The Truth about Good King Wenceslas…

Oh the things you learn on tours of cities…the useless pieces of knowledge that most people in this world care nothing about. I have a mind that remembers the most useless points and locks it way to be pulled out later (and usually really awkward) moments in my life. BP is always telling me that I know the oddest and most pointless information of anyone she knows…

Please allow me to share some of this knowledge now…did you know that the famed King Wenceslas from the Christmas carol wasn’t a real king, he was a duke in the region of Bohemia-which is in modern day Czech Republic. And…they don’t know if he was in fact good or not, he only ruled for about 5 years and was killed in his early 20s. He is called today Saint Wenceslas and is the patron saint of the Czech people. I’m told that most people in Prague have never even heard the famous carol about their beloved saint.

This Christmas was definitely an interesting one! I was in Prague from the 23^rd to the 26^th with two of my au pair friends from Zürich. None of us could make it home for the holidays so we decided to go away together. This year it really hit me hard not being with my family for Christmas. I didn’t expect it to be that way because last year wasn’t so bad. Though, last year I was with two of my best friends and they are like family to me so I guess I just didn’t think about missing everyone so much as I did this time. It was a really nice trip…though it just felt like Christmas didn’t happen at all this year.

When we arrived we tried to map out what we wanted to see of Prague and I’m happy to say in the end we accomplished it all! We knew that a lot of things would be closed or closing early because of Christmas so we tried to plan around it. It did surprise me to find that the real holiday for the Czech people is the 24^th. There are still a lot of places closed on the 25^th but nearly every place was closed up or closed early on Christmas Eve. On the 23^rd we arrived quite late into the city so we decided to go for a late meal and then just walk around and enjoy the city at night with all the Christmas lights and decorations. The markets were all set up, though deserted at that time of night, and beautifully decorated!

We slept in for a bit on Christmas Eve and finally got going around 11AM that morning when we set out in search of food. We found a very traditional Czech restaurant and I ordered the goulash, which was AMAZING! We were attempting to make a walking tour around 1:30 but got lost on the way and ended up in the Jewish district, the former ghetto from pre WWII times. Needless to say, we were so caught up in looking around there that by the time we made it to the tour meeting point we were too late…so we stopped to reassess our plans for the day. It was decided that we’d just walk and shop and take pictures instead of trying to plan any other appointments, as everything was closing up early that day anyway. We made our way over to the river and crossed a bridge to the other side. Along the way we popped into little shops or stopped to look at the work of a street vendor and bought basically all our souvenirs that afternoon. We took a lovely stroll along the river and then headed back to the other side via another bridge, and this time a quite famous one, the Charles Bridge. Construction of this bridge was finished in the early 15^th century and around the year 1700 thirty statues, fifteen on each side, were placed on it, making the bridge quite lovely to look at. During most of the day it is packed with people crossing to and from the Old Town and the Prague Castle, but early in the morning or late at night it is very peaceful and beautiful sight! We walked through the Old Town Square and had a look at the famous Astronomical Clock, which dates back to the year 1410, as it chimed the hour. We were very tired, hungry, and cold so we headed back to the hostel for some rest. Later that evening we went into the Old Town Square for a Christmas concert. It was about an hour of classical style music and the words were all in Czech, it was a wonderful performance!

On Christmas Day we started out a little earlier and left the hostel about 9AM. We made our way to the Castle and bought the standard two day ticket. We walked around there for a few hours seeing the sights and freezing to death (I’m told the high day was around -3C which is 26F). I will say we were fairly miserable because we couldn’t feel our toes and fingers! Then we headed over for our second attempt at the walking tour of the city and this time we were successful. We had a great guide who told us all the pointless facts of the city and why things are named the way they are. In the two hours, he took us into several areas of the city and we saw things we wouldn’t have seen without the tour. (Check out the pic of Wenceslas riding the upside down horse…). After the tour we took a few minutes to call our families from a call center, which was nice. I managed to catch most everyone together around lunch time at my grandmother’s house. We then enjoyed an awkward meal at, what turned out to be, a REALLY nice restaurant. I think we were all out of our elements and felt a bit out of place so we couldn’t even enjoy the meal properly. Later that evening we thought it’d be fun to go on a ghost tour, as Prague is supposedly the most haunted city in Europe! The thing was a complete joke…hehe…not scary at all but we had the best time laughing at some of the dumb questions people would ask our guide.

We decided to top off the evening in the best way we knew how and we went in search of a wine cellar that is recommended in my travel book. By then we were old pros and navigating the city so it didn’t take us long at all to locate the street and building we were looking for. When we entered the place we thought it seemed pretty dead…not many people and only about 4 stools by the tiny little bar. But over in the corner there was a small staircase leading underground and what we found there really amazed me! It was a labyrinth of caves and probably 200 people. It was quite loud and I’m not sure how you can’t hear it upstairs. We sat for a while having our own private conversation and after about an hour a local guy came up and asked if we could play foosball with him and his friends because they didn’t have enough people. We stayed for quite a while playing and socializing. It was the perfect end to the day and when we finally arrived back at the hostel at 1:30ish we fell into bed from the sheer exhaustion of the day!

Now on to the 26^th-the day we went home! We still wanted to see more of the castle and buy a few last minute souvs so we knew we needed to be on time that day, for everything! We left the hostel around 8:30 and made our way straight over to the castle. After seeing a few more sights and exhibits there we finally got to enter the building I’d been waiting on the whole trip-St. Vitus Cathedral! This church is built inside the castle, I guess you could say it’s in the courtyard area, and it’s enormous! Its beautiful Gothic architecture is the first thing you see when you are looking at the Prague castle. We also were able to witness the changing of the guards at the castle gates, twice…once from the outside and once from inside the castle. It’s an interesting experience from both directions. On the view from the inside we got to see quite an interesting series of events. Picture this: guards marching very ceremonially and according to tradition, not a thing out of place on their uniforms. A very attractive guard has just finished his hour long duty and is now marching back into the headquarters within the castle when he spots some young girls, whom I believed to be Americans, standing over to one side…so what does he do?? He winks at them, which I’m sure is not allowed and the girls let out the loudest giggles which echo around the square and the guard’s face goes bright red! I tell you…it made my day. I didn’t actually see the winking but my friends did, I just found the whole series of events to be quite comical! (and NO…we weren’t the girls…but he was cute and I wouldn’t have minded…hehe…). We had one last stop to make on our way back to the hostel to collect out bags. We were recommended by the hostel staff and also my guide book to visit a place called Bohemia Bagel. We’d gone by every day we’d been there and they were closed, all except the last day. We decided to make it our lunch stop and am I ever glad we did! They served American style breakfast and they served it all day! I had gravy and biscuits, eggs, AND bacon!!! It made the happiest girl in Prague for the hour I was sitting in the café. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is going to be visiting Prague!

Overall my trip was excellent, not a proper Christmas, but still a great trip! I want to go back to Prague and see more of it and the bohemian countryside around it. Perhaps I’ll make that a goal for my big trip at the end of my stay, or as Sara would call it…my Grand Tour!

I’m headed out on the 31^st to Zermatt, Switzerland to ring in the New Year. I plan to spend the first day of 2008 sledding down a mountain near the Matterhorn. I can’t wait to get up there and take some great pics to share with all of you! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and I will write again in 2008…

Love you all!

LuLu

Sharing a Few Pictures…

Hi! I know it’s been a while since I last wrote. Nothing much to say. We’ve had visitors from Australia with us for just over a week now and will continue for just over a week more. I know my host mum is so happy to see her family!

I just wanted to share with you a few pictures taken of us girls when we went to the PolyBall a few weeks ago at the ETH (a University here in Zurich). It is the largest ball in Europe so we got all dressed up and a big group of girls went. It was interesting and fun but a bit boring as we didn’t have anyone to dance with. I’d definitely go again but next time with a date who is obliged to dance with me whenever I feel like it…hehe…

Ok…here they are, enjoy!

Naples, Italy

On November 24^th Megz and I flew to Naples, Italy with another good friend of ours, Roni for a 4 ½ day holiday in the coastal Italian city. I can sum up my thoughts of the city of Naples in one word: DIRTY!

It was the most disgusting city I believe I have ever visited…and what a shame because the area around it is home to many popular and beautiful tourist destinations and the city would have so much potential were it not for the filth and its reputation for mafia-style crime.

However, we’d already been warned about the ways of this city; so, plans were made before we even left Switzerland to make it our base for sleeping and travel each day to somewhere exciting and beautiful in the surrounding area.

On our day of arrival we found it a challenge (though not such a large one) to find our hostel and secure our belongings. We managed to cross several streets without being hit by crazy drivers and entered Hostel of the Sun, which is rated one of the best in the world. The hostel itself was quite bright and cheery, a nice contrast to the city outside. We locked up our stuff and headed out to see the few things on our to do list for Naples and grab a bite to eat. It became increasing apparent, even in the first few hours, that going anywhere or doing anything in this city was going to be difficult! I’ve been used to watching my back and my bags on other trips but this one brought my paranoia to a whole new level…We did manage to find a suitable restaurant and escaped the chaos for about an hour and at 6PM we’d had enough and decided to skip a night on the town for a quiet one back at the hostel playing cards. This was, perhaps, the best decision we made the whole trip! In the process of sitting around and chatting with random people we met Wil! He ended up being our travel buddy for the remainder of the trip…we just couldn’t get rid of him…hehe…Seriously, it was nice to have him around and to have some new stories (I’ve already heard ALL of Megz’s…hehe…j/k Meggie!!)

On day 2 we decided to go out and see the ruins of the city of Pompeii, destroyed by the volcano-Mt. Vesuvius, and also take the bus to the summit of the volcano and look down into the crater. This all proved to be a harder than we imagined it would be. The ride out to the city of Pompeii was easy enough but the train was dirty and long. We bought our tickets to go up the volcano on a bus and the bus come at the scheduled time or for nearly two hours, so we wasted time sitting for a bus at the stop. We aren’t used to that…living in Switzerland has spoiled us because things work on time here and if they don’t you get a notification of it so you can make other arrangements.

The ride up the volcano was on a very narrow and curvy road, and we were in a charter-style bus, so you can imagine the motion sickness and nervousness that were had on the drive! The bus doesn’t drop you off right at the crater. Instead you must do a 25-30 minute semi-hike to the summit. It was a refreshing walk and actually just felt like any other mountain hike. It was such a cool feeling for me to look down into the crater of an active volcano. Especially Mt. Vesuvius, which is the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe and quite possibly the most famously known worldwide. You aren’t allowed into the crater so we walked all along the rim and from there you can see out into the Bay of Naples, to the city of Naples, and in the distance you can just make out the ruins of Pompeii. I’m even pleased to say that there were some fumes coming out of the crater…it was really cool!

After a good bit of time at the top and a look at souvenir shops and such we headed back down to the bus and the ruins at Pompeii. As it turns out, the entrance to the ruins closes quite early because they are so large. So, the closing of the park is something like 6PM and the last entrance in is at 3ish. Therefore, we couldn’t get in for the day when we arrived back at 4:30ish…there was a lot of disappointment amongst our group, especially because we felt we’d timed it perfectly but the Italian transport system was to blame; however, we formulated a plan to fit in Pompeii another day into our schedule of activities for the remainder of the trip. Instead we took the horrible train back into Naples and enjoyed a lovely dinner together.

On Day 3 we decided to take advantage of the lovely, and warm, weather and so we set out on a boat across the Bay of Naples to the famous Island of Capri. It was lovely. The boat ride was just over an hour and we sat out on the upper deck the entire time. Sun shinning and wind blowing…it was perfect! As we drew nearer to the island I could make out the outline of the beautiful landscape and the houses built straight up from the sea.

We’d hoped to see the Blue Grotto while we were there, it’s a famous cave over the most spectacular shade of blue water. The opening is only about 3 feet high so you either need to swim in or go in these really small boats. That was the plan, but the seas were not agreeing with us. Apparently the waves were just too choppy and so it was forbidden to enter the Grotto on the day we visited (next time…DEFINITELY!!) Instead we took the funicular up to the city of Capri (a very expensive little town) and then a bus to the other side of the island and visited the town of Anacapri, which was lovely with winding streets and cobblestone pathways. It is exactly as I imagine paradise to look. We bought our food at a tiny grocery store and ate one a bench in the middle of the town just taking in our surroundings.

As we sat there the weather took a turn, it because very overcast and the clouds drew lower to the little island. We decided to head back to Capri. We walked around there for only about an hour and then decided we’d seen all we cared to for the day and headed back to board the next boat home. I guess we’d walked too much, because all four of us fell asleep on the way back! This time we sat inside as it was a good bit colder on the top after the sun set!

When we arrived back in Naples we decided to go eat a restaurant that was being recommended to us from all angles, both at the hostel and a top pick in my guide book! This place, called Di Matteo, is said to the best pizza in the entire world…even former President Clinton ate there while attending a G7 summit in 1999. It was excellent. Though I can hardly say it’s the best in the world…I can definitely say I don’t believe I’ve ever had better pizza in my entire life!! It tasted wonderful and the best part about it was how inexpensive it is…I think my pizza cost 4 Euro and it was overflowing off the plate!

On Day 4 we had a mission. So many things to see before we flew home but we were told it wasn’t possible to see them all in one day so we decided we had to do it just to prove them all wrong! First things first, we wanted to return to Pompeii for round two of let’s-try-to-see-the-ruins-today. This time we got up super early, leaving the hostel before 8, and gave the train a miss…we opted instead for a bus trip which proved to be quite relaxing and calm. We made it to the city and were among the first in. I don’t honestly know what I was expecting to see but the ruins at Pompeii blew my mind. I guess I thought we’d rock up to the volcano and see a lot of desolation around it and then a few roman columns or something like that. But no…it was a full sized city with modern day living built up all around. We could have spent a whole day in there and not seen everything listed to see. Instead we opted for the highlights. We saw the plaster molds made from the people who died in the eruption, famous frescos from the walls of houses in the city, temples to their god’s and other things like that. I guess we spent about 3 hour total wandering around.

What came to my mind immediately was that I was standing in a city that is famous for no other reason than being totally destroyed…totally destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Who were they? What were they doing on the day they all perished?? Going about their everyday lives, I suppose, and quite possibly having no idea of the amount of danger they faced. Now days we have such amazing technology which can predict an eruption, and, to some degree, how large that eruption will be. I am told that Pompeii was partially destroyed by a massive earthquake a few years before the eruption and that is why the ruins look as unfinished as you see them today. It is reported that a lot of the people had left Pompeii because their property was destroyed in the quake and they did no return…I guess you could say that earthquake saved their lives! Things to ponder I guess. The absolutely amazing thing is the whole time we were looking around the ruined city we saw the volcano that caused its destruction looming over it in the background...ever a threat!

Next on our whirlwind day we wanted to see part of the Amalfi coast. There are several cities dotting this coastline just below the Bay of Naples, but in my mind the Amalfi Coast will always be Positano. This little town is featured in one of my favorite movies, Under the Tuscan Sun, so I knew I MUST see it! We took a bus to get there from the town of Sorrento and it went around some huge curves along a ridge above the coast. At a few points in the journey looking out the window was looking down straight into the Mediterranean Sea! Positano was definitely everything I thought it would be. The film was true to life and the scenery, landscape, and beauty were all as I’d seen them on the big screen. I tried to imagine Diane Lane filming there years before and my head was lost in a world all its own: a place of romance and beauty.

Late in the evening, after seeing all we’d set out to see, the four of us made our way back from the beauty to dirty, dirty Naples. We had a dinner date at the hostel. The people who work there, real Italians, had offered to cook everyone a pasta meal complete with a wonderful red wine. How could we pass that up? There must have been at least 20 people, maybe more, in the room for the dinner. It was nice socializing and meeting new people, even though we were leaving the next morning.

We woke really early the next day to get to the airport. I’m happy to report that we had no problems getting back and actually no major problems while we were there! Even given its reputation, I guess we all have to admit Naples was good to us. It gave us a place to rest between our days of adventure and an opportunity to meet fun, new people. I definitely want to go back to this area, though I think I’ll stay in Sorrento or on the Amalfi Coast next time; I want to make another attempt at seeing the Blue Grotto on Capri, spend more time wandering around the ruins of Pompeii, and definitely explore some of the other towns on the Amalfi Coast.

So sorry this post is really long…I tried to shorten it but there was just so much I wanted to tell you all about. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I’ll be working to get the others uploaded to my photo site soon.

I love you all!

LuLu

Thanksgiving 2007: Just as the Pilgrims and Indians Intended…

It is always a sad day to be away from family and close friends for important holidays, such a Thanksgiving…but I am. I’ve also found it quite difficult to celebrate the traditional American holidays, which aren’t recognized globally, while living in a foreign country…all around you life goes on like it’s any normal day but inside you know it isn’t!

Last year, as many of you will remember, I was quite bummed out on Thanksgiving. It was an emotion which took me completely by surprise. I’d been living in Switzerland for just over 2 months and felt quite settled into life here and thought it would be no big deal to go through the day without turkey and college football…BOY WAS I WRONG! What bothered me most was the lack of contact I had with everyone…since all the people back in the US had the day off work, there were no emails passed and I felt quite isolated. This year was totally different!

Due to my overly depressed blog post from last year, my host mom thought it most important for me to have a proper Thanksgiving this year…me and my big mouth! We planned for a big meal and I was going to cook it all…well, all that took a turn when the construction for our new flat screen came into play. (You see, my host dad has been dreaming of owning a flat screen television for a while now, at least as long as I’ve lived here, and finally he is making all his own dreams come true…he ripped out most of a wall to run wires and cables and heaps of things I couldn’t possibly care about and as a result the wall then had to be fixed and the chosen night was none other than November 22^nd…Thanksgiving night!) So, the plans changed…

Initially, the family decided to send Megz and I out for a nice dinner…it eventually evolved into me inviting everyone I know in Zürich out for dinner…

So here’s the scene if you can try to imagine it…10 people: 2 Peruvians, 3 Australians, a Swedish guy, Greek guy, Turkish guy, Canadian girl, and myself (the lone American…) out to celebrate American Thanksgiving at a Mexican Restaurant in Switzerland…have you ever heard a crazier story?! Mexico is close to the US…it counts, right??

We ate fajitas, Mexican salads, tortillas with salsa and guacamole, you name it…we had it sitting at our table…and Margaritas! To make it really cool…it was one of those restaurants where you could draw on the table with crayons so everyone was drawing their country’s flag and assorted other junk like turkeys and stuff…At the end of the dinner my host mom had arranged a surprise for us…a cake to mark the occasion! It was all so nice and definitely a Thanksgiving I won’t soon forget…

I really, REALLY appreciate my host mom for everything she did setting up all the reservations, recommending the place to eat, and just getting me out of the house to enjoy myself and not allowing me to sit at home miserable…and I’m so happy that my friends marked the occasion with me and I wasn’t all alone for the special day…I’m not sure it meant anything to them but it meant so much more to me than I can ever express!

I am, however, planning to get my fill of a traditionally cooked Thanksgiving meal in just over a week. My American friend down the street is cooking another traditional meal when her in-laws arrive back home. I’m going to help with the cooking (AND the eating…), I really can’t wait!

Ok, that’s all for this post…I have a few more I want to write tonight so, hopefully, you’ll be hearing from me again soon!

Ciao for now…

LuLu