Keene to Krakow: May 2012

Welcome to Eastern Europe Eliza, the land of the cheap and cobblestone.

Krakow

Sis arrived in Krak Friday May 11th at 12:30pm. Yes I got to the airport right on time, of course I was rushing and stressing all the same. I checked the arrival board and relaxed because Frankfort was suppose to land at 130. It was 85 degrees out, so i got some ice cream and sat upstairs in the cafe and read my book for a bit. I ventured downstairs to check the arrivals and sure enough sis was walking toward me. Turns out, she arrived at 12:30 from a connecting flight from Munich. Whoops. She was ecstatic to see me nonetheless, I swear. Luckily, I regained her spirits, by having us hop onto a bus to bring us into Krakow. The bus was crammed pack with tourists and townies. We got to Nawojka (my deluxe dorm) and immediately went down for a nap. What, I was exhausted in anticipation for her arrival.

Sis brought the bad weather to Krak. Starting Saturday, a cold front moved in and settled right on Krakow for the next week. Sis was here from Friday to Thursday night. It was grim and gloomy weather but we made the best of it. I had classes during her visit, so Eliza ventured off during the afternoons, walking the streets of Krakow and doing mad souvenir shopping in the Cloth Hall (sukiennice) and on ulica Florianska.

In the afternoons, we were able to walk through the city together. We made it to Wawel Castle together when there was a brief ray of sunshine. Wawel hill is so beautiful in the springtime. After romping around the castle grounds, I introduced Eliza to the best polish cuisine restaurant, Bar Smok. Here, I ordered, all in polish, zupa pomidorowa z makaroni (tomato soup with noodles), szpinakem pierogi (spinach pierogi) and nalesniki z czekolada (pancakes filled with cheese sauce and covered in chocolate). Poland is not the healthiest country, but we do love their food.

The next afternoon, we made our way into Podgorze to see the Ghetto Square Memorial and continued to the Schindler's Factory Museum. I let sis go through the museum on her own, but gave her all the time she needed. It is a great museum, but I wanted to sit down and catch up on my journaling (okay, yeah I have a diary, but I call it a journal). Both my dad and my sister were presuming that his museum was going to be centered around Oskar Schindler and his factory. But little does everyone know it is more about the history of Krakow under Nazi occupation, including the Krakow ghetto, Plaszow concentration camp, Schindler's Factory, and the Soviet invasion. It is a complete history of Krakow during World War II, but it also goes over both the Jews and the Poles daily life and experiences living in Krakow before and during the war. The museum is very thorough and it takes some time going from room to room from floor to floor.

I sat in the Cinema Cafe, drinking goraca czekolada and writing in my journal/diary. It was relaxin to just sit, and collect my thoughts while sis meandered through the museum. Eliza took about an hour and a half in the museum. After her visit, she decided that she wanted to make the trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum. So i booked our tour for 8:15am the next morning. Of course we decided to go out for our her last night in Krakow.

Banialuka here we come! We celebrated Bania's birthday by singing "Sto Lat" with a packed bar while a saxophonist played on the bar. Literally the bar was packed, no room to move or breath.

At Banialuka, you can get 4 zloty drinks ($1.15). We go here to start and end our nights. And this place is the meeting place for most erasmus students. We usually meet Americans here. We eventually made our way to Afera Club, and danced the night away. All in all, I think sis thoroughly enjoyed her time in Krakow.

The next morning, we were up and ready to be out the door by 7:30am. We stopped at Kefirek (grocery store-which means sour milk...) to get some breakfast supplies and snacks for our day trip to Auschwitz. Poland does not have sandwich baggies or snack-sized foods so our bags were stuffed with apples, sandwiches, pretzels, yogurts, and chips.

Originally, I was going to stay in Krakow today and go to my Polish class and let Eliza venture to Auschwitz by herself, but giving it a second thought, I decided that I wanted to experience the visit and being there with her. This trip is my third time to the camp (once with my dad and once on a field trip with one of my classes). Every time the experience has been different.

While we were walking through the exhibitions, we noticed that there was an Israeli military group walking through the museum with us. This was the first time I saw an international military group. This time around, there were a lot more flowers and memorials springing up in front of walls, near pictures, and rocks piled up. We had a beautiful day.

Thursday night, Eliza and I set out for the train station to start our adventure to Prague. We definitely started off our trip right...having booked a sleeping compartment for our overnight train ride to Prague.

Prague
We got our sleeping compartment and after having our tickets checked, we immediately locked our door. Our car was mostly American students who were studying in various countries around Europe and, like us, were going to Prague for the weekend for Sensation. Sis and I slept for the majority of the trip (I felt well-rested, sis was still a bit wary). We got to Prague by 8, and took a taxi to our hostel, The Madhouse Hostel, so we could check our bags and freshen up before we started our day in the city exploring. We had to wait til their reception opened at 9am, so we sat on our luggage across the narrow cobblestone street, looking like a couple of bums.

Day 1: I might start listing here. Prague was a beautiful city, very much like Krakow. We were lucky with the weather here though so of course sis immediately jumped on the Prague-loving bandwagon. Who couldn't love warm weather, nice people, and beautiful city streets and gorgeous views. I have yet to experience this in any other city (well, besides Galway, Ireland) where hearing English, pure American English, was everywhere. My ear was picking it up all around us. It was refreshing to hear and we meet a lot of people from all over the North America, (yes, even Canadians come to Prague).

Eliza and I started walking from our hostel, and meandered the streets not really paying attention to our maps. We found a nice Italian restaurant for breakfast (11am) and then made our way to the main square, where we decided to walk up to the top of the Clock tower to get a panoramic view of the city. Here are some of the sights that we saw from the top of the world:

Prague has become one of the world's most popular tourist destinations (hence all of the American tourists). It is the sixth-visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Berlin. The Old Town Square, is much more compact, and smaller than Krakow's main square, but it deserves its own due. The tops of the buildings around the city are a beautiful red, and the square is bubbling with activity. We witnessed many events being taken place, like watching the finals of the hockey game projected on a big screen. Everyone was decked out in Czech colors, waving the flag and being very patriotic for their home team, it was great a fun watching the crowd.

This bizarre statue is situated right in front of the entrance to the Franz Kafka Museum. Take a gander at the animatronic "Piss" statue located in the Kafka Museum's courtyard (yes parts of it moves...) This rendition of a coupe urinating into a fountain, shaped like the Czech Republic was made by a local sculptor David Cerny, interesting choice of statue, yes? Who is Franz Kafka? Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was one of the greatest figures of 20th century world literature. Entitled ‘The City of K. Franz Kafka and Prague’, this exhibition on the life and work of Prague’s most famous literary son explores the intimate relationship between the writer and the city that shaped him through the use of original letters, photographs, quotations, period newspapers and publications, and video and sound installations. This museum was really interesting. I might just have to pick up one of his books, The Trial or The Castle and give it a read. After walking through the exhibit, solo, I met back up with Eliza and we headed back to our hostel to finally check in, nap, shower and wait to see Luke!

Glastonbury Reunion! It was so great seeing one of my best guy friends from Luke. He is studying in Uppsala, Sweden for the semester and we were about to plan a trip to rendezvous in Prague for sensation and spend the weekend together. I was able to meet a few of his friends who are studying with him and they were all lovely people. It was really great to see a familiar face from home and be able to explore a new city together. One of our really close friends studied in Prague last semester so we felt her presence all over the city and enjoyed walking in her footsteps and falling in love with her city.

Day 2: The Charles Bridge

The Charles Bridge is the famous historic 14th century bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague. The Charles Bridge was the most important connection between Prague Castle and the city's Old Town. It is a great tourist trap, with many street vendors, performers and of course great views of the city along the river. We crossed the bridge everyday. Thankfully, Prague is a very walkable city and you are able to conquer the area more or less in one day's time. We returned to a few sites more than once, like the peacock gardens (which I will mention later) and left going to the Prague Castle for our last day. But Prague is a great city and you really can spend a lot of time getting to know all of the streets quite well.

The Lennon Wall: Graffiti on Graffiti on Graffiti.

Of course any study abroad student who is in Europe has seen pictures of the Lennon Wall. But today, it was my turn to see the wall up close and personal. The Lennon wall or JOhn Lennon Wall, is a wall. Once a normal wall, since the 1980s it has been filled with John Lennon inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles songs. The wall represents a symbol of youth ideals such as love and peace. The wall continuously undergoes change and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layer of new paint. Even when the wall was repainted by some authorities, on the second day is was again full of poems and flowers. And who can resist in adding their own graffiti to the wall. We lacked a permanent marker but luckily I had a few pens in my bag and the four of us were able to sign the wall.

Sensation 2012: White Out

Sensation is an indoor electronic dance music event. White Sensation is a pure house event. All the attendees are required to wear white. Sensation White's slogan is "Be Part Of The Night - Dress in White". Every event has around 40,000-45,000 tickets available. So you know that the arenas are going to be massive.

It is an extreme light show. Not realizing the exact duration of the event, I was shocked to find out that it started at 9:30pm and lasted until 6:00am. We were in for a long night. But it was great night. It is such a European event. I think there are plans in the making to bring Sensation to the States but I do not think that it will be the same. The atmosphere just won't be the same.

Day 3:

Sadly our last day in Prague. For a good part of the morning and early afternoon, we lounged in Madhouse Hostel's comfy t.v. room, transfixed watching the show "Californication." Seriously it is one of the best shows I have ever seen, I'm addicted to it now. I know what I will be watching this summer. After watching a god ten episodes, Luke, Eliza and I decided that we should depart from this dark hole and go see the Prague Castle and visit the Peacock Garden.

Let me see your peacock

After what seemed like a million steps, Luke and I tried to count but after a long silence we both quit. Trust us though, there were a lot of steps. After what felt like ages, we eventually reached the top and were rewarded immediately by the views of the city.

P.S.- If you are ever in Prague, please do yourself a favor and book a dorm at The Madhouse Hostel, you will NOT regret it. You will regret not booking your stay there. It was recently opened (April 2012) and is run by a handful of young people (23-25 years old). It is very well-run, managed and organized. It is a great place for college students to congregate, and solo travellers to meet a bunch of friendly travellers like themselves. The first night we stayed at the hostel, the owners all invited us out to celebrate on of their birthdays. It felt like a genuine field trip. We went from a bar to club and before leaving the bar we had to count heads to make sure we were all accounted for. They take great care of you and you will really enjoy your stay in the city. A few of my friends signed up to go skydiving with the hostel, and they offer a lot of other great deals and are very knowledgeable of the city.

Good Prague, Sis and I are off to Paris!

Paris
The Land of the Wine, Cheese & Baguettes

Day 1:

We arrived into Paris in the evening, so first thing was to check into our hostel. Vintage Hostel was a budget hotel and hostel and definitely lower down on the scale compared to the Madhouse Hostel in Prague. First thing first: Eat food. We walked around the neighborhood that our hostel was in, Montmartre to get a feel for Paris. Monmartre is talked about by Parisians the way New Yorkers talk about the village. If you have ever watched the movie "Midnight in Paris" with Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams, then you would recognize the streets and area because Montmartre was the setting for the film. Many artists had studios or worked around the community of Montmartre such as Salvado Dali, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. Also, a lot of writers took up residency here as well.

For some silly reason, most of the restaurants do not start serving dinner until 7pm. So after getting rejected at 6 o'clock from Refuge de Fondus, Eliza and I had to wonder the streets aimlessly, in the rain until it was a reasonable enough time to return to the fondus place, and wait a little ways down the street until we were allowed to cross the threshold of the establishment. Right at 7 o'clock, we were seating in the corner of the restaurant awaiting our meal of cheese and bread. now, let me backtrack here. While we were in the airport flying from Prague to Paris earlier in the day we started talking to this guy, Alex, from Toronto who like us and about all of the North Americans traveling that day were at Sensation. Alex was our lucky charm because he has been studying in Paris for the semester so he was able to help us by a pack of metro tickets, and sent us in the right direction towards our hostel. He also recommended this fondus place, that was in walking distance from our hostel and Eliza and I were all ears once he mentioned that cheese was involved. So this fondus place was our first stop that we made in Paris.

And oh boy, it was delicious!

After stuffing ourselves with as much cheese and bread that we could handle, we waddled out and began to walk off all the food that we just consumed. We took the metro to the Notre Dame stop and saw this magnificent cathedral all light up at night. I couldn't find the hunchback of Notre Dame anywhere. But we were able to see the gargoyles if you squint very hard and peered all the way up. They act as water spouts, so smart.

It took us forever to find this said tower of Eiffel. We walked from Notre Dame all the way along the river, heading in what we thought was the right direction towards this massive structure. It was a good 30 minute walk before we even so much as caught a glimpse of the tip of the tower. Eliza and I started discussing the possibility of it either falling down, been stolen and surely it just didn't exist. I was in favor of the stolen hypothesis. I believed that the evil villain from "Despicable Me" used his shrink ray and stole the Eiffel Tower and in its place, put a fake blown-up version of the tower. Clearly, we way too much time on our hands while we searched endlessly for this make believe tower. Miracously, when I finally did see the very top of the tower over the buildings, i screeched, jumped into the air, and surprisingly my eyes started to water (I swear it was windy that night). Once we finally caught a glimpse of it, we hurried on our way to see this tower up close and personal. Along the way, because we still had a good half-hour walk ahead of us still, Eliza and I started to break out in song, singing Ingrid Michaelson's "You and I." It is a beautiful song. After what seemed like hours we reached the beginning of the park where the Eiffel Tower stands. My jaw dropped completely to the floor when I actually saw the size of this iron tower. I had to collect myself and my jaw before making any moves closer to it. Eliza and I decided that we would hike this beast tomorrow night, we had to prepare ourselves for the task. Feelings that I experienced while gawking at the Eiffel Tower: Awe, I felt very insignificant and inferior, astonished, impressed, questioned how in the world were they able to built this in 1889, and of course speechless. I don't think sis or I spoke for a good ten minutes and a hundred pictures later.

The Eiffel Tower

Crepes Heaven

Because our necks started to hurt, we bowed our heads and brought them back to eye-level and decided that our next move would be to try these infamous crepes. Wine, Cheese, and crepes all in one night, i think we can say that we conquered French cuisine very well for our first round. We had a delicious chocolate (nutella) and banana crepe with whipped cream at a stand looking straight towards the Eiffel Tower. So many French things. Bon appetite! Crepes on crepes on crepes.

Day 2:

The Louve Museum

Phantom of the Opera @Paris Opera House

Arc de Triomphe

Warning: Prepare yourself for a ridiculous amount of Eiffel Tower shots. Sorry, I'm not sorry, but really sorry...

Rewarding ourselves for surviving climbing to the top of the Eiffel tower and making it back down safely to the ground, without having a panic attack or sick impulse to do something crazy. Mealing face on crepes:

Our last day in Paris together was well spent criss-crossing all over Paris. We saw so many attractions and got our souvenir shopping over with. We conquered the metro system of Paris. it was so easy to navigate underground. it is nothing like the T system in Boston. much more organized and only one train comes to the terminal, so you know if you are at the right terminal that whatever train comes is the one that you want to take. it was easy to use. and thankfully so because Paris is ginormous, and you really need to use the public transportation (metro) if you want to get around the city. or if you are competing with time. Eliza had 48 hours in the city and we criss-crossed all over the place, and went to the Eiffel tower both days. We did a tremendous amount of walking this trip. My feet will need some time to heal from all of the pounding we did all throughout the various cities.

Day 3:
Sis left bright and early for the airport to begin her trip back to the States :( luckily I will be seeing her soon! It was great spending 13 days with her, and traveling throughout Europe with her by my side.
I left the hostel shortly after Eliza because I had a big day planned. Today, I went to Versailles. Rick Steeve's (the best travel expert around) suggested giving yourself at least a six hour time span for this day trip. I gave myself all day because honestly I had no place to be or any other plans.

Versailles