I'll end the 2010 Global Scavenger Hunt Blog with two photos. Sigiriya Mountain in Sri Lanka - before and after we climbed.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
What it Feels Like
I'll end the 2010 Global Scavenger Hunt Blog with two photos. Sigiriya Mountain in Sri Lanka - before and after we climbed.
Back to Reality
I am back home now, having circled the globe in 3 weeks - climbing mountains, exploring caves, eating crickets, finding obscure unmarked historical sites, comparing beer flavors before 10 AM, traveling in crowded filthy second class trains, using restrooms that make you gag before you even see them, let alone use them...and I am thrilled to have had the opportunities. I met fabulous people along the way - like Moussa the taxi driver in Amman, Cristina the university student in Bratislava who helped us find the required five places in the 45 minutes we had in her country, and Farzath the warm Sri Lankan who welcomed us into his home for dinner. My partner Christine was a great competitor and a great sport. We came into the competition sharing a love of adventure and international travel, but not knowing each other particularly well. We ended with great respect for each other and the satisfaction of accomplishing 21 straight days of hard planning, running, doing, talking our way into private clubs, government buildings, closed museums, "impossible" situations, and recording it all - and the joy of learning and discovering! Right about now, I would love to have the chance to have my feet cleaned again in the Thai Fish Spa, and to have my body stretched again by the Thai masseuse, who made me feel like I was as tall as Travis (a little delusional on my part). But, the travels are done and it's time to go back to reality.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Kunafa - a Reason to Live
This sweet dessert in Jordan is a delicious hot melted cheese, with crisp caramel on top. It was the best thing I ate in the three weeks around the world.
Finished in New York
The Global Scavenger Hunt competition ended in New York City yesterday. In the final results, our team came in third place. We won first place for the legs in Jordan and in Vietnam. We worked hard and are pleased with the results. We did best where we had great guidebooks and maps - Lonely Planets were particularly good. Indeed, it is enticing to go around the world with good guidebooks, good maps, and good friends.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Clear Air in Iceland - What volcano?
Our flight from Paris to New York was via Iceland to change planes Clear skies, efficient airport. You would never know that anything had gone wrong. And, from the air, the ground looked pretty regular brown to me. I did not notice black ash.
Munich, Strasbourg, Paris – All in A Day’s Time
A lot of riding the rails today. We plan to cross a big chunk of Europe to get to Paris by tonight. First, a four hour train ride from Munich to Strasbourg. Although the TGV goes direct to Paris, we decided to stop off the train in Strasbourg for four hours of scavenges. I had been in Strasbourg before, but my visit was nothing like this. We had four hours to scavenge around. One of the highlights was to “visit the European Parliament – and get in”. The Parliament building is imposing, with an armed gate. We had gone by taxi and had the driver tell the guard that we just wanted to take a quick photo. As we approached the façade for a closer view, a group of students on a field trip were passing into the entrance. We joined the crowd and got led into the inner courtyard, and on into an anteroom where a host greeted the group and addressed them as they began the process of passing their bags through the electronic security gates. At that point, we turned back and left.
Our 6:00 PM train got us to Paris by 9:00 PM. There were a few evening scavenges we could and did do after we dropped off our suitcases at the hotel. We found Aux Trois Mailletz, the “jazz” club in St. Michel area, where the musicians played classical music and the vocalist sang opera. Next, we did the still-really-overpriced and still-really-disappointing Moulin Rouge. We went to the 11:00 PM show. The large nightclub’s hall was almost full. I am mystified as to how they manage to lure enough people to fill the house to see that thing three times every night. The dancing looked like a Rockette-type show, with the dancing girls dressed in elaborate costumes, some with poles holding up headdresses, wings, and curtains of swinging chains of beads. They changed costumes every scene. As the show progressed, the costumes morphed from gauzy veils and suggestive peeks at the dancers’ bodies, to bare chests and thongs. The choreography was lame. Mostly, it consisted of wiggling their hips and thrusting their chests forward. There was a loose theme of exotic Asia. Having just come from exotic Asia, the costumes and scenery looked hokey. Interspersed between the nudie scenes was a series where a man and some feathered puppets shrieked stupid jokes in three languages in a slapstick routine. This was woven throughout the show, presumably to fill the time while the dancing girls were backstage, getting progressively undressed. A third act was also woven through the show in several scenes. It was a magician who was actually outstanding. He pulled multiple doves and finally, a duck, out of scarves and even out of thin air. He was great. Time for bed.
Probing into Paris
We scoured Paris over the course of our sixteen-hour day. Our hotel is in Montparnasse, which is on the southwest edge of Paris. One of the scavenges was to find three graves in the Montparnasse cemetery. Two were easy because they are in the guidebooks and on the cemetery’s maps: Jean Paul Sartre and Serge Gainsbourg. The harder one was to find Susan Sontag’s grave. The cemetery custodian had to look up her location for us and then try to explain where it was located in the crowded and not well labeled cemetery. We found her grave – a simple one.
We then headed out to Versailles. Fortunately, Paris’s museums now offer a combination pass for 30 Euros for the day. We were able to buy the pass at Versailles. Otherwise, it would have been a sickening waste of money to zip in and out of museums for a quick look at a specific thing, and then on to the next. Next was the Louvre. We had to find four things. One of them was kind of tricky – not sure we got it right. The task was to find what famous lady resides in Apollo Gallery. The exhibits in the Apollo Gallery are glass cases containing royal jewels and tableware. The palace walls and ceilings are choked with decorative insets and paintings. Almost all of the subjects are men – except for a painting in the ceiling, of Diana on her doe-led chariot. I am curious whether that was right.
After the Louvre, we visited the stained glass windows in Sainte Chappelle. By then, we were very ready for the mandatory food scavenge of getting ice cream at the upscale Bertillon on Ile St. Louis. We had to try either the Peche de Vigne (red peach – which we did – and it was deliciously refreshing) or the Caramel Beurre Sale (which we had later that night, and it was a fab combination of caramel and salt – kind of like chocolate covered pretzels). There were a bunch more little scavenges to do. We took the elevator to the top of the Georges Pompidou Center and photographed the “Rites of Spring” Fountain from the top, which we had to figure out was really the Stravinsky fountain. He was the composer of the Rites of Spring. We found the “sister” statue of the statue of Liberty at the Place de la Republique. She is holding a torch, like the one in New York. We located the oldest covered market in Paris off Rue Charlot, buried in a neighborhood where people in the neighborhood seem not to know about it. We took an elevator to the 59th floor of the highest skyscraper in Paris (around the corner from our hotel).
We visited a fabulous new museum called Musee du Quai Branley, to locate some artifacts from Laos and Vietnam. The museum celebrates handcrafts of native people all over the world. There are scores of handmade textiles, masks, sculptures, etc. What is wonderful about it is that the core theme is ethnic people and the beauty of their creations and their lives. The building is quite exciting architecturally. The Eiffel Tower’s top is viewed around most corners. But the museum is chunky modules of browns and earthy colors in a park of reeds and tall grasses, with a jungle feel. One enters down a winding path, where the location of the front door is not at all obvious as you enter from the street. Like many times on this scavenger hunt, I regretted having to race out to get on to the next thing.
We found the Zouave de Pont d’Alma (an Arabic Warrior statue at the bottom of the bridge), and strolled a bit on Avenue Montaigne to see the designer clothing stores and elegant Parisians and elegant (not us!) visitors. We found the works we needed to find in Musee D’Orsay (except that Whistler’s mother is visiting San Francisco right now, so she wasn’t hanging on the wall at her usual home). We boarded the Vogueo boat at Gare d’Austerlitz. It is a commuter ferry that travels east of Paris. We were supposed to take it to the end, which we did. Since the day was winding down and the boat ride was so pleasant, we rode a round trip and enjoyed nearly one hour on the river with our feet up. On the way back to pick up more commuters in Paris, the boat was almost empty. We took the opportunity to chat with Aimad, the boat guy (the one who does everything except drive the boat). Friendly guy – and he was willing to make the silly video with me of teaching me a dance step. After the boat, we found the place called Batofar, a boat-restaurant tied up alongside the Seine. It’s a bar, restaurant and music club. We had a refreshing drink and refreshing bathroom (there were neither on the commuter boat). Next was the challenge to find the Arenes de Lutece, a very well hidden Roman vestige in Paris. It is a Roman forum/theater in the middle of a park in the middle of a residential neighborhood. After twirling around the area a few times, we finally found the entrance gate, just as a guard approached with a set of keys to lock it for the night. We slipped in for a quick look and photo. There is a dirt ring in the center and seats ringing the perimeter. It is in the midst of a small urban park, hidden inside the trees. Great neighborhood place.
Next was Montmartre. We did the silly tourist task of having an artist paint a portrait or cut out a silhouette of our team. We chose the silhouette. Actually, it was amazing. In less than ten minutes, the artist cut out paper in the shapes of our profiles. Great souvenir. The café life around Place du Tertre on Montmarte is like a caricature of Paris. Men really do stand around and play Jacques Brel-type tunes on the accordion. The last thing before leaving Place du Tertre was to find “one of the oddest sculptures you could ever hope to find”. We found it. Emerging out of a stone wall are pieces of part of a man. His head, hand and leg are sticking through the stone as though he is walking through the stone wall. Pretty cool.
We were just about done for the night. We went down the hill from Montmartre and found a wonderful restaurant in the St. Michel area to have some escargots. The white asparagus are in season and were served in a delicious vinaigrette. AND, the restaurant served the Caramel Beurre Sale ice cream. Yum Yum Yum. After a chat with some international students (a scavenge), we retreated to the hotel for bed. And that was the end of Europe.
Next stop: New York.
Our 6:00 PM train got us to Paris by 9:00 PM. There were a few evening scavenges we could and did do after we dropped off our suitcases at the hotel. We found Aux Trois Mailletz, the “jazz” club in St. Michel area, where the musicians played classical music and the vocalist sang opera. Next, we did the still-really-overpriced and still-really-disappointing Moulin Rouge. We went to the 11:00 PM show. The large nightclub’s hall was almost full. I am mystified as to how they manage to lure enough people to fill the house to see that thing three times every night. The dancing looked like a Rockette-type show, with the dancing girls dressed in elaborate costumes, some with poles holding up headdresses, wings, and curtains of swinging chains of beads. They changed costumes every scene. As the show progressed, the costumes morphed from gauzy veils and suggestive peeks at the dancers’ bodies, to bare chests and thongs. The choreography was lame. Mostly, it consisted of wiggling their hips and thrusting their chests forward. There was a loose theme of exotic Asia. Having just come from exotic Asia, the costumes and scenery looked hokey. Interspersed between the nudie scenes was a series where a man and some feathered puppets shrieked stupid jokes in three languages in a slapstick routine. This was woven throughout the show, presumably to fill the time while the dancing girls were backstage, getting progressively undressed. A third act was also woven through the show in several scenes. It was a magician who was actually outstanding. He pulled multiple doves and finally, a duck, out of scarves and even out of thin air. He was great. Time for bed.
Probing into Paris
We scoured Paris over the course of our sixteen-hour day. Our hotel is in Montparnasse, which is on the southwest edge of Paris. One of the scavenges was to find three graves in the Montparnasse cemetery. Two were easy because they are in the guidebooks and on the cemetery’s maps: Jean Paul Sartre and Serge Gainsbourg. The harder one was to find Susan Sontag’s grave. The cemetery custodian had to look up her location for us and then try to explain where it was located in the crowded and not well labeled cemetery. We found her grave – a simple one.
We then headed out to Versailles. Fortunately, Paris’s museums now offer a combination pass for 30 Euros for the day. We were able to buy the pass at Versailles. Otherwise, it would have been a sickening waste of money to zip in and out of museums for a quick look at a specific thing, and then on to the next. Next was the Louvre. We had to find four things. One of them was kind of tricky – not sure we got it right. The task was to find what famous lady resides in Apollo Gallery. The exhibits in the Apollo Gallery are glass cases containing royal jewels and tableware. The palace walls and ceilings are choked with decorative insets and paintings. Almost all of the subjects are men – except for a painting in the ceiling, of Diana on her doe-led chariot. I am curious whether that was right.
After the Louvre, we visited the stained glass windows in Sainte Chappelle. By then, we were very ready for the mandatory food scavenge of getting ice cream at the upscale Bertillon on Ile St. Louis. We had to try either the Peche de Vigne (red peach – which we did – and it was deliciously refreshing) or the Caramel Beurre Sale (which we had later that night, and it was a fab combination of caramel and salt – kind of like chocolate covered pretzels). There were a bunch more little scavenges to do. We took the elevator to the top of the Georges Pompidou Center and photographed the “Rites of Spring” Fountain from the top, which we had to figure out was really the Stravinsky fountain. He was the composer of the Rites of Spring. We found the “sister” statue of the statue of Liberty at the Place de la Republique. She is holding a torch, like the one in New York. We located the oldest covered market in Paris off Rue Charlot, buried in a neighborhood where people in the neighborhood seem not to know about it. We took an elevator to the 59th floor of the highest skyscraper in Paris (around the corner from our hotel).
We visited a fabulous new museum called Musee du Quai Branley, to locate some artifacts from Laos and Vietnam. The museum celebrates handcrafts of native people all over the world. There are scores of handmade textiles, masks, sculptures, etc. What is wonderful about it is that the core theme is ethnic people and the beauty of their creations and their lives. The building is quite exciting architecturally. The Eiffel Tower’s top is viewed around most corners. But the museum is chunky modules of browns and earthy colors in a park of reeds and tall grasses, with a jungle feel. One enters down a winding path, where the location of the front door is not at all obvious as you enter from the street. Like many times on this scavenger hunt, I regretted having to race out to get on to the next thing.
We found the Zouave de Pont d’Alma (an Arabic Warrior statue at the bottom of the bridge), and strolled a bit on Avenue Montaigne to see the designer clothing stores and elegant Parisians and elegant (not us!) visitors. We found the works we needed to find in Musee D’Orsay (except that Whistler’s mother is visiting San Francisco right now, so she wasn’t hanging on the wall at her usual home). We boarded the Vogueo boat at Gare d’Austerlitz. It is a commuter ferry that travels east of Paris. We were supposed to take it to the end, which we did. Since the day was winding down and the boat ride was so pleasant, we rode a round trip and enjoyed nearly one hour on the river with our feet up. On the way back to pick up more commuters in Paris, the boat was almost empty. We took the opportunity to chat with Aimad, the boat guy (the one who does everything except drive the boat). Friendly guy – and he was willing to make the silly video with me of teaching me a dance step. After the boat, we found the place called Batofar, a boat-restaurant tied up alongside the Seine. It’s a bar, restaurant and music club. We had a refreshing drink and refreshing bathroom (there were neither on the commuter boat). Next was the challenge to find the Arenes de Lutece, a very well hidden Roman vestige in Paris. It is a Roman forum/theater in the middle of a park in the middle of a residential neighborhood. After twirling around the area a few times, we finally found the entrance gate, just as a guard approached with a set of keys to lock it for the night. We slipped in for a quick look and photo. There is a dirt ring in the center and seats ringing the perimeter. It is in the midst of a small urban park, hidden inside the trees. Great neighborhood place.
Next was Montmartre. We did the silly tourist task of having an artist paint a portrait or cut out a silhouette of our team. We chose the silhouette. Actually, it was amazing. In less than ten minutes, the artist cut out paper in the shapes of our profiles. Great souvenir. The café life around Place du Tertre on Montmarte is like a caricature of Paris. Men really do stand around and play Jacques Brel-type tunes on the accordion. The last thing before leaving Place du Tertre was to find “one of the oddest sculptures you could ever hope to find”. We found it. Emerging out of a stone wall are pieces of part of a man. His head, hand and leg are sticking through the stone as though he is walking through the stone wall. Pretty cool.
We were just about done for the night. We went down the hill from Montmartre and found a wonderful restaurant in the St. Michel area to have some escargots. The white asparagus are in season and were served in a delicious vinaigrette. AND, the restaurant served the Caramel Beurre Sale ice cream. Yum Yum Yum. After a chat with some international students (a scavenge), we retreated to the hotel for bed. And that was the end of Europe.
Next stop: New York.
Musicians in Vienna; Beautiful Bratislava; Lots of Architecture and Beer in Munich
We have 4 days to do up to 100 scavenges, and to get ourselves from Vienna to Paris, while scavenging along the way. There are scavenges possible in cities across Germany, France, Switzerland and into Eastern Europe. It was daunting, and headache/stomach ache producing to look at the huge array of possibilities, to figure out how best to get to Paris given the possibilities. Our first instinct was to disregard any options that were east of Vienna, as if anybody would go east when we need to be going west. We ended up heading east – but more on that in a moment.
Europe’s leg started on Monday evening around 5:00 PM. First stop was the English bookstore to buy the Lonely Planet for Western Europe. We chose it because it has some good overviews of most of the possible cities. A few drawbacks, though. It is about 7 inches thick and feels like it weighs 17 pounds. I can’t wait to ditch it.
For the first evening in Vienna, we started out just as everything that has a closing time – was closing. Of the few things that were not closed for the night, we were able to do the mandatory food scavenges (of course). We had coffees at Café Hawleka and we bought Manner Schnitzen (a wafer cookie that is sold in a very upscale store. We got to the House of Music before it closed, just in time to see Johann Strauss’s exhibit, which we needed as one of two commemorations we had to find. Since the museum was closing shortly and the ticket seller was really nice, she let us in for free, to run upstairs and look at the Johann Strauss exhibit. Johann also is commemorated by a sculpture in the park across the street from our hotel.
We sought something to eat at a restaurant called Huth, around the corner from the hotel. While there, we did a wine taste test, took pictures of knockoff products (a Breitling watch and a Mont Blanc pen), and we sat next to a couple from Rhode Island. Woonsocket and Cranston. They asked us to snap a photo of them at their table, which led to a “Where are you from?” conversation. Small world for a small state.
After dinner, we tried to make a plan, at least for the next morning. But we were too tired. I woke up in the middle of the night, with my mind racing around possible solutions. To not disturb Christine by turning on a light, I went into the bathroom , sat on the floor, spread out the books, maps, clues, and papers on the floor, and worked for a few hours to figure out a timeline. I am fully aware that most people do not think of this as their idea of a fun vacation. By the time I had roughed out a plan, it was time to wake up.
My plan was to get out of Vienna as soon as we could, not staying to do the little 25 point scavenges of a museum here or there. Rather, it seemed to make sense to go west, stopping in several cities linked together along the way. That seemed efficient and logical. But, it also was what we were supposed to think. Christine looked at the plan and suggested we do something different, and go east instead. That’s what we did. And was it ever a great move. Brilliant. We went to Bratislava, Slovakia. It was an impulsive decision. Our guidebook (Western Europe) had absolutely no information about it. We set off blind, taking all of our luggage with us. Although now burdened with all our stuff, we decided to take a boat from Vienna to Bratislava, and then a train to the next place. The boat ride was an hour and 15 minutes up the Danube. Beautiful ride!! The trees along river’s banks were fully green, and sprinkled with fishermen’s cottages. It was bucolic. On the boat, we met a 21 year old young woman named Christina, who is studying English. She was eager to talk to us in English and we were eager to talk with her about the weird questions we needed to get answered. Like: what do local Slovaks think Hrad Castle looks like? (ask three). The answer is: an upside down table with its legs in the air. We got two boat crew guys to tell us their views, and got the same answer. Fortunately, the boat had some tourist maps and even more fortunately, we met Christina and another woman who lives in Bratislava and could help us map out a very efficient plan to do a loop around the city to find the things we needed to find. One of the spots was a place formerly known as Stalinove Namestie and to say what happened there on December 13, 1992. The answer is that it is now known as the place of the Slovak National Uprising, when the people declared independence from Czechoslovakia. The cathedral, St. Martin’s, has hosted coronations of dozens of royals. Having known virtually nothing about Bratislava, in about one hour, we got a cram course and a whirlwind view. We got back on the boat and returned to Vienna to finish up a scavenge we had not completed the night before, and then off to “the” train station. At that point, we were considering three alternative routes. To decide, we needed accurate information about train schedules. We decided to go to the station in the south of the city because it is the departure point for Graz, where we thought we were most likely to go next. However, it turned out that the schedule was much too infrequent and would cause us to waste several hours to get the next train out. Oh! If we could only use the internet. This game lacks reality. Instead of juicing up the iPhone to check the train schedules, I am embarrassed to say that we spent over 15 Euros taking taxis (because we are lugging our suitcases now) from the boat to a train station and then to a second train station - to get the schedules so we could make our next move. A big factor in our move across Europe is to minimize the luggage hauling. We have to lock up our bags in train station lockers while we run around a city; retrieve the bags, and move on to the next city. We decided to go to Salzburg for three hours, on our way to Munich, where we would spend the night. As we dragged our bags toward the train station exit, Christine spied a hotel across the street that looked like it was decent. And…it was across the street.
We looked at the room, checked in, and zoomed off to do some scavenges in the old city. A lot of the things we saw were architectural – three old gates to the city, three different types of clock towers, and four different types of architecture. Last task of the evening was to go to what was once the World’s Biggest Bar – the Hofbrauhaus, where we experienced gemutlichkeit (having a good time), and did the bonus of singing along in a German drinking song, and then getting some fellow revelers to sing our national anthem. Choosing the right table to sit down at was key. We sat with two guys who did not know each other, and who we could draw in to create a happy little table. There was Willy, who was well on his way to merriment; and Joseph who was red-faced, smiley, and wearing lederhosen and a straw hat. They were ready to party. The oompah band was oomping away and the mood in the Hofbrauhaus was high-energy happy. Moments before we walked in, Munich’s soccer team just won a game that got them to the playoffs. We also aimed to do the taste test challenge of tasting three different kinds of beer (Pils, Helles, and Weizen) and making a video to comment on them. The thing was – no order smaller than a liter of beer. We passed on the idea of ordering three liters of beer at 6.90 Euros each. As it was, the one liter I ordered went unfinished, and Willy happily polished it off as we left – close to midnight.
The next morning, we did a really cool scavenge before our train left. We had to go to the Deutsches Museum, which focuses on industry and technology. We had to find out who created the World’s First Globe. The globle was in a case with a whole bunch of other globes – not singled out in any way. The little information card next to it states that it was indeed the world’s first globe. The creator was Martin Behaim. The thing is – he created it in 1492 the year of, but before he knew that Columbus discovered America. Bad timing! That was a really fun discovery.
In the train station before boarding our 10:08 train, we bought three beers and did the taste test which we passed over the night before. The verdict? All three taste really bad before 10:00.
Europe’s leg started on Monday evening around 5:00 PM. First stop was the English bookstore to buy the Lonely Planet for Western Europe. We chose it because it has some good overviews of most of the possible cities. A few drawbacks, though. It is about 7 inches thick and feels like it weighs 17 pounds. I can’t wait to ditch it.
For the first evening in Vienna, we started out just as everything that has a closing time – was closing. Of the few things that were not closed for the night, we were able to do the mandatory food scavenges (of course). We had coffees at Café Hawleka and we bought Manner Schnitzen (a wafer cookie that is sold in a very upscale store. We got to the House of Music before it closed, just in time to see Johann Strauss’s exhibit, which we needed as one of two commemorations we had to find. Since the museum was closing shortly and the ticket seller was really nice, she let us in for free, to run upstairs and look at the Johann Strauss exhibit. Johann also is commemorated by a sculpture in the park across the street from our hotel.
We sought something to eat at a restaurant called Huth, around the corner from the hotel. While there, we did a wine taste test, took pictures of knockoff products (a Breitling watch and a Mont Blanc pen), and we sat next to a couple from Rhode Island. Woonsocket and Cranston. They asked us to snap a photo of them at their table, which led to a “Where are you from?” conversation. Small world for a small state.
After dinner, we tried to make a plan, at least for the next morning. But we were too tired. I woke up in the middle of the night, with my mind racing around possible solutions. To not disturb Christine by turning on a light, I went into the bathroom , sat on the floor, spread out the books, maps, clues, and papers on the floor, and worked for a few hours to figure out a timeline. I am fully aware that most people do not think of this as their idea of a fun vacation. By the time I had roughed out a plan, it was time to wake up.
My plan was to get out of Vienna as soon as we could, not staying to do the little 25 point scavenges of a museum here or there. Rather, it seemed to make sense to go west, stopping in several cities linked together along the way. That seemed efficient and logical. But, it also was what we were supposed to think. Christine looked at the plan and suggested we do something different, and go east instead. That’s what we did. And was it ever a great move. Brilliant. We went to Bratislava, Slovakia. It was an impulsive decision. Our guidebook (Western Europe) had absolutely no information about it. We set off blind, taking all of our luggage with us. Although now burdened with all our stuff, we decided to take a boat from Vienna to Bratislava, and then a train to the next place. The boat ride was an hour and 15 minutes up the Danube. Beautiful ride!! The trees along river’s banks were fully green, and sprinkled with fishermen’s cottages. It was bucolic. On the boat, we met a 21 year old young woman named Christina, who is studying English. She was eager to talk to us in English and we were eager to talk with her about the weird questions we needed to get answered. Like: what do local Slovaks think Hrad Castle looks like? (ask three). The answer is: an upside down table with its legs in the air. We got two boat crew guys to tell us their views, and got the same answer. Fortunately, the boat had some tourist maps and even more fortunately, we met Christina and another woman who lives in Bratislava and could help us map out a very efficient plan to do a loop around the city to find the things we needed to find. One of the spots was a place formerly known as Stalinove Namestie and to say what happened there on December 13, 1992. The answer is that it is now known as the place of the Slovak National Uprising, when the people declared independence from Czechoslovakia. The cathedral, St. Martin’s, has hosted coronations of dozens of royals. Having known virtually nothing about Bratislava, in about one hour, we got a cram course and a whirlwind view. We got back on the boat and returned to Vienna to finish up a scavenge we had not completed the night before, and then off to “the” train station. At that point, we were considering three alternative routes. To decide, we needed accurate information about train schedules. We decided to go to the station in the south of the city because it is the departure point for Graz, where we thought we were most likely to go next. However, it turned out that the schedule was much too infrequent and would cause us to waste several hours to get the next train out. Oh! If we could only use the internet. This game lacks reality. Instead of juicing up the iPhone to check the train schedules, I am embarrassed to say that we spent over 15 Euros taking taxis (because we are lugging our suitcases now) from the boat to a train station and then to a second train station - to get the schedules so we could make our next move. A big factor in our move across Europe is to minimize the luggage hauling. We have to lock up our bags in train station lockers while we run around a city; retrieve the bags, and move on to the next city. We decided to go to Salzburg for three hours, on our way to Munich, where we would spend the night. As we dragged our bags toward the train station exit, Christine spied a hotel across the street that looked like it was decent. And…it was across the street.
We looked at the room, checked in, and zoomed off to do some scavenges in the old city. A lot of the things we saw were architectural – three old gates to the city, three different types of clock towers, and four different types of architecture. Last task of the evening was to go to what was once the World’s Biggest Bar – the Hofbrauhaus, where we experienced gemutlichkeit (having a good time), and did the bonus of singing along in a German drinking song, and then getting some fellow revelers to sing our national anthem. Choosing the right table to sit down at was key. We sat with two guys who did not know each other, and who we could draw in to create a happy little table. There was Willy, who was well on his way to merriment; and Joseph who was red-faced, smiley, and wearing lederhosen and a straw hat. They were ready to party. The oompah band was oomping away and the mood in the Hofbrauhaus was high-energy happy. Moments before we walked in, Munich’s soccer team just won a game that got them to the playoffs. We also aimed to do the taste test challenge of tasting three different kinds of beer (Pils, Helles, and Weizen) and making a video to comment on them. The thing was – no order smaller than a liter of beer. We passed on the idea of ordering three liters of beer at 6.90 Euros each. As it was, the one liter I ordered went unfinished, and Willy happily polished it off as we left – close to midnight.
The next morning, we did a really cool scavenge before our train left. We had to go to the Deutsches Museum, which focuses on industry and technology. We had to find out who created the World’s First Globe. The globle was in a case with a whole bunch of other globes – not singled out in any way. The little information card next to it states that it was indeed the world’s first globe. The creator was Martin Behaim. The thing is – he created it in 1492 the year of, but before he knew that Columbus discovered America. Bad timing! That was a really fun discovery.
In the train station before boarding our 10:08 train, we bought three beers and did the taste test which we passed over the night before. The verdict? All three taste really bad before 10:00.
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