Look Kids, Big Ben! Parliament! (European Vacation part 1)

Brett's parents are in Europe on a fabulous two-week vacation, and just hearing about the cities they are visiting reminded me of my European vacation back in the summer of 1999.

Mandi, Anna and I boarded a plane from Atlanta bound for Europe. Our backpacks weighed 34 pounds each, we had our walking shoes on and we were ready.

We had nearly six weeks of travel in front of us, and we sure did make the most of it. Since it has been 9 years next month, I figured a few stories were in order. I've even pulled pages from my scrapbook and scanned in key photos to prove our existence in each city.

You'll want to grab coffee and a comfy seat. I've never been known to be brief.

Arrival
The long flight was a first for me, and we certainly didn't ride first class. Ten hours from Atlanta, lined up across a row with the bathrooms nearby, was a bit of a challenge. We pocketed the Delta blankets, however, only to re-use them again and again as everything from a pillow, to a shawl to a picnic blanket. We knew we weren't supposed to go to sleep when we landed, so we used the facilties in Heathrow to freshen up for our big adventures. We wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway.

London
From the moment we stepped aboard the touristy red double-decker bus, I knew that I could live there and be very happy. Poor, and underfed, but happy. Do NOT stay in a hostel near the Victoria Station—ours was scary and ugly and our bedroom was half-underground. Pretty sure 2 of us shared a single bed that night. It's not worth it to skimp and save quite that much. These few days in London was the first experience with Red Bull as it hadn't gotten approved in the U.S. yet, and I recall drinking it out of pitchers, mixed with ice and vodka, and it glowing in the dark while we danced and shimmied our way through the Zoo Bar. We saw "Les Miserables" at the Globe Theater, and the accents threw me a bit from the Broadway production.


Singing as we walked drew attention to us, but come on...it was impossible NOT to sing "London Bridge" a few times. Even though the one that everyone THINKS is the London Bridge actually goes by Tower Bridge. Who knew? Guess the other one fell down. One thing we noticed at this early point in our trip was our ability to completely MISS the biggest monuments/buildings while desperately looking for it. Case in point, we were wandering the streets, looking for Parliament, and then, behold, we were standing in front of it and didn't quite see it. Big Ben, where are you?

Paris
Since we had the Eurorail passes, we took the train everywhere, and it sure was an interesting way to travel. The bullet train across the Chunnel was our introduction to the train life, and we shouldn't have set our expectations there—that train was far nicer than anything else we'd encounter. We stayed at an amazing hostel in Montmartre, and experienced the "Hostel Nazi" who liked to shout and control our curfews, but the place was really fancy. Walking up the hill to Le Sacre Couer, we heard singing, and entered the church at twilight to hear nuns singing hymns in French, and it was hard not to be moved by the glorious music and sights.


Parisians eat dinner at about midnight, so we just added extra meals in there to make sure we didn't go hungry, God forbid. One memorable meal involved eating fondue out of a ceramic bowl and drinking wine out of baby bottles. Our time in Paris also introduced us to the smart cars, which I'm still convinced wouldn't fit my head and long legs simultaneously, and the "on the street toilettes, where you pay a coin and then the door slides open and you take care of business right there on the sidewalk. It rained and rained and rained in Paris, though not a drop in London, ironically. The tourism union was on strike, so most of the monuments and museums were on strike, but luckily we were still able to ascend the Eiffel Tower and ride the Metro; the Louvre and the Musee de Orsay were clearly not happening. Guess I will have to go back...

Brugge
Next stop, a small town about 10 miles off the coast of the North Sea. Cobblestone streets and red roofs make this town aesthetically pleasing, and the canal rides prove the age of the place. We ate french fries with mayonnaise and bought chocolate and lace, because that's what ladies in Belgium do. Climbing the 396 steps of the Belfort tower, we were still young enough not to be totally out of breath, and met a silly little music man with a rolling cart at the base.


Renting bikes for the day, the three of us (sporting our inadvertently matching blue wind-breakers) took to the streets and rode out of town a bit to ogle the windmills and sing even more loudly. I remember standing on a sidewalk at 4 am trying to figure out the phone card and the international phone booth. My parents were convinced I was drunk. I might have been.

Amsterdam
Arriving in Amsterdam on the weekend, we thought we were in for a huge party; however, the Heineken brewery was closed, and the town was pretty quiet. Until we found the one bar run by Australians: Mister Coco's. It became our home for the next few days, and we even donned black afros to pour beers for the guests. We made our mark there, I am afraid. Lunch by the canals featured amazing cheeses, fruits and breads, and flowers filled the window boxes hanging above our heads. Quick studies that we were, we realized that we'd just sit anywhere to eat. Give me a square on a train station floor and I'm happy. Sleeping quickly became that way, too. While in Amsterdam, we explored the high-tech internet cafes to connect with our families, and loved having great beer with us while we did.


The crowds rolled into the city to celebrate, ironically, the Tibetan Freedom Concert, and we found ourselves in the middle of the mayhem, feeding pigeons (and being scared by them when they took flight) in Dam Square. The Anne Frank House was a must-see, and we made a visit to a contemporary museum, a coffee shop and a night out for dancing, which ended up being at the African Roots Festival at Melkweg. Walking into the warehouse-sized bar, we realized quickly we stood out and ignored the looks we received, and made our way to the front row to dance all night with the tribal robe-wearing, face-painted locals. Killing time before our train, we went to the movies (we couldn't bring ourselves to drink any more) and saw "Cruel Intentions" subtitled in Dutch.

Berlin
We hadn't heard great things about Berlin, so we only planned to be there for a day, and then move on. We did a Walking Tour with a tour guide that reminded us of Gilligan, and saw the Brandenburg Gates, Checkpoint Charlie, Humboldt University and the New Museum (where I tried to climb into the sculptural bowl outside and it wasn't a smart idea). We read about how book burning happened here, led by the Nazis, and ended our tour with the Berlin Wall. Complete with stories and movie clips, the Wall's meaning and historical impact was loud and clear.


While standing at the Wall, we met three backpacking guys from Michigan, and proceeded to sit at the pizza place so long we almost missed our train to Prague. All six of us were running through the train station only to realize we had misjudged the schedule and had time to waste. The 3 of them, the Michigan Boys, ended up being our travel buddies throughout the rest of Europe, and one of them, Sam, is still one of my best friends today, and lives here in Chicago.

Prague
We took the 8-hour train from Berlin and filled the time playing Euker with the Michigan Boys, enjoying the party car along the way. This was my favorite city in all of Europe. A guy in Amsterdam, a traveler from St. Louis, passed us a business card of a great guy in Prague who, with his wife, rents apartments to traveling students. We called him, arranged it, and he picked us up at the train station with pastries, sandwiches, water (with gas and without) and drove us in his tiny car to the apartment, which was fabulous. Enormous, high ceilings, incredible architecture, and it was $33 a night. TOTAL.

The key-ring he gave us had about 9 color-coded keys on it, with each one corresponding to a different door as you entered from the street (red key) to the interior lobby (orange key) to the top of the stairs (yellow key) to the interior hallway (green key) to the front of the apartment (blue key) to the back door of the apartment (purple key). Since we'd had a few Staropramen beers that first night (they were only $.60 each, and the Michigan Boys were buying), when we got back "home," the key challenge began. I recall Mandi accidentally dropping the keys from halfway up the curvy staircase, down all they way to the bottom, which was past one of the three original gates, so she had to shimmy down the stairs, we had to hold the spring-loaded gate open, and she had to climb back up and save the day. She lived to tell about it, thank God, and forgave us for laughing so hard we couldn't talk.


For four days we wandered the St. Charles Bridge over the Vlatva River (singing the theme from "Mission Impossible"), purchased paintings from local artisans and danced all night long at Lavka, an enormous multi-level riverside club. The Praha Castle was an incredibly authentic version of the Magic Kingdom castle and the St. Vitus Cathedral blew us away. If you've never been to Prague, I have two words. GO NOW.

Part two of this blog to come later today. I'm doing you the favor and letting you stand up, step away from the computer and stretch your legs.

Go get more coffee...there's nine more cities to tour!