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Published: February 13th 2009
Prague
Clare & me, with the castle in the backgroundMy return from Turkey brought with it quite a jolt back to reality and a fair bit of culture shock - indicated by the fact that my first thought as I was flying into Bratislava was “where are all the mosques?”. But, it also implied lots of exciting arrivals and reunifications and the end of travelling alone!
After a long and exhausting journey from Istanbul, which involved: a bus trip where the driver nearly made us late to the Istanbul airport because he stopped to buy a packet of cigarettes and then drove round the city in circles for ages; a flight in the early hours of the morning, meaning that no sleep was had that night; somehow managing to get from the Bratislava airport to the bus station without any Slovakian money, thanks to the help of a really nice guy who worked at the airport and finally a 4 hour bus trip from Bratislava to Prague, I eventually made it back. Home sweet home!
The first of my exciting arrivals was Clare - a friend from Melbourne Uni, who was travelling in Europe before starting a semester of study in Germany. Her first stop was
Prague
Mum surveying Prague from Vysehrad Prague and I was only too happy to have a friend to show the sights of Prague to. Unfortunately, seeing as it was July, it was prime tourist season and the streets were even more packed with tourists than normal. But with my super tourist-evasion skills and insider knowledge, we generally managed to avoid the worst spots and enjoy the sights of sunny Prague undisrupted.
A few days after Clare arrived, I was off to the airport again to meet my second lot of exciting arrivals - my mum and my brother. It was great to see them again and wonderful to have them in Prague, where I could show them around my adopted hometown. On their second day in Prague, Mum, Jacob & I headed off to Karlstejn, a 14th century castle quite close to Prague that was a favourite King Charles IV and used for the safekeeping of the coronation jewels. It’s a pretty amazing castle, both inside and out and the view from the castle was also really beautiful. It was Jacob’s first visit to a castle and he was quite impressed. Although it did set a ridiculously high standard for the rest of the
Prague
afternoon tea at Vysehrad castles that were to follow!
The rest of our time in Prague was spent doing the usual touristy stuff, including the Prague castle, which left Jacob still looking for the castle even after we were right there because it’s more of a really, really, really big house than a turrets and drawbridge castle. As well as a lot of guards that Jacob really had to have his picture taken with. We went on a tour of part of the city, went to the site of Prague's first castle Vysehrad, climbed up Prague’s answer to the Eiffel Tower, walked across the Charles Bridge, etc…
After Prague we headed off to Amsterdam for 5 days. But in order to get there we had to endure a 15 hour overnight bus ride that wasn’t exactly enjoyable. Luckily when we arrived the weather was sunny and warm because seeing as we had hardly got any sleep the night before, we were a little zombie-like. We weren’t allowed to check into our hotel that early though, so we spent a couple of hours sleeping on a park bench “like homeless bums” as Jacob put it.
After our little rest,
Prague
inside the walls of Vysehrad we headed off on a free city tour and were shown and told lots of interesting things by a slightly crazy American guy who spoke ridiculously fast. Things such as the skinniest building in Amsterdam, which was as wide as a door; the red light district (this one would warrant a return!); the devices installed to stop men urinating all over the city’s historical monuments; a peaceful living area for nuns and the area where the Frank family had been in hiding (this one would also warrant a return, but for completely different reasons to the aforementioned red light district!).
On our second day, we decided when in Amsterdam, do as the Amsterdammers do, which of course involved hiring a bike (we decided to skip the other ‘essential’ Amsterdam experience, the one that involves coffee shops…). We hadn’t exactly picked the best day for it - it was pretty grey and rainy, as well as windy, but it’s always windy in The Netherlands. We headed north from Amsterdam, over the river and into the countryside. This involved basically cycling through kilometers and kilometers of flat, green fields and occasionally seeing a cow or two. Not much else. Although
Prague
inside the walls of Vysehrad we did finally end up at Zaanse Schans, quite a touristy area filled with the Dutchest of Dutch things, such as a clog factory, a cheese factory where we got to eat lots of yummy cheese, and lots of windmills.
By this stage, our big ride was certainly into its epic stage - I think we must have ridden about 50km that day. Mum wasn’t exactly the fastest riding companion, even at the start of the ride, and got pushed a lot of the way, mainly by Jacob. But then, on our way back to Amsterdam, she decided to add a bit of excitement into the ride by somehow losing control of her bike and flying down the bank towards a canal. Jacob and I managed to see all of this and could just see her ending up in the middle of the canal but she managed to avert disaster by simply crashing on the bank. Then while I was checking that she was okay and hadn’t broken anything, Jacob was standing there laughing and taking photos of the whole thing!
Another thing on the not-to-be-missed list while in Amsterdam is the red light district and
Prague
Jacob on the main entrance to Vysehrad we certainly weren’t going to miss out on this one either. Well, Mum opted out, but she’s been there before and she’s an old lady, you know…. 😉 So Jacob and I set off one night to go and see what all the fuss is about. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive but very curious about what it would be like. And in a way, it felt like being at an amusement park! I think more people there were tourists out for a bit of entertainment and sticky-beaking than actual customers. I did feel a little strange as a girl in this area but it was certainly an interesting and very eye-opening experience! One that I think Jacob enjoyed much more than I did… :p
We saw a huge amount of stuff in Amsterdam, from multicultural markets and crazy street art to boat trips on the canals and beautiful Dutch buildings. All of this while trying to avoid being killed by one of the thousands of crazy cyclists whizzing around the city and not break our legs/arms/heads going up and down the crazily steep stairs inside the hotel. But we managed to escape unharmed and
Prague - Karlstejn
on the train to Karlstejn I’ve decided that The Netherlands is now definitely on my list of countries to live in in the future. The people are really friendly and speak great English and the atmosphere in Amsterdam is so open-minded and welcoming, I felt really at home.
We left the heaviest of all in Amsterdam to our last night - the Anne Frank House. First of all, for those of you who haven’t read the book - read it. It’s amazing. It was so incredible to actually be inside the building where it all happened and be able to see it all with my own eyes. Reading the book is one thing but actually being there in person was such a different experience. I don’t know how it was possible to stand living in such a tiny space with the same people for so many years without going crazy! But I guess when it’s a life or death situation…
Speaking of life or death situations, we certainly felt much closer to death than to life on our plane trip over to Stockholm. We were squished right at the back of the plane in seats that had so little room that
I had to sit in the aisle seat to avoid any attacks of claustrophobia. But, that was the good part. We went through turbulence so bad that I felt like I was in a washing machine and when we finally ended up landing in Stockholm, we were bouncing and swerving so much over the runway that Jacob really thought we were going to die. We were very relieved to make it out of the plane and onto safe ground, although the excitement of my return to Stockholm was seriously dulled by the fact that I was feeling so ill.
It was a bit of a strange return to the city that 5 years ago I had called home. Mainly because both my host family and support family weren’t in Stockholm as they were on holidays. I took Mum and Jacob on a walk through my old neighbourhood to my old house (with a long, accidental detour via the Bromma airport!) so I could show them where I used to live. It was great to be back in the area but weird that I was at the house and it was completely empty. Luckily my oldest host brother, Marcus,
and his new family were still in Stockholm, as he and his girlfriend Matilda had just recently had a child. It was really exciting for me to see Marcus again and to meet Matilda and their then 1 month old son Mille. And, as you can see from the pictures, Mille is very cute!
Speaking Swedish again after such a long time took quite a bit of getting used to, even though I’ve made sure not to forget any of the language since I left Sweden. My first attempt at speaking Swedish was nearly an embarrassing disaster, as I attempted to speak to the guy serving me in a shop in Czech instead of Swedish… But after the first few days I slowly eased my way back into it and started to feel more comfortable with the language again. Although it’s pretty disconcerting when you make the effort to speak in Swedish and get a reply in perfect English.
We were only in Stockholm for 5 days so we basically just did the typical touristy stuff and saw the main sights. However, at a much slower pace than usual as we were trying to avoid the
ridiculously expensive public transport system by walking to as many places as we could. Apart from the one day that it rained (which we spent inside IKEA - free shuttle bus, cheap lunch and endless entertainment, what more could you want?!) the weather in Stockholm was wonderful so we were really able to appreciate how beautiful it is.
We managed a trip out to the island of Vaxholm, in the Stockholm archipelago, as well as a visit to my old high school; a trip to Gamla Stan, the beautiful old part of the city and an encounter with a hilarious sign exhibition. We also went to see the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace in Gamla Stan. There were hundreds of tourists there and it was quite an impressive and grandiose show. It certainly didn't appeal to Jacob though - his opinion was that if he'd wanted to see a dramatic show and dance, he would've gone to the theatre! Despite this, it turns out that Jacob was so impressed by Stockholm that he has decided that one day he will live in a huge house in Stockholm and have 37 Swedish girlfriends! Or maybe he
Prague -Karlstejn
traditional folk dance was just more impressed by the Swedish girls…
Anyway, after 2 weeks in Europe, it was time for Jacob to head back to Australia to study. That left just Mum & I to continue our journey and it was certainly a much quieter journey now that Jacob had gone!
To be continued...
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