...archives

January

Saturday, January 8, 2005 Einbeck, Deutschland: The elusive mystery of Einbeck is solved... A few months ago, a bunch of us went on a castle hopping trip to what we thought was Einbeck. The castle said it was in Einbeck-Salzderhelden, and that's where the train dropped us off. According to my travel book, this alleged Einbeck used to have 600 Breweries, more Breweries than houses. Well, the town we ended up in didn't look like it had even 50 houses, and there were no signs of any Breweries.  The castle was there though, so that was good.

Today, when Sue and I went, I did some more research. When I typed "Einbeck" into the German Train website, it gave me about 50 different choices. Now, I was pretty sure that many of these were other fake "Einbecks" like Einbeck-Salzderhelden. I decided to take us to the one that said Einbeck ZOB. It was the simplest of them all. First off, I wanted to show Sue the castle, so we went there first (Einbeck-Salzderhelden). So, now, according to the Train website, I should be able to go straight from Einbeck-Salzderhelden to Einbeck ZOB. We look at the train schedule and there is no stop listed. We ask someone. They say we need to take the bus. A bus! No wonder we had trouble getting there by train.

We wait for the bus and ask to make sure it's taking us where we want to go. It is. We get off at Einbeck ZOB (about a 10 minute bus ride). We found the city. Hoorah! It was good too. It's an old city, and has partial town walls surrounding the old part of the city (built in the 13th century). It also has about 100 original half-timbered houses still standing. Very German if you ask me. The end result of this trip is that Einbeck has no train station. That is why it is so difficult to find by train, and why there are so many train stops named Einbeck-Somethingorother. That's because you can take a train to any of the Einbeck-Whatever cities, and then take a bus from there. The castle we saw was actually located in Salzderheldeln. We wanted to fisit another castle that said Einbeck-Somethingelse, but the bus from Einbeck ZOB only left twice during the day on Saturday, and it was late in the day. So late in fact, that the buses stopped running back to Salzderhelden, so we had to take a Taxi-Line (a Taxi that acts as a bus) ... that was kind of weird. It smelled funny (Sue knows!).

Friday, January 13, 2005 Berlin, Deutschland: Sue and I discovered an "Escavator" or an "Elescalator". We do not know if we should categorize it as an Escalator or an Elevator. It went up at a 45 degree angle, similar to an escalator, and yet it was totally enclosed, like an elevator. The jury is still out on that piece of machinary.

Friday - Sunday, January 14-16, 2005 Paris, France: So did you know the Louvre is free to students between the ages of 18 and 26 on Friday nights after 6PM? Well we didn't, but we shortly found out. Nothing like a free entrance to one of the world's most famous Museums. Sue didn't want to climb the steps of the Eiffel Tower. I did. Maybe some day I'll get to. We took the lift this time.

So I've got my dad's SLR camera with me, and I'm taking some nice shots and stuff when suddenly, I've used up my first roll of film. Now, mind you, it took me like 20 minutes to even figure out how to get the film into this archaic contraption (it's like circa 1970 or something ... who was alive back then?). So film runs out. I realize that I probably have to wind the film up manually, but I have no idea how to accomplish this. My previous experiance with  cameras include: a.) digital cameras with pop in memory sticks, b.) kodak advantix cameras with drop in loading (and automatic rewinding and fowarding and stuff), and c.) my old vivitar camera, which used norml old-fashioned film ... however, I do believe it automatically rewound the film at the end of its use. So now, I'm stuck in Paris with no way to put in more film. What a conundrum. Luckily, I had my cell phone on me. So I text message my Dad, who happens to be in a lacrosse meeting in Philadelphia (I find this out later). I get no reply and text message my sister and tell her to tell our father to contact me. She responds in short time (she's a text message junkie) and says that he sent me a reply message (one I never got).

Well, night is approaching and the Eiffel Tower is all lit up and I really want a picture, so I call my dad on his cell phone. He quickly explains to me how to wind it. I had to press a magic silver button on the underside of the camera, flip up a knob, and rotate the knob clockwise until I heard some clicking, which meant it was all wound. The most complicated procedure I've ever heard of. But it gets the job done. I quickly load in some new film and raise my camera to the tower just in time to watch it start to sparkle. Ah, a kodak moment if there ever was one. Oh, and the metro does not open until 5:30 AM. We did not know that as we stood on a cold street at 5 in the morning, trying to make our way back to the airport.

Thursday - Monday, January 20-24, 2005 Bratislava, Slovensko: So Slovakia is an interesting place, especially Bratislava. Part of the city is quaint and old, and the other part, really scary and sketchy, very cold-war Soviet Union era. We tried to steer clear of those areas. However, when we arrived in Bratislava, it was about 11:00 PM. We take a bus and a tram to get to where our hostel is. We're walking along, and the part of Bratislava we're in is not too bad. Then we see a sign that our hostel is under the next overpass and around the corner. We turn the corner and see the overpass: it is the sketchiest allyway I've ever seen. Chris and I just start laughing. There is nothing much we can do about. Surprisingly though, despite its surroundings, the hostel was one of the nicest I've stayed in so far in Europe.

Story number two occured as we were walking by the American Embassy in Bratislava. I always wanted to go inside an Embassy and see what one was like. I figured, lets give this one a try. Chris is unsure if we can just go in, but I convince him that if we had a problem, they would let us in, so perhaps they'd let us in just to look in the lobby or something. So we go up to the guard house and show our passports. They smile and let us pass, but instruct us to only go to the second door. We go to the door and are greeted by more guards. They motion us to go through a security checkpoint. We have to check our cameras, etc. After the security checkpoint, the guards motioned us to a reception window. The lady at the window asks my purpose at the Embassy. Slightly embarrassed, I reply that I just wanted to see one.

She laughs and says that she is sorry, but that is not possible. Without a purpose or someone to see, I cannot go any furrther. She wishes me a pleasant stay in Bratislava, and then, because I have no where else to go, I turn around to collect my things from the security checkpoint. Felt really silly going to the Embassy to just go through a security checkpoint. Also, Chris led me on a march up a bigl hill. I don't know if I'll forgive him for that, and through muddy terrain in the mountains. He is a bad pathfinder.

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