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Home for Christmas!

I made it home safely! My plane touched down at the Waterloo airport at about 11:50 pm CST on Sunday, Dec. 21, right on time. Since my body was used to European time, it felt like almost 7 am to me. I had left my hostel in Prague at about 9:30 am Europe time (2:30 am CST) that morning and took a shuttle bus to the airport. I tried to get to the airport about 2 hours before my flight, since it was an international flight (to Amsterdam). However, with the European Union and the Schengen Area, it is now different. The Schengen Area includes most of the members of the EU and a few other countries. The purpose of Schengen is to eliminate borders in Europe and allow for unrestricted travel between countries (removing border checks for passport free travel). Essentially what this has done in terms of air travel is to make international travel to other Schengen states basically domestic travel, which means me getting there early was unneeded. Oh, well, so I puttered around the Prague airport until I found a friend of mine whose flight was changed and so I talked with her for awhile while I waited.

I was still afraid of getting home on time. I had heard that airports had been closed the day before and there were many delays. I had planned for this (assuming I could get to the Minneapolis airport at least). I had arranged to be picked up by a friend from the Twin Cities if my flights were canceled/delayed and the friend I had talked to in the airport had a hotel room her parents had gotten near the airport (assuming they could drive to MSP to pick her up). After going through security in the Prague airport, I had bought a Fanta for about $2.50 (using up some Czech money). I didn't open it because I figured I would save it for the flight to the US. My plane took off from Prague at 12:25 and landed in Amsterdam at 1:50 p.m.

I got to the airport and saw that my next flight was loading, even though it didn't leave until 3:30. So I ran to the international terminal, but I wasn't able to buy a postcard or wooden shoes (which several of the airport shops sold). I got the to the gate and then had to go through specific security for just my gate. I thought this was overkill, since this was already past the main airport security and was for a single gate. I went through and they made me throw out my unopened bottle of pop, even though I had bought it in an airport past the security counter and it wasn't open. I wasn't happy about that. Past this security, the only amenities were some bathrooms--no stores or anything to buy something else to drink or a book (which I had planned to get at this airport). There wasn't even enough seats for everyone on the flight, so I had to stand for about an hour until we actually got on the plane. My seat was toward the back. The far back section of the plane had seats in a 2-3-2 layout, and I was in the very middle seat. The flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis was 9.5 hours and pretty uneventful. I was able to choose from about 20 movies to watch or music to listen to, and I also played Solitaire on the individual seatback entertainment console. I also read a few magazines, but unfortunately, I can't sleep on planes, so I was awake the whole time.

Once I got to Minneapolis, I had to go through security yet again, this time for US customs. I had to pick up my luggage, declare anything I had in it and then put it on a conveyor belt to be sent to my next plane before going through security yet again. Back in the US, the first thing I bought was a bottle of Mountain Dew and a slice of pizza at Sbarro. I had gotten off the plane about 5:50 pm CST and my flight to Waterloo didn't take off until about 10:40 pm. So I just camped out near the gate and watched Christmas movies on my computer. My gate moved several times because of changes to other flights and airplane problems on another plane. I got on the plane and as soon as we got up in the air, we were basically starting our descent into Waterloo. When I got to Waterloo, my family was waiting for me. After getting my luggage, I went out in the cold. I had left Prague when the temperature was about 45ºF during the day with light rain and when I landed in Waterloo, there were several inches of snow on the ground and the wind chill was -27ºF, actual air temperature of about -3ºF. Quite a shock to my system, with a 72º change in the "feels like" temperature.

After leaving the airport, we went to Wal-Mart where I got a lot of food I had missed, everything from chips and salsa to M&Ms. I got home around 2 am (9 am to my body) and went to bed. I was the first one up in the morning, and was then able to get into my normal sleep routine right away and was unaffected by jet-lag.

A few days later, it was already Christmas and I was able to enjoy a white Christmas at home with my family. Overall, I had lost about 19 pounds while I was in Europe, from a combination of losing muscle mass and just eating European portions. I weighed myself the morning of Dec. 22 and again on Dec. 29, and in that week alone, I have already put 10 pounds back on.

I'll continue with blog posts for a while. I have a lot of pictures to put up still, even though I am home. I don't know how often I will update as I am back to my Amish existence at home with just dial-up Internet (and network TV). So the only time I can really load things to my blog is when I go in to the Traer Public Library or to school.

I'll be home for Christmas (?)

I'm in Prague today and am headed on Sunday (I hope).  The weather doesn't look good for arriving in Minneapolis (or Waterloo).  I'm flying from Prague to Amsterdam to MSP to Waterloo, but there is 10 inches of snow in Waterloo and they are forecasting strong winds, snow/sleet/ice mix for MSP.  My parents said basically the state of Iowa was shut down due to the weather.  I'm writing from a Starbucks now near my hostel.  I'll post more on my blog when I get home (yes, sorry about being a procrastinator).  Hopefully, I'll be home for Christmas!

Vienna, Day 2

The next morning, we headed to the Museum of Military History.  I hadn't read anything about this museum in a guidebook before we left, but as I was doing my homework the night before leaving, I had found something interesting.  My reading was on World War I and it talked about the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo, which started WWI.  The reading mentioned his clothes and car were in a museum in Vienna!  It was amazing how my history homework actually informed me of a place I was going just hours later.  

The museum was in a building built between 1849 and 1856.  Inside was a detailed overview of the history the Austrian military since the 1600s, from the times of the Habsburg monarchy through World War II, when Austria was part of Nazi Germany.  The museum was full of everything from suits of armor to German and American tanks.  The highlight was the car Archduke Francis (Franz) Ferdinand was in when he was assassinated in Sarajevo in June 1914, as well as the bloody clothes (and funny hat) he was wearing.  We thought it was pretty neat to literally see the blood that started WWI. 

The Museum of Military History

One of the expansive rooms of Austria military artifacts

The museum's ceiling artwork

Ferdinand's assassination as seen in every high school history book

Note how the coat and hat are actually blue, not brown and black

The car Archduke Ferdinand was in when he was assassinated

Ferdinand's clothes and his funny hat

The bloody clothes of Archduke Ferdinand--the blood that started WWI

A room of German military relics

Austrian, German, American, Russian, British and French tanks

This would probably inflict some heavy damage to whatever it hit

After the military museum, we went to the Hofburg Palace to see the Austrian crown jewels.  The British crown jewel display pales in comparison (however, this may be due to the fact that there is a British monarchy that keeps all the good stuff, but no Austrian one).  The amount of jewels and shiny on display was amazing.  Most of the items are behind glass, so my pictures have reflections, so see more pictures here.  Rick Steves' guidebook says the Austrian Treasury's 21 rooms contain "the best jewels on the continent." 

 

The Crown of the Austrian Empire has been used since 1602 and is made of pure gold

The museum even contained an 8 foot tall, 500 year old unicorn horn (which is probably a narwhal tusk, but made the Austrian peasants think the monarchy was pretty sweet, at least in the mythical creature poaching department).  

Holy unicorn horn, Batman!  Wait a minute...

The collection's highlight is the 10th century crown of the Holy Roman Emperor (major bling)  

Other items include jewels that belonged to Charlemagne, clothes (with gold fabric woven in) and other treasures belonging to monarchs, Napoleon's son's cradle, a 2860-carat Colombian emerald and a 492-carat aquamarine.  I should point out that one of my friends is a history major, focusing on European monarchies, which means, I got a lot of background information!

A 2680-carat Colombian emerald

One of the rooms full of Austrian treasures

Part of the Hofburg Palace

After we left the treasury, we headed to the Kaisergruft, the Cappuchin church and crypt housing the remains of 150 of the Hapsburgs, aka Habsburgs.  Family members here include Maria Theresa and Franz I, who are the parents of Marie Antoinette; Emperor Maximilian of Mexico; and Elisabeth, aka "Sisi," who was the "most beautiful and narcissistic woman of her time."  The newest tomb is that of the last Austrian Empress, Zita, who died in 1989.  Empress Zita's husband died in 1922 and she remained a widow for 67 years.

The Kaisergruft (Cappuchin Crypt)

One of the rooms in the crypt

The Schönbrunn Palace was our next destination.  The former summer residence of the Hapsburgs, it is located 4 miles from the center of Vienna, and according to Rick Steves, "among Europe's palaces, only the Schönbrunn rivals Versailles."  

Of the palaces 1,441 rooms, only 40 are open to public tours.  Sadly, no pictures were allowed inside the palace, but this site has great panoramas.    On the tour, one of the first rooms is Sisi's dressing room, where she spent hours each day caring for her ankle-length hair.  Another room saw the first concert by 6 year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  The Great Gallery was the location for the 1961 meeting between JFK and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.  Paintings of the Hapsburgs abound in the palace.  My friend Leah also couldn't contain her excitement over the fact that the mirrors she was looking in were the same mirrors Marie Antoinette had looked in as a girl (she was known as Maria Anna then).  

The Schönbrunn Palace

The Schönbrunn Palace (I'm in the center on the porch)

The sun had begun to set as we were touring the palace and so weren't able to really see the Imperial Gardens (but there were just big ruts of dirt where the flowers will go in in the spring to make fancy lawn displays).  

The Schönbrunn Gardens

As we wandered around waiting for our bus to Brno, we passed the Austrian Parliament building and the Vienna City Hall, both lit up in their night-time splendor.  

Vienna at night

Vienna at night

Some building in Vienna whose name escapes

The Austrian Parliament

The Vienna City Hall

Vienna, Day 1

On October 17th, a group of my friends and I took a bus from Brno to Vienna, the capital of Austria.  Vienna is about 2 hours away by bus (even though it's only 70 miles away).  I have been through Vienna several times, but I had never actually stopped to tour until now.  Vienna, called "Wien" in German, has a population of about 1.7 million.  As a side note, "Wiener Schnitzel" is named after Vienna.  I just noticed all the pictures from this trip are pretty bad, but they at least give you an idea of what I was seeing.  

The altar of St. Stephen's Cathedral

St. Stephen's Cathedral (can't get a full picture as there isn't much space in front)

Our first stop was St. Stephen's Cathedral.  As we walked to the front of the church, the first thing we saw was a homeless man vomit in a trash can a few feet from us.  We quickly entered the church after that, skirting around the people bringing in Christmas trees to decorate the church (on Oct. 17th?).  The present Gothic church is the third on that spot.  At the entrance of the church is the original Romanesque facade (c. 1240).   The church survived bombing in WWII, but in the last days of the war, the roof caught on fire.  The wooden roof burned and the world's second largest bell (21 tons) fell to the ground (it has since been placed back in the church tower).  Beethoven realized he was completely deaf when he couldn't hear the bells from the cathedral.  I went up the 343 steps to the viewing area at the top of the 450 foot high south tower.

Vienna as viewed from the south tower of St. Stephen's

Note the tiles, each is "owned" by a local who donated to redo the roof after WWII

The double-headed eagle, symbol of the Habsburg monarchy

A view of the Vienna City Hall

My next destination was The Vienna International Center, the United Nations Office at Vienna.  The UN has four headquarters:  New York is the main HQ, but there are also branches in Vienna, Geneva, and Nairobi.  The Vienna location houses the main offices of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the international weapons inspectors.  On my tour, I was able to see a meeting of the Conference Against Transnational Organized Crime.  The main language I heard all around the complex was English.  English is spoken most widely as the international language in the UN, but all meetings are translated into the official UN languages of Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.  

The Vienna International Center: The UN's Vienna HQ (not my picture)

The main entrance of the UN with the flags of all 192 voting members (plus one observer, The Vatican)

A UN meeting room, with translators in the boxes at the center top area

Later that night, after checking into our hostel, we headed to the opera.  The Vienna State Opera is a beautiful building, even though the architect who designed it 130 years ago committed suicide after a negative critical reception.  The building is a replica of the original, destroyed in WWII.  Rather than pay the high price of the building tour, we took Rick Steves' trusty tourist advice and bought some of the 567 standing-room tickets for €3.50 to see the opera "Faust."  The opera was in French, but there was a small screen in front of each seat (or standing area) offering a translation in other languages.  I thought it was interesting reading mine in English, the screen in front of me in German and hearing French and kind of understanding all three.  After a while, we decided about 45 minutes of standing (and opera) was enough and left.  On our way out, we had the opera entrance all to ourselves for pictures of the stunning architecture.  We decided to pass on the Opera Toilet Vienna Experience, a bathroom in the subway station outside the opera, playing "The Blue Danube" (as the sign says, "A Theatrical Ambience for Nature's Call").  The "experience" costs €0.60 (but the Burger King's bathroom was free).  

The Vienna State Opera House

A refreshment room in the Vienna Opera House

The view from the standing room area of the actual seats (stage is off to the lower right)

The fountain outside the Vienna State Opera

Slovakia

Finally, a new blog post.  My university provides four trips for the international students which are organized by a travel agency run by one woman (and her dog).  The first of these trips was to the Slovak mountains.  The former country of Czechoslovakia peaceably split on January 1, 1993, creating two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  I've had to correct many people, telling them that I am not in Czechoslovakia, as it ceased to exist 15 years ago.  The CR has 10 million people and is more industrialized.  Slovakia has 5 million people and is more agrarian,  but is quickly industrializing, especially following its accession into the European Union.  Slovakia is even on its way to becoming the world leader in per capita car production.  The Czech Republic and Slovakia had been placed together in the past, even though the two nations are different.  The languages are different, but share most of the same words.  A Czech and a Slovak can speak in their own language and still understand one another.  Slovakia, like the CR, uses the koruna, or crown, as its currency.  Slovak crowns are worth a little less than the Czech ones, about 24 crowns/$1.  However, Slovakia will join the euro on January 1, 2009, and will cease to use the crown, a goal the CR hopes to also accomplish in the next few years.  

Ok, onto my trip.    We left Brno at 7 am on Friday, Oct. 10.  Our first stop was the Slovak town of Piešťany.  It is a well known spa town.  There wasn't much to see and I don't really know why we went there.  We talked to a shop owner there and he was excited that we were from the US.   He then asked us if we wanted to see the "best looking" kids in the US, and he pulled out pictures of his grandchildren, who live in Denver.  I guess grandparents are the same everywhere.  Afterwards, we headed to the town of Trenčin to visit the oldest Slovak castle.  We wandered around the castle and around the town, mainly looking for a place to eat.  

That night, we headed to our hostel in the middle of nowhere, literally.  The hostel had a restaurant and outlying cabins.  Our cabin was off in the woods, in the complete darkness of a Slovak mountain forest.  We were finally able to see the stars, too, which we hadn't been able to do in Brno.  An interesting thing with that is that when we look at the moon and stars here, you can see the exact same moon and stars wherever you are.  

The Trenčin Castle

Looking out from the front of our cottage

The following morning, we had breakfast and headed to the Vrátná Dolina Valley in the Fatra mountains.  We were going to walk along a mountain trail.  Our guide said it was a romantic and easy walk.  Later, we found out that trail was closed, but there was another special trail open.   We were told this was an even easier trail, as our guide said, "No adrenaline."  We should have known that couldn't be true.  The trail led along a stream going up the mountain.  It was beautiful scenery, too, which was a lot different than what we had been seeing in the cities we had been touring.  Soon, the trails began to get more difficult.  It had rained the day before and the trail was muddy and the rocks were slippery.  The most difficult parts were the rickety metal bridges and ladders across the river and up waterfalls.  The worst part was when we had to climb a rock face, using only a metal chain to pull ourselves up.  We all wondered if this was the "relaxing" trail, what was the hard one like?  We took too long to travel up the mountain and didn't have time to finish and didn't get to see the mountain valley.   We had to turn back around...which meant going down the same ladders and the chain.  It was a lot easier going up than going down.  Complicating matters were the hikers we met coming the opposite way, which made single lane trails hard to navigate.  By the time we were finally down from the mountain, we were all a bit tired of hiking and really muddy.  

Fall in Slovakia

The Vrátná Dolina Valley

Don't let these pictures fool you--the ladders were steep and rickety

The dreaded chain...going up was easy, coming down was hard!

Waterfall: Pretty. Ladder: Pretty scary.

This is a lot steeper in real life...also, wet shoes and wet ladders/planks were bad

We were later treated to a wooden river raft trip through the Strečno Valley along the river Váh.  

The wooden rafts we took on the River Váh

The River Váh

A castle on the river

Another castle on the river

The next morning, we toured the Demanovská Cave.  The cave tour involved a lot of walking through the cave system.  It wasn't a demanding walk, but the stairs didn't feel good to those whose legs were hurting from the mountain hike the day before.  After the cave tour, we were supposed to eat at an authentic Slovak restaurant.  However, it was closed.  Another restaurant was recommended and we were told they could handle all 50 of us in the group.  When we got there, however, we found they only had one waiter and one cook.  The guide had planned for an hour lunch break, but it stretched to five hours.  Fortunately, my table was the first to order, so we only had to wait an hour and a half for our meal.  By the time we finished our lunch break, it was already supper time.  

Part of the Demanovská Caves

Our last stop was the village of Vlkonínec.  The entire village is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It is an "untouched and complex example of folk countryside architecture in the Northern Carpathians." The village is made up of old two or three room log cabins.  Since we arrived so late, we weren't able to tour the town with a guide or see the town's museum.  We arrived in Brno 3 hours late that night, pulling in after midnight...and I still had a paper to finish and turn in for class by midnight...but they are so lax here with homework, I could turn it in late, fortunately for me!  

The main street in the village of Vlkolinec

The church in Vlkolinec (built 1875, young for this old town)