go ahead, say it, unter-fart, haha fart) to see "trio elf". Piano, bass and drums with a heavy use of electronics.. with the last piece thrown in, i knew it would be a crap shoot, either love it or hate it. they had potential and got into some good grooves but they also did too much free-jazz "rythms". i left after the first set. Man do i miss the music scene in boston! I haven;t been able to find anyplace inside the city that specializes in rock based music only.. nothing like the middle east, tt the bears, i;d even go for the something like the paradise.. nothing. I wanted to go see Tokyo Ska Orchestra last night it was far out on the metro and i didn;t get ready till late.. They do have a good variety of street musicians, i saw a 4 piece, two accordians, and two violins playing classical and also a great jazz quartet and a singer, guitar playing who did a comedy skit that was very entertaining.. i at first thought he was aussie (judging by odd accent when speaking english) but tonight he spoke fluent german.. interesting character.

Munich Pictures part I

2006-09-06T17:52:00.000-04:00

German countryside, on the way from Austria

Church with glockenspiel (e.g. a set of mechanical moving figures). I saw this go off twice while here.. not that exciting to watch though, i:d much rather see the show from the inside.

This truck had U.S. plates in the window.. Guess some people can;t live without their Chevy Suburban.. You will also notice the confederate flag sticker.. nice touch :/

The olympic pool, nice constrast between the lane pool (light blue) and diving pool (dark blue). i did not get to cannonball from the diving boards :(

In the large city park (twice the size of central park in NYC), they have this (man made?) surfing spot which has a constant surf wave. You jump on your board and ride the wave back and forth.. The guy above is actually body surfing the wave. Radical!!

Here is a more traditional use of the waves.

The tower in olympic park

Other thoughts on Day Two in Munich

2006-09-05T19:22:00.000-04:00

My hostel was overtaken by high school kids on some type of field trip. this is slighty annoying.. although perhaps preferable to a hostel of smashed aussies? As mentioned before, i am staying a Wombats Hostel. They are becoming a (good?) chain of youth hostels in europe. They have two in vienna and here in munich. There is indeed a story about the name.

I also rented a bike and attempted to cruize to the olympic stadium. Will i did make it but not after getting horribly lost, mostly because i:m too cheap, stupid or lazy to buy a good map. I also got lost on the way.. ug. so goes the adventure. In between the bike riding i went swimming in the olympic pool, which is open to the public everyday until 11:30pm. It was rad! They have a huge lap pool and another one for diving. The diving pool has dark blue tiles while the lap pool has light blue. Great constrast between the two. When i entered the locker maze, kids were jumping off the spring boards (yes i can say i cannonballed into an olympic pool!!). Once i found my way out to the pool, the boards were closed and a scuba class was being conducted :( i swam for a bit and then asked the lifeguard, he said yes you can "dive" later but before i could ask at what time a frantic women came run over, achtung!! achtung!! and he had to rush off to save somebody from drowning. No, really. i stuck around a bit and decided to pass on the bellyflop from 20 feet and make an attempt to see the Tokyo Ska Orchestra! Yes ska music may be dead in boston but it seems alive and well in Europe. But due to me getting lost and the fact that the concert was far out on the subway line, i ended up skipping it. too bad. i:ll try again in the next city.

Later i had dinner at Lamms, a 24 hour german restuarant.. here is the review, written at the table immediately post consumption, lonely planet listen up!

I start with goulash, basically beef stew. a good stew, mind you. spicy. with a slice of homemade rye bread. delicious. Main course is a heaping plate of steaming sauerkraut and 6 small sausages and again some rye bread + mustard. Judgement: i still don;t like ´kraut. and the sausages taste a bit weird. This place still beats McDonalds or BK (which seem to be the only other places open in the entire friggin city!!).

My dinner companions:
an english man on a cell phone talking with family.

a quite german couple, not having a great time..?

a big man eating dead animal on the bone, he is replaced by a gruby guy in a tank top who orders beer and then goes inside.

later a man arrives who i will call Mr. Fidget. it takes him perhaps 10 minutes to get comfortable and stop looking agitating by everything. he eventually piles on all the seat cushions from his table and settles into his soup.

Deutsches Museum!!!!

2006-09-05T18:37:00.000-04:00

When my sister, Kimberly, told me about the Deutsches Museum in Munich i could grasp how awesome it was.. but actually going there was another story! It kicks so much ass!!! So lets backup - the Deutsches is a large museum focusing on engineering and science topics. If you need an example, think: Smithsonian Air and Space, although this is really like comparing apples to oranges, the Deutsches completely blows away any other tech orientented muesum or exhibit. It really is hard to put into words how incredible this place is, if you are into any of the following topics: engineering, science, physics, math, computers, machinery, astronomy, aerospace, marine navigation, mining, energy topics from a-z you will love this place.

Today, i spent over 1 and 1\2 hours in the mining section alone!! and i didn;t read anything cause they didn;t have english for the section!ßß!! I would still be there right now. Adjectives for all the exhibits: BIG, HUGE, MASSIVE and impressive.

For mining exhibit, you went two or three levels underground, where they constructed replicas of all types of mine shafts and environments. Into these environments they:ve installed ooddles of real mining equipment. Gigantic drills, excavating machines, rail sytems, conveyor belts 3 rooms long. Its dark, dirty and you feel like you are in a mine shaft. It ruled.

Other huge things included: a Bessemer Converter, working water wheels, steam engines, wooden mast ship, an Eniac computer and airplanes. When ever possible, anything on display would have cross sections cut.. For instance this is a drawing of the Bessemer Converter,

See the cross section on teh right? That is what they had standing two floors tall, from a real plant, not a piece of plastic. It was outstanding!!

For now i will stop rambling you until i can post pictures... I unfortunetly underestimated this muesum and may return again before i leave.

Sorry, one more thought: i really loved a very simple exhibit: a dual pendulum. One pendulum with another pendulum at the end.. The patterns of movement you could get out of this were awesome, almost like it had a mind of its own. And all because of the two pendulums connected together and acting off each other..

LEDERHOSEN !!

2006-09-04T18:50:00.000-04:00

Here is a quick entry before i hit the hay..

After many hours of traversing the city of munich, finding most recommended cafes either undesirable or closed (e.g. the jazz club!) i head to the main square (marienplatz) in hope of something good. i'm starving (its late, maybe 9:30) so i head towards the glowing beacon of the golden arches, only to find a wonderful pizza joint run by italians. i devour two slices, a coke and a water sin gas (no bubbles folks). next to "la pizzetta", i enjoy some type of coffee beverage at hagen däz. Then i see on the opposite corner "Lederhosen Wagner"!! I store selling expensive traditional german outfits, including everyones favorite, lederhosen. i'm pondering the existence of people who still wear such an outfit out in public when lo and behold, two children clad in the 'hosen come strolling by, followed by their parents, also in traditional getup.!!! YES!! A crappy night was turned around to a perfect evening.

Just arrived in München

2006-09-04T10:26:00.000-04:00

Had a good train ride from Salzburg, talked most the way with a young women, elizabeth, who is studying as an opera singer in Salzburg. She told me about that one of the mountains facing salzburg is called "witch mountain", there were once two witches, good and bad.. At some point the good witch forced the bad one to lay down and become the mountain range. It also looks like a witches profile, with a large hook nose (although i couldn;t see it).. We also talked about politics (she dislikes GW bush) and a little music (she likes Good Charlette, yech!). She also gave me some good sites to see in Berlin and Munich. A church with all blue windows and another church with a single window (i think).. Her english was workable but i somethings were difficult communicating. Right now i:m staying at wombats hostel and taking advantage of their laundry, which i must attend to right now. Later!

Munich is next, I enjoy comments

2006-09-04T04:50:00.000-04:00

Both of these statements are true. If you have places to recommend in munich (cough, kim, cough) please send me an email or post comment here.. and don;t be afraid to post a simple "nice pics" comment so i know people are still reading, obviously you are, but its still nice to see names :) Now that i am on my own, this trip is more of an adventure or challenge then a vacation. It has been lonely at times but i:ve also meet a lot of friendly people so far and am figuring out how to schedule my time and were to hang out and the type of places to sleep at in order to cut back on sitting in my room picking my nose ;)

[For those of the readers not acquainted with all the internet lingo, when you join a semicolon ; and a right paren ) you get someone winking at you]

Salzburg, Austria

2006-09-04T04:30:00.000-04:00

So i have diverted myself away from Vienna and gone west to Salzburg and in a few hours will be leaving to hit Munich, Germany. At no other point in my journey will i be closer to munich then now and i will also avoid pre-oktoberfest crowds..

Salzburg is a small city with a gourgeous blue-green river (like interlaken) winding through. I visited a huge fortress, a small katakomb and went to a classical music recital in a the marble hall of some palace last night. I heard pieces by Bach, Mozart (this is his birthplace), Dvorak and Hyden. Most of the pieces where for piano and single violin only, I liked the bach pieces.. both instruments seemed to be at odds with each other, not battling back and forth but almost as if thez were playing different pieces at times.. meet a family from the US with a son living in Somerville who is applying to med school.

Tomb in the katakomb

Austrians playing a giant game of chess.. The guy on the left was thin and chain smoking and the guy across looked exhausted and had a huge stomach... quit the contrast.

View from the fortress

View of "old town", churches and squares, with the river cutting off old town from the rest of city.

"Horse" square, great fountain with four giant horses rearing out of the fountain and spurting water our of their noses (sort of ren and stimpy-ish).

Cesky Krumlov Part Two

2006-09-04T03:39:00.000-04:00

As said in my last post, i might some local krumlov guys the first night there.. they were both in heavy metal music and going to school for computer engineer.. Notice similiaries anyone? When they ask everybody at the table what type of music we liked, most gave specific answers, at least listing genres... except for the frenchman.. "i listen to everything"... the two czechs looked at each other and one of them said, jokingly, "so you listen to polka music?".. No, was the answer. "So then you don;t really listen to everything". HA! My thoughts exactly.

The most of humor of the night came when they told us their opinion of the german language (which they attempted to learn in school).. Here is a paraphrase of their thoughts: The phrase "my lovely darling" sounds very nice in czech (they said it in czech) but sounds like "I WANT TO KILL YOU" in German, and then they said the phrase in German, and it really did sound hostile.. it was a laugh..

And my final memory, also related to humor and language.. i went to dinner with several gents i meet at the hostel on saturday, two other californians (dave and somebody from san diego), and aussie (peter) and the french guy (sebastian). Well Mr. Sandiego tells a joke about a bear and rabbit going the bathroom in the woods (i;ll spare you the details), he tells it too fast for sebastian or in language which is not clear for translation. after the rest of us are done laughing, mr. san diego re-tells teh joke, slowly, to sebastian so he could translate better. for some reason, this was just hilarious. i mean, the joke was funny, but the way he had to explain it again for a someone who doesn:t speak english as a first language was just outrageous. sorry, again, you probably had to be there.. or at least see me recreate the scene in person.. ask me in a month.

Also discussed at dinner, david hasslehoff (of nightrider and baywatch fame), specifically the joke rumor of his rap identity, Hassle the Hoff

Now for some pics of Cesky Krumlov:

This is my favorite picture. Old house and skoda car on a side street. Ps - skoda is a czech automobile maker. The name (according to wikipedia) translates to "damage, detriment, disadvantage"??!

Dragon door
The bell in the castle tower
From the castle, looking down onto central square (multicolored buildings, yellow, green, facing you).
Another church, looking up from river bank. The vlata river winds like a snake through c. krumlov.

UPDATE: Yes i visited the castle, its large and has a big painted steeple (which i have not posted a pic of yet..) The castle walls are made out of stucco or cement-like substance but then painted to look like stonework. its the weirdest thing ever. i sorta hate it.

Cesky Krumlov

2006-09-02T03:40:00.000-04:00

Hello from the small southern town of Cesky Krumlov. I got in last night after much troubles. I went to the bus station about 9 am to catch the bus here, only to realize, just before boarding the bus that i left my camera battery and charger in the hostel. D'oh!! So i raced back, got my stuff and then back to the bus station to catch the 10:30 bus.... which apparently doesn't run on Friday. Great! So much for a full day in Cesky. I hung out at my favorite coffee house, internet point, "bohemia bagel" for many hours and caught the 3:30 bus. Got into town about 8pm and met two other guys (aussie and french) looking for the same hostel. We hung out for the rest of teh night. Had some great food at teh hostel restaurant and talked with some local cesky kids (17) who come to this restaurant for teh cheap beer. They were into metal (soulfly) and wen tto school for computers. They were interested in spending the next "holiday" working in either australia, london or US. They also really liked living in Cesky Krumlov, which was surprising.. they didn't have a typical angst teen attitude like i thought, they really liked their town and were not dying to get out. Walked around town later, cute place, huge castle! I'm off to explore everything now while everyone else in my dorm room sleeps. Pics later maybe, although not on these computers in teh hostel.. I'm using an old Dell "desktop" with a busted-ass apple monitor. The shower here is also pretty crudy.. it seems large hairy men shave their back there and clog up the drains so that teh shower fills with a lovely pool of "water" :)

More Prague

2006-09-01T05:58:00.001-04:00

Are you sick of Prague photos yet?
These statues are on Charles Bridge. Everyone and their mother was touching them, so we did as well. Good luck?
You can see where everyone touches because its shiny and clean.

Buildings in Old Town Square, architecture and color are typical of the area.

Caitlin outside of the Pinkas Synagoge.

ING office! Save your money!

Old Town Square

2006-09-01T05:58:00.000-04:00

These are shots taken from on top of the Town Hall in Old Town Square. The three major sections of Prague are Old Town, New Town and Little (or sometimes Lesser) Quarter.

This is a momument to Jan Hus
Tyn Church

St. Nicholas Church

Skyline of Prague, St. Vitus can be seen in upper left corner.

Saint Vitus

2006-09-01T05:47:00.000-04:00

Saint Vitus Cathedral is located in Prague Castle, which, according to Guiness Book is the world's biggest castle... Its not your typical castle but rather a huge town inside of castle walls, with gardens, houses, shops and a big cathedral.

This is the entrance to the crypt located under St Vitus. Through those gates are large metal casket orb thingies.. I don't know who is at rest here. Upstairs in the cathedral itself is a huge tomb containing St John of Nepomuk and also a room containing St Wenceslas (not open to public).

The stained glass was great, half dozen windows and vibrant color. The window above was done by Alfons Mucha and really kicks ass!! The other windows in the church are in the style below.

You can view photos in the Saint Vitus Photo Set.

Today, I saw the following things

2006-08-31T16:40:00.000-04:00

The jewish section of Prague is called "josefov". There are several synagoges still there, some quite beautiful (the spanish synagogue). Many of them have been turned into museums about the Czech jews and their sad history in prague. During hitlers time, josefov was turned into a ghetto, with the jews restricted to only this tiny section of prague. only one cemetary existed and it filled up quickly, people had to be buried up to 6 deep in a single grave. the tombstones are stacked and falling over onto each other. The above picture is the entrance to the cemetary. Please view a few more pictures of the josefov cemetary.

Went to the Mucha Museum, which highlights the works of painter, photographer and most importantly illustrator Alfons Mucha, native of Czech Republic.

During my hunt for warm clothes i ventured to a czech mall and found a bookstore with programming books :) the only word i understood was "java".

This mesuem of mechanical music players was hidden inside the walls of prague castle, i just happened to stumble upon it. Great stuff here, player painos, automated 1-man band, old phonographs, everything. All most all czech made and almost everything worked and was demonstrated by the friendly guides.

The author Kafka is from prague or czech republic maybe? cool statue..

Kostnice Ossuary

2006-08-31T16:34:00.000-04:00

In the small town of Kutna Hora, lies the Kostnice Ossuary. After the plague wiped out 40k people and the bones started to stack up, the owners of the church instructed the carpenter at the time to "get creative" with the piles of bones.. Here are the results.

You can see more skulls in the photo set

Signature of the creator T. Rint

Cross at the entrance

Originally Rint built 6 "pyramid" structures, today 4 are left.

Looking into one the pyramids

The coat of arms of the family who owned the church and "comissioned" his work

Old and decrepit altar with Christ.

Check out these odd Czech Photos

2006-08-30T06:35:00.000-04:00

(Sorry, couldn't resist teh pun!)

I think hiphop is big in Prague..

Please pronounce this store's name :)

What??
For shame, we will miss the bouncing souls !

Radost FX - a cafe and club where we ate our first meal in Praha (Prague). All vegetarian affair, awesome food and great atmosphere.

There were a lot of stores with "go home" on them, made us feel unwelcome ;)

So apparently there is a town in Czech called Budvar and they brew beer called Budweiser... Where is the lawsuit?

Czech is famous for its marionette and puppet theatre productions.

You can buy russian hats (Ushanka) in Prague, of course!

These signs are official, really. Translated to english it reads:
Do not cross the street unless 1) you are a man 2) are wearing a suit and hat and 3) walk like you own the town

Steep eskalátor ride from the metro. Most of the escalators are faaast and you can sometimes get a bit dizy if you try to read the ads on the walls..

The museum of communism in prague puts on display all the downfalls of this system.. they also picked an appropriate/ironic location? Above a huge McDonalds...

Um, what is that cat selling?? :)

More photos, of buildings and stuff, tonight.. Bye for now

Eastern Europe or Bust

2006-08-30T06:26:00.000-04:00

Caitlin just got on a bus headed towards Brno to catch a plane to London and then another plane home to Boston. I've decided to take advantage of my situation and continue my travels for another month. The plan at the moment is to hit up central/eastern europe. My rough itinerary is: Prague - 2days
then explore southern Czech Republic
Austria (maybe?)
Slovakia (maybe)
Hungary
Poland
Germany
back to London

I'd also like to see Ukraine and Romania.. just need to find a book or information on travel.

Hello from Czech Republic

2006-08-27T06:28:00.000-04:00

Helloo!

We just got into prague via overnight train from Venice. We missed the train to Vienna, Austria and stayed another day in Venice,which was good because i got to see St.Marks Church, which was incredible!! Will post pictures today maybe, we have free internet and we were able to buy a battery charger :)... This trip has made me interested in foreign language, the history and origins of them. Going from the latin based languages (spanish, french and italian) to a full night of czech (on the train listening to our roommates talk) is really a trip, a total 180. We have no skills what so ever. I couldn't even pronounce "thank you" in czech, yet it's relatively easy to say "gracias", "grazie" and "mercie" (sp?) in spain, italy and france...

Freedom!!

2006-08-23T15:10:00.000-04:00

For this trip we took the advice of many people and websites to pack really lite, anything not essential was left at home to be bought on the road when required.. When we see people falling downstairs at the train station with huge suitcases or ginormous backpacks towering overhead, we put our heads back and laugh a hearty "freeeedom!!".

So far I;ve had to buy a pair of hiking boots and a sweatshirt in switzerland and i bought one t-shirt in cinque terre (to bring my total shirt count to a whopping 4). The key to it all is washing your clothes often in the bathroom sink (and having quick dry clothes).

ciao vernazza!!

2006-08-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow we leave for Venice, caitlin has written a great entry on our final day here.

Vernazza, Italy

2006-08-21T16:17:00.000-04:00

We are currently in Vernazza Italy, which is part of Cinque Terre (Five Lands). It is beautiful here! We spent 10 hours at the beach today, crystal blue water, slightly cool, awesome. Some jellyfish but the sting is not too bad, says caitlin, who got stung on the hand (ps - if you get stung here, according to locals, take a smooth rock and go into salt water and rub out the area, to get stingers out maybe?, it seemed to work). Yesterday we hiked to a neighboring village Coniglia. Similar in look but no beach and just not as cool ;) as our village.

Shot from main Piazza (square), small beach and boat landing to the left.

Shot from our hotel room balcony, this is typical archetecture, stucco walls and buildings sort of falling over each other. Narrow walk ways and a lot of stairs to get into most places. It feels like we walk 10 flights of steep stairs to get to our room.

There are a lot of cats everywhere. Most are friendly and don;t seem to be ferral..

My first dinner, a traditional meal consisting of potatoes and sardines (or anchovies) with olive oil and tons of other spices and seaonsoning.. wicked good.

Interlaken Pics

2006-08-21T16:13:00.000-04:00

Postcards are finally in the mail!!

Dyed Eggs

The swiss love chocolate, here is the selection at the local grocery store.

Cow parade, every thursday. Happens during local atheletic games that take place every summer.

Huge Cow Bell Ay?!

SKYDIVING!!

2006-08-16T14:58:00.000-04:00

Today I decided to take part in the most extreme sport offered in Interlaken, Skydiving!! Caitlin and I decided that we would take part in some of the extreme outings today, she went hang-gliding and I jumped into a van to go skydiving with sky dive switzerland. When I got here i knew i wanted to do one the activities, at first i thought bungie jumping.. but after hearing a few people rave about skydiving and with the spur of the moment, last minute trip offered this afternoon (spur of the moment so i couldn't have time to ponder), i went for it. IT WAS AWESOME. Umm.. It's very difficult to put into words how fun it was. Some details though - you suit up and get some quick instructions.. when the door opens you put your feet out of the plane and put your head back onto your jump master's chest. he then rolls the both of you out the window at which time you arch your back and feet, basically make your body the shape of a banana. We went to 13000 feet and the freefall is 45 seconds long. I got no quesy stomach feeling during the free fall, just huge amounts of force and speed. Pretty easy to breath and nothing much to see (unforetunetly), it was sunning when i left the hostel but cloudy once i got into the air, so i just wizzed through the clouds. it was still a wicked blast. once we broke through the clouds, the parachute opened and then we decented for ~7 minutes, this was also incredible. Really peaceful, relaxed ride with incredible views. I took video with my camera once the chute was open. I also paid for photos of the whole thing, done by another skydiving. The pressure on the ears was so intense. Once we got below the clouds and chute open, i could hardly hear anything... then slowly my ears started poping and poping and poping. They were still poping an hour after i was on the ground. For the landing, you grab your pants and lift your legs up so they are horizontal and then you slide in on your ass.

Suited up for the jump

My jump master Hartmann Roly

The view of Interlaken from the airplane

Here we go!!

Woohooo!!

Right under the clouds, before the parachute opens

The 'chute opens

And 7 minutes later we slide in on our butts

Awesome!!!

See skydiving photo set for even more pics

radio swiss pop is great

2006-08-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

http://www.radioswisspop.ch, this station is played in the hostel and a lot of local stores, mix of american and swiss pop music... i'm listening that dire straits song at the moment and some swiss pop song previously... Good stuff.

Interlaken...

2006-08-15T15:24:00.000-04:00

... Is awesome!!!! Its hard to describe the beauty and atmosphere and the huge nature that is here. Know i understand why my sister told me i would have a hard time leaving once i got here. We in fact cancelled our two nights in Bern (the capital) to stay here longer.

Today we rented mountain bikes and took a train and cable car up to Grimmelwald (which we hiked to yesterday). From there we biked up to Mürren (note the use of oom lout accent on u) which is a bigger (and not as nice) version of Grimmelwald. We had some traditional swiss food consisting of two dished: shredded potatoes, fried, with cheese; and a sausage in onion sauce. Very good and fattening, must be great to eat during cold winters in the mountains. From there we biked down some very difficult terrain to the town at the bottom of the mountains. I only flipped over my handlebars once going over boulders... Good times!! (no, really, it was fun). Tomorrow we may go hang gliding/para-sailing. I may also try bunging jumping if i don;t think about it too much.. we;ll see. Also, on our bike ride to the cable car we saw two guys base jumping (you jump off a rock face with a simple parachute that you throw into the air, no backup chute).. we actually didnt see them jump but rather heard the following: whoooooo!!! and then the sound of them throwing their chute open. we also watched guys launch into parasailing from on top of mürren. we have video and hopefully willl share soon. Currently we dont have anyway to upload pics we took but will do so asap, they are awesome!!

Avignon France

2006-08-15T15:20:00.000-04:00

Before we came to Interlaken, Switzerland we made a stop off at Avignon, France. This is one of the many walled in cities. A lot of street musicians, which are allowed to perform without fees or license in a lot of places in europe. Wonderfull archetucture, tiny streets, etc etc. We rode a ferris wheel at night which gave incredible views of the city. We spent about 6 hours in avignon (not counting sleeping) and that was just about right. Afterwards we boarded a long series of trains to head for Interlaken. Had to travel to Lyon France, then Geneva (switzerland) then Bern then Interlaken.

Greetinks from Interlaken

2006-08-14T17:59:00.000-04:00

Check out an entry caitlin and I just wrote about our first day in suisse-country (switzerland). we;ve been having so much fun that its hard to stay in front of a computer, but we will trz to fill in some of the missing pieces, including our great last night in madrid plus barcelona and avignon france.

Travel Plans

2006-08-11T20:37:00.000-04:00

In a few hours we head to the trains in Barcelona and follow this route:

Avignon, France (1 day)
Interlaken and Bern, Switzerland (1 week)
Cinque Terre and Venice, Italy 5-6 days
Vienna, Austria (1 day)
Prague (4 days)
London (1 day)

There are certain folks who should be getting postcards (which are already written and stamped), if we could only get to the post office. The US mail system is great. You drop your letter in any one of the convient boxes and booom! it gets delivered. Here in spain, you need to go to the post office. there is only one in each city, it´s usually not in most convient place... a strong attempt will be made tomorrow, sorry for the delay.

Late night photos

2006-08-11T20:22:00.000-04:00

I´m just finishing an upload of all the other photos taken, this brings us up to current. Currently no descriptions or titles so if you´re hounding for pix, take a look, otherwise sit tight and we will post the really good ones here with descriptions and stories.. Also, if you happen to see pics of random people, see if you can find the mullet in the crowd. We´re starting to photograph all this mullet-mania and will hopefully do an entire entry on this horrible hair fashion that is all rage in europe.

London Photo Set

Paris Photo Set

Madrid Photo Set

Barcelona Photo Set

Barcelona is not part of Spain

2006-08-11T18:16:00.000-04:00

Barcelona is part of Catalonia, a separate entity which happens to be inside Spain... It does actually have its own autonomous government but still falls under Spain in other ways.. They also have their own distinct language which is described as a 50-50 mix of spanish and french but again i have been told by many that it is really a totally separate language. Right now at the hostel, we have full access to a computer and i´m uploading more pics from Paris and hopefully in the wee hours of the night will upload a lot more from the other areas of our trip. Keep yer fingers crossed. Tomorrow we are off to Avignon, France (hopefully), we might have a hard time getting a train at such late notice.. maybe take a bus or as our hostel neighbors say, hitch hike.. PS - there are tons of mullets in barcelona, more so than madrid, and we are documenting them with digital camera, detailed photo entries on the way. Bye for now, hopefully right more in a few hours.. its 12 midnight..

Paris photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/miltown77/sets/72157594223258791/

Mullets in Spain

2006-08-08T12:44:00.000-04:00

Does everyone know what a mullet hairdo is? short on the sides and top, long in the back. gross, nasty haircut usually relegated to trailer parks and nascar. Well they are very popular here in Espana, we have photo proofs...

FIRST NIGHT IN SPAIN
To pick up from the end of the last post, on our first night in Madrid we went to a flamenco concert in one of the many public gardens. In two parts, the first being a singer and guitar player. An older gentleman was the singer and story teller who got a lot of laughs from the crowd (we missed it all as he spoke to fast for us to follow anything). The singing seemed a bit adlib-ed and consisted of a lot of wailing... and short burts of lyrics. The flamenco guitar playing was outstanding for this section. Sharp notes, crescendos and accents. The guitar strings must have been heavy gauge and strung really tight for him to pluck as hard as he did. He also must've had 4 other invisible hands in order to execute all the strumming required for playing the instricate pieces. Not sure if this was my first experience with the flamenco style but i will not forget it. Go out and listen to some flamenco guitar today.

The second part was focused on flamenco dancing done by three people, a woman and two men (who seemed to battle back and forth over the women?), these folks were backed by a set of musicians, a fiddle\violin player, two flamenco guitarists (lead and rythm), a percussionist and two singers. The perucssionist played a large square ¨box¨ thing which made deep bass and high slapping sounds along with a hugh conga drum. Singers traded back and forth on vocals and would also cheer(or hoot) for the dancers, they said ¨dali¨ a lot. the music was central to accenting the dancers jagged movements, using percussion, guitar twang and hand claps. Speaking of the latter, the singers (and later the male dancers) did some impressive alternating hand claps, a rapid fire xoxoxoxoxoxoxo (for you musicians, 16th notes) notes. Overall i was really impressed with teh complex rythms of the music, especially with the earlier male singer and guitar - the two of which would trade off beats, almost of sync at times, only to then come together for a crescendo moment at the end or something other bridge in the song.

Also we meet some nice italians from milan who were vacationing in spain. they told us that cingue terre in italy is a big tourist area for other italians and that we would have a great time.. looking forward to it!

THE NEXT DAY - we had churros, a fried dough specific to spain, for breakfast.. caitlin had hers with hot chocolate (which has slightly richer than US grade, more for dipping than drinking) and i had cafe con leche (traditional coffee drink, half coffee, half hot milk).. mmm good. not sure how spaniards eat churros everyday though, it was rich stuff.

On the advanced of a teacher from the states we met in our hostel, we took a bus to the small city\village of Segovia, just north of Madrid. Three major points of interest we hit (in order of favor) were a castle with great views of the town, a marvelous cathedral and a Roman aqueduct. The city was a little hard to figure out at first, due to no maps or tourist center or anything inside the craphole of a bus station we arrived at, but after wondering a bit we found tiny little narrow streets that wound through really quant neighborhoods.

We found the cathedral on a large hill overlooking parts of downtown. Outside was cool, inside had huge vaulted ceilings with interesting patterns done in stone. Everything was segmented into several large chapels\shrines in the center and then a series of ¨smaller¨ shrines circualing the inside wall all the way around. I quote the word small because these shrines were still huge. Each area was devoted to a different saint, preist, person etc. Other rooms lay off the main hall, each one had varying degrees of elegance and odorment.

The castle, Alcázar, is on the tip of segovia where two rivers meet, for 1,50 euro you can climb to the top of the tower and get some fantastic views (see caitlin´s blog for photos, soon, hopefully). On the way to the castle we saw a center for jewish education and a bunch of small touristy shops. On the way out of the castle on to the aqueduct, we noted a bunch of people taking siesta (afternoon nap) in a small park (again, photo proof on the way!). Found more great tiny streets on teh way to a large aqueduct built by romans during their occupation of this area in the 1st century AD, nearby we found a main street with a lot of major stores and upscale merch which lead back to the bus station. If you go to segovia, avoid this street and the other downtown areas and stick to the small back alleys for a way better time!

SECOND NIGHT
We returned to Madrid via autobus and showered and maybe a little siesta and then out for dinner (aka tapas) around 9 or 10pm. Again, this is the traditional time for having a ¨dinner¨ in spain. Eating schedule goes like so: light breakfast (coffee and maybe a piece of toast), big lunch between 130 and 330 and then a light dinner usually in the form of small appetizer like dishes called tapas anytime after 8pm and maybe late into teh night. Also don´t forget siesta in the afternoon, we have found many places deserted at this time and noted some places even close for an hour. That´s the way to do it!! Having said all that, you would think we would not have a difficult time finding tapas at 10pm,, no? well it must´ve taken us 30 minutes to find a place with tapas. a big part of the problem was in our wording, they use different terms for what we call tapas. And also our idea of a traditional tapas menu (e.g. Dali restaurant in somerville) was a bit different than the regional flare around here. After a few conversions in broken spanish we found a great place overlooking Palacio Real. We had anchovy on toast, a fried patatas dish (potato), some type of smoked sausage and a spanish omellette. mmmmm!!

THIRD DAY

After some cafe con leche (coffee with milk) we bought tickets for a double decker tourist bus that runs around the city in two different routes, the old section and modern madrid. It was expensive but runs frequently so you can ride it like a commuter bus. The pre-recorded tour guide was so so but the views from the open roof deck on the bus were great. We headed for Centro de Arte Reina Sofia to see Museo del Prado to see a collection of modern spanish art only to find that the muesum is closed on Tuesdays!? Weird! So we headed for the Museo del Prada for a special exhibit on Picasso, I liked The Three Musicians, Women in an Armchair and a great portrait of a women crying over her dead children (cubist style, lime green), can´t find a link to it at the moment..

Took the tour bus around more and snapped a ton of great photos of both sides of Madrid, old and modern. THe modern part looks like any other city with an injection of old buildings and the old section (central madrid, were we are staying) is a totally different feel, narrow streets, all old buildings... sort of like walking through teh north end. the city is growing on me.

Finally, before hitting the internet cafe (called ¨BBIGG¨), we went to Museo del Jamon (musuem of ham) which is chain of cafes in madrid which serve beer, coffee and ham related food items.. Ham is big here in madrid. this places was great, you stand at a bar and order all types of ham stuff, sandwhiches, sausage, plates of ham from cheap to expensive. Caitlin spoke with an old madridian who explained the diffences in all the ham and the history of madrid. The gist of his history lesson was that before the dictatorship in the middle of the century, madrid was full of music and art and that today there is not nearly as much. Muy mal. That´s it for now! time for siesta! Its 8pm, adios.

Juan

Feliz Cumpleaños Caitlin

2006-08-06T11:43:00.000-04:00

Today we celebrate Caitlin´s 29th Birthday, starting with a rendition on "happy birthday" by the local accordion player in Puerta del Mayor (in english: major). Tonight we will take in one of the fine arts performances.

Hola from Madrid

2006-08-06T09:52:00.000-04:00

Howdy from Espana , where the keyboards are normal and the streets dirty.

We did a lot yesterday during our last 8 hours in Paris.. Had another wonderful breakfast of french bread, jam and cafe in hotel henri then off to saint chappelle (pronounce: sane-sha-pell) which is a hideous looking chapel ducked inside the walls of a military\police fortress. the great thing about this chapel (which is ugly partially due to teh fact that it got sacked during french revolution) is the huge stained glass windows inside, there are about 10-12 windows which run about 2 or 3 stories high with two large circular windows on each end. this chapel was built by one king loui (??) to house the crown of thorns and pieces of the cross. he payed 3 times more for those artifacts than the actual chapel itself. Historians now think that the king might have gotten scammed on the artifacts...

Next caitlin and i split up to shop in our own separate ways. i hit up an english language book store called San Franciso books in the latin quarter. awesome bookstore. since i had left my "books to buy" list (yes i am a nerd) at home i stuck with scifi. Had a ton of Pratchet books with fantastic covers (for euro\uk release?), picked up Mort by Pratchet, Neuromancer and Foundation by Asimov.

Next we went to Rodin Museum which was soo awesome. Rodin was the anti-starving artiste. He was put up in a gorgeous chatuea in paris for the last 40-50 years of his life and allowed to just sculpt and paint. After his death they turned his house and gardens into the musee de rodin. Most of the sculptures were outside in a beautiful garden with benches and fountains and areas just to "chill". We saw the major works: the thinker, gates of hell, the three shades, the kiss and hand of god plus a lot of others.

Afterwards we wondered around more of the paris parks, ending up on the plaza between arc de triumphe and the louvre. It was so relaxing that we almost missed our night train to madrid.

We took a night train at 845pm for the 12 hour journey to Madrid Spain, our third stop. We had our own little compartment with seats and fold-out beds and a sink. Great views of french countryside including an outstanding sunset. The french farmers are into new windmill technology, saw a ton of them (the news ones like at IBEW on route 93). Also went through some real sketchy rail yards around 10pm. Had a "vegetal con pollo sandwich" for dinner which was so so, sunset was better.

We were very excited about sleeping on the train until we actually tried to sleep. There were some serious ride quality issues in southern france, the speed of the train didn´t help either. A lot of bumping and side to side motions. There were periods of smooth track, at which point you would sleep, things got better in spain and a few hours of sleep were had. Speaking of trains, subways actually - the paris metro system had rail for underground and trains that ran on tires and special elevated tracks for above ground, also so far, best subways in order are: london, paris, spain. All seem to be of equal size and vastly different quality. How can you beat the two simple phrases uttered all over teh underground "mind the gap" and "mind the closing doors", enough said.

In the morning we awoke to "green spain" (northern spain), hillsides, small tile roofed houses _and_ grafiti.. which was really bizarre.. picture if you will, sparsley populated spanish country side, mostly hills with a few scattered houses and a small brick wall enclosing a set of houses, which is covered in bright grafiti art..?? lets just say it was out of place. Upon arrival we took the metro to the center of madrid, Puerta del Sol. This is location zero for geography in madrid, similiar to Notre Dame in Paris. Um, so, we were thoroughly unimpressed with Madrid when exiting the metro.. i guess its hard coming from paris to anywhere else, plus it was sunday morning and the city was dead. We found our plaza a short walk from there. Madrid is organized around a set of plazas and the organization of roads seems less organization than boston. We took a short siesta.. and woke up to the sound of a lot of people gathering and eating and music playing. when we actually got outside a while later most people were gone and the everything calm again.. weird. one thing i want to bring next time is an mp3 recorder for doing audio snapshots during travel. sometimes the sounds are even better than the sights for me. we had paelle con carne at a cafe in Puerta del Sol. There are performing arts all around the city, we unfortunetly were a day late for Pink Floyd Ballet (!!). We may catch something tonight..

Photos - not having too much luck uploading the photos, the internet cafe here makes it a little more difficult to upload stuff. Caitlin is writing about select photos on her website, check it - ycaitlin.blogspot.com.

Adios for now

Raining in Paris

2006-08-03T18:27:00.000-04:00

first off : this message will most likely be a disaster because these keyboards are complety weird,, there is no QWERTY; instead there is AZERTY; the A and Q are switched; so is Z and W and all the number keys you must hit CTRL, and did i mention M is where "," should be arrrgghhh!!! anywqys,, So paris is like the best city anywhere; we are staying at hotel henri IV which is on isle de cite, almost spitting distance to Notre Dame and the louvre (sp). we have been here two days and so far: not a bad meal or any rude encounters, only nice people; great food and incredible architecture and history. We did find one ugly building in central paris but only one! everything else is incredible, really. something else that is great about paris , they have tons of motorcycles or rather mopeds; on par with london and they drive just as crazy here; i;ve seen harleys (minority), some old and a few new japan bikes and a lot of mopeds of various makes and even some old skool motorized bicycles and mopeds with roll cages; also tons of smart cars and tiny weird things. today we had great breakfeast of french bread and jam and cafè then walked around outside of the louvre (which is friggin huge, i mean huge!!!!) it would take days to see everything inside. someone decided it would be a good thing to put a huge pyramid in middle of the courtyard here, LAME. it totally ruins the atmosphere. [Speaking of the word friggin: we meet several people at the hostel in london who deserve mention; a long island transplant to sweden, he has been there for 8 years and for the most part looked and acted just like a swede except when saying 'long island' and a few other key phrases, then his accent came right out, pretty funny. also meet a kid from canada who used the following terms: 'friggin'; 'wicked'; 'awesome', usaully in the same sentence, you would swear he was from boston if not for lack of accent]. After that we took the metro to effiel tower. we both agreed with many parisians when they called it the asparagus. its pretty ugly. We plan on touring it tomorrow as well as doing a 4 hour bike tour of city since it was raining on and off while there. Next we hit the 'invalides' palace, an awesome golden topped palace which housed all of frances wounded veterans, this was no VA hospital. this was also the site of the start of french revolution. Lets see,,,, meet some nice folks from new york, had crepes for dinner, slowing learning key french words (and when i become proficient, we will be leaving for spain) and talked to a petite crazy paris local (who may have been a pickpocket setup) and a really nice couple during the most expensive meal we;ve had (it was quite good and they were a huge help with ordering) forgot to mention ; we took a sweet 2 hour train ride through english and french countryside and went through chunnel (just pitch black, yawn). thanks for reading and kept those comments coming and watch flickr photo page for constant photo uploads (which drag behind cause it takes so long to upload). Bon Swa (good night)

More photos

2006-08-03T18:24:00.000-04:00

Just uploaded all london photos and starting paris

London Photo Set

Paris Photo Set

first batch of photos

2006-08-03T07:31:00.000-04:00

it has taken almost an hour to upload 1/3 of photos taken so far. See http://flickr.com/photos/miltown77/ for the first batch. Will do proper blog post later along with rest of photos. Enjoy for now. PS : paris is awesome; keyboards in europe suck:

London by foot

2006-08-01T16:24:00.000-04:00

today we spent 8 hours walking around london. left from our hostel (smart hyde park inn) and walked toward hyde park, big ben, west minster abby and the royal palace thing.. saw the changing of the guards... also went to tower of london and saw the royal jewels, impressive stuff!! also included there were royal weapons and the tower of blood or something.. sorry, i'm not doing too well with names right now. on the way to tower of london, walked along thames for manny miles and saw: tate modern (but did not go in), millenium bridge, london bridge (is falling down, falling down) and a great skate park. Ate food at an au bon pain type place called 'eat'. Saw tons of places reference in 'neverwhere' book (buy it!!) including the belfast battle ship and stops on the tube for knights crossing and black friars. We also made an attempt to hit picadilly square but failed i think, we were close but tired. had some _great_ thai food and then took the tube home. also in that area were: strip clubs, a phone boof with human feces in it and ... a crap load of motorcycles. this area is part of the restricted zone of london were autos are fined for entering. there were so many bikes (all sport/street/moped) and a lot of them drove like bats out of hell, weaving and riding the middle line. everybody had leather and reflective vests on (for good reason).. bye for now, just booked tickets to paris via train and chunnel. :) :)

From London

2006-08-01T02:28:00.000-04:00

We made it! Woohoo! Landed around 830pm (local time), went through customs (which btw, likes when you use rainbow pencil on your entry form, seriously) and then found our way to 'the tube', took the blue line to the green line (sounds like home) to Baywaters Station (look it up). This put us out onto a main street (sort of like newbury) with a lot of shops, restaraunts etc. we are staying 1 block behind all that at the hyde park inn (really a hostel).. Sleep in a room with 7 other people, 6 of whom i've never meeet before.. in bunk beds. Good sleep actually. they serve breakfast in about 1 hour (it's 630am). Umm... what else? Had some good 'thai' food last night, actually more like chinese, but who cares, we were hungry.. Other things of interest -- airport had prayer rooms, heard 'mind the gap' a lot on tube, 'neverwhere' by Neil Gamain is a great book to read if traveling to london (thanks todd), this keyboard is wierd (all of the non-alphabet characters are in the wrong place) and therefor you'll probably get a lot of typos in these posts so deal with it :) . We are going to check out kensington gardens and palace (we are just north of them). I have two minutes left on this terminal before it boots me, so bye for now!!

London-bound

2006-07-30T22:01:00.000-04:00

We are finally done packing and as you can see by my list, we're traveling _lite_
2 pairs of shorts
3 shirts
1 pair of pants
4 boxers
3 socks
1 pair of sandals
1 pair of sneakers (a few people convinced me to take these)
+ camera, lonely planet book, Neverwhere, and some toiletries

Here is the itinerary:

London for 2 days
Paris for 4 days
Madrid for 4 days
Barcelona for 2 days
Quick stop in Avignon for 1 night
on the way to Switzerland, Interlaken (pronounce: inter-lockin') for 4 days and Bern for 2
then onto Italy, Cinque Terre (4 days) and Venice (2 days, before it sinks)
a short 1 day in Vienna, Austria (for mozart 250th anniversary)
and then penultimate stop in Prague for 3 days before hoping an easyjet
to London for 1 night and then home on 31 August.

Will write more once we hit London. Bon Voyage!!

Score!

2006-07-27T16:20:00.001-04:00

HOPE Day Three

2006-07-27T15:50:00.000-04:00

Well it's almost been a full week since the last day of HOPE and i'm just getting around to writing about it.. This will be a quick entry me thinks. Woke up late for a panel by Lady Ada and the TV-B-GONE guy. They talked about the no-contact jacket for women which is a stylish jacket with built-in tasers used to protect against attackers; how to create your own cell phone jammer for cheap (given you have a spectrum analyzer), and of course, tv b gone, which is a wonderful device that everyone should have. Next we need something that turns commercial radio... I only lasted for a minutes in 'Can security detectors be hacked?' due to a boring speaker and some hint of politics. Instead of checked out 'Urban Exploring' given by husband and wife pair who run Long Island Oddities. Covered basic "rules" of exploring abondoned places, some good stories about close calls and great pictures. Next I ditched out early on the computer forensics talk.. too bad for me, it was really good, says bo and josh. i saw some slightly lame talk on encrypting IM traffic. The last two sessions of the day and conference were at complete oposite ends of the spectrum. First was the panel on "social engineering" given by some of the guys from 2600 and chesire catalyst. They took advantage of the current power problems in NYC and attempted to gain information from a local fast food chain. Ends up they don't keep records on premise... Next they attempted to obtain addresses of people who have unlisted addresses in teh phone book by posing as Do-Not-Call employee. The first lady denied us and the second gave her address. And now for something completely different... Jello Biafra did a two hour ranting flamboient keynote mostly on politics. It was really quite boring and lame because he was preaching to the choir and his oratory style tended to wear on you after a while. He also dropped his pants and .... um.... completely exposed all of his body parts that i never wanted to see..

Flickr - H.O.PE. Day Three

Delicious Links

HOPE Day Two

2006-07-22T13:08:00.000-04:00

We went to bed around 3am, so we didn't quit make it to the 9am session entitled 'low level firmware analysis and hacking', maybe buy the DVD. We did make it to "Wireless security flaws". Panel of three, did wardriving since 2002, gathering data on what type of wifi networks were available in urban areas. Found a lot insecure networks, most of which broadcast critical information regarding routing, network topo and hardware on unsecured wifi that can be accessed in parking lot. Discussed many different exploits, including spooking machines and inserting your own subnet.

Next topic was phone phreaking 101 - this talk was given by black ratchet from boston. Talked about old phone switching/routing equipment and the new electronic switches that have almost completely replaced the old. Other items of interest were: using operator to mask calls, line recording, CLI (silly) codes (e.g. LYNNMACHDS1= LYNN, Ma, City Hall, Digital Switch1), VOIP carriers, red, blue and black boxes and a handful of urban myths regarding phone phreaking. Also gave out some great phone numbers to call for disaster messages or old recorded messages. See also Old Skool Phreak and YAPL. In the audience was Captian Crunch.

I went to both sessions in A and B next while Bo, Josh and Ryan went lunch. 'Retrocomputing' was boring, talking about really old computer systems and BBS. The other super geeky talk 'in-band vs multiplexed digital radio' was just that... way too geeky for someone who knows almost nothing about radio on a tech level. I meet up with the guys at Popeyes and had some chicken and biscuits and burning hot mashed potatoes.

The keynote of the night was Michael Hart (who is actually talking to some people right next to me now as i type...). He is involved in project gutenburg. I only stayed for a few minutes, Mike was interesting but i wanted to go to 2nd floor to play with stuff there. I played with bump kit and lock picking with the Toool guys. I rode a segway (which was awesome!!) and i played zork on an IBM 5150 and talked with Eliza on a really old system, whose name i forget.

Sam Pocker gave a talk entitled 'Coupon Hacking'. Self explanatory. This talk had a great pre-recorded intro done by a pair of hand puppets, a bear and squirell. Very funny. So was the speaker, 'a short, fat jew from brooklyn'. See his website and radio show, Your Mileage May Vary.

'Password cracking and time-memory tradeoff' was next, basically comparing rainbow tables to full hash tables. Good speaker, impressive web app for cracking md5 passwords.

'Quantum Crypto and Computation' was canceled and replaced by some super boring guy giving a non-techinal talk, I caught the end of the two hour 'Privacy is dead, get over it'.. not that impressed.. And after that was 'hackers in prison' which coincided with the arrest of Steven Rambam. Some of the backround stories were okay but boring after a while.

'Law Enforcement Wiretaps' discussed how wiretaps work, what hardware is involved on the phone companys side and how you can circumvent by sending various tones to block recording, fake out phone numbers, etc etc.

Finally a talk by Robert Steele, an ex CIA covert ops guy. Very boisterous and slightly inflamatory. His main points are: government is idiots, they ignore 80% of the information out there, they need local people for information gathering, open source intelligence. He also likes vodka and women.

Flickr - H.O.P.E. Day Two

HOPE Day One

2006-07-21T22:09:00.000-04:00

Saw sessions including "Hackers and Academia", "How to Steal Someone's Implanted RFID", "Mag Stripe Tech. and the MetroCard", "Lockpicking" and a keynote address by Richard Stallman. RFID session was very interesting, with two speaks, a women who had an RFID implant in her arm and her collegue hacker who wrote some custom software and hardware for reading her RFID. Dicussed security of RFID data and how easy it is to steal someone's RFID identity, which is just an unencrypted unique id number. Also discussed current uses of RFID in products, animals and humans. Good talk. Next was Mag Stripe talk given by Joe from 2600/off the hook radio show. Gave an overview of how mag stripes work, implementation of mag stripes (reading and writing) and how he reverse engineered current mag stripes on credit cards, gift cards and MetroCard. Wicked awesome. Then was a 2 hour mammoth talk on lock picking given by Toool, followed by a workshop downstairs where you can get hands on experience picking all sorts of locks using different techniques. Super in depth and really fascinating. Covered an old technique called 'bumping' which is gaining popularity again and which makes 95% of locks on the market vulnerable due to easy application of this picking method. You create a bump key (teeth filed down to 9 position) , put it into lock and bump the key with a hammer or 'tomahawk'. Force causes pins in lock to jump up past split point and at the right time, you turn and you're in! boom! easy. These guys did a lot of demos on the stage, real cool. they also picked another common lock using a paper towel roll and a combo lock using a simple pick. Also talked about legal aspects of lock picking, distribution of tools and bump keys, etc etc. Finally, keynote by RMS. This was super boring because he told me everything i already knew in a monotone voice. Q & A session was lame because all of his answers where either "i don't understand" or "that's a hypothetical situation, so i'm not going to answer your question". A lot of people kissed his ass. He is a christ figure. lame.

Flickr - H.O.P.E. Day One

Pre-New York

2006-07-21T04:33:00.000-04:00

Well that was a short break.. after a few hours of sleep, we are up and preparing to leave for New York, trying to get there by 11am for "Hackers and Academia".

Bye Bye Bentley

2006-07-20T23:20:00.000-04:00

This past Monday I gave my notice at work.. Lack of _really_ challenging work, underpaid + corporate headaches lead to this decision. Now it's time for caitlin and I to travel. After much flip-flopping between Thailand and Europe and many emails from friends voting for their fav, we have decided on Europe.. Thailand looks so incredible, budha, golden temples, completely different religion and way of thinking and a lot of ppl say it's easy to travel... but malaria and other disease and some turmoil in certain areas + no time to prepare at all, (e.g. get vaccines, or figure where not to travel) plus the fact that europe is sooo easy to travel and has soo much variety.. well you can see why we choose it. Thailand will be next year.

But for now, i leave in 5 hours for NYC to attend Hope Number Six. This is a hacker conference and no, i will not be breaking laws. Just learning knowledge that people don't want you to know.. I'm going with some fellow prog'ers from work.. They all own the new Nintendo DS Lite. This caused me to purchase one, as not to be left out of the crowd. Playing Animal Crossing now. Pretty cool device, built-in wifi, play games against other ppl next to you or on the internets, cool chat application and of course great nintendo games.