This blog has become about lamenting a lack of knitting, rather than knitting itself.
And I do indeed lament wholeheartedly!
There's this and that excuse or reason (depending on your mood and inclination); at this particular moment, I'm choosing to give the reason for lack of progress as being my rapidly approaching vacation.
My countdown is on: I'll be away in less than a week, and have thus dropped all other of everything and am devoting my researching, leisure and otherwise time and efforts into detailing the minutia of travel.
Fun facts:
-"travel tips" seem, to me (and on the whole), to sound awfully close to stereotyping and racism.
-as soon as you buy your plane ticket, your airline will sound grumblings of strikes and employee strife. You then stress.
-no matter how you plan, your passport photo's gonna look terrible
-you suddenly realize how well you've squirreled away everything in home when you try to note down where all the "important stuff" is for your housesitter.
Anyhows, I figured "There's great people, knowledgeable people, who read this here blog. Maybe they'll have some great travel tips to share!"
How about it folks? I'll be heading to Paris, Berlin and Munich.
Any travel tips? Fascinating stories? Pitfalls to avoid?
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ps: That hard to decipher pic up top is a google maps of the yarn shops in Munich. I haz my priorities straight, I do!
5 comments:
Tips: pack light (leave lots of room for yarn), bring self-addressed padded envelopes (in which to mail home the yarn that doesn't fit in the suitcase), bring comfortable walking shoes, and wear mules/clogs/slip-ons to the airport so you won't have to spend time re-tying laces after the security checkpoint.
Also, be mindful of street children, especially if you've just purchased food (they'll beg for change or stick their fingers in your food so you have to go back and buy more), and don't be so tied to your itinerary that you stress about it. But above all, have fun! :)
OK, just read the comment by Lilith Parker and I do hope she says it as a joke about street children, because that will NOT happen in Paris, Berlin or Munich. Believe me, I've been to these cities a lot.
Anyways, what I wanted to tell you is that Wollmeise is near Munich. It depends how much time you've got and how badly you'd want to go there and above all if she's open that weekend when you're around.
If you're going through the Frankfurt airport, just be prepared they are *very* thorough in screenings and searches, however they are amazingly efficient in getting lots of people through while patting down every single person. Or at least they did that back in 2006 when I went through...
As for Paris, you HAVE to see the Louvre! Secondly, if you can, go to Fragonards. They have a perfume museum that has a wonderful history and information on how they make perfumes and at the end you can smell several of the perfumes they make themselves. Info about it here if you're interested: (http://www.fragonard.com/parfums_grasse/GB/fragonard/paris/)
Oh and beware gypsies unless you want to buy something from them, they will grab your wrist and tie a bracelet or something on before you can say no and charge you in one breath. That's just experience, one of my friends that was with me wound up buying several keychains, bracelets and other trinkets out of guilt because they caught her and she didn't say no fast enough.
Besides that, have fun!
I agree with Juicy: I very much doubt there are street children in Paris, Berlin or Munich!
If you're interested, there is a very nice soap shop in Berlin which is very high on my "to see" list for Berlin: www.1001seife.de. Her website is in German only, but if you go to Impressum you will find her address.
I hope you will have a great time!
Oh my goodness, how fun! I'm so excited for you. And hopefully you can use the whole long plane ride for knitting. :)
I haven't been to Munich or Berlin and haven't been to Paris for 10 years (oh my goodness, it was that long ago?!), but I would say the Musee (ugh, can't figure out how to insert accent over that e) D'Orsay is a must, and the street-cart crepes are the most delicious things ever. I also remember there being a lot of fun dollar-store type places as you're walking up Montmartre (which sounds cheesy, but I bought a slightly torn and mended Petit Bateau t-shirt for a Euro and wore it for, well, 10 years, as well as a bunch of pretty scarves). I never made it up the Eiffel tower (lines too long) but don't feel like I missed out on anything, since the view from Sacre Coeur is so amazing.
I did go to other parts of Germany once and thought people were REALLY nice. Their trains were also amazing, but make sure you know the difference between the train types (regional, etc.) -- my boss and I got a little confused and got on a train we thought was the one we'd bought tickets for (it wasn't)...luckily we weren't ticketed when caught, but did have to pay the (much!) higher fare.
Have fun!!! I can't wait to hear all about it!
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