This single blog entry for Germany will be in two separate visits, the first was Mannheim, Heidelberg, Berlin and Sachsenhausen Camp from April 20-27 and the second at Munich May 12-15
I was leaving Lyon, France and my wonderful host, Aurelien, to a new country - Deutschland! I wanted to be in Berlin on the 23rd, so I had three days to spend. I recalled a reply from a post I made on CouchSurfing from a guy named Dirk.
He was interested in meeting and hosting a Deaf person. Dirk was hearing and never met a Deaf person before, and he was curious to see how a Deaf American was able to travel across Europe on his own. I was more than happy to educate Dirk on that particular topic!
So I arrived at his hometown of Mannheim, Germany. Mannheim isn't a big town, but it isn't small too. At first sight, I felt that Mannheim was different because there were more modern buildings. Dirk explained that most of the area was destroyed in WWII, and had to be rebuilt. That made much sense now, and I could see the difference between the areas that was ravaged, and those that survived through the war.
The day was spent with Dirk showing me around his hometown. We saw the famous Water Tower, the fountain next to it and the typical plaza/churches. Walking around made us hungry, so I asked if there was any good German place to eat. The response I got was unexpected.
Dirk didn't really like to eat German food, even though he's from Germany! Usually he ate Asian food (He recently went on a trip to Asia) and other foreign food, but I was in the mood to try some of the famous German wursts, so I forced him to find a German place to eat, and he laughed at the typical American tourist wanting German Wursts. He was such a good sport and we eventually found a good place to eat, and man, the curryworst was delicious!
The next day, we took a day trip to nearby Heidelberg, which was well-known for its old town and castle. The town was lovely, and I enjoyed walking through it and going to the other side of the river up the hill to the Philosophenweg aka "Philosopher's Walk" because many of the city's professors, philosophers and such liked to stroll trough the path and it offered a great view of the city.
I also found two books from a public bookshelf, they were: "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris and "Then We Came To The End" by Joshua Ferris. Both good reads.
I thought the highlight of Heidelberg was the studentenkarzer (Student Jail) which was the coolest thing I saw on this trip! It was a prison for students of Heidelberg University if they got caught being drunk in the streets, knocking off a cop's hat or some kind of hooligan misdemeanor behavior. They were taken to the prison and remained there from 24 hours to 4 weeks depending on the incident.
For the first two days, the students are only able to have bread and water. What made this student jail special is that the students were able to have their friends visit them, and bring beer or food from outside. They were also able to move around freely in the jail visiting other fellow student prisoners after the third day. They were also required to go to class which was located at the same building as the prison was.
There were several rooms, and each had names like Solitude, Palais Royale and King's Throne. It was really cool looking through that, and history says that it was a honor and kind of an "informal requirement" to experience a stint of student prison once, so students who were close to graduation and who never went through prison would intentionally get themselves in trouble by insulting an uniformed cop!
That evening, Dirk took me to a CouchSurfing Gathering, and it was my first one so I did not know what to expect. It was a cool and calm time at a local restaurant, people met, chatted and had a good time. I came away with a thick stack of written conversations on paper.
The next day I said good-bye to Dirk and made my way on train to Berlin!
Upon my arrival, I met up with Antonia, another CS host. Antonia was hearing, but she could sign, so it was nice to use sign language again. When I met Antonia at the train station, she had a friend with her. It was Iris, who hosted me at Amsterdam! It was nice seeing her again, and we went out to dinner together at a delicious Sushi place with happy hour sushi prices!
The sushi place was near the Deaf Club in Berlin where there was a "Welcome Party"
A Welcome Party for what? Well, the main reason I went to Berlin was because of the Frontrunners 6 Turquoise Party where 500 Deaf people were coming from all over the world!
The welcome party was well... a welcome party where there only was 150 people. It was fun meeting a lot of new people and using International Sign. Good thing I had plenty of practice before the party. I was so fluent, people actually thought I was from Germany, Ireland, UK or even Denmark! They were shocked to see that I actually was an American :)
The party lasted until six in the morning, and I found my way back to bed, but I only had until noon, because there was a signing tour around Berlin with other Deaf visitors, so I didn't want to miss that.
The tour was cool, and I saw Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall, Tacheles and learned some history of the city. It was delightful, but everyone's mind was on the big Turquoise party that evening! We got ready, the party was at 21:00, and ready to begin!
The party itself was not excellent, I must admit. The only thing that made it such a fantastic time was the people with endless chatting and meeting new friends. That itself was the most amazing experience of the whole trip and I enjoyed every moment, every person and every drink!
The next two days in Berlin was dedicated to sight-seeing. Kreuzberg, a day market, Alexanderplatz, Fernsetturum, Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag Dome, Holocaust Memorial, Jewish Museum, Sony Center, Fuhrer's Bunker, Potsdam, Hackescher Markt was all seen.
Berlin sure had a lot to offer, and I enjoyed seeing the mix of history, contemporary art and stories, which made Berlin one of my favorite visits of the trip.
On my last day of Berlin, I didn't spend most of the day there. I went to nearby Sachsenhausen Memorial & Museum Camp.
Adolf Hitler built Sachsenhausen with the vision that it would become a "model camp" for other to impersonate, and it was 30 minutes north of Berlin. I walked through the camp, and goose bumps were definitely felt.
I am not going to get into the details here, but all I am going to say is that a visit to a camp is a mandatory experience if you are going to Europe. Sachsenhausen was unforgettable and what I saw will stay with me.
Later that evening, I went to a pub, and caught a football game between FC Schloke Manchester United, which Man U won easily. It was a good ending to Berlin, and the next day I made my way to another wonderful city, Prague!
I wasn't done with Germany at all, and after going through Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, and Romania, I went back to Germany because I couldn't just miss Munich!
I couldn't find any host on CouchSurfing, but thanks to the help of my friend, Sigga, she was able to find a friend of hers who was willing to host me at last minute's notice! (This would NEVER happen in America) so I went to Ingolstadt which was 45 minutes north of Munich, which was no problem at all thanks to my Eurail Pass.
At Ingolstadt, I met Ilknur, who was a fantastic host, we had a great chat until 2 in the morning, and realized we better go to sleep because she had to work, and I wanted to see Munich.
In Munchen, I went through the typical plazas & churches as suggested on my Lonely Planet book. Munich was a lovely town, and I enjoyed wandering around the centre seeing Frauenkirche, Marienplatz, Carillon, Residenzplatz and Viktualienmarkt.
In the afternoon, I met another Deaf person, Inna, and we ate dinner together and had a fun chat. Inna had to get going, so I went to the famous Englischer Garden and took in the park. There I saw a cool water canal where surfers were catching a wave! It was unbelievable seeing that going on later found out that it was a "hot spot" that I accidentally stumbled upon!
On May 14th, it was the day of the Fruhlingsfest! What is Fruhlingsfest, you ask? It is known as the "Little Sister of Oktoberfest" in which it is a spring festival (Just another excuse to Munich residents to drink German beer I would assume).
It took place at the same beer garden where Oktoberfest was hosted at, but at half the size and half the tourists. It was still a fun time going there with 20 other Deaf people on a reserved table. My final thoughts? Those Germans sure can drink!
It was a good ending to my trip to Germany! But I didn't have a place to sleep because Ilknur had plans, so I asked around at the tent and luckily there was a guy, Martin who was cool with me crashing his place for the night.
So we went to Martin's place which was about 30 minutes away by metro. The next morning we shook out our cowwebs and had breakfast.
Martin was an avid windsurfer, and the next day, he was going to Tunis, Tunisia for a week with three other friends! He has been traveling all over the world windsurfing in all continents (except Antarctica) and it was so cool hearing stories of his adventures! I also shared some of my experiences taking my talents across Europe.
My next destination was at Italy and Martin let me used his computer. I got in touch with Sigga, and we tried to make plans but it was difficult due to several circumstances. When we finally made confirmations, the train from Munich to Verona, Italy (connecting to Milan, then to Santhia) was leaving in 1:30, and it was exactly 1!
I asked Martin if I could make it to the Munich HBF station, he said it was not realistic, but the train also stopped at the Munich OST at 1:41, that was more realistic so I had to run!
At the metro in his home area (Which was right next to the Bayern Munich soccer stadium) I had to wait 5 minutes for the next metro, it took 16 minutes to karlsplatz, change trains to S-Bahn and go straight to OST. I barely made it at 1:40, and caught the train to Italy! (The next train was 5 hours later so, WHEW!)
So there safely on the train, I made my way to my next destination, ITALY!!!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Romania
Over 2 weeks without an update, but I am sure you have not been checking this blog everyday for an update, so it is all good!
So, where was I? Oh yes, I was going to Cluj-Napoca from Budapest, and got there in the early afternoon, that gave me time to find my second hostel of the entire trip to put my bags away and explore the city. I asked the super-friendly hostel host, Diana, about a traditional Romanian restaurant, and Diana pointed out Cafe Andaluca on the map, and so I went there.
My first reaction to the resturant, it was very cheap! 1 euro equals 4 lei in Romania. A bottle of Romanian brew was 4 lei, I had a huge three'course meal with rice meatloaf type of thing, potatoes with onions and a dessert that was similar to a donut with sour cream and fruits all for 35 lei which added up to only 7 euros... champs!
Cluj was a different town. it wasnt tiny enough to get bored of it, but not too big to get lost in it. Just sized right, and two days was enough to see the citadel on a hill, Botanical gardens, the usual churches, plazas and a meal at a restaurant. That evening, I found my way to the Deaf Club which was only 10 minutes away from my hostel.
Nobody knew me, and I knew nobody, they were surprised to see a stranger come in their Deaf Club, I told them that I was traveling from America and found the address of the Deaf club from the internet, so here I was! They welcomed me in, and I had fun chatting for 3 hours.
I also met an old-timer who lived in America for 25-30 years when he immigrated from Romania and worked as a tailor. He moved back and lives in Romania now. He was glad to see someone (me) signing ASL again - it has been awhile for him - and told me that ASL is the most beautiful and best language in the world he has seen. Hey, those were his words!
It was time to catch my night train to the capital of Romania, Bucharest. Then began the most worst experience of the entire trip.
Basically, I slept all the way, and when I woke up, my wallet was gone. Usually when I get on the train, I move my wallet to the money belt and end my worries. That night, I did not do that, and that was a quick lesson learned!
So I was stuck in Bucharest without my wallet. Luckily, I always carried 100 euros in emergency money, and that was enough to last me for awhile. I went to the US embassy to request assistance on cancelling my credit card, it took a couple of hours but it was done. It also marked my first visit to an US embassy.
I lost all motivation to stay in Bucharest, and did not feel the good karma here, so I decided to move on to a new country. I did not have any desire to visit Bulgaria, which was south of Romania, and inquired the information booth about a connecting train to Greece.
Just my luck, apparently, Greece has closed its border to ANY international trains or buses from Bulgaria, so It was impossible to use my Eurail Pass to go to Greece. I asked how do people go to greece? The information attendant shrugged and guessed "by air?"
some things in the world just dont make sense. This was one of them.
So I decided to change directions and go back west to Vienna, Austria which had a connecting train to Munich, Germany.
So, when I update my next entry, it will be about my first trip to Germany in Mannheim, Heidelberg & Berlin (Including the Frontrunners Turquoise Party) and the second trip to Germany in Munich.
And no worries, many thanks to my parents who Western Unioned me money so I am able to continue my trip in Europe!
So, where was I? Oh yes, I was going to Cluj-Napoca from Budapest, and got there in the early afternoon, that gave me time to find my second hostel of the entire trip to put my bags away and explore the city. I asked the super-friendly hostel host, Diana, about a traditional Romanian restaurant, and Diana pointed out Cafe Andaluca on the map, and so I went there.
My first reaction to the resturant, it was very cheap! 1 euro equals 4 lei in Romania. A bottle of Romanian brew was 4 lei, I had a huge three'course meal with rice meatloaf type of thing, potatoes with onions and a dessert that was similar to a donut with sour cream and fruits all for 35 lei which added up to only 7 euros... champs!
Cluj was a different town. it wasnt tiny enough to get bored of it, but not too big to get lost in it. Just sized right, and two days was enough to see the citadel on a hill, Botanical gardens, the usual churches, plazas and a meal at a restaurant. That evening, I found my way to the Deaf Club which was only 10 minutes away from my hostel.
Nobody knew me, and I knew nobody, they were surprised to see a stranger come in their Deaf Club, I told them that I was traveling from America and found the address of the Deaf club from the internet, so here I was! They welcomed me in, and I had fun chatting for 3 hours.
I also met an old-timer who lived in America for 25-30 years when he immigrated from Romania and worked as a tailor. He moved back and lives in Romania now. He was glad to see someone (me) signing ASL again - it has been awhile for him - and told me that ASL is the most beautiful and best language in the world he has seen. Hey, those were his words!
It was time to catch my night train to the capital of Romania, Bucharest. Then began the most worst experience of the entire trip.
Basically, I slept all the way, and when I woke up, my wallet was gone. Usually when I get on the train, I move my wallet to the money belt and end my worries. That night, I did not do that, and that was a quick lesson learned!
So I was stuck in Bucharest without my wallet. Luckily, I always carried 100 euros in emergency money, and that was enough to last me for awhile. I went to the US embassy to request assistance on cancelling my credit card, it took a couple of hours but it was done. It also marked my first visit to an US embassy.
I lost all motivation to stay in Bucharest, and did not feel the good karma here, so I decided to move on to a new country. I did not have any desire to visit Bulgaria, which was south of Romania, and inquired the information booth about a connecting train to Greece.
Just my luck, apparently, Greece has closed its border to ANY international trains or buses from Bulgaria, so It was impossible to use my Eurail Pass to go to Greece. I asked how do people go to greece? The information attendant shrugged and guessed "by air?"
some things in the world just dont make sense. This was one of them.
So I decided to change directions and go back west to Vienna, Austria which had a connecting train to Munich, Germany.
So, when I update my next entry, it will be about my first trip to Germany in Mannheim, Heidelberg & Berlin (Including the Frontrunners Turquoise Party) and the second trip to Germany in Munich.
And no worries, many thanks to my parents who Western Unioned me money so I am able to continue my trip in Europe!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Hungary
After a long night of catching up with Brittany the last night at Austria, we continued chatting as she went to the train station to see me off then explore Wien afterwards.
The train ride to Budapest went well, and I made my way to my next CS host, Sara, who instructed me to arrive between 18:00 to 18:30, if I was late, I would have to wait until after 20:00. The reason for that was because she had a yoga instructor come to her house along with 4 people taking Yoga together, and I was welcome to join!
When she was teaching english in India, Sara met Deaf people and learned some India sign language. Even though her signing was shitty (Her words!) She was still a pleasure to chat with, and very good with gestures!
So, performing yoga with Francois, the French Yoga instructor was good for the traveling body. I never really gave my body a good stretch, and yoga was just what I needed! After it was done, my stomach was growling, so I went ahead and ate at a Doner Kebab place (always delicious, never disappoints) with two other Yoga partipicants Billy and Zoltan.
We burned through several pages of the notebook writing back and forth, and decided to continue it at a nearby local bar - Szimpla - which became my favorite bar I have went to in Europe! It was a cool, hip ruins type of bar with a great environment. I later found out it was also recommended in my Lonely Planet book, so tally up another one for LP!
Upon returning back to Sara's home, we chatted sipping wine and before we knew it, it was 2 in the morning! Sara had errands to do at eight in the morning, and she had no spare keys so I had to get out of the house at 8, which meant waking up at 7... I told Sara no worries, college has prepared me very well for situations like this! THANK YOU GALLAUDET!
As I got out, I went to Printa coffeshop gallery based on Sara's reccommendation, it had good coffee and a cool gallery, lots of interesting art and purses made out of seat belts. lots of recycled stuff like that but I don't remember much else but the seat belt purses stood out to me.
Printa was right near the Jewish Quarter, so I went to two small synagouges and made my way to the Great Synagouge - the biggest Synagouge in Europe - which included a museum but the museum was closed! So I would have to wait to visit the Synagouge on Sunday since it was closed on Saturdays. It turned out to be a good thing anyways.
From there, I went to the gigantic Nagy Vasarcsarnok - Central Market - and sampled Goulash Soup. very nice! filled with food, I climbed the Citadella (A lovely hike) with the Liberation mounment atop the hill with a great view of the city! It was at that moment where I realized I enjoyed taking hikes up hills/mountains and taking in the view a lot. It just never came to me, so i will start putting that on my facebook, CouchSurfing profiles and stuff like that. It is also rewarding when it is free hiking up by my two legs and not taking the easy way riding the funicular.
Saw some more sights at the Castle Hill and walked alongside the Danue River back to Sara's house and called it a night, but Sara also had another CS coming over, so we shared the sleeping room which was a big room which also was the kitchen, dining room, yoga room, basically a multi-purpose room so it was cool.
The other CSer was Mist from Iceland, we chatted a bit and she was taking a break from her studies to travel Europe, which was cool. SPOILER ALERT: Mist will also make an appearance in a future blog entry. Just Saying.
Originally, I was supposed to stay with Tamas from CS, but he was busy during the week and was available only after saturday, so Sara was willing to host me on such a short notice which was very much appreciated! After two fun days, I went to meet the energetic man who knew Hungarian Sign Language. When looking for him at the metro station, he simply had an "ILY" handshape so yeah, I knew it was him.
Apparently, Tamas had a secret job as a tour guide, because he really knows Budapest well, and told me stories, history and took me to some sights at Pest. I saw most of Buda the previous day.
In case you are confused, Budapest is split in two - Buda and Pest, split in half by the Danube River.
Then we met up with a friend of his - Katrina - who also knew sign language, so it was fun meeting them. Katrina was Jewish also, and she knew a Deaf Hungarian man who would be happy to meet me and take me to the Great Synagouge, Jewish Museum and the Holocaust museum, so it was a great plan!
So we agreed to meet at 13 the next day, and so we did. Remember, I don't have a phone, but the old fashioned way still works well!
After parting ways with Katrina, that evening Tamas had plans of going to a birthday party and it was open, so I tagged along to the Silenca bar at the ground floor and dance club on the first floor. Before, Tamas was not sure about how Deaf people would think hearing people look funny while dancing because they could not hear music. I explained to him that we could feel the vibrations, and dance along with it, but we do not need to hear the music to see if a person dances well or not :) No worries, Tamas was an excellent dancer though. Dancing With the Stars awaits him!
The next day Tamas took me to the Hungary Parliament Palace which was the third-biggest in the world. It was a nice tour, and Tamas was great trying to interpret the tour guide for me. The building had a lot of gold inside, and it was nice to see. One cool spot was the waiting room with the row of cigars! When I post up pictures eventually, you will see what I am talking about.
Tamas had to leave to meet up with his family, so before meeting with Katrina at 13, I went to the Terror Museum, where it formerly was the headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party. Very Communist and it was an educational tour throughout the museum.
After meeting up with Katrina and lunch together, we met Gyar, the old Deaf Hungarian man who was wonderful and told good historical stories about the Great Synagouge.
Afterwards, Gyar and I went to the Holocaust museum by metro, and I didn't have to pay for it. In Hungary (And most of europe) the Deaf - and the disabled too - has a card that enables them free public transportation including trams, metros, buses and sometimes trains, AND it includes a "plus-one" passenger too which was ::drumroll:: me. The card also includes free admissions to museums too... I should had met Gyar a long time ago!
It was fun chatting with Gyar, and we parted ways, as I went ahead to reward myself with a visit to a well known Hungarian attraction: Thermal Baths! Lonely Planet said Gellert Baths was one of the best and most popular, so yeah that was where I went. It was worth it and I came out feeling like a new man!
Keeping up with the "new" feeling, the next day, it was on to a new country: Romania! I caught the morning train to Cluj-Napoca and...
The train ride to Budapest went well, and I made my way to my next CS host, Sara, who instructed me to arrive between 18:00 to 18:30, if I was late, I would have to wait until after 20:00. The reason for that was because she had a yoga instructor come to her house along with 4 people taking Yoga together, and I was welcome to join!
When she was teaching english in India, Sara met Deaf people and learned some India sign language. Even though her signing was shitty (Her words!) She was still a pleasure to chat with, and very good with gestures!
So, performing yoga with Francois, the French Yoga instructor was good for the traveling body. I never really gave my body a good stretch, and yoga was just what I needed! After it was done, my stomach was growling, so I went ahead and ate at a Doner Kebab place (always delicious, never disappoints) with two other Yoga partipicants Billy and Zoltan.
We burned through several pages of the notebook writing back and forth, and decided to continue it at a nearby local bar - Szimpla - which became my favorite bar I have went to in Europe! It was a cool, hip ruins type of bar with a great environment. I later found out it was also recommended in my Lonely Planet book, so tally up another one for LP!
Upon returning back to Sara's home, we chatted sipping wine and before we knew it, it was 2 in the morning! Sara had errands to do at eight in the morning, and she had no spare keys so I had to get out of the house at 8, which meant waking up at 7... I told Sara no worries, college has prepared me very well for situations like this! THANK YOU GALLAUDET!
As I got out, I went to Printa coffeshop gallery based on Sara's reccommendation, it had good coffee and a cool gallery, lots of interesting art and purses made out of seat belts. lots of recycled stuff like that but I don't remember much else but the seat belt purses stood out to me.
Printa was right near the Jewish Quarter, so I went to two small synagouges and made my way to the Great Synagouge - the biggest Synagouge in Europe - which included a museum but the museum was closed! So I would have to wait to visit the Synagouge on Sunday since it was closed on Saturdays. It turned out to be a good thing anyways.
From there, I went to the gigantic Nagy Vasarcsarnok - Central Market - and sampled Goulash Soup. very nice! filled with food, I climbed the Citadella (A lovely hike) with the Liberation mounment atop the hill with a great view of the city! It was at that moment where I realized I enjoyed taking hikes up hills/mountains and taking in the view a lot. It just never came to me, so i will start putting that on my facebook, CouchSurfing profiles and stuff like that. It is also rewarding when it is free hiking up by my two legs and not taking the easy way riding the funicular.
Saw some more sights at the Castle Hill and walked alongside the Danue River back to Sara's house and called it a night, but Sara also had another CS coming over, so we shared the sleeping room which was a big room which also was the kitchen, dining room, yoga room, basically a multi-purpose room so it was cool.
The other CSer was Mist from Iceland, we chatted a bit and she was taking a break from her studies to travel Europe, which was cool. SPOILER ALERT: Mist will also make an appearance in a future blog entry. Just Saying.
Originally, I was supposed to stay with Tamas from CS, but he was busy during the week and was available only after saturday, so Sara was willing to host me on such a short notice which was very much appreciated! After two fun days, I went to meet the energetic man who knew Hungarian Sign Language. When looking for him at the metro station, he simply had an "ILY" handshape so yeah, I knew it was him.
Apparently, Tamas had a secret job as a tour guide, because he really knows Budapest well, and told me stories, history and took me to some sights at Pest. I saw most of Buda the previous day.
In case you are confused, Budapest is split in two - Buda and Pest, split in half by the Danube River.
Then we met up with a friend of his - Katrina - who also knew sign language, so it was fun meeting them. Katrina was Jewish also, and she knew a Deaf Hungarian man who would be happy to meet me and take me to the Great Synagouge, Jewish Museum and the Holocaust museum, so it was a great plan!
So we agreed to meet at 13 the next day, and so we did. Remember, I don't have a phone, but the old fashioned way still works well!
After parting ways with Katrina, that evening Tamas had plans of going to a birthday party and it was open, so I tagged along to the Silenca bar at the ground floor and dance club on the first floor. Before, Tamas was not sure about how Deaf people would think hearing people look funny while dancing because they could not hear music. I explained to him that we could feel the vibrations, and dance along with it, but we do not need to hear the music to see if a person dances well or not :) No worries, Tamas was an excellent dancer though. Dancing With the Stars awaits him!
The next day Tamas took me to the Hungary Parliament Palace which was the third-biggest in the world. It was a nice tour, and Tamas was great trying to interpret the tour guide for me. The building had a lot of gold inside, and it was nice to see. One cool spot was the waiting room with the row of cigars! When I post up pictures eventually, you will see what I am talking about.
Tamas had to leave to meet up with his family, so before meeting with Katrina at 13, I went to the Terror Museum, where it formerly was the headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party. Very Communist and it was an educational tour throughout the museum.
After meeting up with Katrina and lunch together, we met Gyar, the old Deaf Hungarian man who was wonderful and told good historical stories about the Great Synagouge.
Afterwards, Gyar and I went to the Holocaust museum by metro, and I didn't have to pay for it. In Hungary (And most of europe) the Deaf - and the disabled too - has a card that enables them free public transportation including trams, metros, buses and sometimes trains, AND it includes a "plus-one" passenger too which was ::drumroll:: me. The card also includes free admissions to museums too... I should had met Gyar a long time ago!
It was fun chatting with Gyar, and we parted ways, as I went ahead to reward myself with a visit to a well known Hungarian attraction: Thermal Baths! Lonely Planet said Gellert Baths was one of the best and most popular, so yeah that was where I went. It was worth it and I came out feeling like a new man!
Keeping up with the "new" feeling, the next day, it was on to a new country: Romania! I caught the morning train to Cluj-Napoca and...
Austria
After receiving a rainy farewell from Czech, I made my way to Vienna, Austria where I met up with Brianne, who I knew from college, and her boyfriend Clement.
Before leaving, I was told to not eat anything heavy as we would have dinner at !!!16!!! in the evening. It was such a big change from Spain where dinner was at 22 was considered early. But a dinner is still a dinner, after a filling dinner and chatting/catching up, we went out to the inner city ring for an post-dinner walk at 17. I still cannot believe I am saying that.
Fact about Vienna: Wien is made of districts, 1 is the inner city and goes up to 23 around the 1. Interesting way of coding around the city though.
Walking there, we saw the usual European sights of cathedral, plazas and memorials. It was sunday so most of the stores were closed but roads were packed, people were window shopping, it is pretty fun to do apparently.
My grandomther used to live in Vienna - she immigrated to the US in 1940 due to the nazi and WWII - and she gave me her old address. Thanks to GPS and technology, we were able to find the place (hopefully it was the right one too) and it was cool to go back to my roots in Vienna at district 2.
The next day included some more sightseeing at the Schonnbrunn - a 1,441 room mansion for two people, the King and the Queen! Schonnbrunn was huge and included a lovely garden in the backyard. It was more of a park that had a zoo too than just a garden, but still a garden. We also visited the famous old-style Risenrad Ferris Wheel and the surrounding amusement park.
The evenings were usually spent chatting all night long and I enjoyed them. One topic that was brought up with Clement and I discussing - If you were broke and homeless, would you rather live in the city or move out to the country side?
Another common discussion (With many other europeans) was comparing and contrasting the lifestyles of America and Europe. Clement travelled to India and it opened his mind in so many ways, and suggested that I should visit Asia, as it is way different than Europe that is for sure. I told him I would make another travels one day, no worries!
On May 3rd I made a day trip to Salzburg, it had a lovely old town centre...yeah that was all it had. It was a REALLY lovely old town though, climbing up the old Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress) atop a hill and a good view of the alps although the day was a bit cloudy/foggy/rainy. The town was famous for its involvement in the Sound of Music movie, and kept pimping the movie all across the touristy places... which I didn't really care much for as I never saw the movie (as usual).
My last day of Austria was spent at the Jewish Museum in Wien where there was an excellent exhibit on Jewish Identity. Afterwards, I explored the city bit and came to the Sigmund Freud house/museum where the history of the brilliant mind was shown. I enjoyed seeing the stories of his past. One story I enjoyed:
He had a conversation with Einstein once, Einstein had no clue about Psychology and Freud knew nothing about Physics. So two of the greatest minds of their fields sat there and shared their thoughts and works with each other in the most epic mind-blowing conversation (I wasn´t there, but I am sure it was epic) ever. It also included cigars. Freud loved to smoke a good cigar while going on his infamous walks. It was cool to see the original "shrink" couch, it looked uncomfortable and not a couch at all, but that was what they used in the 1900s.
After exploring museums, I felt quite hungry, so it was only approrpriate I went to Der Wiener Deewan as advised by my Lonely Planet book. DWD is a pakistan place where you can eat all you want and pay as much as you want! It is kind of a jedi mind trick seeing if you will pay 2 euros for 15 euros worth of food and how generous your heart really is. But this place does not care just pay as much as you would like no big deal. Of course, I ate two good plates (It was delicious too) and paid 5 euros. HEY im on a traveller's budget.
Wandering with a full stomach, I stumbled into the original Manner's store, and bought some wafers, they're so delicious! If you do not know what i am talking about just google it. Same goes with the other stuff I mentioned above don't just nod and read on :)
That evening, Clement and I went to the Wien Deaf Club where we met several deaf people our age and double the number of old deaf folks there. It was a good time chatting with new people and drinking a glass of Austrian beer. This makes me wish we still had Deaf Clubs in existence back all over in America.
Of course, drinking good beer late at night leads to feeling hungry at 23. So not much was open except for... good ol' mcdonalds. Yeah, i collapsed and had my first cheeseburger in Europe, but it was delicious!
When we got back home, we met the love of my life, Brittany, another fellow USA traveller who was staying with us, she had just arrived from Denmark... or Italy? I forgot :( But we had a good chat catching up all night about her lovely over protective Italian family and our travels.
Eventually, our eyes could not stay open, and we went to sleep as I had to catch a train to Budapest, Hungary the next day... now Budapest, that is for another blog entry!
Before leaving, I was told to not eat anything heavy as we would have dinner at !!!16!!! in the evening. It was such a big change from Spain where dinner was at 22 was considered early. But a dinner is still a dinner, after a filling dinner and chatting/catching up, we went out to the inner city ring for an post-dinner walk at 17. I still cannot believe I am saying that.
Fact about Vienna: Wien is made of districts, 1 is the inner city and goes up to 23 around the 1. Interesting way of coding around the city though.
Walking there, we saw the usual European sights of cathedral, plazas and memorials. It was sunday so most of the stores were closed but roads were packed, people were window shopping, it is pretty fun to do apparently.
My grandomther used to live in Vienna - she immigrated to the US in 1940 due to the nazi and WWII - and she gave me her old address. Thanks to GPS and technology, we were able to find the place (hopefully it was the right one too) and it was cool to go back to my roots in Vienna at district 2.
The next day included some more sightseeing at the Schonnbrunn - a 1,441 room mansion for two people, the King and the Queen! Schonnbrunn was huge and included a lovely garden in the backyard. It was more of a park that had a zoo too than just a garden, but still a garden. We also visited the famous old-style Risenrad Ferris Wheel and the surrounding amusement park.
The evenings were usually spent chatting all night long and I enjoyed them. One topic that was brought up with Clement and I discussing - If you were broke and homeless, would you rather live in the city or move out to the country side?
Another common discussion (With many other europeans) was comparing and contrasting the lifestyles of America and Europe. Clement travelled to India and it opened his mind in so many ways, and suggested that I should visit Asia, as it is way different than Europe that is for sure. I told him I would make another travels one day, no worries!
On May 3rd I made a day trip to Salzburg, it had a lovely old town centre...yeah that was all it had. It was a REALLY lovely old town though, climbing up the old Festung Hohensalzburg (Fortress) atop a hill and a good view of the alps although the day was a bit cloudy/foggy/rainy. The town was famous for its involvement in the Sound of Music movie, and kept pimping the movie all across the touristy places... which I didn't really care much for as I never saw the movie (as usual).
My last day of Austria was spent at the Jewish Museum in Wien where there was an excellent exhibit on Jewish Identity. Afterwards, I explored the city bit and came to the Sigmund Freud house/museum where the history of the brilliant mind was shown. I enjoyed seeing the stories of his past. One story I enjoyed:
He had a conversation with Einstein once, Einstein had no clue about Psychology and Freud knew nothing about Physics. So two of the greatest minds of their fields sat there and shared their thoughts and works with each other in the most epic mind-blowing conversation (I wasn´t there, but I am sure it was epic) ever. It also included cigars. Freud loved to smoke a good cigar while going on his infamous walks. It was cool to see the original "shrink" couch, it looked uncomfortable and not a couch at all, but that was what they used in the 1900s.
After exploring museums, I felt quite hungry, so it was only approrpriate I went to Der Wiener Deewan as advised by my Lonely Planet book. DWD is a pakistan place where you can eat all you want and pay as much as you want! It is kind of a jedi mind trick seeing if you will pay 2 euros for 15 euros worth of food and how generous your heart really is. But this place does not care just pay as much as you would like no big deal. Of course, I ate two good plates (It was delicious too) and paid 5 euros. HEY im on a traveller's budget.
Wandering with a full stomach, I stumbled into the original Manner's store, and bought some wafers, they're so delicious! If you do not know what i am talking about just google it. Same goes with the other stuff I mentioned above don't just nod and read on :)
That evening, Clement and I went to the Wien Deaf Club where we met several deaf people our age and double the number of old deaf folks there. It was a good time chatting with new people and drinking a glass of Austrian beer. This makes me wish we still had Deaf Clubs in existence back all over in America.
Of course, drinking good beer late at night leads to feeling hungry at 23. So not much was open except for... good ol' mcdonalds. Yeah, i collapsed and had my first cheeseburger in Europe, but it was delicious!
When we got back home, we met the love of my life, Brittany, another fellow USA traveller who was staying with us, she had just arrived from Denmark... or Italy? I forgot :( But we had a good chat catching up all night about her lovely over protective Italian family and our travels.
Eventually, our eyes could not stay open, and we went to sleep as I had to catch a train to Budapest, Hungary the next day... now Budapest, that is for another blog entry!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Czech Republic
Today - April 30 - marks the 50th day of my trip!
Side note: No I did not forget about the Germany entry, I still have Munich to visit, so once I make that visit, the Germany blog entry will be up in one part not two!
After the blink before my eyes that was Berlin, I got on a train to Prague, Czech Republic to my CS host Elisa. When we arrived, she already had plans for me - going straight to a CS gathering at a generous man's house. His name was Rolf, and he was with the Swedish Embassy living in Prague. Rolf was hosting (he hosts occasional gatherings) a soup party and it was vegetarian/vegan, which was really healthy and delicious! I met several people from Prague and some other fellow CSers at the party, chatting with them by notebook and pen which was quickly filled out!
At that same party, I met four Italians - Valeria, Lorenzo, Robert and Anita, who invited me to join them in exploring the Jewish Quarter of Prague the next day - I said sure (Couldn't say no to a visit to Jewish Museums/Synagouges) and so we agreed to meet at noon.
We looked around the Jewish Cemetary, four Synagogues and a hall - it was nice to see more history as it was about my 8th different Jewish museum in Europe, all of them were different and has great history of their own - and I always see/learn something new every place. Jewish history really is strong and has deep roots in Europe before, up to and after the 1940's.
After looking around, we went to eat dinner, Robert was a vegetarian, so we had to find a vegetarian place. (Yes, I became a vegetarian just for 24 hours, i survived!) the food was good at a cafeteria-style restaurant.
Afterwards, they wanted to go to a museum, and I wanted to explore more of the city so we said farewell and parted ways. They were so friendly, and taught me some Italian gestures which were funny and some similar to sign language! Hopefully when I am in Milano, we could meet up again!
So I walked around the old town Prague and some sights were the Astronomical Clock, Tyn Cathedral, St. Nicholas Church and the Powder Tower before meeting up with Elisa and going to another CS meeting. This time it was at the Hrom De Police bar which brewed its own delicious Czech beers! There was a CS meeting regularly on Thursday evenings along with more notebook conversations and some sign teaching.
The next day I took a day trip to nearby Kutna Hora where there was the famed Kostnice Sedlec Ossuary - http://www.kostnice.cz/ - which turned out to be my most favorite visit of the entire trip. Worth the trip! I also saw the St. Barbory church and ate at a local resturant with their own beer - Gambrinus but my mind was still at the Ossuary. Over 40,000 to 70,000 skulls & bones! Truly was an awesome sight to see.
Later that evening, I arrived back to Elisa's place and saw on the internet about the royal wedding.... oh, didn't notice. That night we went back to the old town at night for some walking around.
Today I went to the Prazsky Hrad - Prague Castle - and walked around the gardens, courtyards and castle. At noon, there was the changing of the guards with swords, guns, flags and the usual guard changing stuff. Not as spectacular as the Buckingham Guards in London but still nice to watch.
From the Castle, I went down to the Old Town and walked across the famed Karluv Most - Charles Bridge - which had 30 statues, 15 on each side on the bridge to the western side of Prague. There, I walked to the John Lennon Wall which had cool graffiti art.
After that, I went to another CS meeting at Kinskeho Zahrada (garden) where we were celebrating a guy's birthday with a nice picnic. The weather was getting gloomy so it ended earlier than we would like but I still enjoyed the break at the park.
On the final evening, we went to Carodejnice, a witch burning festival to signal the end of winter and the witch's spell. There were music, beers, food and lots of fire and fire spinning. There were also fireworks, but the fireworks' shit was weak compared to Independence Day fireworks in USA, sorry :)
It was all fun until it rained and everyone rushed back home, I guess the witches weren't too happy about the festival!
Prague treated me well, and so did my CS host Elisa, but it was time to move on. Tomorrow, I will be going to Vienna, Austria and continuing the trip!
Side note: No I did not forget about the Germany entry, I still have Munich to visit, so once I make that visit, the Germany blog entry will be up in one part not two!
After the blink before my eyes that was Berlin, I got on a train to Prague, Czech Republic to my CS host Elisa. When we arrived, she already had plans for me - going straight to a CS gathering at a generous man's house. His name was Rolf, and he was with the Swedish Embassy living in Prague. Rolf was hosting (he hosts occasional gatherings) a soup party and it was vegetarian/vegan, which was really healthy and delicious! I met several people from Prague and some other fellow CSers at the party, chatting with them by notebook and pen which was quickly filled out!
At that same party, I met four Italians - Valeria, Lorenzo, Robert and Anita, who invited me to join them in exploring the Jewish Quarter of Prague the next day - I said sure (Couldn't say no to a visit to Jewish Museums/Synagouges) and so we agreed to meet at noon.
We looked around the Jewish Cemetary, four Synagogues and a hall - it was nice to see more history as it was about my 8th different Jewish museum in Europe, all of them were different and has great history of their own - and I always see/learn something new every place. Jewish history really is strong and has deep roots in Europe before, up to and after the 1940's.
After looking around, we went to eat dinner, Robert was a vegetarian, so we had to find a vegetarian place. (Yes, I became a vegetarian just for 24 hours, i survived!) the food was good at a cafeteria-style restaurant.
Afterwards, they wanted to go to a museum, and I wanted to explore more of the city so we said farewell and parted ways. They were so friendly, and taught me some Italian gestures which were funny and some similar to sign language! Hopefully when I am in Milano, we could meet up again!
So I walked around the old town Prague and some sights were the Astronomical Clock, Tyn Cathedral, St. Nicholas Church and the Powder Tower before meeting up with Elisa and going to another CS meeting. This time it was at the Hrom De Police bar which brewed its own delicious Czech beers! There was a CS meeting regularly on Thursday evenings along with more notebook conversations and some sign teaching.
The next day I took a day trip to nearby Kutna Hora where there was the famed Kostnice Sedlec Ossuary - http://www.kostnice.cz/ - which turned out to be my most favorite visit of the entire trip. Worth the trip! I also saw the St. Barbory church and ate at a local resturant with their own beer - Gambrinus but my mind was still at the Ossuary. Over 40,000 to 70,000 skulls & bones! Truly was an awesome sight to see.
Later that evening, I arrived back to Elisa's place and saw on the internet about the royal wedding.... oh, didn't notice. That night we went back to the old town at night for some walking around.
Today I went to the Prazsky Hrad - Prague Castle - and walked around the gardens, courtyards and castle. At noon, there was the changing of the guards with swords, guns, flags and the usual guard changing stuff. Not as spectacular as the Buckingham Guards in London but still nice to watch.
From the Castle, I went down to the Old Town and walked across the famed Karluv Most - Charles Bridge - which had 30 statues, 15 on each side on the bridge to the western side of Prague. There, I walked to the John Lennon Wall which had cool graffiti art.
After that, I went to another CS meeting at Kinskeho Zahrada (garden) where we were celebrating a guy's birthday with a nice picnic. The weather was getting gloomy so it ended earlier than we would like but I still enjoyed the break at the park.
On the final evening, we went to Carodejnice, a witch burning festival to signal the end of winter and the witch's spell. There were music, beers, food and lots of fire and fire spinning. There were also fireworks, but the fireworks' shit was weak compared to Independence Day fireworks in USA, sorry :)
It was all fun until it rained and everyone rushed back home, I guess the witches weren't too happy about the festival!
Prague treated me well, and so did my CS host Elisa, but it was time to move on. Tomorrow, I will be going to Vienna, Austria and continuing the trip!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
France Part Un
So I left off at Cerbere, where I had enjoyed the city by the mediterranean sea and finally got on my connecting train to Nimes from where I would go to Lyon.
Remember that the original train to cerbere was 5 minutes late, so I had to catch the next train to Nimes three hours later. When I arrived at nimes, it was almost midnight, and the last train to lyon left hours ago so I was stuck in Nimes and the next train was eight in the morning.
So basically, I had nowhere to go and everything was closed. I wasn't gonna buy a hotel room for seven hours of sleep, and the train station was locking up, they don't allow people to stay in overnight so I along with four other people who missed their rides settled down and slept outside the train station
It was a fun experience sleeping like a homeless dude (I definitely looked the part) and the sleep wasn't good because I had to sleep on my backpack in an awkward position but hey gotta do what I had to do to protect my bag!
So when the morning came, i awoke to find out that A - almost all the trains were delayed by one or two hours so the train to Lyon was at 10 not 8 am and B - the train to lyon was full. oh, f me.
After consulting my eurail guide, train schedule and map, I found that i could go to marseilles and catch the train to Lyon there. So I finally left Nimes around 9 30 or 10 and arrived Marseiles at 11.05. The express train to lyon was full.
BUT there was another regional (slower train, more stops) IC train to Lyon. The original departure time was at 11, so i missed it?? Nope, it was delayed for ten minutes.
Guess I got lucky this time... that was enough train mania in less than 24 hours for me.
Finally at Lyon, I met up with Aurelein, my host who found me through a post I made on Deaf Couchsurfing group and welcomed me to his place. Aurelein was hearing but he has a Deaf boyfriend, works at a Deaf School and uses LSF very well!
Aurel was a great host and we spent many hours chatting about language, connection with French and American education (Clerc, ASL from LSF, schools), signs, how people are welcome in others' houses guests/friends etc etc and of course, food! Lyon is well known for gourmet and I tried Andouille it was delicious too.
Aurel also showed me around for a couple of hours because the next two days he would not be home - sleeping at Bourg En bresse near the Deaf school where he worked. So he left me his keys and trusted me to his house... wow! I told him that this probably would never happen in America, but that is a big difference between welcoming guests in America and Europe even though we never met before this. The trust was very high, and I was not used to it being as an American but i learned the European - and french - way quickly.
That was a small part of one of our many chats!
So home alone, i stayed in all day... of course not, I explored Lyon and first went to the fourviere and roman theatre, the centre, st jean area, la gullotine and others.
I got around in Lyon by tram, it was operated by TCL and before boarding the tram you had to buy a ticket from a machine which I had no idea how to operate. Usually in other trams, you could buy a ticket from the driver or a conductor inside the tram, so I got in hoping to do the same. Then a TCL officer came down the aisle asking people to show their tickets as validation (I later found out they do this occasionally, during rush hour usually) so they requested my ticket and I told them I didnt have any.
The guy had a face that said "oh really well no you cannot do that" but his words was french so I had no idea what he really said. I wrote down "I no french, I english" and he didnt understand what i wrote... ok so I told him i would buy "pour tous" (One hour ticket) and he said no, and held up 4 then 3 fingers. huh? Was it seven? I wrote down 7 and he looked at me like i was stupid and wrote 43 euros. The ticket was 2, and I had to pay 43? No way, i took out 5 euros and told him I pay this for ticket and he said no I had to go to the machine so FINEE we got off at the next stop and went to the machine.
Somewhere there was a button that could change the language to english (which I couldnt find before) so allright man. One problem, the machine took coins not cash and I didnt have anz coins on me. I tried my credit card but the screen read strange french word rejectez more strange french words but i guess rejectez means... rejected?
I turned around to the guy and told him how do i do this? I give him money for coins and buy ticket? He was like no you pay 43 and would not let me leave... such an a-hole seems he wanted to take advantage since I was an american (I showed my passport after he requested it) and deaf and - to him, dumb too - but I wouldn't give in. I told him forget it I will go walk and he was all no you must pay ticket. we argued for almost 5 minutes and there was a lady behind us listening to the whole thing (The train officer kept on speaking even though I told him 50 times that I couldn't hear OR understand french) and I stepped aside to let her purchase her ticket.
The lady turned around, said something to the officer and gave me a pour tous ticket! My face lighted up and the train officer's face clearly was in shock - I had a ticket now, I wasnt gonna pay 43 euros and he had no choice but to let me go. I couldnt say thanks enough to that woman she said it was ok and didnt understand english but a smile was more than enough for her to understand.
Later that day at 18:00 I was to meet Sandra, Aurel's friend who lived 5 minues away. Sandra was deaf and contacted me on CouchSurfing too, but she was supposed to host a girl from Japan but at the last minute she could not make it so she was free to have me as company. She is part of 10 deaf french theatre group that will have a play in June (What is it? Sorry, I promised not to tell)
So I watched their practice for two hours and chatting with some people during short breaks it was nice to see French Deaf people in a theatre environment also their theatre style is a bit different from america's.
After the theatre, we were hungry so sandra took me to her home which was 5 minutes away from Aurel's place and had dinner salad with tuna, quiches and then strawberries, whipped cream and sugar for dessert oh boy was i stuffed, the french sure know how to feed/welcome their guests :)
Then we chatted until we yawned so I went back and agreed to meet again tomorrow after I visited IJS school in Bourg en Bresse - the school link http://www.afis01.fr/ijs.html
The visit was very enjoyable Aurel showed me around, I met some teachers, passed by students and finally got to a classroom full of kids ready to receive me!
They were excited to meet an Deaf American from Gallaudet so I told them about myself in ASL (I tried my best because I almost havent used asl in weeks so it was a different feeling as I had totally shifted to International Sign and bit of Irish, Netherland and French signs) To show the difference between ASL and LSF, but they still could follow me.
I switched to International after that and talked about my experiences on the trip so far, the difference between America/Europe, Deaf life in America, ADA, rights, laws, videophones, Deaf Schools, why we have that signs, why in ASL we spell so much instead of signing - even i caught mzself and wondered why too - just a bit of what we talked about with an open Q & A, it was fun for both of us.
After the school we walked to the kitchen where the Home Ecomonic class had prepared mousse and since it was tuesday, they made enough for the whole school and a visitor: the chocolate mousse... amie.
So Aurel and I went back to his house then met up with Sandra at her place after getting pizzas from a truck (Kind of like hot dogs, ice cream, tacos from a truck) and dropping me off as he had dance class for two hours and joined up with our chat (Another long one again) afterwards.
That concludes part Un of France, as the next day I went to Mannheim, Germany via Strasbourg (No crazy train stories this time whew). Part Deux will come when I visit Nice and Paris for real later!
Remember that the original train to cerbere was 5 minutes late, so I had to catch the next train to Nimes three hours later. When I arrived at nimes, it was almost midnight, and the last train to lyon left hours ago so I was stuck in Nimes and the next train was eight in the morning.
So basically, I had nowhere to go and everything was closed. I wasn't gonna buy a hotel room for seven hours of sleep, and the train station was locking up, they don't allow people to stay in overnight so I along with four other people who missed their rides settled down and slept outside the train station
It was a fun experience sleeping like a homeless dude (I definitely looked the part) and the sleep wasn't good because I had to sleep on my backpack in an awkward position but hey gotta do what I had to do to protect my bag!
So when the morning came, i awoke to find out that A - almost all the trains were delayed by one or two hours so the train to Lyon was at 10 not 8 am and B - the train to lyon was full. oh, f me.
After consulting my eurail guide, train schedule and map, I found that i could go to marseilles and catch the train to Lyon there. So I finally left Nimes around 9 30 or 10 and arrived Marseiles at 11.05. The express train to lyon was full.
BUT there was another regional (slower train, more stops) IC train to Lyon. The original departure time was at 11, so i missed it?? Nope, it was delayed for ten minutes.
Guess I got lucky this time... that was enough train mania in less than 24 hours for me.
Finally at Lyon, I met up with Aurelein, my host who found me through a post I made on Deaf Couchsurfing group and welcomed me to his place. Aurelein was hearing but he has a Deaf boyfriend, works at a Deaf School and uses LSF very well!
Aurel was a great host and we spent many hours chatting about language, connection with French and American education (Clerc, ASL from LSF, schools), signs, how people are welcome in others' houses guests/friends etc etc and of course, food! Lyon is well known for gourmet and I tried Andouille it was delicious too.
Aurel also showed me around for a couple of hours because the next two days he would not be home - sleeping at Bourg En bresse near the Deaf school where he worked. So he left me his keys and trusted me to his house... wow! I told him that this probably would never happen in America, but that is a big difference between welcoming guests in America and Europe even though we never met before this. The trust was very high, and I was not used to it being as an American but i learned the European - and french - way quickly.
That was a small part of one of our many chats!
So home alone, i stayed in all day... of course not, I explored Lyon and first went to the fourviere and roman theatre, the centre, st jean area, la gullotine and others.
I got around in Lyon by tram, it was operated by TCL and before boarding the tram you had to buy a ticket from a machine which I had no idea how to operate. Usually in other trams, you could buy a ticket from the driver or a conductor inside the tram, so I got in hoping to do the same. Then a TCL officer came down the aisle asking people to show their tickets as validation (I later found out they do this occasionally, during rush hour usually) so they requested my ticket and I told them I didnt have any.
The guy had a face that said "oh really well no you cannot do that" but his words was french so I had no idea what he really said. I wrote down "I no french, I english" and he didnt understand what i wrote... ok so I told him i would buy "pour tous" (One hour ticket) and he said no, and held up 4 then 3 fingers. huh? Was it seven? I wrote down 7 and he looked at me like i was stupid and wrote 43 euros. The ticket was 2, and I had to pay 43? No way, i took out 5 euros and told him I pay this for ticket and he said no I had to go to the machine so FINEE we got off at the next stop and went to the machine.
Somewhere there was a button that could change the language to english (which I couldnt find before) so allright man. One problem, the machine took coins not cash and I didnt have anz coins on me. I tried my credit card but the screen read strange french word rejectez more strange french words but i guess rejectez means... rejected?
I turned around to the guy and told him how do i do this? I give him money for coins and buy ticket? He was like no you pay 43 and would not let me leave... such an a-hole seems he wanted to take advantage since I was an american (I showed my passport after he requested it) and deaf and - to him, dumb too - but I wouldn't give in. I told him forget it I will go walk and he was all no you must pay ticket. we argued for almost 5 minutes and there was a lady behind us listening to the whole thing (The train officer kept on speaking even though I told him 50 times that I couldn't hear OR understand french) and I stepped aside to let her purchase her ticket.
The lady turned around, said something to the officer and gave me a pour tous ticket! My face lighted up and the train officer's face clearly was in shock - I had a ticket now, I wasnt gonna pay 43 euros and he had no choice but to let me go. I couldnt say thanks enough to that woman she said it was ok and didnt understand english but a smile was more than enough for her to understand.
Later that day at 18:00 I was to meet Sandra, Aurel's friend who lived 5 minues away. Sandra was deaf and contacted me on CouchSurfing too, but she was supposed to host a girl from Japan but at the last minute she could not make it so she was free to have me as company. She is part of 10 deaf french theatre group that will have a play in June (What is it? Sorry, I promised not to tell)
So I watched their practice for two hours and chatting with some people during short breaks it was nice to see French Deaf people in a theatre environment also their theatre style is a bit different from america's.
After the theatre, we were hungry so sandra took me to her home which was 5 minutes away from Aurel's place and had dinner salad with tuna, quiches and then strawberries, whipped cream and sugar for dessert oh boy was i stuffed, the french sure know how to feed/welcome their guests :)
Then we chatted until we yawned so I went back and agreed to meet again tomorrow after I visited IJS school in Bourg en Bresse - the school link http://www.afis01.fr/ijs.html
The visit was very enjoyable Aurel showed me around, I met some teachers, passed by students and finally got to a classroom full of kids ready to receive me!
They were excited to meet an Deaf American from Gallaudet so I told them about myself in ASL (I tried my best because I almost havent used asl in weeks so it was a different feeling as I had totally shifted to International Sign and bit of Irish, Netherland and French signs) To show the difference between ASL and LSF, but they still could follow me.
I switched to International after that and talked about my experiences on the trip so far, the difference between America/Europe, Deaf life in America, ADA, rights, laws, videophones, Deaf Schools, why we have that signs, why in ASL we spell so much instead of signing - even i caught mzself and wondered why too - just a bit of what we talked about with an open Q & A, it was fun for both of us.
After the school we walked to the kitchen where the Home Ecomonic class had prepared mousse and since it was tuesday, they made enough for the whole school and a visitor: the chocolate mousse... amie.
So Aurel and I went back to his house then met up with Sandra at her place after getting pizzas from a truck (Kind of like hot dogs, ice cream, tacos from a truck) and dropping me off as he had dance class for two hours and joined up with our chat (Another long one again) afterwards.
That concludes part Un of France, as the next day I went to Mannheim, Germany via Strasbourg (No crazy train stories this time whew). Part Deux will come when I visit Nice and Paris for real later!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Espana
Before getting started on Spain, two things:
1 - The most amazing thing about Espana is that the people here does not make me want to punch them in the face like I want to punch Pau Gasol.
2 - Most of the ladies look like they can fit right in a Shakira music video. Plenty of junk in that trunk, boys.
After finding myself in Madrid, I waited at the Atocha Train Station for my BFF Jessica (Who I met at Israel through the Birthright trip) to pick me up, she lived only 5 minutes away with her wonderful stereotypical spanish neighbors - two guys who listen to Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Techno music all day; and another neighborS who seemed to have 15 people living in an apartment :)
As I got settled in, Jessica had to go to work, so that gave me free time to explore Madrid, and I did. I went and saw the typical European sights around the city: the Plaza Centre (Plaza Mayor), the spot everyone goes to (Sol), the major street (Gran Via) and the cathedrals (there were several).
I enjoyed walking around Madrid; I felt like it was a different place compared to most Western European cities which felt similar in some ways. The spanish words on buildings and streets contributed to that too.
The museums and sights in Madrid was spectacular, a great Museo Nacional del Prado with various collections of Spanish Artists: Goya, Velazquez and El Greco, the Caixa Forum with the Jardin Colgate (Hanging Garden), Temple de Oebod and Reina Sofia where Picasso' Guernica rests, also trippy paintings by Dali.
One park I enjoyed was the Parque del Buen Retiro. If you ever go to Madrid, be sure to go to that park. Great tanning spot even though I only come in two colors: white and red. W
e went there a second time with Jillian (Jessica's friend) who was babysitting two kids and two of their friends; so 4 kids in all. We went to the park and played soccer. Yes; even though they were somewhere 10 to 13, I kicked their butts in futbol (that's soccer if you didn't know) AND before you start scolding me that they are just kids and I should have went easy on them... well they won the world cup last year. THE WORLD CUP. Everyone in Spain knows how to play football even the old folks and the junk in the trunk ladies!
One side note: they're pretty humble in that, no big signs flyers banners of World Cup Champions or something like that, good for you spain; good for you. Or maybe they all were destroyed in the riots after winning?
In between one of those days; I made a day trip to Toledo based on Jessica's suggestion. It was worth it! Toledo is a lovely town on a top of the hill, the sights were great overlooking the surroundings including the Rio Tajo river. The museums were great too, I enjoyed the Museo de Santa Cruz and Museo Sefari in Sinagoga del Transito - a 14th century Jewish Temple - both free! (thanks Gallaudet Student ID)
Also based on Lonely Planet's suggestion, I went to a local bar named Santa Fe, good food and good beer. Speaking of food; I loved chorizo, olives and fried calimari... those three are quite tasty!
Don't worry; I enjoyed the Sangria, but it will NEVER jump over beer in the beverage rankings. NEVER.
After it was all said and done; it was time to leave Madrid: Many thanks to Jessica and Ricardo for hosting me in their new apartment and the late night spanish dinners!
So I went to Barcelona for a day, after walking around a few hours without a map, I realized I left my camera and book in the other backpack that I stored in the train lockers, so basically I had no "evidence" that I went to Barcelona and I have no idea what were the sights I saw. But I still enjoyed wandering around the city.
From Barcelona, I was ready to go to my next destination which was Lyon, France and caught a regional train to Cerbere, which in turn will take me to Nimes then to Lyon.
Upon arriving Cerbere in France, the border station between Spain/France, I found out that the train arrived 10 minutes late, and 5 minutes after the last train left for Nimes. I had to wait for three more hours at Cerbere where its main attraction was an unused hotel that looked like a ship. It had a lovely view though; check out their wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerbère
I enjoyed the small quiet town scene there, and gave me time to think. One simple question stayed with me for awhile and often was from Dirk, a person on CouchSurfing who I will stay at in Germany:
Traveller or Tourist?
I'd keep on going but since Cerbere's in France, you'll have to wait for the France blog post!
1 - The most amazing thing about Espana is that the people here does not make me want to punch them in the face like I want to punch Pau Gasol.
2 - Most of the ladies look like they can fit right in a Shakira music video. Plenty of junk in that trunk, boys.
After finding myself in Madrid, I waited at the Atocha Train Station for my BFF Jessica (Who I met at Israel through the Birthright trip) to pick me up, she lived only 5 minutes away with her wonderful stereotypical spanish neighbors - two guys who listen to Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Techno music all day; and another neighborS who seemed to have 15 people living in an apartment :)
As I got settled in, Jessica had to go to work, so that gave me free time to explore Madrid, and I did. I went and saw the typical European sights around the city: the Plaza Centre (Plaza Mayor), the spot everyone goes to (Sol), the major street (Gran Via) and the cathedrals (there were several).
I enjoyed walking around Madrid; I felt like it was a different place compared to most Western European cities which felt similar in some ways. The spanish words on buildings and streets contributed to that too.
The museums and sights in Madrid was spectacular, a great Museo Nacional del Prado with various collections of Spanish Artists: Goya, Velazquez and El Greco, the Caixa Forum with the Jardin Colgate (Hanging Garden), Temple de Oebod and Reina Sofia where Picasso' Guernica rests, also trippy paintings by Dali.
One park I enjoyed was the Parque del Buen Retiro. If you ever go to Madrid, be sure to go to that park. Great tanning spot even though I only come in two colors: white and red. W
e went there a second time with Jillian (Jessica's friend) who was babysitting two kids and two of their friends; so 4 kids in all. We went to the park and played soccer. Yes; even though they were somewhere 10 to 13, I kicked their butts in futbol (that's soccer if you didn't know) AND before you start scolding me that they are just kids and I should have went easy on them... well they won the world cup last year. THE WORLD CUP. Everyone in Spain knows how to play football even the old folks and the junk in the trunk ladies!
One side note: they're pretty humble in that, no big signs flyers banners of World Cup Champions or something like that, good for you spain; good for you. Or maybe they all were destroyed in the riots after winning?
In between one of those days; I made a day trip to Toledo based on Jessica's suggestion. It was worth it! Toledo is a lovely town on a top of the hill, the sights were great overlooking the surroundings including the Rio Tajo river. The museums were great too, I enjoyed the Museo de Santa Cruz and Museo Sefari in Sinagoga del Transito - a 14th century Jewish Temple - both free! (thanks Gallaudet Student ID)
Also based on Lonely Planet's suggestion, I went to a local bar named Santa Fe, good food and good beer. Speaking of food; I loved chorizo, olives and fried calimari... those three are quite tasty!
Don't worry; I enjoyed the Sangria, but it will NEVER jump over beer in the beverage rankings. NEVER.
After it was all said and done; it was time to leave Madrid: Many thanks to Jessica and Ricardo for hosting me in their new apartment and the late night spanish dinners!
So I went to Barcelona for a day, after walking around a few hours without a map, I realized I left my camera and book in the other backpack that I stored in the train lockers, so basically I had no "evidence" that I went to Barcelona and I have no idea what were the sights I saw. But I still enjoyed wandering around the city.
From Barcelona, I was ready to go to my next destination which was Lyon, France and caught a regional train to Cerbere, which in turn will take me to Nimes then to Lyon.
Upon arriving Cerbere in France, the border station between Spain/France, I found out that the train arrived 10 minutes late, and 5 minutes after the last train left for Nimes. I had to wait for three more hours at Cerbere where its main attraction was an unused hotel that looked like a ship. It had a lovely view though; check out their wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerbère
I enjoyed the small quiet town scene there, and gave me time to think. One simple question stayed with me for awhile and often was from Dirk, a person on CouchSurfing who I will stay at in Germany:
Traveller or Tourist?
I'd keep on going but since Cerbere's in France, you'll have to wait for the France blog post!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Luxembourg
Just like Luxembourg, this probably will be my smallest entry!
After leaving my "Belgian Family" from CouchSurfing, at 7 in the morning, I took a 3-hour train ride to the capital of Luxembourg, Luxembourg City. Originally, I thought about maybe staying there for two days.
After listening to my friends' advice who travelled to Luxembourg, less than one day was enough. I promised myself I would stay there for at least more than 6 hours
I ended up staying there for two hours.
Yes, There was not much going on in Luxembourg City, and it was on a sunday, so most of the stores were closed. In the tourist map, there were 74 attractions to see, and I saw about 40 of them in a hour of time near the city centre. The centre had about 9 streets horizontally and 6 streets vertically from the map's vantage point.
Some highlights from Luxembourg were the the Palace of Grand Dukes, Trois Tours (Three Towers) - I have no idea how that is an attraction but it just is - and chemin de la cornide road where there was an excellent view of the city and palace d'Armes, the square in the middle of the city where there was a McDonald. That McDonald actually had a outside sitting area with waiters... yes, you read that right: WAITERS SERVING PEOPLE MCDONALDS AND CLEANING UP AFTER PEOPLE WERE DONE EATING A ROYALE OR A BIG MAC AND PEOPLE WERE ENJOYING IT.
So after only two hours I was done with Luxembourg City already walking around the city.
After walking around big cities like London, Amsterdam, Brussels, I now have the endurance to walk around cities for 5-6 hours without getting tired, so it's great to see cities on foot for a day or two and be satsified with it.
Done with Luxembourg, I caught a connecting train to Paris, for my destination was at Madrid, Spain. The night train to Madrid was at 23:30, and it was only 19:00, so with only four hours to kill, I asked myself the question: "If you had only four hours in Paris, where would you go?"
So yeah, I made my way to the Eiffel Tower (DUH) But I took my time taking in Paris and when I was about 30 minutes away, I realized I didn't have much time left to make the return trip to catch my train stopping at the Louvre area.
You may have the last laugh, Eiffel Tower, but I'll see you again one day!
Long story short, I hopped on the train, slept in a couchette and found myself in Madrid, Spain the next day (After connecting trains from Irun)!
By the way, as of today April 14, it is my 34th day of traveling, already a month has gone by! Time goes fast!
After leaving my "Belgian Family" from CouchSurfing, at 7 in the morning, I took a 3-hour train ride to the capital of Luxembourg, Luxembourg City. Originally, I thought about maybe staying there for two days.
After listening to my friends' advice who travelled to Luxembourg, less than one day was enough. I promised myself I would stay there for at least more than 6 hours
I ended up staying there for two hours.
Yes, There was not much going on in Luxembourg City, and it was on a sunday, so most of the stores were closed. In the tourist map, there were 74 attractions to see, and I saw about 40 of them in a hour of time near the city centre. The centre had about 9 streets horizontally and 6 streets vertically from the map's vantage point.
Some highlights from Luxembourg were the the Palace of Grand Dukes, Trois Tours (Three Towers) - I have no idea how that is an attraction but it just is - and chemin de la cornide road where there was an excellent view of the city and palace d'Armes, the square in the middle of the city where there was a McDonald. That McDonald actually had a outside sitting area with waiters... yes, you read that right: WAITERS SERVING PEOPLE MCDONALDS AND CLEANING UP AFTER PEOPLE WERE DONE EATING A ROYALE OR A BIG MAC AND PEOPLE WERE ENJOYING IT.
So after only two hours I was done with Luxembourg City already walking around the city.
After walking around big cities like London, Amsterdam, Brussels, I now have the endurance to walk around cities for 5-6 hours without getting tired, so it's great to see cities on foot for a day or two and be satsified with it.
Done with Luxembourg, I caught a connecting train to Paris, for my destination was at Madrid, Spain. The night train to Madrid was at 23:30, and it was only 19:00, so with only four hours to kill, I asked myself the question: "If you had only four hours in Paris, where would you go?"
So yeah, I made my way to the Eiffel Tower (DUH) But I took my time taking in Paris and when I was about 30 minutes away, I realized I didn't have much time left to make the return trip to catch my train stopping at the Louvre area.
You may have the last laugh, Eiffel Tower, but I'll see you again one day!
Long story short, I hopped on the train, slept in a couchette and found myself in Madrid, Spain the next day (After connecting trains from Irun)!
By the way, as of today April 14, it is my 34th day of traveling, already a month has gone by! Time goes fast!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Operation Deaf Orphans
Later on my trip, I will go to Romania, and I will meet up with Alex and Alexa. They are doing a blog too, and they are traveling for a great cause (unlike me who is traveling for pleasure) so check out their link! I enjoy reading their adventures, and you should too!
www.odeafo.blogspot.com/
www.odeafo.blogspot.com/
Belgium
I left off the last Netherlands entry when I was at Rotterdam - catching a train to Brussels - I wanted to find an internet cafe to see if I got any CouchSurfing replies, so I asked the front desk attendant at the tourist office near the Rotterdam train station. He said the nearby free internet for tourists was closed just 20 minutes ago (darn!) but he suggested I go to a road (forgot the name of it) and he wrote down and I quote him "there are lot of arabs there" ... uh okay. Gotta love Europeans.
So I wandered down that road 5 minutes away and couldn't find anything. A painting in another road to the right caught my eye and I found out it was the Muse Mile, the Muse is a music group and I'm familiar with some of their songs so it was cool to wander down the road and see graffiti and quotes on side of buildings.
Oh, that reminds me, I updated about 180 pictures (Ireland, UK, Netherlands) on my facebook, so check out my page. If you aren't friends with me you can view them through this public link:
After the Muse Mile, I turned left and walked maybe two blocks and guess what I found? An Arab internet cafe! But no CouchSurfing replies, only declines. With no place to stay, I headed to Brussels, Belgium and hoped to find a hostel nearby the central train station.
Upon arrival after a 3-hour train ride, I walked around and saw a hotel lobby with computers. I kindly asked the lady at the front desk If I could use the computer to find a friend's house address (yay for white lies) she said sure go ahead! So I checked and I got an e-mail from Lieke, Peter & Kids on CouchSurfing saying I could stay at their place at Dendermonde! I couldn't believe my luck! The email was sent about a hour after I left the internet cafe in Rotterdam, and I read it at 22:00 it was late but it was better than nothing.
In case you're wondering, Dendermonde is a small town right in middle of the "Big 3" - Brussels, Antwerp and Bruges - go google it up.
So with directions, I found their place around 23:30 and Lieke welcomed me in even though it was late, but it was no big deal. I later found out that I was their 451th guest! This was nothing new for them.
For the next six days, I explored Ghent, Bruges (on bike), Dendermonde, Antwerp, Brussels and Mechelen for a day each traveling by train from the home base Dendermonde. I saw a lot in those towns and sometimes the towns, places and events started to blur in with each other. I was warned that sometimes going city to city can feel all the same thing after a couple of days and I'm feeling that already,
Some of the sights I saw: Basilica of the Holy Blood, Choco-Museum, The smallest chinatown in the world (Only 2 streets!), tons of vintage stores, Manneken Pis, Grote Markts, cathedrals, cathedrals and more cathedrals.
I have to give a shout-out to USE-IT! their maps truly are champs made by locals with local tips. I saw a lot I would have not seen without their map. THANK YOU USE-IT! I stopped by their headquarters in Brussels, they were very welcoming and gave me some coffee and a point-it picture book. It was really neat to visit.
I mentioned on my twitter that "I can't decide what's better in Belgium: the frites, the chocolate or the beer" Seriously, the frites are great here with stoofvleesaus & mayo. The chocolate truly is amazing, I cannot describe the sensation it has to be tasted by yourself to comprehend. And the beers... oh the beers, there's a 1,568 page book on Belgian Beers alone with A to Z listing!
And I haven't gotten to the Belgian Waffles!
My favorite town of Belgium was Bruges. It was so lovely, I felt like I was back in the medieval times with the house designs, churches, cobblestone streets, narrow alleys, windmills and tons of bridges over canals. I rented a bicycle and went through Bruges in four hours and saw a lot I would not see from just walking. I (like many other tourists) was drawn to Bruges after seeing the movie "In Bruges" and the town was more charming in person than in the movie. So that does it, Bruges is my favorite town of this trip... SO FAR.
On Friday evening, I went to the Bozar Theatre in Brussels - there was a Deaf theatre called "L' Intrige De Intrige" by Hand In't Oog (I think it's translated: Hand For Eye). It was different from American/Gallaudet theatre I was used to seeing, lots of gesture, dancing and live guitar music on the stage with out of the ordinary stuff - people walking backwards, sitting and embracing their suitcases and hanging from the ceiling attached to a chandelier. There wasn't much talking, maybe only 5 minutes out of the 1:15 long theatre. I enjoyed myself and had quite a cultural experience with Deaf Belgians.
After Belgium on the 10th, I have decided with the committee of one (It's different to have freedom to decide what I want to do by myself) that I will go to Luxembourg for a day, then go to Madrid, Spain, skipping France. I'll go to France as my last country before catching my flight to Ireland much later in June.
I would like to express my gratitude to Lieke, Peter and their four kids: Nina, Arne, Bavo and Enea for their wonderful hospitality! I really enjoyed staying almost a week with a Belgian family. They showed me around their town, gave me some tips, shared lunch/dinner with me and got to know them well through our chats on miscrosoft word with our nightly glass of beer before bed. They truly were champs and a perfect example of what CouchSurfing should be! Thanks!
I would like to express my gratitude to Lieke, Peter and their four kids: Nina, Arne, Bavo and Enea for their wonderful hospitality! I really enjoyed staying almost a week with a Belgian family. They showed me around their town, gave me some tips, shared lunch/dinner with me and got to know them well through our chats on miscrosoft word with our nightly glass of beer before bed. They truly were champs and a perfect example of what CouchSurfing should be! Thanks!
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