Mrs. Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant and his ugly ass girlfriend broke up! Maybe this move to London was worth it.

我的年！（猪年）恭喜发财！

恭喜发财！ 我很高兴。 这年是我的年－猪年。我喜欢猪。：）

My Chinese is a bit rusty since out of practice lately, but I meant to say above..."Happy New Year! I'm very happy. This year is my year - pig year. I like pigs." Since I'm sure someone out there will correct my Chinese. (Cathy!)

Anyhow, today is Chinese New Year, marking the first day of the Year of the Pig, which is MY YEAR! So I've had special reason to look forward to this day. Also, pigs are my favorite animal because they represent wealth and prosperity.

So Sonja, Thomas and I were supposed to go to the New Year festivities in Chinatown this year, but Sonja has been ill lately :( so me and Thomas went by ourselves. Yes, I borrowed the Governator from Sonja for the day. Leicester Square was SO CROWDED and it was mostly non-Chinese people. London goes full out for the holiday. First we saw the parade down the Strand and then we went into Leicester Square to look at the different stands selling Chinese goods and ate some Chinese food. Then we stuck around for the firework show at 2pm.


















Awww...poor Thomas is a lost child.


Remember those little Chinese noisemakers that Taiwanese kids would bring from Taiwan to school? I used to LOVE these but they were outlawed at school when I was young. So I was so excited to see these here. I bought a bunch and Thomas and I threw them all over the ground like the little kids were doing. Didn't throw them at old people though.




Me and the Governator. We asked this Chinese man to take this picture, and for some reason, he thought we meant that I wanted to take a picture with him.


Happy pigs.


London Chinatown.






Dragon dance show in a small PACKED alley in Chinatown. It was impossible to move.




Very important people.


This is Harvey, 3 years old. He was very brave during the whole fireworks show and didn't cry. We gave him noisemakers to throw and he loved it. I kept telling him, "You're so cute!" and he'd nod and say "Yeah." Haha.


Chinese fireworks are really LOUD.


And smokey. Thomas said he felt like he was in the Middle East.


Communist attack on London! Ahhhh!!!

I wish you all a great Chinese New Year. This is MY YEAR. :) 恭喜发财！(Gong-xi fa-cai!)

Wien is Fantastisch!

So we arrived in Vienna at 6am and then went to the hostel we were staying at and took a shower, breakfast, check email, etc. and waited until a decent hour so we could start seeing the city. I instantly liked Vienna better than Prague for some reason. It's just more my preference. John prefers Prague.

We took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the center of town.


Us in the carriage.


Our carriage driver who looked like Hagrid.


The horsie who started trying to bite my boob while this picture was being taken. Yeah, I know horsie, I have a nice rack.


Inside Stephansdom or Stephen's Cathedral.

Then we jumped on the tour bus around the city. At one point, we fell asleep since we were so tired from being up since 6am. Vienna is a beautiful place. There's an eclectic variety of architectural styles. Some strangely modern buildings mixed in with really old buildings.


We stopped at the Hofburg Palace area. This is the front of the Nationalbibliothek, their national library.

We toured the Imperial Palace where the Hapsburgs lived for six centuries. I wasn't very impressed by the Prague Palace, especially after having just been to Versailles last month, but this palace was pretty beautiful. Not quite Versailles, but closer than Prague. Perhaps it's because Marie Antoniette was acutally Austrian. No photos were allowed, and after the incident at Prague Castle, we didn't push the rules. There was a huge collection of silverware and plates and then the Sissi Museum, which was dedicated to the life of the wife of Emperor Franz Josef I. She was severely depressed and sad throughout her life and then was assassinated. It was actually a really interesting exhibit. The palace apartments were also really beautiful. It was sad though, because in Franz Josef's rooms, he had all these paintings and photographs of his family and in Sissi's, she didn't have any. Her husband truly loved her--after hearing she had been assassinated, he said "You will never know how much I loved this woman", but she was too deeply depressed to love him back. :(

After the palace, we sat outside in the courtyard area waiting for the bus and we saw THE CUTEST DOG in the world playing football (soccer) with a group of boys. It was so funny because he was really playing. The dog actually didn't even belong to any of the boys and had just run up and started to chase the ball. His owner dragged him away.


The boys and the dog.


The dog has the ball...


Me and the cutest dog ever.

That night, we went to dinner at Wild (pronounced "Vild" since "W" is "V" in German) for John's 22nd birthday.


John with his birthday dessert.

Afterwards, we went to the bar district called Bermuda Triangle since you drink until you disappear! After a drink, John didn't feel very good so he went back, but I stayed out. It was the first time I went to a bar by myself, but I lucked out because I ended up meeting some people. Two of them spoke Korean so I could communicate even though I don't speak Deutsch (German).


This girl and her friends were dressed in traditional Austrian outfits. They're from the countryside somewhere and are in Vienna for a meeting for some organization or something she said.






On the way home, I had a wienerschnitzel. It wasn't a club dog, but it was pretty good.

The next morning...actually closer to noon, John finally got me up and we went to have lunch at gu which was supposed to be a gluten-free Chinese restaurant. John is allergic to gluten so he can't have wheat, barley, etc. He's the only Australian who doesn't drink beer. BUT...Lonely Planet people once again messed up. Turns out it was "glutenmat"-free, which means free of MSG not gluten.

Then we went to Cafe Sperl which according to the guidebook used to be one of Hitler's regular haunts. We aren't 100% sure since we didn't want to ask the waitress. Austrians are still pretty sensative about the whole Hitler and facism thing.


Hitler was here!


John picking my nose.


Viennese iced coffee. Vietnamese iced coffee is better. I MISS LA!


Me and John with a pony in Stephansplatz. The pony had a sign on him asking for money to help him through the winter. Pony is "pony" in German.


Sigmund Freud Park

Another Lonely Planet mistake. There was a blurb in the guidebook about the Pathologisch-Anatomische Bundesmuseum and it described it as part of "quirky Vienna" and that it's a museum about death that's inside an old insane asylum. I'm thinking it's very Girl, Interrupted Angelina Jolie, so I thought it'd be interesting, but really it was more of a medical museum and just had exhibits on all the different diseases you could die from. Yeah...it was weird. I don't recommend.


The building was cool though.

Then we went to Der Neue Donauturm which is this tower thing kind of like the BT tower in London. We thought we'd have dinner in the revolving restaurant, but we forgot it's Valentine's Day so the restaurant was booked with people who were probably planning to do the cheesy marriage proposal thing. We stepped outside on to the observation deck for like 2 minutes and realized we'd freeze. Anyhow, Manuel, my new friend from the night before, was there to meet us so we left after like 5 minutes.


Freezing.


The view.

Then we went back into the city center to have dinner: me, John, Manuel and the unni from the night before. It was a bit of a language problem since we couldn't all communicate in the same language. Manuel speaks Deutsch, Korean and English. The unni speaks Deutsch and Korean. I speak Korean and English. John speaks English. So we could either speak English and the unni would be left out, or we could speak Korean and John would be left out.


Here's John using a German language book so he could speak to the unni.

We had a drink together and then John and stuck around and had a couple more. Here's an interesting find in Austria.


I think this is an original Banksy! If not an original, it's a damn good copy of one that he's done. For those who don't know, Banksy is a famous British graffiti artist. My brother's a huge fan so I got him the book for Christmas. John and I were wandering around the city and I saw this and was really excited. I looked it up online and Banksy did a similar one to this on another building in Vienna, so I think he did this too.

The next day, we got up and left Vienna. BUT, there's another famous American who came to take my place...Paris Hilton.


Paris Hilton's in town to attend the Austrian Opera Ball on the 15th. I hope you enjoy your trip, Paris. I sure did.

Thanks John for the great trip. And remember, what happens on tour stays on tour. ;)

Praha

John's sad because I haven't mentioned his visit on my blog yet, so here it is: JOHN VISITED ME IN LONDON. :D For long-time www.expatriatejen.com readers, John's one of my friends from the LSE program in Beijing. He's on one of his famous first-class around-the-world trips and he was in London, not just because I'm so special, but probably because London Heathrow is British Airways' hub. But anyhow, since this week was my reading week, we decided to do a trip together. We were planning on Denmark, but last minute, it changed to Prague and Vienna. So...the next couple entries are about John & Jen's Excellent Adventures in Praha and Wien.

John flew back into London from Dubai on the 10th so I met him up at London Heathrow in the BA first-class lounge. Yes, one of the perks of being John's friend is that he's a platinum member of Quantas Airlines so he gets access for him and a guest into all the Oneworld first-class lounges. ALSO, he got us bumped up to business class for the flight. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me! It was flowing champagne all day long.


I sat in 1A...awesome.


The sign is wrong. I'm turning 21...for the fourth time.

We arrived in Prague pretty late and pretty much crashed. The next day, we started our tour of Prague. We walked up this long Great-Wall like place to the Prague Castle and stopped for lunch at Lobkowicz Palace Cafe which has a great view of the city.




I had goulash, which is basically meat in a pool of gravy. I know I'm a "vegetarian," but I eat meat when on vacation since it's part of absorbing the culture. I've had way too much meat this week because it was my birthday and vacation. No more for awhile...I feel sick.

Then we went through Prague Castle.


Me on the Golden Lane. The doors are all really low here since people used to be shorter, I love it since I feel tall here.


John in Powder Tower next to the rack. John says he gets chills down his back whenever he's next to one of these. We think it's because he was put on one of these in a past life.


John looking down at his past-time self. (Sorry, I don't know why my vertical pictures keep coming out horizontal. If anyone can help me with this, would appreciate it.)


Inside the St Vitus Cathedral.


I think this was the Old Royal Palace. It's been a few days, can't be sure.


The Illegal Photo. John took this picture in the Palace and this guard got all crazy on us because photos aren't allowed unless you buy a pass. We escaped before we had to pay him.


Scary Czech guards walking around with bayonets. They looked really mad.


We thought those guards who stand in front of a palace that's not even being used anymore have the most boring jobs...


Until we saw this guy pacing back and forth in front of a gate that's not even used anymore.


Then we crossed the Charles Bridge into the Old Town.


It started raining while we were on the bridge. Here's me all zipped up like Kenny.


The Great Wall of Czechoslovakia.


Czechs are pretty open about sex. Here's John with two moving statues of men peeing in front of the Franz Kafka Museum.


Also, here's some old school porn. These were sold in front of every tourist shop.


John lost in Old Town Square.


At night, we took a boat dinner and tour along the Vltava River on this old little boat.


Me and John on the top deck where it was freezing.


Yeah, I know a boat cruise sounds really nice, and we thought so too, until we got on board and found out this guy with the accordian was the "entertainment." THREE hours on the boat with his guy creeky out cheesy music...it's enough to make you want to jump off.


The view...


Then we went to this pub called U Pinkasu because according to my Lonely Planet guidebook, it's this pub that dates back to 1843 and was the first pub to serve Pilsner beer, which is the local beer. BUT it wasn't that interesting. After using Lonely Planet guides on this trip, I'm beginning to wonder if the Lonely Planet people even really visit the places inside the books...


We found livelier entertainment elsewhere. John with Ladiss (right), a fellow American living abroad although he's a New Yorker (boo!) and on the right is some creepy Czech guy who followed us on the street and then jumped into this picture. He was REALLY strange with REALLY gross teeth.

The next day, we went back to Old Town for the day after arranging our train ride from Prague to Vienna.


Old Town. See the clock tower?


Me in Old Town Square.


We had coffee in a restaurant in the square. Every hour, people gather in front of the Astronomical Clock Tower to see it ring and then the little windows open and you see statues of the 12 apostles circle around. It's really not that great, but you know tourists. Here's John and the clock tower.


We went to dinner at another Lonely Planet recommend called U Labuti. The restaurant is in an old palace that was converted. Tycho Brahe, the famous astronomer, used to live here. The book said that Johannes Kepler did as well, but the waiter said no.


Me and John.

So that was Prague. Personally, I preferred Vienna, but John preferred Prague, so I guess it's a matter of preference. Looking back on these photos, though...it was a pretty place.

So that night, John and I took the overnight train to Vienna, Austria. The train went by Krakow, Poland, which is a strange route to take, so it took 9 hours, but since we slept on board, it didn't really matter for us. We took the 9pm train, which arrived in Vienna at 6am. But we took the first-class sleeper train, which was an awesome adventure in itself! We slept in the train!!! It costs like $100 each. I really recommend it as the way to travel.


Here's where I slept on the top bunk.


John took the bottom. There's a little sink inside the compartment and bathrooms and a shower down the hall. Isn't that crazy?

It was actually pretty comfortable although I woke up in the middle of the night because the window fell open and all this cold air gushed in. Also, the train stopped several times, and I felt like I'd roll off the bunk. John slept like a damn log through the whole thing. In the morning, we were awoken by passport control who go compartment to compartment checking passports. It's nice since we don't have to stand in some line...they come directly to you! I didn't even have to get out of bed. Some Czech guy just knocks and says "Passport!" and then another Austrian guy comes by and does it to. Pretty convenient.

And then...we awoke in VIENNA!