Carissa's Exploits and Fabulous Adventures




Japan Round Two

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

In London met up with Richard (a friend of Ruan’s from Japan). We went to have drinks at the Queen Mary, a boat on the Thames, just down from the Savoy and next to the Waterloo Bridge. It was a gloriously beautiful day, I could see Big Ben down the river, watch the red buses cross the bridge, I was having great conversation and tasty beer. It was hard to believe I was actually in London!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006


Munich, Germany
Took a posh overnight train to Munich and met Ruan at the station. Such a happy reunion! The first day at Oktoberfest we drank at the Lowenbrau tent. We started at 11am and by 4pm (3 beers and a lot of pretzels later) I was being led back to the hostel. The second day Ruan and I went by ourselves and didn’t start drinking until 4pm. We managed to hold out until 8pm. It was a fun festive atmosphere—we ate pretzels and sausages (with the skins on at first, until some laughing Germans pointed out we were doing it wrong), chicken, sauerkraut. We met lots of locals and talked and made friends and had numerous opportunities to yell “PROST!”

Friday, September 15, 2006

ROMANIA

Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes "Dracula." Last night we ate dinner in a restaurant that is in the house where he was born. It was rather spooky because as we walked home there was a man dressed all in black standing under a tree staring off into nowhere, but that was the closest we got to seeing any vampires. Today we explored the old citadel on top of a hill in the middle of the city. There isn't a lot to see and by noon we were getting a bit bored but still had hours to kill until our train for Budapest. As we were wandering we saw a sign advertising "Plum Brandy and Wine" so we decided to follow it. We wandered through some small alleys, through a courtyard and found ourselves in a small dark kitchen in the basement. We taste-tested the wines (and the plum "fire" brandy) and decided to buy some wine (I had trouble swallowing the brandy). It was 20 Lei for 500ml of wine in a glass bottle, but only 15 Lei if we got a plastic bottle. We decided to get 2 bottles (a grand total of a liter). The woman went to a closet, pulled out 1 old liter water bottle and filled it up from a barrel. It was hilarious, so we decided to taste test just a bit more after we left (picture below). We ended up getting help finishing our LITER OF WINE later from the people in our hostel in Budapest.


Prague
The highlight was definitely the Ossuary in Kutna Hara. I thought it would be spooky, so many things made of bones, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t spiritual either though. Perhaps just a bit overwhelming—so many people’s lives represented by those bones. We also explored Prague, went on a ghost tour, and drank beer (although I would like to argue that the beer is not cheaper than water if you are a tourist. That is a blatant lie meant to attract tourists. It is still cheap, about $1, but not cheaper than water). The rest of Prague is crawling with tourists and fighting through them to see the sights was a pain.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Dragging around Budapest at 6 in the morning. We hardly slept on the train because we didn’t have a sleeper car and were scared of being mugged. We don’t know what the exchange rate is or how much money we need. Tired estimations (probably wrong since they are pre-coffee). We go to the hostel but can’t get beds because it is too early. We go across the river to the Gellert Baths instead—WONDERFUL! I haven’t soaked in an bath in months, and unlike some onsens the temperature is very moderate and comfortable.

Budapest the city only dates back to 1873 which 3 cities—Buda, Obuda and Pest were combined. The area in general has a much longer history—the Romans built the settlement of Aquincum and the Turks moved in for awhile in the 16th century. In the 18th century the Austrians took over.

We walked along the river past Gellert Hill topped by the citadel. We then hiked up Varhegy or Castle Hill. The top is spectacular! It looks like a medieval castle with a great view of the city and Matthias Church (gorgeous tiled roof).

We decided to go caving after that, but the embarrassment that followed doesn’t need to be chronicled publicly (leave it at Carissa doesn’t like caving and won’t be trying it again).

The girls who work at Green Bridge Hostel are wonderful! One girl makes us coffee in the mornings, they gave us loads of maps and information. They talk to us and tell us about life in Hungary and the independence movement and their personal stories. Other than the crazy French lady in our dorm the place is so cozy I feel like I’m at home!
Carissa's Version of Our Hiking Trip:

We started out on our day of hiking with spectacularly beautiful weather. We took a train from Brasov to Sinaia then took the cable car to the top of the mountain (2000 meters up). Unfortunately we entered a cloud on top of the mountain and would have been utterly lost, due to the lack of a map, if not for my astounding navigational skills. Although the cloud was thick, I was able to read the moss patterns on the sides of rocks and lead us out of the cloud to lower ground. Christina had the unfortunate luck to trip over a boulder and break her leg. I was forced to carry her on my back which was no problem due to my super-human strength. As we were descending Christina saw cows in the distance and because of her wild animal instincts (or maybe her lack of self-control) she began to moo. Yes, she actually "Mooo"ed at cows on the top of a mountain in Transylvania! She attracted the attention of the cows and we found ourselves in the midst of a stampede. While this may seem to be an unfortunate stroke of luck it was actually good because the wild cows separated us from the wild dogs that were looking ravenously at us. Lots of wild animals in Transylvania. When we were able to make our way back to civilization we fell into the first restaurant we could find. At first we were confused as to why the waiter was ignoring us, but after he threw us out of the restaurant I understood-- he was afraid the blood from Christina's leg would attract vampires to the area (like sharks, the smell blood and swarm). We made it back to Brasov after night fall but the full moon was a few days ago so we were ok. It was quite a crazy day.

Christina's Version of our Hiking Trip:
We went hiking. It was pretty but not very difficult. The end.

(slight exaggeration added, but we are in the land of scary stories so it only seems appropriate).

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Exploring Churches, Monasteries and Catacombs in Kiev, Ukraine


(we have to wear the scarves, it's not just a misdirected fashion statement)