Switzerland-chocolate and mountains
When we were in line at the train station in Milan we decided we wanted to see Switzerland. So we pulled out the tour book and flipped to the "Switzerland" section and decided that Bern looked interesting. So after a long and tiring journey where we were half starved we made one of the best decisions of our lives. We looked up hostels and chose the only one that showed up. The train there had some sort of trouble with a tunnel or something so we had to get out and ride a bus through twisty roads through the Swiss alps. The clouds were covering the tops of the mountains. The scenery was breathtaking. There were waterfalls from the mountains, fat healthy cows, radiant green rolling hills, tall grass...a river, a panoramic view of as close to perfection as possible. When we saw this we decided that we had to get out of the city and see some nature while we were here. Because of the problem with the train we ended up in Bern close to the end of the reception hours so we were wandering through the city and people were very helpful and approached us to help. The last stranger who helped us was a photographer who has lived and worked all over the world. He pulled out his iPhone with a gps and gave us perfect directions. So we were running down a hill in the rain down random dark paths and we just made it in time. After we made it we went for Mexican food and then hit the sack. We awoke the next morning and went straight to the train station. We found out we couldn't get to Venice until the next day without foregoing most of the day in Bern. So we stayed in Switzerland. We asked around and figured out that we could take a train to Interlaken for the day in less than an hour. We walked through Bern a bit and saw all their bakeries and flower shops. The outdoor markets were lovely...so much fresh food and flowers. So then we left for Interlaken got there and rented some bikes for the day. This lead us to the best day in our whole trip so far. It took us a bit of uphill bike riding to figure out the paths for biking. We wandered happily through mountains, villages, by the bluest lakes, we saw loads of animals, and mountains and the green. We also ran into a random Food Fighters concert in the middle of the countryside. There were cows with bells and music from a concert that you could hear for miles. It was fairly cool and raining at points, but when exercising it felt so refreshing. We sat and ate Swiss chocolate and drank water for our breaks while taking some pics. It was lovely to go at our own pace all day. We were astounded by the beauty and invigorated by the exercise. We headed back to Bern and met some guys from Canada who accompanied us to the town that evening. There was lots of interesting people watching and the people were all exceptionally warm and friendly. After breakfast the next morning we headed off to Venice while our new friends headed to Interlaken for the day to rent bikes.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Milan
Milan-For once Michigan comes out on top!
Milan, MI Quite possibly could be better than the infamous Milan, Italy. Excited to return to the city, since we were only there for a few hours a week earlier, we set off to find our hostel. In true Lindsey and Sarah fashion we quite possibly took the most INdirect route. On the up side we did get to meet several kind locals that offered their assistance (even there phone) to help us find our way. Once we found our way we settled in and set off to find some cheap food ( after Lindsey sufficiently scared the poor boy living there nearly out of his personal compute chair) Exhausted, we went across the street to a market and picked up some breakfast for dinner and ate (Sarah's long awaited cereal) in our room. The next day we set off optimistically to experience the legendary Milan. We decided it would be best to start in the city center and go from there. After looking around the map and researching on the Internet what there was to do in Milan...we decided out of all our options we should just stay where we were and find lunch. It was a fairly uneventful afternoon, filled with pizza, people watching, and good conversation. Overall it was a good day, it just happened to have nothing to do with anything on Milan, Italy and could have been done in Milan, Michigan ( which we plan to do over the rest of the summer together) And funny story, go figure we would end up being at that very same train station around 4 times over the course of the rest of our journey. Needless to say we were happy to change locations to Venice that night and redeem our image of Italy.
Milan, MI Quite possibly could be better than the infamous Milan, Italy. Excited to return to the city, since we were only there for a few hours a week earlier, we set off to find our hostel. In true Lindsey and Sarah fashion we quite possibly took the most INdirect route. On the up side we did get to meet several kind locals that offered their assistance (even there phone) to help us find our way. Once we found our way we settled in and set off to find some cheap food ( after Lindsey sufficiently scared the poor boy living there nearly out of his personal compute chair) Exhausted, we went across the street to a market and picked up some breakfast for dinner and ate (Sarah's long awaited cereal) in our room. The next day we set off optimistically to experience the legendary Milan. We decided it would be best to start in the city center and go from there. After looking around the map and researching on the Internet what there was to do in Milan...we decided out of all our options we should just stay where we were and find lunch. It was a fairly uneventful afternoon, filled with pizza, people watching, and good conversation. Overall it was a good day, it just happened to have nothing to do with anything on Milan, Italy and could have been done in Milan, Michigan ( which we plan to do over the rest of the summer together) And funny story, go figure we would end up being at that very same train station around 4 times over the course of the rest of our journey. Needless to say we were happy to change locations to Venice that night and redeem our image of Italy.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Malta
Malta
When we looked out of the airplane window Malta was very easy to see. With about 400,000 people Malta is one of the smallest countries in the world. They are very self sufficient with their own language (a mix between Arabic and Italian! Very unique), music, history, and unique culture. Our friend that we stayed with was a man Lindsey met in Jerusalem last year. He kindly took work off (not hard to do in Malta) and picked us up from the airport. The warm temperatures were welcome and the landscape was beautiful. Throughout our time in Malta we learned a lot about their culture and politics. There are a few main things we have learned:
-Malta is a VERY Catholic society, everything revolves around the church. The holidays, the parades, the government, the feasts, the villages, the names of everything the thousands and thousands if churches...over 95%of the population attends mass weekly. Everywhere you go there are images of St. Mary or St. Paul or St...fill in the blank. This is true in almost every shop, store and even bars.
-the people have a long history, many left over feelings and trends are still very evident in their society, such as they are okay with almost anything in their government as long as their religion is left alone and also they tend to save money, especially in the more conservative areas.
-they have a very tight knit community. Everywhere we went Carmel knew people...at the beach at a rock festival etc... They even have village feasts all summer almost every week. There are about 40 villages in Malta and everyone is welcome. There is a church service (of course) and then after a giant party. This is run mostly by the church and volunteers but there is lots of food, wine, fireworks, music etc.its a big party.
-work is so different. They have at lest 40 day a year off...paid vacation. You can have another 2 months unpaid if you want. It is like that all over. They have public holidays on top of this frequently providing long weekends and even more vacations.
-recently there was a huge referendum to vote on if divorce should be legal in Malta...it has always been that way. It is a very controversial thing there because the Catholic church in Malta has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars campaigning against the change. They threatened the people with all sorts of things and people were walking out of church in the middle of services. It is a deeply religious society but they also want some separation of church and state. The vote itself turned out to result in 53% of the population in favor of the legalization of divorce. The Maltese have developed very rapidly in the past 50 years and some there feel they are very behind with this type of legislation. The church was shocked and it is still yet to be seen if the parliament and president will respond to the people's wishes, as many of them are deeply religious and are torn between their religious stance and their duty to represent the people. In Malta almost everyone votes and it is as very fool proof and extensive system.
-one last thing about Malta is that the people expect clear blue warm skies all the time, if they don't have them they can't stop talking or complaining about it. We told them we couldn't afford to do that in Michigan.
When we were there we met Carmel's family and friends. They were all such fun people and we got along with them very well. We went to very old catacombs, to an old city that is like Jerusalem but very quiet. We took a ferry with Carmel's car and our friends to Gozo a more conservative but tourist like area where we saw cliffs and a lagoon. The water was breathtaking. We went swimming a few times at a few different beautiful beaches. We went to the oldest standing structures known to mankind that were sort of like stone hedge but Maltese style. They mark the seasons and were quite remarkable right out by the water but up high. We saw cliffs, topless women, parachuters, models, met rockstars, ate dinner outside overlooking a harbor across the street from David Beckham's apartment, went to the most random party in the middle of nowhere, we went to a hippy music festival, we ate out quite a bit (pained us to spend the money) and had great bread with tomato paste, seafood, Maltese wine, it was all very good even if i wasn't all in our preferred pallets.
Malta was small. We covered a lot ground. Thanks to our host we had an insiders experience into the little island of Malta. The land and the sea have breathtaking encounters with one another. We never lacked a good view. There is a feeling of relaxation that is lacking in the states. It has blue skies, curious red sandy beaches, and a incredibly unique history. When we left we were excited to see Milan...let's just say we were a bit disappointed and unimpressed despite the famous reputation of the city.
When we looked out of the airplane window Malta was very easy to see. With about 400,000 people Malta is one of the smallest countries in the world. They are very self sufficient with their own language (a mix between Arabic and Italian! Very unique), music, history, and unique culture. Our friend that we stayed with was a man Lindsey met in Jerusalem last year. He kindly took work off (not hard to do in Malta) and picked us up from the airport. The warm temperatures were welcome and the landscape was beautiful. Throughout our time in Malta we learned a lot about their culture and politics. There are a few main things we have learned:
-Malta is a VERY Catholic society, everything revolves around the church. The holidays, the parades, the government, the feasts, the villages, the names of everything the thousands and thousands if churches...over 95%of the population attends mass weekly. Everywhere you go there are images of St. Mary or St. Paul or St...fill in the blank. This is true in almost every shop, store and even bars.
-the people have a long history, many left over feelings and trends are still very evident in their society, such as they are okay with almost anything in their government as long as their religion is left alone and also they tend to save money, especially in the more conservative areas.
-they have a very tight knit community. Everywhere we went Carmel knew people...at the beach at a rock festival etc... They even have village feasts all summer almost every week. There are about 40 villages in Malta and everyone is welcome. There is a church service (of course) and then after a giant party. This is run mostly by the church and volunteers but there is lots of food, wine, fireworks, music etc.its a big party.
-work is so different. They have at lest 40 day a year off...paid vacation. You can have another 2 months unpaid if you want. It is like that all over. They have public holidays on top of this frequently providing long weekends and even more vacations.
-recently there was a huge referendum to vote on if divorce should be legal in Malta...it has always been that way. It is a very controversial thing there because the Catholic church in Malta has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars campaigning against the change. They threatened the people with all sorts of things and people were walking out of church in the middle of services. It is a deeply religious society but they also want some separation of church and state. The vote itself turned out to result in 53% of the population in favor of the legalization of divorce. The Maltese have developed very rapidly in the past 50 years and some there feel they are very behind with this type of legislation. The church was shocked and it is still yet to be seen if the parliament and president will respond to the people's wishes, as many of them are deeply religious and are torn between their religious stance and their duty to represent the people. In Malta almost everyone votes and it is as very fool proof and extensive system.
-one last thing about Malta is that the people expect clear blue warm skies all the time, if they don't have them they can't stop talking or complaining about it. We told them we couldn't afford to do that in Michigan.
When we were there we met Carmel's family and friends. They were all such fun people and we got along with them very well. We went to very old catacombs, to an old city that is like Jerusalem but very quiet. We took a ferry with Carmel's car and our friends to Gozo a more conservative but tourist like area where we saw cliffs and a lagoon. The water was breathtaking. We went swimming a few times at a few different beautiful beaches. We went to the oldest standing structures known to mankind that were sort of like stone hedge but Maltese style. They mark the seasons and were quite remarkable right out by the water but up high. We saw cliffs, topless women, parachuters, models, met rockstars, ate dinner outside overlooking a harbor across the street from David Beckham's apartment, went to the most random party in the middle of nowhere, we went to a hippy music festival, we ate out quite a bit (pained us to spend the money) and had great bread with tomato paste, seafood, Maltese wine, it was all very good even if i wasn't all in our preferred pallets.
Malta was small. We covered a lot ground. Thanks to our host we had an insiders experience into the little island of Malta. The land and the sea have breathtaking encounters with one another. We never lacked a good view. There is a feeling of relaxation that is lacking in the states. It has blue skies, curious red sandy beaches, and a incredibly unique history. When we left we were excited to see Milan...let's just say we were a bit disappointed and unimpressed despite the famous reputation of the city.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Vienna
Vienna-a surprise!
So we ended up going to Vienna on a overnight train from Poland. When we left Poland we met some new friends (4 guys from Northern Ireland) on the train and stayed up late exchanging traveling stories and laughs. We had a great time and they were on their way to Budapest but had the day in Vienna as well. So we stored our bags at the train station in lockers and joined groups with them. We had pretend tours where we took turns pretending like we knew what we were talking about. We saw the opera house and an old church remodeled into the gothic style from Baroque. Discussing imagery and religion we moseyed through the streets stopping in shops along the way. We also snuck in to a museum to find some bathrooms. After a Mcflurry and a Starbucks we made our way to an amusement park. We had a wonderful view as we went up on giant swings! It was so much fun. We got some drinks and relaxed for a bit and then went to the river and some of us jumped in (some didn't)...it started raining so we all got wet anyway. Vienna was beautiful.
When we left we said goodbye to our new friends and made our way through the gathering football fans (Germany v. Austria that night) and on to the next overnight train from a different station. After a bit of confusion we made it to the right place and we shared our car with two boys who just finished high school from Germany. The view was too good to just sit in our cabin so we took advantage of it and stood outside where the big windows were. The country in Austria was just breathtaking, reminding one of the landscapes in The Sound of Music. There were rolling green hills and far away mountains, it was raining and you could see the wisps of clouds and the pleasant release of the rain into the depths. There were magnificent tall churches bravely competing with the views of the mountains. There were valleys and cottages with a chimneys and smoke coming out of them. The mountains called to be climbed, the valleys and small towns called to be explored, but alas all we were allowed was about an hour of sunlight to drink in the view and allow or imaginations the rest. After a pleasant long night sleep we made our way to Milan, Italy.
So we ended up going to Vienna on a overnight train from Poland. When we left Poland we met some new friends (4 guys from Northern Ireland) on the train and stayed up late exchanging traveling stories and laughs. We had a great time and they were on their way to Budapest but had the day in Vienna as well. So we stored our bags at the train station in lockers and joined groups with them. We had pretend tours where we took turns pretending like we knew what we were talking about. We saw the opera house and an old church remodeled into the gothic style from Baroque. Discussing imagery and religion we moseyed through the streets stopping in shops along the way. We also snuck in to a museum to find some bathrooms. After a Mcflurry and a Starbucks we made our way to an amusement park. We had a wonderful view as we went up on giant swings! It was so much fun. We got some drinks and relaxed for a bit and then went to the river and some of us jumped in (some didn't)...it started raining so we all got wet anyway. Vienna was beautiful.
When we left we said goodbye to our new friends and made our way through the gathering football fans (Germany v. Austria that night) and on to the next overnight train from a different station. After a bit of confusion we made it to the right place and we shared our car with two boys who just finished high school from Germany. The view was too good to just sit in our cabin so we took advantage of it and stood outside where the big windows were. The country in Austria was just breathtaking, reminding one of the landscapes in The Sound of Music. There were rolling green hills and far away mountains, it was raining and you could see the wisps of clouds and the pleasant release of the rain into the depths. There were magnificent tall churches bravely competing with the views of the mountains. There were valleys and cottages with a chimneys and smoke coming out of them. The mountains called to be climbed, the valleys and small towns called to be explored, but alas all we were allowed was about an hour of sunlight to drink in the view and allow or imaginations the rest. After a pleasant long night sleep we made our way to Milan, Italy.
Poland
Poland
As soon as we crossed the border from Germany we stopped and had to switch trains to get to Krakow. It felt immediately different. The signs were not in English at all and the people seemed to know much less English than in Germany. We had quite a long train ride from Germany to Poland and we were quite tired. The view from the train was beautiful. The sun was setting and we had some beautiful warm rain. It was very green and we went through lots of forests. Meghan was there to meet us when we got there at the train station and she immediately took us home and gave us some lovely homemade food. She took great care of us. The next day we saw the city. We went to get some lemonade and ice cream while we chatted in the sun during meghan's class. It was a relaxing way to begin. We went to Schindler's factory and to the Jewish area in the city. It was very moving. The next few days we saw meg's favorite places around town and ate great fresh cheap food. Meghan was a wonderful hostess and it was a beautiful and restful time
As soon as we crossed the border from Germany we stopped and had to switch trains to get to Krakow. It felt immediately different. The signs were not in English at all and the people seemed to know much less English than in Germany. We had quite a long train ride from Germany to Poland and we were quite tired. The view from the train was beautiful. The sun was setting and we had some beautiful warm rain. It was very green and we went through lots of forests. Meghan was there to meet us when we got there at the train station and she immediately took us home and gave us some lovely homemade food. She took great care of us. The next day we saw the city. We went to get some lemonade and ice cream while we chatted in the sun during meghan's class. It was a relaxing way to begin. We went to Schindler's factory and to the Jewish area in the city. It was very moving. The next few days we saw meg's favorite places around town and ate great fresh cheap food. Meghan was a wonderful hostess and it was a beautiful and restful time
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