D16 Snowglobe

12/28 Snowy, I havent seen the sun for almost 1 week…
Prague, Dresden, Berlin

It takes about 6 hours of train from Prague to Berlin, so I felt like to find a place stop to rest. After search on the map, I got Dresden and Leipzig in my list. Germans don’t recommend Leipzig, they said the only thing I could see is the stupid bronze animal band, instead, they like Dresden. It is said Dresden is Florence in the east, the art capital of Germany. Sadly it was once destroyed by bomb in the second world war, but the government tried hard to reconstruct the attractions.

Hmmm, I don’t really know these buildings.

I arrived the city in the afternoon, have no ideas about what or where to go. After asking the infos from the information center, the lady told me that walk along the road, after 10 minutes of “pleasant walk” the old town will appear. I took a Deautsch map and then start my 10 mins walk.

Restaurants

I realize what do her mean by “pleasant walk”: there are main shopping streets consist of 5 to 6 malls on the road, even you don’t plan to buy anything, window shopping would be enough. Furthermore, after-Christmas sale had started, almost every shop showed the sign of 30%, 40% or 50% off, so that many residents came out for some fun.

Finally I arrived the old town area, and was amazed by the beautiful scene of the buildings. There was a trio played Vivaldi’s summer made the atmosphere elegant.

Statue

I walked to the river side and the weather the snow started to fall. The famous Dresden flow slowy under the famous bridge. All the buildings, statues and gardens were covered with heavily snow. It’s a beautiful town in snowglobe.

Christmas market with meats!!!!

Heading for Frauenkirche

The Frauenkirche was one of the most attrations in Dresden. Built in the 18th century, the church was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. It has been reconstructed as a landmark symbol of reconciliation between former warring enemies. The reconstruction of its exterior was completed in 2004, its interior in 2005.

Martin Luther statue in front of Frauenkirche

Frame of scene

Zwinger

It was cold outside, I walked until barely feel my toes then heading for Zwinger. Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister had the world famous painting, the Sistine Modanna.

Sistine Madonna

The two angels below Madonna were famous for the vivid expression. While listening to the the audio guide, I sunk into the ancient world. I like the gallery and the surrounding of the museum. Just like National Gallery in London. Still, I’d like to share some funny paintings here.

The enthroned Madonna with Saint Matthew by Annibale Carracci

Look at the angel in the bottom of the canvas, the angelic face but with muscle body like Pascal Frey, totally weird.

noli_me_tangere_hi

If you didn’t know the guy was Jesus, it would be the cover of one erotica…

trinkender_bacchusknabe

Don’t let your baby to drink wine, coz that would be wasted. They drink and pee at the same time.

Tintoretto_Jacopo-Women_Playing_Music

Ancient girl band usually don’t wear anything. What a good  old time!

peterpaulrubens_the_drunken_hercules

Next time you get hammered, please call your friend in advance. Or the next day you’ll find yourself sleep naked on the street.

Sleeping and Rest Venus

People got different views toward the same person, Venus for example, is she enjoy herself or waitinf for you?

Anyway, Dresden is a small city but worth to spend time in most of the museums. I wish that I had more time here to see the galleries and have some local food, but the train ticket had booked so I left the city in 7pm, heading for Berlin.

D15 Confession of Prague

12/27 Snowy
Prague

The third day in Prague, I have to confess that I didn’t go to any bars nor drink excessive beer here. I didn’t go up to the Astronomical clock to see the city or spend time in famous cafe pretending that I were Kafka. I spend time in shops after shops and waiting my friend to shop. Christmas after sale seduced us. Sorry, the lorad of Prague, we were wrong, but we were happy.

Shopping in Prague is not an easy thing to do, the main reason is that you have to divide Czech Kc to Euros and then compare the price difference between them. It’s not a good place for poor-math kids to shop, like me, always divided 50 instead of 25 so that I thought everything’s so cheap, then spend all the penny in my pocket.

Traditional rolling bread

Like Indian, use your hand to eat!

To be honest, foods in Prague are much cheaper than Western european countries, for instance, I bought a beef burger from street vendor cost me 25Kc, approximately 1E for a burger; If I were in France, this price may caust chaos. But sadly the same price level is not applicable to tourist restaurants, like diners near the old town square or nearby area.

50Kc, approx. 2E

Accroding to Tomas, we gotta try baked duck with dumplings, so that after a quick search on the Internet, we decided to a underground basement restaurant for the famous Bohemia dish.

Entrance of the restaurant

The restaurant is decorated with dead animals and their skins. The animals were so close to us, as if they’re interested in our food. They use old oil lights and played folk Czech music, made the hole room fulfilled with joy. The truth is that, the heater worked kick ass hard so that we were so happy.

Wide diner

We ordered 3 dishes: 1 Bohemia style duck, 1 garlic soup and 0,5 liter of beer. What’s wrong with you? Ming? 0.5 liter is enough for you? Like I confess in advance, I didn’t plan to get hammered or drunk in Prauge cause my travle mate’s a lady, so that I have to take care of her. Since she’s not that interested in alcohol drinks, we didnt spend much time for that. (Lesson learned: Prague is a place for beer-buddy for sure ;P)

Garlic soup

They served the soup first. The soup was served hot and a slice of oil floating on the surface, beside the soup with a slice of fried bread and a garlic. Nobody told us how to deal with the garlic, should we eat that or not? how to eat? put it in the soup our bite directly? We created our own way to have the soup: sink the bread in the soup, have the bread and bite garlic. Anyway, we finished the soup, and I like its flavor, a little bit salty but enjoyable, the garlic flavor was strong, made our body warm. They put a special herb in the soup, so that even the soup was oily but the flavor was freshing.

Combination of light and dark beer

Bohemia buck

Bohemia duck? A duck wear ethnic skirt? Open-minded to everything? I’ve just watched “Rent” the musical on television, so that I was quite interested in understanding what is Bohemia spirit? Anyhow, the duck was grilled or baked with herbs, made the meat taste with fragrance. The long time of grilling made the bones crispy but the juicy meat remained. 3 kinds of dumplings were served together with the dish, so that we could have the dumplings with meat juice.

Cheers!

These dishes were delicious and the surrounding of the restaurant was awesome. But the meal cost us 14E each, which is a little bit excessive to our budget. So that for dinner, we went back to hotel had instant noodles.

I went to Mucha’s gallery after the meal.

City hall in the afternoon

Mucha was a famous painter of Prague, he works are mainly women with surreal long hair and suduced motion. But that’s amazing that almost all the female charaters in his paintings looked like muse or goddess. They are elegant, graceful but so real. The gallery provide some postcards and stamp collection of his work, and some posters. Mucha is not an aloof painter but publish or commercialize his work to make a living, so that we could see most of his works were mass producted to many kinds of publishers. This is the enchantment of mass production—everyone can enjoy the beauty.

Astronomical clock in the afternoon

I saw many things in Prague, and I felt the city got its own charm to attract millions of tourists every year. Though the city center is full of expensive shops and restaurants for tourists, the vendors did not kill the beautiness of the city. But the next time, I’d prefer visit the city with a local friend, and avoid all the commercial activities, explore some small path or streets in the ancient block. Tereza or Tomas, do you hear my call?

BTW, I didn’t get wifi in the hotel, so that could not post my blog on time…:(
Tomorrow I will visit Dresden and stay in Berlin, hope I got the wifi there!!

D13&14 Walking in a fridge, Prazsky Hrad

12/27 Sunny, snowy freezing cold
Prague

Pony and I spent our first evening in Prague in Christmas market near Astronomical clock and the old town hall. Different from the other markets, the vendors in Prague sell key chains, T-shirts or fake crystal crafts to tourists, but the price level were much much more friendly than the other western countries. We had some local dishes together, like fried potato with ham, wurst and Christmas cake, which were extremely delicious! The mixture of ham, potato and pickles were a blend of blessing. But while we took off our gloves to eat, we felt our fingers became stiff and unconscious. Pony said that it’s just like walking in a fridge, even the mineral we took became iced water. Lesson leaned: Don’t under estimate the cold weather, it was not even snowing!

Forget the name of the food

Awesome dishes!

We stayed in a 4 starred hotel as well, the heater and shower were awesome, and the decoration of the room is modern and edgy. Glad we choose this hotel instead of hostel, I remembered the last time we stayed in one hostel of Florence, the heater was broken so that we gotta hide in our blanket all night!

Random street of Prague

The snow waked us up at 11am, and after a brief meal we headed for the castle, a must-see in Prague. I like the atmosphere in this city, while we took the tram way and rush through the streets, I felt that this city has a lot of stories, and so adorable, couldn’t wait to hear what she’s going to tell us.

Introducing the castle and St Charles bridge

Our destination today

Whie we transfered the tramway, we found that there were many people stared at the river and seemed like waiting for something to happened. And the small island in the middle of river were full of people.

People crowded on the island.

There were more and more people waiting for things that are going to happen, and we heard the broadcast of speeches delivered from the island. Out of curiousity, we stayed on the bridge for a while and asked a pass-by of what’s going on.

People are going to swim in the river!

The temperature were estimated minus 4 degree, and it kept snowing and snowing. We’d doubt that people were crazy to swim in the freezing water! Those Czechs are crazy! I took a video of them in the water, I will upload later.

Swimming!

The Prague castle, or Prazsky Hrad is located at the north-west hill of Prague city. It is the number one attraction of Prague. The highlight of the castle is St Vitus cathedral, a prestigious spot.

  Do as a tourist do!

We bought a short tour ticket (125Kc, 5E) to visti 4 attractions in the castle area, which were the Old Royal Palace, Basilica of St George, St Vitus Cathedral and Golden lane. I do not recommend the audio guide which cost me 300Kc, 12E with British accented guide and a huge stick of device, not letting you to plug our own earphone but holding the big stuff all time. The explanation was vague and basically long and complicated historical stories, it might help with your history report but no fun while sightseeing.

Amazing facade

Incredible hall way

I like this Mosaic window the most, designed by Mucha?

Silver tomb of St. Pieter?

Well decorated mosaic window

For the rest of the attractions, which were merely normal but with rich historical meaning. The Vitus cathedral outshine the other spots. Except for one thing…

The golden dick

There is a statue of teenage boy in the front of the Toy museum in the castle, and the penis of the staute is outshine the rest part. Because people couldn’t stop to touch the little thing for luck? Who knows?

Looked down from the hill

Cosplay

Our one and the only spot of the day was finished at 5pm, we spent 3 hours sunk in the ancient history of Prague, and I was a little bit tired of listening to British accented historian and practicing my English listening skill.

We decided to do some shopping!

Pony need pairs of new socks since the old ones worn out for some days, and I need a underwear for keeping my legs warm. It’s cold and unendurable to walk outside with just jeans.

Snow snow on the glove

I don’t know if it’s good or bad, most of the stores were closed until tomorrow, so that we had no choice but window shopping for a while. Thanks to the cold weather, we were even lazy to find a proper local restaurant but visited Tesco and bought instant noodles. Staying in warm room was the only wish.

Sorry Tomas, I don’t want to let you down. We will try local restaurant tomorrow, if it’s not that freezing!

5 steps of drinking beer

I bought this ruler from a souvenior shop, it teaches you how to drink beer in Prague. I remembered Lukas and Karol taught me these steps in the Irish bar. I found that in every place I would recall some good old memories in Lyon. Maybe the meaning of travelling might be telling you that cherishing your life and friends surround by you, enjoy the moment and the memory will never gone.

Straying in Europe, it was the 14th day of the journey.

D11&12 Christmas Waltz

12/23,24 and the half day of 25; sunny, rainy and then snowy
Vienna

This city was once called the golden apple, and famous for countless musician and their great effort. Vienna is a city with many historical sites, cafes and smiling people. A friend of mine recommend the Christmas market in the front of city hall, was one of the most beautiful markets in Europe, so that we decided to spend the only Christmas time here.

Our hotel was worth to mention, we spent 26E per night so stay in a chic hotel in the southern part of the city, our room was clean, bright and warm. I guess that’s the reason why we had a good first impression in Vienna.

Hofburg

I spent a lot of time in visiting museums in Vienna, mostly the imperial museums and one other modern art museum. Hofburg was the winter and the official palace of the Austro-Hugarian empire family.

The great gate

The contruction of the palace always “wows” me, I’ve seen many palace and catherdrals but the baroco style building and the gorgeous decoration of everything were impressive.

Golden plats and candle

The hofburg consists of 3 major museums, the museum of silver dishes and folks (of course I named this), Sisi museum and the museum of the palace. Most of the museums were not allowed to take photos so that sadly I cannot share the amazing decoration to you.

  Winter palace

Speaking of Sisi, the former imperial Elizabeth. I didn’t know this famous imperial after I came here, the famous movie may be too many years ago. But there were many little girls like this independent, femalism lady. I wrote in my note while I visited the Sisi museum:

Sisi was a selfish, couldn’t handle with pressure and a patient suffered from depression. She’s a stubborn psychic.

Pony and I didn’t appreciate what she’ve done, and we thought her assissination was inevitable. Personally I like her husband, the emperor Franz Joseph, he’s hard-working man and cared about his family. No wonder people in Vienna still like this emperor.

Empire state of mind.

We also visited Schloss Schonbrunn, the summer palace of the royal family. That was also astonishingly breath-taking.

Schloss Schonbrunn

Christmas market in the front of the palace

Following the detailed guide, we visited most of the important rooms of the palace. I found that the decoration of each rooms were distinguishable and the royal family involed in the decoration of the rooms to show their personal taste. There are many rooms with Chinese style, it’s funny to discover how people see Asia in 17 and 18th century. Not too many differences than today, small eyes, many people living together and people could do Kung-Fu.

The garden

I’ve heard little stories about the emperor, for example, he’s good at remembering names and people, even if he met the person for a few seconds. I want that ability in recognize people I met, since I am a winner in forgeting names.

Kunst Haus Wien

The modern museum that I visited was the Kunst Haus Wien, a house built in the theme of combination of nature and human being, and display important works of Hundertwasser. He’s the artist portrayed the dream world that vividly and conveyed his idea toward life to the world.

The main idea of Mr. Hundertwasser was the life in harmony with nature, and he conveyed this idea through his paintings. An important element in his works is spiral, in his explanation, spiral means the beginning and the end of lives. Like the idea of reincarnation in some Asian religions.

Cafe

I got chilled when I seen one of his work in the musuem, called DIE HAUSER HAN GEN UTER PEN WIESEN. The artist had a naive child in his mind.

If we don’t honor out past, we lose future; If we destroy our roots,we cannot grow.

Picture with river Donau

Christmas market

The main Christmas market was in the front of the Rathaus, not the house for rats but the town hall. There was a big big Christmas tree and about 200 vendors in the agora.

People everywhere

We met our classmate JJ and spent time hanging around the market together. I tried the langos, the fried bread even bigger than my face. It was tasty in the first ten bite, but after it became cold, hmm, not that good.

Gathering

And for the Christmas eve, we luckily found a restaurant served Christmas buffet and cost only 15E per person. Me, pony and JJ and his friends from all over the world had a great feast together.

Christmas dinner

It was a little bit sad that we could not be with our family while Christmas, but spend time with new friends and exchange gifts was funny (damn, I wanted that erotic calendar! but got a spongebob lip balm) Christmas is a day for gathering, for family, for friends or for someone you loved or love you.

To be honest, I thought I’ll be okay since we don’t usually celebrate Christmas in Asia, but I was influenced by people surround me and they made me miss my family and friends, especially my kitchen mates. I played million of Christmas songs in the Christma eve, trying to distract myself :P

The next morning, Christmas Day, we visited the famous St Stephan cathedral and there were many people sang Carols of Christmas. It was a perpect moment to say goodbye to Vienna. We went to Prague for the rest of the day.

Like my status in Facebook,

Keep the Christmas joyness to Prague! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!