January 2013

This was the most amazing place we’ve been to for sure. It was extra impressive though because it was my first beach vacation, and I think I loved it so much because it reminds of home in a lot of ways. We were lucky and got great weather the whole week and two of the most amazing hosts anyone could ask for. I’m starting to understand why people “snowbird”— this was a much needed escape from the grey, rainy winter in Europe this year. After spending the week lounging around beaches and getting to know some of the locals, I can safely say we chose the wrong major. I’m half kidding, but I’d really love to be able to speak Spanish! We had the most amazing hosts here who showed us around the island and took us to places we never could have reached on our own. We spent a lot of time on beaches, of course, but also took in a few sites like a salt museum by the salt flats, the island of Lobos, although that also just ended up being a beach day, and a trip to Timanfaya park on Lanzarote. The culture is great here and the island is beautiful. I don’t think we could have chosen a better place to end our trip.

The day we arrived our hosts, Julio and Isabel, picked us up from the airport and took us around the island to some places not accessible by bus. We saw a black sand beach in Ajuy and some caves there. I had fresh fish for the first time since we left home for lunch. Afterwards we went to Isabelle’s parents’ house and got to see the most typical lifestyle on Fuerteventura. They have a huge goat farm with about 300 goats, also lots of sheep and chickens and even a few peacocks! After tourism, goat farming is the main industry on the island. They took us to see the sunset at the Faro de la Entallada, near Gran Tarajal, which was unbelievable. We went back and got some rest, looking forward to the rest of the week.

The next few days we spent visiting all the beautiful beaches on the island. For a small island with relatively few inhabitants, there’s a great bus service for tourists. It runs the entire length of the island and you can get to all the main places with it for only a few euros. We spent some time in Peurto del Rosario, which is where we stayed, and visited the salt flats in La Salina on our first day. We walked up to Caleta and caught a beautiful sunset there. Over the next couple of days we visited Morro Jable and Jandia beach, Costa Calma and La Barca beach, Corralejo, El Cotillo, and the beaches around these popular resort towns. El Cotillo was my favourite one, and it’s slightly on the western side of the island, so we got to see the sun set into the ocean.

We also managed to get in a couple of day trips. We spent one day on the Island of Lobos, a tiny island only a 15 minute ferry ride off the coast near Corralejo. The entire island is a national park. There are couple of houses where people live on a temporary basis, I think fishermen, and one small restaurant which sells nothing bus fresh fish. There a couple of really amazing beaches on the island which we spent some time at, then we got some fish at the restaurant before catching the last ferry back to Fuerteventura. On Saturday we went to Lanzarote to see the volcano there. It erupted in the 1700’s, so a huge part of the island is still covered in volcanic debris. The earth is still extremely hot there – there’s a restaurant at the top of the volcano mountain where they cook the food over a giant hole in the ground where the heat comes up. There’s a very narrow, windy road which goes through the volcano park which you can travel through on a bus to see some amazing views. It was great to see a little highlight of Lanzarote; it definitely looks like it would be worth spending some time there to see the rest of the island.

On our last day we took an amazing road trip with our hosts. They took us along with their friends and family to Cofete, a remote part of the island on the northern edge of the very southern tip. The beaches there are unbelievable. They stretch for kilometres with the Atlantic ocean on one side and huge mountains on the other. It’s a gorgeous part of the island. It’s both a good bad thing that it’s only accessible by a dirt road – there are never very many people there, which would be really nice, but it’s also hard to get to, not the kind of place you just go to for the beach, I guess. While we were in the area we also saw the “Winter House” a former Nazi lair owned by general Winter during WWII. The history of that war spreads so far! You literally can’t escape it, not even on a remote island off the coast of Africa. The house is really, really interesting, and we were extremely lucky and got to see inside. There are all kinds of legends you can read about, some of them are likely true! We were so lucky to get to go with Julio and Isabel to this part of the island.

This whole island is absolutely beautiful, and definitely my favourite place we’ve visited. It’s hard to compare it to city vacations in metropolitan Europe, but the whole experience was just unbelievable. I really love it here, too, because it reminds of home in a lot of ways. Life in Germany is very different. It’s a lot more stressed and rushed. I would also say people are generally more uptight there, understandably, but sometimes it seems excessive. People get antsy if the tram that comes every 6 minutes is 1 minute late, they’ll stand for 5 minutes at a cross walk with no cars if the light is red, it’s almost impossible to find someone who will take 15 seconds to give you quick directions, and waitresses get mad at you if you call them over to order something else after you get your meal. Here, it’s a lot more like home, and I love it. The people are unbelievably friendly and generous, they always smile and say hi, even if you don’t know them. There’s tons of fresh fish, but if that’s not what you like there are other options. The beaches are surrounded by cliffs, the cities aren’t crowded at all, the stores are open at least until 10, there are cafés everywhere and people drink coffee, which is delicious here, the beers are a manageable size, the busses are always late, if they come at all. There are also a lot of little, ridiculous things I really miss and have had a hard time finding in Germany, or Europe, like bedsheets, bathtubs, uncarbonated water, free bathrooms, garbage cans on the streets, and local music.

I think this would be an amazing place to live, if you can handle heat, but I can definitely say it’s a great place to visit. It would be well worth it to rent a car, though, because there are just so many places to see which you can only get to on roads through the mountains. Right now it’s the low season, so it wasn’t really crowded anywhere, even though the temperatures were up around 25° some days – definitely warm enough for the beach – but Julio and Isabel said the resort towns and beaches can get pretty busy in the summer. The smaller, more remote beaches are always relatively empty. You could easily spend a month here and probably never see the same beach twice, but I felt like we were rushed to see the main places with a week; it’s a place you would want to spend a lot of time in for sure. This was the perfect end to a wonderful trip, and a great “last hurrah” before we head back to Germany to buckle down for the rest of the semester. I couldn’t think of a better way to have spent the last week of our Christmas break, and the Canary Islands are definitely at the top of my “must return” list.

Here are some pictures.

Our second last stop and the last city in mainland Europe we visited this Christmas break was Munich. I’ve really been wanting to see it, being so close in Freiburg, and this was perfect chance since it’s about half way between Prague and Freiburg. It’s a great city and very, very German. I guess most of the German stereotypes come from Bavaria. It turned out to be a lot smaller than I thought it was, but that ended up being a great thing since we had no problem getting around on foot. I guess it’s also one of the first cities we’ve been to in a while that doesn’t have two sides divided by a river, which makes it a lot more accessible for pedestrians. The city was really interesting and has a fascinating history. It’s very grim in a lot of ways, but nothing a few litres of beer can’t fix.

We did a walking tour on our first day, of course, and learned a lot about the city. The history goes way back to the Bavarian kingdom, but more recently it was the centre of the Nazi movement, being called by Hitler himself “Die Hauptstadt der Bewegung” – the capital city of the movement. He gave his inaugural speech as leader of the party in a beer hall here, he carried out the “beer hall putsch”, a first attempt to overthrow the government by force, here, he gave a speech every year on its anniversary here, and he opened the first concentration camp just outside the city in Dachau. Of course because of all this by the end of the war the city had been destroyed, but they knew it was coming and made a lot of effort to preserve original city plans and building blueprints. Because of this the city still looks quite beautiful compared to some other German cities, like Berlin, which were kind of just thrown up quickly according to the design of the time. Unfortunately 60’s and 70’s architecture is nothing special.

The nightlife in Munich isn’t exactly the liveliest, but we still had a good time at a couple of beer halls, which seems to be the thing to do here. We had a hard time finding cafés as always, but the drink of choice is definitely not coffee in this city. Our first night we went to the Hofbräuhaus, the royal brewery, which is where the stage Hitler gave his inaugural speech as leader of the Nazi party on is still standing. The beer was great, but the minimum litre you can order is a little much! The second night we went to the Augustiner Bierhalle and discovered why it’s the local favourite. The beer was probably the most delicious I’ve ever had, and even the pretzels were great.

There’s not a ton of stuff to see or do in Munich, but it’s definitely worth a visit and a few days is a great amount of time to see the main sites and discover the history. I’m glad we stopped over here, it was a great place to just take it easy with a few beers, but now we’re looking forward to getting some sun!

Here a few pictures of Munich.

And a few of our tour of Dachau.

This is a really cute little town about an hour outside of Prague and a really great day trip out of the city. We went with a tour company during our stay in Prague and it was definitely worth it. The town itself is really interesting and has a great history, but the most famous site is the ossuary – the bone chapel.

It was definitely the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s a small chapel just outside the town which was built on the site of former mass graves from the plague and the Hussite wars. The bones were piled up and a few hundred years later a very eccentric German just had to organize them. The Sedlec Ossuary is the result. There are towers, chalices, coats of arms, pyramids, a chandelier, and all kinds of other religious symbols built entirely out of human bones. The whole thing is very creepy, but if you get the chance Kutná Hora is really worth seeing. There’s also a really beautiful gothic cathedral there.

Kutná Hora used to be the site of a massive silver mining operation, and of course most of the money went into the cathedral, so it’s very extravagant. Being in Europe, though, the construction was interrupted several times by various wars and by the time they finished fighting and had the chance to finish building the church, they had spent all the money on war, so it was cut short – literally. It’s very small, and there’s a huge open space behind it, which is now a park, where you can tell they probably had plans to continue construction.

Even if you’re not into all the weird religious things about Europe, the town has an interesting history and is a very idyllic taste of small-town Europe. It was really great for us since we’ve been spending most of our time in cities. There are lots of beautiful, old, buildings which are all very fancy because of the wealth brought to the city by the mines. One that was really interesting is a house where a guy had “private” mines underneath, so he could steal the silver and not pay any taxes on it. Because of all the mines under the city, it’s becoming a little unstable. One of the other main churches there is starting to sink into the ground, most likely because of the mines and tunnels underneath it. Also, a couple of years ago a huge piece of the ground in the main square of the city caved in. The open spaces which are now “squares” in the town are former entrances to the mines, so it was probably to be expected eventually. They’re glad it didn’t happen about 10 metres to the east, though, where there’s a huge monument.

All the history and architecture was really interesting, but the best part of the tour was the lunch break. We went to a restaurant call Dačicky and it was delicious. We’ve really been enjoying Czech food anyway, but here it was really, really great. Our tour guide grew up in Prague and he said it’s his favourite restaurant in the country. They have all the traditional Czech dishes and a really good house beer with the same name as the restaurant. Everything was pretty cheap and the service was great, which I’ve found to be quite unusual for Europe. Czech food is really delicious, which was a great surprise. It’s got a lot of meat but not just pork. Duck, goose, rabbit, venison, and even veal are pretty common, and there’s a lot less cheese and salty sauces than Slovak food. Unfortunately there’s still quite a bit of sauerkraut, but still less than in Germany and Austria.

Kutná Hora is a really nice town and being only an hour away from Prague it makes for a perfect day trip out of the city. It was a perfect way to get away from the crowds (which I’m still not used to) for a day, learn a lot about Czech history, and eat some of the best Czech food there is. Besides one other tour group there were only a few people out and about in the town, it was really peaceful. It would be worth the 2 hour return trip anyway, I think, just for lunch if you’re in Prague and don’t really care for creepy monuments built out of human bones. There are really great little towns like this one with a lot to offer all over Europe, but this is one that’s definitely worth checking out.

Here are the pictures.

This was another great city. We spent a week here over New Year’s; I can’t imagine a better place to have celebrated New Year’s Eve. It’s a really beautiful city and very European. Lots of character, old buildings, and history. Over the week I feel like we got a good feel for the city, having the chance to see most of it. We did a walking tour the first day to get oriented and spent some time at the castle and in each of the other quarters of the city. Each district has a unique feel with lots to offer. We enjoyed the Christmas markets and the concerts, and were pleasantly surprised by Czech food. We also took a day trip to Kutna Hora to see the ossuary. It was definitely one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. Prague was an amazing city, with great food, beer, people, entertainment, and culture. So far it’s definitely up there as one of the best cities we’ve visited.

We arrived in the evening on boxing day and spent the next day touring the city. We did a general walking tour and walking tour of the Prague Castle. It’s the biggest medieval castle in the world and it has some great cathedrals and basilicas. I can’t say enough good things about these tours. It’s only a couple of hours and you get a great overview of the history and culture of the city, see the highlights within walking distance and can usually get some great recommendations for other things to do from the guides. Now it’s usually the way we start our visit to any city.

The second day we spent the day seeing more of the sites – the Charles Bridge, the oldest synagogue in the world, the New Town, and in the evening we saw the Nutcracker at the National Theatre. After seeing the highlights of Prague, we left for a day trip on our third day in the city. We went to Kutná Hora on a tour with the same company we did our walking tour with. It’s a really beautiful little town about an hour outside of Prague with an extravagant gothic cathedral and a really great restaurant, but what it’s most famous for is the “bone chapel”.

The next day we also spent just touring around the city. It was a Sunday so we didn’t plan to do much, but it turns out Sunday is just another day in the Czech Republic. The country is mostly atheist, so I should have figured, but everything was open and running as usual; the stores don’t even have reduced hours on Sundays. It was really nice change compared to Germany where you can’t find a coffee shop that’s open at 9:00 am on a Monday and entire cities shut down for an entire day every week. We ended up heading up past the castle and seeing a “miniature museum” in the monastery complex up there. It’s a collection of small – really small – artwork and objects made by a Siberian guy with a lot of time on his hands. There’s a picture of Jesus on half a poppy seed and a caravan of camels inside the eye of a needle, also the smallest book in the world is there, among other things. It was a fun way to kill some time during the day, and in the evening we went to see Carmen at the State Opera. So far that was the most beautiful performing arts venue we’ve been to. It’s very extravagant.

We saw a couple of other concerts the next day. It was New Year’s Eve, so during the day we went to a concert in a palace at the castle and then a show at the last minute inside one of the basilicas up there. Both were classical music. I love cities like Prague where there’s classical music playing anywhere, any time of the day, all over the city. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out around the castle before we went out to supper for New Year’s Eve. We spent the night at a restaurant called Lvi Dvur. The food was excellent but the portions were tiny, and it was rather expensive, but what can you expect on New Year’s Eve. It was definitely worth it, though; there was a band, fireworks from their terrace, and they gave us champagne at midnight. It was definitely a New Year’s Eve I’ll never forget.

We didn’t do a whole lot on our last day in the city. Just walked around, picked up some souvenirs, and saw the “official” fireworks show at 6:00 pm. I don’t know why the city had their fireworks show in the evening on New Year’s Day. I guess all the restaurants and people fire their own fireworks on New Year’s Eve, so this way it doesn’t get interrupted as much, maybe. Either way, we made it up to the castle just in time and saw a great show.

It’s sad to be leaving the city after such an amazing week, but there’s still a lot to see so I guess it’s time to move on. It’s nice to stay so long in one place once in a while, you really get a feel for the city and start to figure your way around. The only reason it’s not my favourite is that it’s very touristy. There are shops around every corner full of mugs, magnets, t-shirts, crystal, glass, absinthe, and everything else. It’s also very crowded, but that happens this time of year. It probably isn’t so bad most of the time.

Of all the cities we’ve been to so far, this one is probably the most “European”. It’s got great music and theatre, beautiful architecture, amazingly rich history, good food, and friendly people. On top of that it’s very cheap and well connected. It has some of the oldest and biggest buildings in Europe and the world and a lot of really recognizable sites. If someone could only visit one city and wanted to experience Europe, this would be the place to go. I hope we get the change to come back someday.

Here are some pictures.