Beautiful Krakow:
Nathan enjoying his favorite...hot dogs.
The chapel in the salt caves - even the chandeliers are salt!
Creepy salt gnomes for Katie:
Auschwitz:
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Poland: Pictures
Nathan enjoying his favorite...hot dogs.
The chapel in the salt caves - even the chandeliers are salt!
Creepy salt gnomes for Katie:
Auschwitz:
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Krakow, Poland
Now, just to bore you all for a minute, I need to give you a quick history lesson about Poland... they 've had a rough time.
Over the last two-hundred years or so, the Poles have dealt with a lot. First, an invasion and dissolution by Prussia, and then after briefly regaining independence, the concerted and simultaneous take-over by the Nazis in the West and the Soviets in the East.
This is what fascinated me about going to Krakow. While Warsaw has been the political center for nearly a hundred years, Krakow has maintained its status as Poland's cultural capital. All Polish cities bear the fingerprints of totalitarianism... whether a Nazi edifice or one of those ubiquitous Soviet era concrete housing projects... and although Krakow was preserved through the war, its history has produced a proud but wounded population. This is what led us to Krakow.
We arrived early in the morning after the aforementioned overnight train from Scezchin. Despite the unusual experience, we actually had slept pretty well and were excited to have most of the day to check out the town. After checking in to the hostel, we explored a bit. Krakow is beautiful, and is so well organized for travelers on foot. As is typical in many European cities, the town consists of a market square and a castle with everything else shoved around and in between them. In the case of Krakow, the market square happens to be the largest in Europe and the castle one of the best preserved. The Old Town extends about three blocks in each direction from the market square and then the whole package is contained by a ring of parks. We were first amazed at how beautiful the town was, then by how many cafes and restaurants lined the sidewalks on every street, and then... by how wonderful the beer was.
Yes, after a couple weeks in Scandinavia where brewers apparently actually believe the PBR deserved a blue ribbon, Poland seemed to get it right. Maybe it was the fact that we could actually taste the hops for once... or maybe it was just that they cost about eight dollars less here than in Denmark... but we were, regardless, excited.
We walked around the Old Town and then up to Wawel Castle. At the castle, there wasn't much to do without paying, so we sat around the castle grounds enjoyed the sunshine, the view, and the excitement of being in a new place. On our way back downt the hill, we visited a couple churches. Typically, when Steveyann and I visit an old church, I inevitably start to educate (read: "bore") her with a rundown on church architectural history. She gets excited to see these buildings and loves to take wonderful pictures of them, but I am sure that she doesn't quite get the same kick out of identifying transitional elements as I do. But at the Kosciol Franciscanska, a gothic church whose stone and concrete walls had been covered in intricately designed and colorful patterns, (imagine wall-paper), she got excited and had so much fun taking pictures and admiring all of the unique interior design.
On our second day in Krakow, we took a bus out of town on a day trip to Auschwitz, the infamous complex of Nazi concentration and extermination camps. This, of course, was a profoundly affecting experience. Steveyann and I talked afterwards about how odd the experience was. The day was beautiful, sunny, and warm. The grounds of the camps were covered in green grasses and flowers and, with the exception of the barbed wire and the knowledge of what had happened there, it all felt a bit idyllic.
But the experience was intense, as anyone could imagine. To see the images and walk the grounds and run through all of these tragic scenarios in our heads was a bit overwhelming.
The next day, we visited the Wieliczka Salt Mines for what our Polish friends that we met in Peru promised would be "one of the top five things to see in all of Europe". Sounds enticing! We took the bait and a short bus ride later we ended up at the entrance to the salt mines. All in all, it was't quite what I was expecting, but it was interesting and impressive nonetheless. I had seen pictures from the mines of these statues in these deep caverns with the description that for the last 700 years the mine workers had been sculpting things out of pure salt. So when our tourguide took us to our first cavern and pointed out these same sculptures I had seen in the images, I got our camera ready. Then he filled us in that the sculptures, one of what looked like some sort of wizard and the other of a greedy troll, had been sculpted merely forty years ago. Impressive!
It wasn't all bad and, in fact, it got a lot better. It turns out that these mines go down over 1000 feet and that there is even an entire church, with relief sculptures, chandeliers, and an altar, carved completely out of the mine. There were even little gnomes (we took pictures for you, Katie!)
That evening, (our last before our train out the next day), we took a walk to Kasimieriz.. Here is where Fascism left its fingerprints on Krakow. This suburb was the Jewish quarter of Krakow and became the basis for the Krakow Ghetto formed by the occupying Nazi's in an attempt to control the Jewish population. This was a really great area of town that we were glad we squeezed into our schedule... definately a hub of culture and arts while its bohemian grittiness contrasted nicely with the polished feel of the Old Town.
Krakow sits at the base of the foothills of the High Tatras mountains. We had intended to make our way to see the beautiful scenery and maybe take a hike or two in the process, but apparently it is a bit more difficult and the route more circuitous to travel through Slovakia, so we ended up deciding to modify our itinerary a bit.
Next stop, Prague.
Over the last two-hundred years or so, the Poles have dealt with a lot. First, an invasion and dissolution by Prussia, and then after briefly regaining independence, the concerted and simultaneous take-over by the Nazis in the West and the Soviets in the East.
This is what fascinated me about going to Krakow. While Warsaw has been the political center for nearly a hundred years, Krakow has maintained its status as Poland's cultural capital. All Polish cities bear the fingerprints of totalitarianism... whether a Nazi edifice or one of those ubiquitous Soviet era concrete housing projects... and although Krakow was preserved through the war, its history has produced a proud but wounded population. This is what led us to Krakow.
We arrived early in the morning after the aforementioned overnight train from Scezchin. Despite the unusual experience, we actually had slept pretty well and were excited to have most of the day to check out the town. After checking in to the hostel, we explored a bit. Krakow is beautiful, and is so well organized for travelers on foot. As is typical in many European cities, the town consists of a market square and a castle with everything else shoved around and in between them. In the case of Krakow, the market square happens to be the largest in Europe and the castle one of the best preserved. The Old Town extends about three blocks in each direction from the market square and then the whole package is contained by a ring of parks. We were first amazed at how beautiful the town was, then by how many cafes and restaurants lined the sidewalks on every street, and then... by how wonderful the beer was.
Yes, after a couple weeks in Scandinavia where brewers apparently actually believe the PBR deserved a blue ribbon, Poland seemed to get it right. Maybe it was the fact that we could actually taste the hops for once... or maybe it was just that they cost about eight dollars less here than in Denmark... but we were, regardless, excited.
We walked around the Old Town and then up to Wawel Castle. At the castle, there wasn't much to do without paying, so we sat around the castle grounds enjoyed the sunshine, the view, and the excitement of being in a new place. On our way back downt the hill, we visited a couple churches. Typically, when Steveyann and I visit an old church, I inevitably start to educate (read: "bore") her with a rundown on church architectural history. She gets excited to see these buildings and loves to take wonderful pictures of them, but I am sure that she doesn't quite get the same kick out of identifying transitional elements as I do. But at the Kosciol Franciscanska, a gothic church whose stone and concrete walls had been covered in intricately designed and colorful patterns, (imagine wall-paper), she got excited and had so much fun taking pictures and admiring all of the unique interior design.
On our second day in Krakow, we took a bus out of town on a day trip to Auschwitz, the infamous complex of Nazi concentration and extermination camps. This, of course, was a profoundly affecting experience. Steveyann and I talked afterwards about how odd the experience was. The day was beautiful, sunny, and warm. The grounds of the camps were covered in green grasses and flowers and, with the exception of the barbed wire and the knowledge of what had happened there, it all felt a bit idyllic.
But the experience was intense, as anyone could imagine. To see the images and walk the grounds and run through all of these tragic scenarios in our heads was a bit overwhelming.
The next day, we visited the Wieliczka Salt Mines for what our Polish friends that we met in Peru promised would be "one of the top five things to see in all of Europe". Sounds enticing! We took the bait and a short bus ride later we ended up at the entrance to the salt mines. All in all, it was't quite what I was expecting, but it was interesting and impressive nonetheless. I had seen pictures from the mines of these statues in these deep caverns with the description that for the last 700 years the mine workers had been sculpting things out of pure salt. So when our tourguide took us to our first cavern and pointed out these same sculptures I had seen in the images, I got our camera ready. Then he filled us in that the sculptures, one of what looked like some sort of wizard and the other of a greedy troll, had been sculpted merely forty years ago. Impressive!
It wasn't all bad and, in fact, it got a lot better. It turns out that these mines go down over 1000 feet and that there is even an entire church, with relief sculptures, chandeliers, and an altar, carved completely out of the mine. There were even little gnomes (we took pictures for you, Katie!)
That evening, (our last before our train out the next day), we took a walk to Kasimieriz.. Here is where Fascism left its fingerprints on Krakow. This suburb was the Jewish quarter of Krakow and became the basis for the Krakow Ghetto formed by the occupying Nazi's in an attempt to control the Jewish population. This was a really great area of town that we were glad we squeezed into our schedule... definately a hub of culture and arts while its bohemian grittiness contrasted nicely with the polished feel of the Old Town.
Krakow sits at the base of the foothills of the High Tatras mountains. We had intended to make our way to see the beautiful scenery and maybe take a hike or two in the process, but apparently it is a bit more difficult and the route more circuitous to travel through Slovakia, so we ended up deciding to modify our itinerary a bit.
Next stop, Prague.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Slow and intermittent computers...ugh!
So we're feeling a bit frustrated right now because we have had BAD luck with computers and it is taking forever for our photos to load each time we try...with that being said, we don't want to get behind on our posts...so here are some updates on where we've been and some pictures from Scandinavia (scroll down, they are after the Sweden and Denmark posts) . We'll post more pictures as SOON as we can...promise!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Pictures...
I am sure you are all wanting to see some pictures of these lovely places we are talking about...you are going to start to think we arent really travelling at all. Hopefully at our next stop we will be able to upload and post a bunch of pictures along with updates of our most recent destinations.
FYI: we posted some pictures of Iceland, so scroll down to see!
FYI: we posted some pictures of Iceland, so scroll down to see!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Poland: Getting There
We left Copenhagen the morning of the 18th...Nathans (please excuse any bad grammar in this post, very confusing keyboard) 30th Birthday, and hopped on a 22 hour train ride to Krakow. Thats right, poor Nathan spent his entire birthday on a train...I felt so bad for him...and this was no ordinary train ride. First we rode for a few hours through Denmark where we sat next to the loudest group of rude Australian boys, then our train got onto a ferry (yes, the whole entire train goes on to the ferry) as we ferried accross the water into Germany. Then we switched trains to a local, fairly uncomfortable train and rode it through Germany until it dumped us out at the Poland border, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere. We finally found the train station where we attempted to decipher signs in Polish trying to figure out where we needed to catch our next (overnight) train into Krakow. After about an hour and a half wait, we were at the platform we thought we needed to be at to catch our train. We showed our tickets to a group of rail station employees hoping they could tell us if we were at the right train and where our car was...each of them pointed in different directions and argued with each other, finally telling us that we should get on the train in front of us. We reluctantly jumped on, hoping that it would take us in the right direction and were immediately accosted by people grabbing our tickets and trying to point us in the right direction - again, everyone pointed us in different directions until a train employee told us he thought we should walk toward the back of the train - though he worked there, even he seemed unsure that it was the correct way to go. We tried our luck though and began walking through car after car trying to find our seats. Each time we walked through the doors of a new car there would be a new group of locals crowded into the corridor greeting us, laughing and yelling what seemed to be nice helpful sentiments and trying to help us find our seats as we would squeeze past and smush them with our bags...it was such a trip. We finally found our car...the last car on the train. It is still probably the most surreal 15 minutes of our trip so far. Happy birthday, Nathan...
Friday, September 18, 2009
Denmark: Pictures
Copenhagen:
You have never seen so many bikes and bikers in your life:
On our boat tour we floated past this old shipping yard where all of the buildings had been repurposed into offices and expensive homes, condos and apartments.
The building below was a torpedo hanger and now houses beautiful, expensive apartments:
This is the inside of the above building:
Legal and architecture offices, on the waterfront...so jealous:
Artillery storage, converted into beautiful, waterfront homes...this is where I started crying:
Biking around Copenhagen:
At Tivoli Gardens:
You have never seen so many bikes and bikers in your life:
On our boat tour we floated past this old shipping yard where all of the buildings had been repurposed into offices and expensive homes, condos and apartments.
The building below was a torpedo hanger and now houses beautiful, expensive apartments:
This is the inside of the above building:
Legal and architecture offices, on the waterfront...so jealous:
Artillery storage, converted into beautiful, waterfront homes...this is where I started crying:
Biking around Copenhagen:
At Tivoli Gardens:
Copenhagen, Denmark
We finally started to feel sore in Copenhagen. We have been doing A LOT of walking. We trekked all over Iceland and Stockholm...and in Copenhagen, we did the same thing. When we arrived, we threw our bags in lockers and headed out to walk the city. We went past Tivoli, down the main shopping street and into the parks. In the evening, we headed back to the train station and grabbed our bags and walked a good 20+ minutes to the place we stayed and then climbed four flights of stairs...with our bags...to the top. It was insane. We are beginning to get bruises on our hips, our backs are sore and I have blisters on my feet. Starting to regret the H&M shopping spree...
Copenhagen was awesome. We tryed out Couch Surfing for the first time and it worked out great! We stayed with this awesome couple, Steffan and Kika and they were so amazing and hospitable. They made us a yummy, typical Danish dinner our first night with them, gave us great advice on exploring the city, took us around Tivoli and to a local pub, and even bought Nathan a special birthday pastry to celebrate his big 3-0 the morning we left for Poland. It was a great experience, we'll definitely do it again!
Copenhagen is such an artsy city...we were struck with how amazing the architecture and design is there and were left drooling the whole time. One day we took a boat tour through all of the canals and got an up close look at some of the major architectural sites, then the next day we rented bikes and biked around the city center and Christianshavn Island to explore it for ourselves. We rode through the architecture school (that Danes get to attend for free) while Nathan wept openly (his words) and then rode around the old naval base which has now been converted into amazing, super expensive apartments and homes while I wept. We rode through Christiania, an area of Christianshavn Island where a bunch of hippies from the 70s set out to establish an idyllic commune where they could smoke weed freely and lay around with no responsibilities...it is now quite another thing. Drugs are still sold openly on the streets there but the place is anything but idyllic. Graffiti all over the walls, trash everywhere, stray dogs, old strung out hippies, people twiching and talking to themselves from their drug induced insanity, hoards of highschool kids, along with distinguished businessmen, looking to score some drugs; there is no creativity or innovation and, in fact, they have signs stating that they do not want any new growth or change and would prefer to "keep Christiania dumb". It is such a stark contrast to the rest of Copenhagen, but still definitely worth a visit. We spent our last evening walking around Tivoli, one of the original, old style amuzment parks. It was so pretty at night all lit up.
Done with Scandinavia...now on to Eastern Europe!
Copenhagen was awesome. We tryed out Couch Surfing for the first time and it worked out great! We stayed with this awesome couple, Steffan and Kika and they were so amazing and hospitable. They made us a yummy, typical Danish dinner our first night with them, gave us great advice on exploring the city, took us around Tivoli and to a local pub, and even bought Nathan a special birthday pastry to celebrate his big 3-0 the morning we left for Poland. It was a great experience, we'll definitely do it again!
Copenhagen is such an artsy city...we were struck with how amazing the architecture and design is there and were left drooling the whole time. One day we took a boat tour through all of the canals and got an up close look at some of the major architectural sites, then the next day we rented bikes and biked around the city center and Christianshavn Island to explore it for ourselves. We rode through the architecture school (that Danes get to attend for free) while Nathan wept openly (his words) and then rode around the old naval base which has now been converted into amazing, super expensive apartments and homes while I wept. We rode through Christiania, an area of Christianshavn Island where a bunch of hippies from the 70s set out to establish an idyllic commune where they could smoke weed freely and lay around with no responsibilities...it is now quite another thing. Drugs are still sold openly on the streets there but the place is anything but idyllic. Graffiti all over the walls, trash everywhere, stray dogs, old strung out hippies, people twiching and talking to themselves from their drug induced insanity, hoards of highschool kids, along with distinguished businessmen, looking to score some drugs; there is no creativity or innovation and, in fact, they have signs stating that they do not want any new growth or change and would prefer to "keep Christiania dumb". It is such a stark contrast to the rest of Copenhagen, but still definitely worth a visit. We spent our last evening walking around Tivoli, one of the original, old style amuzment parks. It was so pretty at night all lit up.
Done with Scandinavia...now on to Eastern Europe!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Stockholm, Sweden
After our short stint in Iceland (we definitely want to go back some day to explore more, we did NOT have enough time) we headed off to Stockholm. I just have to add two things before I go on that Nathan didn't mention in his post about Iceland.
1. Iceland has the most beautiful horses I have ever seen - they are so cool looking and they are all over the place. We didn't get any pictures of them because it was pouring the day we drove around, but I will include some google pics so that you can see for yourself. Also, they all have blonde hair like everyone else in Iceland; quite fitting.
2. I discovered something wonderful in Iceland called Cronions. We stopped at a 7-11 type store one evening for a lovely healthy dinner of hotdogs (we did this far too often in Scandinavia) and they put something called cronions on them...little tasty, crunchy, crispy fried onions. Okay, so it probably doesn't sound that exciting (kind of like the horses, you had to be there) but I am telling you, they are phenomenal and they are all over Scandinavia at the hotdog stands.
In fact, I just pulled this picture off the internet for your viewing pleasure and it was off of a post where someone was raving about them, so I am not the only one. Also, I tried to get Nathan to buy them so we could bring them back home to share, but he said no and tried to convince me that we have them in the US...not true. :(
Okay, back to Sweden...
In Stockholm we stayed with Lisa, one of Nathan's sister's friends and had so much fun! Her flat was so cute and she and her girlfriends were so generous and helpful. On our second day there, Lisa toured us all around the city; Stockholm is beautiful. The architecture and colors of the buildings is so pretty and the waterfront was gorgeous. We went to the Nordic Museum where we got a taste of all things Swedish - traditions, design, the people, etc. Lisa also made us a yummy homemade breakfast and traditional Swedish dinner with raw fish (we opted out of the rotten herring) and potatoes; it was really good! We explored the old city, visited the trendy hipster part of town, shopped at H&M (and bought things we don't have room for in our bags, we couldn't help ourselves) and walked through the parks and around the islands. We had so much fun exploring the city and were definitely sad to leave Lisa.
We had planned to see a bit of the coutryside in Sweden or stop in a small town, but we spent all of our time in Stockholm since we liked it so much...then headed straight for Copenhagen!
1. Iceland has the most beautiful horses I have ever seen - they are so cool looking and they are all over the place. We didn't get any pictures of them because it was pouring the day we drove around, but I will include some google pics so that you can see for yourself. Also, they all have blonde hair like everyone else in Iceland; quite fitting.
2. I discovered something wonderful in Iceland called Cronions. We stopped at a 7-11 type store one evening for a lovely healthy dinner of hotdogs (we did this far too often in Scandinavia) and they put something called cronions on them...little tasty, crunchy, crispy fried onions. Okay, so it probably doesn't sound that exciting (kind of like the horses, you had to be there) but I am telling you, they are phenomenal and they are all over Scandinavia at the hotdog stands.
In fact, I just pulled this picture off the internet for your viewing pleasure and it was off of a post where someone was raving about them, so I am not the only one. Also, I tried to get Nathan to buy them so we could bring them back home to share, but he said no and tried to convince me that we have them in the US...not true. :(
Okay, back to Sweden...
In Stockholm we stayed with Lisa, one of Nathan's sister's friends and had so much fun! Her flat was so cute and she and her girlfriends were so generous and helpful. On our second day there, Lisa toured us all around the city; Stockholm is beautiful. The architecture and colors of the buildings is so pretty and the waterfront was gorgeous. We went to the Nordic Museum where we got a taste of all things Swedish - traditions, design, the people, etc. Lisa also made us a yummy homemade breakfast and traditional Swedish dinner with raw fish (we opted out of the rotten herring) and potatoes; it was really good! We explored the old city, visited the trendy hipster part of town, shopped at H&M (and bought things we don't have room for in our bags, we couldn't help ourselves) and walked through the parks and around the islands. We had so much fun exploring the city and were definitely sad to leave Lisa.
We had planned to see a bit of the coutryside in Sweden or stop in a small town, but we spent all of our time in Stockholm since we liked it so much...then headed straight for Copenhagen!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Iceland: Pictures
reykjavik:
nathan content to be in iceland:
icelandic countryside:
wet weather:
thingvillar national park:
drowning pool where the Vikings drowned adulterers:
Gullfoss:
sigur ros music video?:
blue lagoon:
nathan content to be in iceland:
icelandic countryside:
wet weather:
thingvillar national park:
drowning pool where the Vikings drowned adulterers:
Gullfoss:
sigur ros music video?:
blue lagoon:
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