Busy in my last few days in Europe

Hey all,

I have done so much since last time I posted, but I haven't had time to write. We are also thinking about taking a trip today to a famous island in the far north of Germany, the Island of Sylt on the North Sea. Wiebke's mom, who I met along with Wiebke's sister last night, owns an apartment that she rents out on the island. She's offered us a place to stay if we decide to make the trip. We're checking the weather right now and will be making our decision shortly. Stay tuned for the decision and more pictures and messages from Europe - though they may have to wait to go up until I get get home since I leave on Thursday morning!

See you in a couple days! Hopefully I will find some time to post between now and then!

New post, this time with pictures!

Guten Tag!!!

After a long dry spell of picture posting, I will now make up for such a terrible thing to do to you. I cannot tell you how much I loved Warsaw, though I certainly did try to. Berlin was really cool as well. I got to Berlin on Thursday evening, was amazed at the huge and beautifully efficient train station, had a little bit of a frustrating time figuring out which S Bahn (tram) line to take to get to my hostel, and eventually got to Wombat's Hostel in the City Center (though it was East Berlin before The Wall came down). I highly recommend this hostel if you ever visit Berlin. I had a great first night - went up to the in-house bar on the top floor of the hostel, which also had a beautiful outdoor deck, watched the sunset, drank some beer, and met some new friends that were also traveling alone - one from Australia another from the Netherlands, and another from Malaysia. They were great to hang out with. I met more people from many other places, including another guy from New Zealand that we had beers with that night, but hung out with those three the most. The next day we all met up for breakfast and the dude from the Netherlands and I set out for a walk through the huge park in Berlin after visiting Karl-Marx Allee, including a climb up the Victory Statute Tower where we got great views of Berlin. Not only this, though, we stumbled across a section of the park that I suppose was a nudist section. I don't have an issue with people that want to be naked, but it just seemed a little odd to me that they would choose to do so in the middle of the largest park in the middle of a city of 3.2 million people. I totally understand the beach, but this was a little weird. And no, I did not take pictures.

Bar/Deck at top of the Hostel:

The Victory Statue Tower:

After the park, which we walked through for quite a while since it was so large, we had a late lunch of Currywurst (sausage covered in a tomato-curry sauce) with french fries and a beer and then walked over to the Brandenburg Gate, where we would meet a tour guide for a walking tour of Berlin. Before the tour could begin, however, we had a quick downpour for about 30 min, where we all (all meaning all the people waiting for the tour) got soaked. After that delay, we finally got started on the tour at 4:30pm. The tour was awesome, included the big sights of Berlin, including the Berlin Wall, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (that's really the name), and Bebelplatz where the Nazi book burnings took place, and ended with the story of how the Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago. Yes, I also realized that I had the great luck to be able to visit Berlin on the 20 year anniversary of the falling of the Wall earlier in the day when I saw all of the outdoor exhibits all over the city comemorating the event. It was an incredible experience to be able to be in the city.

The "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe":

Me and The Berlin Wall:

Humboldt University:

My friends and I all met up at the bar later and toasted to Berlin and our newfound friendship, and in the morning I got up, checked out, had breakfast and headed for the train station.

Above: Friends! Except, we didn't know that chick, she just jumped in the picture from nowhere. All I know is she was a little drunk and from Italy.

I arrived in Luneburg yesterday and had dinner with Wiebke (my friend I'm visiting here) in the city center, along with a walk and a beer in a brewery in town. This place is adorable! I'll be visiting it in earnest tomorrow - I have several things I'm planning to see and will certainly post pictures of that as well. Today, Wiebke's best friend Janine was wonderful enough to show me around Hamburg - all three of us got up super early (Wiebke and I got up earlier as we had to take a 30 min. train ride into the city) , we met Janine at the train station and then took the S Bahn to the Fischmarkt (fish market). This was not just a fish market, but the largest farmer's/merchant's market you've ever seen! It was almost like a carnival, and this happens every Sunday starting at 5am and going until after 10am. There were people wandering around, some of them drinking and/or still drunk from last night's partying (did you know that Hamburg has a red light district?!), looking at all the people shouting trying to sell whatever they had: produce, flowers, souveniers, clothes, fish, cheese, and countless other things. My favorite ones were guys at a house plant stand that were extremely excited about their house plants - yelling and shouting to try to sell them and doing all sorts of ridiculous things. The whole event was awesome!

Then we spent the whole day seeing the sights of Hamburg - what a cool city! And it slightly reminds me of Seattle too as it is a port city on the water. Additionally, I think we used every mode of transportation possible today, except for a plane. The weather was nice and cool in the morning, a welcome break from the heat and humidity of Berlin, and then cleared up around midday - sunny and warm all afternoon. Here are pictures to show you what I mean:

The girls showed my so much that I can't possibly cover it all here - you'll have to wait to see all the pictures when I get home - and we ended the day with a trip up the tower in St. Nicolai's Cathedral for a panoramic view of the city - beautiful!

I'm leaving so much stuff out, but this blog can't become a novel. Oh well. Can't wait to see more of extremely charming Luneburg - Auf Wiedersehen!

Brief synopsis of the past few days in short sentences....

Ok, so my last day in Warsaw I spent touring teh Warsaw Uprising Museum, which was amazing. Then, had dinner with Candace at a Bulgarian restaurant - amazing! The next morning I put on my bags and headed for the train station.

After about 5 1/2 hours I arrived in Berlin! I was initially frustrated because I couldn't figure out which S Bahn line to take to get to my hostel, but finaly figured it out. Hostel is awesome. Clean, comfortable, and full of amazingly cool people. Spent all night in the bar drinking beers and meeting people from Malaysia, the Nederlands and New Zealand, to name a few. Very fun. .Then, had breakfasst with a couple friends this morning, then set out to run around the giant park in the center of the city with a new friend from the Nederlands. Then, after hours of walking around the park and climbing the vitory column, we got caught in the rain before taking a free walking tour of Berlin. The walking tour was awesome - saw Brandeburg Gate, Babelplatz, the Berlin Wall, and so many cool places! Seriously cool - will try to post pics soon.

Gotta run!

More Warsaw....

Here's the breakdown from yesterday (the very abbreviated version):
I spent all day walking around Warsaw, went up to the "Old Town" and "New Town" squares, saw the tomb of the unknown soldier, walked through at least 3 of the numerous (and huge!) parks in the city (every city could learn something from the Varsovians), ate the most delicious and heavy lunch - goulash in a giant potato pancake thing topped with sour cream and green onions accompanied by a beer - went to an awesome art exhibit and to the Palace of Culture. The Palace of Culture is actually a Communist skyscraper, which was cool to see, and I'm sure my friend Ben McGreevy would like to know I visited. It was a great day, and was only dampened slightly by a little rain and thunder in the late afternoon, which passed quickly. However, we've been having some interesting weather here, for sure! Can't wait to post the video we took when we got stuck in a bar because of the storm the day before yesterday.

Last night I had the luck and privilege of attending an amazing concert. It was an event to give an award named after and dedicated to a woman (forgetting her name just now) who worked with the Home Army (a resistance group in WWII Poland) to save Jewish children from perishing in the Holocaust. The award is given to an outstanding educator every year, as the woman the award is named after believed that education was a key component to changing the world. The concert featured traditional Jewish music and Cantorers (sp?) and was such an incredible experience. Just thinking about it right now gives me goosebumps. It took place in the National Opera House downtown Warsaw as well, which was a fantastic experience for me. Tons of Jewish people came in from the U.S. and Israel to winess this prestigious event, and the former presient of Poland, the current president's wife and twin brother, and the last remaining member of the underground group to save the Jewish children during WWII attended. Candace managed to snag us some tickets (she was kind enough to have me tag along) to this invitation only event and I got to sit up in the U.S. Embassy's private box - way cool! I'm seriously racking my brain for ways that I might be able to thank her for this amazing stay in such a beautiful city. She really has been a tremendous host. I am so lucky to have such wonderful and gracious people in my life.

This trip has been full of some of the most fabulous experiences in my life, and I still have a week left. Tomorrow I will catch the 11:35am train to Berlin and then will head to Hamburg on Saturday to wrap up this European Experience. 6 weeks has gone by so fast!

Jazz exhibit and a freak storm in Warsaw

So, the event I got to attend last night was the opening of a jazz exhibit that details the performances and visits abroad of the great names in Jazz to promote happy feelings about the US. I must say that it was a huge success - what a cool exhibit! It was all black and white photographs of the biggest names in jazz and blues: Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Clark Terry (who I've had the privilege to see in concert at Jazz Alley in Seattle), and the list goes on. I love Jazz, and apparently so does Poland as the Jazz scene here is alive and well. I feel so lucky that I could go the the event.

But, as we were getting ready to leave, we discovered it had started raining. The weather had been absolutely gorgeous for the past couple days, so this was a little surprising. Even more surprising was that it continued to get worse every second until tables chairs and umbrellas were blowing over in hurricane style winds and hail (though it really looked more like ices cubes) started falling. It was totally bizarre! I've never seen bigger raindrops in my life either! So, there we were, stuck in the bar and trying to wait out the rain as none of us had brought anything to shelter ourselves with. But at least we were stuck in the bar and could have a drink or two while we waited. Eventually it let up a little bit and Candace and I ran to her friend's car to get her stuff out of the trunk and then sought shelter under the eaves of a hotel check in area while we waited for a cab. Needless to say, we were completely soaked. Nothing that a change into pajamas and a hot cup of tea can't fix though!

Today I am heading out to the Wilanow castle and will probably hit up a couple museums or galleries as well as the Palace of Culture, which is supposed to be pretty amazing. Having a great time and sending my love to all!

Warszawa!!!!

Wow! What a great city! Everyone should visit Poland, I've been so impressed.

So, Krakow was very fun and cute, but also quite touristy. I enjoyed my stay there immensely, but Warsaw is quickly becoming one of my favorite places I've been on this trip. Candace, the ever gracious host, has kept me extremely entertained. I got here on Saturday night and went to a housewarming party with her where I met most of her colleagues from the Embassy, what a wonderful and interesting group of people! Then, yesterday, we rode bikes all over the city, stopping at outdoor festivals everywhere and eating wonderful Polish delights and drinking awesome unpasturized Polish beer. Delicious! I got to see so much of the city and enjoyed the bike ride immensely. I am convinced that it's the best way to see a city. After our ride around town, we went to an outdorr jazz concert and then on a river cruise with folks from the embassy as a send off for one of their co-workers who is heading to Kosovo in a week. It was a beautiful evening, the company was great and the sunset was subperb.

Being here is amazing. I can't believe I'm in Poland/Eastern Europe. Not many Americans make this a destination, though I am totally convinced they should. It's an eye-opening experience the history of Warsaw alone is staggering. 85% of the city was destroyed in the Polish uprising of 1944 and they re-built the city brick by brick to look as close to what it did before the devastation. It's incredible to walk the streets with that in mind.

The weather has been beautiful, thankfully, as it has been unseasonably wet here from what I've heard. Right now I am sitting in a coffee shop on a square and enjoying a sunny morning and a caffe latte while planning out my day and making reservations for my hostel in Berlin. Tonight I will be going to an opening VIP reception for the place where we saw the jazz concert last night. So glad I found a cute dress while in Krakow! I'll take lots of pictures and be sure to post asap.

I feel so lucky to be staying with Candace, we hadn't seen eachother for 8 years and it's been great catching up with her - she's still just as wonderful as I remembered her and I'm glad to be rebuilding a great friendship. Not to mention the palatial accomodations in her apartment - it's so nice to have my own room and personal bathroom after staying in hostels with 12 other people to a room and all sharing a bathroom.

Stay tuned!!!

Finally I have some time to write!

PHEW! What a crazy week!

So, in the past week I have taken final exams, turned in my terrible paper, checked out of my apartment, then made the trek from Florence to Venice, Venice to Vienna, and then a crazy journey from Vienna to Krakow, Poland. This evening I head to Warsaw and shoudl arrive by 8pm.

Venice, as I told you earlier, was great. I loved Vienna and had the luck of being able to go to a Mozart Symphony/Opera Concert while there, which was a great experience. They played all my favorites, the venue was beautiful and the singers were amazing. I'll post pictures soon, hopefully.

Then, there was the ridiculous journey from Vienna to Krakow, Poland. Holy hell! I was supposed to leave Vienna at 10:15pm and make it to Krakow by 6:30am the following morning. However, this most certainly did not happen. I awoke at what I later found out was 4:30am to discover the train was not moving and freaked out because my phone, which had been stuck on Eastern US coast time since I left the states (5 weeks!) decided to switch to local time while I slept. Basically, I had no idea what time it was, though I could tell it was early morning from the level of the sun in the sky, and could not figure out where I was. Turns out, we were stopped at a train station in the middle of the Czech Republic and that there was such bad flooding up the track that we could not continue on our route. After sitting there for three hours and trying to figure out what was going on, no one would tell us anything, they finally said we had 10 minutes to get our things together and run over to another platform to catch and train that would take us to a bus. We had no idea what stop to take, and finally figured that out, got on the bus which took us to another train station, got on another train, which then took us to another train that would take us to Krakow. Then, as if things weren't bad enough, this train took the most circular and long trip to make it to Krakow. We ended up arriving in Krakow a full 11 hours after our original scheduled arrival time. 19 hours on a train with only the snacks I brought with me (thank goodness I had the common sense to also bring a bottle of wine!), when the travel toime should have been 8 hours. That's what happens when you travel though! Gotta roll with the punches!

The silver lining to this crazy journey, though, was that I made a great friend on the train. She's a French teacher from Toronto, Canada that is participating in a program in Nice, France. We had the best time in Krakow together before she left on the night train to Prague last night. We exchanged information and are going to keep in touch, though she is heading to Hong Kong for a year to teach after she completes her program in Nice. So jealous!

Anyway, as I said earlier, I'll hop on a train to Warsaw at 5pm this evening and (hopefully) should make it there by 8pm to meet up with Candace Faber, a girl I went to junior high and high school with who is of the most fabulous character adn brilliant to boot! I am extremely excited as I haven't seen her in 8 years! Guess I'll have to break off my engagement with my fiance (featured in the post below).......

Stay tuned!!!