Wiener Trip 2k9: Vienna, Day Two

Saturday, we did not have nearly the agenda that we'd had on Friday, but still managed to see quite a lot of the city.

We first wandered to Stephansdom, a huge, very old, very beautiful church. The exterior is daunting but still approachable, while the interior is enough to take anyone's breath away. We didn't do any formal tours, but I took plenty of pictures.

The exterior:


The interior:



We wandered around, walking from Stephansplatz to Karlsplatz, taking pictures of many random buildings, eventually reaching a farmer's fair happening around the Hofburg Palace. So we sat, enjoyed, and took pictures.

Jonathan eats a Wiener wiener and drinks some Wiener beer:

I stand in front of a pretty building in the Hofburg (I believe it is now the National Library):

A building, most certainly part of the Hofburg:

A street on our way to somewhere:

We stand in front of the Federal Parliament building:

Later that night, we ventured to the Staatsoper (State Opera House), where we had obtained last-row (but non-obstructed view!) tickets for 20 Euros apiece to see Manon Lescaut. The opera house was beautiful, and unlike the Volksoper, it had English subtitles:



After the opera, we walked around the area and had some famous Wiener sachertorte and apfelstrudel. And took some more pictures.


All in all, a fantastic day.

Wiener Trip 2k9: Vienna, Day one

First, I'd like to thank LOT Airlines for having unusually low weekend fares to Vienna. Second, I'd like to thank Guesthouse Arabella for providing us with a lovely tenth-floor apartment to stay in and a free map of the city. Third, I'd like to thank the many friendly Austrians who spoke English with us. We are very fortunate to have grown up speaking what has become the world's international language.

Vienna is an absolutely gorgeous city. Cities don't generally make much of an impression on me. Tall skyscrapers and perpendicular blocks, whether of New York City or of Shanghai, often mesh together in my memory. The Old Town of Krakow is an exception, and so is the entire city of Vienna. Of course, when you are the seat of empires, in power for centuries, I imagine you have the resources to build a lot of really cool stuff.

I could wax poetic about various aspects of the city and our trip, but instead I'll give you a quick photosummary (with limited description) of what we did.

Thursday night, we checked into our hostel/apartment. Tenth floor, great view of the city. The sunrise on Friday morning:

Friday, we headed off to Schloss Schönbrunn, the Hapsburg summer palace, and took a (no-photo) tour:

Then we wandered the immaculately-kept, free-to-the-public gardens behind the palace:

We even entered and eventually escaped from one of the labyrinths:

Finally, we wandered into the Vienna Zoo, which is attached to the gardens (it was originally the royal family's wildlife menagerie), because zoos are always a good idea:

Later, deciding to do something musical, we went to the Volksoper (People's Opera House). A friendly worker helped us get third-row orchestra tickets at a student rate of 12 Euros to see Fra Diavolo, which looked a little more like a musical than an opera, but was still entertaining. Mostly spectacular were our great, otherwise-160Euro seats in this lovely opera house:

This has gotten lengthy already, so I'll put the rest of the trip in a separate post. Enjoy, and sorry for the belated updating!

Poland, week one: Friday in the park

So, I've been here for a week, and haven't exactly fulfilled my promises of keeping you all updated. My sleep schedule is entirely out of whack thanks to jet lag, morning naps, afternoon naps, and unregulated amounts of caffeine. My first 24 hours or so in Krakow are mostly a blur; after a sleepless 7-hour flight to Frankfurt and a very painful 9 hours waiting in the Frankfurt airport (only afterward did I remember one of my Fulbright friends lives just outside the city), I reached Krakow in a tired and miserable state. But now, a week later, I am very awake, and very happy to be here!

So, let's see. Jonathan and I haven't been up to much in terms of tourism. I hit all the major tourist spots on my trip here in the winter, so this has been a relaxed visit more like the everyday Krakow experience.

I got in Thursday night and I'm pretty sure I slept straight to Friday afternoon. Friday evening, after Jonathan got back from lab, we went to a very large local park. Jon ran a few miles around the park while I sat, took pictures, and read a book. The place was incredibly beautiful at this time of day, though the lighting wasn't captured as nicely through the camera.

I sat on a wall at one edge of the park:

To my right were houses and a creek:

Others sat on the wall as well, enjoying the fantastic late August weather:

Jon ran around the path, as did many other runners, joggers, bikers (cyclists?), and, to my surprise, rollerbladers:

Though the park is close to Jon's dorm and not in the downtown area, it is so large and flat that there's a great view of Wawel castle in the distance:

So, I came to the conclusion that though I loved Krakow when it was covered in snow, it is a very nice place to be at this time of year.

More posts to come. Also, we've altered our travel plans for cost/time reasons (and I want to spend more weekend time in Krakow); instead of Prague and Budapest, we're staying in the area this weekend, and we found very cheap flights to Vienna on LOT for September 10-13. If you have any Viennese (?) travel tips, please let me know!

Updates to come: More Taiwan, and some Poland too!

I promise.

I haven't forgotten this blog, or all of you who may read it. Every few days I get a reminder that I haven't updated in a while, but when your sole source of computing is a 7" constantly-overheating-in-the-summer laptop (with no pictures on its 8GB hard drive), it's hard to get motivated to type more than a few sentences.

Anyway, from August 26-September 23 I will be embarking on Katie's Polish Adventure (take two). Armed with my external hard drive and Jonathan's powerful self-built PC (and being left to my own devices during working hours), I will hopefully finally find the time and energy for updates. So in addition to my wrapping up writing on Taiwan, you can also expect more posts on Krakow, and possibly a little on Budapest and Prague (our tentative weekend plans).

Until my triumphant return to the blogosphere, feel free to leave your input on any or all of the following:

• What I should do/where I should go in Krakow, Poland, Prague, Budapest, and the general areas;
• What you'd like to hear more about from my experiences in Taiwan;
• Whether I should continue this blog (or start a new one, or give up on blogging) once I hit the world of full-time employment;
  
• Any books you think I should read, as I've suddenly started reading again, a lot, and will need reading for my trip; and/or
  
• What you think of Project Runway's transition from Bravo to Lifetime.

Until we meet again!

Not dead, just sleeping.

For the few of you who read my blog but do not read my emails, here is the official word that I'm safe back home in the good old U.S.A.

What have I been up to since I got back? Sleeping. Honestly. I don't have the energy for anything these days. Maybe it's the jet lag, maybe it's the recovery period from teaching three hundred and fifty small children, maybe it's the first soft bed I've slept on in a year. Either way, you haven't missed anything exciting. I haven't even checked off everything on my "to-eat" list. Though I have had hot dogs, hamburgers, Yuengling beer, the family brown rice, a frosty from Wendy's, a turkey club from Minella's, a black and white milkshake, a Wawa hoagie, a Tastykake, and lots of Mountain Dew. Of course right now, I'm craving fresh salmon sashimi more than ever.

Milo, my puppy, is also happy in his new home. He likes running in the yard, smelling everything, following my parents around, and bugging our 12-year-old dachshund Daphne. Every bird, bunny, squirrel, and barbecuing neighbor is cause for curiosity. Overall, though I'm sure that a trans-continental flight in a cage in the belly of an airplane is not fun for any dog, the move has been a very good one for Milo.

Once I find myself awake and creative, I'll get back to the blog in earnest. I have some great pictures and stories from my last days in Taiwan, as well as all the ones I forgot to share along the way.

Until then, if you need me, I'll probably be asleep.

Trip to Eastern Taiwan!

Sorry folks, I've been a little short on time lately thanks to (1) co-leading the Fulbright Kaohsiung project and (2) drumming for the Fulbright Dragon Boat team. More information on that is forthcoming.

So last weekend, the twelve members of my Fulbright group all went on a trip to eastern Taiwan. Our primary destination was Rueisuei, which is known for rafting and hot springs. We did both. So Friday afternoon we took two trains for 4.5 hours to get to Rueisuei.

The pretty train ride:

We got to the hotel and relaxed in the hot springs. What are hot springs? Basically a murky, unchlorinated, "natural" hot tub, and very popular throughout Taiwan. Sorry, no pictures. Then we tried to find a restaurant and settled on hot pot. I had milk hot pot, which was a first for me (though I later heard that milk is a specialty of Rueisuei). It mostly just tasted like fish.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to get driven to several mystery locations before finally ending up on the bank of a river with life vests and helmets, where we joined what appeared to be a high school or college graduation trip on a big rafting adventure. My proudest accomplishments from the day were not falling in and not getting sunburned. Long shorts, a hat, and SPF 55 sunscreen are my friends!

A man took our picture and sold it to us afterward. I'm the one in the back with the hat and sunglasses :

After a day of rafting, we took the train to Taidong/Taitung, a major city on the east coast (which is generally not very populated). We wandered the city, had a nice family-style dinner, and discovered there wasn't much else going on in Taidong on a Saturday night.

Sunday, we took a ferry to Green Island. Of all the places I've visited in Taiwan, I think Green Island was my favorite. We only had a few hours on the island, so we rented some cars and drove around to see the sights (the island is so small it takes 30 minutes to drive the whole thing-- and has one paved road, so no getting lost!).

Green Island is about a 40-minute ferry ride from Taidong. It is where they used to ship pro-independence political prisoners during martial law. We tried to drive around the old prisons, only to find out (after getting some dropped jaws from the guards at the gate) that one of the prisons is still quite active:

Some pictures of why I loved Green Island:

Then Sunday afternoon we rushed back to Taidong to get the 4pm train to Kaohsiung. There were no seats left. Oops. Fulbrighter Kate and I had a really comfortable ride on the little space between the last seat and the wall:

And the weekend was followed by one of my more exhausting weeks in Kaohsiung. But as I said, more on that later. I'll be home in less than six weeks... but I have so much left to do!

Rafting shoes + Friday pants + Taipei pedicure

This past weekend, I went rafting in eastern Taiwan. I don't have the time, energy, or group photos to write an appropriate blog post yet, so until then, you just get this picture.


Matching shorts, sandals, and pedicure courtesy of Taiwanese fashion.

Just don't tell my middle school self how much bright pink I've gotten into as an adult.

A trip to Danshui

Last weekend in Taipei, we found ourselves with a few empty hours between lunch and dinner plans. So we took the subway to the end of the (north/blue line) to Danshui, where we spent an hour wandering around this ocean/bay area that reminded me of boardwalks on the Jersey Shore.

First, we ate at the only Dunkin Donuts I've seen in Taiwan so far (so, the first Boston Creme donut I've had since July):

Walked along the boardwalk and played a carnival game:

Took a picture of the pretty water:

And rode the subway back downtown for dinner:

Not a very eventful trip, but a pleasant one nonetheless, and a nice place to visit if you're ever in the Taipei area.

Spring Scream

As I mentioned briefly in my last blog post, last weekend (Thursday to Sunday) I was at something called Spring Scream. Basically, it was a three-day outdoor concert by the beach in Kenting. I like live music and I like the beach, and ever since I saw 海角七號, the big Taiwanese hit released this fall, I thought Spring Scream looked like a fun time.

If I ever get the opportunity to go to Spring Scream again, I'm not sure I'd choose to camp outside in a tent next time around (apparently North American hippies are alive and well and living in Taiwan). In any case, the whole tenting thing was certainly an experience. Maybe waking up at 3, 4, and 5am to the sounds of a drum circle is a rite of passage into adulthood?

Anyway, I had a good time watching dozens of different bands in probably the most beautiful concert setting I'll ever see.

Saturday afternoon, before the action started:

I also got to use the awesome backpacking backpack that I had gotten as a going-away present (thanks Aleecia!).

I'm supposed to be "pointing to adventure"? Or maybe I'm about to rough up some hippies.

As you can see, in embracing the obnoxious fashion trends of Taiwan, I procured a very neon hat and a very pink fanny pack. (Okay, fanny packs aren't even a trend here, I just found it awfully convenient not to carry anything around. Why bother to blend in when you already stand out anyway?) You can also see evidence of the removable tattoo on my arm, which served as the three-day concert pass.

Faux glamor shot by the beach to showcase the ridiculousness of my hat, fanny pack, T-shirt, and tattoo:

Here is one poor attempt at photographing a music act from far away in the dark. I like the three girls in the foreground wearing matching light-up red devil horns. (I later purchased blue ones.)

There were also some new experiences, like visiting the southernmost point of Taiwan...:

... and drinking wine in a can:

And the staple beach experiences, like watching the sunset over the water:
So I was once again reminded that Taiwan is a very beautiful place. I guess I can't really blame the hippies for coming here, then, can I?

A trip to the mountains

For Lauren's last (and only) full weekend in Taiwan, we took a trip with several other Fulbrighters to the mountains. 阿里山 is one of Taiwan's most popular tourist spots, particularly during this time of year when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. We got there right at the tail end of the cherry blossom season, which means slightly fewer cherry blossoms (but still as many tourists).

Anyway, because it was peak tourism season, we (read: Rebekah and Gered, our awesomely 辛苦 trip organizers) had to creatively put together the trip without actually staying in 阿里山. So we left early Friday and took the train to 嘉義, hired a driver to take us to 瑞里, and promptly napped on the "traditional Asian floor, as we said in HCAP-Seoul. (You get a couple blankets and lay them on a wooden floor and that's your bed.)

After a lunchbox lunch at our 山莊, we decided to go see the sites in the mountains and were off.

Lunchbox satisfaction level:

View from the balcony:

The forest/mountains were really pretty, and there was a lot of bamboo:

We hiked several kilometers to find a batcave (or "bat grotto," as some signs called it). Apparently all the bats have left the area because of tourism. Oops:

We then spent a lot of time looking for a waterfall. First we thought it dried up:

But eventually, we found it:

There were a lot of steps. We definitely ended up walking (hiking?) further than we had intended, which resulted in a long upward climb to the top:

But at least it was pretty along the way:

That night, we had a big family-style vegetarian dinner at the 山莊, saw some fireflies with some very enthusiastic young hotel guests, ate some roasted sweet potatoes, drank some floral tea, and went to bed by nine.

The next day we were up at seven (I opted out of the 4am sunrise trip). We had another family-style breakfast at the hotel, and when we weren't psyched about eating pickled radishes for breakfast, the 老闆 reassured us that we should try it even though it's not like "美國的漢堡." Then we were in a car to 阿里山 by 8.

Unlike 瑞里, 阿里山 was full of tourists and we were not full of energy. So we took a few trails, took some pictures of the cherry blossoms, saw some giant trees, and called it a day.




At 3pm we took the famous Alishan Forest Railway to our hotel in 奮起湖, yet another mountain town. The Alishan Forest Railway is the third most famous mountain railway... or something. I'm not sure. It was a very pretty ride though, and every once in a while we'd pass a crazed tourist snapping pictures of the train from the forest.

The train approaching the station at Alishan with cherry blossoms and mist... too much 特色!

Lauren and Katie aboard the Alishan Forest Railway:

Our stay in 奮起湖 wasn't entirely eventful; we found a good restaurant for dinner, hung out by the 7-11, and saw the staff of the hotel we stayed in exactly once from check-in to check-out. Then we were up and off at 8am for a long and nauseating busride back to 嘉義 where Lauren and I parted ways at the 高鐵 station. She headed off to the airport and I headed back to Kaohsiung.

And there ended Lauren's visit to Taiwan... Now that I've caught up with blogging, I'm headed out to 墾丁 for three nights and three days of Spring Scream. I never did the multi-day, camping-out concert thing back in the United States, so I'm sure I'm in for an experience.

Back on Monday!