eurasia2017

[eurasia2017]

Munich Tour

We bought breakfast at the hostel and thought we had enough time to eat leisurely. I was wrong and we ran to the Marienplatz for our walking tour. (15 minute run through the most crowded area of Munich in the morning was just what I’ve always wanted to do.)

Walking tour began with watching the Glockenspiel at the Marienplatz. It wasn't much but just some figurines that were circling each other within the clock. I'm glad to have seen it once, but it's not really worth watching again tbh.

During the walking tour, we learned about how Munich and the area is a state of Bavaria and that the citizens considered themselves Bavarians, not German. Munich was also unique in that it was where Oktoberfest started (and hence a lot of breweries in the area.)

We passed by a beer garden and the oldest beer house (hofbrauhaus.) 

The Hofbrauhaus had been around for many years, and had been a tradition amongst the Bavarians. It used to be called the washhouse because of the lack of a bathroom in the beer house, which meant that people peed on the floor while they drank. (These were mostly Bavarian men with leather pants that would pee through their canes or something.) And then workers would come around and pour water around the area to clean it, and the water would be always flowing out of the Hofbrauhaus to the streets, giving it the name washhouse among the locals. (I also imagine it would have smelled pretty disgusting.)

What most intrigued us during our walking tour was the story about Ludwig II and his "madness." He was one of the kings of Bavaria and had built many castles and had basically spent his family's fortune making real life versions of fairy tale castles he had imagined during his childhood. (He had a man-made cascade in one of his castles and he would hire a violinist to play for him while he would sit in the boat in the water.) 

We also saw some opera houses and buildings that were modeled off Italian style buildings.

There were also very architecturally aesthetic buildings around the area.

After the tour, we went to the English garden to have lunch in the beer garden in the English garden near the Chinese pagoda. We got the obligatory bratwurst and sauerkraut and it was hella expensive.

There was also a manmade surf area in the English garden. We watched surfers on the water, and they were all really good given the confined space.

We walked back and walked around the plaza area and had some great sorbet. The mango sorbet and chocolate sorbets actually tasted like mango and dark chocolate. (The two together wasn't a good combination but it was SO delicious.)

After our mandatory sorbet/ ice cream break, we walked back while looking at the boutiques. We even saw the TK Maxx (the European version of TJ Maxx) and got super excited, but it was like black Friday in there and we got so overwhelmed.

[eurasia2017]

Commute to Munich + University Area

Commute to Germany was so hectic because I ordered the uber to the wrong station. We initially had wanted to uber because of our suitcases even though the station was only 5 minutes by walking, and in the end, we ended up being in the uber for nearly 10-15 minutes due to the confusion. It was hella hectic to find the DB bus, but we got on just in time.

The bus ride was 5 hours to get to Munich. Once we got to the station and decided to walk to the hostel, it started pouring just as our walk began. When we arrived at our hostel (Wombat Munich), the rain stopped. Ahahaha….

We were starving and had a quick meal at the Mexican food place. It was rated well on Yelp but the actual food was so meh.

Afterwards, we walked to the university areas and wandered the streets. It was really pictoresque, but it wasn't exactly the small town feeling that I was imagining.

[eurasia2017]

Exploring less-touristy side of Prague

We gave up on European food cuz tbh there was just a lot of spices lacking for our tastes. We thought to have the authentic experience till then so we had held off on eating other cuisines, but after tasting Indian food the day before, the floodgates were opened. We never wanted to go back. After sleeping in (since I had gotten up around 8 am the day before to prepare for Katie's birthday), we headed to a Vietnamese restaurant.

The food was good, but the waiter was really weird. He… just made us feel uncomfortable by the way he would communicate and stuff.

We headed to the Vysehrad castle/ park area to walk off our lunch and explore the less-touristy side of Prague. It was a hot day with blaring sun, so we made our journey through the shade only. The path to Vysehrad was weird, since Google maps had us going across some construction site and under a cave/ tunnel. We were really sketched out.

After seeing around the park, we saw that there was Dvorak's grave. We went in the gravesite, which held the graves of other famous Czech.

We also passed by St. Peter and Paul basilica during our walk.

We walked back to Old town / New town area in order to reward ourselves with Angelato. It was much needed ice cream after a day's worth of walking in the sun.

(Coconut ash and strawberry sorbets)

Since we had a bit of time and were in the shopping area, we headed into different European clothing stores like Zara, mango, and Bershka. The mango and Bershka stores had insane decorations (chandelier and everything).

[eurasia2017]

Prague: Katie’s birthday, Prague Castle, Lennon Wall

June 10th - it was Katie's birthday! Maanasa, Rosa, and I had devised a plan the night before to surprise her with breakfast. Rosa and I got up early at 8 am to go to grocery stores (we tried three) to get some fruit, yogurt, and nut mix for Katie. Our girl was finally 22.

After breakfast, we started walking to Charles Bridge. On the way there, we saw a market place of artisans selling their work and outdoor souvenir shops.

Afterwards we arrived at Charles Bridge and looking over the other side of town.

Based on our guide from yesterday's suggestions, we went to get some chimney cake by the bridge. We saw chimney cakes starting from Hungary and even in Austria, and we finally decided to get some in Praha. I included some chocolate on the inside to add to the flavor. It was extremely sweeeeet.

We explored the area across the bridge for a while.

Crossing the Charles bridge from the Old Town/ New Town area led us to Prague Castle. The line itself for the castle was extremely long, so we wandered around outside and saw the views from above.

After the castle, we headed to Petrin park, which had the Petrin tower, where you could see the Praha landscape from above. The entrance fee was 80 czk for students, and there were around 300 steps to get above in the tower. It was kind of scary to look out and take pictures out of the fear of dropping our phones.

Another famous site near Petrin park was the Lennon wall, which is a wall full of graffiti. It was supposedly first created after John Lennon was shot. The wall featured different graffiti-- some were art-like while others were random scribbles and tags.

After Lennon wall, Rosa bumped into her friend (small world?!). It was cray. Around the area had cute shops and also had the Lennon bar.

In order to celebrate Katie's birthday, we had Indian food for dinner. We were tired of European food after days of blandish food. It was delicious and I loved finally eating something with real spices.

After dinner, we went to a skybar in Prague's Hilton hotel. The bar was called Cloud 9 bar, and it was bougie as expected. The drinks weren't that expensive (American bar prices of around $10-12 for cocktails.)

We tried to go to Hemingway bar afterwards, but it was a very busy night as it was Saturday, and the bouncer said that they weren't accepting more people into the bar. (RUDE). Instead, we walked around and saw the nightlife and nightscape of the city. Considering how we always rushed back around 8 pm so that we could get water from the markets before they closed, it was a side of Prague that we hadn't been able to witness before. It was pretty darn lit and filled with tourists and drunk people and drunk tourists. 

[eurasia2017]

Prague - Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Ghetto

We booked a walking tour with Sandemann's Europe free walking tour. By early morning, we went to the center of the city to find our tour guide and start the tour. 

(The astronomical clock up close)

During the tour, we went through the Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Ghetto quarters.

(A cubist building and the cubist cafe in the middle of the street)

(The municipal building again)

(Synagogues in the Jewish ghetto)

(An orthodox synagogue where only the men can go into the taller building for worship while the women go in the low-ceiling building)

After the tour, we got a recommendation from our tour guide for a restaurant he enjoyed. It was a pub (could have been a ruin bar probably) and served traditional Czech food. I got some beef goulash. This was the definitive moment where I decided European food was not for me.

After lunch we headed back to the Jewish Ghettos to explore the museums and the cemeteries. In order to go to any one of the museums, you had to get the package deal for 220 czk, and it was annoying since they would only take cash. I had some cash because Leo had given me the rest of his money after his last Czech trip, but others had to exchange some money at the local exchange place. Why didn’t they take euros or card????????? so inconvenient...

We started at the cemetery, which had graves that were very densely packed with one another. Because the Jews were supposed to live only in those quarters, the grave sites also got very crowded, which led to the gravestones nearly stacking on top of another. During Nazi occupation, Hitler apparently told them to not destroy the grave site because it could serve as a memorial site for the lost race of Jews.

The other museums featured some drawings from children who were in the concentration camps. The adults had tried to keep the camps to be normal for them by creating a school and art classes for the children. What was left were some drawings from the sites.

After going through some of the museums, we went to a dessert shop in the municipal building. The shop itself was beautiful, decorated with chandeliers and mirrors all around. There was even live music.

After consuming cakes, we walked it off by going to Letna park.

PS - our girl KTP turned 22 on June 10th!!! 

[eurasia2017]

Commute to Prague

Because our last train ride experience to Vienna had been pretty terrible/ adventurous, we got to the station pretty early to get to the OBB train. Though we didn't have reserved seats, there were many seats on the train that were empty/ reserved so we had a pretty easy time to commute. (The seats with the cheapest tickets are “open tickets” which means that the seats are not guaranteed. On the way to Vienna, I had to stand for a bit while waiting for seats to open up.)

When we arrived at Czech, we had to check in with our AirBnB host at their company. The host woman was weird about us being Asians but coming from America.

After passing out for a bit in the AirBnB, we headed to a vegetarian/ vegan restaurant called Clear Head. It was in the center of town near the Old Town and New Town, so it gave us a sneak peak of the city.

(My salad)

We explored the area for a bit and then got some gelato at a location called angelato.

We were able to see a bit of the old town on our way back

[eurasia2017]

Hiking in Vienna (Kahlenberg)

We started our day early to go to H & M in the morning because Rosa wanted to pick up leggings for the hike we planned. After H&M we had early lunch in the local area, where the pizza was made in front of us after we ordered. I got some eggplant pizza and nearly ate the whole pizza on my own. (The pizza was only 6 euros).

(Rosa and Katie taking a video of the pizza making process)

We each consumed a pizza.........

The hiking we planned was the classic Vienna hiking route 1, where we would pass by Kahlenberg. We first took an uber to Nussburg and then followed the signs to the hiking route 1.

On the way, there were many wineries/ vineyards.

We also had great views of both the vineyards and the cityscape on our hike.

Kahlenberg was a region with a lookout and small restaurants. On our way down, we went through Leopold forest and got another glimpse of the city.

I didn’t feel like dinner so I lent Katie my phone to find a restaurant and this was the gift I got hehehe.

[eurasia2017]

Vienna day 2 - Museum & Naschmarkt

We started our day with heading to Vienna's biggest/ most-well known art museum. We were tired even before arriving at the art museum because we had watched a child/near-toddler wandering the streets alone looking for his parents. He was riding on his bike while crying and red faced, and he was wandering the busiest parts of Vienna. Luckily another family noticed that the child was alone and stayed with him. The mom kept talking to the child while the dad went to look around the streets. Their daughter (a toddler herself) was so sweet and tried to console him the whole time and held his hand. In the end the boy's dad found him, and we were finally relieved/ angry/ all the roller coaster of emotions after watching the child.

The statue outside of the museum square

The natural history museum across the art museum. We originally wanted to go here but it was closed.

Museum featured many types of art, sculptures from different countries.

Probably their most famous piece? They had a life-size figurine outside of the museum

The stairs leading up to the first floor

The Klimt mural along the walls. I was looking for the Klimt piece throughout the museum and only realized at the end that this was the painting I was looking for.

(Rosa admiring the murals)

Afterwards, we headed to Naschmarkt to explore the area and pick up food to eat. The market was outdoors unlike the previous markets we had been in, and had both Viennese cuisine and sausages and Mediterranean food and Asian food. There were many stands selling hummus and olives only.

We got some shwarma wraps for 4.50 euros.

The shwarma caused some intense food coma, and we walked it off by going to the Mozart park.

[eurasia2017]

Vienna - Schonbrunn Palace

We booked our ticket for the Schonbrunn palace and some of the garden areas nearby in advance. The total package was 24 euros, and we ubered to the palace instead of taking the metro. The tickets were worth it to buy in advance in order to skip the ticket lines.

The Schonbrunn palace had free headsets that explained the history behind the rooms and some of the emperor's and empresses' lives. For example, I learned about Sisi and her unique/ drama lifestyle and about her not loving her husband even though he had loved her a lot. I also did not know that Maria Thereisa was the mother of Marie Antoinette.

Schonbrunn palace also had a lot of gardens nearby, and we looked around first for the maze in  the area. 

The garden itself (free) was very pretty and were decorated with flowers.

We went to the Glioterre afterwards, which was a glass building area across the garden and the palace, overlooking the city and the palace lands.

We finished the palace area in the orangerie, and we were so tired afterwards. The free gardens were pretty themselves and we didn't think it was necessary for us to have bought the extra tickets for the garden sides.

For lunch we headed to the more shopping area to have lunch at Trzesniewski. They had small sandwiches that we could eat quickly.

After lunch, we passed by the plague columns and then had some sweets at Demel.

Demel was a historic bakery, first established in the late 1700 and the building itself being there from 1888.

After desserts, we walked through the town and explored the area in the Hofburg palace, parliament building, then passing by the burgtheater.

We walked back to the shopping area to go to explore the St. Stephen's Cathedral. We went inside to see the decorations, and because it was a holiday (the Whit Monday) there was a service going on and we got to see a little of it.

For dinner we ate at Wrenkh Weiner Kochsalon which served delicious vegetarian dishes.

[eurasia2017]

Budapest to Vienna : Standing Tickets to Swan Lake

Our transportation from Hungary to Vienna was on a train with OBB, and for some reason, it was one of the more difficult commutes on our trip. (The first is still the commute from Osaka to Tokyo). The train ticket was incredibly difficult to print, the Hungarian train office people were so mean and rude, and the tickets did not have assigned seats which meant that we kept being bounced from one seat to another because we kept being kicked out. (I also had to stand for a while because there were no seats available on the train.)

We ubered to the AirBnB and checked in, which was very close to a subway station.

At a local restaurant, we had a quick lunch/ dinner. I had a weiner schnitzel and some salad + sauerkraut.

After passing out in the apartment for a bit, we decided to get some standing tickets to the Vienna State Opera House. The Swan Lake was on schedule, and we thought it would be perfect to see both an orchestral concert (in a sense) and ballet.

There are approximately 600 standing tickets released every night, and waited in line for around 20-30 minutes for a standing ticket. Standing tickets are literal standing tickets near in the balcony and the gallery, and we stood in the side of the balcony. It was pretty impossible to see from our initial location, so we fought our way through to find better standing locations around the opera house.

Standing tickets were a good experience for one time, but I would not do it again after this experience, heehee.

[eurasia2017]

Budapest Day 2

Because we had arrived back in our AirBnB around 1 am last night due to walking around at night, we slept in to treat ourselves. The day started with us heading to the Central market to check out food and souvenirs.

The Central market had different regions: the first floor had sausages, spices, and fresh produce. The basement had fish, raw meat, and other random pickled things. The second floor had street food and souvenirs.

After exploring all the areas, we waited in a super long line for Langos, which are nicknamed communist pizzas. The usual type is with the dough, sour cream, and cheese on top, but we got different varieties of Langos. The portions were huge and I couldn't finish all of it.

After shopping for souvenirs, we walked by the Grand synagogue on our way back.

In addition to seeing the outside of House of Terror, which is a museum containing exhibits about the fascist and communist regimes. We had originally wanted to visit it quickly, but it was closing time. (It also would have been extremely sad part of our day)

After that, we went to the Szechenyi thermal baths, which is one of the most well-known and the biggest bath in Budapest. The baths are known to be fed in by two natural springs, with several pools, saunas, and steam baths in the region. We paid around 4600 forints to enter and then 1000 forints to borrow towels.

Because we didn't want to bring our phones in the water, there are no photos from inside the bath, but it was a great place to sit in warm water while watching the sun set over the beautiful, golden building. There were also many small baths of different temperatures and saunas of different temperatures and themes. I really enjoyed saunas of around 50 C and the steam sauna. There was also an order of enjoying the bath (cold shower after every warm thing basically) -- and indeed taking the cold showers or jumping in cold pools after the saunas made me feel more energized. I think I could have spent a whole day in the baths.

We went back after the baths to quickly freshen up before the Ruin Bars. Ruin Bars are another thing Budapest is known for, given that it houses bars in literal ruins. We went to a location called Mazel Tov -- because of its decorations, it did NOT look like a Ruin bar at all, but I enjoyed my food, drink, and location.

[eurasia2017]

more Budapest

[eurasia2017]

Budapest Day 1

We arrived in Hungary without knowing much about the language, culture, or history. We only found out at the airport that Hungary had its own currency and not the EU (they use forints, and about 273 forints = 1 USD) and it caused a momentary panic for us when we were thinking about a method of payment for the taxi.

We intended to go to the parliament building in the morning for their tour (as you cannot enter the parliament unless you get a tour) but we unfortunately missed the 9:15 am tour, but instead got a ticket for the 6 pm ticket.

Parliament was beautiful and extravagant regardless.

We exchanged some money and then walked around while waiting for our walking tour. We went on the free walking tour (highly recommend! It's on a tip base, so make sure to have Hungarian forints or Euros). Our walking tour guide was Miki, and he made me feel like I was on a field trip with my favorite history teacher.

We started at the St. Stephen's Basilica, which is a basilica that celebrates the first king of Hungary. The Hungarians had initially been nomadic people, and he was the first to unite them in a country. In the basilica (we didn't go in) there is a mummified hand of St. Stephen.

Then we walked around other parts of Pest then crossed the bridge to go to the Buda side. Pest side is known to be more "commoner's" area and Buda is the richer side of the town.

We started at Castle hill area, hearing about the communist regime and previous occupations of Hungary. (Before communism, Fascism had taken place). There was also a fountain the shape of a penis as a big f-u to the communists who had forced the architect to make the fountain.

We looked around the Matthias church area and also the Fisherman's Bastion.

We ate lunch in the local tourist-y food places, and then went to a historic bakery shop named Ruszwurm. They had cakes that had supposedly won awards and had the so-called best Hungarian Kremes. They were pretty darn good.

Afterwards, we walked in the Buda Castle Hill area and the nearby museums to see the city views before heading to the parliament building.

We got the last tour of the parliament building at 6 pm. The whole parliament was basically made out of gold and tons of fancy ornaments. The whole upkeep of the parliament itself requires hundreds of employees, and it was impressive to hear about the sheer amount of effort behind it.

We were pretty famished after the tour and we looked for a well-reviewed food location for the longest time. We went to Parisi 6, which offered a three course meal for around 12 euros. The waiter was SUPER nice when we were asking to check out and split the bill. We had previously experienced in other European places to NOT split the bill, and I guess it wasn't usually culture to split bills. He got out a calculator and he sat down with us and calculated the amount of change for each person. And in the end, he gave us shots of Hungarian spirits (it was disgusting) for our journey back.

All warmed up from the spirit, we went to buy water for the night then walked across the bridge to the Buda side to get some night views of the Parliament building.

[eurasia2017]

Venice/ Budapest - May 31st 2017

I forgot to jot down notes from this day, so here are some bullet points of my day:

Tried to go to Gam Gam, but it was closed since it was a holiday. Instead we went to a restaurant next door. I had the squid ink spaghetti.

I got a wrong shade foundation in the sephora in Rome and tried to return it in the Sephora in Venice. They told me that since I had pumped it once, I could not return the product. It made me so mad since they gave me the wrong foundation and the wrong shade in the first place :(

To get to the airport, we had to take the water taxi, a train, and a bus. (by the end of the day, I took all the transportations possible: boat, train, bus, airplane, and car.)

We met Rosa!!!

Our Budapest airbnb was very nice and a great welcome to the city.

[eurasia2017]

Venice - Jewish Ghettos and Walking Tour

We started our day exploring the Jewish ghettos. The ghetto had both a new and old side, and we walked around and to get a feel of the area.

For lunch, we stopped by the first Kosher restaurant in Venice, Gam Gam. I got a fish dish with potato latkes and it was probably the BEST MEAL I HAD IN ITALY. The fish was cooked to perfection and the sauce complimented it very well. The potato latkes were fried very well with a good crisp in each bite. The apple sauce was also great since it wasn't overwhelmingly sweet.

After lunch, we headed to the bookstore called Libreria Acqua Alta, which is known to be one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world for its display of books in gondolas and steps made out of old, destroyed books.

We got some gelato to cool down then headed to St. Mark's Basilica and St. Mark's Square to get ready for our free Venice walking tour.

Katie got pictures taken with some random French kids that were going around photobombing people.

The walking tour was informative on Venetian culture, history, and food, and I finally understood the importance of Marco Polo and the different cultural artifacts special to Venice. One specific interesting information I remember from the tour is about prostitution in Venice. At one point in Venice, around 10000 citizens were prostitutes, which was about a fifth of the population. Additionally, there was a bridge called the Breast Bridge, because it was where prostitutes could stand to show their breasts to attract customers. Aside from these, I also learned about Murano glass and the Venetian masks (they were first worn by people to hide their ranking… which led to something like the purge).

We were starving at the end, and we got some cichetti at a nearby deli (it was okay) and then had Spritz by the water. Spritz is a local drink made out of Frescco wine, some orange drink, water and other drinks I forgot.

[eurasia2017]

Venice: Gondola, Fish Market, and Postcard Neighborhoods

We headed to Venice by taking the Italo train to Venice. The train ticket was pretty cheap, and the ride was comfortable as there were pretty wide seats with desks. They also provided snacks and drinks two times during the ride.

When we arrived, we realized that we were not IN Venice, so we had to hurry and take the bus to the actual island. Once on the island, we took a water taxi to get to San Stae station, which was close to our airbnb. Our AirBnB host met us at the station and we were introduced to the area. The AirBnB looked very well-decorated and spacious, and it felt so much nicer than our small, cramped apartment in Rome.

After resting for a bit, we left to take a walk around the area. We first made a stop in Scuola grande di San Rocco to look around. There was a guy/ grandpa singing opera on the streets right outside. (He was really good. I feel bad for not giving him any money.)

We explored Venice neighborhoods afterwards.

And had some gelato!

We walked to the Fish Market region to get a gondola ride. 

The gondola rides have a set rate in Venice of 80 euros for 30 minutes ride. In hindsight, it was too expensive for what it really was, and it went by much quicker than expected.

On the gondola, we went by the Rialto bridge, which was the oldest and first marble bridge in the world then waded in the Grand canal. We also passed by random buildings like the palazzo where Marco Polo was born.

After the gondola ride and several euros less, we walked around the area and ate at Vini Alla Fresca, which had great reviews on Yelp. I had a seabass (22 euros!!!!) and it was delicious and well-plated.

After dinner, we walked down to the tip of the Venice island to watch the sunset and sit by the water. It was very tranquil and calming. Compared to the busyness in Rome, Venice was at a leisurely, enjoyable pace with picturesque corners on every street.

[eurasia2017]

Last Day in Roma

We were originally planning on taking a day trip to Naples or Florence, but the train tickets were expensive and we were pretty worn out, so we instead planned on going to the catacombs. The day started at Pasta Imperiale which had pretty good and cheap pasta in a small restaurant.

After lunch, we walked to Piazza Venezia to take a bus, and realized that it would be impossible to find a bus ticket. In Italy, the bus ticket needs to be purchased in advance in Tabacco shops. We couldn't find any in the area we were in, and the heat was scorching, which made our journey even worse. We rested by the Piazza Venezia (our favorite spot in Rome after our several encounters of it) and then decided to go to Musei Capitolini.

Musei Capitolini had great exhibitions of various frescoes, statues, paintings, and architecture. The museum itself was comprised of three buildings, with each containing a different theme. There was also an outlook point where you could see the Colosseum, Palatine Hills, and the Roman Forum from.

Once we were done with the museum, we headed to a gelato shop called Fatamorgana Gelato, which was a gelateria that Rosa had suggested. I got the flavors pineapple ginger and Prince's Kiss.

We got takeout in a pizza place, which cooked small pizzas and ended our night.