Christmas markets, December 2012

One of the best things about the holidays in our part of Europe is the various Christmas markets.  Bratislava has a really cute one, there are several in Vienna (the largest and most popular being in front of the Rathaus), Budapest, Austria, etc.  We went to Vienna one weekend to make the rounds, this time going to one we hadn't been to before, behind the Museumsquartier.  We also went to Schloss Hof, an Austrian palace just over the river from Devinska Nova Ves, just over 10km from Bratislava.  We took a weekend to go to the Nurnberg market, one of the oldest in Europe.  And of course, we went to the Bratislava market several times.  I love to stroll around the market, looking at all the stuff available at the different stalls.  Gluhwein (varenne vino) is my favorite.  In Nurnberg, we also tried blueberry gluhwein, not bad!  Nurnberg is famous for their nurnbergers, short little sausages.  They smelled fantastic!

Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 2012

Work brought me to Ireland once again so this time we headed north, to Belfast.  I have to admit I knew little to nothing about Belfast or the history of Northern Ireland.  Embarrassingly, I didn't even realize it was part of the UK.  Friday night we spent walking through downtown.  We had dinner and then a drink at the historic Crown Liquor Saloon.  The front entrance has tilework of the crown as you enter (so Catholics take the side entrance).  Beautiful inside, dark wood, private little cubby areas for the tables, great selection of beers...

Saturday we drove up to the Giant's Causeway, outside the town of Bushmill's (famous for...).  Skip the visitor's center and just park and walk up the coast!  The scenery is beatiful walking along the cliffs.  We were so lucky - it was a crisp but clear day.  We came down the cliffs and walked along the shore, over to where the causeway was.  I didn't know what to expect but it was actually really cool.  Hard to explain except that they are these hexagonal rock formations cropping up, stretching into the water.  It was pretty impressive standing there on the causeway, watching these huge waves breaking right in front of us. We had a meal and a beer in Bushmill's before heading back to Belfast.

We had seen an advertisement for a Ladyboys of Bangkok show happening that week in Belfast.  We had the hotel check on getting tickets for us when we returned but unfortunately it was complete sold out.  Apparently it's a really popular show!  We decided to try our luck and showed up an hour beforehand and got on the waiting list.  We came back just as the show was getting started and they got us in!  The show was in a big top tent.  It was quite a variety - some older ladyboys, some gorgeous  younger ones and some plain old gay boys.  The atmosphere inside was energetic, to say the least!  There were many bachelorette parties and groups of women.  There were also some very enthusiastic gay men in the audience.  It was a good time for sure!

Sunday we took a black cab tour of Belfast.  Like I said, I knew nothing of the history of Northern Ireland except some vague recollections of the IRA in the news a while back.  We went up Shankill Road and over to Falls Road.  There is a huge wall going through Belfast - I had no idea it existed!  Having just been in Berlin the weekend before, it was striking to see a wall still in existence, in the UK of all places!  Our tour guide was excellent and told us all about the history of the place and the "Troubles".  I will definitely need to do some reading up on it (or watch In the Name of the Father or Hunger).

Before we left Belfast, we went to St. George's market.  It's an indoor market full of craft stalls and a variety of food offerings as well.  We loved browsing through the place, getting some fresh coffee and having lunch while listening to some local music.

belfast city hall

writing on the wall

giant's causeway

Berlin, November 2012

November 1 is a national holiday in Slovakia (All Saints' Day) and since it fell on a Thursday, we took a long weekend trip to Berlin.  I had always heard great things but honestly, had no idea what to expect.

We arrived to our hotel Thursday afternoon.  I was starving to we went to the Mexican place across the street (Tipica).  Mexican in Berlin?  That's how hungry I was.  But I was wrong, this place had very decent food, definitely better than any Mexican food I had ever had anywhere in Europe!  I was very happy with my horchata and veggie sopes.  We were enjoying ourselves so much we each had some tequila before leaving  :)

Our first evening we walked from Alexanderplatz down Unter der Linden.  I had found a trendy vegetarian restaurant, Cookies Cream, that I wanted to check out.  Interesting place.  You have to walk through a hotel loading dock area to find the entrance.  The inside is mostly grey concrete, upstairs the restaurant, downstairs the club.  I had a great vermouth cocktail, I couldn't really remember the last time I had vermouth (if ever) so I was impressed.  Our meal was excellent although the people around us taking photos of their food was distracting (it's that trendy)!  We had an evening stroll to the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial before heading back the hotel.

Saturday we took a bike tour of the city (we love bike tours).  Highlights for me were biking through the park and lunch at the bier garden.  We window shopped in the neighborhood of Hakeschermarkt.  That evening we had a fabulous Thai meal followed by cocktails at a really wonderful bar.  I had a perfect Manhattan (since I was on a vermouth kick).  Eric had a dry one with Buleit whiskey (new to both of us).

Sunday we enjoyed a fresh, organic brunch at a neighborhood place.  We sat at the window to people watch.  We then went on a street art tour.  It was great just to get outside the touristy center and see a different part of Berlin.  Our guide was himself an artist.  A very different way to get to know Berlin, we loved it.  The tour finished at their offices where we all made our own street art, with stencils and graffiti.  I made Elvis art, Eric made an Ozzy tribute to his cousin Jeff, of whose passing we had just learned of the night before.

We had burritos at Dolores on the way back to our hotel.  Wow, amazing!  Even better than the first Mexican place we went to.  How I long for such awesome burritos in Bratislava!  The walls were decorated with maps of Mission Dolores in SF, made me miss California!

That evening we headed to Huxley's Neuwe Welt because Juanes was in concert that night.  I love Juanes and have been a huge fan for over 10 years.  We happened to see a flyer in the first Mexican restaurant.  I couldn't find any tickets available online so we decided to try our luck at the venue itself.  I was so nervous when I saw the huge line of people waiting to get in but when I talked to security, they confirmed that there were still tickets available!  Unbelievable.  If Juanes were playing in California, it would be sold out weeks in advance for sure, we were so lucky!  The concert was so much fun.  Everyone was singing along, dancing (Eric really enjoyed it, too).  I was singing Juanes for a week after!  

Sunday we took in the Pergamon Museum.  We don't often do the more traditional museums because of time, but this one sounded so interesting, we had to check it out.  I would definitely recommend it.  Just the sheer size of the Gates of Ishtar are worth a visit.  It is really amazing to think about the grandiosity of these ancient civilizations, really makes you appreciate the deep and rich history of places like Turkey and Mesopotamia (Iraq/Iran).

Our last stop was the Topography of Terror Museum, near Checkpoint Charlie.  Having both just finished Bloodlands, a book about the atrocities of WWII, it was all very familiar to us.  It's a great exhibit, with lots of information and photos (best of all, free).  A must-visit in Berlin.

Weekend before the election!

Marker where the Berlin Wall stood

Remnant of the Berlin Wall

Holocaust Memorial, in front of US embassy

Bike ride through the park

Berliner Dom

Little Lucy, what have you done with your cat?

Heartbroken over Linda

Guerrilla knitting!  Akin to guerrilla gardening, love it!

The smaller gate to Ishtar, looks like it was made of Legos

Warsaw, October 2012

I instructed a course in Warsaw for two days, then Eric and I stayed for the weekend.  It was my third time there, Eric's first.  I had Eric check out the Warsaw Uprising museum Friday while I was working since I had been so moved by it the first time I had been here.  My co-instructor who lives in Warsaw very kindly suggested a few restaurants for us to try.  We went to a French bistro our first night and had a great meal (oysters, mushroom vol au vent, chocolate souffle and wine of course).

Saturday was our full day together in Warsaw and the plan was to have a walk down Novy Swiat.  Great plan except the weather did not fully cooperate.  It snowed from the time we woke up to the time we went to bed!  It was our first snow of the season so we were excited but not after being outside after a few hours of heavy snow falling!  It was still a great walk but we didn't feel much like lingering to take in the sights.  We did catch a really interesting photo exhibit of Warsaw soon after the war.

We had a traditional Polish meal for lunch at Pod Sansonem - borscht and pierogis, yum!  We ducked into a cute cafe across the street to warm up before heading back out in the snow (To Lubie).  They had the most delicious coffee and cakes!  We continued our walk a bit to the Jewish memorial before heading back to the hotel for the day.  That evening we walked a few blocks to a wonderful Isreali restaurant for dinner (Tel Aviv).  I was in heaven, the food was so awesome!  They also suggested a very good Israeli red wine.  It was a cozy, unpretentious but friendly place, what a great find!

Sunday we enjoyed brunch at the hotel before heading out to the Palace of Culture.  We braved the line (only one elevator was working) to catch the view from the top.  Afterwards, we made another loop through old town and ended at Wedel for their famous chocolate.  I had the drinking chocolate with chili, my favorite!

Oktoberfest #2, September 2012

We decided to give Oktoberfest another go this year, although with some modifications to our travel plans.  We drove to Salzburg Friday and spent the night there.  Saturday, I donned my dirndl (and Eric his lederhosen shirt) and we took the train to Munich.  Beautful train ride!  From the Munich train station, we walked to Oktoberfest grounds.  It was cloudy but full of people.

We were joined by our friend from Nuremberg and looked for a place to get some beer!  It's a challenging feat if you don't have a tent reservation.  We were able to make our way into the beer garden at one place.  A helpful server found us a spot with a group of people from Austria/Germany (and one Italian and one American).  They were very friendly, we enjoyed their company.

Two or three hours after getting there, it started to rain.  At the same time, more of our friends from Bratislava showed up.  Unfortunately, sitting outside in the beer garden with the rain was really not an option.  However, getting inside the beer hall was seemingly impossible.  We waited outside the door of one place for an hour in the rain (luckily we had umbrellas and ponchos) but with no luck.

I left to find a restroom and as I walked along the side of the beer hall, some people went inside through a side door.  I quickly ran over and grabbed the door just before it shut closed (it was locked from the outside) and slipped inside.  Hooray!  It was bright and loud and warm inside, what a relief from the rain!  Unfortunately, I was inside and Eric and our four friends were still outside.  I tried to let them in through the same side door but there were people vigilantly watching the door and I was lectured for trying to let people in.  What I ended up doing was just walking by the door and nonchalantly popping it open as I kept walking.  I did this twice until everyone was able to get inside (I got yelled at the second and last time but who cares).  It was great fun inside (of course).  I befriended an older gentleman who got me a beer and danced a couple songs with me.  The atmosphere inside is so friendly (except those people at the door), everyone was drinking beer, standing on the benches, singing and dancing.  We caught the last train back to Salzburg.  We made some friends with a pair of French girls travelling back to Innsbruck.  Eric left his hat on the train but when he went back to go get it, it started moving!  Luckily he was able to jump off in time, otherwise he would have been bound for Munich (again).

Munich and Nuremberg, September 2012

Eric's aunt and uncle embarked on a Danube River cruise in September.  We saw them while they were in Bratislava.  We dined with them on the boat (top class!) and even enjoyed the deck-top jacuzzi under the lights of the UFO Bridge!

We flew to Munich Friday afternoon.  We spent the evening in the beer garden in the center of town.  There was a wonderful ambiance that evening - there were multiple stages with live music set up all over.  I think it was some sort of Munich city festival.  The stores were even open especially later so we took advantage and did some shopping at 10pm!

Saturday we went on a bike tour of Munich (with Mike's Bikes).  Highly recommended - it's a great way to see the city!  I really loved biking through the English Garden and having a beer in the beer garden there.  The surfers on the river were really cool to see as well.

Saturday afternoon we left Munich for Nuremburg, about 90 minutes north.  Driving on the autobahn was a fun experience although we really wished we had a better car (we had a compact little rental).  We were getting passed by cars going over 200 kph!  We also saw fields of hops growing all over.  It took us a while to figure out what they were, neither of us had ever seen them growing before.

That evening in Nuremberg, we met up with a friend who took us to dinner (Eric had the traditional Nurembergerwursts) and a night tour of the town.  We walked up to the castle to take in the evening view.  We all had a drink at a cute bar near her place.  It had a library/salon feel, with bookcases, red velvet seats, low lighting, dark wood bar.

Sunday morning we had a wonderful brunch along the river.  Then we picked up Eric's aunt and uncle from their ship.  We gave them a repeat of our evening walking tour, this time in the daylight.  It's a cute little town (at least the old part), we plan to return for the Christmas market, it's supposed to be among the oldest in Europe!

Beer garden in English Garden

Surfing the Isar river

Mike's bikes tour - fantastic!

the bachelor party got here first...nuremberg