Monday, November 22, 2010

Czesky Krumlov


We spent less than 48 hours in the town of Czesky Krumlov but that was enough time to fall in love with this quaint, cobble-stone clad community dotted with red-roofed houses and churches with pointy steeples, famous for its awe-inspiring castle with an awe-inspiring view.

During our morning exploration, we found our favorite jelly donuts, blue skies, remarkable churches and a river winding through this colorful town.
The castle was the main attraction and the real reason any tourist would stop here so naturally, we signed up for a tour. However, I remember very little about that tour and much more about our time exploring beforehand. We wandered the streets mesmerized by the natural beauty of the town and feeling very much like locals out for a stroll, we stopped by the river and skipped rocks. When I think of Czesky Krumlov, I don't think of the castle. I think of skipping rocks. Sure the castle was pretty incredible and was guarded by a freaking bear:
but although Yogi was pretty unique and learning how they used to literally protect the castle with bears was fascinating, I have a much more vivid memory of the rocks. Such a simple act and yet, so relaxing and peaceful. After the hustle and bustle of Berlin and Prague, this stop in Czesky Krumlov was a needed pause and breathe of fresh air. We didn't have to walk with our elbows out as we fought our way through crowded streets. We could stroll. We didn't hear the typical clammering of obnoxious kids and tourists. We heard the birds. We didn't feel like tourists. We felt like locals.

Perhaps this is why skipping rocks made such an impression on me. It was so ordinary and yet, so pleasant. We must have hung out by the river for a good hour and despite literally throwing out my arm, I'm so grateful for that hour spent simply in nature. We needed it. Because although the old castles and churches and museums are incredible in Europe, our God and His creation is even more incredible. The buildings and the architecture made us stop and snap pictures but we were just as captivated by the blue sky with puffy white clouds; we were just as amazed by the rolling grassy hills and the sounds of the rushing river and chirping birds.

We must not have been allowed to take pictures inside the castle because I have none. I have few memories of the rooms inside the castle. In fact, all I wrote down about the time inside was, "Trent dared me to touch a bear but I got caught." I don't even remember that moment which is actually surprising because I usually HATE getting in trouble. The inside of the catle didn't make an impression but the views from the castle garden were pretty unforgettable:
We were clearly more struck by the simple beauty of this city than the elaborate furnishings of a fancy castle. There is much evidence that Christians have lived here for quite some time:
and I couldn't help but imagine how those believers must have marveled at God's hand as they strolled the streets of their town. I imagine they were impressed by the churches but surely the beauty in nature around them captivated them more.
There are a few other snapshots in this town that left an impression on me. One was when Trent befriended a local musician. Yes, that is Trent's dead skunk around the man's neck:
Another distinct memory was eating a snack on this bench where Trent is sitting:
Trent had just told me about how often people will make a witty comment and then expect people to laugh so they'll take a drink of whatever they're drinking right after saying a punch line. So Trent likes to wait to laugh until the person has taken a big drink and then does a loud, obnoxious laugh. I told him that I didn't think I ever did that. However, as we sat on this bench, I said something that I thought was clever and sure enough, took a swig of water as I waited for Trent to laugh. He held his laughter and then laughed so loud and fake that water came spewing out of my mouth. Well played bro.

Feeling like locals, we decided to cook our own dinner at the hostel and made spaghetti with pepperonis. Accidentally. It actually turned out to be okay once Trent got the can of sauce open using only a dull butter knife. One of my most distinct memories came a few hours later in the middle of the night.

Trent and I were fast asleep in our bunks with 4 other beds in the room still unoccupied. Until 3 am. At 3 AM 4 very large, very loud, very drunk Dutch men stumbled into the room swearing and laughing and causing quite a ruckus. They eventually got into beds but then proceeded to snore so loudly it was nearly impossible to sleep. I vaguely remember Trent saying something loudly to try to wake them. An hour later I had a traumatic experience. I had used the restroom and when I returned to the dark room, I literally bumped chest to chest with a 7 foot, drunk Dutch man wearing only his undies. "Ahh! Sorry, sir." I ducked my head in shame and scurried to my bunk, mortified and disgusted.

The next morning we had to catch a train to Vienna. We were running late. So we were literally running. I hadn't realized how hilly the town was until I was sprinting up hills with my giant backpack, sweat pouring down my face. We barely made it. Once we were safely aboard, we waved goodbye to quiet Czesky Krumlov feeling rested and peaceful and reminded of how creative our God is.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Prague

I suspect that when most tourists think back to their time spent in Prague they recall the beauty of this unique, quaint town in Central Europe. However, when I think of Prague, I envision jelly donuts, giant tv screens, and deranged bums. The constant debate that often ended in hostile disagreements on this trip was always concerning where we would eat. I love food but Trent loves penny-pinching. Prague was the second of our 11 cities and was the first time I lost my cool with my button-pushing brother. The famous quote from this leg of the trip was, "Trent, we are in beautiful Prague. I refuse to eat at the train station again." He laughed in my face and even though I was fuming, I had to laugh at his imitation of me.

Our first morning brought a very pleasant surprise at our hostel: free jelly donuts. This obviously pleased both the oinker in me and the tight-wad in Trent. I was 26 and had never had a jelly donut in my life. Sprinkled donuts were always my first choice and I was never excited about a donut "surprising" me with what was inside. However, I bit down into the powdered sugar-covered pastry and, with apricot filling spilling down my chin, my eyes widened and I knew I had discovered a new love. We toured inside the famous castle and walked the famous Charles bridge but my memory of these jelly donuts is much more vivid.

When we headed out for our first day on the town, I quickly realized a major packing mistake. Assuming summer weather would be similar to that of Southern California, I had only brought one flimsy zip-up and one pair of pants. Our first stop was at a shop to get me a jacket and to get us both Nederland scarves. If we were going to jump on this bandwagon, we wanted to do it properly. We tried to be sophisticated and learn about the history of the city by joining a free tour. However, we both got super bored and I recalled my awkward encounter trying to tip the tour guide in Berlin so I was more than happy to follow Trent as we covertly skipped out and went on our own "educational tour." Here's what we learned on our self-guided tour of Prague:
Old cities have cool, bizarre statues that are fun to imitate.
Trent's head is the size of a giant tunnel leading to the Charles Bridge.
The architecture in Prague is incredible.
Jesus sometimes posed like the Fonz.
Trent's "skunk" enjoys snacking on apple strudels too.
Old Town Prague is beautiful but not so "quaint" when it is swarming with tourists.
Trent has an abnormal amount of neck skin.

When we tired of "touring", we sat on the Charles Bridge and played "spot the American." We returned to Old Town that night for our first experience watching soccer with thousands of other die-hard/bandwagon soccer fans. I wish I had written more details in my journal about what happened this night. I wrote random and pointless facts like what time the sun set but only wrote, "sat next to crazy homeless woman. Man danced to Ricky Martin." Apparently, I assumed this would jog my memory but it didn't. I don't know how on earth I can't remember a stranger dancing to "She bangs" but I did. Despite the Ricky Martin dancer, or possibly BECAUSE OF the Ricky Martin dancer, this was our favorite setting to watch the Eurocup. We were struck by the bizarre juxtaposition of a beautiful old castle set as the backdrop for a giant, modern television .
That stupid skunk made several appearances in Prague. I'm not sure what sparked these facial expressions but I'm guessing it was either due to the biting cold or psychotic homeless people dancing around us.

After the games most tourists found bars but Trent and I wondered around to see the city at night. Our jaws dropped when we stumbled upon this view of the castle and bridge:
Now I understood why people raved about Prague. Prior to this moment, I was honestly feeling a bit like we were in a giant Disneyland- we were surrounded by obnoxious tourists clad in fanny packs and Jesus sandals so it was hard to feel the "magic" of this city. However, there were several moments like this one when we were away from drunken, ignorant tourists and could appreciate the beauty of this magical city.

We also tried to take a picture of ourselves with the Charles Bridge in the background. However, for the lighting on my camera to work, I had to hold my hand perfectly still for 10 seconds which meant we also had to hold our faces perfectly still for 10 seconds. It wasn't easy and we looked pretty ridiculous and all I have to show for our efforts is this blurry picture.
On day two we ventured to a different hostel outside of the city so we could see some greenery, avoid some of the tourists, and get a "local flavor."
We went for a run along this river where our hostel was located. My only memory of this hostel was being in our room and Trent making me do planks for 60 seconds but he kept messing up the counting and I was getting genuinely frustrated with him.
While in the "local area" we learned that the "local Czechs" are quite fond of graffiti.

Hopefully the graffiti doesn't say something terribly crude. Even though I'm a bit annoyed that the lady ruined our perfect timer shot, I love that she is looking at us, clearly confused about why we were staring straight across the train tracks.

This very full day began with a free tour of the famous castle. "Free" only because Trent found a way for us to sneak in. I don't recall how he did it but I remember feeling very nervous that guards were going to stop us at any moment but they never did. The only castles we had experienced were either in the sand or at Disneyland and it quickly became apparent that Disneyland is a cheap imitation of the real deal. So although there were throngs of tourists like at Disneyland, the inside of this legit castle was quite different. It was musty and majestic and whispered wonders and awe that Disneyland can never imitate. Here are our reverent faces:
The stained glass was like none we had ever seen. Simply amazing. After soaking in the beauty of the windows and the castle, we began our hike back down to the city. In the following picture you'll see us standing on a bridge with the castle in the background. For all the running and walking we did, it is rather surprising we didn't lose any weight. Well, maybe those jelly donuts played a small roll.
Trent had told me about the game "ditch em" so on our walk back, I decided to play with just two of us. While we were trudging across the Charles Bridge, weaving in and out of the sea of people, I stopped. I slipped behind some large men and then hid behind a statue and watched Trent walk for a few yards and then notice and turn around laughing. It was then I realized why the game is only fun if you have more than 2 people. I was alone, crouching behind a statue doing a shoulder-shaking laugh with no one else to enjoy the moment and strangers glancing at me like I was crazy.

Our next destination was a tower we climbed to get a bird's eye view of the city. I know I said I wouldn't post pictures of random buildings but the city looked even more incredible from up here.
This church with the turquoise roof was our next destination. I dragged Trent to what I thought would be a symphony but turned out to be an organ/trumpet concert. We both fell asleep.
So much for our attempt to be "cultured." Luckily our power naps geared us up for a lively night of soccer.

This time I got the brats and let Trent pick our seats. He didn't find pot-smokers but he did end up in bum central. The irony of this is that Travis, Trent's twin, has always called Trent "bum." I laughed pretty hard as I carried our brats and found Trent here:
There were about 7-10 homeless people surrounding us the whole game. We left after the first game because one particular bum had grown eerily fascinated with Trent. He was convinced that Trent was Jesus. So we went and found some hot chocolate and laughed a lot in this coffee shop but I can't remember why.
And then we returned for the second soccer match. However, Trent's new disciple hadn't disappeared. We saw him dancing like a mad man in the crowd getting very strange looks and and then ducked our heads when he stormed towards us looking like he was ready to bash heads in.
However, he immediately softened when he saw Trent and came right over to us. When Trent finished his hot chocolate, his disciple asked for the cup and then licked the entire inside of the cup. Trent and I sat agog, hoping this crazed man would not pull out a knife. He sat beside us and watched Trent as we watched our team beat France.
We had to ask a stranger to take this picture and it was a bit awkward. He kept looking up at us like he thought we weren't ready for the picture.

Our last day in Prague was an unexpected adventure. Long story short, we didn't get the bus we needed to for the 3 hour ride to our next city so we needed the internet to find another bus and buy tickets. As we wondered the streets, we saw a hostel advertising "free internet." We slipped inside and there was no one to be found. So we wandered the halls and found a computer in the stairwell. We whispered back and forth as we tried to figure out how to navigate a website that had no English. A janitor busted us after about a half hour but we both have mastered the "clueless American" act and confused the poor man so he left us alone and we slipped out of there with bus tickets and a feeling of accomplishment. Our three hour bus ride brought us to our next stop: Czesky Krumlov, a city which turned out to be one of our favorites on the trip.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Berlin

Berlin. The meeting spot and beginning of our journey. Due to its tragic history, I had expected a dark and dreary city full of dark and dreary people. Wrong. We chose to start here because it made geographic sense, it was cheap to fly into to, and the history teacher in me wouldn't let me pass up an opportunity to pass by such earth-shattering history but I certainly didn't expect to have so much fun here.


















Our first experience with public transportation was a semi-success. We got where we were heading but it took much deliberation and we didn't realize we had to pay BEFORE we went aboard. Oops. Free ride on Germany. If I had known we were scamming the subway system, I would have been terrified. Ignorance is bliss. After arriving in the vicinity of our hostel, we stepped out into the open air, looked around, had no idea how to read the map I had printed out and laughed. This was the beginning of our adventure. On this trip just getting to our destination became a challenge and adventure. We walked with the crowd for a bit and then paused to try to get our bearings. Our first encounter with a Berliner was a very friendly young gal who saw Trent's furrowed brow and offered her assistance- luckily in English. Thank Jesus I have an attractive brother who looks really confused when he's lost.

In hindsite, the hostel in Berlin was probably the worst of all the ones we stayed at. Our cozy basement was shared by no less than 50 other loud, drunk American back packers. I sadly can see why we have a reputation for being obnoxious. There is just something rather odd about waking up and seeing a bunch of strange men sleeping in their boxers in the bunk beds surrounding you. Luckily, our schedules didn't coincide with most backpackers. We were usually the first in bed (trying desperately to fall into a deep sleep before the drunkards would stumble in and wake us up with their incoherent ranting and raving) and were the first up going for a morning run.

The first evening we arrived we had a few hours of sunlight to wander around and find dinner. After strolling through the streets, we ended up at a brat vender who had set up a huge tv to watch soccer. Even though we're not huge soccer fans, watching the Eurocup throughout Europe was incredibly fun; certainly a highlight. With our Dutch roots, we immediately jumped on the Nederlands bandwagon and rooted for them our first night in Berlin while experiencing our first scoops of the heavenly gelato we would sniff out in every country.We turned in fairly early and were up with the sun to enjoy a famous German pretzel for breakfast and a morning run. No destination in mind, we just ran and suddenly were here:
I probably should have known what this was, or at least recognized it, but I didn't. We turned the corner, saw it, looked at each other and said, "Cool. I wonder what that is." Then we ran past some other major, important, historical buildings which were received by us with raised eyebrows and deep, insightful observations like, "neat."
We took a free tour of the city and if I didn't have the pictures, all I would remember for the tour is this: Trent made me tip our "free tour guide" and it was a super awkward exchange of money since I didn't know how much to give and we were ditching out early and I got the hand-exchange all wrong. I am not very smooth. Here are some pictures from our "free" tour:
Holocaust Memorial
Site of Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide. We went for "excited faces" since we were excited that he is dead and excited that this spot was just an ugly dirt lot.
Berlin Wall. A stranger offered to take our picture. Hence the normal smiles.
East Berlin Propaganda Mural. I was very amused and made Trent join the propaganda scene. It was must funnier at the time. To me at least.
Three ladies with ridiculously large hats painting some famous building. Let's be honest, buildings are cool but people are way more interesting and these ladies are awesome.

After the tour, we headed to a famous work camp. Sobering. What I remember is feeling lost as we wondered through a quaint, suburban neighborhood and suddenly were at the gates of the camp. For the next two hours, our brains struggled to wrap around what had happened here. It didn't feel real. Pictures here aren't very fun or entertaining. They're just sad. This one is cool though because although Trent accidentally took it while setting up a timer shot, it captures the mood of the outing- we were quiet and disturbed.
We rode the subway back to downtown with heavy hearts and little conversation. What's odd is I remember being starving and so thankful for the peanut MnM's Trent had purchased. I have a clearer memory of eating that bag of candy than I do of actually touring the camp. I suppose my brain didn't want to hold on to those painful memories. Perhaps this is similar to how Berliners feel.

That night was a stark contrast to our somber afternoon at the camp. Trent is incurably cheap. Thus, we returned to our brat stand for our second dinner in Berlin. This time there was a larger crowd vying for seats by the big screen so Trent stood in line and gave me the task of finding us seats. Big mistake. I searched the tables and they were all occupied. Awkward me searched for the table with the most room and least intimidating looking stranger. I sat by two young guys at a large table with plenty of room and made small talk. Comical in itself but then it got awkward. Because then three of their friends joined us and the table was suddenly quite full. There I was, sitting at a now crowded table with five young guys when Trent appeared with our brats and raised his eye brows at me then squeezed in. It got worse. While we were enjoying our brats, I discovered that they can be especially juicy. I squirted brat juice into the face of a stranger. Now the kicker. Our new friends were quite friendly and then got even more friendly as they rolled joints and offered us some. If you know me, you know how red my face turned. People don't offer me drugs. People know that I am a Christ-following, rule-following "goody goody" who payed very close attention during the D.A.R.E. presentations. After I picked my jaw up off the table, we declined their offer and I avoided eye contact with Trent who was loving this moment.

Our last day in Berlin involved another morning run. I was sick of concrete so we found the Tiergarden and lush greenery. I think my favorite way to see a city is while running. Here are some pictures from our run:
Stretching outside some famous building. Reich something or other. Yes, that is Trent's "perfect push-up" gear. Who brings those to Europe? Only my brother.

Running through the gardens. There's another timer shot of both of us but I have a huge wedgie and butt sweat so I'm not posting it.
I was mean and tricked Trent into smiling. He was pissed.

Honestly, I'm not sure what possessed me to jump into their group shot.

We managed to cram quite a bit into our time in Berlin and were pretty exhausted by the time we got on the train for our four hour ride to Prague. Trent watched my bags as I searched for one last German pretzel in the train station.
We were pretty stoaked on the train ride. Not only was it a beautiful ride along wide, winding rivers and giant, jutting cliffs but our trip was off to a grand start. We had both had pretty low expectations for Berlin so it had greatly surpassed them all and we couldn't wait to see what the Czech Republic had in store.