czech republic: kutna hora

mom and i visited kutna hora on another day trip from prague...we left the flat at 0715, to get to the train station on time for our 0800 train...sitting across from us on the train was a chick from san francisco, who was traveling europe for a couple weeks...after arriving in kutna hora we figured out we had to take another, tiny little regional train to get to where we wanted to be...thank goodness for information offices in small towns...(and thank goodness mom was able to figure it out without taking time to wait in a queue)...this tiny little train took us to a place called sedlec...

we hopped off, and walked...we first passed a church with an open door, so we ducked in...we weren't the only people looking around, since the open door made everyone think it was open for visitors...an employee (or maybe volunteer?) came to tell everyone that the church wasn't yet open, and pointed to a board showing opening times...the board did indeed show the opening time to be an hour later, but the time the guy said was half an hour after that...we all left, and i wonder if anyone went back...i also wonder what time the church actually opened...
mom and i were among the first visitors to arrive at the ossuary...the ossuary is well known, and is probably the biggest reason people make this day trip...it was a lot smaller than i expected, but still pretty stunning...the entire room is decorated with bones...i've forgotten how many people's bones are used, but the number is big...decorations on the wall, a chandelier, and a shield of sorts...(a coat of arms)...plus a couple giant piles of bones in the general shape of pyramids...

i'm glad mom and i were some of the first to arrive, otherwise we never would've been able to take any photos without people in them...
we just missed the next tiny little train, so we had to wait a while at the tiny little train stop...it was a very sunny day, i was sweating like crazy, but oh well...the following train came along and took us to the city centre of kutna hora...(i think the ossuary is technically located in a suburb called sedlec, but most people call the entire area kutna hora)...

mom had read that we could take tours of a former royal mint, so that was where we went first...this is when i learned that the english word dollar originally came from this area, when they called a certain coin a thaler...give it a few years, then a different language and soon enough the word becomes dollar...i like the museum display of coins/money that had been produced and used in the area...another part of this tour took us through a residence area of the castle...it was small, but i loved the way the rooms were decorated...i wasn't a big fan of the personal chapel, it wasn't my style...

all the streets in the city centre were uneven cobblestone...it was tough enough for us in the middle of summer, i bet the roads are treacherous in winter with snow and ice...kutna hora is small though, i doubt there is a huge amount of traffic in winter...
we visited the former jesuit college, it is now an art gallery...a big art gallery...one room remained as it used to be, when it was an apotheke...we could see the ceiling painting, but that was the only bit of note...the gallery was huge...we kept thinking we'd seen everything, but in the end we ended up skipping the top floor, we were both tired of art...

i can see it as a good place to come for a specific exhibit, but not to see the entire thing at once...apparently a lot of people come to the gallery and try to sneak in without entry tickets, because our tickets were checked no less than four different times during our visit!
we also visited st barbara's cathedral...it was never finished, but you would never know that, as it is huge, and doesn't look or feel unfinished...when you enter they give you information sheets with specific aspects of the church...i read a bit, but all the information was really detailed, and it got to be a bit overwhelming...i think audioguides were also available...behind the main altar there were quite a few smaller chapels/altars...

after the cathedral we stopped for tea/coffee and chocolate mousse cake...a nice break, and tasty :)
from there it was easy to get back to the mini train station, then the main station in kutna hora, then back to prague..

czech republic: telc

one morning mom and i were out the door at 0715 so we could catch the metro to the bus station...the ride to telc was almost four hours, though it was only supposed to be three hours...somehow the bus ended up on back roads, due to some detour...i think we surprised a few of the locals as the bus went through :)...it also surprised mom to hear people on the bus telling the driver how to do his job...(this didn't happen when she was growing up)...apparently he was fairly new on the job and didn't quite know where to go...

telc is a unesco listed town, the platz in the middle of town is very picturesque...i think it was founded in medieval times?
not all the buildings are used as they once were, and not all of them are inhabited anymore, probably because of cost...mom pointed out a few that weren't inhabited anymore, you could see there aren't any curtains in the windows anymore...
it probably costs a lot to live in one of these places, and you can't modernize things very easily...both of us wondered what the place will be like in 10-20 years, as the town is small, and th ere is nothing else happening...

at one end of the big square, (which isn't really shaped like a square at all) are the bell tower of a church, and the castle...mom had already been up the bell tower and didn't feel the need to go again, but i was keen...plus, my knees are good with stairs for another decade, i might as well get a workout:)...the town is small, i could see farmland really close!
we went in the boundaries of the castle, but opted not to take any of the interior tours...i liked wandering the gardens, though they were small...
several times during the day we stopped to sit and eat...once was ice cream, another time for tea, and a third time for an early dinner/late lunch...

to kill time before catching the bus back to praha we wandered one of the 'normal' city streets...absolutely nothing worth seeing, i couldn't even figure out a photo to take...
the bus ride back was crazy too, but in a different way...this time the bus driver was a wannabe fire truck driver...apparently he had had that training, and figured you could drive a bus that way aswell...i suppose it's physically possible, but probably not the best idea...i wasn't car sick (surprisingly,) but i wasn't feeling very safe either, as he was careening around curves and always going faster than any of the passengers felt was safe...the passengers yelled at this guy too, mom found it even more amusing...

italy: salerno, paestum, and naples

my host was traveling out of country the next day, so i moved into naples...i'd made a reservation at a guesthouse, and though i arrived too early to check in, i was able to leave my bags for the day...

from there i went to the train station and caught a train to salerno...when i checked one ticket machine, it said the next train wasn't for two hours, but i figured out that was the next express fancy train...the next regional train was only 40 minutes later...not only was this train sooner, it was a LOT cheaper...why do people wait longer for a more expensive train? especially when the earlier train is only 30 minutes?!?!

when i first arrived in salerno, i walked along the seafront for a while...it was pretty, and quiet...i felt totally at peace...the boats were all waiting in their docks, the bay curves around so you can see the hills behind the city...

eventually i moved into the old city area, where the streets are small, it's easy to get lost in the maze of streets...i found the duomo, which isn't nearly as well known as it should be...it's HUGE, and airy, the mosaic decoration inside is awesome...you're not supposed to take photos, but i snuck one when i was in the crypt...stunning...

outside the church is a nice courtyard with a plant decoration in the middle...it was built by the normans in the 11^th century, and dedicated to san matteo...so quiet, so awesome...i wish i could've climbed up the bell tower, i bet the view is awesome...

i took the train back to naples, checked into the guesthouse, then started walking again...i found the via de tribunale, one of the main tourist drags of the city...somehow, it wasn't as busy as i remember it being in december...maybe i was walking at a different time of day, or there really arent as many tourists at the beginning of july...

i found the starting point of one of the underground tours of naples...the tour took everyone through 1 km of the underground aqueduct, built by the romans waaaay back in the day...the area was also used as shelter during the bombing of WWII...some of the tunnels were quite tight, others were much more wide open...as usually happens with being undergound, it was pretty chilly, i wanted long sleeves...

back on street level the tour also took us to where a roman amphitheatre used to be located...by the time the ruins were located, many families had already built homes above...it's wierd to see windows going right into old roman arches...i think the law says the families can't be kicked out, so the ruins will never be fully excavated...

i had a big bowl of mussels for dinner...yum!

The next day i got up very slowly...another carb loaded breakfast included with my room...how do people never want anything but various types of bread for breakfast?

eventually i got back to salerno, and from there took a bus to the ruins of paestum...the bus dropped me at the train station of paestum, which appears to be located in the middle of nowhere...i had to walk a kilometer or two down the road to get to the ruins, it was easy enough...

the ruins of paestum are unesco listed, i expected them to be covered with tourists...they weren't, probably because it takes a couple hours to get there from naples...there are three large temples, all surrounded by fences, but the rest of the ruins aren't protected, and it's difficult to tell what they are...

there are a few signs describing what the ruins in various areas used to be, for the most part i just wandered around...i really liked the mosaic decor on the floors of what used to be upper middle class homes...i reckon the areas not protected will continue falling apart until it isn't possible to see anything identifiable...there is also a museum across the street from the ruins, but i didn't go inside...

back in naples i had mussels for dinner again...two servings this time...YUM! The restaurant tried to charge me for a breadbasket, which i wouldn't have minded if i had actually received the breadbasket...but i didn't, so i wasn't going to pay that charge...

it's a normal part of a restaurant bill in italy to be charged for the breadbasket they put on your table, whether or not you eat the bread...i don't mind that since it's tradition, but i'm not paying for it if i don't even get it...

that night i paid for my guesthouse since i was leaving quite early the next morning...they tried to charge me 10 euros extra, until i showed my booking confirmation...too bad i had to leave before breakfast...the airport bus got me to the airport quite quickly, since there is no traffic at 0615 in the morning :)

italy: pozzuoli and vesuvio

My first train from rimini took me to bologne, where i almost ran through the train station to get my second train...the bologne train station is undergoing some renovation, and the tracks are on three levels...when i had to transfer there on my way to rimini i figured some of it out, but i still found it confusing, and not very efficient when you have to book it from one level to another...my second train went from bologne to napoli, where my friend ken picked me up at the station...yay for door to door service...

on the way home we picked up food for dinner and our excursion the next day...dinner that night was steak on the grill, YUM...a simple, but great meal, looking out over a beautiful bay, during sunset...i don't think it gets any better :)

the next morning we had to get up early to get ready for the day...ken's friend came over to drop off food for the bbq later that evening...the three of us drove to a meeting spot to get everyone corralled, then the convoy drove to sorrento, through the town to the port...

i don't know who had arranged everything, but someone had rented three boats for the whole group to take out for the day...the plan was to spend the day going around the island of capri, celebrating the birthday of the US...

it was a fabulous day...beautiful weather, beautiful people, lots of patriotic clothing...

at one point we saw a superyacht with the stars and stripes, so someone looked up the boat...the limitless is owned by the guy who owns victoria's secret (among others)...it was a BIG BOAT...i'm sure the limitless was greeted by every american in the area who saw the flag :)

during the day the boats stopped a few times to play in the water, jump off rocks, etc...so much fun...id forgotten how much fun it is to play in water, i haven't done it in ages...i put suncream on a couple times, so my sunburn wasn't nearly as bad as i expected...yay :)

after returning home ken started prepping everything for a 4^th of july bbq he was hosting...the first guest to arrive was a french chick, carrying a french flag...i yelled 'allez les bleus' which surprised her, as most of her friends in the area do not speak french or know much about the country...she had the flag because france and germany were playing in another round of the world cup...(a few minutes after she arrived and we put up the flag, a house across the way put up the german flag...i loved the trash talk)

over the rest of the evening people arrived, ate food, talked with each other, took photos, etc...a great time was had by all...i ended up crashing before everyone left, i was so tired...

the next day we took it easy...waking up late, breakfast, watching tv, generally relaxing...i laid out on the balcony, forgetting that my back had already had enough sun...ooops...

the next morning was sunday, and i was wide awake at 0614...we had breakfast, and eventually got on the road...i sortof played tour guide, the guidebook gave vague directions as to how to get to vesuvius...remember when mom and i visited naples in december and i said that during my next visit i wanted to hike vesuvius? That's what we did...

we took an accidental detour, since the highway signs were not terribly clear as to where to exit...after the whole thing was over, we came to the conclusion we'd come up the opposite side of the mountain from what we intended to do...anywho, after driving through a few neighborhoods, we found the mountain, or more specifically, a parkplatz...

from there our options were limited to one: take a 'bus' a good portion of the way up, then walk from there...the path for walking was really loose, i'm glad i was wearing closed toe shoes...it was an easy walk, taking about 15 minutes i think? The views over the side were awesome...

when we got to the top we heard a brief by one of the park rangers...she told us about a few of the worst eruptions of vesuvius, as well as how it is expected to behave in the future...because of the most recent eruption it is no longer possible to walk all the way around the rim, but you can get pretty close...looking down into the middle, you don't see anything liquid...it's hard to imagine how this volcano has caused so much destruction over history...

on the way back, we missed the bus going down, so after hanging out for a while, we started walking...the weather was awesome, why not?

Maybe halfway down another bus came along and made us climb aboard...argh...we'd enjoyed as much walking as we'd been able to do...

back in pozzuoli we found a small hole in the wall cafe for lunch...YUM...it seemed to be family owned, and ken was convinced it had mafia connections...i don't know about that, but the food was fantastic...seafood pasta, YUM...this is the kind of place i want to make 'mine'...i want to come back regularly, so the owners get to know me well, and i never have to worry about ordering a specific meal :)

our late afternoon activity was going to the sulfatora...it's a wide area with natural steam vents...you can wander just about anywhere you want to go, there is almost nothing blocked off...(i kept thinking that in the states everything would be blocked off, you wouldn't be able to get anywhere close)...some of the vents had a very strong sulfur smell, others were just plain hot...i loved the colours of the minerals...

after we got home a couple friends came over for dinner, then we watched a movie called lawless...i love long holiday weekends with good people :)

the next morning we were up to go on another boat...the renting had been done from another port, so we didn't have to drive so far, or go so early...the boating crew this day was smaller, only 6 of us total, on one boat...

this time the boat was driven around the island of ischia...another beautiful island...there are hot springs in a few places around the island, we stopped a few times...one spot was small, and located near a former brothel...(from waaaaaaaaaay back when)...the other springs area was a lot bigger, and filled with people...i soaked up more sun than i needed, but it was worth it...another day when i looked around and knew i get to have an amazing life...

we loved the seafood pasta restaurant so much we wanted to go back...unfortunately it was closed on mondays...argh...

the next day my host went back to work, i enjoyed relaxing around the house for a while before walking into pozzuoli...i like this town, a lot!

Pozzuoli is where you can find the 3^rd largest roman arena in italy...there are also ruins of a temple in another area of town...plus the little port is beautiful, and still used by locals...i saw fisherman fixing their nets, sitting under umbrellas...

i saw several beautiful churches, none of them big...one of the churches i saw entirely by accident, as there was a tour group inside when i walked by, otherwise it would've been closed and locked...

i didn't get to see the cathedral in town, the guys in the information office told me it was closed except on weekends...

it was hot while i was wandering around, but the heat didn't really hit me until i was climbing up the hill to go home...at that point i just wanted to sit down and wait a few hours until my host drove by me on the way home so i could hop in the car...hot hot hot!

When he did get home we wanted to go to a chicken place for dinner, but it was closed for random cleaning...so we went back to the seafood pasta place...yahoooo!

We had a few others with us, and the family remembered us...(more likely, they remembered my friend, cause he is a big guy)...another fantastic meal, this one served family style...seafood pasta, spaghetti bolognese, wine, meat, etc...i felt pregnant when we left, hee hee...

germany kicked brazil's ass that night in football...

the next morning i woke up with an awful headache, and went back to sleep as soon as my host left for work...a few hours later i felt better, got dressed and headed out to see the arena...(it was closed the day before)...it was fun to wander around, there weren't too many other visitors...i wish it was possible to wander around the upper layers as much as the underground areas...

i laid out again that afternoon...since the house is on a hill, there was an awesome breeze, so i never felt hot even though the sun was strong...

i was sad to leave pozzuoli the next day :(

italy: rimini

Upon arriving back in rimini, i dropped my bags at the information office, just outside the train station...the lady told me the next bus to san marino wasn't for another hour or so, so i walked a bit into the city centre just to kill time...i learned a lot of people rent bikes to get around the city, i suppose i could've done the same, but walking always feels good to me:)...

rimini is now mostly known as a beach/resort town, but it used to have some importance in roman times...there are still a couple roman ruins to be seen...

there are families who come for a week or more and do nothing more than walk from their hotels to the beach, and back...i didn't spend enough time in rimini for this to happen, oh well...from the photos i saw, the beach here isn't anything special, but the economy of the town definitely depends on beach tourism...

i walked into an old cathedral, i think it was called a temple...it wasn't fancy inside, and felt pretty calm, and real...(if that makes sense)...i liked the feeling of quiet, even though there were a few other people wandering around inside...

after arriving back in rimini, the lady at the information office gave me back my bags, then told me which local bus i needed to get to my hotel...the hotel i'd booked was a street back from the beach, i think the entire street is dedicated to hotels and restaurants...i used the map function of my iphone to keep track of how far down that street i needed to get to find my hotel...

i checked in, then relaxed for a while...(and tried to get rid of the motion sickness feeling that wasn't leaving me as quickly as i would've liked)...eventually i went out walking down the street...

i was looking to see how far i could walk, and find a place to eat dinner...i figured out the answer to both questions :)

the next morning i was up early so i could take advantage of the breakfast included in my hotel price before walking around more of the old city centre...the breakfast was mostly carbs, argh...a croissant, various breads, etc...(this is italy, that's how they do breakfast)

i left my bags at information again, and continued walking...i passed the cathedral/temple from the day before, and made a left at a bigger intersection...

a few blocks down from there i came to one of the old roman sights in the city...an arch...it was pretty, but not hugely impressive...there was a small platz on one side of the arch, but it was early enough in the morning that there werent many people hanging out in the area...i wondered if it ever gets crowded...

i walked through this platz and a couple others on my way to the other roman sight in town...a bridge...still in good shape, cars drive over it all day long...it isn't huge, but i liked it...all the postcards with pictures of the bridge show it at night, when it's lit up...i should've stayed out late the night before!

After the bridge i stepped into a big church...big and airy, a bit darker than i usually like, and quiet...i love the feeling of comfort i get wheneva i step into any religious building, whether it's a synagogue, temple, mosque, church, etc...

from there i went back to the train station and caught my next train :)

san marino

The next morning i was up early so i could start making my way to another town (and country!) ...my first train left meran at 0602...it left on time, thank goodness...it was a tiny little regional train that runs pretty regularly to the closest 'big' city, of bolzano (known as bolzen in german)...from there a train to bologne, then a train to rimini, a city on the coast...

i dropped my bags at the information office close to the train station, and asked questions...they told me how to get to san marino, which was my real goal for the day...

san marino is the world's oldest republic...according to lonely planet it has a very high GDP (over $50,000 i think)...san marino is the only former citystate that didn't get swallowed up by the formation of modern italy...how it survived as independent and the others didn't, i don't know...if i didn't actually KNOW i was in san marino, there was nothing to give it away as being somewhere different from italy...they speak italian, and use the euro as currency...

anywho, there are a few small towns within the borders of san marino, but there is only one place people actually visit...it's the area on top of a hill...to get there you take a bus from rimini, and its putting it mildly to say the road is not straight...i was quite motion sick when i finally got off the bus...the chance to walk the rest of the way up the hill was a welcome way to get rid of that feeling...there are tours offered on a little train, i was very keen to walk...

i was a bit disappointed when it seemed that almost everything i could see was geared toward tourists...there were plenty of shops, but nothing 'local'...lots of electronics, or souvenirs, or things along those lines...there were heaps of restaurants, and hotels for those who want to say they slept in such a tiny country...one thing i did like was there were no touts trying to get me into shops or tours or restaurants...

i'm shallow enough to admit that the biggest reason i came to san marino was to get another passport stamp...and to add another country to my list...

it's hard to get stamps from countries in the schengen zone...it says in the guidebook that you can get the san marino stamp by going to the information office and paying for the stamp...i did so, cheesy as that is...i've been to a fair number of countries, but getting a new passport stamp never gets old...i don't think it ever will...

there are a few castles/fortresses/protective towers on this hill, all of them have entrance fees...i paid to go in just one, since they all seemed the same...not a lot to see, but the views over the surrounding area were pretty awesome...

the changing of the guard takes place in front of the justice building (i think) every 30 minutes...(geared toward tourists obviously)...the guards are willing to have their photos taken, but i'm guessing they don't love the russian tourists who go for sexy poses next to them...it looks tacky...i wonder if these guards have physical requirements for the job just like other well known guards do around the world...

the bus ride back to rimini wasn't great either, but i made it through :)

there isn't much to say about san marino...if i had a car, i would go back so i could stop in one or two of the other towns, just to see what 'real' people live like...i have no idea what you call someone from san marino...are they san marinese?

italy: meran/merano

there are a few cities in the northeastern area of italy known by two names...this is because this area of italy used to be part of austria, so german is still spoken...i wish proper names around the world would be consistent, and this is an example of where they are not...the city in which bo lives is either meran, or merano, depending on which language you are using...
we drove from verona to meran (bo drove, i fell asleep, ooops!)...the weather turned crappy, with low hanging clouds, and some rain, so even if i hadn't been asleep i still would not have been able to enjoy the beautiful scenery...it was also much cooler than i was prepared for, ugh..

we walked into the city centre for dinner, though i hate that kind of weather...windy and rainy, yuck...we went to a brewery for dinner, which had typical sudtirolean food, (think german, not italian)...yum, but probably not terribly healthy as it was pretty heavy...
before falling asleep we watched the netherlands/mexico football game...(the world cup had moved into elimination stages)...everything exciting happened in the last three minutes of the game, i felt so bad for mexico...

merano is in a long valley filled with trees...apples, pears, apricots, cherries and more...plus there are a heap of small vineyards...there is no reason to eat storebought produce...
the next morning after a fantastic breakfast that included homemade apricot marmelade, we went for a short hike a little above meran...continuing with the austrian habit of creating trails for hiking and other outdoor pursuits, there are hiking trails all over the area...i would love living in this area, it's stunning! i kept stopping just to take it all in (and the weather was fantastic, which was another reason to enjoy myself)...

oddly enough the postcards i bought in the village we passed through were half the price of the postcards in downtown merano...i would've expected the prices to be the same...in this same village we stopped for a snack, mainly because i will take every chance i get to have an himbeer becher...YUM...this is when bo told me that radlers in this area are made with lemonade instead of sprite...(a radler in bayern - southern germany - is made with sprite and bier...think of it as the perfect refreshing drink after a hike up a mountain)...

on the way back down into town my legs felt like jello...am i really that out of shape? more motivation to spend more time in this area, hiking to get back to being fit...might as well do it in a beautiful place, right?
merano in the sun and a bit warmer is awesome...it still feels like a small town, though there are about 50,000 people there...it doesn't feel like 'italy'...it felt a lot like being back in garmisch-partenkirchen...it felt like home :)
we went to the library, bo uses the library for wifi, which keeps his online time to a reasonable amount of time...

we also went to the train station so i could get tickets for my next destination...we stopped at a non touristy place for more gelato (totally unnecessary, but so good!)...we stopped for dinner at a cheap place serving falafel, my meal was HUGE...i was unable to finish everything on my plate, hee hee...(probably because we'd just had gelato)...
while doing all that walking we walked past the therma, the sight of one of the baths in meran...this town is known for it's stunning scenery, and the thermal springs...these were first developed by the romans way back in the day, and have been redeveloped a few times since...

i think the latest reincarnation opened just a few years ago? we didn't have time to enjoy them during this trip (but probably would've if it had continued to rain, as i hate being outside in the rain) but they made it on my list of reasons to come back!
on the way home we stopped at a grocery store and picked up snacks for the hike bo planned for the next day...so many choices of yummy food i don't get in ukraine...
another great breakfast the next morning (apple/pear marmelade this time, i wondered what the next day was going to offer)...

we went back to the train station to catch a local bus to the starting point of our hike...from that point we rode a 'disney chair' type of lift halfway up the mountain...AWESOME...i loved being able to look down the valley, it's beautiful...
the hike itself was an over and down sort of route...we could've skipped the ride up, but that would've made the hike longer and harder than either of us was prepared for...the across part was 90minutes plus, with plenty of smaller ups and downs...we found wild raspberries, which i love...
the way down took us back into the village of yesterday, coming very close to a couple castles on the hill...i loved it...toward the end the trail took us through an apple orchard, how awesome is that? we saw people raking hay/grass by hand, as it's too steep for any machinery...we walked past a few cherry trees with GIANT cherries, we seriously considering climbing up to pick a few :)

of course as we got to a village we stopped for gelato, at a different place...yum...(i'm in italy, there is no such thing as too much gelato)...
dinner was back in merano, cheap pizza this time...when we got home both of us were a bit sore from two hikes in as many days, so we did a bit of yoga/stretching on the balcony...it felt fantastic :)...this is the life! that night argentina beat switzerland again in the last few minutes of the game, (i didn't know who to cheer for, i've got friends in both countries) in the 2nd overtime, we both fell asleep when the USA/Belgium game was still tied 0-0...