Swisslicious: a blog about 3 months in Switzerland

Back in Switzerland: Geneva, Montreux, Chateau de Chillon, Zermatt

2007-12-29T00:27:00.000+01:00

We arrived in Geneva very late at night, and luckily, just caught the last train leaving the airport and into the city. We arrived, hungry and wouldn’t you know it, there was a Chinese restaurant with karaoke right underneath our hotel, where we both enjoyed the most expensive (roughly 35 francs total), mediocre, Chinese meal ever.

The next morning, we allotted 2 hours to tour Geneva, which you wouldn’t think was enough time, but when your city’s claim to fame is a clock made out of plants:

and a fountain in the middle of a lake that they wasn’t turn on that day because it was too windy, the two hours outdoors on a cold day was plenty. And by the way, I just used the words windy, lake, and cold in the same sentence – not the greatest of combinations as you can imagine, right Waverly?

After strolling the streets and passing by dozens of high-end watch shops, we high tailed it back to our hotel, grabbed our luggage and were off to Montreux, a beautiful city on the shores of Lake Geneva.

The sun finally came out in the afternoon, and we perused the winter markets by the water:

walked for about a mile along Lake Geneva:

and eventually made our way to Chateau de Chillon:

which apparently is the most visited tourist spot in all of Switzerland – although I’m sure the garden clock in Geneva came a very close second.

We did a self guided tour of the inside of the castle, which was overall, very underwhelming. Sure, some of the views from the very top were nice:

but more than anything else, it was the setting of Chateau de Chillon that made it so enchanting:

The sun was setting, and it was time to head off. Instead of walking back to Montreux, we hopped on a bus, pretended to put money in the self service pay machine towards the back (those Swiss are so trusting) and crossed our fingers that no one would ask us for our fare ticket until our stop came up in 10 minutes.

We caught our train to Zermatt, which required a change along the way, but after 3 hours or so, we arrived. What’s neat about Zermatt is that there are no cars allowed. None whatsoever. It’s kind of a funny scene when all these tourists arrive at the train station with confusion and bewilderment on their faces with no cars, taxis or buses in sight.

Luckily, our hotel had arranged for their electric shuttle cart to come pick us up. Speaking of the hotel, this was the best hotel we’ve stayed at on our entire trip. We had a balcony with a partial view of the Matterhorn, which I was particularly excited about when the hostess pointed it out, even though it was pitch black outside and I couldn’t see a single thing. And after staying at a 100 year old hotel that was facing demolition in London, hostels during our France-Spain road trip, and a hotel in Zurich that I swear had prostitutes working in front of it, this place was our Four Seasons.

We ventured out into town in the freezing cold for some dinner and came upon a Fondue place, where afterwards I felt ill and swore off any form of melted cheese dipping for the rest of my life.

We ventured back out into the cold, and boy was it cold. You know it’s cold when the bar outside is made out of solid ice:

On our walk back to our hotel, I received a call on my cell phone and it was for a phone interview from Yahoo! (I had interviews lined up before the trip, but never got the emailed the schedule and luckily, Waverly told me to keep my phone on just in case. In fact, while in Paris, we were stopping at internet cafes so I could check my email and see when the times were and was stressing out because I hadn’t received anything.)

So because I can’t stand having another person in the room with me while I do phone interviews, I decided to talk for 40 minutes on our balcony, which really wasn’t the brightest thing to do considering it was well below freezing outside.

I think it was a combination of warm liquid cheese in my stomach and being outside in the cold, because I quickly became sick beyond belief. Coughing, sore throat, and fever set upon me, and needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well that night.

Paris: Day 4 - Last Day

2007-12-10T05:38:00.000+01:00

Our last day in Paris was a relaxing one. We decided to revisit two spots we saw at night but not during the day; Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.

It was a gorgeous day, the sun was out, and definitely made up for yesterday's winter chill. It was only fitting to see Paris' two greatest sites with the sun reflecting beautifully off it. And not to mention, it made for great photos:

Our day ended sitting down at a cafe, enjoying a typical French meal of onion soup, escargot and duck confit, and with the sun set reflecting off Notre Dame in the background.

Life is good.

Paris: Day 3

2007-12-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

Cold, wind, and outdoor walking does not make the best combination. We experienced that first hand on our third day.

We first went to the Arc de Triomphe, where we scaled 284 steps to the top and although that doesn't sound like a lot of steps, try telling that to Waverly.

At the top, we took in a 360 degree view of Paris, albeit under fog.

After we were done, the plan was the stroll down Champs-Élysées, then walk towards the Louvre, and catch whatever scenery on the way. A good idea on a warm spring, summer, or fall day, not such a good idea in the middle of December.

However, we persevered, and did our share of window shopping. And what woman's trip to Paris is complete without stopping by the mother ship, aka the Louis Vuitton flagship store. Notice the devilish grin on her face:

We eventually made it to the Louvre, where I was reminded numerous times by Waverly who the architect was that designed the glass pyramid (hint: he's Taiwanese).

With this being probably our 20th museum on the trip, we made a bee line to the famous pieces; Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and then basically killed time, not wanting to go back out into the bitter cold. Oh, and we also snuck in a one hour lap behind some statue.

It was eventually closing time at the museum, and I couldn't resist a night shot of the glass pyramid (who was that architect again Waverly?).

We roamed the streets for a bit and stumbled upon a nice place for dinner where Waverly got the Beef Tartar, which is a fancy word for uncooked hamburger. Good thing she asked for it seared instead of completely raw which is how it is normally served.

After dinner, we had one last stop in the cold, the Grande Arche at La Défense, the major business district of the city.

Paris: Day 2

2007-12-09T06:51:00.000+01:00

When I last visited Paris, I didn't get the chance to visit the Palace of Versailles, a place I remember reading about in my high school history text book as a palace that was not only beautiful and enchanting, but also where the treaty that ended the First World War was signed, a treaty so harsh and unfair that evidently laid the groundwork for the Second World War (Okay, I confess, I wrote a paper on the treaty, a 20 page paper in fact).

When we woke in the morning, we hopped on the metro and took a 20 minute ride outside the city, where along the way we passed the Statue of Liberty, a smaller version of the real thing (sorry, we were moving too fast and were too far away to snap a picture of it).

After getting off our stop and walking a couple of blocks, we saw the palace and one world could sum it up it best:

Grand.

And I mean grand in every sense of the word. So magnificent and extravagant, that our Canon point and shoot digital camera could never do it justice.

But that doesn't mean I didn't try...

The hall of mirrors:

Painting of Napolean's Coronation:

The garden:

After walking around the whole day and immersing ourselves in the palace and the outside grounds, we said goodbye and boarded a train back to Paris and planted ourselves in front of a heaping plate of mussels and fries for dinner.

Full and content, we strolled around and found ourselves at the Eiffel Tower, where we posed for pictures and almost ruined the most romantic memory any couple could have between them. Here's how it went down:

After Waverly grew tired of countless pictures of us with me holding the camera with my outstretched arm and cutting off the Tower in the photo, she deplored me to ask someone to help us take one of us together. So low and behold, there was a couple to our left, nuzzled together, partaking in a romantic moment, with the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the background. I had my reservations about being that annoying tourist that interrupts people for a picture, but had very little choice with Waverly breathing down my neck. As I waited for the right moment to intrude, I glanced over to find the young man holding a jewelry box open with a ring inside. Now, imagine me, ruining that perfect moment with a "uhm.. excuse me, can you take a picture for us?"

But you know what, the pictures I did take with my outstretched arm will do just fine.

Paris: Day 1

2007-06-11T07:34:00.000+02:00

Our easyJet flight, much delayed, arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport pretty late into the night. We took a train into Paris, transfered once at a station, and miraculously found the right line to our hotel.

After we got out of the metro, we had a hard time finding the street our hotel was located and was forced into the unfortunate situation of roaming the streets of an unfamiliar city at night with our luggage, looking very much like ~~targets~~ tourists.

The next morning we headed over to the Sainte Chapelle, which is filled with beautiful stained glass windows. Unfortunately, it wasn't very sunny -- rainy in fact, and there was no sunlight to shine through the chapel.

Afterwards, we went to the prison that Marie Antoinette was apparently held before her execution, and then grabbed some grub at a cafe. This was the first of many tasty treats we had in Paris -- egg, sunny side up, on top of melted cheese and toast with ham.

We wandered through the Latin Quarter (at least I think that's where we were) a bit, and eventually made our way to the Pantheon -- not to be confused with the Pantheon in Rome.

Inside, they had these weird white drops hanging form the ceiling - apparently it was "art", which I thought detracted away from my whole Pantheon experience. Now, instead of thinking of the Pantheon as a marvelous, grand temple of the gods, I'll instead have nightmares of white goop crushing me:

It was already dark, and we decided to take a tea and crepe break before heading out into the cold again, and eventually headed to Notre Dame, which looks awesome at night.

London: Day 3

2007-05-07T07:17:00.000+02:00

Our final day started off with us delightfully leaving our hotel, which in 3 weeks will be met with a wrecking ball -- and it couldn't have happened sooner.

After dropping off our bags at the front desk and paying 5 pounds for the privilege (the first hotel in Europe we've stayed at that charges for that), we hoped onto the tube and headed towards the the City to check out St Paul's Cathedral and the financial district.

After exiting the subway and walking in the wrong direction for about 15 minutes, I asked a very helpful ~~policemen~~ bobby, who pointed us in the right way.

The odd thing about St. Paul's was how there were hardly any tourists there -- just normal, everyday people. Who would've thought, a church in Europe where people actually came to worship and not just to pose and take pictures... like this:

After St Paul's, we walked over to the financial district, or "Bank Junction"

and stopped by the Bank of England museum to learn about things we forgot shortly after.

We hopped back onto the tube towards Buckingham Palace, where it was a foot race to make it for the changing of the guard. Luckily, we made it before it began, but unfortunately, the masses had already swarmed the area.

After crowding around the gate and admiring the back of peoples' heads for half an hour, we decided to leave and promptly dubbed it, "most over-rated changing of the guard...ever."

We then proceeded to take a stroll in the park where Waverly met up with some of her friends:

To cap off our adventures in London, we headed over to the biggest tourist sucker of them all, the London Eye. The ride took about 30 minutes, with the first 10 minutes filled with "ooo's" and "awww's" and the last 10 minutes with "is this thing over yet?"

With all the main sights of London under our belt, we retrieved our luggage, dragged it cross town to a random train station in order to catch a train to Luton airport, where it was off to the one most beautiful cities in all of Europe...

London: The Cornish Pasty

2007-04-21T22:31:00.000+02:00

I feel in love with the Cornish Pasty during my summer in Bristol some 5 years ago. Picture an apple turnover, with meat, potatoes, and onion stew inside. Amazing stuff, and I ate one almost everyday. History has it, workers in Cornwall wanted to have their meat stew for lunch at work, but being difficult to eat, their wives conveniently baked it into an enclosed crust. I actually had the opportunity to go to the Cornwall area that summer and try one there.

So on a cold night, Waverly and I spotted the Cornish Bakehouse, and we of course had to indulge ourself -- the sign did say "award winning" after all.

London: Day 2

2007-04-20T07:40:00.000+02:00

With this being our only full day in London, day 2 was jammed pack with good old English excitement. Our fist stop was Westminster, where we strolled along the river, with the London Eye across the water and Big Ben straight ahead. Before we reached Westminster, I had the sudden urge to make a phone call while holding the phone booth door open:

After I finished my call, we found ourselves at Westminster Abbey, where I pretended to be a student and Waverly and I both got in for a discounted price of 14 pounds (that's 28 dollars to you Yankees). It was interesting to see all the elaborately decorated tombs of the royal family, and the highlight was being able to ~~sit~~ see the coronation chair.

After the Abbey, we headed across the street to the Parliament and sat in both the House of Lords and House of Commons for some riveting debates about the UK Royal Mail.

We eventually pulled ourselves away from the intellectual battle over what time post offices should be closed and hopped on the tube and took it to the Tower of London, which can be seen here, behind the giant fish & chips we had for lunch:

The great thing about the Tower of London is how throughout the years, it's transformed from a Royal Residence to a prison, and now a tourist destination with a temporary ice skating rink built on what used to be the moat.

After doing the usual Tower of London things...

...posing in front of the Bloody Tower (or at least the sign for the Bloody Tower):

...looking at knights in shining armor:

...and taking pictures in front of head chopping blocks:

...I managed eventually to kill our camera battery taking a zillion pictures of the Tower Bridge:

...so we decided to head back to the ~~roach~~ Regent Palace Hotel, charge the battery, and take a nap before finishing off the rest of the night, which included:

Eating dinner at a pub (fish & chips and meat pies were on the menu):

and then heading back to Westminster, to see the glorious lights at night:

London: Day 1

2007-04-02T02:06:00.000+02:00

London was the first leg of our final trip in Europe. We planned on flying to London, then to Paris, and finally to Geneva and taking the train back to St. Gallen.

With full suitcases, we arrived in London in the afternoon, and what a surprise, it was overcast, gloomy, and looked like it was going rain. We unloaded our things at the Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly Circus and it was pretty much what you'd except from a big, 1000 room hotel that was 100 years old and going out of business at the end of the year; weathered, worn out, and kinda unpleasant. But for 49 pounds a night (an absolute steal especially when they were charging walk ins 129 pounds a night), and being located in Piccadilly Circus, you couldn't really complain.

We headed over to the British Museum and marveled at the world's greatest treasures under one roof. The British Museum is kind of like if your neighbor came into your house and stole all valuable things, and then displayed it in their living room and invited everyone on the block to come and look at it. The best example being the Parthenon, where the most famous ruins sit in the museum and not in Greece.

Other highlights from the museum included the Rosetta Stone:

and Cleopatra's mummy:

After being told the museum was closing and ushered off several times (there was just too darn much to see), we roamed around the streets and at night's end, found ourselves at a pub, where I ordered one of my favorite drinks, snake-bite and black.

When In Rome... Recap: Day 5 Finale

2007-03-19T06:52:00.000+01:00

Our fifth and final day in Rome was spent visiting things we had already seen at night,it was but not during the day.

It started of as a gorgeous day and the city had closed the roads that leads to the Coliseum for pedestrians which was made this particular shot possible:

We finally went up the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II, which contrasted with everything else we've seen in Rome because -- you know, it didn't have its columns laying on the ground and wasn't in ruins.

Afterwards, we came across more random ruins, and made our way towards the Pantheon, which was surprisingly well preserved for something built in the year 125.

The clouds slowly started creeping up during the day, and we decided to find something to eat, and even though the McDonald's 20 yards across from the Pantheon was tempting (somewhere, someone is rolling over in their grave), we found a small little restaurant that served great food, and amazing tiramisu -- which by the way goes great with a cafe (even though I don't drink coffee) and might have passed strawberry cheese cake to top my favorite desert list.

After lunch, we dragged out luggage, in the rain to the train station, while along the way looking for a last minute luggage to hold all of Waverly's recently purchased shoes.

When In Rome... Recap: Day 4 Sistine Chapel

2007-03-19T03:23:00.000+01:00

December is meant to be the low season for tourism in Rome. Meaning, the prices for hotels are usually a little cheaper and not as many tourists. Well, let's just say if this was low season, I'd hate to be here in the summer during high season. Case in point:

We arrived at the Vatican Museum in the morning around opening, hoping there would be minimal wait time. And if in "minimal" I really meant a line of that snaked around the entire museum for 10 blocks filled with tour groups, then I'd say, our hopes were answered.

When it takes you 15 minutes to walk from the end to the beginning of the line, you know you're in for a world of hurt. And for the next two and half hours of staring at the back of the people in front of me and eavesdropping on other tourists' conversations, we finally got into the museum at around noon. Not really in the mood for perusing the entire collection, we decided to make a bee line towards the Sistine Chapel. After weaving around the museum for about an hour in another line, we finally made it, and I'd have to say, it was definitely worth all the waiting.

When we first entered the chapel, we were immediately greeted by a huge crowd, whispering loudly and taking pictures of the ceiling and walls. Then, about every ten minutes or so, you hear an announcement telling people talking and taking photos are forbidden, which momentarily silences the crowd and shutters, to only start up again five seconds after the announcement was made.

Of course, I got my shots in:

and Waverly napped while I just let the whole thing sink in, thinking about what Robin Williams said to Matt Damon in that park bench scene in Good Will Hunting: "So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling."

Will Hunting hasn't. But now I have. How do you like them apples?

We left the museum shortly after and of course, there was no line anymore going in anymore. We perused the shops around the Vatican area and Waverly went into hunt and destroy mode at a 15 Euro shoe stand.

After she scored two pairs of shoes (they were made in Italy okay?) we walked across a bridge and back into Rome and found all the people that were waiting in line at the museum had camped out in front of the Spanish Steps:

Low season? I think not.

When In Rome... Recap: Day 3 The Vatican

2007-01-18T19:19:00.000+01:00

After a quick stop at an internet cafe/souvenir store, where Waverly emailed homework to her professor, we decided to take the subway to the Vatican because of the rain. There are only two lines to the Rome metro, A and B; and they only intersect at one station: the main train station in Rome. So, you take 2.5 million people living in the city, give them 2 metro lines, have them intersect at one of the largest train stations in Europe, and you get this at 11:00 am on a Friday:

When we finally arrived (I think it would have been faster to walk), we found hordes of people gathered at St. Peter's Square in front of the cathedral. There was already a long queue forming to get in so we waited in line, passed through the metal detectors, and walked into the biggest, and possibly the finest church we've seen in all of Europe.

What was even more impressive then the inside:

was the top:

and the very very top of the dome -- even if it took 2 hours of waiting and walking up narrow, crowded, corridor steps to get there:

The sun was already setting when we were done with St. Peter's, so we decided to walk along the square to the river. On our way there, people lined the streets selling ~~fake~~ replica designer purses, belts and wallets, leading you to wonder, "If they can sell this stuff in the Vatican City, where can't they sell it?"

Later, we headed over to Trastevere, where we had dinner, visited a church, perused the street markets, and more importantly, where Waverly scored a pair of 36 Euro boots (if anyone asks, they were made in Italy okay?).

We capped off the day by ducking from the rain and heading over to the Colosseum again, which is just as awesome at night time.

When In Rome... Recap: Day 2 Roman Forum

2007-01-05T02:56:00.000+01:00

Even though it feels like an eternity since we were in Rome -- or in Europe for that matter, I'm going to attempt to recreate our memories by finishing up our trip recaps. Thankfully, I took an average of 1.2 photos per minute during our trips, so it shouldn't be too hard to remember what happened.

So where were we? Ah yes, Rome, day 2, or as I like to refer to it, the day after visiting the coolest thing ever (see When In Rome... Recap: Day 1 - Colosseum).

It started off a beautiful day and we decided to head on over to Palatine Hill, where the ruins of wealthy Roman families' estates were. As we were walking by the ticket booth, we saw our "archaeologist" tour guide from our Colosseum tour yesterday selling tickets. Waverly and I immediately looked at each other and she commented, "maybe archaeologists don't make that much money," but we decided to give him a free pass and assume he was just getting ready for a Palatine Hill tour and happened to be hanging out at the ticket booth.

Feeling somewhat duped, we walked up the hill, and were greeted with amazing views overlooking the Roman Forum:

and also ran into a guy that people probably didn't like that much:

We descended from the hill and strolled around the Forum, where only decaying columns and arches can allude to what once was.

Closing Times...

2006-12-28T22:22:00.000+01:00

Although we've been back home in the States for a almost a week now, you can say our trip officially ended today when Waverly flew back home.

More recaps to come of the last weeks of our trip...

When In Rome... Recap: Day 1 - Colosseum

2006-12-12T19:37:00.000+01:00

One of the great things about Europe is you can hop on a plane and in 1.5 hours, you are in a completely different world. That was the case this past week when Waverly and I visited Rome.

We arrived in Rome at 9 in the morning and headed straight to the hotel. Finding the place proved to be a bit tricky. We arrived at the address I had and there was no name of our hotel, "The Mattisse" on the building directory. Dentist office, other hotel names, but not ours. After walking up and down the street some more, we called the number provided in the email but got the voice mail, in Italian of course. After thinking I had just paid for an imaginary hotel, we decided to walk into the building to ask if anyone's ever heard of the place.

Fortunately, after walking to the second floor, we saw the hotel name hanging on a big wooden door. We tried opening the door but it was locked. We rang the bell -- nothing. We banged very loudly -- nobody. Frustrated, I walked up another flight and found a hotel that had a front desk and asked the lady about "The Mattisse." She responded in an annoyed tone "You have to call them, they are never there, they come, give you the key, and leave."

Super. I walked back down and after some more banging on the door and more failed phone attempts, the cleaning lady finally came and let us in. She promptly hooked us up with a choice of 3 rooms, gave us a map and circled the places to see in Rome, showed us the breakfast area and then told us we needed to pay in cash, but if we didn't have it now, just pay whenever.

If only casinos and student loans could be that easy.

After a short nap (I had gotten about 2 hours of sleep the night prior), we headed to the place I was looking forward to seeing the most in all of Europe -- the Colosseum.

I can describe the Colosseum in two words: bad ass. It's massive, imposing, and you can't help feel that it's a good thing it's so badly damaged because it adds so much to its aura.

We decided to take a tour inside, and our guide, who's first words out of his mouth was "I am an archaeologist" was extremely knowledgeable. In fact, he was almost too knowledgeable because he would go on and on about a topic while standing in one place, and all I really wanted to do was walk around and take pictures before the sun sets.

Some neat things we learned about the Colosseum: admission was 100% free to all the citizens, much of the marble, iron, and stones had been taken from the structure and used to build the churches throughout Rome, and that it's actually possible to take 90 photos of it and still want to take more.

After the sun set, we decided to roam around Rome a bit (sorry I had to), and checked out the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II which commemorates the unification of Italy:

and made some wishes at the Trevi Fountain, where, if you throw a coin over your shoulder, your wish will come true:

... but Waverly, seriously, no need to make a wish, I already came true... (sorry again, I had to).

Glühwein

2006-12-12T13:49:00.000+01:00

When Waverly and I were at the Christmas tree lighting a week ago, almost everyone had a paper cup in their hand and was sipping some sort of hot, steaming beverage. Hot chocolate? SwissMiss perhaps? Nope. It was Glühwein, or translated into English, "glowing wine" and is only served around Christmas time and meant to warm you up during the cold weather.

Later that evening, we went to Waverly's German teacher's house and her husband demonstrated for us how to make this tasty treat:

Double fist two bottles of red wine (he said not to buy cheap wine) into a pot and heat:

Pour in juice from half a lemon:

Add just a pinch of... err... dump in some sugar:

Add a couple of cloves:

some orange zest:

and two packets of Glühwein Vin Chaud, which is basically all the ingredients above plus some cinnamon in a tea bag:

Bring everything to a boil and serve with a smile:

Busy Times Ahead

2006-12-06T02:16:00.000+01:00

I can't believe our time in Switzerland is winding down. We started it off big with our 4 city trek of Salzburg, Vienna, Prague and Munich and we're gonna end in style too. Go big or go home I right? (And in our case, we're going to do both.)

Here's our travel schedule for the rest of our time in Europe:

Dec 06th-10th: Rome
Dec 13th-15th: London
Dec 15th-19th: Paris
Dec 19th-22nd: Stuff in Switzerland (TBD)

Christmas is in the Air

2006-12-03T23:22:00.000+01:00

It's feeling a lot like Christmas here in St. Gallen. The narrow roads of the Marketplatz are adorned with lights while the newly erected wooden booths fill up the streets, selling everything from tree ornaments to Christmas cookies.

Today, Waverly and I went to the tree lighting by the Cathedral that took place at 5 o'clock (or 17:00 as I've slowly come to know it here). There was a live outdoor band, with all its members dressed in Santa costumes, belting out Christmas tunes.

The area around the tree was so mobbed, you would think little elves were handing out free cheese and sausage to the first 100 people. It also led me to joke with Waverly that I've never seen so many white people in one place before, which she countered with, "didn't you grow up in upstate NY and western Massachusetts?" Touché.

There's definitely something different about Christmas in Switzerland. Unlike in the states, it's not constantly thrown in my face with Christmas sale ads and the whole holiday shopping craze. Maybe it's because the celebratory origins of Christmas has such strong German ties. Or maybe it's because the people here aren't insane. In any case, Christmas here just seems more relaxed, spirited and above all, a celebration to be enjoyed with loved ones, underneath the moon, in front of a glowing tree.

Finding a Hotel Online = Hell on Earth

2006-12-01T01:30:00.000+01:00

You'd think that by now I'd be a wiz at finding hotels online. Not the case. In fact, it's right up there on the Internet fun meter between doing taxes online and trying to self diagnose yourself on webMD.

My utter disdain for finding hotels can be attributed to two key factors. 1) I have no money. Who would have thought not working for 3 months and living in the most expensive countries in Europe would limit one's spending. And when you are hotel hunting on a thrift, it's extremely hard to find a nice place that's close to all the attractions and when walking back to it at night won't make you want to clutch onto your valuables for dear life. 2) I wait till the last minute. Sure, you might think lounging around the apartment all day would afford me plenty of time to plan ahead -- but no, my natural procrastinating tendencies wouldn't allow that. And when you are trying to find that cheap, centrally located hotel one week prior to your arrival, the choices become rather limited.

Case in point: Booking a hotel in Rome.

We booked our flight to Rome about 2 weeks ago, but I decided to put off the hotel search till now, a week before our trip. I thought maybe no one visits Rome in the winter time, it being cold and all. And besides, it's a big city with lots of choices right?

I first go to venere.com, a great site filled with a ton of user reviews and also allows you to search for hotels by clicking on an area of a map filled with landmarks. Great for those unfamiliar with a city.

So I proceed to click on all the prominent areas of Rome and it spits back a list of 2-3 star hotels in the 60, 70, 80 Euro range. Great. I was ecstatic. But then I soon realize I forgot to plug in the specific nights of our stay.

Okay, so Dec 6th check-in... Dec 10th check-out... 2 people... Search.

Suddenly, all those 70 Euro hotels were replaced with 250 and 300 Euro a night ones. I quickly click on "sort by price" and all sub 150 Euro hotels are under the location category, "suburbs" or situated in the far outskirts of the city limits.

I immediately go to my back up sites: booking.com, sidestep.com, and kayak.com. Same results. I get desperate. I franticly go to google and type in the search box: "cheap rome hotels please for the love of god".

For the next 5 hours I proceed to sift through dozens of hotel search sites, most of which you wouldn't feel comfortable submitting your credit card to. My standard approach is to first look at the price, find out whether anything is available (some require you to submit a form with your dates and they promise to get back to you within 24 hours), google the hotel name to look for any reviews, and then copy and paste the hotel address into google maps to get a better sense of its location.

After countless hotels and 500 opened Firefox tabs later, I finally zero in on a place and book it, only to get a frantic email from the hotel staff the next day stating:

I don't have the room for the period required!
I availability only 6 and 7 ( 2 night).
Please , send me urgent.

I quickly "send them urgent" telling them that I booked the room through their website and received a confirmation number from them. They then respond with a cancellation email with no explanation, leading me to proclaim, "if you can't trust a confirmation number from a hotel anymore, then who in this world can you trust?"

At this point, extreme anxiety starts to set in, kinda like the feeling you get during an exam when you look up at the clock and realize you have 1 minute left to finish 10 problems. Suddenly, those hotels in the suburbs were looking pretty good as long as it was close to a subway and "would it be really that bad to share a bathroom with the entire floor?"

Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and after more searching, I was able to find a place that was close to the Colosseum, looked relatively clean, and was cheaper than the hotel I originally booked.

I think that after this recent episode, I've finally learned my lesson of waiting till the last minute to book a hotel. But then again... nah... you can't fight human nature.

Amster-DAMN That Was a Good Time

2006-11-30T00:23:00.000+01:00

Our 3 days in Amsterdam had to be our most relaxing trip so far in Europe (except for the whole almost missing the flight back home thing). Amsterdam is a lot like Venice, except the canals are wider, the streets are cleaner, and the city doesn't exist just for tourists.

Here's a picture of the canal streets during the day:

and at night:

We arrived in Amsterdam in the early morning and spent the good part of the day roaming around the city, perusing the shops and tulip markets, and Waverly fulfilling her dream of wearing over-sized Dutch wooden shoes.

We made our way towards the Heineken Brewery, and to be clear, it's not an actual brewery. It was one back in the day but has since moved elsewhere. Now, it's more like an interactive museum and more appropriately named, the "Heineken Experience." Nevertheless, it was a fun time and the 10 Euro admission fee got us 3 free beers and a souvenir bottle opener. And also, just so you know, nothing is better than ice cold Heineken from the tap, straight out of the brewery... err... museum... err... experience, or whatever they want to call it.

After dinner, we made our way back to our hotel and wouldn't you know, we happened to stumble across the Red Light District. And of course, the Amsterdam Chinatown was located right next to it, leading me to wonder... "why does every Chinatown in the world have to be located in a shady area?"

The Red Light District is always a bit shocking (this is my second trip to Amsterdam). At first you ask yourself if you really are seeing what you are seeing; blocks and blocks of half-naked girls behind glass doors, each one looking at you provocatively as you pass them by. Then after a while, you eventually become desensitized to the prostitutes, and not to mention the smell of marijuana on the street and the drug dealers who whisper "coca" and "ecstasy" to you as you pass them by.

Initially I felt somewhat sleazy taking Waverly there, but then realized it's just another tourist destination, filled with women, couples, and regular people that are just as curious as we are.

Our next day in Amsterdam started with a trip to the Ann Frank House, which was very moving and well done. Here is the front of the house:

Next up was the Van Gogh Museum, which had to be one of the best museums I've ever been to and much more interesting than your typical European museum -- 'cause really, how many paintings of Jesus and Mary can one really take? And although the museum was missing some of Van Gogh's most famous pieces, notably Starry Night, we were able to see other great works like Bedroom in Arles, Wheat Field with Crows, and numerous self portraits.

The Late Bird Almost Misses the Flight Back to Zurich

2006-11-28T15:07:00.002+01:00

There really is nothing better then ending a wonderful 3-day vacation than packing into a rush hour train to the airport like sardines and then running through the terminal like a crazy man to catch the last flight out of town.

The train we originally planned to take to the airport was first delayed 15 minutes. Then it arrived on a different platform. Then after finally getting onto the train, we sat waiting for another 15 minutes to only find out there were engine problems and we would have to go to another train. Ultimately, we arrived at the airport within 30 minutes of departure and luckily, due to heavy fog in Zurich, the plane was delayed taking off and we were able to make it.

More on the less hectic portion of our trip later...

The Early Bird Catches the Flight to Amsterdam

2006-11-24T21:45:00.000+01:00

Waverly and I will be waking up ridiculously early tomorrow to catch the train to the airport for our 7:20am flight to Amsterdam.

Although, waking up at 4:30 might seem like a walk in the park for some of you ~~insane~~ smart bargain shoppers back home today.

Bern: A Bear of a Good Time

2006-11-23T16:21:00.000+01:00

Life returned back to normal shortly after Scott and Viphak left, and I was back to my usual wake up at noon and lounge around the apartment till Waverly gets back from school schedule.

This past Saturday, we decided do some traveling within Switzerland, and it started out with going to the Swiss Capital -- Bern.

Okay, we really went to Interlaken first but it was such an over hyped, disappointment of a town that I wish to erase it from my memory, and thus, there will be no further mention of it on this blog. In fact, let me just cross this paragraph out right now and let's pretend I never wrote this.

We arrived at Bern in the late afternoon, but much like Switzerland's other cities, you can basically see it all in within 2 hours. One of the highlights included the old town, which featured numerous fountains, clock towers, and an eclectic collection of shops and restaurants. Just by walking around, you wouldn't even know you were in Switzerland's capital, due to the city's small size and its buildings' modest architecture.

And despite the fact that some of Bern's most prominent sites, like its cathedral and parliament building were buried behind ugly scaffolding, we were still able to come away with some bear-riffic pictures (did I mention that the city is named after a bear?)

Euro Road Trip Recap: Day 7 - The Journey Ends at Neuschwanstein Castle

2006-11-22T18:02:00.000+01:00

After a night of beer-gardening, we woke up pretty late and missed the hostel breakfast. Because Scott and Viphak were too inebriated to buy souvenirs the night before at the Hofbräuhaus, we decided to drive there before heading to Neuschwanstein Castle.

On our way, we were pulled over by the police (still don't know why). As Scott stopped on the side of the road, Viphak took the opportunity to open his passenger door and spit on the ground. What he didn't see however was the second of two police officers standing right in front of him as he did it.

The officer, with a shocked and appalled look on her face begins to ask him where he's from.

He responds, "the U.S."

She counters with "You can't do that here. You get fined."

Viphak then comments with "Sorry, I had a lot to drink last night."

After collectively groaning and putting our hands over our faces after Viphak's attempt to sweet talk the officer, we sat in the car silently as they looked over our passports.

The officers eventually let us go and even thought it was unlikely Viphak would be jailed and we'd for some reason need a new rental car, oddly enough, the thought did cross my mind.

What we originally thought would take half an hour to get to Neuschwanstein, turned into a brutal 2.5 hours of rainy, back roads driving. We arrived at 3:50pm, just in time to catch the last castle tour, where we learned the castle only had 14 rooms completed because King Ludwig II (also known as Mad King Ludwig), who ordered its construction, was declared insane and removed from power before it was finished (Scott and I guessed the construction workers staged a coup because they were so damn tired of building all these crazy castles for him).

One interesting fact is that Neuschwanstein served as the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland. Can you see the resemblance?

Neuschwanstein Castle, built by a crazy King:

Sleeping Beauty Castle, built by an even crazier Walt Disney:

Euro Road Trip Recap: Day 6 - Munich, Bavarian Style

2006-11-22T14:07:00.000+01:00

Scott and Viphak left for Munich in the morning while I ~~slept~~ waited for Waverly to finish class, so that we could take the train together and meet them later in the afternoon.

After a 3.5 hours train ride, we met up with Scott and Viphak, who had already hit up all the major spots in Munich, and immediately went to the Ratskeller for some fine Bavarian cuisine. The Ratskeller was so big and packed with people, we actually walked 5 minutes, weaving through the various halls and rooms throughout the restaurant just to be seated at our table.

In our last Munich trip with my parents, we didn't have a chance to try the local pig knuckle delicacy, so Waverly and I both ordered a plate this time.

Pig knuckle before:

Bone and skin after:

Feeling a bit bloated and disgusted (so we really did just eat pig feet huh?), we headed over to the Hofbräuhaus, despite my push to go to the more historic, traditional Bavarian beer hall -- the Hard Rock Cafe, right across the street ('cuz where else in the world will you get a chance to go to a Hard Rock right?).

The Hofbräuhaus was very similar to its tent that was at Oktoberfest, although smaller, less lively, and the beer was about 1 Euro cheaper. The crowd was a mix of Americans, tourists and regulars (who drank out of their own beer steins). We sat with a group of German tourists, whom we spent an evening of drinking, chatting and picture taking with.