Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

I haven’t been participating in the Weekly Photo Challenge much because I switched off the email alerts from the blog (since I am not on a daily challenge) and thus have not been remembering to check out the blog regularly.  Just so happened that I thought of the challenge over the weekend and found out the theme for the week is Sun!  Oh I was elated, because I thought I took some very pretty pictures with the sun as the theme during the last Europe trip.  Winter suns are somewhat different, if you get what I mean.

This cheery morning sun shone brightly upon us on a weekend morning on our second day at Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  It was still early in the morning and we were pottering along the relatively empty streets after our interesting climb of the medieval town’s walls.  I was basking in the sun, happy for the pleasant warmth and short respite from the snowy cold.  And then I turned my back and saw this wonderful scene.  Without further hesitation, I took a shot.

I’ve always emphasized that I prefer the cold weather to warm tropical.  The sun has stopped being interesting since technically speaking, I see it for almost 12 hours every single day, year on year, provided that I do not travel.  You could also say that I have kind of stopped appreciating the existence of the sun.  But that winter trip reminded me once again why the sun existed, and why we needed it.  When it’s cold and gloomy, all we really need is a peek from the sun to feel all warm and fuzzy again.

Ah, my love-hate relationship with the sun…

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The Divide

Despite its historical significance, very little is left of the physical Berlin Wall.  The longest remaining stretch of  the wall is situated near Ostbanhof and is called East Side Gallery.  I didn’t know this because my planning for Berlin was very much incomplete before we embarked on the trip.  I printed a few essential maps, email correspondence with the pension we were putting up at, and then I just left things as they were.  Well, not exactly.  I did intend to do a bit more planning on the road, but it didn’t quite materialise.

And so the hubby was rather annoyed when he asked me what I must see in Berlin, and I replied ‘The Berlin Wall’ without being able to tell him where we could find the wall.  We got lazy, hailed a cab and asked him to bring us to see ‘The Berlin Wall’ in English.  He drove us to see the Brandenburg Gate instead.  Perhaps he didn’t understand English much, or perhaps he thought we should be brought to see the emblem symbolising the unity of Germany instead of the relic that reminds everyone of the painful split.  I’m grateful for his decision, for we might have otherwise missed seeing this remaining city gate of Berlin formerly used to represent the separation of the city between East and West Berlin.

That same night when we returned to the pension, I was tasked to check on where we could see The Berlin Wall since it was really the only relic I wanted to see for myself.  And I found out the longest stretch of 1.3km could be found near Ostbanhof train station.  And it was nothing like what I expected.  It was a short walk from the station before we chanced upon the wall, right by a busy road.  If it weren’t for the tourists who were taking photos of and with it, I wouldn’t have guessed that it was THE wall.

I love the graffiti on the wall.  Prior to the fall of the wall, graffiti could only be found on the western side of the wall.  The eastern side?  Let’s just say that nobody could get near enough to draw on any graffiti.  I thought that the symbolism of having graffiti on both sides of the wall is much greater than the demolition of the wall.  Well… the impact of the physical demolition is much diminished since I only get to see like one stretch of the wall.  I might have thought differently if I had visited Berlin in the early 1990′s right after the unification.

The first thing I noticed when we were walking about Berlin was not the actual Berlin Wall per se, but of an image of a soldier leaping over barbed wire.  This image was everywhere!  I turned to my history-buff husband and asked him, ‘Who is he?  Is he someone famous?  Is this posed?’

I was disappointed when he shook his head, indicating that he could not answer any of my questions.  Later on, I bought a book on The Berlin Wall and found out about the scoop on the image.  I’m just going to lift an excerpt from the book:

‘… The idling reporters noticed how one of the border guards kept walking up to the barbed wire barrier and trying to push it down with his hand.  Then he turned around and walked back to where he had come from and repeated the procedure.  Again, he walked back to where he had come from.  The men were curious.  Several minutes passed by.  Suddenly, quick as a flash, it happened.  The more alert just managed to get their cameras up fast enough.  The solider appeared out of the background.  He was running, accelerating… He ran up to the barrier and jumped as high as he could, dropping his rifle in mid air.  He seemed to hang, suspended in the air, until he was all the way across.

Nineteen-year old Konrad Schumann landed just a few feet away from the open-mouthed West reporters.’

Bravo!  I secretly cheered for him as I was reading the book on the night train from Berlin to Paris.  That spectacular defection happened way back in 1961, and he was one of the lucky few who made it across the border.  Many, many hundreds (maybe even thousands – statistics could not be confirmed) never made it across, and most of them lost their lives trying to.

Seemingly such an innocent relic now, but we will never know how much pain split families went through, and how desperate they must had been to risk death by attempting to cross the wall.  I would say demolishment of the wall was a great leap forward in human history.

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The Passing of a Good Man

Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who was Czechoslovakia’s first democratically elected President, died on 18 Dec 2011. I have to admit that I do not know much about Havel, but I was about to find out through news reporting while travelling in Europe, for there were no lack of updates on TV.

A gigantic portrait of a smiling Havel hung at the Parliament House.

Prayer candles were lighted at Wenceslas Square in tribute to late Havel. If the insane number of prayer candles isn’t an indication of how well-loved and well-respected this man is, I don’t know what is. We walked around the square hoping to find a vendor who was selling the prayer candles so that we could also lit one out of respect for the good man who liberalised Czech. But alas, we could find none.

The night wintery winds blew assiduously and the chill was especially felt at the open square. We gave up searching for prayer candles. Instead we decided to pay attention to our own needs (i.e. our growling stomachs) and concentrated on finding a eating place.

On a related note, would you prefer that no one attends your funeral, or is attended by many who hated your guts? This was a question posed to me when I was much younger, and it perturbed me for a while because I was told then I could only choose one of the two options. No in-betweens allowed. Everyone knows this is a hypothetical question which illustrated two very extreme conditions that is unlikely to ever happen to anyone. Despite that, I felt compelled to make a choice, and my choice is… the former. If there is any kind of person in the world that I hate, it’s the hypocrites. As I look upon this world the one last time before I get buried six foot under (or get incinerated), I think the last persons I want to see are the ones I hate the most.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Indulge

Indulge is this week’s photo challenge.  My ultimate indulgence – my favourite macarons from my favourite Paris pâtisserie.  I could also get his macarons from Tokyo, but it’s just different stepping into his pâtisserie in Paris itself.  It’s like a pilgrimmage every macaron baker and eater must make.

I was a little overwhelmed when I first stepped into the pâtisserie because unlike its Tokyo counterparts, the interior decor of the original shop is rather dark and narrow.  Before I could take a closer look at the pastries on display, I was hurried into a queue.  The counter staff looked very harrassed (possibly from working nonstop since the store opened for the day) and since I didn’t speak much French, I chose the easiest way out – by picking one pre-packed tin of macarons.

This is the tin of a dozen macarons that endured the 14-hour flight back from Paris.  Didn’t survive very well, if you scrutinise them.  If I had a choice, I would have handpicked all the flavours that I liked and not bought this pre-packed tin.  As a general rule, I prefer ganache or buttercream filling to fruit jam filling because the latter tends to be a lot more cloyingly sweet.  And I prefer shells made with hazelnut mill rather than almond mill for the same reason.  But I love PH’s Ispahan macarons; it is easily his opus magnum, I feel. His Plaisir Sucré comes in a very, very close second.

I finished all 12 macarons by myself and the hubby was very mad with me when he came home and found none of PH’s macarons left for him.  Kekeke…  that’s why it fits ‘Indulge’!

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Pondering

This picture was initially shortlisted to be featured together with the rest of the shortlisted pictures on my post about Český Krumlov, but the more I looked at this picture, the more I thought it deserved a post of its own.  Furthermore, it just didn’t quite fit in the theme of the post it was initially meant for.

Something about this picture just gets to me.  The dark clouds gathering above the top of the crucifix with a tinge of blue peeking through, the lone man that was captured seemingly to be in deep thought, the overall ambience of the shot… just gave me pause when I was about to discard it from the folder of shortlisted pictures.  What was the man thinking about at that point in time?

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The Picturesque Town of Český Krumlov

Český Krumlov is a very picturesque old town built in Baroque, Gothic and Renaissance styles.  Situated about 160km south of Prague, this UNESCO Heritage Site is a 3-hour bus ride away.  There are other means of travelling to Český Krumlov from Prague i.e. via a private shuttle or a combination of bus+train ride.  The former is too expensive and the latter way too troublesome.  A bus ride is by far the most economical and convenient, and the most popular option is via the Student Agency Bus.  Let not the name mislead you, for you most certainly do not need to be a student to board the bus (although students do get to buy discounted tickets).  The bus tickets are decidedly cheap, at 150Kč (about S$10) per person, both ways.  Or you could, like what we did, choose a Sightseeing Tour that comes complete with a tour guide and lunch in a medieval tavern.  It comes at a considerably steeper cost, of course, at 1850Kč (about S$120) per person.  Just take note that the sightseeing tours don’t run every single day but only on certain days.

A tiny confession at this juncture… I was compelled to choose the sightseeing tour instead of taking the Student Agency Bus and winging it upon reaching Český Krumlov because I was way behind time in the trip preparation.  In comparison, I wanted to spend the little time I had planning for our time in Paris and packing for the trip.  Thence, I ‘outsourced’ the planning of our time in Český Krumlov to a trusty third-party.

{One of the assistant guides picked us up at the apartment and walked us to the meeting place of the tour near Wenceslas Square.  The streets were still relatively deserted although it was already close to 9am.}

Clearly, there were many like-minded tourists like myself because our mini tour bus was packed to the brim with about 25-30 of us.  And apart from the 2 of us, there were 3 other Asians (Japanese, to be exact).  For some reason or another, they were mightily glad to see us when we boarded the bus.  I guess they didn’t feel comfortable being the minority race in the group?  Honestly, I was also mightily glad, but for another reason entirely.  I shall elaborate further in a while.

{Typical scenery while on the bus ride to Český Krumlov.}

The first stop we came by was sort of a picture stop right at the top of the hills where we could take in the view of the whole medieval town.  Very pretty indeed.  And along the way, I stopped whenever I thought I could snap a good panoramic view of the town.  As a result, I had several good pictures safely captured on my SD card.  With difficulty, I managed to shortlist 4 as below.

I was constantly lagging behind the group because I’m a slow photographer + like to take many, many shots of the same place at different settings.  You know, as an insurance in case the other pictures don’t turn out well.  The hubby was, as usual, upset with me because if there’s anything exemplary about my husband, it’s his consideration for others: he never likes to be late or inconvenience others.  And my lagging behind was obviously affecting the progress of the group that was walking in the medieval town on foot.  Except that I wasn’t the last in the group!

As I expected, the 3 Japanese girls were lagging even further behind taking even more pictures (of themselves, primarily) than I was.  And this was the reason why I was glad to see them when I boarded the bus.  Heh.  I’m evil, I know…

By and by, the hubby stopped hurrying me because whenever he did that, I just pointed to the Japanese girls who were lagging further and further behind.  He left me alone but kept a lookout for me while hurrying to catch up with the group to listen to the tour guide’s introduction of the town.  He was proceeding rather slowly because he had to repeat the same thing in 3 languages – English, Spanish and… was it Russian?

{The beautiful Castle compound that we could only view through the gates.}

Everyone who knows any bit about Český Krumlov would tell you that no trip to Český Krumlov is complete without a visit to the castle complex.  Very unfortunately, the castle complex was closed the day we visited.  I don’t remember why.  In fact I think I wasn’t even there when the guide explained why.  If I could hazard a guess, I was probably lagging behind taking pictures (while ensuring that the Japanese girls never overtook me).

Because of the closed castle complex, we ended up finishing the first part of the tour earlier than scheduled.  The tour guide then gave us some time to explore the town on our own before we congregate again for lunch.  The hubby and I didn’t want to venture too far out because we were only given 45 minutes.  We explored the main square where there was a mini Christmas market made of up 3 stalls, selected a postcard, bought some souvenirs, a stamp and posted the postcard.  Out of the blue, the hubby turned to me and asked, ‘Tell me again why are we here?’

‘Because it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site!’  I answered, mustering all the zest I could manage.

‘Ya… so?’  The hubby retorted.  Clearly, he wasn’t impressed with Český Krumlov.

‘Urm… urm… it’s supposed to be a very pretty medieval old town.  Very picturesque.  And the castle ground is supposed to be very beautiful!’  I invented along the way as I tried to redeem myself.  He just rolled his eyes.  He could see right through me, that his impressionable wife had made this decision based on some unreliable source on the internet again.  To my defence, he seemed to enjoy exploring old medieval towns and the likes during our past trips.  But I guess the novelty wears off after visiting too many similar ones in the span of 6 years: St-Paul-de-Vence one of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera, Peniscola the fortified seaport in Valencia, Cordoba in Andalusia and Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria.  He obviously wants a change in scenery because he has decided that our next Europe trip would be heading north towards the Scandinavia for the fjords, glaciers and northern lights.

Lunch was served at a popular medieval tavern in Český Krumlov.  There was already a huge group of Korean tourists seated in the tavern as we were filling in the restaurant.  We didn’t quite know what to expect, but thankfully everything that was served, from the soup to the main course and dessert was quite normal.  The main course was like pork chop, with a potato and veggies served on the side.  Rather delicious but too bony for my liking.  We also had a pleasant conversation with the elderly couple seated at the same table because the husband and my husband are both in the aviation industry… so a lot of common topics.

It started snowing the moment we stepped out of the tavern after lunch and the entire town was soon engulfed in a thin layer of white.  A very pretty sight although I cannot decide if I preferred the clear blue sky we saw earlier in the day or the overcast sky when it started snowing.  We were given some time to explore the town on our own again, and we walked up the slopes towards the church.  To our plesant surprise, we discovered a tiny terrace a little further up where we could have a panaromic view of the whole town.  It was a beautiful scene with the snow falling.

And as we were walking back to the bus for our trip back to Prague, we saw this and knew for sure this is an aqueduct.  You mean the Romans were here too?  I’ve underestimated the extent of the Roman Empire, apparently.

I liked Český Krumlov (in spite of the overpriced souvenirs) and I find it very picturesque.  It is somewhat a photographer’s paradise, like Venice.  It is most definitely worth the 6-hour bus ride to and from Prague, if you spend the 3-hour trip back to Prague taking a snooze.  Don’t mind the hubby and his signature cynicism.  He gets bored of things a lot quicker than most people, although he will defend his reputation by claiming that he can have the same food every single meal, every single day for the rest of his life.  I think that’s bull, by the way.

You could see how far behind I was lagging.  This time, I was really the last one because with nothing to shoot, the 3 Japanese girls have gotten ahead to rush to the bus.  The hubby was not rushing me one bit because it was the end of the tour and for sure, the bus would wait for us.  He even good-humouredly posed for a picture!

Hey, but not to worry, because by the time I reached the bus, the 3 girls were busy posing cutish poses and taking pictures with the snow. Always knew that I could count on them to stall time haha…

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Simple

Back to be part of the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s topic is Simple.  It isn’t the simplest of all topics but a picture stood out when I browsing through my database.

This is known as a Double-Neck Violins.  If you think it resembles some sort of medieval torture instrument, you are quite right because I saw this at the Medieval Crime Museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Apparently they used to chain two women (who have quarrels with each other) together by the neck, and they were made to do everything together till they stopped quarrelling.  It was an effective instrument which was in use for quite a while.

Why did I choose this to represent ‘Simple’?  Simply because all differences and quarrels, I believe, stem from a lack of communication and understanding.  And what we need is really a very simple solution – making the parties involved communicate.  They need not see eye to eye, but they could learn to respect each other’s views.

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Praha, the City of Mosts

Prague has 3 most-used titles – Hundred-Spired Prague, the Mother of Cities, and Magical Prague.  I would like to call it the City of Bridges.  There are no less than one hundred bridges over Vltava River, of which 17 are situated in Praha. I feel this is even more characteristic of Prague than the other titles.

Visiting Prague had been my burning desire in the last 5 years because I heard from so many friends that Prague is even more romantic than Paris or Venice.  How could this be possible, I asked myself?  Even more romantic than Venice, my all-time favourite city in the whole wide world?  I must see this city for myself.  And I couldn’t wait, so in spite of it being a highly illogical manoeuvre (out-of-the-way and disrupts the flow), I added Prague into the itinerary, to the dismay of my travelling companion the hubby.

Like myself, thousands of other tourists made Prague their 2012 New Year countdown destination.  In the few days leading up to 31 Dec 2011, Prague was crowded and infested with tourists and locals alike.  Our immediate task was finding the best spot to view the fireworks following the countdown activity.  The natural thing to do was to turn to our hospitable guide for some insider information when he came by the restaurant where breakfast was served.  He told us it would really be squeezy and rowdy, and advised us to be careful but failed to tell us where we could stand for the best view.  In our interaction with him, I thought that was the only blemish – otherwise he was the perfect epitome of a good host.

I was so wrong to jump to conclusions.  The next day, when we returned to the apartment after a long day exploring the historic centre of Prague, we found a post-it on our door, with instructions telling us exactly where we should position ourselves prior to the New Year Countdown.  After the non-committal answer given at breakfast, he promptly went to check it out and got back to us once he found the information.  I was duly impressed.

The historic centre of Prague is not very huge, and mostly reachable on foot.  On one side of the Vltava River you could find the Stare Mesto (Old Town Square, where we stayed at), Nove Mesto (New Town Square) and Josefov (the Jewish Quarter).  On the other side of the river would be Lesser Town (Mala Strana) and Hradcany (Castle District, including the Prague Castle).  Old Town Square is the most ‘touristy’ district, and the one district I hate to love, and love to hate.

I chose to live nearby Old Town Square because the Christmas Market was conveniently located at the square (and it runs from the Advent Weekend well into January the following year, every year).  Instead of calling it a Christmas Market, I would rather call it a holiday carnival because comparatively, Prague’s Christmas Market sells very little Christmas-related merchandise.  Instead they sell a lot of food and drinks.

And what would a trip to Prague be without visiting Karluv most (Charles Bridge in English)?  Incomplete, I would say.  Up till 1841, Charles Bridge was the only means of crossing Vltava River, connecting the Castle District and the Lesser Quarter to the other side of the river.  Visiting Charles Bridge at difference times of the day presents different visages of this bridge adorned with 30 statues and statuaries.  We crossed Charles Bridge at four different times: once in the evening shortly after sunset, once early in the morning just after sunrise, once at noon and once during the New Year countdown.  All four times presented very different atmospheres.

Charles Bridge is protected by 3 Bridge Towers – 1 at the side of the Old Town and the other 2 at the side of the Lesser Quarter – and are its best-kept secret.  At the top of the bridge tower, you could catch a panoramic view of Prague, including the bridge.  Not many people know that the bridge tower could be scaled, lest to mention what a sight awaits them.

Later that night, we were back on the bridge for the New Year countdown.  It was swarmed with people of all nationalities, sizes and shapes.  Many people had already started imbibing beers, liquors and what-have-yous.  And some youngsters were forming lines running from one end to the other end of the bridge, happily squeezing the merry-making crowd to the sides of the bridge.  We were both squashed left, right and centre but it was quite fun.  I just wish I’m not so petite – everyone was towering over me and I couldn’t even see the fireworks properly.

You could say that expectations were running feverishly high, and I badly wanted to love Prague.  As it always goes when expectations are too high, Prague did not live up to what I expected it to be. Granted, we received probably the best personalised service from the folks who rented us the humongous apartment – it was so huge we probably only used 1/3 of the whole apartment the 5 days we were in Prague.  Yet, many other factors come into play before I endorse a city with my stamp of approval.  Despite the warm hospitality, I just didn’t connect with Prague.

My cousin immediately asked me a question when I told her Prague was one of our destinations on the trip.  Who wants to guess what the question was?

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Pandora Bracelet v1.2

I mentioned in the previous post about my Pandora charm bracelet (to commemorate my travels) that I might look for something in Seoul to add-on to it. Fact is, I couldn’t find the time to search for a counter selling the charms, hence the idea was shelved. Learning from this previous experience, I made it a point to note down the location of all outlets (in the cities we were visiting) selling the Pandora charms prior to embarking on our most recent trip. In Munich, we found one of the outlets nearby the Christmas Market close by our accommodation.

Prior to the trip, I had a rather sketchy idea of getting a Christmas-themed charm to commemorate the trip. And this was exactly how I communicated with the sales staff – that I was looking for something associated with Christmas. He took out a Christmas tree and a Santa Claus charm respectively but I was not totally satisfied with the recommendations. So, I tried approaching it from another angle – something that represents Munich. The sales staff immediately started looking for a particular charm while explaining that he was looking for an edelweiss silver charm because it is the national flower of Bavaria. (If you don’t already know, Munich is the capital of the state of Bavaria). Although not entirely apt as representation of the whole trip, I was willing to go along with it because out of the 7 cities we were visiting, 4 of them are closely associated with the edelweiss.

I made a mental note to visit another Pandora outlet in Berlin or Paris, thinking to find another charm to collectively represent Prague, Berlin and Paris. We never found the time to do so. Guess I shall have to settle with just the edelweiss charm.

This is how the bracelet now looks like. The overall appearance of the bracelet is a little monotonous, I know. It’s high time I add some colour beads to the bracelet. After the next addition, I will.

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Scenic Salzburg

Salzburg (or literally ‘Salt Castle’) is a tourist favourite for several reasons, two of which are its close association with Mozart and the von Trapp family.  I love both, and therefore a visit to Salzburg was completely and irrevocably unavoidable.  In fact, I chose the location of our hotel based on its close proximity to Mozart Residence and Mirabell Palace and Gardens; both landmarks are within 5 minutes’ walk away.

We were blessed with good weather on the day we decided to visit Mirabell Gardens.  The sky was in the most beautiful shade of blue and the much-welcomed sun was shining brightly upon us.  As it was winter, the baroque gardens looked nothing like what was featured on ‘Sound of Music’ when the von Trapp children frolicked around the horse fountain with Maria.  Despite this, the garden presented a unique sort of austere beauty.

I took full advantage of the awesome weather – planted myself on the bridge and took all facades of Salzburg along Salzach River.  But I could only withstand the wind that long.  It was really cold standing out in the open, with the howling winds blowing.  Salzburg was the coldest city we had encountered, yet.  But I was in for a rude shock in Prague.  It was much, much colder on Karluv Most.

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