Tombstones and Bleeding Hearts for Bratislava

We wish to inform you that since our last post, the weather has taken an extreme turn for the awesome-er. This has exponentially increased our ability to be tourists. So our obvious first tourist stop when the weather started getting cheery - was the cemetery. The Vienna central cemetery boasts some of the most famous (and infamous) corpses of all time. The main reason we were interested in going was to reconnect with our classy roots by paying respect to Beethoven. Obviously the best way to show respect for the dead is to physically embrace their headstone.



This is actually Ludwig's second tomb. His body was moved there in 1888 along with composer Mr Franz Schubert. I'll bet they're really glad that they are homies 4 life, and 4 death. They now share a quiet little corner of the cemetery with other classical cats like Brahms and Falco. But somehow I don't feel like Falco belongs in this group. What do you think?



Other notables in the cemetery include basically every statesman from Austria, as well as the professor who rejected Hitler's art school application thus forcing America to use nuclear weapons against Japan (non sequitur stolen from a Brian Regan joke). All in all it was a fun day thanks to some German friends who invited us along for the afternoon. Ze Germans were especially helpful when a nice Austrian tour guide began pointing out (in his native language) the final resting places of interesting people. Two months in this country really has not done wonders for our German language ability. We were glad to have willing translators.

Our gloomy adventures continued yesterday when we visited the former Soviet land of Slovakia. Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is a mere 60km from Vienna. Even though we had already visited the former Soviet Union once (Czech Republic), this was the first time we really experienced the remnants of communism. The city is basically divided by the Danube river. On the west side of the river is the beautiful and historic city center as well as the old Bratislava castle. On the east side of the river is this:



It is Soviet bloc housing as far as the eye can see. You can get a better sense of what it looks like by opening the image in a new window and viewing it full size. It is interesting to think that a truly international city like Vienna was a mere 40 miles away from the edge of the iron curtain.

But to say that it was all gloom is inaccurate. It was actually a beautiful day outside and we spent time in the fun little historic district where people sell their crafts and play their accordions. What also made it a good time was the company. We went with a couple that we met here. Luckily one of them speaks fluent German. So between the four of us, nobody still had any idea how to read the Slovak street signs. You can see all the pictures from our Bratislava adventure here. Seeing these kinds of things really makes one glad to have been born into favorable conditions.

This week we are taking off for London! We hope to find out if Bob really is our uncle, and what the heck "bangers and mash" is. We were surprised to learn that, despite the general lack of religiosity in Europe, most countries here have a four-day weekend at Easter (Friday through Monday). So we are doing the American thing and turning that four-day weekend into a six-day one. We leave Wednesday for merry old London, return Easter Sunday, and then we'll obviously use Monday, the last day of our vacation, to blog our experiences and our feelings.

We're also taking suggestions on where to go next (after London), so send us a comment if you think you know what we should be seeing while we're here.

Finally, here is another random picture of Vienna:

Updates

These last two weeks have been pretty low key, but we have been able to get out and see a little bit more of this great city. We explored the oldest parts of Vienna hoping to see some ghosts from WWII - but all we really saw was this creepazoid who invented the printing press. Behold Gutenberg:


So if you have ever felt guilty for not diligently reading your bible, you can blame this guy. He is the one who made mass production of the text possible.

We have really gotten to like this city. It has a lot to offer: great architecture, pastries, operas, drunk Turkish people singing songs at train stops etc. But by far one of the most magical things we have done here is skating at the Rathaus (pronounced "Rat House" [by Brett]). The rats were nice enough to set up a cool skating rink in front of the big city hall. We have posted pics of this previously, but this time we went and actually skated. Check this out:


Now, we understand that it has been beautiful weather back home in AZ. And to that, we would just like to inform you that in Vienna last Thursday mother nature dropped the biggest snowflakes that the cranky old hag ever produced. So we wish you the warmest and comfortable-est of springtimes.

In other news, I have just found out that I'm invited back to the Middle East to attend and assist in the conference that I helped plan last summer when we were in Jordan. So I'm headed back to Amman in June. And the Arab Institute (where I worked) is paying my travel expenses. Luckily I have a flexible work schedule so I can do things like this (you know, take off four days in the middle of the week to do something that has nothing really to do with my real job at IAEA).

Lindsey is keeping busy with her work. We are fortunate that she has a job that allows her to work from anywhere in the world as long as there is an internet connection. It has been an invaluable source of income. After all, we need money to go to places like Tacos Lopez and the Fresco Grill (the two best Mexican restaurants in town). Last night we had a nice evening at Tacos Lopez. Everything was completely magical and the atmosphere was great - until a dog started barking... from underneath the table next to us.

Dogs are allowed to go everywhere in this city. And these are not the personal assistant dogs that some people have. These are just regular old mutts that people can't seem to part with even when they go out for dinner. Can you imagine sitting at a Chili's or something and then a dog starts barking at you from the adjacent table? So it's little things like this that are still taking some getting used to.

Finally, here is a picture of an old Catholic cathedral in Vienna that is currently undergoing renovations. After Lindsey took this epic picture of me, we realized that there was an advertisement draped over the scaffolding. That's right, there is a huge advertisement for a mobile phone company on the side of a Catholic church:



And to send you off with a prettier image than my own, here are some pictures of Lindsey enjoying a jumbo (and apparently Jewish) krapfen, and posing in front of an outdoor market down town

Prague Blague

(Brett came up with that clever title)

Eight years ago, as part of an Orchestra tour, I visited Prague. This past weekend, I got to experience it again with Brett. This time around was definitely colder, but Prague is always amazing no matter what time of year you visit.

We actually drove with a couple who we know from Monterey. (They are also here for 6 months doing an internship. His mom lives in Germany, so he has a car here.) It seemed like a good idea at the time, but there were five of us in the car (her friend was also visiting from the U.S.), which obviously meant we were all a little squished in the back and I was sitting on the hump. Brett offered to sit on the hump, but we all know that would just be ridiculous.

We left on Friday around 5 and the guy we were with, Zak, wanted to stop at a town called Český Krumlov. It's a quaint little Czech town with a beautiful castle, as seen here at night:



We wandered around town a bit that night, walked up to the castle grounds, and also ate at a Restaurant called The Two Mary's. We ordered the traditional "Bohemian Feast," which was
delicious.




The next day, we woke up and wandered around some more and then hopped in the car to head to Prague. Once we got there, we found our hostel and got settled in... but not before taking a wrong turn and running into this chump:



I know you can only kind of see him, but that jerk of a cop is giving us a 1,000 CZK ticket which is about $40. While that may not be a lot of money, it's still ridiculous that he even gave us a ticket. We obviously didn't speak czech and we didn't see the tiny sign that apparently meant cars were not allowed down that street. At any rate, we were finally in Prague and once we dropped off our stuff, we headed into town. We wanted to see as much as possible so we did a lot of walking. We started by heading over the Charles Bridge:

And then headed towards the Prague castle and the Old Cathedral, which you may recognize from "A Knights Tale."


The rest of that day included us walking a lot, seeing plenty of other awesome things, and me trying to stop in every shop with bohemian crystal. It's just so sparkly I couldn't help myself.

We also found a falafel place to eat at that night, and Brett was excited to be able to communicate with someone in a common language, since the guy that owned it spoke Arabic. (A lot of people in Prague speak English, but you get what I mean.)

The next day, we went to the National Museum in Wenceslas Square. It was amazing. I don't think we appreciated it as much as we should have, since we were both so tired, but it was pretty awesome. Before and after the museum, we mostly just wandered around a lot. We wanted to take in as much of the city as possible because it really is beautiful.


We also ate a lot of delicious food while we were there including decadent chocolates, crepes, pastries, and a sausage or two. But, I didn't feel too bad about it considering how much walking we did... it all works out, right?

We left that evening at 5:30 via train. We decided not to ride back in the car for my back's sake. It took a little longer than we thought it would, but it was well worth it. No squishing and apparently our friends got stopped at the Czech border and accused of human trafficking. They eventually got through, but yikes.

So that pretty much wraps the trip up in a nutshell.


Oh and my parents are coming at the end of April and they want to go to Prague too... so Prague might be a three-peat for me. :)

So I guess that about sums up the trip. You can see all the Prague pics here