I am now in a state of indecision, which city to live in? Budapest or Prague? I love them both equally! Budapest is all about the Danube, flowing so regally through the centre of the city. St. Gellert watches over the city from the hill on which he was martyred and people go about their daily business in beautiful buildings of baroque, gothic and all the other styles which I can never remember (architecture was never really my thing...). Prague has winding streets and a jolly atmosphere that infects you. I had a random person offer me some of his bread roll - however I don't think the Czechs are as weird as the Finns. Prague is full of music, it is everywhere you go, all types. I saw my first ever opera singing busker yesterday.
I hope you are all well, take care1
Love Sarah
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
It's 4.15am and I have just made the hideous mistake of waking up. This means I cannot get back to sleep, so the sensible thing to do appears to be getting up and doing something else.
I am currently in Budapest in Hungary. I think that without question this is the most beautiful city I have been to so far on my trip, Tallinn was quaint and beautiful in a crumbling kind of way, but Budapest has the lasting memory of the Hapsburgs in the form of spectacular architecture just about everywhere. Got to love those Austrians and their money.
So, in the last few weeks I started in Russia, then moved on to Finland (there was a blizzard in Helsinki while I was there but I think the locals would refer to it as a slight autumn storm - snow was hitting my face from all directions and it stung!), hopped a boat to Estonia and Tallinn, the medieval city, journeyed on to Riga in Latvia where I went on a bobsled, cool runnings style - 110km/hr and it was terrifying! I was glad that the driver was part of the Latvian Olympic team... After Riga I continued in the Baltics to Vilnius in Lithuania. And now I am in Hungary, tomorrow I go to Prague.
I have so many stories and experiences to relate that I don't quite know where to start. In Finland my tall, elegant Russian room-mate mimicked a kangaroo, and the beaches were covered in snow. Tallinn's old town can be walked around in a day, it is so small. The streets are all cobblestone and winding, you can get lost very easily if you aren't paying attention - unfortunately I wasn't so I saw a lot more cobblestone streets than previously planned. I went to the opera in Estonia, unfortunately it was entirely in Estonian and didn't have subtitles. I still enjoyed it though. Riga is a city of guilds, a trade city. It has the undelible mark of merchants from many countries over the centuries - there is even an English church built by the English merchants so they could feel at home. These cities are all so very old, and slowly extricating themselves from the dark mark of soviet rule. Over the centuries everyone has wanted to control this part of the world, and it is a great relief to me that they are finally ruling themselves.
Budapest and Hungary have interesting stories to tell, I just wish I knew more of them. Hungary has a few points to be told. Every revolution they have ever had has been crushed, and every war they have joined has been on the losing side. They currently have a difficult political situation with the government. I don't really know enough to take sides but I can feel the anger whenever locals talk about the current administration. Recently was the 50th anniversary of a peaceful demonstration against the Soviets in Budapest during which the soviets fired into the unarmed and mostly female crowd killing 150 people and leading to one of Hungary's failed revolutions. The people of Budapest (a measly 300,000 of them or so) who wished to congregate at the location of this significant part of recent Hungarian history were disappointed as the government decided not to let them into the square, and the police used tear gas and violence on the mostly peaceful crowd. It seems a bit odd that a peaceful rememberence of their history resulted in a near repetition of that day 50 years later. Apart from politics, I quite like the story of poor old St. Gellert who the pagan Hungarians got tired of listening to, so put him in a spiked barrell and rolled him down the hill into the Danube. Not a very pleasant way to go, but these days half the city is named after him so he didn't do too badly from it. I went to the Gellert Bath House yesterday and soaked in the warm and wonderful thermal waters. Budapest is famed for it's baths and thermal springs, and the water is considered to be medicinal. The doctors prescribe spending time in the thermal waters to patients which gives them free access. I really think we need to consider taking on this attitude towards healing in Australia, that and find some thermal springs to build bath houses around.
I trust you are all well, and I will see you again soon.
Take care,
Love Sarah
I am currently in Budapest in Hungary. I think that without question this is the most beautiful city I have been to so far on my trip, Tallinn was quaint and beautiful in a crumbling kind of way, but Budapest has the lasting memory of the Hapsburgs in the form of spectacular architecture just about everywhere. Got to love those Austrians and their money.
So, in the last few weeks I started in Russia, then moved on to Finland (there was a blizzard in Helsinki while I was there but I think the locals would refer to it as a slight autumn storm - snow was hitting my face from all directions and it stung!), hopped a boat to Estonia and Tallinn, the medieval city, journeyed on to Riga in Latvia where I went on a bobsled, cool runnings style - 110km/hr and it was terrifying! I was glad that the driver was part of the Latvian Olympic team... After Riga I continued in the Baltics to Vilnius in Lithuania. And now I am in Hungary, tomorrow I go to Prague.
I have so many stories and experiences to relate that I don't quite know where to start. In Finland my tall, elegant Russian room-mate mimicked a kangaroo, and the beaches were covered in snow. Tallinn's old town can be walked around in a day, it is so small. The streets are all cobblestone and winding, you can get lost very easily if you aren't paying attention - unfortunately I wasn't so I saw a lot more cobblestone streets than previously planned. I went to the opera in Estonia, unfortunately it was entirely in Estonian and didn't have subtitles. I still enjoyed it though. Riga is a city of guilds, a trade city. It has the undelible mark of merchants from many countries over the centuries - there is even an English church built by the English merchants so they could feel at home. These cities are all so very old, and slowly extricating themselves from the dark mark of soviet rule. Over the centuries everyone has wanted to control this part of the world, and it is a great relief to me that they are finally ruling themselves.
Budapest and Hungary have interesting stories to tell, I just wish I knew more of them. Hungary has a few points to be told. Every revolution they have ever had has been crushed, and every war they have joined has been on the losing side. They currently have a difficult political situation with the government. I don't really know enough to take sides but I can feel the anger whenever locals talk about the current administration. Recently was the 50th anniversary of a peaceful demonstration against the Soviets in Budapest during which the soviets fired into the unarmed and mostly female crowd killing 150 people and leading to one of Hungary's failed revolutions. The people of Budapest (a measly 300,000 of them or so) who wished to congregate at the location of this significant part of recent Hungarian history were disappointed as the government decided not to let them into the square, and the police used tear gas and violence on the mostly peaceful crowd. It seems a bit odd that a peaceful rememberence of their history resulted in a near repetition of that day 50 years later. Apart from politics, I quite like the story of poor old St. Gellert who the pagan Hungarians got tired of listening to, so put him in a spiked barrell and rolled him down the hill into the Danube. Not a very pleasant way to go, but these days half the city is named after him so he didn't do too badly from it. I went to the Gellert Bath House yesterday and soaked in the warm and wonderful thermal waters. Budapest is famed for it's baths and thermal springs, and the water is considered to be medicinal. The doctors prescribe spending time in the thermal waters to patients which gives them free access. I really think we need to consider taking on this attitude towards healing in Australia, that and find some thermal springs to build bath houses around.
I trust you are all well, and I will see you again soon.
Take care,
Love Sarah
Monday, November 06, 2006
Running Behind now....
Okay, so I haven't written anything in a while so I apologise... I am currently in Helsinki and outside this lovely bar (it is quite odd to be drinking whisky and listening to house music in a smokey atmosphere while on the computer...) it is ridiculously cold - it's about minus 5 degrees celcius to be precise. I am getting better at dressing for the cold so it doesn't cause me so much running around in circles and complaining about loss of feeling to my nose.
I'm going to go roughly backwards in time here and tell you what I've been up to...
Scotland:
I stayed with Anna Petrie in Edinburgh, now I'm not sure if Anna and I had ever met back in Australia but her father was kind enough to offer me her spare room (aren't dads great at that sort of thing?) and luckily we got along like a house on fire. Anna was brave enough to accompany me on a tour of the vaults in Edinburgh... I thought it was going to be a silly theatrical ghost tour like the one in York, but oh no, this was down right scary. Those rooms are teeming with something, now I'm not going to say for sure whether it's paranormal activity or highly effective lighting techniques and low pitched sounds, but I was terrified and could not get out of there fast enough. Edinburgh was lovely, it rained the whole time I was there so we had to spend lots of time inside drinking. Okay, not as much time as you may think, but it was much fun - and they had sleemans at Anna's local pub!
After Edinburgh I journeyed through Falkirk in order to demonstrate what a true nerd that I am so I could ride the Falkirk Wheel... this contraption is basically a big connector between two canals which are unfortunately at different heights. Go to www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk if you're fascinated with these sorts of things... Then I went on to stay with my parent's good friends Ed and Elizabeth Petrie (Anna's parents) for a night in the beautiful town of Blairgowrie. I quite like countryside Scotland, I could so move there and be happy.
My next stop in Scotland was with my father's cousin (and therefore my first cousin once removed), Russell and his wife Sandra. They live 23 miles outside of Aberdeen in a town called...ummm... Oyne I think. It's gorgeous! They both work at Aberdeen University so are clearly keen on commuting. Russell and Sandra were wonderful hosts and took me galavanting around the area to see the granite of Aberdeen and the neighbouring town of...ahh.. Kingsbury? my memory is starting to fade I'm afraid... On the Sunday Russell and I climbed Bennachie which is the presiding peak in the area with the remains of an ancient Pict fortification at the top. It was a spectacular day so we encountered many walkers and their dogs on the way down. The view was quite impressive and the wind reminded you to wear your coat... It was lovely to meet some more of my extended family, it's nice to know I have relatives out there considering I grew up with basically only my 6 person immediate family unit due to my relatives refusing to relocate from New Zealand to Australia ( I mean honestly, the audacity!).
After Scotland I journeyed to Ireland. It was hardly what you could call an extensive journey through Ireland. I stayed in Dublin for one night, hated Dublin (I recognise that many will disagree with my feelings about Dublin, but the city certainly pulled out all the stops to unimpress and disgust me so it'll be an uphill battle to convince me otherwise), but loved Kilkenny, where I stayed for two nights. I had a drink at the bar with an Irishman called Pat (a necessary experience in Ireland I feel), had a drink in a pub that has been around since the 14th century, and wandered around in a generally touristy manner. I went back to Dublin because I had to as Kate was flying in from London and we were going to Russia! yay!
Russia:
My first travelling dramas occured when we went to check in for our flights... we were meant to go from dublin to riga and from riga to moscow, however our flight from dublin to riga had been cancelled... so, after some great confusion and stress on the part of the lady at the check in counter, we were sent to vilnius in latvia, then to riga, then to moscow. it was a gruelling journey, but the worst was yet to come... It turns out that road rules are really only a formality in Moscow. I thought I'd seen bad driving before, I thought I'd experienced near death experiences on the back of my older brother's motorbike. Oh no, nothing I had ever done compared to being driven from the airport to the hotel in Moscow by a Muscovite in peak hour... The trip took an hour, and in that hour we drove on the wrong side of the road around blind corners at 70 km/hr, created new lanes when the traffic was backed up, dodged around numerous car accidents and generally almost died. It was a sign of my exhaustion that I actually dozed off for a while... When I woke up the driver pointed out our hotel to us and it was like a ray of light shone down and a chorus of angels started singing... the hotel was quite impressive from the outside. If she could, I reckon Kate would move into that hotel permanently... http://www.ukraina-hotel.ru/ the site can be in english if you know how...but I'm not going to tell you...
Kate and I slept from the moment our heads hit the pillow. We had a brief wander around 10pm to have some dinner and get our passports back (the hotel registers you with the local authority, a necessity in Russia it seems - I'm getting used to parting with my passport, they like to take it off you in Russia... don't worry, I have it back now), then slept through breakfast and didn't appear outside our room until 2pm on Saturday the 28th October...
Now I am tired of being on the computer so I will continue this exciting narrative later. I hope you are all well and not quite so cold as me... take care and all my love!
Sarah
I'm going to go roughly backwards in time here and tell you what I've been up to...
Scotland:
I stayed with Anna Petrie in Edinburgh, now I'm not sure if Anna and I had ever met back in Australia but her father was kind enough to offer me her spare room (aren't dads great at that sort of thing?) and luckily we got along like a house on fire. Anna was brave enough to accompany me on a tour of the vaults in Edinburgh... I thought it was going to be a silly theatrical ghost tour like the one in York, but oh no, this was down right scary. Those rooms are teeming with something, now I'm not going to say for sure whether it's paranormal activity or highly effective lighting techniques and low pitched sounds, but I was terrified and could not get out of there fast enough. Edinburgh was lovely, it rained the whole time I was there so we had to spend lots of time inside drinking. Okay, not as much time as you may think, but it was much fun - and they had sleemans at Anna's local pub!
After Edinburgh I journeyed through Falkirk in order to demonstrate what a true nerd that I am so I could ride the Falkirk Wheel... this contraption is basically a big connector between two canals which are unfortunately at different heights. Go to www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk if you're fascinated with these sorts of things... Then I went on to stay with my parent's good friends Ed and Elizabeth Petrie (Anna's parents) for a night in the beautiful town of Blairgowrie. I quite like countryside Scotland, I could so move there and be happy.
My next stop in Scotland was with my father's cousin (and therefore my first cousin once removed), Russell and his wife Sandra. They live 23 miles outside of Aberdeen in a town called...ummm... Oyne I think. It's gorgeous! They both work at Aberdeen University so are clearly keen on commuting. Russell and Sandra were wonderful hosts and took me galavanting around the area to see the granite of Aberdeen and the neighbouring town of...ahh.. Kingsbury? my memory is starting to fade I'm afraid... On the Sunday Russell and I climbed Bennachie which is the presiding peak in the area with the remains of an ancient Pict fortification at the top. It was a spectacular day so we encountered many walkers and their dogs on the way down. The view was quite impressive and the wind reminded you to wear your coat... It was lovely to meet some more of my extended family, it's nice to know I have relatives out there considering I grew up with basically only my 6 person immediate family unit due to my relatives refusing to relocate from New Zealand to Australia ( I mean honestly, the audacity!).
After Scotland I journeyed to Ireland. It was hardly what you could call an extensive journey through Ireland. I stayed in Dublin for one night, hated Dublin (I recognise that many will disagree with my feelings about Dublin, but the city certainly pulled out all the stops to unimpress and disgust me so it'll be an uphill battle to convince me otherwise), but loved Kilkenny, where I stayed for two nights. I had a drink at the bar with an Irishman called Pat (a necessary experience in Ireland I feel), had a drink in a pub that has been around since the 14th century, and wandered around in a generally touristy manner. I went back to Dublin because I had to as Kate was flying in from London and we were going to Russia! yay!
Russia:
My first travelling dramas occured when we went to check in for our flights... we were meant to go from dublin to riga and from riga to moscow, however our flight from dublin to riga had been cancelled... so, after some great confusion and stress on the part of the lady at the check in counter, we were sent to vilnius in latvia, then to riga, then to moscow. it was a gruelling journey, but the worst was yet to come... It turns out that road rules are really only a formality in Moscow. I thought I'd seen bad driving before, I thought I'd experienced near death experiences on the back of my older brother's motorbike. Oh no, nothing I had ever done compared to being driven from the airport to the hotel in Moscow by a Muscovite in peak hour... The trip took an hour, and in that hour we drove on the wrong side of the road around blind corners at 70 km/hr, created new lanes when the traffic was backed up, dodged around numerous car accidents and generally almost died. It was a sign of my exhaustion that I actually dozed off for a while... When I woke up the driver pointed out our hotel to us and it was like a ray of light shone down and a chorus of angels started singing... the hotel was quite impressive from the outside. If she could, I reckon Kate would move into that hotel permanently... http://www.ukraina-hotel.ru/ the site can be in english if you know how...but I'm not going to tell you...
Kate and I slept from the moment our heads hit the pillow. We had a brief wander around 10pm to have some dinner and get our passports back (the hotel registers you with the local authority, a necessity in Russia it seems - I'm getting used to parting with my passport, they like to take it off you in Russia... don't worry, I have it back now), then slept through breakfast and didn't appear outside our room until 2pm on Saturday the 28th October...
Now I am tired of being on the computer so I will continue this exciting narrative later. I hope you are all well and not quite so cold as me... take care and all my love!
Sarah
Saturday, November 04, 2006
London, York and Edinburgh Photos
Okay, so all of these pictures are thoroughly out of order time wise, apologies...
Me and my father's cousin Russell at the top of Bennachie in Scotland (we were most proud of the climb, and look what a beautiful day Scotland turned out for me)
Inside the cave underneath the entrance to Dunnotar Castle
Dunnotar Castle
Mons Meg, the cannon at Edinburgh Castle - it was rather large (although I've seen one bigger now that I'm in Russia - and a bigger gun is a more exciting gun...)
They had Sleemans at Anna's local in Edinburgh!
The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland...
Me and Kate at Wimbledon Common (we took Womble to the home of his ancestors)
I was quite proud of this photo, a Raven having a bath at the Tower of London
The York Minster at night
One of the many creepy streets at night in York...
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