Yuki's Exploration of Europe!

[July 2001]

[06/07 Fr Paris - Munchen -> Wien(Vienna)] Around 3am, finally found the train station Gare de l'Est (didn't open til 5am, so waited talking to a guy from Cyprus). Train to Frankfurt was full, so decided to go straight to Wien (14.5 hours!). On the train, I tried my French with people sitting next to me :) Arrived in Wien around midnight, called Markus but he was in Linz! So looked for a hostel and finally found an opening at 2am.

[07/07 Sa Wien] Woke up and had breakfast with Boson & Mina (bread, ham, cheese, liver, butter,...). Walked to Markus's apartment, getting lost on the way of course. Finally found Markus and met his flatmates Bernd and Paul. Bernd (the cook) cooked deep-fried lunch, ate it saying "Mahlzeit!". The whole time I was in Austria, I tried to learn Deutch. Went grocery shopping. Went with Markus to the city center, went to Stephane's Dom (St. Stephen's Church) - saw a boys choir. Went to the Love Parade (crazy). Met Michael, went to a Japanese garden. Went as a friend of Markus's to his friend Michael's friend's friend's birthday barbeque. Felt strange to be there as the birthday guy's friend^4, but they served us beer, sausage, bacon, cake,... I thought it was a strange birthday party with no presents, songs, or cheers. Maybe it's the Austrian way...

[08/07 Su Wien] Went back to Stephane's Dom for a Messe (mass) - fell asleep... Went on a tour of the Wien sewer system (stinky). Ate lunch at Austrian fast food place, Schnitzelhaus. Took the underground to see Gabriele (that I met in Russia). Went with Markus's friend Michael to feed the homeless people around the city on a van (through a Roman Catholic Church's program). We served sandwich+tea to 156 people that night. I thought it was a very efficient program. Went to the City Hall, showing opera on a big outdoor screen as a part of the film festival. Lots of international food stands.

[09/07 Mo Wien] Went shopping at IKEA for Markus's new apartment, had lunch at a mall. Bernd cooked sausage for dinner (super-greasy, but good!). Went rollerblading with Bernd to an island in Donau River, saw probably the only amusement park in Australia.

[10/07 Tu Wien] Woke up at noon, Bernd cooked a cream cheese dish covered with deep-fried bread crumbs (very heavy to the stomach, but good!). Today is Paul's birthday! Went to BILLA to buy fish for barbeque tonight. Walked around the city, a trash can?, went to Schloss Schonbrunn (Imperial Palace), Imperial Garden (with Sun-dial?), view from the top of Schloss Schonbrunn. Went to Michael's parents' home for birthday barbeque.

[11/07 We Wien] Bernd cooked another very heavy cream cheese dish -- good! Seems like Austrians don't care about their diet -- super greasy! Walked around the city, saw a school, a Russian war monument. Went to see Gabriele's opera orchestra practice (she plays the cello) at the Technical University.

[12/07 Th Wien] Went with Markus to a Pathology Museum (part of the University of Wien medical school). They had realistic wax models of many nasty diseases and injuries. I lost my appetite and it made me want to live very healthy and very clean! We went to Cafe Central for afternoon coffee. Checked out Beethoven's home, Uranius observatory, a continuously-running elevator at the Technical University, a neo-gothic church, met with Markus's step sister and her friends at an African restaurant "Oh Pot!" Stayed there from 7pm to almost midnight. Very fun!

[13/07 Fr Wien] Went to the UNO (United Nations Organization) city (with a peaceful Japanese flower monument, Donau Park, Donau Turm (tower) (with bungie jump), big bird and duck family in the Donau Park. Went on a tour of the United Nations headquarters, called the Office for Outer Space Affairs but didn't let me in :(. Went to KunstHausWien for the work of Hundertwasser; I really liked his concerns for the environment and peace. It became one of my favorite museums! Got a book for Seibo. Wien has a very interesting litter-burning facility designed by Hundertwasser. Austria is so much more active in recycling than in the US. In the city, met and talked to Alex who had fled from Kosovo 3 years ago. Along Karntner Strasse, saw good break dancers.

[14/07 Sa Wien] Went to Haus der Musik - became another one of my favorite museums! Went to Schloss Schonbrunn Imperial Palace for a Mozart+Strauss concert.

[15/07 Su Wien] Had eis palatschinke (pancake with icecream), went swimming in Donau river with Markus -- lots of people like a beach in California. Went to Bernd's movie theater (Flotten Kino) and saw "Saving Grace" (for free:). I learned that in Austria at least, you need "Vitamin P" (protection) -- you have to know people to get what you want (including jobs). Went with Markus to "heurager" (this year's) up on the hill with a nice view of Wien to chill with this year's wine. Drove back home, parked 15 minutes walk away from home (aparently usual thing in Wien... crazy..).

[16/07 Mo Wien -> Linz] My last day in Wien: went back to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and this time I got to meet and talk to two people there! (vitamine p :) Good bye to Markus's apartment (kitchen, pillow room). Drove with Markus to his home in Linz. Met Markus's friend Imanuel and we went to a huge bath & sauna place -- this place was almost like an amusement park with many different kinds of baths, pool, sauna, and relaxation rooms! We talked about Austrians -- according to them, Austrians are happy the way they are, afraid of changes, enjoy complaining about things |"sudern"), don't like the Germans... We were there for 4 hours and went back home. I met Markus's brother Stephan who's a good blues guitar player.

[17/07 Tu Linz] Met Markus's grandma, who prepared breakfast for us (boiled egg, cheese, ham, salad). Went to Markus's lab at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz. We were planning to go skiing in the glaciers, but the weather turned out to be bad :( With Stephan, Imanuel, and Markus, drove to the city center, saw castles and ,a href="2/207.JPG">churches. Went to dinner with everybody, tried pure pork grease spread before they told me what it was, had sting weed soup and mushroom jello thing that none of the Austrians had ever tried... They taught me some Deutch. Ich mochte zum Mond fliegen :) With a nice view of Linz from the top of the hill, sang (Stephan). Went home and sang "I am from Austria", Stephan gave me a guitar lesson. Austrians kid each other so much.

[18/07 We Linz -> Praha(Prague)] Went to Life Radio (one of the most popular stations in Upper Austria) where Markus's friend works, we were on air live (though we didn't say anything:) with the main MC. Markus had worked in the Stahlwerk (steel mill) and knew someone there who showed us around. In the control room, the workers were smoking with bad ventilation, it gave me a headache:( (me and Markus). Took a train toward Praha. As soon as I switches to a Czech train at the border, the train quality dropped... After almost 6 hours of train ride with headache (still from the smoky room in the Stahlwerk), I finally arrived in Praha. From the train, buildings looked dark and dirty.. the atmosphere was similar to that in Russia, with children at the train station begging for money... Called up my friend Vit and we went to a pub "Billiards" for dinner and beer. The big glass of beer was only 15Kc (~40cents); I don't like beer, but it was the best one I've ever had (called Gambrinus). We met with Vit's friend Paul and went to a pub, had Vit's favorite beer, Pilsner Urquell. Even though Czech is a slavic language like Russian is, when Vit and Paul were talking in Czech I couldn't understand at all. The whole time I was in Czech, I tried to learn the language and learned a lot! :)

[19/07 Th Praha] Met Vit's parents, had breakfast (cheese, ham, salami, kalbasa, Czech bread, grapes) Went to the city, went to Prazska Loreta, Chram sv. Vita (the huge cathedral) and climbed it, went to Stary kralovsky palac (Old Royal Palace), and to Bazilika sv. Jiri and Pulverturm (Powder Tower), Foreign Affairs Ministry, Karluv most, Stare Mesto, had grog (rum+tea drink), heard Antonin Dvorak Symphony Orchestra at Rudolfinum (Very good1 Played the piece "From the New World"). Went to a pub, had pivo, had becherovka toasts "nazdravi!", Vit gambled and won 300Kc, so had fernet shots; went looking for another pub that was still open, played darts with a drunk meat butcher and a girl. Life in Czech is crazy.

[20/07 Fr Praha] Went to Narodni Technicke Muzeum, took a tour through an old coal mine, talked to Vit's mom in Russian!, Vit and I drove to Stajka (2 hour drive SE from Praha) to see his grandparents. Grandma prepared dinner for us.

[21/07 Sa Stajka] Woke up at 7am, dressed in a rain coat and went to the hunter dog competition (Vit's grandpa was the chief judge). We all gathered first at the pub (every town in Czech has a pub where everybody meets). There were bunch of funny "red nick" type people and hunters and their dogs (16 dogs). We had an opening ceremony outside. Then we went by a lake for duck-retrieving events (Vit on the left). There was a big wheat field damaged by the strong wind and cool flowers, It was cold and long (Vit and his grandpa but a neat experience. When it was finally over, everybody went back to the pub and celebrated. I had grosh (beef+dumpling) and talked to one of the competitors who was a truck driver. I learned some more Czech: Ja poletim do vesmira :) Ja chci letet na Mesic :) with Vit's awesome grandpa outside of the pub. He was the director of Czech National TV in late 1950s and early 1960s! We went home and took a walk around the house with Mate (their 13-year-old but hyper dog) Mate was Vit's grandpa's hunter dog. We went around the town to see castles built in the 16th century; saw the downtown with buildings that were painted colorfully like in a fairly tale cartoon (all painted in the last 10 years when communism was over). Went home and had dinner with green pepper and dark currant from their garden. Vit's grandparents showed me picutres of grandpa with Yuri Gagarin (and a postcard with a message written by Gagarin)! plus a picture of Valentina Teleshkova (1st female in space). They also showed me postcards from Japan during the war. They could speak Russian because until 10 years ago when communism ended everyone in Czech had to learn Russian in school. It was cool to be able to use my Russian :) We drove back to Praha and talked to Vit's parents.

[22/07 Su Praha] We drove around all day looking for an airport where we could ride on glider planes. On the way, we went into a huge cave (Konepruske Jeskyne) by a calcite mine. Stopped by a pub for lunch (a good full meal with soup for under $2). Finally found an airport with gliders: ready for take-off - take-off! - A tow plane pulled the glider up until we found an upward current (thermic) at altitude of ~600m. Then the tow plane let go of us and we circled up the thermic to altitude of ~1500m and we glided down. Gliders are really nice and quiet -- it was awesome to fly without an engine! I landed; Vit landed. Vit is starting to learn gliding; I'm gonna learn gliding too! before learning to fly motored planes. Our control tower with my glider on the side. Thanks Vit for taking me to do this!! We then went to a stable where Vit's family keeps their horses. We wanted to ride horses, but they were just returning to the stable for the day. Vit's parents had just returned from riding. I learned some things about horses though. I want to learn horse riding.

[23/07 Mo Praha] Vit had to go to his first glider lesson, so I cruised around the city by myself. Praha has many fruity trees and these big slugs are all over Czech! I bought some strange Czech candies and yogurt at a local grocery store and climbed up a hill. At the top was the observatory + planetarium that inspired Vit toward astronomy when he was growing up. I feel that this will be a historically significant observatory when Vit becomes one of the greatest astronomers of all time. I heard some ladies speaking in Russian, so I asked them to take a picture for me by the observatory. Climbed up the mini- Eiffel Tower for view of the park on the hill and the Praha city center and toward Vit's home. On the way back: some recycling containers. At home, I talked to Vit's dad and then understood why Vit does all kinds of stuff (scuba diving, horse-back riding, hiking, climbing, skiing, shooting, flying, parasailing, water skiing, rafting, orienteering,...).

[24/07 Tu Praha - Hamburg -> Denmark] While I was in Praha, I finally heard back from Kara in Denmark (she had been in Nepal, away from email contact), so I decided to skip Berlin (it was already too late to make it to the Love Parade on the 20th anyway) and go instead all the way to Denmark! I took the train out of Praha in the morning without knowing for sure when I'll get to where Kara is in Denmark. The train went by Dresden and Berlin, and I stopped by Hamburg and called Kara's teacher to let her know that I won't arrive til the next morning! Walked around Hamburg. Seeing Germany from the train, I noticed that most buildings and houses in Germany are built very symmetric... except this one. Looking out from the train in Denmark, I saw lots of cows, sheeps, pigs, and wind mills. This is my bad try capturing the pretty sunset with wind mills. I had an hour at a city called Fredericia by the sea to the east, so I walked around trying to find the sea. I eventually found the sea with lots of ships and took a different way back to the station but got lost and almost missed the train!

[25/07 We Denmark] I arrived at Holstebro at 1am to change trains to Ulfborg which is only 2 stops away, but the next train wouldn't come til almost 5am! It was cold outside so I thought I'd stay in the train station for a while, but the station was closing so I had to go out. I knew nothing about this tiny dark quiet town in Denmark, but I wanted to find out. Seemed like the whole town had gone to sleep, but I finally found a place that looked like the center. Still there was nobody except I found some drunk men once in a while. I was tired so I sat down under a light pole but it was too cold to sleep, so I just read "Science of Breath" (from Rumi:). It was freezing so I walked back to the station, but it was still closed; I took a nap on a bench (It's illegal to sleep in a public place in Denmark, but I got really tired). Anyways, I finally met Kara and she took me to her school called Tvind\. I met a lot of her friends from all over the world; I'm glad Kara seems very happy with many good friends. The goal of Tvind is supposed to be to educate and train the troublesome kids around the country, but the way it operates was very interesting to me because it sounded so different from aything I'm familiar with... For example, each day, someone prepares meals for the entire school. So I helped Kara cook dinner. At dinner, I met a 27-year-old woman who fled from Afghanistan with already 7 children... In the school was the Tvindkraft (this Tvindkraft54m-tall windmill was the world's largest when it was built in 1975), and we got to take the elevator to the top of it! (view of Tvind and the area). I heard Windmills provide 15% of electricity in Denmark! I think that's great!

[26/07 Th Denmark -> Koln(Cologne)] I left around 6am and got to Koln (western Germany) around 5pm. I wanted to visit the European Astronaut Centre there :) I found a hostel and there I met a guy from Japan who was taking a whole year to cycle around the world on his bicycle! He had started in May riding from Los Angeles to Washington DC, rode around England and the Netherlands and had just come into Germany. He said he'll continue on to southern Europe and the Middle East to Asia. He said it was his first time out of Japan and he couldn't even speak English much! Anyways I was pretty impressed and decided to hang out with this guy that night. He turned out to be from Gotenba, which is a city right next to my home! We walked around Koln and tried Kolsch beer. I learned a lot about Japanese architecture and religion. I hope he's still alive and well.

[27/07 Fr Koln - Leiden -> Amsterdam] First thing in the morning, I took the local train and bus to DLR: Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Centre for Aerospace). The officer at the entrance asked me who I was visiting but I didn't know any names so I just said I wanted to see the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) and he gave me a badge to let me in the EAC only. DLR was a pretty big place; I found the European Astronaut Centre and walked in but nobody was there. When I was looking around a reception lady came and said there's not much for the public and that all the European astronauts are training at either Houston or Moscow. She was very nice; she gave me cool posters and I talked to her for a while; then she tried to find someone I could talk to. She brought back some other lady and I told her that I came hoping to learn about the European space program and that I want to be an astronaut too. She then told me to wait and after a while an important-looking man came saying he is the deputy director of the place! For the first 5 minutes he gave me a lecture about how inpolite and unacceptable it was for me to show up without making arrangements first. He said "Normally I would ask you to just leave, but..." he started telling me about the International Space Station and the involvement of the European Space Agency (he was stressing how small the ESA part of the station was... less than half the size of the Japanese part). He then took me to a large room and let me in the real-scale training mockup of the European module of the station. He also showed me other things in the astronaut training facility including the water tank. He said astronauts and cosmonauts will come here in September to train. He also talked about some of the current European astronauts. Even though he seemed harsh in the beginning, it was very cool and I felt very lucky. I went back to Koln with a smile, crossed the Rhein river with birds, went inside an amazingly huge Dom (Cathedral), and ran into a Boy/Girl Scouts party. I read that Koln was famous for the "real Koln water" with nice scent or something and I was hot and thirsty so went to what's supposed to be the original place for this water. There I didn't find any water to drink, but only a fragrance store - I realized they were talking about cologne... I smelled a sample and left the city. The train in Germany was pretty nice, but as soon as I got on a train in the Netherlands it was hot, humid, and dirty with little bugs crawling around.. The heat made me tired and I was half-asleep when this train reached its final stop Venlo. Nobody woke me up and I missed the connection. People didn't seem as friendsly here as in other countries I had been. The lady at the station wasn't very helpful when I asked about the next train. At first I didn't even realize that I was already in the Natherlands; it felt weird and foreign. I decided to walk around. When I got outside the station, a guy came to ask me for a pen so I let him borrow it. I walked around the little city and then I was asked for a pen again by another guy... I thought that was strange; maybe pens are precious here... As soon as I arrived in Leiden, I started smelling weed. I called around to find a hostel, but there was no opening anywhere! Then I thought there's gotta be a vacancy somewhere in Amsterdam, so I just had to go there (I wasn't really planning on going to Amsterdam... I came to the Netherlands to go visit the European Space Research & Technology Centre near Leiden, not to get high:). late to go visit the European Space Rseearch & Technology Centre

[28/07 Sa Amsterdam -> Noordwijk -> Leiden -> Den Haag -> Paris] THE REST COMING SOON!

[29/07 Su Paris]

[30/07 Mo Paris -> Glasgow]

[31/07 Tu Glasgow]

[01/08 We Glasgow -> LAX

Thanks, Otosan, for the international phone card.

Thanks, Chris, for letting me borrow your nice backpack and flashlight!

Thanks, Gerald, for the European phrase book!

Thanks, Markus, for being an excellent host in Austria!

Thanks, Rejean, for your advice on traveling in Europe!

Thanks, Vit, for showing me Czech!

Thanks, Vit's parents, for your hospitability!

EuroLines

Rail Europe