FROM VERSAILLES TO VERSAILLES
This blog began to document my 47-day journey throughout Europe in the summer of 2012. After having such a great time writing about Europe, I decided to continue updating the blog with posts from all of my international travels. I hope you enjoy reading all about my time abroad!
Another unbelievable view of the Upper Belvedere in Vienna.
Here I am looking out at Vienna, Austria, from the Upper Belvedere.
This morning we woke up pretty early, thanked Andrew for saving us, and meandered back toward the Albertinum, Dresden’s gallery of new masters. The museum itself has some pretty strange features— for one, the classic marble museum architecture is juxtaposed with huge neon signs that advertise where different collections are located. But the art pieces are SUPER cool. There was an entire room dedicated to Otto Dix, which I appreciated, and I really enjoyed Georg Baselitz’s upside down portraits.
From there, I decided to enjoy lunch in a precious cafe outside the Zwinger. I ate asparagus lasagne and drank coffee that was to die for, all while enjoying one of my favorite pastimes: people watching. I met an interesting American student who was also eating alone in the cafe. (He noticed my embarrassing lack-of-German skills.) He was in Berlin studying for the summer, and we talked a little about the city’s upcoming Pride Festival.
Ben and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Zwinger, which includes the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (the Old Masters Picture Gallery), a math/physics museum, and a porcelain museum. The Gemäldegalerie was neat because it houses Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, a painting I’ve seen in books my entire life. There were also a lot of famous Vermeer, Rubens, and Rembrandt pieces, among others. My favorite museum, though, was the porcelain museum! That might sound strange to some people but I also collect teapots so there you have it.
In an hour Ben and I will board a train to Prague and leave Germany behind… for now.
I knew I would love Svát’a, our couchsurfing host in the Czech Republic, from the moment he picked us up at the train station. He was wearing pink shorts and a black straw fedora— a hilarious combination that I adore— and when he saw us walking toward him, he looked genuinely excited to see us. Svát’a may claim to hate people, but I could tell he has a soft spot for his couchsurfers.
He immediately shepherded us to his office in the city center, where he runs a super neat eco-friendly cleaning company. We talked for almost an hour about everything and nothing at the same time— I’ve honestly never seen Ben laugh so much as he did during that hour. Then Svát’a took us to a vegan restaurant chain called Loving Hut. We shared a massive amount of food, and he told us a hilarious story about the company’s crazy Supreme Master. We ended the evening with more hilarity and an intense conversation about krav maga.
The next day, Svát’a asked us what plans we had for exploring the city. When we told him that we would only be in Prague for one day, he pretty much laughed in our faces: “Only one day in Prague? Just go home already.” But then he suggested we take a free three-hour tour so that we could get a little taste of the city. The tour took us through Prague’s Old Town and Jewish Quarter. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to take another tour in the afternoon with the same guide. This time the tour took me to Prague’s castle and the Mala Strana district. I got to see a beautiful cathedral, the Golden Lane, Franz Kafka’s house, the president’s office, and the famous John Lennon wall.
The most amazing part, though, was the fantastic view of Prague that can only be seen from the castle grounds above the city. (There was also a platform in the middle of an amphitheater near the castle that makes you sound like you’re in a tunnel if you speak from it. Watching people’s expressions as they tried it out was also pretty funny and memorable.)
While I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Prague, I think Svát’a has a point: it’s impossible to explore everything the city offers in one day. I guess I’ll just have to visit my favorite Czech couchsurfing host again at some point in the future!
It’s like I’m allergic to this country.
Speaking of Dresden, I ate the most delicious meal of my entire life this afternoon in the city center. It’s another dönner kebab like the one in Berlin, but for some reason this particular dönner almost brought me to tears with its deliciousness. I’m not even exaggerating. So many tears were almost shed today.
Take today for example: we woke up at 10 a.m, said our goodbyes to Berlin’s most fabulous couchsurfing host ever (thanks again for everything, Aline!), and boarded a two-hour train to Dresden. Sounds leisurely, right? Well, it was for a little while…
…until we arrived in Dresden without any place to stay for the night. And when I say any place I literally mean ANY place. We couldn’t get in touch with the couchsurfing host we had planned on staying with. To make matters worse, every single hostel room in the city was booked because our visit happens to coincide with Dresden’s annual street fair, or the Bunte Republik Neustadt. We were literally sitting in a Starbucks in downtown Dresden on the verge of tears. (Well maybe Ben wasn’t, but I sure was.)
Just as pure panic began to set in, we received a response to our urgent couchsurfing request! I have never felt so relieved in my life. Within 40 minutes, we met our new host, Andrew, and embarked on a fantastic five-hour tour of Dresden.
Andrew showed us the entire city, complete with places we would’ve never stumbled upon by ourselves. Dresden is an absolutely breathtaking city, and it’s almost impossible to believe that all of the buildings had to be reconstructed after World War II. We walked all around the old city, the new city, the street festival, and the city garden. We also happened upon a huge open air concert by the Dresden philharmonic, but by that point my feet felt completely swollen so I could barely enjoy the music.
Now I’m laying next to Ben on a couch in the middle of Dresden, hosted by a person we met less than 12 hours ago. Isn’t it insane how the couchsurfing community works?
I’ve managed to have yet another exciting afternoon in the beautiful city of Berlin. Ben and I began the day at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst. It took about an hour to get there (it’s located a decent distance outside the city center in Dahlem-Dorf) but the journey was 100 percent worth it. The museum is located right beside Aline’s university in a pretty little suburb that looks perfectly German. Not only was the neighborhood fun to walk through, but the exhibits were also very well put together and thoroughly interesting. We were there mainly to see the Indian, Tibetan, and other Asian art— which was great— but both Ben and I enjoyed the Native American exhibit in the neighboring Etnologisches Museum the most. The collection genuinely fought back against “Indian” stereotypes and had some great costumes, crafts, and other Native American artifacts.
Then we traveled to the Judisches Museum, where we learned about Jewish history, especially in Germany. The building itself was architecturally fantastic, and I really enjoyed certain aspects of it. (There was unfortunately little time to explore, but there was one room filled with more than 10,000 iron faces that really gave me the chills.)
Checkpoint Charlie happened to be nearby, so we walked by that before splitting up to go our separate ways for the rest of the afternoon. I ended up aimlessly traipsing around Berlin and ran into a HUGE protest about rights for disabled people. It’s interesting what you stumble upon without even trying sometimes.
I ended the evening with some raspberry sorbet and a fantastic view. Hopefully the rest of our trip ends up being as great as today has been!
I know those words shouldn’t be coming out of my mouth just yet— I mean, it’s technically only day 4 of 29— but I’m so exhausted in such a fulfilling way.
After catching up with Ben yesterday at the film museum, we walked a couple of blocks to the Neues Nationalgalerie, Berlin’s more contemporary art gallery. IT WAS AMAZING. I’m kind of a sap for contemporary art anyway, but the Neues Nationalgalerie collection blew my mind. For one, they had all sorts of multimedia pieces, from a “light room” with projectors set up to create patterns on the walls to a liquid timer that formed super neat bubbles. I guess that’s the nature of art pieces lately, but it was fun to experience it here in Berlin. (That being said, I’ve never seen museum guards get so furious when people stepped too close toward art that shouldn’t be touched. Whoa, baby.) The American pop art fan in me also found it fascinating to see Andy Warhol’s double Elvis piece in person. How incredibly iconic is that? Maybe I’m just biased after visiting Graceland over Spring Break.
Ben and I followed up the Neues Nationalgalerie with a trip to the Gemäldegalerie, which houses work from the Old Masters— think Rembrandt and Botticelli. I actually got thrown out at first for having a water bottle with me (who knew that was a crime?) but I snuck my way back in to spend a solid hour or two in the museum. Ben thinks it’s funny that one of the first things I said upon seeing the collection was: “Hey, look! A picture of Jesus!” Little did I know the museum is almost ENTIRELY comprised of religious paintings. Ben found it particularly interesting to trace Jesus’s skin tone through the years. (For those interested, apparently artists portray Jesus as whiter and more European-looking as the centuries progress. I wish I had stopped to consider that idea as I walked through the gallery, but he didn’t mention it until later.) I found it entertaining to study the hundreds of poses in which people chose to paint the Madonna and child. It’s hard to notice that sort of thing until you’re presented with three or four full rooms of Madonna and child portraits.
By the time we finished at the Gemäldegalerie, it was already approaching 6 p.m. and we hadn’t even eaten yet! So we trekked across town with expired metro tickets— now THAT is a hilarious story— and I enjoyed a true Berlin dönner kebab in one of the neighborhoods Aline suggested we visit today. One word: delicious.
Like last night, we ended the evening in Aline’s kitchen with more yummy food (two types of bread, lettuce, sandwich spread, and peanut butter) and fun conversation. I think I could really get used to life in Berlin… assuming I started to get a little more rest!
There are only so many places with free Wi-Fi in Europe.
