Josh & Tracey's Adventures

So... we're actually missing a day (the one I spent in bed), but we figured you were overdue for an update, or rather a backdate... so that will come in due time. By now, the boys shaped beards were in full force and at their peak; ready to be 'moulded into magic...', we were exhausted and just about ready to settle somewhere for a while, and our money was whittling away to a mere memory...

The last morning in Dresden was spent packing up Christine’s flat and drowning ourselves in coffee before dropping our gear at the station. We had a few hours to spare before we were due for that day’s appointment – a tour of the VW Assembly Factory. Many of you may think that this would be one of the last things I would want to do, but the building itself, which we had driven past a few times, is absolutely incredible. So, the boys would get their technology fix, and I would get to see how it was all housed in an amazing glass structure.

We sat outside the Hygiene Museum (yes, Dresden has one, and it had been the subject of a running joke during our stay) for a coffee, and then we wandered through the extensive gardens by the factory before venturing in for our tour. Sheets of glass make up the exterior, so everything is visible and on display. Car frames are stacked up the height of the building, creating a curtain of glass and metal that is constantly being emptied and refilled. All the workmen wear white, emphasizing just how clean and pristine everything is. This is the site where they assemble their luxury Phaeton series to order. Customers come and watch their car being put together, and push buttons for some of the automated processes themselves. Amazing mechanical processes run through the building; magnetic floors guide man-less trolleys to their stations – all very high-tech. We got shown one of the assembled cars, feeling like we were at an open home for some luxury apartment we couldn’t afford, before taking a virtual test-drive. Josh picked a route through the Alps – a bad move, which left us queasy for the afternoon. It was then off to the station to catch our train to Berlin.

Our arrival at the brand new glass dome of the Berlin Hauptbanhof sheltered us from the heavy rain outside. This huge station covers three levels, and we arrived at the bottom floor, below a level of shopping, and more trains arriving on the top. A glorified shopping mall with a train station in there somewhere sits underneath 1.2 million kilograms of glass. Now there was yet another metro system to navigate, as well as Berlin’s S-Bahn inner city rail system. We had posted a message on the Berlin couchsurfing board as we’d had no luck finding a place, and were offered beds by Zach. He and his brother had moved to Berlin from California in the Kreuzberg area, which was filled with many of the great bars and places to go out in Berlin.

It was dark now, and we found our way to Zach’s just as the rain started to get heavier, and arrived to their fantastic place they had taken over from friends. Strangely enough, our last couch surfing experience for this trip had led us to our first couch surfing experience not staying with the country’s natives. It was our first experience of communicating with hosts in a European city that share our first language, although Jesse was doing pretty well with the German, and they had Spanish down, so we were a few behind… After a beer, we strolled down to their favourite neighbourhood Kebab store (and we had read in the Lonely Planet that Kebab’s are Berlin’s famous food, and the first Doner-style Kebab was from Kreuzberg itself…). We had to admit they were very tasty. It was getting quite late, and the rain wasn’t going anywhere, but Zach went out to meet a friend for a drink with Josh and Andrew in tow, while Jesse and I called it a night.

We awoke to a treat of fresh pancakes with Canadian maple syrup cooked by Zach (delish!) for breakfast, preparing us for a day of sightseeing. After a brief encounter with a handmade chocolate shop for coffees and tastings, we stepped into the lobby of a hotel on the same street, with a towering fish tank wrapped around a glass elevator of the entrance. Mesmerized, we watched guests descending though a translucent wall of fish before we decided we’d move on.

Now we were across from the book-burning memorial – a sealed room beneath the ground lined with empty bookshelves you view through a glass window from above. Discovering the area on foot, we made our way to the Brandenburg Gate, and our first glimpse of the outline of the Berlin wall marked on the roads throughout the city. Nearby, the Reichstag building with its unique climbable glass dome ceiling awaited, although after seeing the line, we decided that could wait for another day.

We walked through Tiergarten to the Soviet Statue, and then on to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, where thousands of concrete blocks of varying heights on undulating ground create a grey and harsh ‘cemetery’; rows and rows of endless ‘graves’ just waiting for you to get lost amongst. The museum lies beneath, and you have to enter from a certain point to even see it, but upon discovering the space, we decided to subject ourselves to more astonishingly devastating recounts of life during the Holocaust. Reading notes salvaged from the time were probably some of the most shocking things to read, the truth striking a real chord. It was exhausting to be down there, and a while later, we emerged from underground.

Surfacing in completely the wrong area for food, we paced the streets, back and forth, until we finally found a deli and ate sandwiches at a leaner outside, realising later we should have definitely sat down. More walking led us to Potsdamer Platz, where remnants of the wall remain, as the temperature really started to drop. We followed the footprint of the wall towards Checkpoint Charlie, the crossing point from East to West Berlin during the war. Arriving via the temporary exhibition on the war being reconstructed to be permanent, by the time we got there we’d had a complete overload of information so late in the day. Checkpoint Charlie even had a place where you could get your passport stamped… come on…

Andrew and I decided that we had spent enough of our trip engrossed in the war and communism, and planned to avoid anything else related to either for the rest of our Berlin days. We were meeting Zach that night to go to the free Museum night, so we started to make our way towards the area, before discovering he was running late just as the cold rain began to pour. Taking shelter in a nearby café with a hot drink until Zach arrived, we then visited the Alte Gallery, housing 18th and 19th Century paintings (the boys were happy they had heard of some of the artists, including Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Degas…). We ended up heading back to Zach’s for an early night with a few quiet drinks.

Further apologies for the fact that this blog thing still isn't finished... More hiccups with the internet, and the next entry after this one requires a bit of writing from Josh since I was unwell, so I apologise in advance if that one is delayed... not that there would be any reason it would be... hmmmm... well, back to the last week or so of the trip...

After some breakfast from the bakery on the corner of Christine’s street, we ventured into Dresden under a coat of grey rainclouds. We started in the old town (which is actually newer than the ‘new town’ now that they’ve rebuilt it), and Josh and Andy were immediately taken with the 1-euro wurst stand, and after some awful coffees (Andy poured his town a drain in the town square), we decided to start our sightseeing.

We started outside the architecturally grand Opera House before entering the expansive grounds of the Zwinger, which housed an incredible sculptural fountain, and a porcelain glockenspiel that began to chime just as the rain began to fall. Ducking for cover, we took shelter in the Lady Church, which has only recently finished being reconstructed to the original style and plans. Remnants of the original building stand outside as a constant reminder of its bullet-riddled history. We wandered towards the river past a porcelain mural, over 50 metres in length.

Across the bridge was the ‘new town’ and we walked back towards Neustadt where we’d eaten the night before and found a café for lunch. The food was tasty, although over here they tend to drown everything in dressing… We trolled through second-hand stores; I was tempted by a hat, but held off for a better one. The plan was to meet Christine for a drink after her exam before she left for her parents, but when we didn’t hear from her, we eventually went back to her place. Sadly, we found a postcard saying she hadn’t heard from us, and she hadn’t received our messages and she’d had to leave. Such a pity, as that was the last we got to see of her. We ended up having a quiet night in from the rain, which suited me quite fine, as I wasn’t feeling that fantastic and wanted to be back on form for our upcoming trip to Berlin, the last destination before we parted ways!

The next morning I decided to catch up on sleep and have a day around the house, leaving Josh and Andrew to do a bit of exploring without me. Josh will have to fill you in on that day though...

Awaking in the dark for our early-morning bridge walk, we threw on our clothes and ventured out into the crisp morning, as Prague party-goers made their way home from their long nights out. Walking quickly, as the sun was rising, we tried to get there as quickly as possible, and my memory flashed back to the American cowboy reminding us that Prague’s streets are curved, and that unless you know the shortcuts, you can end up walking in circles… We didn’t end up back where we started at least, but it can take awhile to get anywhere… We arrived to about ten people strolling on the bridge, (far less that the hundreds during the normal hours of the day!) including a couple having their wedding photos taken, early morning joggers, drunken Irishmen. We got some fantastic photos of the first rays of sun over the surrounding buildings hitting the sculptures lining the bridge, and the river.

Very tired by now, we found a café open on our way back to the hostel and had coffees and bakery delights before heading back to pack and check out. Leaving the hostel, our first stop was the train station to book tickets to our next destination (Dresden in Germany), and to check our luggage into lockers, and then we made our way back into town. Initially getting lost when we left the station in the wrong direction, we finally found the river to guide us back, and walked its length towards the metronome on the hill (although it wasn’t a very pleasant walk down the very dirty river). We passed through a beergarden and ended up at the huge, ticking, swaying contraption, which looked interesting from afar, but the area was so badly covered in graffiti, a wire strung with shoes swung above us, and sitting in the sparsely dry area, the metronome didn’t quite have the same effect from up close, where the loudly creaking mechanical noises filled the air.

From there we were due to meet Djali and take out a paddleboat on the river. We got some picnic supplies together and walked down to the river in the sun. Splaying ourselves out on the grass on one of the islands, we unpacked our goodies and picnicked until Djali arrived. We then jumped into a boat to take a spin around the bridges. It was such a warm and clear day, the sun danced across the water (as Frank Gehry’s ‘Dancing House’ appeared to mimic in the background. Birds ducked and dived around the boat, skidding into the water, and we spent an hour swapping over paddlers and passengers (and one stop up to a river-side dock to buy a beer for Djali and Andy to enjoy while it was our turn to paddle), before we had to leave for the station to catch our train.

Djali joined us for the ride to the station, and when we discovered the train was running late, we waited at the only dingy bar in the station, and got a bit ripped off by the owner for some Sprite since we couldn’t speak Czech… But hey, it was our last day in Czech and we had to use up the coins anyway… We made our departure, and were off to Germany again.

A short two-hour train ride to Dresden, and the boys took advantage of the first-class travel and ordered beers to their seats (not that it’s like first-class flights where you don’t have to pay). We arrived at a gleaming new train station, and an outlook onto a new city filled with glass structures. Dresden was almost completely destroyed during the war, and so much work has gone into building it back up. Even the trams were amazing, and the best we’d seen on the whole trip. We were staying with Christine from couchsurfing, who we’d met through our hosts Urs and Rahel in Zurich and had offered us a place to stay. She was in-between flatmates and had the place to herself, but was leaving to stay with her parents the following day to study for her exams, and offered us to stay on without her, which was incredibly generous.

We all jumped in the car to find some dinner, and Christine drove us to one of Dresden’s many castles. Deciding to ignore the cordoning-off tape, we ducked under and around the side of the building in the pitch-black night to the stunning balcony overlooking the river and fountains. After a quick view, we drove to Neustadt, the good place for bars and shopping, which almost had a Wellington vibe to it, and sat down at a beergarden for dinner and a drink (okay, maybe not quite Wellington…). A friend of Christine’s from Architecture school joined us, and we stayed eating wurst, potatoes, salad, and chatting over a drink before we called it a night as Christine had an exam early the next morning.

The morning alarm was firstly ignored, and then cancelled, so we slept past sunrise in silent agreement that we would postpone our early morning bridge expedition until the next day. This turned out to be a good idea, as we were about to try and cram all of the high (meaning tall and towering) points of Prague into one day. The thought was already a bit tiring even after sleeping in. We began to head towards the centre point, and main tourist draw-card, the castle, knowing we would be battling the crowds by the tourist-train load. The climb to the top provided great views over Prague, and luckily the sun had come out to greet us.
We entered through the gates past the ‘Thunderbirds’ guards, who we swore were plastic people until we got closer. Odd. Highlights were the Basilica of St. George, Prague’s first Romanesque Church, which was a very different style to any we’d seen, minimalistic in a way. The Old Royal Palace had an expansive hall filled with variations of castle models, and led us through to the area where a religious argument resulted in people being thrown from a window (I don’t know the complete historical story…) and thrones and paintings filled the rooms.

The incredible St Vitus Cathedral was busier than Notre Dame, and you had to walk at a slow crawl to move through the space. Intricate sculptures filled the huge area, and light streamed through windows, hitting dust particles in the air. Besides the onslaught of tourists, it was quite a spectacular space. Golden Lane led us back out to the gates, and is a street of tiny houses built into the castle walls where people apparently still live, but is not much more than a line of tourist shops. After a brief visit to the towers filled with old torture devices, we decided it was time to leave for lunch.

After a nice healthy lunch we walked down the other side of the river, past the canals in a very beautiful area. We ended up at the John Lennon wall; a wall dedicated to peace and love, with a sculpture of John’s face, and wrote our names in the paint. After a coffee we climbed up the St. Nicholas Church tower, although we had to wait for a mother holding her kid over a drain to pee right in the entrance… It was a great view once we reached the top. Hundreds of spires throughout the city from the number of churches everywhere. We then visited the church itself, a baroque painted space, where you could visit the second level to an exhibition of painted scenes from the bible.

We left and conquered the hill that leads up to a huge tower you can climb, based on the Eiffel Tower, and given the hill that its standing on, its apparently as high as the Eiffel Tower itself from its peak. Hot and bothered, we snacked on icecreams on the way up, and then climbed to the top of the tower. Fantastic views, but it was so crowded at the top we couldn’t last long crammed into the enclosure. We were meeting Djali for dinner, and had an hour to spare, so quickly ran back to the hostel to change, and then met her back near the tower to try out a restaurant halfway up the hill. As we approached, the sound of a wedding band playing some atrocious music filled our ears, and we discovered the restaurant was booked out for the event. Back down the hill, we went to another of Djali’s recommendations, which was a Czech restaurant with delicious food and beer. All lovely slow-cooked meals…

Full and content, we made our way across one of the bridges, past beautifully lit buildings, and lights streaming across the river. Thousands of birds flew up over the museum lit from below, a breathtaking sight, and one we tried to capture on film unsuccessfully. We stood for a few minutes clapping and whistling, trying to recreate the moment, but gave up and headed for a few cocktails before leaving, as this time we WERE going to get up at 5.30am for Charles Bridge.

Feeling as if we were now nearing the end of our trip to some degree, and a bit exhausted because of it, we all had a bit of a sleep in before heading into the main city. Eva couldn’t host us the second night as originally planned, as she had to go away for work, but had organised us another couchsurfing host for that night. We were going to have a relatively short day in the city before going to our new host Djali’s place for dinner.

We caught a tram towards Vysehrad, an ancient hilltop fortress that also serves as an escape from the crowds of central Prague. After walking in the wrong direction for awhile, and ending up at a whole different metro stop, we caught the metro back to where we started, and decided it wasn’t worth trying to find the castle again without a little coffee cure. We then climbed the hill to the fortress, which unlike Prague’s main castle (and main tourist attraction) is free to see. The southern side gave us great views of Prague, beyond the city centre and out to the blocks of communist apartments. It was a quiet and peaceful area, and a nice start to what we knew would be a very tourist-filled visit. An immaculate garden of sculptures was a cemetery, and home to famous Czechs. It lay beside yet another glorious church. After seeing so many, my memory is failing me in distinguishing one from another at times…

We strolled back down from the castle to walk along the riverside into Prague, passing by Frank Gehry’s ‘Fred and Ginger’ (now called ‘Dancing House’, which we took some great photos of later…), and onto one of the islands in the river with a great view of the crossing bridges. We thought we’d check out the paddleboat hire place on the Sunday. Eva had suggested a place she loved called Le Louvre for lunch, which was not far from the island. It turned out to be quite a fine dining place, but relatively inexpensive in Euros. The boys chose well and loved their chicken dishes, and while my vegetarian meal was sadly very bland, the place was great.

It was then time to be on our way to Djali’s, via a supermarket for some dinner goods, and to pick out a few bottles of Czech wine (a random choice, which ended up being pretty good). We bypassed Eva’s place to collect our gear, with flowers in hand, and waited in her neighbourhood until she could meet us. The boys decided to grab a quick beer at the local pub, which was a dark and dingy place, and Eva later told us it is open 24/7 and she usually steers clear of it. Cheap as chips, the tiny place was filled with workers and smoke and we took a seat outside in the sun. Eva joined us for a beer before leaving to catch her flight for work, and then we jumped on the bus to find our way to Djali’s.

We arrived to her area, which was a ‘tech-city’, and home to all of the offices of IBM etc. Greeted with a big smile, we shared some cheese and wine before dinner and enjoyed a delicious meal while we learnt of Djali’s travels. She studies in the UK, so is constantly travelling back and forth, and also lived in Amsterdam for a while as well. Almost ready for bed, but not quite, Djali told us about a beergarden in the forest by her place that we should visit. We grabbed some torches and trekked off into the night. A very strange place to have a beergarden, it seemed like we were walking for a long time, down a narrow path surrounded by forest, with only the light from our torches and not another soul in sight. We reached an enclosure with a family of deer, and then straight up ahead, the lights of the beergarden emerged. A few others were there, but the huge table-filled garden was basically empty. After one drink we headed back, the walk feeling a lot shorter on the way back, and off to bed.

After eggs for brekkie, we all got a little too comfy at Djali’s and we had a few things to sort out, so we didn’t end up leaving her place until lunchtime. Djali had invited us to stay for the weekend, but we had already booked a hostel that we couldn’t cancel, so agreed to meet up with her that night instead. We packed our gear up and headed for the hostel in the centre of the old town, dumped our gear, and then thought about lunch. A US cowboy (literally, he was a travelling rodeo cowboy) was staying at the hostel, and gave us some great advice on things to see and do, marking out a map for us.

We followed a recommendation for cheap authentic food, and retreated into a wee Czech place around the corner from our hostel, and ordered from the friendly waiter who suggested an apparent favourite of his for Josh’s meal. After forgetting our order and having to ask for them again, we ended up waiting for an hour, getting hungrier by the minute, and impatient, as we just wanted to get out and see the city. On the upside, we did miss most of the rainstorm tucked away inside. Our food finally arrived, and Josh’s was by far the most interesting you could say, and he was definitely the one who lost out on this occasion. His traditional Czech meal comprised of a dish of beef schnitzel cooked in a cranberry cream sauce, but garnished with a huge swirl of whipped cream. Of a canned variety. Hmmm…. My goulash with horseradish and salad was delish, and Andy’s smoked meats and dumplings was pretty good so he said…

We eventually got out of there and made a beeline for the old town. The place was jam-packed with people, and a lot of the tourist areas have become ridiculously commercialised. But behind all of that still lies a city filled with beautiful architecture and a lot of history. Passing by the powdertower by one of the architecturally stunning theatres, we ended up in the main square, which is dominated by the huge statue – Jan Hus monument, the Town Hall, Tyn Church (1365), and St Nicholas Church (1730s). A Salvidor Dali exhibition was on, but was mainly of his ceramic work and portraits of him, so we passed. A visit to Tyn Church was followed by a trip to the communist museum (recommended by the cowboy). Interestingly enough, it’s in the same building as McDonald’s and a casino… The place was an overload of information, and while incredibly interesting, I struggled to read the text and difficult translations, but realised just how much some of these countries have been through.

We were supposed to meet Djali and some of her couchsurfing friends for dinner, but it was quite far out from the centre and we were only halfway through the museum, so we decided to meet them for drinks instead. It meant grabbing some dinner from the dreaded tourist zone on the way to meet them, which tasted like dreaded tourist food too. Past the stunning museum, all lit up at night, through yet another underground tunnel worthy of breath-holding, before we emerged on the other side to climb the hill to meet the group at a beergarden. We arrived just before they did, and sat down for a drink before a swarm of people from every corner of the globe emerged. A few Prague locals, a few stopping by, and a few staying on a while. Everyone had stories to tell about places they’d been, including a guy from Australia who rattled on about his hatred for Amsterdam before discovering we were moving there. A wine expert from France who imported wine from all around the world, including New Zealand, and we suggested a few of our favourites that he should try. He said he would order some cases and host a New Zealand wine party if we go back to Prague.

Everyone was really lovely, but we decided to leave the group after drinks when they decided to go and hit some clubs, as we were planning to get up at 5am to visit Charles Bridge by the light of early morning and beat the unrelenting daytime crowds. Our walk home down the main street let us bear witness to some of the trashiest bars I’ve seen in a long time, including woman in leopard-print skin tight attire dancing to techno and flashing lights with ultra cool sunglasses on outside clubs trying to entice you in. Back to the hostel we thought…