Life has not slowed down since we got home from Europe. We had a couple of days to recoup and prepare for the Wilson family holiday gathering. I fear we have unleashed a beast in our 'amazing race' style treasure hunt. It seems that the Wilsons, or as they have been recently been called, The Bush League Tribe, are quite competitive. What was designed to foster vigorous chatter, or smack talk, has quickly progressed to something that might strike a nasty chord in the family harmony. After a contested finish, resulting in a playoff round, Jared and Jonathan were named champions for the second consecutive time. In the end, I think a good time was had by all. At the very least, it gives us something to debate for the next year. Ultimately, it was nice to get the gang together and build some great memories.
After a day of quiet, I decided to ride along with Curt to his game in Corvallis. I caught a matinee while he worked, and that night we were going to drive to Bend. I should have known we were in for trouble. After the game, every guy in the truck was getting a call from his wife at home (Portland) warning him of the snow storm that had started. Curt assured me we were going to 'outrun' it because we were headed east, not north. Uh, OK honey.
It wasn't until we were 30 minutes into the drive that Wilson sheepishly admitted that this road might be like that steep, twisty, windy MF'er that we had to take to Yosemite. There were no other cars on the road. They're smart. It was a complete white out. And for the first time, the FJ failed us. The windshield wipers were freezing up. We had to stop every ten minutes to flick off the ice. Luckily, I have learned patience - and Curt is a good driver - and we made it to Bend safely. We checked into the McMenimans Hotel, and enjoyed a couple of pops in the fireside bar. Let the record reflect that we did 'outrun' part of the storm. Once we crossed the pass, the snow stopped, by the time we unloaded the car, it was a blizzard in Bend.
We enjoyed out stay in Bend. We went cross country skiing, had a soak in the fancy hotel soaking pool, went to MY favorite brewery (whoo hoo Deschutes).
But, we must get home. I need to pack for my trip to Cabo, and the weather is threatening.
Home again. But only for a day. Tomorrow I go to Cabo with Susie and company. How is it that after all of this, this time I feel like I am in for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Friday, December 26, 2008
Christmas Eve Siege in Berlin
I had been fighting off a cold for several days, but it started to take over in Berlin. We had also figured that things would close down early on the 24th, so we planned a mellow evening in our hotel room getting ready for our return flight. During the day, we went out and procured some essentials for the evening, saw a cheesy American movie, and had an early dinner. I was losing my voice, so I was just fine with the idea of laying low.
Our hotel in Berlin is brand new. It has 'style'. All black and white, very modern. A further look reminds one of Ikea, but for $55 US, we're not complaining. We lit some candles, and watched whatever was on the CNN world feed, the only English channel. It started slowly. First a 'bang'. Then another. Flashes of light. Is this how Berlin celebrates? Is it gunfire? After all of the history we had seen and thought about during our time here, we wondered if we were witnessing some of our own. In the end, we're pretty sure that they were fireworks set off by the predominantly Turkish people in our neighborhood, but we'll never really be sure. In any case, it reinforced our readiness to return home.
The flights we off without a hitch and we are safely home, looking out the front window at the winter wonderland that remains in Seattle.
The next couple of weeks will be busy as well, as we prepare for the Wilsons to arrive next week. We are looking forward to the 2nd Amazing Race, where we hope to rectify the "bush league" contest that we put together last year. After that, Curt has work in Pullman, while I head to Cabo with Susie. It doesn't seem fair, but that's life;-)
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and wish you all the best in the new year.
Our hotel in Berlin is brand new. It has 'style'. All black and white, very modern. A further look reminds one of Ikea, but for $55 US, we're not complaining. We lit some candles, and watched whatever was on the CNN world feed, the only English channel. It started slowly. First a 'bang'. Then another. Flashes of light. Is this how Berlin celebrates? Is it gunfire? After all of the history we had seen and thought about during our time here, we wondered if we were witnessing some of our own. In the end, we're pretty sure that they were fireworks set off by the predominantly Turkish people in our neighborhood, but we'll never really be sure. In any case, it reinforced our readiness to return home.
The flights we off without a hitch and we are safely home, looking out the front window at the winter wonderland that remains in Seattle.
The next couple of weeks will be busy as well, as we prepare for the Wilsons to arrive next week. We are looking forward to the 2nd Amazing Race, where we hope to rectify the "bush league" contest that we put together last year. After that, Curt has work in Pullman, while I head to Cabo with Susie. It doesn't seem fair, but that's life;-)
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and wish you all the best in the new year.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Furliche Weinachten von Berlin!
Guten Tag! First of all the keyboard is different here, so please forgive that the y's and z's will be transposed.
Our final daz and night in Prague was enjozable. We found the "Bohemian" side of the night life culture and heard some great music and talked with an Italian living in Prague. The next morning we took the train to Berlin. It was a bit of culture shock at first. We had gotten used to the simplicitz of the slightlz smaller cities. Berlin is huge and modern. Everzthing is spread out and the subwaz\tram\bus szstem is complicated. Good thing I have Wilson. Honestlz, I couldn`t hope for a better companion than him. He ALWAZS knows where we are and where we need to go. I love that about him.
The first thing we did was head to one of the local sportsbooks in the neighborhood of our hotel so Curt could get a little action on Seahawks vs Jets. Farve in the snow in Seattle. I guess that didn#t turn out the waz we had thought. Anzwaz, I was the onlz woman in the seedz place. It was full of Turkish men who looked a little annozed at mz presence. We quicklz exited and wandered to the modern Sonz place to find some food after a long journez.
We spent a good chunk of time at the German historz museum zesterdaz. Verz interesting. We have also wandered through countless Christmas markets but are not buzing much. Everzthing looks the same after a few markets, and mostlz stuff we can get at home. It is still interesting to watch the people and get snacks and authentic bratwurst.
I#ve got to saz that there is not too much to report from Berlin. We´ll head to the airport on Christmas morning and look forward to catching up with everzone then.
Our final daz and night in Prague was enjozable. We found the "Bohemian" side of the night life culture and heard some great music and talked with an Italian living in Prague. The next morning we took the train to Berlin. It was a bit of culture shock at first. We had gotten used to the simplicitz of the slightlz smaller cities. Berlin is huge and modern. Everzthing is spread out and the subwaz\tram\bus szstem is complicated. Good thing I have Wilson. Honestlz, I couldn`t hope for a better companion than him. He ALWAZS knows where we are and where we need to go. I love that about him.
The first thing we did was head to one of the local sportsbooks in the neighborhood of our hotel so Curt could get a little action on Seahawks vs Jets. Farve in the snow in Seattle. I guess that didn#t turn out the waz we had thought. Anzwaz, I was the onlz woman in the seedz place. It was full of Turkish men who looked a little annozed at mz presence. We quicklz exited and wandered to the modern Sonz place to find some food after a long journez.
We spent a good chunk of time at the German historz museum zesterdaz. Verz interesting. We have also wandered through countless Christmas markets but are not buzing much. Everzthing looks the same after a few markets, and mostlz stuff we can get at home. It is still interesting to watch the people and get snacks and authentic bratwurst.
I#ve got to saz that there is not too much to report from Berlin. We´ll head to the airport on Christmas morning and look forward to catching up with everzone then.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Authentic Prague Pub Experience
I know it is hard for some of you to believe, but part of our agenda in Prague was to soak up the pub culture. We consulted our guide books and came up with a couple of choices. The first place we went to was fairly subduded. They on have once choice of beer, Pilsner Urquell, a favorite of Curt's. There were all sorts of folks there, and a nice family sat next to us and were served what looked like a roasted pig head.
Our bravery increased after a couple of beers and we ventured to the second place on our list. It was famed that the Czech president took Bill Clinton here to show him local beer culture. In fact, we saw the photo on the wall. We tentatively entered and looked around for a place to sit. We had also read that it is common for others to join a table, so we asked three men if we could join them. They told us to ask the bartender, and round and round. They were giving us crap, but eventually welcomed us to the table. Here again, there is only one kind of beer, and they just keep coming. He put a slip of paper on our table and wrote down a mark for every beer they brought us. We notcied the tables around us had lots of marks. Mind you, the clientel was 90% male. Big guys. Curt looked slight in comparison. There was one table of older Czech women. They were not to be dismissed either. In fact, one of the women was trying to fistfight an older gentleman. Her friends held her back as she was trying to throw punches and screamed at the man. I would not have messed with her. Things were starting to get interesting...At the other end of the bar there was an accordian player and a group of people singing like a rugby team. The guys at our table got some food. They shared a large scoop of beef (hamburger) with a raw egg on top. Mind you it was all raw, like a meatloaf before the oven. They mixed in onion, mustard, etc, and put it on toast. I guess I won't be eating. A few more check marks into the evening, and the guys at our table started to try out their english and talk to us. They bought us a round. By the way, they had no less than 40 check marks for the 3 of them. We had a good time talking to our new Czech fishermen friends and stumbled home with a bucket of KFC.
Yesterday we made the pilgrimage to Plzen to tour the brewery and the brew museum. One more day in Prague, and we will be off to our final destination.
We've read of the cold and snow in Seattle. Good luck to you all.
Our bravery increased after a couple of beers and we ventured to the second place on our list. It was famed that the Czech president took Bill Clinton here to show him local beer culture. In fact, we saw the photo on the wall. We tentatively entered and looked around for a place to sit. We had also read that it is common for others to join a table, so we asked three men if we could join them. They told us to ask the bartender, and round and round. They were giving us crap, but eventually welcomed us to the table. Here again, there is only one kind of beer, and they just keep coming. He put a slip of paper on our table and wrote down a mark for every beer they brought us. We notcied the tables around us had lots of marks. Mind you, the clientel was 90% male. Big guys. Curt looked slight in comparison. There was one table of older Czech women. They were not to be dismissed either. In fact, one of the women was trying to fistfight an older gentleman. Her friends held her back as she was trying to throw punches and screamed at the man. I would not have messed with her. Things were starting to get interesting...At the other end of the bar there was an accordian player and a group of people singing like a rugby team. The guys at our table got some food. They shared a large scoop of beef (hamburger) with a raw egg on top. Mind you it was all raw, like a meatloaf before the oven. They mixed in onion, mustard, etc, and put it on toast. I guess I won't be eating. A few more check marks into the evening, and the guys at our table started to try out their english and talk to us. They bought us a round. By the way, they had no less than 40 check marks for the 3 of them. We had a good time talking to our new Czech fishermen friends and stumbled home with a bucket of KFC.
Yesterday we made the pilgrimage to Plzen to tour the brewery and the brew museum. One more day in Prague, and we will be off to our final destination.
We've read of the cold and snow in Seattle. Good luck to you all.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Prague
Yesterday we were good little tourists and went up the hill to the Prague castle. There is a catherdral, several art museums, the palace, and museums with artifacts dating back to 2000 BC that were found in this area. We watched the changing of the guard, and checked out the knights' armor and the torture museum. It was a lot to take in, but very interesting.
After a Czeck lunch (more goulash), we walked across the bridge and through the old town. There is a clock there that does a lot of fancy stuff each hour, and it was chiming just as we walked up. A lady touched me on the shoulder and said 'I knew we'd see you here'. It was one of the Aussies we met on the bus to Bratislava! They came directly to Prauge, so they were a day ahead of us. We haven't really chatted with many English speaking people, so it was nice to bump into them and exchange tips.
Over a couple of beers at a pub that has been pouring Pilsner Urquell since the 1800s, Curt
had the following observations of our journey:
1. Everyone on Romania had dark hair and white skin. No boobs.
2. No boobs in Hungary. A few blondes here and there. There are no fat people - at all.
3. Slovakia - women there have big boobs.
4. Czech - melting pot (of white people). There are a few Japanese tourists, and a small number of Africans. But very small minorities.
We have encountered very few Americans. I think we've only talked to one couple from Iowa - they were at the internet terminal in our Budapest hotel.
The American dollar has slid since we got here. We should have bought more Euros when we arrived!
After a Czeck lunch (more goulash), we walked across the bridge and through the old town. There is a clock there that does a lot of fancy stuff each hour, and it was chiming just as we walked up. A lady touched me on the shoulder and said 'I knew we'd see you here'. It was one of the Aussies we met on the bus to Bratislava! They came directly to Prauge, so they were a day ahead of us. We haven't really chatted with many English speaking people, so it was nice to bump into them and exchange tips.
Over a couple of beers at a pub that has been pouring Pilsner Urquell since the 1800s, Curt
had the following observations of our journey:
1. Everyone on Romania had dark hair and white skin. No boobs.
2. No boobs in Hungary. A few blondes here and there. There are no fat people - at all.
3. Slovakia - women there have big boobs.
4. Czech - melting pot (of white people). There are a few Japanese tourists, and a small number of Africans. But very small minorities.
We have encountered very few Americans. I think we've only talked to one couple from Iowa - they were at the internet terminal in our Budapest hotel.
The American dollar has slid since we got here. We should have bought more Euros when we arrived!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Escape from Budapest
I'm sure the news of the impending Rail Strike was easy to find around Budapest, if you can read or understand Hungarian. We got lucky when the nice folks at the hotel alerted us to the strike when we asked where we could purchase rail tickets. After doing some quick research at the hotel, the following is a thumbnail of our escape in chronologial order.
We successfully located the international bus station, but were not very good at locating the proper line to buy international tickets, after a 30 minute wait in the wrong line, we were directed upstairs to what is best descibed as a complete disaster. Imagine the the lines at the license tab place at the end of a month. We got our number and were shocked to see that our number was called shortly thereafter. But alas, it wasn't so simple, they were calling the previous person with #117. There were 100 people in line in front of us waiting to purchase tickets at one of two windows. Rumours started to circulate that the earliest one could leave was midnight the following night. The final straw was when we saw both ticket agents take lunch at the same time.
At this point, our options were less than pleasant . . .
Take a bus to Sopron, Hungary and walk across the border into Austria.
Go down to the docks and look for a boat going upstream on the Danube (tour boats were not operating)
Wait out the Rail Strike, afterall Budapest was quite nice.
Try to find some 3rd rate bus company we read about at the hotel on wikipedia.
Amy had noticed a couple of signs for this other bus company as we traversed the main bus terminal, so we went in search of "Orangeways". Up the stairs, across the square we went following the little stickers they had plastered on the wall/floor every 20 feet or so. It was like Hansel and Gretel. We eventually stumbled into an empty office and asked where we needed to wait in line to buy tickets. We were stunned when the lady said, "Right here. Where do you want to go ?" We said Vienna, she said the bus leaves tomorrow morning. We said Bratislava, she said fork over 12 euros and be back here in three hours for a 4:30 departure.
We were convinced this was a trick, it couldn't be this easy. Perhaps we would have to get out and push the bus every now and then, or maybe they hired farm trucks to haul us to Slovakia and we would have to ride in back with the animals. Nope, it was a nice bus, with nice seats. We each got our own row. The trip was uneventful, Curt watched some movie with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, while Amy conversed with the hoarde of Aussies on the bus.
As we appraoched Slovakia, we both were dilligent in making sure we had our passports ready to go, and actually wondered what the bus stamp would look like. The well lit border station was quite massive, and completely empty. We never even slowed down.
After getting dropped of at the station in Bratislava, the trip started to get a bit more interesting. We had smuggled some Hungarian wine on the bus, and we had some pilsners while waiting in Budapest, so the booze may have started to cloud our thinking a bit. The only option for transport to Old Town was the city bus. After some grueling map reading, we decided that bus #50 was our best hope. Out to the station we went, after a quick wait, the bus showed up, Amy got on the bus, the doors closed, the bus left, Curt was left standing at the station. Disaster was averted when Amy wisely exited the bus at the next stop and walked backed to the bus terminal. Eventually, we found a cab and discovered that Slovakia was switching to the Euro on Jan. 1, and they paying for the cab was going to be easy.
That night, we explored Old Town and discovered the Slovakian Christmas market is a bit different than those in Romania and Hungary. In Bratislava, the entire town shows up to drink hot wine. The regional treat was a lefse, which both of us had enjoyed as kids. We joined in and had a rather enjoyable night in Slovakia.
We sucessfully got a train to Prague the next day, where we will be for the next few days. We had an interesting conversation on the train with an Aussie couple. It turns out that the guy's family escaped Slovakia when he was nine. They told him he was going on holiday, and they never went home. So many stories. Such fascinating history.
(Curt was the primary author of this post)
We successfully located the international bus station, but were not very good at locating the proper line to buy international tickets, after a 30 minute wait in the wrong line, we were directed upstairs to what is best descibed as a complete disaster. Imagine the the lines at the license tab place at the end of a month. We got our number and were shocked to see that our number was called shortly thereafter. But alas, it wasn't so simple, they were calling the previous person with #117. There were 100 people in line in front of us waiting to purchase tickets at one of two windows. Rumours started to circulate that the earliest one could leave was midnight the following night. The final straw was when we saw both ticket agents take lunch at the same time.
At this point, our options were less than pleasant . . .
Take a bus to Sopron, Hungary and walk across the border into Austria.
Go down to the docks and look for a boat going upstream on the Danube (tour boats were not operating)
Wait out the Rail Strike, afterall Budapest was quite nice.
Try to find some 3rd rate bus company we read about at the hotel on wikipedia.
Amy had noticed a couple of signs for this other bus company as we traversed the main bus terminal, so we went in search of "Orangeways". Up the stairs, across the square we went following the little stickers they had plastered on the wall/floor every 20 feet or so. It was like Hansel and Gretel. We eventually stumbled into an empty office and asked where we needed to wait in line to buy tickets. We were stunned when the lady said, "Right here. Where do you want to go ?" We said Vienna, she said the bus leaves tomorrow morning. We said Bratislava, she said fork over 12 euros and be back here in three hours for a 4:30 departure.
We were convinced this was a trick, it couldn't be this easy. Perhaps we would have to get out and push the bus every now and then, or maybe they hired farm trucks to haul us to Slovakia and we would have to ride in back with the animals. Nope, it was a nice bus, with nice seats. We each got our own row. The trip was uneventful, Curt watched some movie with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, while Amy conversed with the hoarde of Aussies on the bus.
As we appraoched Slovakia, we both were dilligent in making sure we had our passports ready to go, and actually wondered what the bus stamp would look like. The well lit border station was quite massive, and completely empty. We never even slowed down.
After getting dropped of at the station in Bratislava, the trip started to get a bit more interesting. We had smuggled some Hungarian wine on the bus, and we had some pilsners while waiting in Budapest, so the booze may have started to cloud our thinking a bit. The only option for transport to Old Town was the city bus. After some grueling map reading, we decided that bus #50 was our best hope. Out to the station we went, after a quick wait, the bus showed up, Amy got on the bus, the doors closed, the bus left, Curt was left standing at the station. Disaster was averted when Amy wisely exited the bus at the next stop and walked backed to the bus terminal. Eventually, we found a cab and discovered that Slovakia was switching to the Euro on Jan. 1, and they paying for the cab was going to be easy.
That night, we explored Old Town and discovered the Slovakian Christmas market is a bit different than those in Romania and Hungary. In Bratislava, the entire town shows up to drink hot wine. The regional treat was a lefse, which both of us had enjoyed as kids. We joined in and had a rather enjoyable night in Slovakia.
We sucessfully got a train to Prague the next day, where we will be for the next few days. We had an interesting conversation on the train with an Aussie couple. It turns out that the guy's family escaped Slovakia when he was nine. They told him he was going on holiday, and they never went home. So many stories. Such fascinating history.
(Curt was the primary author of this post)
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