Skiing in Dubai

My first day in Dubai took some unexpected turns, but it went quite well overall. In the morning, I woke up to a nice mug of hot chocolate and some turkey bacon. After my whole family got ready to leave our place of rest in Abu Dhabi, we set off on the highway to Dubai.

The ninety minute drive to Dubai was pretty interesting and brought us away from the vegetated paradise of Abu Dhabi to the impressive concrete jungle of Dubai. Because Dubai is technically an emirate and not a city, the densely populated areas are spread all around the region. Downtown Dubai, the Burj Al Arab, and the Ski Dubai ski slope are all about 15km or 10mi apart. The planned attraction for today was Ski Dubai, the world's largest indoor ski resort.

As we entered the Mall of the Emirates, the location of the resort, we could see the massive towering Burj Khalifa almost 20km away. We also saw the incredibly fancy Burj Al Arab hotel which was slightly closer. Seeing these structures in real life was simply far more impressive than seeing photos and hearing stories about them, even when they were more than 10km away.

In the parking garage of the mall, we missed a turn,so we had to exit and find a way back in.
This was not at all as easy as it sounded. We left the parking garage and found ourselves on a freeway to the downtown area. We were completely lost in some remote industrial area when we took the nearest exit in attempt to turn back. We first stopped a cab to ask for directions to the Emirates Mall, but he simply got us lost further in this remote area. We finally found our way back to the mall after a group of what looked to be like clueless teens surprisingly got us going in the right direction.

The interior of the Mall of the Emirates was impressively larger than any other mall I've been in, but it's supposedly dwarfed by the Dubai Mall downtown. The crowded entrance to the Ski Dubai ski slope was pretty intimidating for me. I've never skied before in my life, but my friend assured me that he would teach me well. After buying the ticket and picking up all of the ski equipment and snow gear, I stepped inside the slope area. What I saw was both awe-inspiring and frightening. The ski slope which looked relatively small from the outside was absolutely massive. People on the top of the mountain-like slope looked like ants.

My friend kept assuring me that I would be fine, but I began to have second thoughts. The ski lift up to the top felt like a true mountain lift. We got off on the first exit to go on the smaller slope, but it was of no help. The moment I started off the slope, I fell on my back and unwillingly began to fall down the hill. I struggled a lot to ski down the rest of the hill and ended up losing a ski. I stood out quite a bit as skiers sped all around me. At the bottom of the slope, one of the employees informed me that I needed a lesson to continue skiing on the slope. I completely agreed, since my friend underestimated my ability to learn from him.

At the ticket booth, I found out that I wouldn't be able to go back on the slope after the lesson, so I was able to get a 150 dirham refund in exchange for a lesson (I originally paid 300 dirhams for the day pass). Because the lesson was scheduled for 4PM, I had about forty minutes to readjust my equipment and get new skis for the lesson.

Despite my previous failures at the main slope, the lesson went extremely well and I had a lot of fun. The rest of the people at this "Discovery Lesson" had never skied before, so I knew I was in the right place. Our group started with the very basics of walking with skis and getting into the stopping position. After a bit of practice, we moved onto the beginner ski slope, which was much smaller than the the recreational slopes. Here, I was able to slide down the hill of artificial snow at a very controlled and comfortable speed. I was even able to stop at the bottom without falling over. After about ten descents on this baby slope, the lesson was over, but I felt significantly more confident about my skiing skills. Now that I've learned the basics of skiing in the desert city of Dubai, I'm going to be able to ski as a hobby in my snowy homeland of New England.

I met outside the Ski Dubai entrance with my friend after the skiing experience to have an excellent Chinese food dinner at the mall's P.F. Chang's. Although I was incredibly full after my shared meal of chicken dumplings, crispy honey chicken, and Mongolian beef, I still managed to fit in an entire Coldstone Creamery milkshake after the meal.

Although we didn't do much in Dubai for the first day, it was time to go the hotel as we were completely exhausted. Unfortunately, the hotel was completely booked for the night, even though we had reserved it the day before. Our reservation for New Year's Eve was still guaranteed since we made it a month ago. We were luckily still with our friends from Abu Dhabi, so we went back to their home to stay for another night.

After getting lost one last time on the way back to Abu Dhabi, we were home before 9PM to relax. Because of the extra time, I was able to upload photos from previous days, so check out the links at the bottom of this post to see them. Tomorrow, we'll be going to Dubai again, first to see a few of its attractions, and later to join in on the spectacular New Year's Eve celebrations. So far, this trip has had a huge amount of strange twists and unexpected events, but I must say it's been an absolutely amazing experience and hope that it stays that way.

https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/AbuDhabiDay1
https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/AbuDhabiDay2
https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/AbuDhabiDay3
https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/DubaiDay1

Another Day in Abu Dhabi

Today, we spent our time mostly exploring the rest of the city of Abu Dhabi. Before we actually went into the city, we first took a tour of the brand new Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

This Muslim house of worship was the most incredible piece of architecture I have ever seen. The eighty-one domes and two one-hundred meter tall minarets stand out from miles away, and are even more impressive close-up. We were scheduled to attend the eleven o'clock tour, but were about ten minutes late. Luckily, the nice people running the tours showed us the way to catch up after my mom put on the robe she was required to wear. After our tall, Egyptian-looking tour guide showed us around the main courtyard of the mosque and its surrounding hallways, he asked us to take off our shoes to enter the prayer halls.

The moment we stepped inside, we were absolutely stunned. The floors were made of several different kinds of marble, the chandelier was absolutely massive and ornately decorated, and the interior of the dome above us was beautiful. It turned out that this was only an entrance foyer to the main prayer hall. The main hall was significantly larger, had the most amazing chandelier I have ever seen, and was home to the world's largest single piece of carpet. One interesting thing I noticed is that the back wall was decorated in Arabic script naming the god Allah and his ninety-nine other names. The inherent beauty of Arabic script allows it to blend well with the rest of the mosque's beauty. Any type of Roman script would kill the mood and beauty of the place.

By the time we were done with the tour and ushered out of the building to allow for real Muslims to pray, I felt that I had a better understanding of Muslim faith and culture. We took a walk around the beautiful outside area of the mosque before we were picked up to drive to somewhere new in the city.

The first site we visited was a famous cafe that is quite popular with the expat community in Abu Dhabi. The owner of the place converted a massive three-story villa into a very homey cafe with all sorts of art and decorations from around the world. The food selection was also very broad and contained dishes from all around the world. The menu even had a notice asking for new recipes, as the cafe is very involved with the expat community. I had an excellent falafel dish before we continued on.

Next, we went to an indoor marketplace in one of the more remote parts of town to get great deals on UAE souvenirs. Because our friend knew the shop owner's language, we were able to get really good deals. These kinds of shops offer very interesting and interactive shopping experiences since no prices are listed. You have to be willing to make deals with the shop owner, but ultimately you get much better prices than in tourist trap souvenir stores. We walked out of the store after nearly forty-five minutes of haggling with bags of souvenirs that ended up being much cheaper than souvenirs on other trips.

Today, we got a chance to go into to the Emirates Palace Hotel as I was actually wearing long pants. Unfortunately, the tours of the hotel rooms and ballrooms were limited only to the ballrooms, so a very nice receptionist offered for us to simply walk around and explore the public areas. Not only did we get to save about ninety dollars, but we got a chance to catch a glimpse of the absolute luxury that many rich travelers to Abu Dhabi get to enjoy. The craziest thing we noticed was that all of the items in the antique galleries around the hotel with items as old as 4000 years were for sale. Each item had a price of at least 3000 dirhams (~$1000).

We weren't allowed on the hotel's 1.5km private beach, but we got to see the massive Christmas tree and grand halls inside. There was also an exhibition about some of the new museums and institutions being planned for Saadiyat Island by the year 2030. The Guggenheim Museum, Louvre, and National Opera will keep Abu Dhabi an interesting place to visit for the next century. Unfortunately, the cheapest room in the hotel was over $1200 for a single night, so we won't be staying there anytime soon.

Before it was time to get dinner, we spent about an hour and a half checking out apartments in two nearby complexes, the Khalidiya Palace (pictured), and the Etihad Towers. All of the commodious and comfortable luxury apartments in these buildings provided absolutely stunning views of the Emirates Palace Hotel, the Presidential Palace, and the city of Abu Dhabi. It seems like looking for apartments in a city you're visiting is a great way to get excellent aerial views of a city and its attractions for free.

After this unique experience, my parents went out for their dinner, and myself, my friend and a couple of his friends had a small dinner at a Mexican food restaurant and spent the rest of the night eating and hanging out on the Corniche, a boardwalk type area by the beach that was unbelievably crowded for Thursday night. Because Friday is the main Muslim day of prayer, weekends in the UAE are Fridays and Saturdays, while the week starts on Sunday and ends on Thursday.

Now that I'm "home", I have a chance to relax after an incredibly tiring three days in Abu Dhabi. Tomorrow, we'll be going to Dubai to spend the next few days and New Year's Eve.

Disaster in the Desert

Today was a long and painful day, but I must say we're all very lucky to still be alive after what happened.  The desert safari that was supposed to be a nice day of fun turned ugly very quickly, but we're luckily still alive to tell you the story.


We began our crazy day in the city of Abu Dhabi where we visited an apartment that our friends were interested in renting. The view from the 37th floor balcony was absolutely incredible and gave us breathtaking views of the city and lagoon (see on the right). I've never seen a view from any building that was quite as beautiful. Afterward, we had a small lunch at a nearby bakery to fill up before the safari..


Next, we visited the Central Market Souk. I originally thought this was going to be large open air food market, but it was in fact a very fancy indoor mall, exquisitely decorated with wood. I got a chance to taste some gourmet chocolate and smell some authentic Asian and Middle-Eastern spices. I've never seen a mall quite like it.


By the time we were done exploring the market, it was time to go to the pickup location for our safari, a mall in the city. After waiting a little while and looking around for the driver, we finally found him. Together with an Indian family of tourists, we got into the rugged Lexus SUV, driven by a young Arab who couldn't speak any Engiish.


The forty-five minute drive to the first meeting point was relatively smooth, and provided us with amazing views of the surrounding desert.. At the first site we were given the opportunity to see a real camel farm. While we were enjoying the camels and the views of the surrounding desert dunes, the driver of our car started to deflate the tires to make the dune bashing experience easier and more comfortable.


After waiting for about twenty minutes, we were finally ready to get going. The seatbelts weren't working on the drive to the first area, so we had to essentially force the driver to get them working. The thrill of the dune bashing once we started was absolutely incredible. Driving rapidly through the sand and making sharp turns on the dunes was a thrilling experience that I thoroughly enjoyed, but my mom seemed to be too frightened  to fully appreciate it. 


After one small stop to see other cars riding down the dunes, we thought the ride was over. There was still in fact a short drive to the campsite. I offered to not have a seatbelt for the second ride, as one seat was missing one and my mom was very nervous without one before. I thought it would be nice to calm her down, and I may have saved her life later on. Our driver wanted to do one last stunt to impress us and the others before going to the campsite for sunset and dinner.


As our car started to race up the last, incredibly tall dune, we noticed that the other cars had already parked by the camp . We were a bit nervous, especially at the top of the hill where it felt like we were simply falling.


Well, the friction of the wheels on the sand simply wasn't enough to prevent our car from slipping and rolling down the hill. The four times that we rolled over down the dune hill felt like the longest ten seconds of my life. I heard glass shattering and aluminum getting crushed as I held for dear life on the seats. Because I wasn't wearing a seatbelt, my head got hit on the roof of the car a few times as we were rolling. When the car finally came to a stop, I stood up and yelled to ask if everyone was okay. I found my brother at my feet, but I had to get out of the car to be of any help. 


With the help of an insane adrenaline rush, I climbed out of one of the shattered side windows and stood up on top of the car. I was absolutely covered in sand and felt bleeding in some places, but I felt okay overall. After I jumped off of the car, I quickly ran around and saw that other people were helping my mother and brother out of the car. I saw that the Indian family that were with us had slightly more serious injuries. One man couldn't lift his arm all the way and the other had a large, bleeding lump on his head. We were all in shock and couldn't believe what had happened.


As one of the other drivers gave us water and drove us off safely to the camp, I saw the manager of the group scolding our driver for getting into the accident and destroying the car. We were extremely lucky that everyone made it out without any life threatening or serious injuries.


At the camp, we were able to wash off a little bit and lie down to relax. Supposedly, the police were called, but we waited almost ninety minutes and nothing happened. We finally decided to call the police ourselves, and the other employees and managers suddenly got concerned, with the police arriving nearby in about 15 minutes. Whether they actually called the police in the first place we may never know.


In the two hours before we were taken to the police on the main road, we got a glimpse of the belly dancing and a small taste of the barbecue, but we didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the other tourists with all the adrenaline rushing through our bodies . 


A short drive from the camp to the main road brought us to the police and ambulance. We knew we were mostly fine, but the other group with us needed to go to the hospital to treat some small injuries. We asked for the best and safest driver to take us home, so of course we got another young driver who couldn't speak any English. 


Our first problem on the drive home wasn't even a mile from the camp. It was pitch dark and at the intersection of the dirt road and the main paved road, the driver stopped and got out of the car to talk on the phone. We tried to talk to him, but he had to call his manager for him to have any chance to communicate with us. Apparently, even though the police told us we didn't have to be involved in any investigations or reports, the manager wanted us to sign some papers. We refused and pushed for the driver to keep driving us home. Next, on the roundabout intersection with the main highway to Abu Dhabi, we saw the sign going to Abu Dhabi, but he passed it and went towards some small Arabic village. We were immediately concerned about getting taken somewhere and called the manager again to see what he was doing.


It turns out that the driver had forgotten to reinflate the tires after the dune bashing. Driving through this authentic Arabian village, we had no idea where we were, and no one spoke any English at all. After about ten minutes at the local tire shop, we were back on the freeway to Abu Dhabi. The last problem we had was a simple misunderstanding of the drop-off location. We were picked up at a mall in Abu Dhabi, but wanted to be dropped off at our friend's home slightly outside the main city. One last phone call to the manager solved this problem and we were home within minutes.


We're now able to finally relax and and reflect on what happened. I'm incredibly lucky to have survived this kind of accident without a seatbelt, and I'm glad everyone else was okay. I hope the rest of our trip will go well, and that this will be the closest we come to real danger. I'm sorry I haven't been able to upload many pictures, but I will try at the soonest good opportunity. Tomorrow we'll tour the Grand Mosque and spend our last full day in Abu Dhabi before we go to Dubai for the rest of our trip.

The Journey to Abu Dhabi

The last two days of my life have been quite hectic with this new trip, so I was unable to write my blog yesterday on arrival in Abu Dhabi. Because of this, my entry today will be especially long, covering the time from my departure to the end of the first full day in Abu Dhabi.

My lengthy and exhausting journey to Abu Dhabi began two days ago, in the relatively small TF Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island. We were initially told that our flight to Washington Dulles airport was delayed by 15 minutes. We thought nothing of it, so we went to Dunkin Donuts, where I had a nice, refreshing hot chocolate. On our arrival to the gate, we discovered that the flight was delayed by ninety minutes. This gave us quite some anxiety, as we were only scheduled to have two hours to connect in Washington. Once we finally boarded the cramped, propellor-powered plane, our worry increased because we were told the bathroom on board was clogged, further delaying the flight. We also later found out that the reason for the initial ninety minute delay was that a flight attendant was "unhappy" and did not want to go to work on Christmas Day.

Thankfully, the United Airlines flight attendants knew that we, along with many other people, were making tight connections. They allowed us off of the plane with the first groups of people at the end of the ninety-minute flight.

The moment we exited the plane at 5:25, the race was on. We had to run through the massive Dulles airport to catch our 5:55 flight to Kuwait. International flights typically close their gates 15 minutes before departure, so we only truly had 15 minutes. As we ran through the airport, we saw that a few other people had unfortunately missed their connecting flights. Once we finally arrive at the gate after 11 minutes of running and train riding, we were greeted by the gate attendants who informed us there we had plenty of time. We took this as a sign that we had made it and began to enter the plane.

After entering and taking a seat in the massive Boeing 777 that would take us to Kuwait, it was 5:45. We had made it safely in time for departure. One thing we did notice was that the plane was old, uncomfortable and slowly falling apart. We soon discovered that the reason the plane hadn't departed yet was a "hydraulic leak"  that the crew had found. After waiting 40 minutes, it was announced that we would be changing planes, eventually departing at 8PM.

This delay didnt bother us as much, because the layover in Kuwait was originally scheduled to be 3 hours. We'd still have a full hour to connect. The new plane was  definitely newer and more comfortable. The 12 hour flight to Kuwait was the longest and most turbulent one I have ever been on. Finally entering the Kuwaiti airport was a relief from the chilly, turbulent flight.

After a final one hour flight to Abu Dhabi, we cleared customs and immigration to discover that one of our bags went missing in transit. All they could do was take our address, so we drove to the house we were staying with our friends at and after a nice Indian dinner, we promptly fell asleep.

We spent our first day in Abu Dhabi, today, sightseeing in the city with our friends Mary and Jacob (and their son) who now live in Abu Dhabi . On the half an hour drive to the downtown area, we passed by the incredible grand mosque, larger than the Taj Mahal. Our first stop was a small informational museum on Saadiyat Island. The museum's exhibition was about the incredibly ambitious projects planned for the massive artificial island by the year 2030. New branches of the Louvre, Guggenheim Museum, and British Museum were all part of the huge plan.

Next, we took a short ride to the port area to see the impressive indoor fish market, full of fresh fish and their merchants. The next part of our plan was to enter the incredibly expensive Emirates Palace Hotel for a tour, but because I was wearing shorts, we weren't allowed inside. Despite this small problem, we were still able to get impressive views of the hotel, as well as the nearby Etihad Towers.

Before we had a small lunch at the Marina Mall, we stopped by the Arabic Heritage Village. Here, we got to experience a bit of traditional nomadic Arabic culture. I find it amazing how they found a way to manage such a hot climate so comfortably.

After lunch, I went jet skiing for the first time in my life. I spent about one hour in the Abu Dhabi lagoon after departing from a small marina behind the fish market. I was incredibly surprised by the remarkable speeds the jet ski could attain. I think the fastest I went was about a ninety kilometers per hour. Speeding through the lagoon with a view of the Abu Dhabi skyline and the beautiful desert sunset was quite a thrilling and enjoyable experience. I did get soaked, but the warm desert sun made it comfortable until we got back to land and the sun had set. The seemingly freezing feeling after the ride was certainly worth the incredibly fun and thrilling experience.

For dinner, we ate at a traditional Lebanese restaurant where we ordered a 1.5kg tray of assorted meats for our six person group. The beef, lamb, and chicken appetizers from the dish were the tastiest I have had in my entire life. I have always been a fan of middle-eastern food, but I had never actually had the real, authentic stuff until now. Before we returned home to plan the rest of our UAE trip, we made a quick stop at a local mall (that felt exactly like an American one) for some small things and groceries.

Tomorrow, we will most likely go on the exciting desert safari after visiting the Grand Mosque. On Friday, we'll go to Dubai where we'll spend the majority of the remainder of the trip. So far, this has been the most unique country I've visited and I'm sure that after a few days, I won't want to go home. I'm sorry I didn't upload any photos yet, as it's past midnight, so I'll try to get them uploaded by tomorrow morning. Until then, I'll finally catch up on some needed sleep.

Holidays in the Emirates

I'm very excited to say that this holiday season, I'll be visiting Asia for the first time in my life, specifically the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East. Thanks to some friends who currently live in Abu Dhabi, my family was given the great opportunity to visit the country for a first-hand experience. On Christmas day, I'll be departing from TF Green Airport on a ten-day experience I'll never forget.

After three flights encompassing 21 hours of total transit time, we'll be in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi. Once we get a long night of sleep to cure some of the inevitable exhaustion, we will do a variety of exciting things. First of all, we'll have some time to explore the city of Abu Dhabi with the guidance of our local friends. This will be my first true taste of middle-eastern lifestyle and cuisine.

On another day, I'll be going on a desert "safari" in the deserts surrounding the city. On this day trip I'll have the opportunity to drive through massive sand dunes, ride a camel, see a traditional middle-eastern belly dancer, and go skiing in the sand. After a middle-eastern barbecue dinner, I'll get to see a beautiful desert sunset before returning to the city.

The pinnacle of the trip will probably be the visit to Dubai. This incredible city has grown more in the last ten years than many other cities have in a century. After ascending to the top of the world's tallest building for views of the spectacular city, I'll get an opportunity to check out the world's largest mall and the world's largest artificial island. Seeing a trend here? I think one of the most unique opportunities I'll have is to learn how to ski. Yes, Dubai, whose average summer temperatures sit around 100F, is home to the world's largest indoor ski resort. Because I've never gone skiing before, I thought that Dubai would be a fun place to start.

New Year's Eve is one of the few holidays that is universally celebrated around the world, and Dubai is no exception. I'll be in the middle of the incredible excitement that is Dubai on New Year's eve, where the entire city will light up in celebration of a new year. Unfortunately, on January 2, we'll be departing from Abu Dhabi for an even longer and more exhausting trip back to the United States.

I still don't know the full extent of what this little vacation in the Emirates is going to bring me, but I'm certain I'll never forget it. I'll try sure to keep this blog as daily as possible to let you know what my experiences are like so when you hopefully get an opportunity to visit this incredible place, you'll know where to start.

Home Sweet Home

I came home Monday night, but I've been too tired to write. Now that I'm somewhat back to normal, I'll just quickly conclude this year's blog with some pictures and final messages.

On Monday morning, we woke up in Dublin, had the last hotel breakfast at the Gibson, and took the bus to the airport. There, we checked in and were very nicely surprised that we were able to cross the U.S. border at the airport before our flight, saving time in Boston. On our quick 6-hour flight to Boston, I had the chance to watch three movies and eat a nice dinner. I did have quite the headache though. In Boston, we arrived as a domestic flight since we already crossed the border, and were able to quickly pick up our bags and get to South Station. Because we crossed the border in Ireland, we were able to catch a 5PM train to Providence and get home at around 6:30PM. I went to sleep very shortly after arriving, and woke up at around 7AM.

Now that I'm finally back home and I have a chance to look back at this great trip. I loved every city we visited, and I learned a lot of the history behind them as well. I also noticed that my trip this year and last year had some historical theme. Last time, I learned a lot about World War II and the Cold War in Berlin, London, and Paris. This year, I learned a lot about World War I and the years leading up to it in Austria, Hungary, and Poland. It was just something little I noticed, but now I feel more knowledgeable about the topics than I ever did in history class.

I've finished uploading all of my pictures, so here are all of the links:

Dublin (First Visit): https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/Dublin2011Visit1

Bydgoszcz Explosives Factory: https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/DAGBrombergExploseum

Budapest: https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/Budapest2011

Vienna: https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/Vienna2011

Bratislava: https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/Bratislava2011

Dublin (Second Visit): https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/Dublin2011Visit2

Thank you for following my blog, and I wish you all a great rest of the year!

The Final Day

Today was our last full day in Europe, and we spent it exploring the city of Dublin. Like every day, we began with a breakfast at the hotel, and then went off to the city center via the Luas tram. The first thing we planned to do was visit the Trinity College Library. Trinity College was founded in the 1500s and its library has a vast collection of historical books dating from medieval times to around the 19th century. One of the most famous books from the library is the Book of Kells, an original gospel manuscript in Latin dated back to the 9th century.

After going through a short exhibit about the book, I got to see it with my own eyes. It was quite incredible, for being written over 1000 years ago. The illustrations which made the book so famous were so amazing to see on the ancient pages. After seeing the book, we moved into the long hall, the library that inspired many movie libraries, including the Jedi Archives in Star Wars Episode II. The hall had an exhibit that changes monthly, displaying some of the books in the library. The theme for this exhibition was doctors, and we saw many old medical textbooks, as well as the first anatomy textbook ever (from the 1600s). After browsing through the souvenir shop, we wanted to go the Irish National History museum.

Unfortunately, it was a Sunday so the museum would open at 2PM, so we needed a way to pass the time. First, we went to Dublin Castle. In its courtyard, there was an exhibition on sand sculpting where I saw some amazing pieces of art. We decided not to do the tour of the castle though, since I can't even remember how many castles and palaces we've toured in the last 3 weeks. Instead, we decided to just go on the Luas tram line to the end. On the way, we saw the suburbs of Dublin with its gated communities and commuter parking lots. The end station of the line, Tallaght, was a new super-modern development just outside of the city that had a ton of new apartment buildings. Since Ireland went into recession in the last year, the city was mostly a ghost town, with hundreds of buildings "For Sale," "For Rent," or "To Let" (For Lease). We then took the tram back to the city and went to the history museum, close to Trinity College.

The museum had exhibits mostly about Irish archaeological history, starting with prehistoric times. We saw many stone age artifacts from when people first settled the Ireland. The next exhbition, the highlight of the museum, was about the bogs of Ireland, and how well they preserved artifacts and bodies. We saw four naturally preserved bodies ranging from 8000BC to 1500AD, one so well that we could see the face and hairstyle. The next few exhibits covered Ireland's history with the Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries, the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, and Ireland in the middle ages. There were also three non-Irish exhibits, about Egypt, Rome, and Cyprus. The museum was decent, and basically a lite, Irish version of the history/art museum in Vienna.

Since it was now around 4PM, we were hungry. The first place, "a Persian Restaurant" we wanted to eat at tried to scam us with foreign exchange rates, so we ate at a Lebanese restaurant next door. In this regard, when you travel, never agree to be charged in U.S. dollars on your credit card because the exchange rates are very unfavorable if you do. There, I tried some falafel and lamb donner meat on Naan bread. Since we were exhausted, we decided to rest at the hotel until around 7:30PM.

Our final exploration of Dublin was short and rainy. We walked around Grafton Street and Temple Bar, but there wasn't much action outdoors due to the rain, a guaranteed attraction in Ireland. After a final walk through Little Italy and O'Connell street, we returned to the hotel for good. Tomorrow, we'll be going to the airport and flying home to Boston. When I'm home, I'll post all of the pictures and do a final entry about the trip.

Dublin and Wicklow

Sorry I didn't make an entry yesterday, but I was simply exhausted last night. I'll tell you what I've done in the last two days here, as well as outline our plan for tomorrow, our last full day in Europe. When I return to the U.S., I also plan to upload the rest of my photographs from Bratislava and Ireland.

On Friday morning, I woke up bright and early at 7AM to catch a bus to the airport in Bratislava. Because it was very crowded, I hand to stand for a majority of the 30-minute ride. We went on a Ryanair flight direct to Dublin, Ireland, and arrived at around 1:30PM local time. We then took a bus to our hotel directly from the airport. Our hotel, The Gibson, is a very new hotel with a very modern design. I was quite impressed. After a short rest, we decided to go out into the city.

We first took a tram from our hotel to St. James Gate, with the plan of taking a tour of the Guinness Brewery. Since we were hungry, we had some lunch at a nice little café, served by a French guy living in Dublin. After that, we walked to the Guiness Brewery. I could smell the hops in the air as we walked in, bought tickets, and discovered that the public area was simply a part of the brewery that was no longer used. The museum that was there explained the brewing process. At the end of the tour, we got to the top of the storehouse for a panoramic view of Dublin and the surrounding area.

From the brewery, we took a bus to the city center where we walked again around Grafton St. and Temple Bar, the city's most popular and action-filled streets. We also walked up to O'Connell Street to find out the place where needed to be picked up by a bus the next day. We were once again getting hungry so we walked all around the city in the three main streets I mentioned earlier. We eventually settled at what seemed to be a good Asian food restaurant. For appetizers, I tried some delicious dumplings as well as some good sushi. The appetizers were very good and made us expect similar for the main dishes. Unfortunately, the main dishes were not as good. The beef teriyaki dish I ordered was actually just a steak (with no teriyaki sauce), and the chicken my dad had in his udon noodles was awful. After leaving, we went to the hotel and went to bed very quickly.

Today, we woke up at around 8AM for our first breakfast at the Gibson. After eating, we went to a tourist office on O'Connell street to go on a tour of the Wicklow county in Ireland. The Wicklow county is the region just south of Dublin with some spectacular mountains and endless green pastures. Our tour guide for the trip was very informative and provided a lot of interesting commentary, and our bus driver drove us very well.

First, we drove through the suburbs of Dublin out to the countryside where we saw many beautiful landscapes. Our first stop was about 45 minutes from the city at Blessington, a small resort on an artificial lake. Although the lake was only created 80 years ago, it looked like it had been there for millenia, and fit perfectly with the mountainous landscape. After a 30 minute coffee break here, we drove again through the countryside where we learned that many famous movies, like Braveheart or Saving Private Ryan, were filmed in the area.

Our next stop was near the Wicklow Gap, or highest mountain in the Wicklow Gap. There, we saw some spectacular mountain views despite clouds. There was also a castle ruin from around 1000 years ago that we could explore. After this 10 minute stop, we descended into the valley of the mountain in the ancient settlement of Glendalough. This settlement dated back to the 6th century when the first Christians arrived in Ireland. There was an interesting bell tower, a ruined cathedral, and a large cemetery. There was also a 1-mile walk to a nearby lake with wonderful views of the valley (pictured above).

After spending around 2 hours in the settlement, we drove to our final stop, Avoca. There, we saw an authentic hand-weaving business. We could see weavers design and weave their designs with 100-year old equipment. Shops in the settlement and around Ireland sold many of the clothes and linens weaved there. We also ate our lunch there, despite it being already 3PM. The lunch I had though was incredibly filling. I had a sausage roll and a potato cake filled with ham, cheese, and onions. It was really good, home-made like food. Once we left Avoca, it was only an hour drive to return to Dublin. By 5:30PM we were back in the city.

After an hour-long break at the hotel, we went out the city with the plan of going to some live Irish music and dancing. We eventually settled on a pub recommended by our tour guide at the Arlington Hotel on Temple Bar. Since our show would start at 9PM, we walked around Temple Bar and heard some of the music being played on the streets. Eventually we got back to the pub and listened to some (loud) Irish folk music, and saw some traditional Irish tap dancers. Like the tour guide said, it was a "lite" version of the Riverdance theater performance. At 10:30PM, supposedly when things at the pub were "just getting started," we left for the hotel.

Tomorrow will be our final full day in the city where we'll go to Trinity College to see the library and the Book of Kells, as well as visit the Irish National Museum of Archaeology. It's been a long trip, but I still have one more day to go.

Bratislava in the Rain

Before I talk about my eventful day in the Slovak capital city of Bratislava, I'd like to share my pictures from the 4-day stay in Vienna here: http://bit.ly/oLeKIs

Today, I basically learned that Bratislava is a nice, little city that can be explored to a large extent in a single day. After a delicious breakfast at our hotel, we went out to the plaza in front of our hotel to look for a good tour of the city. In Vienna, we learned about a tour that ridiculously charged 40 euros, and when we asked how much bus tours costed, we learned that they were 30 euros per person. Luckily, we found a tour on a train-like bus (pictured above) that only charged 10 euros per person with an English guide, so we decided to go for it.

This was in fact, a great decision. In our part of the bus there was only one other group, and the guide was actually a person who would talk to us and show us the city. Because of this, we had a nice one-on-one tour where we could ask questions and learn a lot. We drove around the entire city, seeing the old town, many churches, and the Bratislava Hrad Castle. At the Hrad Castle, we stopped for about 15 minutes for another great panorama of the city. After that, we drove along the Danube and then concluded our tour back in the Old Town. I learned some basic history about the city, as well as the entire country.

After this tour, we decided to go to recommended museum called the Police Museum. To get there, we would have to go on a good walk through the Old Town and pass the Presidential Palace. When we passed by the Presidential Palace, it just happened to be at the time of the changing of the guards, so I got to see the traditional ceremony occur. When we finally got to the Police museum, we were confused, as the lights in the entrance hall were off and the receptionist was sleeping. After he woke up and we asked about the police museum he said in Slovakian: "No, the police is in the next building." When we repeated "museum" he said "Oh" and then made a phone call. A lady then showed up and unlocked the museum and turned on the lights. At this point, we thought it was going to be a disaster but the museum was actually very nicely set up and had a variety of interesting artifacts and exhibits. The only problem was a lack of English, but I still got to the uniforms, weapons, and tools used by the Police throughout the decades.

After the museum, we walked further away from the Old City to "rehearse" our public transportation trip to the airport tomorrow. After a bit of walking, we determined where we would change from our tram stop the airport bus, so we wouldn't have to do it with many bags in the rain. We then took a tram to the hotel for a short break. Next, we walked to a nearby church known as the Blue Church for its external appearance, but it was closed. We then walked to the more famous church, St. Martin's cathedral, and went inside to walk around for a bit. We saw an interesting treasury, as well as a historical crypt from the 1100s.

By now, we were quite hungry so we walked around looking for a place to eat. In this time, we explored all of the Old Town and its interesting courtyards and architecture. We eventually settled for a generic lunch restaurant where I had a hamburger with some absolutely delicious french fries while my dad had pork with wild mushrooms. Before returning to the hotel for a break, we had a quick pastry dessert at a nearby cafe. Unfortunately at this point, the drizzle that was going on throughout the day became a downpour so we had to go back to the hotel. We wanted to go to a Japanese music concert sponsored by the Japanese embassy in the main square, but it was cancelled due to the rain. Since the rain was closing down the entire city, we decided to just wait at the hotel until around 8PM.

It was still rainy outside but we were hungry, so we decided to look for a place to eat. We eventually settled at the Sushi+ Japanese restaurant across the street from the Japanese embassy. The food was actually absolutely delicious, and was the best Japanese restaurant I've ever eaten at. I had large piece or chicken cut into bite-sized slices with teriyaki sauce and rice. Even after the restaurant it was raining, so we decided just to go back to the hotel. Tomorrow, I'll be waking up at 7AMto fly into Dublin, Ireland, spending our last three days there.

Austria, Slovakia, and... Kuwait?

I've done an incredible amount of things today, yet I still have 4 days left in the trip. I'll quickly go over just some of things I did. We began our day with our final breakfast at the Vienna hotel. Instead of going to the central cemetery, we decided to go somewhere more exciting, the Kunsthistoriches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts) in Mariatheresienplatz.

The museum was a massive gallery covering art from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, and Holland, including Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, and Bruegel, just to name a few famous painters. The museum was set up similarly to the Louvre, with each section of the museum devoted to a certain art origin. Each room was also architecturally designed in the style of that particular culture. For example, the entrances to Egyptian rooms looked like ancient, golden temples with heiroglyphics, while the Roman and Greek rooms were covered in marble and full of columns.

After buying an audioguide, we chronologically went through the museum, starting in Ancient Egypt and ending in the Renaissance period. The museum was very interesting and I saw some famous paintings. The only problem was a special exhibition from a modern artist named Jan Fabre, whose mediocre ballpoint pen art pieces were covering priceless painting from the Renaissance era. After finishing the museum and buying a few souvenirs, it was already 2PM.

Next, we went to the city center at Stephansplatz and climbed the north tower of the Stephansdom cathedral. There were 373 steps, but the climb was well worth it. The views from the top of the cathedral were incredible, especially since it was our first sunny day in Vienna. After descending from the cathedral, we had some late lunch from a fast-food vendor. I had some Doner style chicken, and also tried a bit of falafel. Before we left Vienna, we also had some Italian style ice cream.

To go to Bratislava, we used the Twin City Liner boat from Vienna. We got front row seats in the incredibly comfortable boat, but also spent some time outside while on the trip. We saw the Danube canal of Vienna meet the actual Danube river close to Slovakia, as well as some riverside fishing cabins. The boat went incredibly fast for its size (reaching a speed of 70 km/h), since it had two 1000 horsepower engines. We were in Bratislava within 75 minutes.

In Bratislava we reached our hotel within minutes and noted that it was an incredibly condensed city, with all of the major attractions and buildings within a one square mile area. Our hotel is in an excellent location and our room had a nice view of the town square and the castle. We also found out that the rooms directly next to us were the offices of the Kuwait embassy in Bratislava. If we leave our hotel room, the first thing we see is the desk of the embassy and the flag of Kuwait. The technical border to Kuwait is only inches away from us now. The building next to our hotel is also the U.S. embassy.

In Bratislava, the first thing we decided to do was to go to the UFO observation tower. This unique tower was actually the main tower of a suspension bridge (pictured above), holding up thousands of tons of steel, asphalt, and automobiles. The view from the top was quite incredible as we saw three countries, Slovakia's capital, Austria's farms, and the Danube in Hungary far in the distance. We decided not to eat at the restaurant up there though due to its absolutely ridiculous prices.

Next, we decided to take a walk in the neighborhood near our city and realized how small the city really is. We spent only an hour but walked through the entire Old Town seeing many various restaurants, shops, and embassies. As we walked, we tried to decide on a restaurant to eat at later on. Eventually, after a short break at the hotel, we had dinner at an authentic Slovakian restaurant. Due to the similarities between the Slovak language and Polish, we could speak in Polish without too much issue. I had a potato pancake stuffed with various meats, including pork, chicken and beef, and I also tried some authentic Czechoslovakian dumplings.

Looking back at the Museum of Fine Art, I can't believe that was still done today, but we still have a full four more days left in the entire trip before returning to the U.S. Tomorrow, we'll spend our full day in Bratislava, just exploring the city. On Friday though, we'll be flying to Dublin and spending our last 3 days of the trip there. I hope to upload my pictures from Vienna tomorrow, so you can expect those soon!

Mountains and Museums

What I thought was going to be a nice day to relax was in fact very busy and exciting. After our typical hotel breakfast, we had a plan to begin our day at three different museums in the city, about torture, Esperanto, and globes. The torture museum was the one we decided to go to first, so we got off at its metro stop. It took quite a while to find the museum, as it was under an large aquarium complex, but when we did, we were glad to see that it would be in English as well. What we essentially learned was a history of the torture devices used in Europe for centuries, and a bit of history of torture itself. Some of the devices we saw included the gallows, the leg screws, and the iron maiden. We also saw some tools of execution that were historically used around the world. The tour ended with an Amnesty International sponsored exhibit about human rights and the unethicality of torture.

The next two museums we visited were in one of the government buildings, so we got a combination ticket and used our Vienna Card to save some money. The first museum there was the Esperanto museum. Esperanto is a language that was developed in the late 19th century by a Polish linguist from Bialystok, who wanted to create an international language. His vision was for the entire world to have no language barriers. He tried to accomplish this goal by making an incredibly simple language with no special rules and exceptions in grammar. For example, all nouns end in o, all adjectives end in a, all adverbs end in e, and all infinitive verbs end in i. The museum focused on Esperanto in the media, and the efforts for it to become an international language. We saw many posters and products made in Esperanto, as well as some basic rules of the language. For example, the Movado watch is an Esperanto inspired brand that means "always moving."

The other museum in this complex was the Globe Museum. This museum had a vast collection of globes dating from the 1500s to the 2000s, and gave a history of how and why they were made. I saw 500-year old inaccurate globes used by the early explorers, I saw celestial globes, (maps of the stars as seen from the "outside") and even globes of other worlds like the moon and Mars. For someone who enjoys geography, I found the museum very interesting.

Our next planned activity was to ascend the mountain to the west of Vienna and visit the villages of Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg for beautiful views of the city. To get to the villages, we took one of the metro lines to its terminus, and then took a bus from the station all the way to the top of the mountain. We started in Kahlenberg, which was a small village with a private university, hotel, and restaurants overlooking the city of Vienna. Due to some clouds, the view wasn't spectacular, but still nice to look at. The village itself was uninhabited until the 18th century, when Polish military forces, led by the Polish king, Jan Sobieski III helped to defend Austria from the Turks. Because of this, there was a Polish church there and many of the people in the village spoke Polish.

Next, we wanted to go to the nearby village of Leopoldsberg, but we didn't quite know which path to take. To be safe, we just followed the road but joined a path towards the village halfway there. At Leopoldsberg, there was a fort used by the Polish army, and even more spectacular views of the city, despite the clouds. If we went to the villages on a sunny day, the views would be simply amazing. We took the walking path all the way back to Kahlenberg and noticed that it was significantly shorter than the winding roads, so we had time to have a quick snack overlooking Vienna before taking the bus and metro back to the city.

Since we were exhausted, we rested for about an hour at the hotel, but we decided to then go to the film festival at the Rathaus (town hall, pictured above) at around 8:30PM. Today's showing was a recorded concert of Beethoven's ninth symphony in one of Vienna's concert halls, which was quite interesting with such a massive screen and soundsystem. It almost felt like we were there.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Vienna, so we'll probably visit the church in Stephansplatz, and possibly visit the cemetery where Mozart and Beethoven lay. In the evening, we will take a riverboat to Bratislava, Slovakia, to begin our two-night stay there. Vienna has been a great and exciting city, and I hope to be able to visit it again in the future.

Royalty, Diplomacy, and Classical Music

I've done so many things today in Vienna and even outside of Austria (technically), so I'll share them with you so I don't forget these great experiences. Just after our second full day in Vienna, I feel like we've been here for a week.

We started our day as always with a breakfast at the hotel, but we then took the metro to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of Austro-Hungarian royalty from the 17th to early 20th century. After waiting in a very organized line system, we got tickets for a guided tour. We were lucky to come to the palace at the right time, because if we came just a bit later, we would've missed the tour.

I learned quite a bit about not only Austro-Hungarian history, but about French history as well. The palace was where Marie Antoinette grew up, and Napoleon lived and raised a son there during his reign of Europe. Some of the many rooms we saw included bedrooms, dining rooms, waiting rooms, and studies. After about 80 minutes, our tour concluded.

Since it was close to 1PM, we wanted to go to another attraction, the UN Headquarters in Vienna, for a guided tour at 2PM. The metro ride took about 30 minutes since it was taking us from one side of the city to the other, but I think it was worth it. To enter the headquarters, we needed to pass through airport-style security, and show our passports, since we were technically leaving Austria and entering international soil. Once we were in the visitor center, we got our tour tickets and I had a quick sandwich for lunch.

Our tour was led by a nice woman from Sudan who gave us a glimpse at how diplomacy is done in practice at the United Nations. We began the tour in the plaza in the center of the campus's many buildings. Here, flags of all 193 member states were displayed, as well as the flag of the Vatican City. The first "exhibit" we visited was a model of the complex where we learned about the history of how the UN came to Vienna, and why the building was designed the way it is. Next, we went to the UN conference center where we saw one of the massive conference halls where delegates from member countries meet to discuss and vote on global issues. Something interesting we learned about was how the interpreting system worked. There are six interpreter cabins above the room where interpreters sit and interpret everything spoken in the room from one of the six official UN languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian) to their mother tongue, transmitting it to one of the six audio channels. By doing this, a diplomat who knew any of these six languages could be a delegate at any UN conference without any trouble.

After seeing the conference hall, we walked to the rotunda for the International Atomic Energy Agency, where we learned about the UN's job regarding nuclear power. This was one of the Vienna headquarter's main focuses (Vienna's overall theme in the UN is International Security). We finished the tour at an exhibition showing how a certain UN resolution drastically reduced the amount of nuclear weapon tests in the world. Near the UN Headquarters is the Danube TV Tower (pictured above), where we quickly ascended for a decent lunch and amazing views of the city of Vienna.

After spending about an hour at the TV tower, we returned to the hotel. On our way, we stopped at Stadtpark station to orient ourselves for a concert at night, but got lost while doing it. At least we got lost then, and not while looking for the concert. At our hotel, we bought tickets for this classical music concert, not really knowing what to expect. Before going to this concert in Stadtpark, we decided to go to what we thought was going to be an exciting light show near the concert hall. We found out it was actually a modern art exhibition with a presentation about "time," with a description that seemed too deep to make sense ("intertwining the contradiction of time as a meaningless, precious symbol.... ... into a musical presentation that will open the mind"). All it was was 47 different speakers with clocks and alarms ticking and going off with different tones, something Pink Floyd already did a better job at 40 years ago.

We then decided to go early to the concert. This was actually a great decision as we got front row seats. The concert itself, which started at 8:20PM and lasted two hours was very interesting, and not boring, as I thought it would be. The band, which was a mixture of string and wind instruments played pieces from Mozart and Strauss, with the occasional accompaniment by opera singers and ballet dancers. The musicians were great, and there was a nice touch of comedy added to the show.

Now, we're sitting at the hotel, already preparing for what we'll be doing tomorrow. Just like the tour guide said, there is just too much to do in Vienna. Tomorrow, we'll probably go to a couple of museums, go to a mountaintop view of the city, and possibly go to an astronomical observatory at night. After so many exhausting activities, tomorrow will be a nice day to relax before going to Bratislava on Wednesday. Now, it's time to sleep.

A Day in Vienna

Today was our first full day in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. We began our day with a breakfast at our hotel. Although it was okay, it was nowhere near as good as the breakfasts we were having in Budapest. Once we finished our breakfast, we took the metro to Volkstheater and went to Maria-Theresien square. This square, surrounded by various museums was the meeting point for our Vienna walking tour.

The tour itself was 2.5 hours and brought us by the Imperial Palace, Volksgarten Park, Main Theater, City Hall, Rotenturmstrasse (pictured above), and the St. Stephen's Cathedral. Although it wasn't as exciting as the walking tour in Budapest, I still learned a lot and saw many amazing buildings. Most of the architecture in the city was from the 18th and 19th century, and many of the famous people who lived there included Mozart, Beethoven, and Sigmund Freud. We concluded our tour near the cathedral where the tour guide talked about how we should always keep exploring the city, as 2.5 hours was too little to see the entire city. Before continuing, I had a quick Bratwurst hot dog.

After our tour, we had an interesting adventure getting to the Science/Technology museum, or Technisches Museum in the southwest part of the city. We first took the metro to a remote station, then took a bus, and walked another half-kilometer, going in an unnecessary circle. We eventually found it and ended up spending the majority of the day there. There were 4 total floors each with their own themed exhibitions. The first floor, or ground floor in Europe, had an exhibition about the advancement of astronomy. I got to see how the science progressed from medieval telescopes to massive observatories and satellites, and how our understanding of heat and the universe was radically changed in this time. The other exhibit on this floor was just a bunch of illusions, mostly regarding light.

The next floor, the first floor, had three main parts. The first part we visited was a history of heavy industry (mining and processing raw ores). I learned how raw materials were extracted from the ground once with buckets, then trains, and now massive excavators, and how they were manufactured into steel and tools. The next part was dedicated to the evolution of the motor, starting with massive steam engines, and how they eventually became electrically powered. I also got to see the sleeping car of an empress in the early 20th century. It was practically a mansion on a train, and I would definitely like to travel in such comfort. The last part of the floor was dedicated to energy and electricity, where I saw how energy could be converted in so many different ways. I powered a television by riding a bike and rang a bell by pumping some water in a large chain reaction device.

The next floor was somewhat insignificant, as there was only one exhibit, about the history of everyday life. I saw what vacuum cleaners and refrigerators were like before electricity, and most interestingly, the process by which metals, plastics, paper, and glass are recycled into things we use everyday. The final floor had three exhibitions. The first one we went through was about the history of media, covering the printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, calculators, computers, and the internet. One cool thing I saw was an early 20th century phone operator board, where the operator would manually connect the phone lines of two callers together.

The next exhibit was about the many different types of transportation. First, I saw land transportation by horses, bikes, and then motorcycles, cars, and trains. Next, I saw how sea transportation evolved from fishing canoes to massive cruise ships. Lastly, I saw the history of air travel, from the first hot air balloon, to zeppelins, airplanes, and then helicopters. The last exhibition we saw was about musical instruments. I got to see the inner workings of different types of pianos, and I got to see how an organ actually worked. Overall, the museum was incredibly interesting and there was as much English as there was German.

After returning to our neighborhood from the museum, it was already 6:30PM. Since we only had a single hot dog for lunch, we were quite hungry. What we learned from the tour and simply walking through Vienna was that it was not the kind of city with many sit-down restaurants. Everything was about fast food. Schwedenplatz, our main metro station was a haven for hot dogs, kebabs, fast-food chinese, fast sushi, falafel, and many more things. Since it was raining, we couldn't just have food from a street vendor like this. We needed to go the neighborhood we accidentally discovered yesterday.

We decided after a while to go into a nice looking Japanese restaurant where I ordered pork dumplings and beef teriyaki. The pork dumplings were good and the beef was absolutely excellent. They served it to me in a metal bowl while it was still being fried in teriyaki sauce. Because it was so fresh, it was the most delicious teriyaki beef I have ever eaten. I guess stumbling upon this neighborhood by accident yesterday was a very good thing. Since we were exhausted and it was rainy outside, we returned to the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing at the hotel.

We still have two full days in the city, and have only a preliminary plan of what to do. Tomorrow morning, we will be going to the Schonbrunn Palace for a guided tour. Next, depending on the weather, we may go to a nearby mountain known as Kahlenberg to see some great views of the whole city. For the evening, we will either go to a classical music concert if it is rainy, or a space observatory if the skies are clear. On Tuesday, we will go to an Art Museum, potentially go on a guided tour of the UN Offices in the city, and either do the concert or observatory, depending on what we did the night before. We still have an exciting few days ahead of us in Vienna and I can't wait to share my experiences.

Arrival in Vienna

Before I begin with discussing my day, I'd like to link you to my pictures from my 3-day stay in Budapest. See my Budapest album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/Budapest2011

And if you'd like to see my other albums from this trip and most trips I've been on in the past, check here: https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp

Today, we had the plan of taking the first train to Vienna from Budapest. Before though, we ate our last breakfast at the hotel. I didn't really have anything different, but I had some more of the delicious sausage and bacon. Before checking out, we spent a few minutes walking to the Danube but turned back when it began to rain.

After we checked out, we took the metro to the main train station, Keleti Pu, and searched for the international ticket office. After asking a janitor, we found out that the ticket office was an under-construction room with a ticket system for a line. We grabbed number 652, and noticed that only 638 was being called. As we waited, we pondered the ridiculousness of the system, and how there could be so many other different ways to solve this problem. After about 30 minutes, we had two economy-class tickets on the train to Frankfurt, stopping in Vienna.

The actual train ride was very comfortable, as it was in a brand new, very modern train. By 4PM, we arrived in Vienna's Westbahnhof. We then took the metro to the area near our hotel. Because we were confused, we got off on the wrong station and located an interesting part of town with many restaurants. Although we were technically lost, it was somewhat of a good thing as we found a place to eat at later on. To get to our hotel, we went back to Schwedenplatz via the metro. From there, the hotel was a mere 2 minutes away. We checked in and then decided to take a preliminary walk around Vienna.

We began to walk up the street of our hotel away from the main part of the city. We then took a tram to the area of the city we found earlier on the metro and had dinner at a decent Japanese restaurant where I had noodles with fried beef. We went back to Schwedenplatz after dinner and walked into the direction of Old Vienna. Here, we found a major street, Rotenturmstrasse where all of the big stores and restaruants were located. It was also a haven for street performers of all genres. We continued walking down the street and took a random tram deeper into the city near the parliament, where we stumbled upon a film festival near a beatiful church building. After some more exploring, we returned to the main street area via tram and started to watch some of the street performers.

First, we watched an incredibly talented African singer singing pop music, attracting huge crowds of people. Next, we watched a young group performing some folk music. Then, we watched an artist rapidly produce amazing pieces of art with spray paint. Police actually stopped him to check to make sure he was legally in the country. Lastly, we watched a street performer who was an expert in juggling a "diablo", a strange tubelike prop, on string. Unfortunately, an obnoxiously drunk man disrupted his show, forcing him to stop the show before it really ended. After this, we went back to Schwedenplatz one last time to get a kebab wrap and returned to the hotel.

Tomorrow, we will truly begin our stay here with a walking tour, and then visit a museum about the history of science. I hope that our visit to Vienna will be just as exciting as the one in Budapest.

Communist-Era Budapest

It's been another exciting day in Budapest, and I'm quite sad it's the last one of our trip here. We began the day with another delicious hotel breakfast. Today, I tried some more of the sausage, and also tried some traditional Hungarian salami. After breakfast, we caught a bus to Castle Hill, to visit the Hospital in the Rock, a cold-war era hospital that was used both as a hospital and nuclear bunker. The tour of the hospital, which was incredibly interesting, focused on how it was being used during the attempted 1956 revolution in Budapest. We walked through the tight hallways, saw emergency rooms, wards, and storage facilities, and wax sculptures gave a sense about how crowded the hospitals once were.

After that one hour tour, we took a walk on the grounds of the palace, and took some nice pictures of the amazing view of the Parliament and Chain Bridge on the Danube. We also had a drink at a restaurant/cafe overlooking the Danube with some authentic Hungarian musicians in the background. Before returning to our hotel to rest, I had a delicious Romanian "cake" which was basically a long, thin doughnut covered in cinnamon. To prepare for a walking tour at 3:30PM, we rested for a short while at our hotel.

Right before our communist walking tour, which we had planned to do as a follow-up to the general tour yesterday, we took a short walk in the area of the city near the St. Stephen's Basilica. We decided to go into the basilica, and I was quite impressed with the architecture, which was very comparable to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. We also saw a replica of the 1000-year old mummified hand (the real one was being "restored") of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary.

At 3:30PM, we began the communist walking tour, which was essentially a history lesson about life in Hungary during the communist/cold-war era between 1945 and 1991. I learned so much about communist life in both Hungary and in general, and I also learned a bit about the history of communism itself. The tour was less about the sights, and more about the history, but we still got to see a communist-era bus terminal, and a monument commemorating liberation from Germany by the Soviets when communism first began (pictured above). We also stopped by the American embassy, which is actually the most heavily guarded building in the city.

Among some of the things I learned were travel, religion, economy, jobs, education, propaganda, TV, and entertainment during the communist era. Something interesting was that Hungary was allowed to have a lot more Western privileges than the other communist countries in the 70s and 80s. In these two decades, Hungarians could drink Coca-Cola and watch MTV music videos. We concluded the tour in one of Budapest's famous ruin-pubs, pubs built in abandoned buildings. There, we learned about the history of Hungary after communism ended, and how privatization rapidly occurred in the city.

After the tour, it was already 6PM, so we decided to have a quick very late lunch at a fast-food diner selling German sausages. I had a very good Bratwurst sausage. We then returned to the hotel to get the proper attire to go to one of Budapest's bathhouses. The ones we decided to go to were the Szechenyi baths in the City Park. We enjoyed some nice warm pools with powerful whirlpools, and relaxing massaging jets. We spent about 2 hours there relaxing before having a proper dinner.

Since we were undecided on food, we ate at the same restaurant as yesterday, as they had a very wide selection of Hungarian foods. I had a fried veal cutlet with potatoes, while my father had a goose leg. It was just as delicious as yesterday, and I think that this restaurant, the Ferencz Jozsef Sorozo, is one of my favorites of all time.

Now, it was 10:30PM and we needed to return to the hotel. We took a nighttime walk down Andrassy Ut, and saw the nightlife in the city on a Friday night, which was considerably more alive than on weeknights. Tomorrow, we'll have our last breakfast in Budapest, and then take a train to Vienna in Austria, to spend 3 full days exploring one of the most famous cities in the world. As for Budapest, I really enjoyed my time and would definitely return in the future.

A Rainy Day in Budapest

It's been another long day, and the rainy weather did not stop us from having a great time. We began the day at our hotel with some complimentary breakfast. I must say, it was the best hotel breakfast I have ever had. The bacon and sausage were delicious, as were the pastries. The variety was vast, and I can't wait to try more new things tomorrow.

After the huge breakfast, we met with a crowd of people at the main square near our hotel and began our "free" walking tour of Budapest. Taking 2.5 hours, we walked throughout the city, learning some Hungarian history, some basic Hungarian, and why Hungary is so important. We began in the Pest side of city in the east, and saw the chain bridge and St. Stephen's Basilica. I also learned some basic Hungarian. Apparently, people greet each other with a phrase pronounced "see ya," and say goodbye with a word pronounced "hello." Very confusing, but interesting nonetheless. I then learned about some Hungarian inventions. Without Hungary, we apparently wouldn't have refrigerators or computers.

Next, we crossed the famed Chain Bridge to the Buda side of the river, the west. This side is home to the famous Buda Castle Hill, so we took a short hike to the top. On our way, we stopped to learn about the history of Hungary from its foudning to today. Originally, Hungarians came as nomadic from the Ural Mountains in Central Russia, and Mongolia. They settled in the Carpathian region in Europe at around 1000 AD, and were then unified by St. Stephen as one Christian nation. Hungary prospered for many years, and eventually joined the Austro-Hungarian empire. This is where a majority of Hungary's architecture comes from. In the 20th century however, Hungary's history only went downhill. The empire lost in World War I, and also lost World War II when allied with Germany. After the war, Soviets occupied the country with totalitarian socialism, causing terror throughout the country. It was only in 1990 when Russians left the country and Hungary could start to recover from a century of "being a loser." Hungary did join the EU in 2004, but they still have some economic issues to solve before adopting the Euro.

After our history lesson, we took in the view from Castle Hill, and it was simply spectacular. We could see the entire Danube river, the chain bridge, and the beautiful parliament building (shown above in the picture). The view itself is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site. After this view, we walked around the Buda side of the city until concluding the tour at the Matthias church where the tour guides gave us a quick orientation about the city and let us go. Before leaving, we gave them a generous tip.

After our tour, we took a bus back to the Pest side of the city to the House of Terror, a museum devoted to showing life during the reign of the Soviets in Hungary. It was not a very happy museum, but I learned a lot about what it was like living in an oppressed communist state. Even though there wasn't too much English in the museum, I understood very well what was being shown, and from what I did understand, life was miserable and drove people mad. After checking out the jail cells at the museum, we returned to the hotel to rest for a little bit.

For late lunch/early dinner, we decided to follow the tour guide's advice and search for a local restaurant, away from touristy areas to avoid traps. We were very successful, and I had a delicious meal of fried pork and potatoes, while my father had some traditional beef goulash. The restaurant, if anyone ever visits Budapest, is called Ferenc Josef, and I highly recommend it. Before going to the hotel to rest again, we took a stroll down Andrassy Ut, Budapest's "Champs-Ulysess," to the City Park. On the way we saw the Hero's Square and the Castle in the Park.

At around 9PM, after spending an hour at the hotel pool and spa, we went out for one last time to check out the river view at night and were amazed with how spectacular the castle and chain bridge were lit. We crossed the Danube and came back to a quick Gyro meal before finally returning to the hotel.

Tomorrow, we'll be taking another tour, centered around communist history, as well as check out some more of the city's famous sights. Be sure to check back for more!

A Nightmare at the Airport

It's the end of what's been a very long day, and one that did not go at all according to plan, but we still made it to the hotel in Budapest, Hungary. Before I get to the story of today, I'll do a quick summary of what I've done since then. On Sunday, me, my father, grandmother, and uncle went to the villages where my grandmother grew up. Our first stop was Kozielsko, the village that my grandmother was forced to move to after Nazis invaded her home town of Niemczyn when she was only a young girl. There, we visited my great-grandmother's grave, who was murdered by Nazis at the time. Our next stop was a memorial in the woods to a group of people kidnapped and murdered by Nazis. One of them was my great-grandfather, and the other was one of my great-uncles. Lastly, we went to my mother's hometown of Niemczyn to visit the farm my mother was born in, and spend some time with her family.

On Monday, we went to downtown Bydgoszcz to try their new water trams. They were ridiculously cheap, but there was no information or guide to the surrounding. The 75 minute ride was interesting nonetheless, and I got to pass through some locks for the first time in my life. Later in the day, we checked out Bydgoszcz's Little Venice, an island currently being renovated for tourists, and the progress from last year was impressive. On Tuesday, we didn't do much, but did go out at night and spend our last night at a busy restaurant on a part of the Brda river forming the island.

Today, we woke up at 7AM, and did not get to a good start. Within minutes, we discovered that our regional flight from Bydgoszcz to Warsaw was cancelled. We called the airline, LOT, and all they could do was give us a reservation for a later flight to Budapest in Warsaw (after proving him wrong that there wasn't an alternate flight). Getting to Warsaw was our responsibility however. We were able to take a train from Bydgoszcz to Warsaw at 9AM but it wouldn't arrive in time for the 12:30PM flight, so we had to settle for the 5PM flight, which didn't seem so bad at the time.

After a relatively nice four-hour train ride in first class, we took a taxi to the airport in Warsaw, arriving at around 1:30PM. The first thing we did was check in our bags for the flight to Budapest, and then we immediately went to the complaints desk for LOT airlines. All they gave us was a sheet to give to them and hopefully get a mail reply in a few weeks about compensation. According to the EU, LOT is legally obliged to compensate for our inconvenience. Our perils unfortunately did not end here. We then went to a LOT airline office in the airport to get more details about compensation, and to show them a news article from that morning that talked about LOT's unreliability. They couldn't do anything but give us a restaurant voucher (after we asked for one). After our airline provided dinner (which wasn't too bad), we used the internet hotspot for the few hours we had at the airport.

At around 4:40PM, we started walking to the gate because the flight was scheduled to board at 4:50PM. Suspiciously, the gate was full of people, but the actual info booths were empty. We called the airline at around 5:00PM to ask about the flight and lack of information, and they only told us that the flight might be delayed. We waited another half hour, and no one showed up. the flight was supposed to depart, but there was no information at all, and the flight monitors still said on time, despite crowds waiting for the flight. We decided to go to another gate and ask them about ours. They said that they called someone, and a few minutes later, the pilot showed up, abslutely clueless as to what was going on. A lady finally arrived at the gate at around 6:00PM, already 30 minutes after scheduled departure time. The weather at this point just to started to get bad, with some thunder (at and before the scheduled departure time, it was sunny outside). The lady immediately gave the announcement that the flight was delayed to weather. At this point, my father and a number of other people started to ask for answers, as it obviously wasn't the reason if the bad weather began AFTER the flight was supposed to be departed.

The lady then decided to give us info updates every thirty minutes, so we went back to the wi-fi hotspot. At 7:40PM, we finally boarded the plane, about 3 hours later than scheduled, and we departed at around 8:10PM. After our arrival in Budapest an hour later, we got our luggage very quickly, and took a bus to the metro station. We then took the metro downtown, to where our hotel was. I was very pleasantly surprised with the hotel, and it was nice to relax after a long and tough day. Before settling down, we quickly scouted the area around the hotel and found a 24 hour convenience store.

It's been a long day, and I've learned two things: Things may not always go as planned, so you have to get used to it, don't fly LOT airlines.

Castles and Dynamite Factories

The last few days have been pretty interesting, but the highlight was definitely the "Exploseum," an abandoned German explosives factory from when Bydgoszcz, Poland was occupied by the Germans during World War II. Before we get to that, I'll talk about what else we did in the past few days. I also have some pictures from the museum and the rest of the trip uploaded, so I'll post the links for those at the end of the entry.

After waking up in Nidzica on Thursday, we decided to visit the castle again, but for an actual tour. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing in English, so I didn't get much out of it, but I got to see some of the architecture and tools used by the Teutonic Knights in their castles 600 years ago. After the hour-long tour, I returned to my grandfather's house for some lunch. After lunch, we had a 4-hour car-ride back to Bydgoszcz. On the way, we stopped at a castle ruin in Brodnica, where all that remains is a single tower and the ruins around it. Unfortunately, since it was after 5 o'clock, the tower was closed, but we still got to see the grounds with some original castle ruins. After arriving in Bydgoszcz, we did nothing but relax for the rest of the evening.

Friday wasn't too much of an eventful day either, but I drove through downtown Bydgoszcz and waited at the train station to drop off and say goodbye to my cousin and her daughter who were leaving to go to their hometown in another part of Poland. After that, I went to my uncle's new apartment to relax again for a while.

Today, we woke up and pretty much immediately went to the brand new "Exploseum", opened last week. The actual museum and tour gave only a glimpse of the 23 square kilometer complex, which could still have unexploded mines in the still-abandoned areas. The factory was one of the many factories for the DAG explosives corporation. The Bromberg (the name of Bydgoszcz under Germany) complex however was the largest and most productive, providing almost 80% of DAG's explosives.

To actually get to the complex, we took a bus to the outskirts of the city, and followed a road to the end where a small crowd of people were waiting. We weren't quite sure if we were in the right place, as there were no signs whatsoever about any museum or tour, and even the people waiting said that they "hoped" that somebody would pick them up for the museum/tour. Finally, an unmarked tour bus came to the area we were waiting, and people started to enter, asking no questions about the Exploseum. Everyone just assumed it was what we were looking for. Sure enough, the bus took us to the ticket office of the museum, where we signed a waiver and began our tour. The museum could definitely use some better marketing tactic here.

Unfortunately, there was no English guide, text, or brochure anywhere in the museum or on the tour, so my dad had to help interpret what I was looking at, but the tour was very interesting nonetheless. We began going through rooms that were once used to produce the ingredients for nitroglycerin, the main ingredient in TNT. The exhibits discussed Alfred Nobel's discovery of the substance, and then showed some of the many Polish Nobel prize winners, including Marie Curie. Next, we took some tunnels to the next building, where some of the history of the complex itself was discussed. The factory was one of the biggest suppliers for the Third Reich during World War II after it was built. To keep it hidden from aerial view, the Germans covered the tops of many of the buildings with dirt and vegetation. Because the complex was also quite deep into the woods, it was nearly undetectable from the air.

We then continued through some of the tunnels and entered some of the rooms where the nitroglycerin was created. Something interesting the tour guide pointed out was the emergency plan. The mixing rooms were designed so that one side of the room was exposed to the outside with glass, while all of the other sides were covered with concrete. On the side opposite from the concrete was an emergency evacuation tunnel. The idea of this was that if there was an explosion, it would have been directed outside while the workers would use the evacuation tunnels less affected by the explosions. The redirection of the blast would also prevent the explosion from destroying the rest of the facility Whether this would work in practice was fortunately, never put to the test.

One of the next areas we visited was completely converted to a museum about the history of war. The top floor began with some of the weapons of war used in medieval times, such as swords, catapults, and maces, among other things. There was also an interesting chart that began on the this top floor and went through all four floors of the building. It was about the number of deaths from many conflicts and wars in the past. Many notable wars, like the Spanish Civil War and American Civil War were listed and their death counts of about 600,000 barely made a mark on the graph. Some other conflicts, like World War I with 15 million deaths, went down an entire floor. World War II's bar however went down all four floors with a staggering 55 million deaths.

The next floor's exhibit was an evolution of the previous one. Now, weapons of war included muskets and cannons, and it showed how they slowly evolved into rifles, carbines, machine guns, and submachine guns. I actually got to hold a Thompson submachine gun. I never realized how heavy such a small-looking gun could be. Even without any ammunition, firing it packed a punch. The next floor showed airplanes used during World War II and nuclear weapons. I learned not only about the bombs dropped on Japan during World War II, but also about the projects done by countries around the world after the war to develop thermonuclear weapons. One of these, the Czar Bomb of the Soviet Union was so massive that the explosion would completely obliterate anything in a 100km radius, and even shatter windows over 1000km away. Just its actual fireball had a 4km radius.

The final floor's exhibit showed some of the most significant battles in history. Included were the Invasion of Normandy, Battle of Waterloo, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Battle of Verdun. Some famous quotes about war were also displayed around the room. The next building, which was where the nitroglycerin explosives were actually packaged, showed the life of the average employee at the factory, and factories like the one in Bromberg. The final building, where the nitroglycerin "dough" was rolled into packagable rolls, had a room dedicated to the Red Army, which completely stripped the factory of all of its equipment when they conquered Poland towards the end of World War II.

After the final room, we took the tour bus back, and a regular city bus back to my grandparents. When we arrived, four hours had passed, and I had learned a lot about Germany, explosives, and war in general. I was quite impressed with the museum, and with some improvement, I believe that it could become a major tourist attraction for people visiting from around the world. It's only been open for a week, so there is definitely room for improvement. For what it was, I thought it was incredibly interesting. I'm now going to spend the rest of the day with family, and tomorrow I'll be going to one of my family's farms, so I won't be reporting back for a few days.

If you'd like to see pictures from the explosives factory, check out my gallery here: http://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/DAGBrombergExploseum

I also have a gallery of the few pictures I took in Dublin here: http://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp/Dublin2011Visit1

I'll definitely try to take more pictures from now on, because I think they supplement the blog entries very well.