Day 29 and 30- I found Root beer, Slovakia, and Jacques Chirac
Once again, so much to say. So this is just going to be a jampacked post. Firstly and most importantly: I found root beer, sort of. It figures, with like 32 hours before I leave the city, I find a place that sells it, but they are out of stock. I did get some Mountain Dew, and will go back later to see if they got some RB in their new shipment. It is this N. American and British food store, they sell Kraft dinner (at over 2 € a box - no I didn't buy one, I am not craving that), campbells soup, it was a bit of shock seeing all this stuff again after seeing nothing but strange brands for almost 5 weeks. It felt like home.
There have been a flurry of international e-mails and faxes, as I prepare for my arrival in Paris on Friday morning. I have decided to take the night train tommorow night. I had to go get a medical certificate for UNESCO's insurance, but I went to the wife (Renate) of the doctor Marco, I met way back in Decemberm when I went to this Italian place with Helga (btw she is coming back this afternoon). Anyways Renate is also a doctor, and they both speak fluent English. She could have charged me at least 50€ just for the visit, plus another 20€ just for the form, but she didn't charge me a cent, which is really cool and nice. All she did was check my blood pressure, and put my name on a standard letter.
Then I had to rush to the internet cafe, to print of a new copy of my an application form, and fill it out, and send it out to Unesco. I have the internship, but they need it so it is official, and so I can get security clearance for monday. I should have done it yesterday, they were urgently trying to reach me, but I had taken a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia (I'll get back to that in a minute). Unesco need to be really careful with security. I am going to be attending a conference on Monday, and most of next week. I have gotten a copy of the schedule, and one of the first people who will be addressing us, is none other than the president of France: Jacques Chirac. OH MY FUCKING GOD! I called home, to tell my dad, and I was just shaking, because along with Chirac, there will be other heads of state, he was really blase about it though. I still can't believe it. What am I going to wear? Ekk!
So yeah, it is quite a shock to say the least. I can't bloody believe it.
So Slovakia, it ended up being cheaper than expected to go only 14€, it is cheaper if you take certain trains.So I was there yesterday. The train there felt very Hogwarts Express, with the compartments and stuff. It is only an 1.5 hour ride. They checked my passport and ticket twice each way (Leaving and entering each country). I didn't get a Slovakian stamp in my passport though. On the ride back the passport control guy from Austria was oh you are from Canada, and he sounded so surprised. I think we are a rare comodidy over here. So Bratislava, is the capital of Slovakia, and is apparently slavac for cold, and lots of walking (Although I did take the transit a bit). The big thing in Bratislava, is the castle, (which really does look like an upturned bed, just like my guide book says. )
Although the first thing I saw was the president's palace, and I was not about to go approach the gun toting guards, because I speak no slavac, and my german is still beyond pitiful. That could have been really icky, if they decided to shoot first ask questions later. I got to see part of the changing of the guards, which was neat.
It is so intimidating being a foreign country by yourself, and not knowing the language. (I couldn't get a hold of the Australian girls, so I was not able to go to with them, Monday would have been a bad day to go though because the musuems were closed). I just kept telling myself to breathe. Coming to Vienna was different, I at least knew how to ask if some one spoke english, and at first I did have people with me. So I did my stand by and went to a travel agency and a hotel to ask for directions, fortunately they spoke english. Although I did have to use german to buy a city bus ticket, but I would either ask people english? or say in german do you speak english.
So yes back to the castle. It was home to one of the Hapsburg's daugher and her husband (Maria Kristina- Maria Theresia's favourite daughter, and the only one she allowed to marry for love). Incedentially Maria Kristina is Marie Antoinette's sister. The castle is home to the Slovakian National Musuem, which was ok. They had displays of clocks, furniture, some art, nativity scenes, and really beautiful glassworks. I wasn't all that impressed with it. I went up the big tower, which was neat, although there was frost on the windows, and was difficult to see, the sky was also overcast. There was this music exhibtion on this composer Jan Bella, on the ladies was nice enough to take me around, and tell me everything in english. Most of the stuff in the museum had english signs though. (Funnily enough alot of musuems etc here don't)
There is another part of the castle, which has a seperate musuem with really old artifacts. Some of them dating to 4000 bc. There is this teeny feritility statue the Venus of Moravany, which is over 25,000 years old. Thing are really cheap in Bratislava, for about 6 or 7 euros, I got two bus tickets, a meal of chicken, rice, and beets (the chicken looked kinda pink though), plus a drink, and entrance to two musuems. They use the Slovakian crown over there, it is about 38sk to 1 euro. It is easy to forget, when you see like 10sk, that it is more than 10 cents, and it is strange seeing 120sk, but knowing that is not that expensive. I didn't stay long in Bratislava or see all that much, because it was cold, and I was tired. But when I got back I went to Lisa's and chatted with her for a bit.
On Monday, I wanted to go to the Votivkirche (Votiv Church), but it was closed. Guy and Michi lived right around the corner from there so I stopped in, and got fed lunch. Michi burned my song for me! Hehe! They we went to the one of the university, because Michi had class. Guy and I went to this place called Hunderwasser Haus, which is this crazy alinear apartment building, and across the road (Which is all hilly and weird) there is also the Kalke village, a kind of shoping centre inspired by the design of the apartment buildings. After that, Guy and I went back to his place, and walked Michi to her night class, then I got on the bus, to go to another of these press conference things with the Buffalo project that I went to on Monday. Poor Henry Red-Cloud, he is like a zoo animal himself. People are just going gaga over him, because he is exotic because he is aborignal. But he is dressing the part, with the mullet, and braids, with a feather in his hair, and of course, the outfit. People are paying 15€ for a picture of buffalos, I don't know if he is in it or not, but he signs it. And they are taking tons of pictures of him. He is going to be in Paris, so I will be seeing him there. Gawan was there, and we sat together, and then after a bunch of us went out to a restaurant, with Henry Red-Cloud and entourage. I was apparently flirting, but I still say I was just listening attentively as Gawan told me about stuff he likes in Paris.
I had made the mistake of telling Guy and Michi about the turkish guy, and didn't want them to say anything about him to Gawan, but they mercilessly made comments all night, like turkish food is finger licking good. And they told Gawan that there was something I didn't want to him to know, and so the poor guy had to put up with the three of us breaking out in to fits of laughter.
One of my other would be suitors saw my on the street, this was the first guy that hit on me, and he said he had come to my place (or where I said it was) and that I wasn't home. I finally ended up telling him to leave me alone, and he did. After I tried to be polite, and tell him I don't have time for coffee because I am so busy before I leave for Paris in two days. He didn't believe me when I told him that. Ugh.
So I am going to pack a bit, and then I am going out with Gawan and Michi et all tonight, we may watch this movie Smoke Signals. So that's the plan.
There have been a flurry of international e-mails and faxes, as I prepare for my arrival in Paris on Friday morning. I have decided to take the night train tommorow night. I had to go get a medical certificate for UNESCO's insurance, but I went to the wife (Renate) of the doctor Marco, I met way back in Decemberm when I went to this Italian place with Helga (btw she is coming back this afternoon). Anyways Renate is also a doctor, and they both speak fluent English. She could have charged me at least 50€ just for the visit, plus another 20€ just for the form, but she didn't charge me a cent, which is really cool and nice. All she did was check my blood pressure, and put my name on a standard letter.
Then I had to rush to the internet cafe, to print of a new copy of my an application form, and fill it out, and send it out to Unesco. I have the internship, but they need it so it is official, and so I can get security clearance for monday. I should have done it yesterday, they were urgently trying to reach me, but I had taken a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia (I'll get back to that in a minute). Unesco need to be really careful with security. I am going to be attending a conference on Monday, and most of next week. I have gotten a copy of the schedule, and one of the first people who will be addressing us, is none other than the president of France: Jacques Chirac. OH MY FUCKING GOD! I called home, to tell my dad, and I was just shaking, because along with Chirac, there will be other heads of state, he was really blase about it though. I still can't believe it. What am I going to wear? Ekk!
So yeah, it is quite a shock to say the least. I can't bloody believe it.
So Slovakia, it ended up being cheaper than expected to go only 14€, it is cheaper if you take certain trains.So I was there yesterday. The train there felt very Hogwarts Express, with the compartments and stuff. It is only an 1.5 hour ride. They checked my passport and ticket twice each way (Leaving and entering each country). I didn't get a Slovakian stamp in my passport though. On the ride back the passport control guy from Austria was oh you are from Canada, and he sounded so surprised. I think we are a rare comodidy over here. So Bratislava, is the capital of Slovakia, and is apparently slavac for cold, and lots of walking (Although I did take the transit a bit). The big thing in Bratislava, is the castle, (which really does look like an upturned bed, just like my guide book says. )
Although the first thing I saw was the president's palace, and I was not about to go approach the gun toting guards, because I speak no slavac, and my german is still beyond pitiful. That could have been really icky, if they decided to shoot first ask questions later. I got to see part of the changing of the guards, which was neat.
It is so intimidating being a foreign country by yourself, and not knowing the language. (I couldn't get a hold of the Australian girls, so I was not able to go to with them, Monday would have been a bad day to go though because the musuems were closed). I just kept telling myself to breathe. Coming to Vienna was different, I at least knew how to ask if some one spoke english, and at first I did have people with me. So I did my stand by and went to a travel agency and a hotel to ask for directions, fortunately they spoke english. Although I did have to use german to buy a city bus ticket, but I would either ask people english? or say in german do you speak english.
So yes back to the castle. It was home to one of the Hapsburg's daugher and her husband (Maria Kristina- Maria Theresia's favourite daughter, and the only one she allowed to marry for love). Incedentially Maria Kristina is Marie Antoinette's sister. The castle is home to the Slovakian National Musuem, which was ok. They had displays of clocks, furniture, some art, nativity scenes, and really beautiful glassworks. I wasn't all that impressed with it. I went up the big tower, which was neat, although there was frost on the windows, and was difficult to see, the sky was also overcast. There was this music exhibtion on this composer Jan Bella, on the ladies was nice enough to take me around, and tell me everything in english. Most of the stuff in the museum had english signs though. (Funnily enough alot of musuems etc here don't)
There is another part of the castle, which has a seperate musuem with really old artifacts. Some of them dating to 4000 bc. There is this teeny feritility statue the Venus of Moravany, which is over 25,000 years old. Thing are really cheap in Bratislava, for about 6 or 7 euros, I got two bus tickets, a meal of chicken, rice, and beets (the chicken looked kinda pink though), plus a drink, and entrance to two musuems. They use the Slovakian crown over there, it is about 38sk to 1 euro. It is easy to forget, when you see like 10sk, that it is more than 10 cents, and it is strange seeing 120sk, but knowing that is not that expensive. I didn't stay long in Bratislava or see all that much, because it was cold, and I was tired. But when I got back I went to Lisa's and chatted with her for a bit.
On Monday, I wanted to go to the Votivkirche (Votiv Church), but it was closed. Guy and Michi lived right around the corner from there so I stopped in, and got fed lunch. Michi burned my song for me! Hehe! They we went to the one of the university, because Michi had class. Guy and I went to this place called Hunderwasser Haus, which is this crazy alinear apartment building, and across the road (Which is all hilly and weird) there is also the Kalke village, a kind of shoping centre inspired by the design of the apartment buildings. After that, Guy and I went back to his place, and walked Michi to her night class, then I got on the bus, to go to another of these press conference things with the Buffalo project that I went to on Monday. Poor Henry Red-Cloud, he is like a zoo animal himself. People are just going gaga over him, because he is exotic because he is aborignal. But he is dressing the part, with the mullet, and braids, with a feather in his hair, and of course, the outfit. People are paying 15€ for a picture of buffalos, I don't know if he is in it or not, but he signs it. And they are taking tons of pictures of him. He is going to be in Paris, so I will be seeing him there. Gawan was there, and we sat together, and then after a bunch of us went out to a restaurant, with Henry Red-Cloud and entourage. I was apparently flirting, but I still say I was just listening attentively as Gawan told me about stuff he likes in Paris.
I had made the mistake of telling Guy and Michi about the turkish guy, and didn't want them to say anything about him to Gawan, but they mercilessly made comments all night, like turkish food is finger licking good. And they told Gawan that there was something I didn't want to him to know, and so the poor guy had to put up with the three of us breaking out in to fits of laughter.
One of my other would be suitors saw my on the street, this was the first guy that hit on me, and he said he had come to my place (or where I said it was) and that I wasn't home. I finally ended up telling him to leave me alone, and he did. After I tried to be polite, and tell him I don't have time for coffee because I am so busy before I leave for Paris in two days. He didn't believe me when I told him that. Ugh.
So I am going to pack a bit, and then I am going out with Gawan and Michi et all tonight, we may watch this movie Smoke Signals. So that's the plan.
posted by Kristin @ 7:21 am
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