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Okay, here it comes - read only if you've got a fair bit of time on your hands! :-) (And those of you
who were on my email list probably don't need to read it at all! :-)
I left Toronto on Wednesday after work, and flew to Frankfurt, then to Munich, then to Berlin.
Don't ask. The flights were good, but long. The movies were not very exciting, unfortunately. And the little
map that shows where you are over the ocean and everything wasn't functioning properly. :-(
I slept maybe half an
hour total, so I was a little tired by the time I arrived, but not tired enough to actually
want to stay at the hostel or anything. :-) There was a very nice woman on the plane beside me from
Frankfurt to Munich, and she gave me lots of tips about things to see in Berlin and Vienna. I arrived in
Berlin on time at 1:00 Berlin time, and Jörn was waiting for me at the airport. We took a bus down to
the hostel, checked in, I showered and changed, and we hit the town!
We spent the afternoon mostly just wandering along the Ku'damm, a great big shopping street in western Berlin - lots of cool things!
I was on a tight budget though, so I didn't actually buy anything. :-) We were
talking so much, we walked pretty much to the end of the street, and had to turn around and walk all the way back. :-) We also went to the Kaiser Wilhelm
Church, and stopped in at KaDeWe - both things that I did briefly last time I was in the city but wanted to
explore in more detail.
We had supper at a place just down the street from the
hostel (a guy was standing on the street corner handing out brochures for it, and told us that if we
didn't like it, he'd give us a bottle of champagne ;-) But, it was pretty good! We had pizza. :-)
That evening was Les Mis. The theatre was right around
the corner from the hostel, and it's gorgeous! We had
great seats, and the show was really good - I haven't
been that moved by Les Mis in a long time. The guy
playing Valjean was Ukrainian (!), but he had no
accent, and a beautiful voice. He made me cry during
the final scene. Uwe Kröger was a good Javert,
especially in the second act. The rest of the cast was
also strong, especially Grantaire. Some of the
ensemble, and even the Thenardiers, seemed pretty
young for their parts, but were good otherwise.
We waited at the stage door afterwards, and spoke
briefly to the guy who had played Valjean (he didn't
really speak English, so the conversation was pretty
limited ;-), and then we waited for Uwe to come out.
We waited an hour and a half for Uwe to come out! But
he finally did, and he was *so* nice!
He talked to us for at least 15 minutes, and has this
really great British accent. I was impressed. :-)
The next morning Jörn and I went first of all to Schloß Charlottenburg in the
west end of Berlin. It used to be the summer residence
of the Hohenzollern family (the Prussian royalty). We
took a tour through some of the imperial apartments
(in German, but I got English sheets to read along
:-). They were really impressive! And the rooms we saw
were only a very small portion of the overall palace -
I can't imagine living in a place like that! It would
take you a whole day to find someone that you were
looking for!
There was one room in particular that was very unique,
as it had 2700 different porcelain pieces worked into
the wall - plates and cups and decorative pieces - the
wall was basically just porcelain surrounded by wood
carving! My first thought was - "It would be awful to
have to dust all of that!" :-)
After finishing in the palace and visiting the
gardens, we went for lunch at a place right across the
street, which was *really* good, and *big* portions, so
we didn't need to eat supper that night. :-)
Once we were done lunch, we went to the Egyptian
museum, where the famous bust of Nefertiti is. That
was very cool to see, though the rest of the museum
didn't impress me overly. Nothing to compare to the
British Museum's collection!
We took the bus back past the train station and on to
the Reichstag. I had stopped there
two years ago when I was in Berlin, but hadn't had
time to go in. So this time we waited in line, and
went to the top for a really cool panoramic view of
Berlin. I forgot to mention, though, that it rained on
and off this whole day, so it was quite hazy at the
top, and not as nice a view as it might have been. So
maybe I'll have to try it a third time sometime!
We walked from there to the Brandenburg Gate (it was
being restored on my last trip, but is now finished!),
and then took the U-Bahn to Potsdamer Platz, an area
of eastern Berlin that has been completely
reconstructed since the fall of the Wall. We bought
some wine as a gift for Ethan, then headed back to the
hostel to change.
The theatre where Cats was playing was actually back
in the Potsdamer Platz, so we returned there and
picked up our tickets, which were really good
seats, 14th row centre. Oh, and when we came into the theatre, there was this
crazy guy with a camera taking pictures, and then at
the end of the night you could buy them if you wanted.
I didn't know what was going on, so I have this really
stunned look on my face, but Jörn bought it anyway. :-)
The show was pretty good - Cats has never been a big
favourite of mine, but it was still enjoyable. Ethan
was very good, naturally, and did more dancing than we
were expecting. It was John Patridge as Rum Tum Tugger
(from the video), and he was excellent.
Afterwards, we met up with Ethan and went back to our
hostel, where he took us to a local "hot dog" stand
for some currywurst, fries and Berlin beer. :-) We had
a good talk, and then went back to the hostel where we
did another quick Internet check before going to bed.
Now, the next morning, I was supposed to be up at 5:30 to
catch my train to Copenhagen at 6:30. So,
when my clock said 5:30, I got up, got ready and
packed, checked out and headed to the train station.
My clock said it was 6:10. I walked into the station,
and the main clock said 6:33. I stood there stunned
for a second, then ran up to my platform to try to see
if the train was still there, but it had already left
- damn those punctual German trains!! So after cursing
my clock for a while, I went and made a new
reservation to Copenhagen - leaving an hour later, and
arriving in Copenhagen three hours later than planned.
This screwed up any number of plans, primarily missing
Clarissa in Hamburg to take the train together, and made the trip
to Copenhagen much more hectic than I had hoped for,
with three changes of train, and one nearly-missed
connection, but I did finally arrive arrive in
Copenhagen at 5:00, 9 and a half hours after leaving
Berlin.
So I'm in the Copenhagen train station, and have just
changed my money, and put my bags down to try to
organize myself, and this teenager tried to rob me! I
actually saw him put his hand in my bag. Of course he
withdrew it as soon as he realized I saw him, and when
I called him on it, he claimed he hadn't done it, and
took off pretty quickly. I saw him in the station
again the next day, so it must be a regular thing.
Jerk.
I was supposed to meet Janne at 5:30, so I thought I
would go meet her before going to the hostel, tell her
dinner was off, and then meet her later at the
concert. So I waited where I thought we were
meeting...and waited...and waited...finally at 10 to
6, I had to go, and called a taxi to get to the
hostel. I checked in, changed, took the bus back
downtown and was at the concert hall by 7 - that is
what you call power dressing! It also is called not
looking your best, since I hadn't had time to shower
in Berlin or in Copenhagen, so I just had to pull my
hair back and hope for the best. On the way back to
the concert, I passed the main entrance to Tivoli, and
realized I had been waiting in the wrong spot for Janne
all along! :-(
So when I arrived at the theatre, I stood outside, hoping I would spot
Clarissa and Janne when they arrived, though I didn't
know what either of them looked like. Luckily, I met
Clarissa almost immediately, but we never did hook up
with Janne. :-(
The concert was really good - a very fancy event. I didn't feel
overdressed in the least! And it will be released on
DVD, so I'll have to pick up a copy of that. The
concert hall itself was a bit of a disappointment, and
the sound had some problems, especially at the beginning,
but the cast were all
fantastic, and hearing Johnny Jorgenson sing Morgen Pa
Atlantis live was a goosebumps moment. It was also great to
hear some of the music that is not on the cast recordings.
I only wish I could have understood everything that was said
between the songs! :-)
I had a very much-needed evening of sleep at the
hostel, then got up, checked out and walked back to
the train station. I met Clarissa at 10, and we went
together to the National Museum, which had great stuff
on Danish history and the Vikings (some skeletons from
3500 BC, and one of them still had his hair!!!), as
well as a good Egyptian, Greek and Roman section.
At 1:30 we went back to the gardens to meet my friend
Karin from Sweden, and together the three of us went
for lunch - we had wanted to have something Danish,
but we couldn't really find anything, so we ended up
at a Mediterranian restaurant! After that, we just
walked around some more, stopping at Christiansborg
Palace, before heading back to the train station so I
could catch my train at 5:45. We didn't have time to
go see The Little Mermaid, which made me sad, until Clarissa
told me that she went the next day, and it wasn't there anyway -
the statue had been vandalized, and was under repair! So then
I felt better. :-)
Clarissa's picture of me and Karin outside a library in Copenhagen
Unlike my trip into Copenhagen, this train to Hamburg
was direct. So rather than going overland, the train
actually boarded a ferry!! It was so cool! They loaded
the train into the ferry, and then we all got to go
out and hang out in the ferry for the crossing, and
then got back on the train and continued on our way in
Germany. That was a new experience for me!
After 15 hours in four different trains, I arrived in
Füssen at 9:00 the next morning. I pretty much went
straight up to the castles, going on the tour at
Hohenschwangau first. That tour was *really*
interesting, with a very good guide, and some really
cool rooms. From there, I took a bus up to Queen
Mary's bridge, which has a beautiful view of
Neuschwanstein, and hiked up a bit further up the
mountain for an even better view (they had signs
posted saying "Beware: Danger of Death" - that was a
little intimidating! But the hike wasn't actually that
bad.)
I then had to get down to the castle itself for the
tour there. It is really amazing, but I didn't enjoy
this tour nearly as much - it felt really rushed.
Still, the rooms themselves are spectacular. And now I
can cross it off my life to-do list! :-)
After that, I went off the beaten path a bit and took
the descent down a path on the side of the mountain
into the gorge. That was so beautiful!! I can't even
express it. Waterfalls, rocks, leaves in various
shades of colour, plus the bridge on one side and the
castle on the other as backdrop. I took nearly two
hours going down, as I stopped several times to enjoy
the view. After that, I returned to Füssen to do some
more shopping (Christmas stores!!), and walk around a
bit before getting on another night train, this time to
Budapest!
I slept most of the way from Munich to the Hungarian
border. There a girl came into my cabin and we talked
until we arrived at her stop. She congratulated me on
getting past the border (I wasn't aware it was
supposed to be difficult!), and I said that they
hadn't even said anything to me, only the German
border guards had. At which she corrected me and told
me those would have been the Austrian guards, and so I
had to try to explain that I had forgotten about
Austria since I'd slept through it, and did actually
know that there was a difference between Austrians and
Germans. :-) Anyway, we had a very interesting talk
about growing up in North America vs. Eastern Europe,
and about life in Hungary especially. She was a
little concerned that I was travelling alone, and said
I shouldn't go any further east without a man! :-)
Anyway, I arrived in Budapest just after 9, and was
immediately bombarded by people offering me taxis and
accomodations - after getting past all that, I got
some money changed and found my way to the hostel,
which was pretty close to the train station, luckily!
The hostel was interesting, it seems like it's pretty
much run by this woman and her son, and is in a
regular apartment building. So after changing and
dumping my stuff, I set out to see the city!
I had a couple of suggested walking tours from a
guidebook about Budapest, and I decided to do the one
of Pest first. It basically focuses just on the "Inner
City" of Pest, the area that used to be inside the
medieval wall. There are many, many cool buildings and
churches and squares and everything. After walking
around for a couple of hours, I made it to the
Hungarian National Museum, where I learned much more
about Hungarian history than I have ever known before!
The rooms about the Communist period were especially
interesting (although the large statue of Stalin when
I came around the corner made me jump a little bit!
:-)
After that, I decided to grab something to eat, so I
went to the Museum Kavehaz, right next door, which the
guidebook suggested. Well, it was a lot fancier than I
was expecting or wanting, but there were several
waiters at the door when I walked in, so I couldn't
really just walk back out again... still, I felt
pretty foolish in there with my jeans and everything,
surrounded by business people speaking German and
Italian. :-) But, the food was very good - I had pork
stuffed with mushrooms in a paprika sauce, with egg
dumplings on the side - yummy! And tiramisu for
dessert, which was excellent.
After that I continued my walking tour, which
eventually led down to the Danube, and an absolutely
stunning view across the river to Buda. The city
reminds me quite a bit of Vienna, but with a bit
of Eastern influence as well! After hanging out by the
river a while, I went to check out St. Stephen's
Basilica, where I wanted to go inside to see his hand,
but I had just missed the tour, so I had to skip it
for then.
By that time it was about 5:00, and I had been walking
around since 10, so I was getting pretty tired - plus,
the last two nights had been spent on overnight
trains, so I decided I would spend a quiet night at
the hostel and be refreshed for a full day the next day.
That morning, I walked back down to the Danube, and across it, over to Buda.
Again, just beautiful views around the river! I
climbed up castle hill (the funicular wasn't working
:-( ), and went first of all to Buda Castle, where
the Hungarian National Gallery is. Some very
interesting things there, again, particularly because
I was not at all familiar with any Hungarian artists
beforehand.
After a couple of hours there, I went over to see the
rest of the Castle District, which is basically the
old medieval town of Buda which has been largely
reconstructed (much of it was destroyed in World War
II). There is a gorgeous 15th century church, a
beautiful view across the river to Pest, and many
other beautiful buildings. A bit too touristy for my
liking , but once I got away from the crowds, it was
nice.
I also wanted to get away from the tourist scene for
lunch, so I went to this place that my guidebook
recommended - it was basically like a cafeteria, where you just go up to
the counter and order your meal. However, the menu was
only in Hungarian! So after staring at it in vain for
a while, I went up to the guy at the counter and said,
"I have no idea what I want. Can you just give me what
you think is good?" :-) So he gave me some really nice
beef and potatoes in a paprika sauce, and I had some
cake as well, and the whole thing cost me half of what
my lunch the day before had cost!
After finishing in the Castle District, I walked back
across the river to Pest, all the way up the Andrassy
Boulevard (which is beautiful) to Heroes' Square and
the City Park. And after spending some time there, it
was time to go meet my friend Kata! Together we went to buy me a
ticket for Kiss of the Spider Woman (since I had been
unable to locate the theatre) , and then went for a quick supper at a local fast food place - very good!
Kiss of the Spider Woman is being performed at a
chamber theatre company, so it was a very small
theatre, and a very small stage - but also very well
done! I can definitely say this is the first time I've
ever seen a show in Hungarian before seeing it in
English. ;-) The cast was wonderful, particularly the
man playing Molina, very Brent Carver-ish, which is a
very good thing in my opinion!
I went back to the hostel after that, and got packed
up for the next morning. My train was at 9:30 from
Budapest tand arrived in Vienna at 12:20. I
came to the hostel and checked in and then called
Reinhard. We met at the Westbahnhof (under the
statue of Elisabeth :-), and went down to the
Stephensplatz, where we had our lunch - a giant
schnitzel that overran the plate!! It was very good,
and I forced myself to finish it all - no supper for
me that night!!
From there, we were going to go to an old house that
Mozart used to live in, but we saw it was free on
Fridays, so we decided to save that for today instead,
and went to Belvedere Palace, meeting some fellow
Canadians on the tram! (Well, they used to be - they
live in New York now). The husband of the couple
thought he was hilarious - when I told them I was
originally from Saskatchewan, he asked Roger if he'd
ever been to Saskatchewan, and when he told him that
he hadn't, the guy says, "Well, you have to plan your
trip there carefully. Last year, summer came on a
Tuesday. If you were out of town that day, you missed
it." :-p
The Belvedere houses an exhibit of Austrian art, a
lot of turn of the century stuff, as well as some
French impressionists. Very interesting! After that,
we walked back into the city centre and stopped at St.
Charles Church, a magnificent baroque building
constructed to try to stop the plague. They are doing
restoration work inside, so they have installed this
elevator that takes you right up to the top of the
dome, and you can see the whole city - very cool!!
Roger and I split up after that to go get ready for
the show that evening. We had standing room tickets,
and there is not quite enough room for all the
standing room tickets that they sell, so we really had
to strain to see much of the stage. Not a view I would
recommend, but on the other hand, for 2 Euro, you
can't really complain!
The show itself is *very* different from ESsen - very
abstract, and, I felt, very much art for art's sake.
Overall, I preferred Essen's production. But
there were definitely some good parts to the show in Vienna as well,
and I enjoyed it much more after seeing it from a better seat the next night.
After the show, Reinhard and I went to the theater cafe where
we got to chat with Jesper and a friend of his for a while,
which was very nice.
The next morning we went to see the Mozart house that we
were going to see earlier - very interesting stuff,
the street has changed little since his time, so it
was neat to sit there and listen to his music while
looking out the window at a scene very much like the
one he would have seen!
After that we went to see the Lippizaner Stallions in
practice. Pretty expensive, I thought, but interesting
nonetheless. They did this one trick where the horse
rears up onto its hind legs, and jumps about four
times before coming back down on its front legs. Cool!
We had lunch at a classic Vienna coffeehouse, where I
tried the tafelspitz, another Viennese dish, which is
a kind of boiled beef (pretty yummy!), and some real
Vienna apple strudel! We spent the early afternoon
just walked along Mariahilferstrasse, a main shopping
street, looking for the original Vienna recording of
Elisabeth, and would you believe they didn't have it
anywhere??
I did the interview with Jesper before the show that
night, and then went to the theatre, where I met up
with two more fellow fans, Josef and Elisabeth.
As I said, I had a great seat for that performance, and enjoyed
it much more.
At curtain call, Jesper ran out for his bow and
slipped and nearly fell over! At which he burst out
laughing . :-) And then when Andre Bauer came out
next, he ran out to the same point Jesper had slipped
and kind of slowed down dramatically to show that he
wouldn't fall! And then when Jesper came out for his
second bow, he just walked instead of running. :-)
So afterwards we went to the stage door and taked to Máté
(who played Death) and Maya (who played Elisabeth),
both of whom were very sweet.
On Saturday, I got up and again met Roger, and together
we went to the Albertina museum, where they were
having a special exhibit on Albrecht Durer, a famous
German Rennaissance painter. It was *very* crowded
though, so not so enjoyable. We went from there for
lunch (I had Viennese gulash), and then to the city
hall, where they were doing a big promotion for winter
sports throughout the country - they had a ski hill
set up, and had booths from each different province,
so I got to try another Austrian dessert!
From there we went to the House of Music, which I went
to last time I was there as well, but Roger had never
been, and I had enjoyed it, so it was worthwhile to go
again! We had a quick supper afterwards (I had some
topfenstrudel this time!), and then went to see Lucky
Stiff ! I missed a lot of the jokes (being in
German!), but it was still a very entertaining show.
And from there we went to a bar downtown so I could
try a cocktail we had been talking about, but I have to admit I didn 't
really like it. :-) This bar was amazing though, it
had an 80-page menu of drinks!!
The next morning was time to leave Vienna already, so I
packed up, checked out of the hostel, left my bags at the
train station, and went to the Hofburg Chapel for Mass with
the Vienna Boys' Choir. My seat was up in the balcony, so I
couldn't see the Mass at all, but I had a pretty good view of
the choir loft. :-)
From there, I had one last lunch with Reinhard (we had Japanese food,
for something different!), and then caught the train back to Budapest,
where I arrived pretty much just in time to see the evening performance
of Mozart! The show had English sur-titles, which was great, since I'd
never seen an English translation of it before, and was quite
enjoyable though I felt the show didn't really work overall.
And then, a really exhausting day of travelling to end the trip - overnight
trains from Budapest back to Vienna, where I picked up my bags, and then
to Munich, where I had to get to the airport, to catch the flight to Montreal,
and then finally back to Toronto!
The trip went really, really well overall, and I was a little sad to be home -
mostly because I know it's probably going to be awhile before I get back to that
part of Europe again!
There will be more detailed reviews of the shows on my theatre website over the
next few weeks!
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