Eventhough I think that Cambridge is a much more interesting place than Oxford to visit, there are still a few things here that makes Oxford a good place to visit, such as the museums. With the amazing museums that they have here, it's impossible to imagine any English child ever getting bored of science. The History of Science Museum on Broad Street is an example of the great museums they have. Not only is the admission free but it is full of neat and interesting things related to science. Truly amazing. This is a picture of Albert Einstein's blackboard from a lecture he held at Oxford in 1931.
Another world-renown museum in Oxford is the University Museum. It's a natural history museum that contains tons of fossils, bones, bugs, and taxidermed animals; This is the museum that has the stuffed dodo bird Lewis Carroll used for inspiration in his Alice in Wonderland books. The amazing thing about this place is it encourages kids to play with the artifacts and there are a million things to play with. However, there is an even better museum connected to this museum called Pitt Rivers Museum. This museum is dark and dank but contains everything that anyone would ever consider interesting. With the amount of stuff they have, much of the materials are stuffed into shelving units that people are encouraged to pull out and look through. I probably missed a lot of the stuff - there's so much - but I've gotta think that the star attractions of the Pitt Rivers Museum are: the mummy, the tens of shrunken heads, and this little bottle. The rumor goes that this silver bottle houses a witch that was trapped in it in 1915. Even with all of the stuff to see and do in these two museums, the best part of the museum must be the cost. It's free.
Undoubtedly, the most famous museum in Oxford is the Ashmolean Museum. Actually, I've been told that it is one of the great museums in the world and I wouldn't argue against that. It contains so many important pieces concerning English history that there are many that say it is unofficially England's national museum. One of the most interesting things that I saw here was the lamp Guy Fawkes had when he was caught during the "Gunpowder Plot" of November 1605. Guy Fawkes is the person caught with gunpowder in the cellars of Parliment. The story goes that he was going to blow it up and take over the country. he was caught, tortured, and killed on November 5th. November 5th is now a national day in England celebrated with drunken rowdiness and tons of fireworks.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
August 30th - Oxford
Today I had a McDonald's meal for the first time in 12 months. My bowels hate me now. They want the mixture of multiple cow meat and genetically modified potato powdered chip bits out asap. Grimace isn't purple because he's gay but because he's blocked up and can't poo. Well, I'm the oposite at the moment. Solids don't usually leave as liquids, do they?
I'm in Oxford right now. If I had to recommend Oxford or Cambridge to anyone that could only visit one of the two Universities I'd definitely tell them to visit Cambridge. Cambridge is much more impressive. Oxford is older...and Bill Clinton went to school here but it doesn't have as many impressive buildings and they certainly don't have as much cultural events happening compared to Cambridge. I've been here for the day and will spend the night in the local YHA. It's full of families and I hate hostels like this. The little kids are yelling because they're having fun, the older kids are yelling becuase they think it's cool, the adults are yelling because they can't believe that they brought their kids on their vacation...again.
Norm and I are finished our trek across Eastern Europe. I'll update everything in the next month. However, I'm still on the road and will be for the next few weeks. I'm trying to figure out a cheap ticket back to Vancouver but while I do that I'm going to visit another couple of European cities before I head home. I had Istanbul, Turkey in mind but that's certainly changed following what happened the last few days. I will still be going to Berlin and Denmark, though, so Corey's in luck about the tobacco chew.
The new school year is just around the corner. I don't envy any of you that have to go back Tuesday. Good luck
ed
I'm in Oxford right now. If I had to recommend Oxford or Cambridge to anyone that could only visit one of the two Universities I'd definitely tell them to visit Cambridge. Cambridge is much more impressive. Oxford is older...and Bill Clinton went to school here but it doesn't have as many impressive buildings and they certainly don't have as much cultural events happening compared to Cambridge. I've been here for the day and will spend the night in the local YHA. It's full of families and I hate hostels like this. The little kids are yelling because they're having fun, the older kids are yelling becuase they think it's cool, the adults are yelling because they can't believe that they brought their kids on their vacation...again.
Norm and I are finished our trek across Eastern Europe. I'll update everything in the next month. However, I'm still on the road and will be for the next few weeks. I'm trying to figure out a cheap ticket back to Vancouver but while I do that I'm going to visit another couple of European cities before I head home. I had Istanbul, Turkey in mind but that's certainly changed following what happened the last few days. I will still be going to Berlin and Denmark, though, so Corey's in luck about the tobacco chew.
The new school year is just around the corner. I don't envy any of you that have to go back Tuesday. Good luck
ed
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Saturday, August 19, 2006
August 19th - Krakow 2nd day
So, we started the day early with the intentions of checking out St Mary's Tower and the bugle playing fireman. The bugle player plays to announce the start and end of the day. However, he also played it to warn the city of an impending attack but wasn't able to finish the song because he was shot through the neck with an arrow. Thus, to commemorate this incident the bugle is now played for only a few minutes before the song ends abruptly. Here is a picture of Dwarf in front of the famous bugle in St. Mary's Tower.
While in the Czech Republic, we were told that we had the chance to check out a crypt where the bones of the dead are stacked to the walls and fill dozens of rooms. We were kind of disappointed that we missed this but I found out that a church within Krakow has a basement crypt with the well preserved bodies of the monks that served the church. Apparently, the basement has a microbial environment that limits the decay of flesh. When we got there we couldn't find anyone there. We waited around were about to leave when we stopped a man exiting the church and asked him about the crypt. He didn't speak english well but did repeat the word crypt. This is when he took us into the church, lifted a weird trap door in the floor, and took us down into the crypt. It was really very scary down there. There were about 8 rooms with dead monks all over the place. Some were in coffins, while others were lying on the floor. He spoke Polish to us and I don't know what he was saying but I guess he was trying to be funny or something because he kept knocking the monks on the skull and laughing. This is probably the best place that we've visited so far. Not well known, no other tourists came while we were there. It felt pretty neat to be able to go somewhere not many other people get to see. I recommend getting to the Bielany monastary and seeing these mummies, if you can. The monastary is connected to the St. Casimir Church and hopefully you'll find someone there to let you in.
When we left Norm really wanted to check out the royal knight fights that he saw an ad for. Really, it turned out to be some very, very, very keen Polish Dungeon and Dragon players acting out what their dreams of living in historic times. I must say, even though they weren't very athletic (show me a 12-sided die player that is in shape) but some of these guys went pretty hard at each other. We left after about 30 minutes. I can't really believe we paid to go to this.
Well, we were scheduled to go to the famous Wieliczka Salt Mines, which is a UNESCO monument later in the day, we spent the rest of the time that we had before getting to the bus to take us out to the salt mines getting out to Schindler's factory, which is on the other side of the river in Krakow. It was further away than we thought but I think it was worth going to. We had to fake our way in since it wasn't open to the public. This is a picture of Dwarf out front of factory that Schindler worked out of during World War II. (I don't know who the man in the blue shirt is.) We ended the day at the salt mines. It was okay. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it, though. A lot of salt and a lot of hokey salt statues. It's cool that it was about 300 metres underground.
While in the Czech Republic, we were told that we had the chance to check out a crypt where the bones of the dead are stacked to the walls and fill dozens of rooms. We were kind of disappointed that we missed this but I found out that a church within Krakow has a basement crypt with the well preserved bodies of the monks that served the church. Apparently, the basement has a microbial environment that limits the decay of flesh. When we got there we couldn't find anyone there. We waited around were about to leave when we stopped a man exiting the church and asked him about the crypt. He didn't speak english well but did repeat the word crypt. This is when he took us into the church, lifted a weird trap door in the floor, and took us down into the crypt. It was really very scary down there. There were about 8 rooms with dead monks all over the place. Some were in coffins, while others were lying on the floor. He spoke Polish to us and I don't know what he was saying but I guess he was trying to be funny or something because he kept knocking the monks on the skull and laughing. This is probably the best place that we've visited so far. Not well known, no other tourists came while we were there. It felt pretty neat to be able to go somewhere not many other people get to see. I recommend getting to the Bielany monastary and seeing these mummies, if you can. The monastary is connected to the St. Casimir Church and hopefully you'll find someone there to let you in.
When we left Norm really wanted to check out the royal knight fights that he saw an ad for. Really, it turned out to be some very, very, very keen Polish Dungeon and Dragon players acting out what their dreams of living in historic times. I must say, even though they weren't very athletic (show me a 12-sided die player that is in shape) but some of these guys went pretty hard at each other. We left after about 30 minutes. I can't really believe we paid to go to this.
Well, we were scheduled to go to the famous Wieliczka Salt Mines, which is a UNESCO monument later in the day, we spent the rest of the time that we had before getting to the bus to take us out to the salt mines getting out to Schindler's factory, which is on the other side of the river in Krakow. It was further away than we thought but I think it was worth going to. We had to fake our way in since it wasn't open to the public. This is a picture of Dwarf out front of factory that Schindler worked out of during World War II. (I don't know who the man in the blue shirt is.) We ended the day at the salt mines. It was okay. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it, though. A lot of salt and a lot of hokey salt statues. It's cool that it was about 300 metres underground.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Augusut 18th - Krakow
We decided to take the suggestion of our hostel guy and rent bikes to check out Krakow. Our hostel is in the old Jewish section of Krakow, which is only a few blocks from the Krakow Castle on Wawel Hill. The avenues radiating from the jewish section towards the main road that leads up to the castle is full of antique stores and one bike rental store. Norm, who's looking for an ink well, was able to check out these stores for them but couldn't find one. The bike rental place was kinda neat. It's run by wheelbound employees. I guess the best people to rent something with wheels is from a person that uses a vehicle with wheels all the time. I got this nice little Marin mountain bike with gripshift while Norm got this wide and heavy cruiser bike.
Our first stop was the Krakow Castle where there is also a weird cave that, as legend goes, housese the mythical Krakow dragon. Really, it just seems to be a dank underground chamber that was once maybe a well but now, with all the walter gone, a tourist trap. However, for those that are fans of Popes, the Castle houses a Secptre from Pope John Paul II as Krakow was where John was from.This is a picture of the square within the castle. After that, we road our bikes to the city square. This is where the famous St. Mary's Tower is found. It has a bugle player that plays a tune which is cut short due to his sudden death by an arrow. (Saw this on a tv show once.) Unfortunately, we were too late for the bugle playing so we both decided not to go up until tomorrow.
Our first stop was the Krakow Castle where there is also a weird cave that, as legend goes, housese the mythical Krakow dragon. Really, it just seems to be a dank underground chamber that was once maybe a well but now, with all the walter gone, a tourist trap. However, for those that are fans of Popes, the Castle houses a Secptre from Pope John Paul II as Krakow was where John was from.This is a picture of the square within the castle. After that, we road our bikes to the city square. This is where the famous St. Mary's Tower is found. It has a bugle player that plays a tune which is cut short due to his sudden death by an arrow. (Saw this on a tv show once.) Unfortunately, we were too late for the bugle playing so we both decided not to go up until tomorrow.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
August 17th - Auschwitz
Today, we were on the train for the a big part of our day. We took a night train from Prague into Poland trying to get to Krakow. It was a pretty long night. Someone came into our train cabin and was patting me down while we were sleeping. I woke up and said something stupid like "Hey" and the intruder said something like "Oh, sorry" before backing out of the door. I woke Norm to tell him what just happened but all he did was check that he still has his passport and then he went back to sleep. he doesn't remember me waking him up last night. Otherwise, our only other problem with the trains was trying to figure out where we were and when we needed to get off and change trains again. We heard that theives will get on at one stoop along the line, steal as much as they can from the riders and then get off at the next stop. It's almost impossible to find them after they get off. Norm actually figured out that we could get to Krakow by transferring through from Trezbinia to Oswiecim, which is Polish for Auschwitz. We checked our bags at the train station and then took a public bus that took us right to the Concentration Camp. It's a very somber place. The place is very large with lots of huts and exhibits that tourist can go through. Plus, they have the original gate and barbed wire fenches surrounding the area which adds to the somberness of Auschwitz. They also have an original incinerator and gas chamber that was used during the early years of the Second World War. We were there until about 330pm where we needed to get back to the train station to catch the last train into Krakow. It's not really that far away but we don't really know any other ways of getting into Krakow besides the train. We were a little anxious when we couldn't figure out what bus to take back. We bickered a little in trying to figure out how to get back before finding the correct bus and getting into the train station with only minutes to spare. The ride into town was pretty quick and we had little difficulty finding our hostel.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
August 16th - Third day in Prague
Yesterday, Norm and I walked back over the Charles Bridge and into Old Prague. On our way to the bridge, we actually passed the building that Johannes Kepler lived in while he was in Prague. Kepler was the mathematician that proved that the planets revolved around the Sun rather than the planets and the Sun revolving around Earth. This is a picture of Dwarf with the plaque outside the building. The climb up the hill was pretty taxing. The roads in Old Prague are all cobble and uneven. However, once we got up to the top and around the corner, there was the Hradcany Castle and all the work getting there seemed worth it. It is the largest medieval castle in Europe, has a large cathedral in the courtyard, and still houses its president (or is it prime minister?). Here is a picture of dwarf with a guard outside of the government portion of the castle. Who knew that the Czech Republic had a law that made it illegal to hire guards taller than two inches. Actually, it's just that Dwarf is taking super massive weight gain protein.
Today, Norm and I got up early to get out to the New Jewish Cemetary (Zidovsky hrbitov na Olsanech). We kinda got lost. The place is huge but it turned out that we were walking away from the right area when we started walking away from the subway station. There are tons of gates to enter the cemetary but the one that is the closest to Kafka's grave is the one closest to the subway walkway exit. We were asked to were a yarmulke, which they provided. When we got there, two other people were checking it out. They stayed staring at it for like an hour. Norm and I wanted to take pictures but didn't want to interupt their need to stand in front of it for the entirety of their visit so we sat on a bench and waited it out. It wasn't that bad. The weather today was really very nice. Better than the first two days which were overcast and drizzily. Today was sunny with some light clouds. Actually, it was very relaxing and Norm and I spent our waiting time looking through our pictures. Finally, the two women left and we were able to check Franz Kafka's grave out. Here's a picture of Dwarf wearing the yarmulke next to Franz Kafka's grave.
Back in the city, Norm was running out of SD card space so we spent a little bit of time trying to find a computer store to burn his pictures onto CD. We finally found one that wasn't trying to rip us off. Across the street from this store is the former residence of Jaroslav Seifert. Seifert won a Nobel Prize in Literature sometime in the 1980s. Here's a picture of the monument and plaque of Seifert's previous apartment along with Dwarf. For dinner, before we had to head to the train station, we ate at a great little hot dog stand on Prague's "Robson Street" twin. Actually, we ate here a couple of times. The bratwurst is to die for. TO DIE FOR! Amazing. And those little sausages? Those alone are making me want to stay in Prague. Here is a picture of Dwarf in front of the hot dog stand.
Today, Norm and I got up early to get out to the New Jewish Cemetary (Zidovsky hrbitov na Olsanech). We kinda got lost. The place is huge but it turned out that we were walking away from the right area when we started walking away from the subway station. There are tons of gates to enter the cemetary but the one that is the closest to Kafka's grave is the one closest to the subway walkway exit. We were asked to were a yarmulke, which they provided. When we got there, two other people were checking it out. They stayed staring at it for like an hour. Norm and I wanted to take pictures but didn't want to interupt their need to stand in front of it for the entirety of their visit so we sat on a bench and waited it out. It wasn't that bad. The weather today was really very nice. Better than the first two days which were overcast and drizzily. Today was sunny with some light clouds. Actually, it was very relaxing and Norm and I spent our waiting time looking through our pictures. Finally, the two women left and we were able to check Franz Kafka's grave out. Here's a picture of Dwarf wearing the yarmulke next to Franz Kafka's grave.
Back in the city, Norm was running out of SD card space so we spent a little bit of time trying to find a computer store to burn his pictures onto CD. We finally found one that wasn't trying to rip us off. Across the street from this store is the former residence of Jaroslav Seifert. Seifert won a Nobel Prize in Literature sometime in the 1980s. Here's a picture of the monument and plaque of Seifert's previous apartment along with Dwarf. For dinner, before we had to head to the train station, we ate at a great little hot dog stand on Prague's "Robson Street" twin. Actually, we ate here a couple of times. The bratwurst is to die for. TO DIE FOR! Amazing. And those little sausages? Those alone are making me want to stay in Prague. Here is a picture of Dwarf in front of the hot dog stand.
Monday, August 14, 2006
August 14th - Prague
Norm and I arrived into Prague today by plane. We got lost trying to find our hostel but it worked out in the end. I don't think the area that we're in is the safest but we'll see, I guess. We headed out for the train station to figure out how these eurorail passes work but the woman there didn't really know english well so the answers that she gave weren't very clear. We'll go back later. The train station isn't far from downtown so we headed down to the touristy "Robson Street" type centre of town. When we got there we found Jaromir Jagr's restaurant. It looks kinda kitschy with a lot of hockey related stuff and western style foods. We considered eating there but decided against it. We tried to find some interesting souvenirs from the abundant touristy trap stores but really, it's stuff that would just weigh us down. Anyway, it looks exactly like the souvenirs that you can find anywhere in the world: plastic yo-yos with the city printed on it, multi-coloured shirts with the country's flag or a homourless saying about the beauty of the city, or weird country-associated souvenir food products.
At the end and to the right of this street (Vaclavske namesti) is Charles Bridge that is probably one of the main attractions of Prague. It has a lot of statues on it and you can see the castle on the hill at the far end of the bridge which connects Prague with the old part of Prague. We went up the tower of the bridge and this gave us a great look of the city. On the bridge there was a line up of people wanting to touch this brass picture of a knight and his dog. I don't really know the significance but Norm and I both took the time to rub them, too. Here's a picture of Dwarf on Charles Bridge and a picture of Dwarf next to the brass picture of the dog and the knight on Charles Bridge.
At the end and to the right of this street (Vaclavske namesti) is Charles Bridge that is probably one of the main attractions of Prague. It has a lot of statues on it and you can see the castle on the hill at the far end of the bridge which connects Prague with the old part of Prague. We went up the tower of the bridge and this gave us a great look of the city. On the bridge there was a line up of people wanting to touch this brass picture of a knight and his dog. I don't really know the significance but Norm and I both took the time to rub them, too. Here's a picture of Dwarf on Charles Bridge and a picture of Dwarf next to the brass picture of the dog and the knight on Charles Bridge.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
August 13th - Amsterdam
This is dwarf next to a giant penis at the Amsterdam Sex Museum. Norm and I have been here arriving by train. We left Nijmegen - and a sleeping Karen - early this morning. The Nijmegen train station is conviently located across the street from Karen's apartment. That was very thoughtful of Karen to arrange that for us. We've been running around Amsterdam but haven't really seen much. Norm and I have both been here before and it's not so terribly interesting after being here before. Neither of us have ever been to the sex museum before so we decided upon that for the evening. Tomorrow, we take the train out to Prague, Czech Republic.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
August 12th - Nimijen
Norm and I are now in Nijmegen staying with Karen. We are planning to begin our Eastern European trek from Amsterdam tomorrow. We arrived in Brussels on August 10th staying overnight and travelled by train into Antwerp yesterday. Antwerp was okay. We tried to eat Antwerpian but ended up eating Chinese the first night. The second day worked out better and we had their famous belguim fries and deep fried meat products. Afterwards, we went to the Diamond Museum next to the train station. The area around the train station is pretty grubby; It's full of adult orientated stores as this is also the red light district of Antwerp. It seems they're trying hard to clean it up, though, and a lot of new, touristy stores are opening up. We arrived into Nijmegen earlier today via a Ryan Air flight into Eindhoven where we took the train into Nijmegen arriving at around 1300hrs. I tripped and twisted my ankle running for a connecting train and it's swollen up a lot. Karen - a medical student - took a look and thinks it's sprained but not broken. We checked out Nijmegen...it's a small college town with a big river running down the middle of it. It's a very neat little town. Everyone rides bikes. And it has this big bridge. I like bridges. Went out on the town with Karen and her friends. We ended up eating weird Nijmegen sausages at a late night fish and chip. The first one fell on the floor (my fault...it was the beer) and the other one was still frozen in the middle. However, it till tasted good. This is a picture me, Norm and the gnome in Nijmegen park.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Elvis is dead...again. August 7
Today is our fourth day in Egypt. It's been really hot the entire time - approximately 40 - but without much humidity it hasn't been oppressively hot. Instead, it's quite pleasant. We've visited Cairo, Aswan, and Luxor and seen all of the great things that everyone knows about Egypt. Everyone has been oddly accommodating and friendly towards us. We seem to have come at a good time where the Egyptians see us differently only in that they think we have more money to spend than other ethnicities. Because of this, they've been very cordial and helpful and we haven't had much hassels with anyone.Unfortunately, there is so much to see everything is starting to look the same. There are so many pyramids, statues, and tombs they all meld into one. Actually, there is so much history being told to us that I've tuned out the guides and just taken pictures of neat things. I'll look them up and read about them later. The dollar and pound sterling are so strong here that Norm and I are living like kings right now. (Well, at least like the second prince to the British throne. That's Prince Harry, right?) We aren't really famous or much different than anyone else but because we earn dollars and quids we can afford the greater luxories, like a shower that doesn't double as a toilet. (You laugh but it's an option.)
We had the best falafals in the world yesterday. It was super good.
We leave for Cairo tonight on a night train where we'll spend two more days before we head to Brussels and our jumping off point for two weeks of travel in Eastern Europe. First stop is supposed to be Budapest, Hungary and we'll make our way jumping through Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Austria.
The picture is of the Egyptian security guard that saved the baby from our burning train just moments after it collided with a small donkey pulling a cart full of watermelons from the fields of Luxor. Actually, this is Barney the Doberman Pincher and his handler night guard Greg West. Everyone is due their five minutes of fame (re: Paris Hilton) and Barney is in the midst of his. Barney works in a small teddy bear museum in Wells, England. Unfortunately, Barney went nuts and destroyed $900,000 worth of bears. Barney even ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Elvis Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor. The bear, named Mabel, was made in 1909 by the German manufacturer Steiff. The Associated Press states: "A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground." Bad dog.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
August 1st - Brussels
DSC03184.JPG
Originally uploaded by cherubichomer.
We're in Brussels for a night. Our flight out to Egypt originates from here. I was here in March with Narv so the stuff that we saw today is also stuff that I saw back then. The Manneqin Pis, Atomium, and stuff like that. We had a weird run in with one of the restaurants here. We wanted Moules frites, which is mussels and french fries so we went to the tourist-trappy area that does this. There are about 9 million restaurants doing the same thing and the maitre'd of them come out and try to hook into coming into their restaurant. We had agreed on a special of 1kg of mussels, a free drink and desert for a set price but the woman tried to change it after she served the drinks. There was a lot of screaming - and almost some tears - as they argued with us about what was agreed upon. We finally got away and had the moules frites somewhere else. It wasn't the greatest but it's a conventional Belgium dish. This is a picture of a piece of work in the window of an art house near our hostel. I think it's pretty neat.
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