Berlin to Prague Train

When I last left off my tale of travel, I was visiting Berlin in a whirlwind.  After our quick sojourn, Jacky and I hopped a Deutsch Bahn train to Prague.  As it was my first time taking the train and riding in a compartment, and feeling very Darjeeling Limited, Jacky snapped this photo of me.

Watching the world going by the window somewhere between Dresden and Prague I took this photo.  The scenery reminded me a lot of the scenery on the drive on Highway 1 that Peter and I take when going to Invermere or Calgary.  It was then I understood why so many Germans like to visit the Rockies.  It feels like home.

Vancouver: Then and Now

Last week I was waiting for Peter to pick me up from downtown, when this bus stop caught my eye.  I started what I thought was a car ad, but soon realised that it's part of a public art program celebrating Vancouver's 125th birthday.

The piece is a postcard from 1944 addressed to a recipient who lives at the corner of Drake and Hornby streets juxtaposed with a photo of the same street corner taken in 2011.  The piece reminds me a lot of Fred Herzog's work documenting Vancouver.  There was a Herzog exhibit a few years ago at the Vancouver Art Gallery and I always thought it would be cool to go back and photograph the same locations to see how the city has changed.

I'd love to know, have you seen any more of these then/now pieces around the city? 

FAQ: What was your favourite trip?

Since I've been back, I've gotten a lot of questions about my eight months abroad in Europe.  I thought I'd answer a few of them here.

While I enjoyed all my trips, I think Amsterdam stood out.  Here are some reasons why:

1.  I put a lot of planning into this trip.  Whereas I set off for Belgium, Rome, Berlin and Prague with more vague ideas of what I wanted to see, I really put a lot of planning into this trip.  Some resources I used to plan my trip included:


Europe on a Shoestring  -- Offers a good general overview of many European travel destinations while staying budget-conscious.

Amsterdam en quelques jours -- I bought a French pocket guide to Amsterdam because I wanted to ensure I knew what I was looking at so I would get the most out of my trip.  In English the en quelques jours series is called Encounters.  They're fantastic!, I bought them for Rome and Prague too.

Frommers.com -- Prior to leaving for France, I spent a lot of time in the travel section at the bookstore.  I was drawn to the Frommer's guides, but didn't want to weigh down my suitcase with travel guides.  I found the Frommer's website super helpful for itineraries and walking tours.

2. We stayed on a canal boat.  The canal system is such an inextricable part of Amsterdam, I'm glad we got to experience it by staying on a canal boat.

3.  I made food part of the experience.  While I ate a lot of pasta and gelato in Rome, food wasn't my biggest concern during most of my trips.  I was more about seeing what there was to see.  In Amsterdam, because of its Dutch East Indian Company history, I figured it had pretty good Indonesian food.  Just as my first time trying Indian food was in London five years ago, I figured Amsterdam would be a good place to try Indonesian.  Turns out, they are renown for rijsttafel, a Dutch take on Indonesian food.

Other memorable meals included:

•  The Dutch breakfast we had on the boat -- either savory cheese, cucumber and tomato sandwiches (the Dutch historically haven't been big on breakfast foods) or, at the other end of the spectrum, Hagelslag--chocolate sprinkles eaten on peanut buttered toast.

• Gouda fondue at Dwaze Zaken, a cool café on Prinsheindrikkade across from the central train station.  Although France is renown for its cheeses, the Netherlands is home to its fair number of varieties. 

4. Amsterdam is a pedestrian friendly city.  Despite having to keep an eye out for cyclists, I found that Amsterdam is one of Europe's great cities for pedestrians.  Without necessarily having "sights" to "see," I loved just wandering around Amsterdam's canal-bordering streets and discreetly gazing through the ground-level windows at awesomely arranged and furnished apartments.

5. Amsterdam is a city of great museums.  As I have said before, there is more to Amsterdam than marijuana.  Amsterdam truly has some great museums, chief among which are the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museums, but also the Rembrandthuis (which I did not have time to visit).

6. We didn't overbook our days. We planned one major thing to do for each day.  We started off by taking a walking tour of Amsterdam (check out Sandemans' Free Europe tours, they're awesome!), then went to the Van Gogh Musem and Rijksmuseum as our main event the next two days we were there.  This left lots of time for just walking around and enjoying the city (see #4).

These are just a few of the elements that went into a great trip.  I'm not a trip-planning professional, but I'd love to answer any questions you might have.  What's a great trip you took?  What factors made your trip so awesome?

Travel Map Cork Board

Ever since I got back from Europe I've been thinking about some way to display where I've travelled to other than the map-and-pin method.  How cool is this cork board variation?  Even cooler, it's a DIY project that you can check out here.  I'd love to attempt a map of Europe.


(photo by Halligan Norris Smith via Desgin*Sponge)

I Dream of Travel

...To Saint Basil's!

If you click on over to Google today, their banner is celebrating Saint Basil's Cathedral's 450th anniversary.  I would love to one day go to Russia and visit Moscow and Saint Petersburg.  I once read of a cruise you could take along the Volga river from one to the other.  I saw a lot of churches and cathedrals while in Europe, but wouldn't it be just so breathtaking to see Saint Basil's in person?  Also, isn't this pre-1917 postcard of Saint Basil's so cool?

Where are you dreaming of travelling to?

(image via retromoscow)

Getting Controlled

In France, contrôleurs are agents who check tickets to ensure riders of trains and public transit have paid their fare. To be checked is to be "contrôlé." Being anglophones, it amuses me endlessly that we English assistants we have come to talk about it as being or getting "controlled." What amuses me further is that thought or discussion of getting controlled makes the Joy Division song She's Lost Control pop into my head.

contrôler (cont-troll-ay): to check, to inspect

Back in October my room mate Andrenne and I were controlled for the first time and we didn't have appropriate fare.  It was kind of a scary experience and my heart was racing as the police officers escorted us off the tram to write us up.  Not knowing what to do and not wanting to be fined, we told them that we were new in town and then instinctually pretended not to speak French.  I had never talked myself out of a ticket before (never before having the chance or needing to) but fortunately this time it worked and the police officers let us off with a warning. 

I was relieved, but still shaken from this brush with authority and made sure to have the required fare from then on.


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(image via IMDb)

Montgolfières

Four years ago, while working a grueling summer job, I would daydream about taking a roadtrip down the Oregon coast to San Francisco and surf the travel Oregon website. At that time, the site featured photos of hot-air balloons.

I came across these photos of the Tigard Festival of Balloons by Whitney on Frolic! and they have me daydreaming again about roadtripping to Oregon.  Aren't they magnificent?  They would make beautiful prints.  Check out more hot-air balloon photos here.

(photos by Whitney via Frolic!)

Berlin in a Whirlwind

If you're still following my adventure, after having done a tour de France, my mum and I returned to London, where she flew home from.  I stuck around Londontown a few extra days to visit an old friend and hit some of the city's great museums.  From London, I hopped a plane to Berlin where I met up with my travel buddy, Jacky, whom you may remember from my trip to Amsterdam. 

Berlin was love at first glimpse of the TV tower.  The city has a really cool vibe I can't quite describe.  Our first day there we took a walking tour and saw the sights, including the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Wall, and the location of Hitler's bunker.

Berlin, and Germany for that matter, has such a rich history full of upheavals, of which there are lots of commemorations throughout the city.  There is the monument to the victims of war and tyranny, the Holocaust memorial, and a monument dedicated to the commemoration of the Nazi book burnings to name but a few.  Despite this, I didn't get the impression that Berlin is a city weighed down by its history.  It's possible to relax, have fun and enjoy the city that Berlin has become.  To me, there are multiple Berlins.  It just depends which one you want to see when you visit the city.

The Tally

I've been thinking a lot about the travels I've done. I feel like I've been a lot of places. As my friend Claire said to me, "Every time I talk to you it seems like you're just coming from or going on some trip." I took every opportunity I had to travel--I travelled to nearly everywhere that was on my mental list of places to go to. At the same time, I feel that there's so much left to see.  While I'm "travelled out," I still fantasize about future travels.  I was in a bookstore the other day and found myself drawn to the travel guide section.

So in my 8 months abroad:

• I took 20 trips, including day trips,
• During which I visited 25 cities
• In 8 countries.

Tour de France, Part 2

When I last left off, my mum and I had just visited marvellous Marseille, with its beautiful harbour and sunshine-filled skies.

The next day we boarded another train, this time to Paris. We got there around the early evening and stayed in the same hotel I had stayed at when I first arrived, a little hotel well situated in the 18e arrondissement, with easy walking access to all the sights. I was really excited to show my mum Paris, as it is such a stunning city—especially your first time visiting. That evening we went for a walk through Montmartre to Sacré Coeur, down the butte de Montmartre past the Opera house and through the jardin des Tuilleries.

The next morning we woke up early and were off on a day trip to Chenonceau castle.

This Loire Valley château is impressive and surprisingly tranquil (given the number of visitors) and has an interesting history. Built at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Henry II gave it to his “préférée”, or mistress, Diane de Poitiers. After his death, Henry’s wife, Catherine de Medici, evicted Diane and inhabited the château. During the First World War, Chenonceau served as a hospital. During the Second World War was situated exactly on the dividing line between the Occupied and Free zones. As such, it was used by the Resistance.

The next few days we had in Paris were spent visiting the sights, including the Sainte-Chapelle, which I’d never seen before. Then we boarded the Eurostar back to London.

Home!

After nearly nine months away (8 months and 15 days), I am finally back home in Vancouver!

I can't wait to finish telling you about my tour de France with my mum, my two weeks out and about Québec, and my trips to Berlin and Prague.


(Photo by NASA via Design*Sponge, illustrating a Vancouver City Guide I highly recommend.)

Still Life with Suitcases

When I visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, I was absolutely fascinated with the photographic quality of  the Dutch masters' still life paintings.  So, with my own recent experience juggling suitcases and fancying myself in the Darjeeling Limited, I find myself very attracted to these modern still life paintings of suitcases by Canadian artist Christopher Stott that I stumbled upon via Design*Sponge.

 

Tour de France, Part 1

After visiting London, my mom and I spent a week marathon travelling through France, visiting five cities in all. With all our luggage and train travel, I felt a bit like the Whitman brothers in The Darjeeling Limited. But it went surprisingly well.

We started in Saint Etienne, where I showed her the town I had called home for the last seven months.

The next day I took her to Lyon and showed her all the sights. Lyon being the gastronomic capital of France, we ate dinner in a bouchon lyonnais called Le Tire Bouchon.

bouchon (boo-sho(w)n): literally, a lid or plug; here meant as a traditional lyonnais restaurant

The Tire Bouchon has a great ambiance that is everything that people are trying to capture when they put up Toulouse-Lautrec’s Le Théâtre du Chat Noir print. My mom had the traditional lyonnais dish quenelles, a type of pastry or pasta served in a sauce, and I had a parmentier (shepherd’s pie).

Then the next day, Thursday, April 28, we left with our suitcases to head to Nîmes. A trivia fact for you: Nîmes is the home of denim or de Nîmes, which Levi Strauss exported to California to make jeans for the gold prospectors. Nîmes also has many Roman ruins including the best preserved Roman arena in the world.

(Clockwise from the left) A matador statue in front of the Nîmes arena;  view inside the Nîmes arena;  Jardin de la fontaine;  la Maison Carré; la Tour Magne.

While we did cover a lot of ground in train travel, our tour de France did not feel pressed for time once we got to each destination.  It actually had a relaxed and leisurely feel as we did not overbook each day. 

The following day we took a short train from Nîmes to Marseille.  Our hotel was located just one block from the Vieux Port.  As our room was not yet ready, we decided to have a coffee and admire the view of the Vieux Port.  Once allowed into our room, we happened to be able to catch a bit of the royal wedding we saw the preparations for a few days earlier.

Marseille had an amazing atmosphere, which reminded me a lot of Rome, especially in la vielle ville.  We walked along the Vieux Port, which is full of boats and protected by historic Saint-Nicolas and Saint-Jean forts on either side of the harbour’s mouth.  We also took a short passenger ferry ride to the Château d’If, made famous by Alexandre Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo.   Being an island prison-fort, the Château d’If reminded me a lot of Alcatraz, which I visited two  years ago during my trip to San Francisco.

(Clockwise from the top) Marseille’s Vieux Port;  view of Château d’If; view of lighthouse and Marseille from If island; view of Notre-Dame from Marseille’s Vieux Port; view of a street in la vielle ville.

Stay tuned for Part II.

Au Revoir!

Today was my last day in France. I spend yesterday in Toulouse and day-tripped to Carcassonne today.  Tomorrow I leave on my last trip before returning home to Vancouver.

With all the goodbyes I've said in the last few days, I've been thinking a lot about goodbye vs. au revoir. To me, goodbye can sound so final as it does not imply the possibility of seeing one another again. Conversely, au revoir literally means, "see you again" or "until we see each other again." Au revoir is more optimistic vis-à-vis the prospect of another meeting. In my case, I'm not leaving never to return again. Even after eight months, I still feel there's so much of this beautiful country to see. Au revoir leaves me the possibility of coming back, either on vacation or otherwise.

Au revoir la France!

Nine Months Ago

Nine months plus one day ago, I bought my one-way ticket to France. Now today is my last day in SaintÉ before I leave on my last trip before going home to Vancouver.

Yesterday, I took some time out of my week of packing and wrapping up loose ends to go to a beach on the Loire River with friends. It was the perfect way to spend my second to last day in my small French town.

London Calling

Just as I did exactly five years ago on April 22nd, I boarded a plane to London. This time, however, I was leaving from France, not Vancouver. Flying across the Channel, I was just as excited as five years ago because this time I was meeting my mom in London and it was her first time in Europe.

Walking down into the Tube on my way to the hotel after the better part of a year not taking public transit, I felt like I was facing David Shrigley's Underground knot. Fortunately I made it, and as an expert transit rider the knot quickly unravelled.

It was really good to be in London again, and it was such a great city to visit with my mom. Over the weekend we were there we had such lovely summer-like weather that we walked nearly everywhere we went and enjoyed London's many parks. We saw all the essential London sights, like Big Ben and the Tower of London. Passing by Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace we saw the camera crews setting up for the royal wedding.

Where the camera crews were across from Buckingham Palace
If you followed my London postcard challenge, you know that I was in London twice (because my mom flew in and out of London). My second trip to London consisted of seeing the friends I have in the city and visiting several of the great museums here, including the National Gallery and Tate Modern.

London is a great city. I find London to have a very similar feel to Vancouver, partially because of its Asian influences and similar weather. I felt at home away from home. I can't wait to go back, hopefully as part of a trip including Scotland and Ireland.

Music Map

I love maps and music. So how cool is this map of New York made out of Regina Spektor lyrics made by artist Francesca Pasini? Read more about its creation here.

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Where Am I? Berlin & Prague

You guessed it: I was in Berlin and Prague!

Berlin, formerly divided into East and West Berlin, could be said to have a split personality. Evidence of the divisions is still evident and some say there are still two Germanys.

Prague was once part of Czechoslovakia, which ceased to exist after the revolutions of 1989 when it underwent the “Velvet Divorce” in 1993. Prague’s Spring 1968 marked an uprising of the people against the government, which was violently put down.

For this contest I have a postcard for each city. Congratulations to Andrew and Mandy and Ali! Email me your address and I will send your postcard along.

The last postcard challenge of my European trip will be next week so stay tuned for your last chance to win snail mail from me before I go so stay tuned!

The World Going by my Window

This is the view from the window of the train between Chartres and Paris. The luxury of travelling by train is the scenery. Fittingly, the Beatle’s lyrics “Keeping an eye on the world go by my window” (I’m only Sleeping) always pops into my head when I’m gazing out the train window.

On a different note, I’ve noticed that these fields of yellow flowers are growing all over France and Europe. I saw fields of them again tonight en route from city 1 to city 2. I have no idea what they are, but they seem to be grown as a crop. Any guesses?

Where Am I? Postcard Challenge #11

Tomorrow I’m leaving on a trip in which I’ll visit two cities over six days. Here are the clues for this second to last postcard challenge:

1. The first city could be said to have a split personality, East and West.

2. Only fragments of the "dividing line" remain in this first city. Bonus: What is the dividing line?

3. "Eich ben ein..." Bonus: Complete the phrase and who spoke it?

4. The second city was formerly part of a country that ceased to exist in 1989.

5. Spring 1968 had particular importance in this second city. Bonus: Why?

6. Good King Wenceslas was a resident of this second city.

Think you know where I am going? Leave your answer in the comments below! To add a new twist to this challenge, I’ll add your name to the draw an extra time for each bonus you answer correctly (i.e. you have the opportunity to have your name in the draw 3 times). You have until May 14 at 5:00pm (CEST) to guess.

Good luck!