Day 7 - Night Train to Paradise?

Mission: Accomplished
We have ridden a night train in Europe. Was it everything we ever dreamed it would be?

Mia, Terra, and Myra shared a sleeper cabin—a private room with our own bathroom—luxuries of luxuries. That should have skewed our opinion in a positive order.

Sadly, a train of unfortunate events plagued the experience. Due to "technical difficulties" the train was delayed first 15 minutes, then 45, then 5, then 10... for a total of about an hour and a quarter. Instead of 9:30, we were in our cabins after 10:30 and very tired and cold from standing around the platform for so long. Chen and Maria shared a room with 4 others, the rest of us had the upgraded room.
But the private bathroom was not in order. We waited up about an hour until finally we were told it just wasn't going to work. Not only did it not work, it had backed up, so even opening the door made the whole room smell horribly. Which as you may imagine ruined the experience.

Then the conductor made up for the lost time by going super fast the first few hours (at least) which was not the most comfortable sleeping environment. The beds were hard anyway, and the pillows, as Mia described it, "little torture devices".

We were served breakfast in the morning. Enough to get us started before we arrived.

Lounge access + private cabin + private bathroom + breakfast + juice and wine and goodie bags - private bathroom - comfort - pleasant smells - enough sleep = an overall miserable experience. Mia says "I'm not giving up on sleeper trains." Myra says "Never again will I subject myself to such torture."

On to better things... we should mention we are now in Venice, Italy. Buon Giorno!

Our train pulled in around 8:30am (on schedule), and (after checking our luggage) from the train station we trekked through the maze that is the island of Venezia. Unable to pick up the key to our apartment until 2, we had 5 hours to wander aimlessly. And wander aimlessly we did, through streets and alleys and plaza after plaza, over canal after canal, marveling at the impressive sights and the worn-out condition of the city. A little wayward cafe served us cappuccino and croissants and hot chocolate, to our delight. They were the best chocolate croissants ever, and the snack kept us going through the day.

Following the wandering, we picked up our luggage, already worn out from lack of sleep and much walking, then lugged the bags across the city... over just about every canal bridge and probably hundreds of stairs. It took an hour. This is not recommended.

Our apartment is cute but old-fashioned, with no dishwasher, an ancient washing machine, lots of windows, and mirrors on the shutters to provide a view of the canals.
Once we cleverly figured out how to start the washing machine and keep the gas stove lit it turned into a comfortable place to stay!

Adventures to find a supermarket were followed by some naps and general laziness until Myra decided to kick people into gear with a snack of coffee and apples, then for dinner we made steak and red sauce with beautiful coral pasta. With this we served, in shot glasses, one of the mini bottles of sparkling white wine given to us by the train.

Dessert was tea and strawberries with melted chocolate.

We live the luxury.

Day 6 - Moseying About Vienna

Our leisurely morning ended with frantic packing as we approached our checkout time. We Seem to be having trouble judging time on this trip. Oh well.

Leaving the flat, we went to the main train station, and dropped off our luggage in a luggage locker :)
Then We Set Out to explore. We investigated a magnificent cathedral, Stephensdom, did a little shopping, found a park with food stands for lunch (hot dogs the way they were meant to be), saw a nesting swan on the canal, then made our way to the Kapuziner Crypts where most of the Austrian royal family is entombed.

The sarcophagi were amazing. There was supposed to be a guided tour available in English, but it turns out to only run Wed-Sat-a fact not stated online. So Mia read the details off of Wikipedia for the group, who mostly ignored her to take pictures and look at the carvings. But she learned stuff, so it was ok (like how the crypts were originally built in the 1600s, but were enlarged like 4 times. Also how the sarcophagi were made of a bronze-like alloy until they started making them of actual bronze, then to emperor they decreed That Should they spend so much money and they moved to a cheaper metal: copper).

Following our underground adventures, we explored the roads from a horse-drawn carriage. It took us around to some of the sites we had wanted to see, like the palace, but were not sure if we would have time or energy to get to, and since That was the case, not having to walk was nice. Then we rode an iron carriage (the subway) to the end of the line and found a nice Turkish restaurant for dinner. Stuffed eggplant, feta-veggie salad, honey plus milk ... Which We complementary bread dipped in oil and vinegar, and a shot of Turkish black tea at the end. It was probably the best meal we had in Vienna.

Next was back to the station, where Mia, Myra, and Earth got into the lounge OBB Because They paid bucketloads of money to get sleeper tickets and were thus blessed with the honor of an amazing coffee machine and snacks.

Their night train adventures had only Begun ....

Day 5 - Happy 30th Birthday Terra!!

Happy 30th birthday to Terra !!

Breakfast was roasted zucchini and tomatoes, bacon wrapped sausage, and scrambled eggs with goats. Mia is having fun every morning.

We have a lot of time to get to the palace. Sadly, the world is out to thwart us. The metro station we need is closed, since they are doing on the section of the line near us. So after running around, and finally figuring this out, we ended up taking two taxis and arriving early and some poorer. 

The palace was an amazing example of the lavish lifestyle of royal families. There was a wide variety of room styles and most of them amazingly lovely.

But the palace is so popular with tourists, they sell the tickets for specific timeslots. This means that a) it is always really crowded and b) the audio tour is designed to move you along as quickly as possible. It is really a brilliant piece of crowd control. They offer you free audio tours. So once you finish listening, you feel like you should move right along.

After about 45 minutes touring all 40 rooms, and then it's squeezed through the tiny gift shop in order to make it to the exit, we set out to explore the grounds, which in their own way were even more impressive than the palace.

The labyrinth and maze area were probably the most fun. First we had a lot of time in the maze before finding the center, then we played the games in the labyrinth and children's labyrinth (or maze, we can only guess what what).

We stopped at a cafe near the palace for a late lunch, which was tasty, but it was very crowded and we ended up in a table in the shade outside, so it was very cold. Service was pretty terrible too.

After lunch we found the orangey, which was super disappointing because it was under renovation. But the marionette theater was pretty cool.

Finally after 5.5 hours, we were done and headed back into town. This is the first time I've been to the concert hall, so we could be sure of it. The food was better than the first night and there was much more of it. After that, we went to a cute little bakery to get cake to celebrate Terra's birthday.

Finally, we made it to the concert in the beautiful Musikverein hall. The music was good (Mozart's Symphonies Es-Dur, KV 543; g-Moll, KV 550; and C-Dur, KV 551, "Jupiter-Symphonie"), but for the first half everyone was very sleepy. We chatted during intermission, which helped us to wake up (except Chen, who did end up falling asleep).

You would think that when we finally made it back to our apartment, we would collapse into bed, but instead we stayed up and chatted, then sang Happy Birthday to Terra a half hour before her birthday ended :)

Day 4 - Austria shuts down on holidays

After a leisurely morning of frantic packing, we walked, frantically, to the train station. We were told our train was 7 minutes behind schedule. Funny how it left 2 minutes after its original departure time (which was about 1 min after we boarded). This shows a pattern of lateness that we have vowed to break.

The train ride was nice and relaxing and the train had a nice bathroom. We eat food from Prague.

When we arrived in Vienna, it was unanimously. After arriving at the apartment, our host passed a good half hour showing us. It was nice, especially since. We had to go to the train station in order to find a grocery store.

After fixing breakfast foods, we went to a cafe near our apartment. We tried Viennese schnitzel and Viennese coffee. It was good, but not as tasty as Czech food.

Then we returned to our apartment and Maria finished her homework while the rest of us watched Tomorrowland, which was universally disliked, especially by Chen because it did not make any sense.

Then we slept.

Day 3 - Turns out Czech food is yummy

Today Began with fresh pastries and coffee at the bakeshop. Then we trekked the many stairs to Prague Castle and Explored the outer grounds, Which Were impressive and free of cost. We left just as the hordes of tourists Which Began to arrive :)

Then we hastened to the town square to watch the Astronomical clock show and join our tour for Kutna Hora. The clock show is Fairly simple, but it has been running since the 15th century. It will be covered on May 1st for construction, so we snake pretty good timing.

We undertook the tour That Kutna Hora for the sole purpose of visiting the Sedlec Ossuary, also known as the Bone Chapel. The Chapel was very cool, but not that large, so we took our time and Were finished in about 15 minutes. So it was nice that the rest of the tour was enjoyable Also, notable St Barbara's Church (also Called Cathedral although it is not, Technically).

The story of how Barbara Became a saint was told to us like this-the shortened version Follows:
Barbara's father worshipped pagan gods and Kept his daughter locked away, only Allowing teachers of pagan religions to teach her. But once When her father was away, as he was Often, it happened That Taught games and tutor of Jesus, and soon she converted to Christianity. She Kept this from her father, until she was of marriageable age and her father had some building built for the games to entertain her suitors. Then her father Went away, and Barbara Requested from the builders That They add a 3rd window in her room, to Represent the holy trinity, although the original plans only for 2. Called When her father he Returned Asked why the 3rd window, and she HIM told the reason. Whereby he tried to get her to renounce her faith and she Would not, so he took her to court and the judges Were Also unable to get her to renounce her faith, and she was tortured, etc., miracles Followed games, etc., until finally her father snake games Executed (or, he did it by his own hand). So she was a saint.
The church was built Because-the shortened version of the story Follows:
3 miners got trapped in the mine, and one They prayed Asked it see the sun again, one Asked for one more day to say his goodbyes, and The Last Asked for more and Year. They Were saved, the first Died after seeing the sun, the second after his day of saying goodbyes, and the 3rd lived and year-During his year he once snake, and dream of a lady WHO ice HIM That a tree, so he cut down the tree and the spot Marked Where games cathedral was to be built.
St Barbara is the patron saint of miners. (And other things.)

The tour was full of stories and tidbits like that.

After seeing what felt like the whole town, we ate at a Czech restaurant That served us up some fantastic duck and wild boar goulash. Then we Returned to the bus and drove back to Prague.

We did some quick shopping, hurried back to the apartment, hurried back out in search of transportation to the Folklore Garden, panicked a bit Because our internet device Died, leaving us without directions or a way to call Uber, but Then We Were Saved by a taxi van that was actually very reasonable priced and Delivered us to our destination with time to spare.

The folklore show consisted of music and dancing while we Consumed Large Amounts of food. It was fun. Afterwards we tried to figure out how to take the tram back and ended up riding with only one ticket and only making it halfway to our destination before jumping ship and walking back with an extra 88 crowns 4 and criminals. It was a good night.

Day 2 - Wandering far and wide

Jet lag recovery is well on it way, only with multiple Awakenings During the night. A fantastic breakfast of fried eggs on raisin challah slathered with Camembert cheese and layered with salami.

The day was cold and raining lightly, Which is Considered terrible morning by our tour guide for our walking tour. It Seems April is supposed to be beautiful and in the 60s. We Knew it was going to be bleak When we packed, but we still underdressed for the day and Spent most of it freezing.

The walking tour was Highly entertaining and educational. We saw many lovely buildings and will probably remember Even most of it for days. Thanks to Czech David.

After the walking tour ended, Myra, Terra, and Mia Went off to Their food walking tour, Which ended up filling and fantastic. We started with gingerbread, Then Moved on to open faced sandwiches and meats from the most famous butcher in Czech Republic, warmed up with a delicious sauerkraut soup in the bell tour in New Town, downed some black current wine and raspberry lemonade while we ate spring lamb and mashed potatoes, Then finished it off with svickova and ended with apple strudel.

We dropped by the Charles Bridge on the way back to the apartment, Where We collapsed until it was time to ATTEND the black light theater performance. It was entertains, but very low budget and most people were unimpressed with it.

On our way home we helped give directions to a group of lost tourists. The immediately ignored my first instruction and took the first Rather Than second right. We Wish Them Luck.

Day 1 - Many airports, many chairs

This journey of a lifetime has Begun. Our expedition into Europe. It starts in Prague. We've already killed a man; we're running from the law.

That we now have your attention, we know That Went to the supermarket and brought` ingredients for dinner and breakfast. It came to $ 4 a person, and we dined well on a stir fry and pasta.

At this moment, 7:18 pm, we are trying to stay awake until at the least 8 before letting sleep seduce us. Having Begun in SLC, flown to JFK, wandered the airport and found a lounge, flown to Rome, found more lounges, spoken our first Italian, flown to Prague, navigated the bus and subway, Walked the streets, found our apartment despite all obstacles ... It was a long day.

Prague is beautiful to walk through.

Myra out.

PS Google thinks it is being smart with showing the blogging site in Czech. We are not impressed.