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!

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!!!