Tuesday evening I returned to Berlin from 5 day excursion to Krakow, Poland. Krakow is Poland's 3rd largest city and lies just near the eastern border of Poland, a little south of Berlin. It is normally about a 3 or 4 hour journey from Berlin, however it took far longer for us to reach. We traveled to Krakow from Berlin on regional trains (also took the same type of trains back to Berlin) to the journey lasted 10 hours. Although long, the train ride wasn't too too bad. I did some work on the train, as well as socialized and got some rest. We left Berlin just before 10:00 AM and arrived in Poland a little after 8:00PM.
The first thing we did, was walk about 15 minutes to the hostel we were staying at. We stayed at the hostel known as "Any Time." The hostel was very hospitable and perfect for our group. We had a total group size of 17 people......fairly large. They split us up into 4 rooms. All the girls stayed in one, and the guys split themselves up into the other three. I stayed with 5 other guys in one room. The rooms weren't too bad. They were actually somewhat cozy. There were individual bathrooms for the toilette and shower. There were both wicked tiny, but usable and clean. The only thing that I didn't like about our rooms were the beds and pillows. The beds felt like there was absolutely no padding whatsoever, and was just a box of springs. The pillows were wicked old and was basically just little clumps of padding. Other than that, our stay was really nice. The hostel served us complimentary breakfast every morning and allowed us to come and go as we pleased.
After quickly settling in, we heading for the nearest bank and ATM to withdraw some money. Although Poland is a European country and is a member of the European Union, it is not yet part of the Euro-Zone and has its own currency. The currency they have is known as the złoty (pronounced swaty). The exchange rate is about 4 złoty to one Euro. So needless to say, it is relatively cheap in Poland and the bills for restaurants and things looked really big. For 5 people or so, the bill was between 100 and 120 złoty.
After withdrawing some cashola, the group split up because we were just way to large to be able to get a table in one bar or restaurant. The group I went with ended up going to a little pizza place. The place was really nice and the pizza was excellent. The table we ended up getting happened to be in the basement, which turned out to be very common in Krakow. Most of the bars and restaurants in Poland all had their main seating and serving areas in the basements. We all filled up on pizza and a couple of us ended up having a deep political convo. It was a pretty good night. After that, it was about midnight so most of us headed back to the hostel to turn in. I went to bed, but a couple of people went next door to do some dancing.
The next morning we got up at about 8:30am and headed downstairs for some breakfast. We talked about our day and what was ahead while we ate. This particular day, Saturday, we were getting a tour of the center of Krakow from a local expert. I can't remember the name of the guide, because I couldn't really read his name or pronounce it. He was a great guide though. He knew everything about everything in Krakow. He was a bit intimidating and scary at first glance though. He was tall and wore dark clothing. He had buzzed gray hair and white wrinkly skin with yellowing teeth. He was mostly all black with dark blue jeans and a long black pea-coat. His voice was deep and he had a thick polish accent. Despite looking like a mofia boss from Moscow, he was quite funny and polite. We got to see a bunch of old churches and buildings. We toured the newly built town hall, the oldest cathedral, the largest town square, and many of the old side streets. He told us many old legends, gave us the historical background of Krakow, and explained a lot of the culture. Krakow is very very very old. Many of the buildings, churches, streets and squares are still remaining from the Medieval times. Streets in Krakow were much smaller and older looking. Krakow was also a lot smaller than Berlin and more central. The city is also EXTREMELY Catholic. Everywhere there were catholic churches and young nuns and priests walking around. At the end of our tour, our guide showed us the former city gates and fortress that used to be surrounded by a giant moat. He then recommend a traditional Polish restaurant and bid us farewell until the next day.
After the tour we went to the restaurant our guide suggested. It was really nice and actually appeared quite fancy, but wasn't too expensive. We ate downstairs as usual. The waitresses wore traditional Polish dress and the setting was very old. We sat on short wooden benches and ate on a short wooden table. I ordered the perogies. This is a traditional Polish dish, very similar to raviolli, with meat inside. It was very good and very filling. After that we walked around the massive square for a little while and checked out the shops. We then met up with the Program Director for the study abroad kids in Poland and the students. We all made our way over to a little historical cafe for coffee and cake. The cake was amazing and we learned a lot about Krakow, the cafe, and the other students. After that we checked out a bar we wanted to go to later in the night. That night our entire group and some of the Polish students ended up going to a bar called C.K. Browar. It was a half bar, half club. I just stayed with a few other people in the bar and we talked, watched some sports, and drank beer. The best part was the way the beer was served. Everyone gets a 3ml glass. We then choose one beer everyone wants, and they bring it out in a huge 5L glass tube with a tap attached. So we basically serve ourselves. Its amazing. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. We turned in at about 1 or so.
The next day, the same guide from the day before showed us around the quarter of Krakow that we were staying in. It was the Jewish quarter and is known as Kazimierz. We visited a bunch of synagogues, and some Jewish Cemeteries. Later in the day, we toured the old Castle and Cathedral that still remained. They were both enormous and fantastic. We were able to walk up to the top of the bell tower and look at the city from high above. After that some of us, including myself, went back to the hostel to take a nap. One of the students was having a birthday that day and we planned on going out. We went out to a bar just outside the main square. It too was underground and really cool. The walls were all stone and it looked like a cave......or the inside of a brick oven haha. I had only one drink, because I had a headache and wanted to make sure other people didn't over do it. I had a margarita. It was delicious, yet very weak haha. The bar also had a dance floor and some good music...they even played Cotton Eyed Joe. Overall it was a pretty fun night. The next day, we didn't have to get up as early, but we had a much longer day. On Monday we traveled to Auschwitz - the former and most famous Nazi Concentration Camp. There's a lot to tell about Auschwitz, so I'm going to write about that in a different post.
Berfor I finish up, I just wanted to make some observations about Poland. I noticed that almost every house and apartment had a satellite dish. Apparently they love them. I also learned that Poland and Hungary are pretty much the bestest of friends. The two countries have had good relations for centuries. The relationship is really hard to describe, and I can't think of any other countries who even compare. The language in Poland is very different too. The speak Polish of course, which is a slavic language. If you wanted to compare it, Polish would be to Russian, as English is to German. The Poles also spoke a good amount of English. They don't care for Russian or German, due to the shaky past and aggression of the both Russia and Germany with Poland.
So yea, overall it was an awesome trip and a great experience. I'm going to post a little later on about Auschwitz and I'll be putting pictures up on webshots so have a look.
Bis Spaeter.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Vor Polen
So I thought I would write a little before I left for Poland. Yesterday, obviously wasn't a very good day. It started off not so bad. I woke up just after 9am and and it was snowing really hard. I got pretty excited about that so I decided to get up and maybe take some pictures. By the time I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, and came it had stopped snowing. That left me with a pretty long morning...which was fine with me because I had a lot to do anyway. I got a bunch of things done, like emails, and research, and got caught up on the news. The first piece of bad news came when I learned that Mike Huckabee didn't win his primaries and had dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination. Now it's time for me to decided which of the three democratic candidates I like better.
More bad news for yesterday was that the BVG (the company that owns and operates the subways, the buses, and the trams for the city) went on an unlimited strike for at least until March 14. There is also what is known as the S-Bahns. This is another subway system that is owned by the State company Deutsche Bahn. These were running, but they have limited trains within the city, and sometimes just takes longer to get to their station then to walk where I need to go. It toook me about 40 minutes to walk to German class. I got to the building early to read the newspaper and get some work done. While reading the newspaper, I discovered the next piece of bad information. According the paper, the S-Bahn personnel are going on strike starting Monday next week. That means, that there will be absolutely NO public transportation next week, and it may affect our train for the return trip to Poland.
After reading that bad piece of info, I learned that Blake had a hockey accident and was in the hospital. This definitely topped it off. After talking to Chris and Mom, I experienced home sickness for the first time since arriving in Berlin. I have realized however, that it could be a lot worse and that there is really nothing I can do from here, nor can I go back home right now, so I'm just going to continue living and enjoy Poland as best I can.
Today was really cold, but we had an awesome tour in Treptower Park. There is a huge Soviet Memorial and had a very interesting story. I'm going to go back when it is nicer our and take pictures. Today was our last day of German class, and for our sake, we met in Treptow so that we wouldn't have to walk all the way back to the other side of the city for class. Our German teacher is amazing and she took us to a Museum, then we went out to a cafe and had some pretty good discussions. She wished us all the best of luck, and gave us all hugs and hoped that we stay in touch. It was a pretty long walk home. But now its time to pack and get a good nights sleep.
I'm still not sure if I will be able to communicate to the outside world while in Poland, but hopefully. If not, then I will talk to everyone when I get back. I will be sure to post on the blog, post my pictures, and call home. I wish my brother all the best in recovery and I will be thinking about him.
Tschuss
More bad news for yesterday was that the BVG (the company that owns and operates the subways, the buses, and the trams for the city) went on an unlimited strike for at least until March 14. There is also what is known as the S-Bahns. This is another subway system that is owned by the State company Deutsche Bahn. These were running, but they have limited trains within the city, and sometimes just takes longer to get to their station then to walk where I need to go. It toook me about 40 minutes to walk to German class. I got to the building early to read the newspaper and get some work done. While reading the newspaper, I discovered the next piece of bad information. According the paper, the S-Bahn personnel are going on strike starting Monday next week. That means, that there will be absolutely NO public transportation next week, and it may affect our train for the return trip to Poland.
After reading that bad piece of info, I learned that Blake had a hockey accident and was in the hospital. This definitely topped it off. After talking to Chris and Mom, I experienced home sickness for the first time since arriving in Berlin. I have realized however, that it could be a lot worse and that there is really nothing I can do from here, nor can I go back home right now, so I'm just going to continue living and enjoy Poland as best I can.
Today was really cold, but we had an awesome tour in Treptower Park. There is a huge Soviet Memorial and had a very interesting story. I'm going to go back when it is nicer our and take pictures. Today was our last day of German class, and for our sake, we met in Treptow so that we wouldn't have to walk all the way back to the other side of the city for class. Our German teacher is amazing and she took us to a Museum, then we went out to a cafe and had some pretty good discussions. She wished us all the best of luck, and gave us all hugs and hoped that we stay in touch. It was a pretty long walk home. But now its time to pack and get a good nights sleep.
I'm still not sure if I will be able to communicate to the outside world while in Poland, but hopefully. If not, then I will talk to everyone when I get back. I will be sure to post on the blog, post my pictures, and call home. I wish my brother all the best in recovery and I will be thinking about him.
Tschuss
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
HAMBURG and more
So yes, I know its been a little while since I've put a post up. But things have started to get pretty busy and I at least got to talk to some of you personally on the phone. This month will be even more difficult for me to post often. I'm only going to be in Berlin for about 1/2 the month of March. This Friday my group leaves for an excursion to Karkow, Poland. We will be there from Friday until next Tuesday. Then our Spring Break starts the 15th of March and ends on my birthday. Then my group leaves for another, but longer, excursion to Budapest, Hungary and Transylvania, Romania on March 25th. We won't return to Berlin from this excursion until April 3rd. So needless to say, I'll be MIA for most of March.
Moving on, I was able to travel to Hamburg this past Saturday with three of people in my program. This was just a fun little day trip that we planned. A group of 5 is able to travel anywhere in Germany on a train ticket known as the "Schöneswochenende Karte." This translates to "Happy Weekend Ticket." What it means is that its good on weekends, starting either on Friday night at midnight or Saturday night at midnight, and lasts until 3AM the next day. The ticket only costs 35 Euro. So since we had a group of 4 each of us only paid 8.75 euro for a round trip train ticket to Hamburg and back. This is a pretty sweet deal. Of course, we had to stay strictly to appropriate trains, and make sure that we had the right connections so as not to exceed the limitations of the ticket. So here was our day.
I went to bed fairly early Friday night and got up at 4am on Saturday morning. Our train left Hauptbahnhof at 5:23am. We made one connection in a town about 2 1/2 hours north of Berlin. The name slips my memory at the moment. We then rode our connecting train for about another hour and 1/2 and arrived in Hamburg at 9:30am. I got some sleep in on the train, but not much. The that day sucked too. It was cold, rainy, and windy. Only later did I find out why the weather was bad. I'll explain later. So in Hamburg we basically just picked out on a map that we got in the train station what sites we wanted to see and visit and then walked to then and checked everything out. We first walked to Rathaus Hamburg (the city hall) and stopped and took some pictures of a couple of churches and other things along the way. We went inside the Rathaus and looked around. The building was huge and really old and nice inside. You can see some of those pictures on my webshots. We then looked around the little square that the Rathaus was in. There was a WWI memorial and really nice shopping district located along the River Elbe. The river is one of the biggest in Germany and runs right through Hamburg. For this reason, Hamburg has a huge Maritime and fishing industry. After looking at the shopping district a little and the river, we walked towards on of the big churches. The church was one of Martin Luther's first churches and was called St. Michaels. From there we walked down to the water front to check out the Marina and also look at an old Schooner that had been turned into a museum. We checked out the Schooner and the exhibitions inside. They were really neat, and we were pretty much allowed to go anyway on the ship.
After that we sat down and ate lunch at a nice little bistro near the Marina. I had an AMAZING Fishsuppe (Fish soup). It was the first time I'd had seafood since arriving in Germany and it was amazing. We sat in the cafe for well over an over to eat, warm up, and plan out where to go next. We walked along the rest of the harbor to look for a fish market that was suppose to be there. The market happened to be closed that day, but we did see a neat tunnel that ran under the entire river from one bank to the other. Small cars and people could use the tunnel to cross the river. From there, we walked to Hamburg's famous "Reeperbahn" (red light district). WOW! The district was HUGE and just funny to see. It's totally mind boggling what the Europeans find appropriate and what American's would find revolting. German's strolled through the Red Light District like it was nothing and couldn't care less if every-other store has strip joint or porn shop. Really weird. From there we walked back down toward the shopping district and center of the city. We walked around some of the shopping district we didn't see before and looked for a place to sit and eat dinner. I found the best place ever! I found the Hofbräuhaus-Hamburg. This is a "sister" restaurant to the world famous brewery, restaurant, and beer garden in Munich - the Hofbräuhaus München. The restaurant was set up like and indoor biergarten (beer garden). The tables were like heavy sturdy picnic tables and were surrounded by other tables and trees. There was a huge skylight for the shine to shine in, although we had none that day, and a large projection screen for everyone to watch the Bavarian soccer team. This was probably my favorite part of the whole day. I ate the typical Bavarian dish of Weisswurst (white sausage) with sweet mustard and a pretzel. I washed down the dish with the world famous Hofbräuhaus-München Bier. This was a 1 litre beer! in the biggest beer mug I've ever seen. And it was absolutely delicious. Here is the site to visit and see some pictures.
From there we headed back to the train station to catch our 7:05 PM train back to Berlin. On the way back, we actually had 3 other connections, so the train riders weren't very long and made it difficult to fall asleep. We ended up getting back into Berlin a little after midnight and I got back to my apartment at 12:45. Overall, despite the weather, it was a really fun experience and worth the long day. I'm glad I got to do it and you all can look at my pictures on webshots to see everything I got to see.
Now, for the weather aspect....apparently on Saturday and Sunday there was a storm system known as Emma over Germany and other countries in Europe. I wasn't aware of this until I read the news Sunday and Monday, but trust me, I felt the effects. It was really wind, rainy, and cold. On Monday, I saw in the paper and online just how bad the storm had been. A total of 14 people in Europe died, 6 in Germany, and travel was difficult. This is a video of a Lufthansa flight attempting to land at the Hamburg airport.
On a better note of weather, I it snowed in Berlin for the first time since I've been here. It was weird weather today actually. It rained this morning, then the sun came out, then it snowed this afternoon haha. No snow accumulated but it was at least exciting to see some. I also got to see a presentation by a representative from BP about the Future of Energy and Oil in Europe. It was really interesting and I learned a quite bit of new things. I think thats about it for now. I'll try and let you know what I've done the rest of this week before I leave for Poland. If not, I'll be sure to post my adventures of Poland when I get back.
Bis Dann!
Moving on, I was able to travel to Hamburg this past Saturday with three of people in my program. This was just a fun little day trip that we planned. A group of 5 is able to travel anywhere in Germany on a train ticket known as the "Schöneswochenende Karte." This translates to "Happy Weekend Ticket." What it means is that its good on weekends, starting either on Friday night at midnight or Saturday night at midnight, and lasts until 3AM the next day. The ticket only costs 35 Euro. So since we had a group of 4 each of us only paid 8.75 euro for a round trip train ticket to Hamburg and back. This is a pretty sweet deal. Of course, we had to stay strictly to appropriate trains, and make sure that we had the right connections so as not to exceed the limitations of the ticket. So here was our day.
I went to bed fairly early Friday night and got up at 4am on Saturday morning. Our train left Hauptbahnhof at 5:23am. We made one connection in a town about 2 1/2 hours north of Berlin. The name slips my memory at the moment. We then rode our connecting train for about another hour and 1/2 and arrived in Hamburg at 9:30am. I got some sleep in on the train, but not much. The that day sucked too. It was cold, rainy, and windy. Only later did I find out why the weather was bad. I'll explain later. So in Hamburg we basically just picked out on a map that we got in the train station what sites we wanted to see and visit and then walked to then and checked everything out. We first walked to Rathaus Hamburg (the city hall) and stopped and took some pictures of a couple of churches and other things along the way. We went inside the Rathaus and looked around. The building was huge and really old and nice inside. You can see some of those pictures on my webshots. We then looked around the little square that the Rathaus was in. There was a WWI memorial and really nice shopping district located along the River Elbe. The river is one of the biggest in Germany and runs right through Hamburg. For this reason, Hamburg has a huge Maritime and fishing industry. After looking at the shopping district a little and the river, we walked towards on of the big churches. The church was one of Martin Luther's first churches and was called St. Michaels. From there we walked down to the water front to check out the Marina and also look at an old Schooner that had been turned into a museum. We checked out the Schooner and the exhibitions inside. They were really neat, and we were pretty much allowed to go anyway on the ship.
After that we sat down and ate lunch at a nice little bistro near the Marina. I had an AMAZING Fishsuppe (Fish soup). It was the first time I'd had seafood since arriving in Germany and it was amazing. We sat in the cafe for well over an over to eat, warm up, and plan out where to go next. We walked along the rest of the harbor to look for a fish market that was suppose to be there. The market happened to be closed that day, but we did see a neat tunnel that ran under the entire river from one bank to the other. Small cars and people could use the tunnel to cross the river. From there, we walked to Hamburg's famous "Reeperbahn" (red light district). WOW! The district was HUGE and just funny to see. It's totally mind boggling what the Europeans find appropriate and what American's would find revolting. German's strolled through the Red Light District like it was nothing and couldn't care less if every-other store has strip joint or porn shop. Really weird. From there we walked back down toward the shopping district and center of the city. We walked around some of the shopping district we didn't see before and looked for a place to sit and eat dinner. I found the best place ever! I found the Hofbräuhaus-Hamburg. This is a "sister" restaurant to the world famous brewery, restaurant, and beer garden in Munich - the Hofbräuhaus München. The restaurant was set up like and indoor biergarten (beer garden). The tables were like heavy sturdy picnic tables and were surrounded by other tables and trees. There was a huge skylight for the shine to shine in, although we had none that day, and a large projection screen for everyone to watch the Bavarian soccer team. This was probably my favorite part of the whole day. I ate the typical Bavarian dish of Weisswurst (white sausage) with sweet mustard and a pretzel. I washed down the dish with the world famous Hofbräuhaus-München Bier. This was a 1 litre beer! in the biggest beer mug I've ever seen. And it was absolutely delicious. Here is the site to visit and see some pictures.
From there we headed back to the train station to catch our 7:05 PM train back to Berlin. On the way back, we actually had 3 other connections, so the train riders weren't very long and made it difficult to fall asleep. We ended up getting back into Berlin a little after midnight and I got back to my apartment at 12:45. Overall, despite the weather, it was a really fun experience and worth the long day. I'm glad I got to do it and you all can look at my pictures on webshots to see everything I got to see.
Now, for the weather aspect....apparently on Saturday and Sunday there was a storm system known as Emma over Germany and other countries in Europe. I wasn't aware of this until I read the news Sunday and Monday, but trust me, I felt the effects. It was really wind, rainy, and cold. On Monday, I saw in the paper and online just how bad the storm had been. A total of 14 people in Europe died, 6 in Germany, and travel was difficult. This is a video of a Lufthansa flight attempting to land at the Hamburg airport.
On a better note of weather, I it snowed in Berlin for the first time since I've been here. It was weird weather today actually. It rained this morning, then the sun came out, then it snowed this afternoon haha. No snow accumulated but it was at least exciting to see some. I also got to see a presentation by a representative from BP about the Future of Energy and Oil in Europe. It was really interesting and I learned a quite bit of new things. I think thats about it for now. I'll try and let you know what I've done the rest of this week before I leave for Poland. If not, I'll be sure to post my adventures of Poland when I get back.
Bis Dann!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
