Retour

We're back from Paris and I return to Sicily later this week. I know I still owe you a completed Prague story so I will get to that as soon as I have enough time. For now.... a couple o' photos of places everyone has seen in postcards.

A bientot

Don't let the greenery fool you. Spring has not quite sprung here in central Europe. She tried, but a couple of days ago ol' man winter decided to make a guest appearance. Hopefully he'll move east as we drive west to Paris tonight.

I'll be back next week with the continuation of my Prague tale as well as my histoires Francaises. Hopefully there will be no "histoire" about driving around Parisian freeways for two hours trying to locate our hotel. This time we are armed with a better city map and sense of where we are staying but ya never know.

Entry Into Praha

J was fortunate enough to get off early on Friday, so we were on the road by 13:00. Sweet, we'll be in Prague by dinner time, I thought. I had downloaded and printed very detailed directions to our hotel and the estimated time was 5:30 hours. Add in a couple of WC stops and I figured about 6 hours total. We ran into some construction zones across Germany but by the time we crossed the border (see in the photo, B's first venture into Eastern Europe!) we were well on our way to a 19:00 arrival. So far our directions had been spot on.

As an aside, we were very disappointed when the border guard barely glanced at our passports through the window. We didn't even have to open them. She didn't even touch them. So no stamps. Sigh. I like stamps.

Anyway, it was dark as we hit the outskirts of the city. We were teetering on the red line of the gas gauge but J assured me we would make it. Then we got caught in Friday night traffic on the freeway. For some strange reason the Czech people have decided to put traffic lights that cross the freeway. Considering most of the traffic is flowing with the freeway, these crossing lights meant a very slow crawl for us and all of the other people clammering to enter the city.

As we were inching our way toward popular exit 16 I realized that we were deep into the red line at this point and knowing a bit about city stop/start gas consumption vs. highway consumption, my heart started to pound. We need to get gas! Naturally J was unphased but in order to subdue me he agreed to stop at the next station.

Finally the traffic inched to a point where we could turn into a station. I went to the bathroom while J filled up. There were credit card stickers on the door so we figured we were fine. I personally like to deal in cash. So why didn't we have any Czech cash? Not realizing there was an exchange at the border we had missed our only opportunity before this point to get some. Military banks are not like full-service civilian banks. They don't have every currency in the world for their patrons to change.

And no bank machine at the gas station. Welcome to Eastern Europe. My heart sank as J motioned for me to come inside. Sure there were stickers on the counter indicating that they took Visa and Mastercard but someone had taken a red marker and x-ed them out. No cards allowed today! They taunted. (There's a lot of that on road signs in that part of the world.... they like their red Xes I guess.) We gave each other desperate and helpless looks. Luckily I had Euro on hand and they took it but in the end we were short 3 euro. The kind woman behind the counter let us walk and I have never felt more horrible. Next time I will move heaven and earth to have local currency before I try to make a purchase. Even if it means driving to every town off the highway to find a bank machine.

Okay, back on the road with a full tank of gas. It was at this point that our directions began to fail us. All of a sudden we were out of the city. We were waiting for an exit 8 but waited far too long. Eventually after many wrong exits we stopped at a gas station that took credit cards (we made sure this time) and bought a detailed map. Through J's innate sense of direction and genius we were able to get to the hotel but with no help from street signs because in Prague, there are none. At least none that make sense or correspond to the names on the map. I have a sinking feeling this has something to do with the case system their language uses, but I don't know enough about it. I also have a feeling that if you understand the naming system it's a very easy city to navigate because the actual drivers aren't bad. So far I haven't come across any drivers as bad as the Italians.

I don't know how, but we got there. 2 hours after hitting the city limits. Phew! We were tired. So much for going out. We had an overpriced dinner at the hotel and called it a night.

The next day was far better.......

Praha

No, I didn't leave the room looking like this. It was the end of the night and I was feeling silly. Notice the bling. That's why I posted this picture. Prague is full of gaudy-chic jewelry. It's awesome, so awesome a return trip just to shop wouldn't be out of the question.

European Vacation: Part Ein

I arrived in Frankfurt on Saturday after only minor delays in Catania and Rome, resulting in a 3:45 instead of 3:25 arrival. No biggie. The flights were uneventful and not very busy so on both of them I had several seats to myself. Nice, new Lufthansa seats. I'm telling you, star alliance is the way to go.

For some reason it was one of my happiest arrivals ever. I have to admit I got a bit vaklempt.... I think it's because I've always dreamed of seeing Europe and because Sicily is a bit armpit-like, arriving in Germany felt like I was arriving in Europe for the 'real' first time.

Because both Italy and Germany are part of the Schengen region, I didn't have any customs to go through so after I picked up my luggage I was able to quickly join J on the other side of the wall. 15 Euro for parking later (he got there super early to ensure he was able to find it....ouch!) we were on our way to the hotel.

For the price, our hotel was amazing. The bed and bedding (actual duvets!) were by far the most comfortable I've ever had in a hotel. And the staff members were very eager to help us plan our evening.

We took a cab to the train station but once there had to stand in front of the maps and ticket machine scratching our heads for a while. How to get to Frankfurt and buy the correct ticket really wasn't very clear. J has a much better sense for these things so he took a chance, entered what he thought to be our destination, and bought two tickets. Luckily there were English speakers on our train that confirmed that he had done the right thing. I guess he's good for something after all!

By far the most striking thing for me about the city was the plethora of walking paths and bridges. Even though I now drive, I think I will always be a walker and really appreciate when a city makes it easy. Even field in the country have paved paths going through them. German engineering I tell you.

After our schnitzel dinner in the square, we found a trendy little bar and had some exotic concoctions before heading back. In my infinite cheapness I decided that we should walk back from the train station to our hotel. A good idea during daylight hours maybe, but it turned out to be not such a good idea at night. There is a long stretch (ie. by the field in the picture) that is without streetlights. Combine no streetlights with a preponderance of BMW/Mercedes halogen headlight owners zooming towards you and you get total and utter blindness. Probably not what I would recommend as being the safest thing for tourists to do. Luckily there wasn't anyone around to take advantage of our tipsy blindness and we made it back safe and sound. But I don't care to repeat it.

And that was my first day in 'real' Europe. You all know how the second day went. Since then J and I have been staying in mostly though last night we went into K-town and had some delicious Thai food. We both ordered spicy and scoffed when the waiter suggested it might be too spicy for us. Ha! We eat jalapenos and tabasco with everything! we told him. Well, in the end he had the last laugh. Holy crap, it was so spicy I'm sure we both sweated out the calories we consumed. But I still recommend it.

Who would have thought we would be eating Thai food in Germany.

Because there is a really good run that we both like to do in the evening, I don't spend much time at the gym during the day. But I've discovered fantastic British reality TV shows on a Polish channel. Yeah you heard me.... a Polish channel with Polish commercials and playlist... (For example: Bridezillas is 'Panna mlody....')but no subtitles. It's something else.
I'll reveal more in a later post which I will dedicate to John because only he will truly appreciate how fortunate I am for having made this discovery. But now I have to go watch my favourite, "Tiny Tearaways." So bye.

11 of 11 (Because in Europe Daylight Savings Hasn't Started)

This month I have decided to do an 11 of 11 because today is the 12th and my photo journal would not be very interesting. Yesterday however, was much better because we travelled from Frankfurt to Sembach. Yes, I'm in Germany! This country embodies everything that I love about a country. There are so many things.... I don't know where to begin. But lemme just tell you the best part: You can walk everywhere..... even in the country! But for now, I'll leave you with my day, more details to come in the following weeks.


9:30 AM- Wake-up in our hotel. It was on the border between Frankfurt and Sulzbach. This field separated our hotel and the actual town. It was an interestingly designed area. This field is also very, very dark at night and how I know that is a different story for a different day.

11:00- Check-out of our hotel. We hopped in our little punto seen here and headed for breakfast.

11:50- Leaving breakfast at this cafe. It was yummy.... especially the coffee.

12:35- Driving on the autobahn. Highways in Germany are like perfectly choreographed ballets, unlike Italy where they resemble a circus set to the music of Julius Fucik. (Entrance of the Gladiators.)

13:00- Arrival at Sembach.

14:30- A bit of relaxation in our room.

15:20- Exploring the city of Kaiserslautern.

16:00- Coffee-break!

17:30- Dinner in Sembach. German food is not so good for the ol' waistline but of course I had to try it. Schnitzel one night, bratwurste the next. And I think I'm pretty much done with their food. Only fruit and vegetables until we hit Prague.

18:30- Leaving the restaurant. Aw, so American-friendly these people!

20:00- Seeing as how it's our honeymoon and all, J was waiting with flowers when I arrived in Frankfurt. Unfortunately our hotel does not come equipped with a vase, so we decided to do it up ghetto style and put them in the coffee urn.

Guten-dobry-jour

Eeep! I'm scared! I can't believe I'm flying tomorrow and I haven't even spent much time freaking out over it. Okay, so it's nothing compared to all the trans-atlanties, as I like to call them, that I've done this year. But I'm still a bit trembly with excitement/fear.

I leave for Frankfurt tomorrow. We are spending the night there and driving back south on Sunday to J's hotel. Someone recently told me that Germany is all about naked thermo-spas so maybe we'll be making a stop on the way back. We'll see.

We have decided to treat this opportunity as a sort of "tri-honeymoon." We didn't ever get a real honeymoon, so we're gonna do'er up european style now. Like I said, this weekend in Germany. Next weekend in Prague. The following, in Paris. And we're driving.

Luckily we've already taken several road trips together (the longest one being an 18 hour trip through Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia with no sleep) so I'm confident this European road excursion won't end in divorce. Just to make sure I printed out maps of how to get from the German base to our exact hotel addresses. J is more the "fly by the seat of yo' pants" kinda guy and usually succeeds astonishingly well this way but B is a control and planning freak, thus, freakishly detailed maps. France I'm not so worried about since I speak the language.... Czech Republic on the other hand, not so much. My one year of beginner Polish will most certainly not get us very far in Praha. So, further to my 'let's-not-leave-anything-to-chance' admission, I will admit that I also printed out pages and pages of Czech numbers and phrases.

I can almost guarantee that I won't be doing a 12 of 12 as on weekdays I will be on the base and I've already explained how taking photographs of military installations is received. But perhaps I'll do a variation on a different day. Or perhaps you'll just get random pictures of random events whenever I can find a wireless connection.

During the week while J is working I plan to go to the gym (power yoga three times a week that isn't at the 'butt crack of dawn!'-this is J's term for 'very early,'.....mine is far more vulgar) and do whatever sight-seeing of local areas I can on my own. As I am not on the insurance policy of the car the military gave J, I will be relying on my two feet/heartbeat and/or public transportation, which evidently is far better than here.

For tonight I will continue to sip my cosmo as I listen to the s**tnami whistle and wail outside and hope I will be able to get some sleep.

Pisces Babies

Happy birthday to my dear friend Muriel, seen left in the photo of Muriels, and to one of my favourite writers, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

"Organized" Chaos

Ahhh, the Italian post office. A place to not only send parcels that may or may not arrive to their destination this year in tact, but also a place where one pays bills. Luckily it is open on Saturdays so J and I were able to experience the joy of paying the electric bill together. This was our first time as we have previously only paid on base. But this month the actual bill didn't come so when that happens we can either pay what we owe at the post office or at an Italian bank. Equally painful from all accounts. And the banks aren't open on Saturdays.

I had only heard horror stories about 3 hour waits so we rose bright and early to make it there precisely at 9:00, the hour we understood to be opening time from the array of confusing and contradictory signs on the door. (Contradictory maybe only to people with limited Italian language capabilities such as ourselves.) I was prepared to put our name on a list and receive a number (like Canadian passport offices.)

There was already a large number of people in line and sitting around when we arrived. Fortunately there were a few obvious Americans near the entrance so we asked them where to sign up for service. I was expecting some sort of post office official in a uniform with an official clipboard and list, or at the very least, in a fluorescent vest. Because of this expectation I had a hard time locating the man the nice American girl described. I looked back at her and she pointed again...... Okay so it was just some random dude in a red jacket. Alrighty. I approached him and gave him our name. As I peered over the list (there was an electronic board on the wall but it looked like it hadn't been used since the American invasion) I saw that we were to be lucky number 63. This was at 8:45 so obviously 9:00 was not the time at which they put the "aperto" sign in the window.

We went and chatted with the girl some more and she told us that there had been people lined up at 5:45 in order to be first on the list. Wow. We're in for a long wait! I thought.

The funniest thing is that we saw the list change hands several times over the next hour. Not only is the list boss not dressed officially, he's not even official. It's just self-designated customers. How's that for the honor system? I didn't see a single euro cent grease any palms! (Though it may happen and might explain some of the arguing we heard.)

Amazingly we were finished and no longer in debt to Enel by 10:15 so our wait was only 1.5 hours. I guess in this case the early bird caught the bird the long and hard way.

Rage-tastic Day

This is our latest decor purchase. Apparently mardi gras-esque activities aren't limited to all you Louisianans, here they have something called "carnevale." We missed it this year but didn't miss seeing all of the costumes for sale at the stores and children dressed up in bouffante princessy dresses and such. Weird.

Why is it that on days when one is already in a bad mood, everything goes wrong and all the crazies come out of the woodwork? Why? I won't go into great detail as to how my day is going but I will give you two juicy little tidbits. A. I/We might not be going to Germany. Welcome to the military and B. As I was standing in line exchanging dollars for euro, there was what must be a retiree or retiree's spouse (ie. old) standing all up in my face like that's where the line starts. Um no, actually the line starts about 10 feet behind me, not on top of me. GET OUT OF MY BUBBLE YOU WING-NUT!

To make myself feel better I bought a turquoise Tommy Hilfiger purse for 12 dollars. So there.

Tonight is "navy girlz gone wild" at a wine bar in Nicolosi. Kidding, I'm just having dinner with some girls from J's work. I plan to self-medicate. I may even pre-game a bit. Though because I couldn't stand another second around people, I skipped my workout today so I may do yoga at home before the libations. Or maybe after. Hmmmm, yoga and alcohol..... could be an interesting mix.

And no, I don't do yoga to calm or center my mind or any of that other B.S. I do it because it feels like a great workout. There's nothing on this green, sometimes brown, earth that can calm me down. Nothing. Right John?