Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina Day 2

On Thursday morning we met Mr. Begovic (who owned our hostel) outside his house and he drove us to the bus stop where a van would be picking us up for our excursion to Bosnia-Herzegovina. I think we waited longer than he expected and a couple vans came that were full and left and he seemed to be very anxious (it was a little funny to watch, but you would have had to have been there to laugh). Eventually a vacant van drove up and Ryan and I along with quite a few others got in, buckled up, and hit the road for a new country.

The drive was BEAU-TI-FUL! The road curved right along the coastline. I realized how far away some of the islands were that we had thought about going to. The time it took to ferry to these islands made a lot more sense to me now. BH (I'll abbreviate) is an interesting country because there is one part that juts out to the Adriatic Sea, so to reach Mostar we had to cross three borders. First we crossed into BH from Croatia and came to a little town called Neum where we got out for a coffee/potty break. That is where the picture below is from.

After 20 minutes we piled back in the van and kept on trucking up the road. Not to far along we crossed another border back into Croatia. At this point we started heading inland away from the beautiful coastal view. Then we eventually crossed our third border, which put us back into BH.

Not to far before we reached Mostar, our final destination, we came to a tiny little town on a hill side with ruins of an old Mosque I think and a currently in tact Mosque. It was definitely a tourist spotting point because as soon as we exited the van women were coming up trying to sell us things and hte whole base of the hill had little shops with very touristy items for sale. We only had about 15 minutes to explore and probably didn't need much more, but it was cool to see. The picture below shows you the view up the hill.

This picture is of the in tact Mosque. There was a Muslim woman outside selling a variety of items including wine, which I find interesting because most practicing Muslims do not drink. What people won't do to take advantage of the tourists.


As soon as we reach Mostar the van let us out with all the other vans from the same tour company at the Franciscan Church because it has a very tall bell tower so it woudl be easy to find our way back to. The interesting thing about this church is that it was built in 1997 after the war ended. This is very unique compared to so much of Europe where the churches date back hundreds or even thousands of years. From this starting place a local guide took us on a walking tour of the town for what was supposed to be 30 minutes. But turned into much longer.

The picture below is of a former Turkish Bath house, but today it is so sort of museum I think the guide said. There are no windows because, well, it was a bath house and people need their privacy.


From that area we walked through a street crowded with numerous shops and some restaurants, which led us to THE symbol of Mostar. What apparently is the city's distinguishing mark is a large bridge running from one side of the rive to the other. I took the picture below while we were standing on the bridge. You have to be very careful walking over the bridge because it is very slippery from so much foot traffic that all the stones are polished. This is a problem in other areas too because many of the pedestrian roads have very old cobblestones. To help the slippery bridge problem when it was built they put raised parts sort of like stairs except it is just flat then a raised part then flat again, not gradual stairs.


This picture was of the ground that the rocks were on their sides, which I suppose helps it not be as slippery after people walk over it countless times (or at least that is my only guess as to why), but it seemed interesting because I'd never seen anything like this before.


Now on the opposite side of the river from where we started we twisted and turned through many other tourists stopping to look at many more shops. We were headed to a Mosque that was supposed to have a great view down the river to the bridge we just crossed. You tell me what you think of the view in the picture below. I think it is worth walking to see.


If we wanted we could pay 2 euro (even though BH does not use the euro as their primary currency everywhere in Mostar excepts it) to go inside the Mosque and Ryan and I did. I am glad we did so. It was very beautiful and it is the oldest Mosque in Mostar and is still in use today. The picture below is of the Mosque. But it is a view of it from standing on the Bridge.


After the Mosque we had the option of leaving the tour for lunch, shopping, and exploring, or continuing with our guide to a "Turkish House." Ryan and I thought we'd like to experience as much as we could while there so we following the guide. The Turkish House is in Turkish style (due) from when the Turks ruled BH which wasn't even BH back when, it was park of Yugoslavia. These homes have been traditionally passed on through the generations, but the previous owners of this Turkish House had no children so they left the House to this tour agency or something and now it is a museum or site of attraction or whatever you want to call it. The picture below is of our tour guide modeling the underwear they wore. Their outfits are similar to what the characters wore in the movie Aladdin.

Another interesting fact we learned about life in a Turkish House has to do with the picture below. The main item you can see is a coffee maker or holder or something for hot coffee. The item in the corner is the same coffee maker or holder thing except it is for cold coffee. If a guest were to stop by the host would never turn them away even if it was not a good time, but they would offer either hot or cold coffee. Hot indicated they were welcome and could stay for awhile, but if you received cold coffee from your host it was an indication that they did not have time for this visit and you were to drink your coffee and leave.


Once we left the Turkish House we all walked back to more of a central part of town where the tour guide recommended some lunch spots and then departed. I think the majority of us ended up at the same restaurant which had a great view right along the river. Because there was a lack of open table a couple of sisters from Russia asked to Join Ryan and I who were already seated. They were very nice and it was fun to spend time talking to them over lunch. Ryan and I shared a seafood platter for two and it was so delicious. It had two whole fish skin, bones, heads, and tails, along with some grilled squid. Our accompanying side was boiled potatoes and kale. It was all delicious. I had a glass of BH red wine and Ryan had a BH white wine. I preferred the red. I think for this entire are Croatia, BH, and Montenegro I just prefer red wine and don't care for the white.

It took a long time to get the bill, which is not unusual for European restaurants by any means. The problem was that it was three o'clock and we were supposed to be back at the van so we just got up and left the restaurant without paying..... just kidding... we wouldn't do that. We finally paid and then hustled back to the Franciscan Church where everyone else was waiting in the van. But we were only 10-15 minutes late so the guide didn't seem upset with us, but was relieved to see us I think.

It was about 3 hours back to Dubrovnik with one stop in Neum again for a coffee/potty break or just to stretch our legs. Back in Dubrovnik Ryan and I were tired and didn't feel up to anymore exploring so we just headed up the million stairs to our hostel. We had bought a box of Minestrone soup at the grocery the night before for dinner tonight. We each showered and then I went to the kitchen to get our food and start the soup. When I opened the box all that was in it was white rice. The picture on the front was of Minestrone soup (but with rice instead of noodles as I'm used to) and in large letters it said "Minestrone" on the front of the box. But apparently if I where able to read Croat I would have known that it was a box of rice to use in the making of your own Minestrone soup. So all we had for dinner was rice and we were too tired to walk back down and did not want to spend more money on dinner. I started boiling the rice and then began to think of any way I could spice up the rice. The only think in the cupboards was salt and pepper, but then I realized we had fresh lemons, limes, and oranges right outside. At this point it had started pouring rain, so I asked Ryan to go pick me a couple of lemons. Once the rice was done I squeezed in lemon juice. My idea was to make lemon pepper rice. But when I went to add the pepper I discovered there was barely a dash left. So it was more just lemon rice. It wasn't bad by any means. I think it would have been really delicious with a fillet of salmon on top of it, but all by itself it was a bit much for the quantity we both ate for dinner. Oh well it was only one night and I did the best I could with what was available.

Dubrovnik, Croatia Day 1

This first picture is of St. Lawrence Fort. We climbed up to it on Friday because it doesn't cost any extra after you pay to walk on the town walls. Thank goodness because the fort itself really isn't anything to see, but the view of the Old town is great!

Croatia is BEAUTIFUL! I am sure everyone will agree with that from my pictures and I wish you could all see it for yourself. The waters of the Adriatic sea are so incredibly clear and when the sun is out the water is some of the brightest blues I've ever seen.

This trip had been planned for at least a couple months. I found good deals on flights and so I planned the trip as a surprise for Ryan's birthday. I had to tell him we were going on a trip so he could fill out the necessary paperwork to request the time off at work, but as to the location that remained a mystery. I couldn't contain my own excitement and I told a fair amount of people that we work and live with where we were going, so in a way I am surprised that the surprise remained a surprise, but I am also very glad because it was really fun. I told Ryan where we were going as we were in line to check in for our flight. He was very excited because just the week before he'd found a web site saying that Dubrovnik is one of the best places to go in Europe. I had seen the same site, which is what convinced me this would make a great trip for Ryan's birthday. So it all worked out just wonderfully.

Dubrovnik is at the very far south of the Croatian coastline. It is near both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Later I will tell you about our excursions to these wonderful countries as well.

We arrived on Tuesday night and took a bus from the airport to the main bus station in Gruz. As we exited the bus to go get our luggage a couple gentlemen approached Ryan and I along with the other couple getting off the bus. I had read that this is typical. The men were each asking if we had places to stay lined up and thrusting photos in front of us of their apartments or rooms in their own homes that they rent out. During our time in Croatia we saw SO MANY signs on the sides of homes that said either "Sobe" or "Apartman" or both, which indicated that had either a room or an apartment that they rent to tourists. I felt like at least every 2nd or 3rd building had one of these signs. Some of these people come to the bus station and not only offer you their accommodation but try to get you to come with them and just leave where you were going to stay. Ryan and I were trying to call our hostel to come pick us up from the bus station as they'd instructed me to do. As we were sitting there struggling to figure out how to make the call with the country code (which we ended up not needing to use) one of the men continued to talk to us and tried his best to convince us to stay at his place. He asked if we had already paid for the place we had booked and we told him we had made a deposit for it. He went as far as to offer his apartment at his home, which he said was in the same area as where we had booked, for the price we agreed to pay our hostel minus our deposit. I told him that we had made this reservation a month previous and that we would be keeping it. EVENTUALLY he got tired of trying and walked away until the next bus arrived and he started heading toward those new comers. After awhile we asked for assistance and ended up trying the number we had without the country code and it worked. Within 15 minutes we were in a car on our way to the hostel.

The hostel was very reasonably priced compared to where we've stayed and what we've paid in other cities. It is family owned and the son who is in his 20's was our driver. Along the way he told us great information on how the use the bus where were good places to go and the hours that the cruise ships let people out and the streets in Old Town are the craziest. When he dropped us off his father and another woman were there to show us to our room. The next day we realized that they have a couple rooms under their home on a street below us where their "office" is and where the father lives and then I think our room and at least one or two others were under this woman's house who met us. It was like a conglomerate of people who turned part of their property into hostel rooms. It was very nice and homey though and had a bathroom, small fridge, and two burners all right there, which was nice because normally a hostel will have those in a basement far from your room. There was even a little terrace they were excited to show us with a table and chairs, a swing seat and an orange, lemon, and lime tree. It couldn't have been better as far as we could tell. But we were tired from traveling, and working in the morning remember, so we each showered and then went straight to sleep.

The next morning we headed down to the Placa for breakfast. Our hostel was on the Lapad peninsula, which is a little ways from the Old Town and a good mix of locals and tourist. The Placa is the pededstrian street covered with restaurants and cafés on both sides and at the end your reach the water with a rocky beach that I'm sure is packed with swimmer and sun bathers in the summer. We asked in the tourist information booth for a breakfast recommendation and she said just a few doors down they had great croissants. So we went to check it out. There breakfasts were already in packages I guess you could say so I had orange juice, black coffee (this means espresso in europe I don't know if anyone makes drip coffee here) a "roll" with honey (this turned out to be a loaf of bread... so good) and a chocolate croissant. Ryan had fresh squeezed orange juice (mine was in a bottle), coffee with lots of milk and sugar, a Mediterranean sandwich, and a chocolate croissant. It was all good, but we fell in love with the chocolate croissants. We went back on Friday to get just a couple of those, but had to settle for just one to share because that was all they had left. Also our waitress, who was very nice, popped up all over. We saw her up by our hostel and on the Placa, and on the walking path. She was everywhere.

After breakfast we waited for the bus to go to the Old Town. It turned out to be a good day to go because there was only one cruise ship docked. I don't think it is super busy into cruise season anyway because even when there was 2 or 3 ships on Friday it didn't seem too bad. In the high season June through August when the ships are in port it doubles the population of Dubrovnik bringing in 30,000 people. For those of you who have been here know that inside the walls of the Old Town is not a very big area. One worker we were talking to in shop said it is so crowded you can barely get down the street because no one is moving they are all looking up snapping photos.

Once we arrived we entered the Old Town through the Pile Gate. There are only two gate that let you into the Town because of the mile long wall surrounding it. We headed down the main street the Stradum. When you reach the end the picture below is what you see. This is the clock tower. I think most towns have some sort of old famous clock. I had the same realization when I was looking at colleges. They all had clock towers they were super proud of.

There were I think at least 4 if not more churches we went in on this day. The picture below is of the inside of the grandest. One of the churches was very white and stark inside which was very different from all the churches we've seen in Europe so far.

This picture is of the outside of the same church.

As we continued on along the inside of the walls there were signs for cold drinks with the best view. It was a great view and it is where I snapped this picture below, but we didn't stop for drinks. That island is Lokrum, which was a 15 minute ferry ride from the old town and the closest island to the main land but we never ended up making it over there or to any other of the islands. This gives us something to go back for though. :)

We continued to explore all the little streets like the one in the picture below. It is a very tightly packed area. We came to a bakery and of course had to go in. There was sign below some little donut hole looking things that said they are called "Prikle" and is "traditional Dubrovnik cake." So we got a couple of those and a piece of Baklava. We didn't care for the Prikle and the Baklava was super runny which is not normal for Baklava, so we didn't go back to this Bakery and didn't hit up any others while we were on our vacation. I've found that no bakery in Europe compares to a Bavarian bakery. I also think that other than traveling the thing I will miss the most when I come home is the Bavarian Backereis.

We continued on stopping here and there. We wandered into a building which turned out to be the Ethnography Museum or something like that. It turned out we were supposed to pay but didn't know that because you just go straight in and there is not admisstion booth or anything. And we would not have paid because we walked in walked around barely looked at anything because it looked boring and we don't even know what Ethnography means but it looked like agricultural history stuff of Croatia. So we were in and out in a matter of minutes.

Then we headed out toward the harbor with lots of boats and a few restaurants. Several people were trying to sell tourists trips on glass bottom boats so you could see under the water as you drove. There were people selling all sorts of things everywhere targeting tourists. The entire Old Town is basically a tourist trap I think although I would imagine some locals come there to eat occasionally and there is a fair amount of residences and of course I'm sure it employs a large number of people from the area.

There also might be a pigeon for every tourist. I hate pigeons! On Friday when we were in old town a woman (a tourist) was standing in a mass of them breaking off bread and dropping it without even looking at them and they were all going crazy. It was disgusting and Ryan and I avoided that area all together.

Around the corner from all the restaurants and boats was what I think is a swimming area. Although the locals think it is still to cold to swim. There are VERY FEW sandy beaches in Dubrovnik and the main place people lay out is on concrete that is poured in between rocks to make flat areas. That is what we are standing on in the picture below. And behind us on the right is a corner of Lokrum Island again and on the left is a little south of Dubrovnik headed toward the airport and if you keep going you'll reach Montenegro. (Does everyone notice my new Birkenstocks I am wearing in the picture I wrote about in a previous post? I love love LOVE them and wear them ALL the time. And I knew you'd want to know that.)

After we ended our photo op we walked back through the Old Town down the Stradum and came back to the front gate, but turned a different way to go into a little park courtyard area. There were a couple orange trees, so of course Ryan HAD to climb it to get some fruit. I have documented proof below. A man came walking fast down toward the tree so Ryan hopped out thinking he might be coming to say not to climb trees. It turned out he was a tourist from Poland and made Ryan get back into the tree so he could take his picture. Ryan had thrown me an orange so after the man left we opened it up and took a big big.... not so good.... very sour. So unfortunately that was the last Orange we picked in Dubrovnik.

Yet another view down a tiny street.

We decided we were hungry so we went for an early dinner to a restaurant both recommended in our Rick Steve's travel book and by a woman from our hostel we spoke with in the morning. It was a nice setting right at the harbor or the Old Town. It had been cloudy all day but started to drizzle, but we still sat outside under an umbrella. We ordered the Seafood Risotto that Rick said in his book was good, cheap, and plenty to share. We also made the mistake of getting a liter of the house white wine. I say mistake mostly because it more than doubled our bill and we didn't think the wine was great. I guess it was just the house wine, but I wasn't crazy about Croatian white wine the whole time we where there. The reason we got the wine was because earlier when we walked by we saw a couple guys sharing a pitcher or wine that looked good and they said it was the house white and it was cheap. But they must have had the 1/2 liter because ours came in a karaf instead of the cool pitcher and was way more than we wanted. The risotto was not great. All there food comes in a cooking pot that you dish out of and people think that is cool but I only think it is cool if the food inside tastes a lot better than this did. And then to finish the wine we were there at least two hours I bet, so it turned into a very long meal. Despite the fact we didn't think that suggestion from Rick Steve's was the best we still followed his advice to a side street to find some gelato. This turned out to be a good recommendation though because it was 7 kuna for a scoop instead of 10 on the main street, which is about 1 euro instead of 1,50 euro. AND after they put the gelato on the cone they asked if we wanted chocolate and we said yes so they dipped it into a pot of warm chocolate sauce the immediately hardened on the outside of the gelato. A great bonus at no extra charge. :)

From here we took the bus back to Lapad. We had decided we wanted to buy some groceries so we went to the store to get some breakfast things and dinner for the next night. The store was crazy busy. After shopping we walked up the million stairs (Dubrovnik is very hilly, there are a lot of stairs not for the faint of heart) to the Begovic family residence (our hostel owner) to ask if we could go on the excursion to Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina the next day. They arranged it for us as we stood in the doorway with phone calls the father made to his son and then his son to the tour company I guess. We also learned from them, when they commented on our grocery bags, that the store was all 20% off because it was changing owners which would explain the chaos we experienced and the very empty shelves.

We finally got to go back to our room. We put the food away, we showered, and we went to bed after a fun filled first day in Dubrovnik.

Exploring

We've now covered Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of my five days off. This brings us to Friday. Ryan and I had an easy going day. We both slept in, which was much needed. But after awhile we decided to go explore toward Oberamergau, which is where the Passion play is performed ever 10 years.

We passed through Oberau, then came to Ettal. Ettal is a tiny little town with a GIANT church where they have a monastery. The monastery is known for making two things, cheese and beer. We parked at the building where they make the cheese and also have a little café. Inside the woman was very nice and encouraged me to speak as much as I could in German. I liked that. We asked about the cakes they had in a spinning case. We didn't want to try the cheese because is smelled nasty in there and I didn't want to eat the stuff that made it smell that way. She explained each cake, but emphasized that we wouldn't find a better cheese cake anywhere (you know because it is a cheese place). So we got a slice of cheese cake and a slice of apple cake to share. The cheese cake really was fabulous. Cheese cake over here is very different from at home and the NY style we're all used to. Here is is lighter and fluffy, not as dense. It isn't so rich that you can hardly finish a piece it is, well I can just think to describe it as light. And this one had a distinct lemonyness to it that was really good.

After we finished our cake, which did not take long at all, we headed over to the monastery to walk around. It is a very pleasant place to go for a stroll. The inside and the outside of the church are incredible. I decided that if I ever got married inside I think this church would be at the top of my list. I think I liked it so much because there was a ton of natural light, which lit the whole thing up. As much as I appreciate ever church I've visited in Europe so far and found each uniquely magnificent I just loved how happy and alive I felt standing in this one with the sun light shining in at me at 360 degrees.

From the monastery we headed on to Oberammergau, which was less village like that some towns I've been to and I expected it to be from what I've heard in regard to the passion play. It was a nice little town though. We stopped at the church here, which was nice. I had read in a tour book or on the internet that this church was a must see in the area, yet it didn't mention the one we'd just been at in Ettal. Sometimes I don't know how these authors on traveling decide what to write about or if they've even really discovered the area for themselves.

On the way back to Garmisch we stopped in Oberau at the Birkenstock outlet. I am so excited to tell you all I am finally the extremely proud owner of my first pair of Birkenstocks. I've wanted some for a long time now, but never bit the bullet and paid the price. But when I got home I looked up on the computer how much I would have paid in the States for these fabulous shoes and I saved myself $50 getting them over here. Not to mention they are made in Germany, so I find it appropriate I got them over here. I show everyone I meet my new shoes as if I was five years old and Ryan even wants to go back and get himself a pair now.

Even though we didn't go to far from home today it was a nice excursion on a beautiful afternoon and we had the opportunity to see things we had not yet discovered. And I got new shoes. :)

Zugspizte take one :)

First of all can I say I love what I titled this post. I think it is perfect and I'm very proud of my creativity.

We had to be at the train station/ gondola at the bottom of the Zugspizte at 7:30 and were supposed to bring clothes for snowboarding, casual street attire, crazy clothes for an MTV party (a Hawaiian shirt was recommended for Ryan), and an all white outfit. We didn't have all this stuff so we just threw random stuff in a bag and brought it. When we arrived they asked if I had a bikini. I did not nor did I plan on being in a bikini up in the snow. They made me put on a tank top under my snow gear. I was very confused. We ate breakfast, but this time out of the food trailer that last time the extras weren't allowed to eat out of. I had a few rolls and three shots of espresso that I got to push a button to dispense. It wasn't bad coffee though even though it was out of a machine like that. And they had Monin syrups. Oh if you don't know Monin you should. They are sweetened with natural can sugar juice instead of processed white sugar like corn syrup. They are so much better tasting and better for you than Torini and such.

After awhile of standing around we all got in the gondola and went up up up the mountain. It is quite the climb let me tell you. This is the tallest mountain in Germany and we went literally to the very top. And it was so awesome that we were not only going up for free we were getting paid to go up. It is fairly expensive normally. Once at the top be got in another gondola and went down a little. The ski area is in a huge crater type thing. It was absolutely stunning. You can't see down to the town or anything. All you see in every direction is mountains and snow as far as the eye can see. You will love the picture Ryan took I am sure. We waited for a little while, but it wasn't too bad of a wait before going outside and being placed on the set. At first Ryan and I were sitting at a picnic table in the back ground, but then they pulled us up by the camera. When things were rolling we walked across the camera and the actors to the edge of a balcony to pretend to take picture with Ryan's cell phone (ironically there is no camera on Ryan's cell phone) and pretend to be talking and looking at the beautiful view. Maybe when the movie is out you'll be able to see both of us now. Since our last extras experience I have started paying a lot more attention to extras in movies and tv shows I watch. I think it is pretty unlikely we'll be extras you can see because most are blurred out or maybe you see a back view. Of course I'll be on the edge of my seat watching for us and probably freeze it a lot to try and spot us and people we know, but I won't hold my breath to having any real face time. I also had to stand on the side of the camera for awhile but I think I was blocking the sun or something for the camera man. I don't know. Maybe my friend Megan who works in the film industry can tell me why, but I was definitely on the side of the camera. Some people work in front of the camera, some behind the camera, I work on the side of the camera. The actors were really nice this time, not that they weren't last time. This time there was a German guy, and a couple English girls, one of which is Felicity Jones and is the star of the movie, the "chalet girl" herself. She is supposed to be an up and coming actress in Britain. Ken was talking about going to a Munich-Bayern (Bavarian) football (soccer) game and was flying high because they won in the semi finals. It sounded so incredible. Apparently he is a big fan. During this scene they also had a few girls in their bikini tops with their snow pants in lounge chairs. I didn't get it. I hope it makes more sense when the movie comes out. It was a nice day, but not hot like that. Ryan and I both left with racoon eyes. That mean was got sun only on the lower part of our face because we had our hats and goggles on. We burned, we peeled, we are finally looking more human today. It has been hard to walk by a mirror that last few days.

After this scene we grabbed our boards and headed to the slop. The worst part of the Zugspitze is that everything except one run has a t bar. If you don't know what a t bar is go back to my post about our first trip to the mountain to board. This time up the bar Ryan rode with me and I made it. I think it helps me to have that extra weight on the other side or something. I rode it up with his three times that day and once we weren't together and I fell twice and had to ask someone who worked on behind the scenes production to ride with me. She was kind enough to oblige though. Maybe I should make it a goal to make it up solo before I leave. That might be pretty lofty of a goal though. We boarded, some people skied, part way down the hill. We all took off our boards and skis and got behind a barrier. This scene was Ken's character crashing during a competition and we were the spectators. They didn't film the crash he started on the ground, but we had to act like we saw it happen. Ryan and I got to do a little extra moving. When they said action we all reacted like it happened and ran to the barrier fence, then Ryan and I ran down the fence to get a better view. I'll have to go over all this again with you all when it comes out so you'll know what to look for. :) Eventually, around 2 we got to break for lunch, so we went the rest of the way down to the bottom of the t bar and took it up again to take a different run into the lodge.

For lunch they gave us meal tickets to eat in the lodge cafeteria. I thought the food was good and way better than what we ate for our first lunch as extras. I had a huge salad, German potato salad, steamed veggies, and some french fries. Ryan had a sausage he wasn't crazy about along with salad and fries.

After lunch we went back to the bottom of the same t bar. We sat here for literally an hour. Then they brought some candy by, which I remembered was the sign that we had 2 hours left and it made sense because it was 4 by this time. Finally we got to go up the t bar and then part way down the hill again. This time a guy arranged us I think by what we were wearing in a line down the slope. Gear off again. They had either Felicity Jones or her double, I'm not sure, on a trailer being pulled behind a snowmobile pretending to snowboard down the mountain and win the race. So we all cheered our hearts out as she passed. It was cheesy. After shooting that a few times the split us down the middle and said for half to go wait at the bottom and ride to the top and for half to wait there. This was when I couldn't get up the t bar by myself and I had to ask for someone to ride with me... embarrassing let me tell you, but she was really nice about it. When we got to the top they had sent the rest of the people to the bottom. Each group sat in their spot for half and hour until they decided not to shoot whatever they were thinking of having us do (I was assuming it would have just been a shot of us all going down the hill) and we all just went back to the lodge. Filing was then done for the day. They had water, cold coffee, and apfel schorle for us and then announced the train down (we took the gondola up and the train down so we got to experience both) wouldn't leave until 6:20 so we had a little more than an hour to wait. We hung out and talked with a nice couple from Munich for that time. On the train back we were in a car with a bunch of the young German extras. I don't know who brought it I guess the crew but there was a rack of beer that they passed out to us, which was great at the end of the long day we all had to kick back with on the ride down. We started talking with the Germans and they were helping me with my German. Then they invited us out that night for drinks, but when we got back to the Abrams we were so exhausted we could get up again to go out, so that didn't happen. But they did say they had seen Ed Westwich the guy from Gossip Girl a US show and the main guy character who broke up with Sophia Bush the first time we were extras. Anyway they saw him out at a bar one night and when he was in the bathroom at the same time as them he asked if they knew where he could get some cocaine. Goodness gracious.... what a stand up guy he is! Way to go Ed Westwick, doing yourself proud in Garmisch.

So that was our second and last day being extras for "Chalet Girl." They got so lucky that the weather cooperated the way that it did. It was a beautiful day! We are so thankful we had the opportunity to go up the Zugspitze and also that we got to be extras again. Oh and we asked Lara at lunch about the premier. She said that if they tell her when it is going to be that she has all the extras contact info and she'll send it to us and that if we pay our own way to London we should be able to go. I hope that works out because it would be incredible. The movie will most likely come out next winter since it is a snowboarding movie. So only time will tell if we get to go. Here's to hoping!

Spontaneous Road Trip

Well I'm not sure how spontaneous it was. Last Monday we found out at work that two large conferences canceled due to the Icelandic Volcano and the numerous closed airports including all of the German ones. So with so many open rooms there would literally not be enough work for everyone scheduled last week. OF course they came straight to all the Americans and just started throwing days off at us. I ended up with Tuesday through Saturday and Ryan with Tuesday through Friday. Obviously our first question to each other was, "where do you want to go?"

Later that night in discussion Ryan threw out the idea we just pack up in the morning and drive, not knowing were to. Now this is a very "me" idea and I was surprised he even said it, but as I found out later he wasn't as serious as he sounded. I call the trip spontaneous more because we didn't book hostels before we left and because we were open to where we went if somewhere on the map looked appealing and was nearby. But when we left around 10am on Tuesday morning we were headed to Vienne (They call it Wien over here, but 'W' is pronounced like a 'V' in German and that is what they speak in Austria too).

I'm so glad that we left in the morning and didn't try to rush back after work Monday to pack and leave. So far most of our driving has been at night after work and after dark. The country side we drove through getting to Austria and then primarily once we entered our neighboring Country was absolutely stunning. Lush and green, rolling hills, and we even came across a couple lakes that we definitely want to find our way back to when it gets hot this summer.

When we arrived in Vienna we got a little lost, no surprise eh? We really need to get a GPS soon, Amy any luck in the hunt? :) It was a lot better though being lost in the day light and we got to see a little bit of Vienna that wasn't in the main area we spent the remainder of our time in. Eventually we found our way to where may directions were taking us, which was the Wombat hostel. There are Wombats also in Munich and Berlin. This place was great. Although we did have an old guy from Kosovo who slept all day in our room because he said he was jet legged from a train ride from Italy to there, but as far as I know Italy is on our time zone. It was clean, the reception people were friendly, helpful, and spoke great English, the bedding was clean and came in a sealed plastic bag, we had a bathroom in our room which was a 6 person dorm, and they gave us a coupon upon arrival for a free drink in the bar in teh basement. Oh and they had free internet in the lobby. It was one of my favorite hostels we have found so far. Come to think of it though I think it was also the most expensive. I guess you get what you pay for with hostels, but sometimes you do find a really great deal for a cheaper price. Oh and a huge bonus was we found a parking spot on the block just around the corner from the hostel for FREE! And when we went in to ask for a room and also inquired about parking and whether it was allowed where we were they guy said we were incredibly lucky. When Ryan had read about parking on the internet he thought we'd have to park outside of town and train in and that it would be at least 10 euros a day. So the beginning of our time in Venice started out great.

Once we dropped our things in a lockers in our room we headed toward town. We could have bought a fairly inexpensive 24 hour tram ticket, but for the sake of money, exercise, and seeing more along the streets we opted to walk the whole time we were there. The street we headed down was a major shopping street and was bustling with people. Something else we noticed is that throughout Europe in their main pedestrian areas all the restaurants (and there are a lot) have outdoor seating. The sidewalks are huge and we started talking about how the buildings are so old, but yet when they were built they left a huge space from one side of the road to the other, which today leaves a ton of space for a double lane road and a huge sidewalk on each side. But the buildings were built before cars so were the roads wide for horses or some other reason. It is fun to think of what life was like when these cities began and the buildings were built. It all goes back so long ago.

We stopped into several churches along our way all of which were BEAUTIFUL. I have yet to find a church here that I do not find magnificent. Right after walking into the first church we came across we came upon a Kebab restaurant, which was really a hole in the wall you order off the sidewalk. Many of you probably do not know what a kebab is because it is not like when we grill chunks of meat (well I don't, but you do) and veggies on a skewer. Here they roast, simmer, sizzle, I don't know what to call it a HUGE thing of meat vertically and it spins with the heat thing behind it. And when someone orders a kebab they either use just a knife or a electric knife like a saw to cut off the meat very thinly. By the end of the day the huge chunk of meat is down to almost nothing. I wish I had a picture, but I haven't thought to take one. I'll try to remember to do that. And I'll get more pictures in general up soonish I hope, but the internet is super slow right now and I'll be lucky to get this post loaded. Back to kebabs... they buy or make this bread that is really good and in the shape of a square ciabata roll, but it is really soft and has a little bit of sesame seeds on top. Then they put various things in with the meat like lettuce, tomato, feta cheese, yogurt sauce, other veggies, and then they offer a sprinkling of chili peppers. You might all be thinking... "and you ate this?" Well not exactly. I had a falafel kebab. Falafel, did I describe it in an earlier post from Nuremburg? Falafel is a ground garbanzo bean stuff that they fry. So I got this on that delicious bread and with some modified toppings one of which was roasted veggies and that was so scrumptious. We each had a kebab at this time. Then we shared a falafel one later that night and then each had them the next day before we left. And now that we are back we miss them. They are so good and so cheap. And they are literally everywhere you turn in Vienna. We have a kebab place here in Garmisch, but I don't like it as much as in Vienna. That probably is because the one here does not do falafel so the only time I had one I had just veggies in the bread and it was good, but I love falafel.

So once we had our kebabs in hand and continued walking we eventually came to a huge park that has high cement walls around it. I think it is part of the museum quarter. There are a ton of museums all in this one area, but we didn't go to any of them while we were there. The park was nice though and there were lots of people in it because it was a very nice and pretty warm afternoon. Through the park we came out and got our first siting of the Opera House. Vienna is world re known for their opera and I'd love to go back and see one while we are here. You can get standing tickets for only 3 euro if you get in line (and we witnessed the line) an hour or two before the show. Then we kept wandering trying to find the main Cathedral St. Stephen's that you can pay to climb and have an excellent view of the city. We finally did find it, but it was closed for walking up although we did see the inside. So the plan was to come back in the morning. On our way out the front doors we were stopped by a guy dressed in a costume selling tickets to a show that night. Well we fell prey to his trap and bought some tickets, at a discount he said was a great deal however the tickets were printed with the price we paid so I doubt it was such a special discount. The show was supposed to have a small orchestra, a little opera singing, and some ballet. After that we walked back to the hostel to change before the performance. On the way to the hostel we ran into the Sacher Café. Some of you may have heard of the Sacher torte, for those who have not is is basically a chocolate cake. I made one in high school with my friend for another friend's birthday and we all thought it turned out a bit dry. Being the foodie I am and having read about this place in a book I definitely wanted to check it out so we added it to the list for the next day. I forgot the significance of the café, maybe you figured it out on your own. The Café in Vienna is where the torte (and torte=cake) was first created back int eh 1800's by Mr. Sacher. I think he was a cooking apprentice and came up with this cake as something new and different for someone important they were cooking for and from then on the cake was a hit and so was Mr. Sacher. Something like that anyway.

So we got back to the hostel, changed, and headed right back out again in the direction of parliament to find the palace our show was to be performed in. When we arrived it was even more evident we were caught in a tourist trap by the loads of Asians that were there fresh from their tour bus. They also made us check our coats and pay a euro each, gosh darn them. The palace was a pretty building inside and the room we went to upstairs was also nice but definitely just a side room, rather small, and not a performing arts hall by any means. The stage was the temporary kind you might see at a church or a school. Thank goodness we didn't feel the desire to pay for the "better" seats because although we were in the back row we were only 20 feet from the stage. I was thinking to myself that I could triple jump further than that distance. :) So all this somewhat negative commentary aside we still liked the performance. Well we enjoyed the music, the opera was not great and the ballet was just silly because what could they do in such a small area. The songs were by Mozart before intermission and Strauss after intermission. I was pleased to recognize many of the songs, which I am sure also plays into the whole tourist thing that they would play recognizable songs, but hey let's face it we are tourists. We are glad we went. When we got back we talked to our friend who has been to Vienna and when he was there went to basically the same show at a different palace and thought it was so bad that he left at intermission. So either ours was actually better or he has a better ear for good and bad music. I think maybe it is a little of both. Oh well. We were in Vienna and it is a city the is huge on their music and the famous composers from there so we got to experience a little piece of that.

After the concert we were hungry having not had time for dinner before, but also we had a late lunch. So that is when we got the kebab and then some gelato across the street. Back at our hostel we went down to the bar in the basement for our free drink. We each got 1/8 a liter of wine. All the glasses in Germany and Austria are marked with the amounts for beer and wine. Beer is typically in .3 or .5 liter glasses or a mass which is an entire liter and that doesn't need a line to know what you've got. And the wine seems to often be 250mL markings, but we got 1/8L. Then up three flights of stairs to bed to rest up for another great day.

The next morning we were hungry so we wanted to head to the Sacher Café. We got side tracked checking out new places though and drifted away from our known route. We ran into more guys in costume selling tickets for the same show we went to the previous evening. They made sure it was the same exact location before letting us off the hook of hearing the schpeel. This guy was from kosovo and said he like Americans because he liked President Clinton for helping him and his country be free. He also said he liked us because now we have Obama. I always think it is interesting to hear what people from other countries opinions are of us. We saw ore guys selling tickets, but this time one of them said, "how did you like the concert last night?" We were taken aback and he said, "don't you remember me?" And I asked "coat check?" and he said "yes" so we told him yes we liked it and jokingly he said "do you want to come again..... half price?" We said no but I think he would have sold us tickets for half price had we wanted them.

We ended up at St. Stephen's without even meaning to so we thought while we were there we'd climb the stairs. There was A LOT of stairs and the stairway was VERY narrow. When you reach the top you are in a gift shop (they would) and it is all enclosed with a few smallish windows, but the view was still cool and I thought the climb was fun.

From there we found the Sacher Café and guess what? My torte wasn't bad that I made. The thing really is dry cake. That is good to know. I didn't hate it at all, but I wouldn't say it is my favorite thing ever. They make a ton of specialty "Sacher" items. To drink I had a hot chocolate with Sacher Apricot Brandy and that was really good until I got to the bottom and realize the reason they gave me a spoon was to stir it and mix up the liquor. I didn't love the bottom because it was too strong, so Ryan drank it. Poor Ryan had a ice chocolate shake, which tasted like totally unsweetened chocolate blended with ice and maybe water cause it didn't seem milky. It wasn't very good. I think we spent the same amount of money here as we did for the rest of our meals combined, which was all kebabs, but it was worth it for the experience of having real Sacher torte.

After that we went back to the car and headed to where we decided would be our next destination Bratislava, Slovakia. These two capitals are only an hour apart making them the closest in the world. When we arrived we were lost and everything was in Slovak. Although we aren't fluent in German we are learning enough to navigate a bit on roads. We turned away from the city, realized it, and turned around to go back. On our way back we were flagged down by a cop standing in the road. He didn't, or claimed not to, speak any English but after a moment of not understanding one another he reached in the car and flipped on our lights. Even though it was broad day light we realized EVERYONE had their lights on. It must be the law. Our same friend who went to Vienna also came here on the same trip and was also pulled over, but had to pay 60 euros to the cop who said the road they were driving on was closed, as cars were zooming by them, so they think it was a shady cop preying on American tourists.

When we crossed the Danube river on a cool bridge and entered Bratislava we were again very lost. The street made no sense and very very few had street signs. Because the castle is on top of a hill we were able to find our way there and found ourselves on the map. We got out to explore the castle, which turned out was being redone. It looked like the were re stuccoing the outside and painting it all white. It looked brand new. That was sort of lame. There was a nice park though and a good view over the city.

We once again managed to get lost once feeling like we had found the way on the map from the castle to the street the hostels were on we planned to pick from. But we ran into the tourist office, so we thankfully found parking and went in. They gave us a nice map of the city and a map of the outer country area where there was winery area that of course made my ears perk up. I am loving experiencing international wine. Although I miss Oregon and Washington wine all the time. Then we decided to walk around a little while we were in that area because it seemed to be where all the main "attractions" were. We went into a church but it seemed like evening mass was going to begin and it asked that tourists not come wander in during that time. So we wandered away, but then we went back and actually stayed for mass. I am so glad that we did. It was definitely my favorite part of Bratislava or the only part I liked, but it made it worth the trip. There is always something special to me about going to mass and having the familiarity of it that I had growing up going to mass or going with my Grandparent's to their church. And even though this service was all in Slovak it didn't matter. I knew what they were doing and could even part take a little I just used English. And I knew why they were doing what they were doing and that was to worship the same God that I worship and I found that very powerful. As it was about time to go up and receive communion I realized it was the first time I would be taking communion since my Grandma passed away. Taking communion is always a very special and emotional experience for me, but this time was even more so. I was in such awe of the sacrifice that Christ was because if it wasn't for His death I would not be guaranteed eternal life in Heaven where I know that I will see my Grandma again. I was also pleased to be accepting this sacrament during mass just as my Grandma would have done being Catholic herself and as I did many time along side her when I was younger. It was perfect.

After mass ended and we went in peace (they always seem to say at the end of mass "mass has ended you may go in peace" so I imagined that was what they said at the end of this one too) we went back to the car and headed again in the direction of the hostel. We were lost again, but very randomly ended up on the street we needed to be on, then we drove right by the hostel, but there wasn't a place to turn around. As we were trying to navigate back there I got a phone call. If we were available they wanted us to be extras again for the movie and go up to the Zugspite and do some snowboarding. After a mini conference with Ryan I called Lara back and said we'd do it. So we grabbed a kebab at a place along the road and headed back to Garmisch. We just didn't get the vibe in Bratislava like we wanted to explore anymore anyway so it was all good. And what perfect timing before we were to pay for a night in a hostel or something. We got back to Garmisch just before midnight and went straight to sleep for our big movie day.

Don't be disappointed

I just received a phone call and Ryan and I will not get to go to the Zugspitz tomorrow to film more of the movie. Due to awful weather conditions they will not be able to film. Right now it is very gray outside, but earlier while we were at work it was dumping rain. I'm assuming at the altitude of the Zugspitz it could be dumping snow with no visibility and I think visibility is probably important while shooting a movie. So not movie tomorrow, but she said she'd call when they know when they are going to shoot. So hopefully we will be able to go when the weather cooperates. I am sure everyone was was counting the hours for my next post from being on set since I think my last posts about it generated more comments than ANYTHING else I've written about. So I am sorry if you are disappointed. I'll do my best to find other interesting things to write about. :)

50 Rooms

Today I got to work and they did not assign me a section like normal. Instead they gave me a blank sheet of paper and told me I would be "betthelfe" also known as bed help. I worked my behind off today if I may say so myself. Often times the chamber maids will complain that the person who is bed help does not stop to help them enough or certain chambermaids will not let the bed help leave them so they can get all their beds done, but this keeps the bed help from moving on to help other people. Today I was determined to be great bed help. I wanted to be fair and move around to everyone, but also help everyone with as many rooms as I possibly could. I was the only bed help on the second floor and we had 77 dueouts on our floor. One chambermaid had 12 dueouts and another had 10. That is enough to kill a person. At the end of the day I counted my rooms and I'd done 50. That is nearly 100 beds when you figure there was only a couple rooms I helped with only one bed. If only I was paid $1 per bed I would have made a lot more money than I actually did today. The bad thing is that making 100 beds is hard on any persons back, but especially my back. So now instead of going to the gym to workout I am laying on my bed resting my tired and aching body. I felt like I did a very good job today being fair, but offering lots of help to everybody. There were two chambermaids on my floor that refused help today because they only had 6 dueouts and were aware that others had many more. When I signed out at the end of the day I was able to see how many rooms the bed helpers on the other two floors did. On the first floor Zack helped in 31 rooms. On the third floor Danny helped in 33 rooms. Of course I do not know if they were given other little tasks throughout the day, but as far as I can tell I came out far ahead in the number of rooms I made beds in and I think that means that my day was a success!