Braga to Praha.

Prague was the beautiful old city full of magnificent architecture that you would expect.  I toured the castle, which came to life for me much more easily having read Ken Follet's novels about 13th century life in cathedrals/castles.  The cathedral there is both the oldest and newest in Prague.  It was started in the 900s and was not finished until the early 1900s.  I also toured the city where the guide spouted all sorts of fun facts at top speed. The two things I remember: Hugo Boss and BMW employed slave labor by the Jews during WWII, and Hugo Boss designed the nazi uniform.  Ironically enough, there is a giant Hugo Boss store in the middle of the Jewish quarter (among stores like Gucci, Prada, and the other really expensive brands I don't even bother to know). The other thing is that the Czech people have a fascinating, tragic history that leaves many without a solid sense of country identity.  For example, my tour guide's mother in law has lived in 9 different countries during her 90 some years of life. She has never moved!  Wow!  Talk about disruption!

In Prague I had my first official couch surfing experience (couch surfing being a network of people who offer couches in their home for travelers coming through to see life with a local).  It was a mediocre start.  Now, I am a shy person, but I learned through my somewhat emotionally difficult semester abroad that you need to push past that shyness to truly see, learn and enjoy another culture. However, one shy person can only carry a conversation so far. I tried starting many conversations with my host, but I could only ever manage short answers.  She was always smiling, but she never drew out her answer or tried to carry the conversation further.  True english was not her first language, I sympathize with her in her possible discomfort, but I could only do so much.  In the end I was in bed by 9:00 both nights.

My struggles were not limited to conversation with my host.  I was also defeated by her Ikea shower.  It was electronic, controlled by a touch screen and a number of confusing dials.  It took about 5 minutes to even turn the shower on, but I managed.  Very quickly it started to get hot. As it continued to get hotter by the minute I lathered up with shampoo and body wash.  By the time I was ready to rinse I could barely get under the water. I figured out how to switch the language to English, but there was still no clear way to turn down the temperature. In the end I splashed enough soap off of my body to exit the shower, but could not stand to scald my scalp. Scorched and defeated I rinsed my head in the sink.  Damn you Ikea!

And finally, Prague defeated me financially.  I carefully calculated how much money to take out at the ATM to buy a beer and a bus ticket to Vienna. But alas, my math skills have gone down hill since the 8th grade and it turns out I carefully miscalculated by about 20 cents. It was not a huge loss, I just had to use my credit card instead of cash, but the Czech Republic is not on the Euro, so now I had essentially $25 that would have to be spent in the next hour.  There could be worse dilemmas, but still, an austerity travel plan is not forgiving to these little mishaps. In the end I bought a bunch of groceries so my spending was not frivolous.  Now I just have to carry all this extra weight from place to place. I am happily in Vienna and back on the Euro...for a few days.

Waschbär...Ausgetsichnet!

Farewell to Munchen (Munich). My stay in Bavaria was exceptional, and also educational.  While traveling in Bali, I made friend from Munich.  She invited me to come stay once I got to Europe, so I did, and I gained a great deal of insight spending several nights with her and her roommates.  I enjoyed my stay very much because I learned a lot through casual conversation about German life and it also reminded me of home, just chatting and laughing with friends over dinner.

Some things I learned about Bavaria:

Life is very structured and punctual. First of all, no one j-walks (I have a feeling this term is politically incorrect, so I apologize if it is and someone is offended).  There could be a huge gap in traffic, only one car far away, even, and everyone still stands there and waits for the walk signal.  An opposite from life in Asia, but even for life in America that was strange.  Also, I caught the bus from Munich to Prague and it was scheduled to leave at 5 p.m. At 16:58 the bus driver turned on the engine and as soon as the clock turned to 17:00 he put the bus in reverse.  Good on Germany, structure is nice.

They really like good beer.  So first of all, Oktoberfest is Munich specific (not an all over Germany event).  When the prince of Bavaria married the princess of somewhere (Austria?), he bought her a field and there they had a two week party with free beer for everyone and horse races. 200 years later the beer is not free and they've done away with the horse races, but the population jumps from ~1.5 million to almost 8 million for this world famous beer fest.  

Also about beer.  It was originally regulated by law that brewers could only use three ingredients, which is why it is so delicious and pure.  Its no longer law, but the Bavarians are proud, so they still brew their beer in the same pure fashion.  

More about beer.  Bavaria has had two beer revolutions. The first one was when the king tried to raise the price of beer (hundreds of years ago?), and the Bavarians set fire to the beer halls and let the king know, that is the one thing you cannot mess with.  More recently (1995?) a man who lived next to a beer hall complained to a lawyer that it was too noisy too late.  Since beer halls serve food they should have to stop serving and close by 10 p.m. The lawyer somehow convinced congress to pass this law but again the Bavarians revolted, protesting in the streets, and the law was repealed.  Such a beautiful story of unity among citizens of Bavaria.

On drinking today. Beer is part of the culture, kids can have a glass with dinner, it's normal. My friend was a girl scout, she joined around the age of 13 or 14.  She joined because all of the events were social drinking activities.  Imagine the scouts of America being based around a drinking culture!  The thought is laughable!

Ah, and the young adult night life.  As an American I just cannot keep up.  We went to the club around midnight, and I was quite proud to remain on my feet until 5 in the morning.  As my friend said (trying to make me feel better that I dragged her away so 'early'), it is almost like something you have to train for, this staying out until 8 in the morning (one club even remains open until 4 in the afternoon...the next day!).

I did a couple tours in Munich, one city tour where I learned a great deal and the guide was hilarious, and a tour of Dachau, a very somber experience.  The tours were fascinating, but I also really enjoyed discussing history with my friends.  I felt like a(n) historian getting an inside perspective on German life after the war.  The war has been over for almost 70 years now, but the Berlin wall came down so recently, it was during their lifetime (not that my friends really remembered anything as they were so young, but they were still around). I'm not sure I can eloquently paraphrase what I learned, but it was even better than reading a historical novel!

And on food. Traditional Bavarian food is pretty meaty, so I didn't go down that road until my last morning.  We got up around one for a post-clubbing, Bavarian-American breakfast of sausage, pretzel, and pancakes.  As with every brunch experience in life, it tasted best in the company of friends (and with a very strong cup of coffee).

OportO. Portugal

Okay, so, I've been in Portugal for well over a week and have been uninspired to write a blog post. I mean, 8 out of ten nights I've been drinking copious amounts of wine, and the other two nights? Hungover of course.  That, so far has been the theme of Portugal...cheap wine, and it has kept my brain from producing the ever loquacious babble you choose to read.

Tonight I have kept my wine consumption to a minimum and am ready to tell you what has been happening in Portugal. In Porto and in Braga. In the tourist world I've been living in.

I arrived to Porto on a Friday afternoon, took an easy metro ride downtown where I was supposed to find my hostel 'just steps away from the Trindade metro stop.' Well, I took a few steps from the metro, and didn't see the hostel. I went back and tried a different direction. Fail. Repeat. Fail. Repeat. Fail. Repeat. Forty-five minutes later (with my giant backpack weighing heavily on my shoulders), I sat down and admitted to myself, 'you are not omniscient, you need to look up directions to where you are going.' After finding a tourist center to point me in the right direction I checked myself into Oporto city hostel and headed straight back out for food (of course). I have enjoyed all of the meals prepared for me along the way so far, and have enjoyed eating out for $3/meal otherwise. But, I was in a state of bliss to find a corner store lined with fresh fruits and vegetables for me to chose what I wanted to prepare.  I bought fresh kale, tomatoes, garlic, onions, a mango the size of my head, and a bottle of wine for $5. 

During dinner I made friends with some other travelers and we shared more wine.  We then went to a tiny bar where we listened to local fado music (Portuguese guitar-y folkish music...not like flamenco) and drank more wine. Next up was a bar downtown, with more drinks (free for me as a reconciliation offer from my friends who tried to play 'guess Richelle's age' and failed miserably...the kindest guess being 30 years). I forgot how late European night life can get, but pulled myself away 'early' sometime after three. The next day I had dedicated to site seeing in Porto.  The sites I saw were the different Ikea patterns of my Porto hostel bed linens. When I was able to get myself going, around dusk, I took a brief tour of the city hoping to come across the river. The lesson regarding my lack of omniscience had not stuck because I tried again to find my way without a map, and eventually had to call it a night without ever glimpsing the water.

My solo travels were over when I met with a Global Village team (some of whom I knew from Guatemala) the next morning. This trip had seventeen of us who came together to help build a Habitat home in Braga. These Global Village teams are very important to the local affiliates as they provide a powerful (although sometimes inept) work force for a week.  I, however, join these builds more for the camaraderie than the making a difference side of things. And such a big team made for an exceptional and rowdy social experience. I was the youngest...there were four of us 'young professionals,' and then there was a jump to the average age of 60.  The age gap was meaningless though. Happy hour every night, with a never ending flow of cheap wine, helped solidify friendships like the cement we threw at the house, and dinners were always long, loud and full of laughter.

The work we did during the week was masonry. The basic structure of the house was already up. The bricks were laid and some walls had different layers of cement on them.  Our jobs were to mix cement and finish the walls inside and out.  It was actually quite fun work.  There was a certain 'zen' quality to cement mixing, and the next step was to throw the cement onto the wall with a trowel.  You could throw mud all day!  It was a blast, and then more zen finishing work as you smoothed the cement layers flat.  The mason in charge was very kind and very funny.  He was a perfectionist, and would always run over saying 'no, no, no!' and show you how to do the job just a little bit differently, babbling away in Portuguese (which is not close enough to Spanish for me to really understand anything). It sounds annoying, but he was very sweet.  He always had a smile and always said 'thank you, thank you.'

It was an amazing week in Portugal.  When we got back to Porto I finally found the river and the Port wine cellars that make Porto famous with my friends from the trip.  I was sad to say goodbye to everyone I had met, but have already made a number of plans to see people again (there were six of us just from Colorado). Meeting people has by far been the best part of my trip, in every place.  With little more than a month left, I look forward to even more friendships during the whirlwind end to my trip.

Irish thoughts

Hiya! The friendly Irish greeting heard all around the country. Even though English is widely spoken around the world, I was looking forward to being in an English speaking country, if only for a few days, so that I would be able to listen to idle conversation again (eavesdrop if you will).  But the Irish accent was so fecking hard to understand...I listened to entire conversations between people without picking up any of what they were saying.

Anyways...Ireland was a very friendly country to visit. Even the immigrations officer gave me the warmest greeting I've ever gotten by someone in that position. If only the warm greetings could actually warm the body. I know my cold threshold has not had to deal with anything below 70 degrees in many months (hardly below 80 degrees even), but I still want to complain about how drastically cold Ireland feels! I pulled out as many layers as possible but I still had to buy a sweater. (The sweater is covered in cats and hearts, I am no longer in an obvious minority wearing glasses, and people don't openly tell me I have a boyish haircut...it's nice to have some hipster comforts back.) One of the most common questions I get when talking with other travelers is 'how did you pack for so many different environments?' Well, I packed versatile and 'layerable' outfits, but I may still need to purchase more layers. My next pursuit will be gloves, but I might wait until I reach eastern Europe where I won't have to sacrifice the day's food budget to stay warm. Ireland is quite nice, but quite expensive. No more gourmet meals for $3. Probably no crappy sandwiches for $3. But I was ready for this, and it is back to cooking my own food rather than eating out.

Ireland is beautiful.  My first few days were in Belfast (which is actually part of the UK and uses pounds even though it is in the state of Northern Ireland and Ireland uses euros). A big city but still manageable on foot. There is a long, violent history between the Catholics and the Protestants and a wall is still erected to divide the two neighborhoods (not entirely--it's not the Berlin wall, you can get from one side to the other eventually, but still it is a blaring sign of the division that exists even today). There are also many, many murals around the city displaying citizens' viewpoints on the history of their city. these were beautiful and emotional, and probably even more meaningful had I taken the tour that explained them all. But I just checked them out by foot.

I came to Ireland to see the Lumineers and the Civil Wars. The show was quite excellent. I was even in the front row without having to throw out elbows, and no one crowded me during the show.  I had planned to go meet the Lumineers at their merchandise table after the show and bond over common Denver interests, but they weren't at the table, so I was not able to expand our Denver circle of friends to include them (sorry!). 

My next couple of days I bypassed Dublin to get to Glendalough. A quaint hillside village without a grocery store or any industry really. Just a couple hotels and churches.  People come here to go walking. So I did. I walked and I walked up the hills, through the trees, around the lake. It was beautiful. Please see Facebook for pictures as I really don't have much else to say about walking.

Or about Ireland. So...Cheers. See you very soon, it's already November. Please vote!