Well now the countdown is beginning...
I've spent some great time revisiting places I've been to earlier in the trip and thoroughly enjoying myself, but with the small thought growing in the back of my mind that soon I will be heading back for home and back to work. Saying goodbye or at least see you later to all of the friends that I'[ve made during the trip - and all that makes it just that much harder to head off. At so many places along the path of this trip I've met people that i really get along with, like old friends that I've not seen for a long time.
So after another wander around Berlin seeing places that I missed last time - the Eastside Gallery, The Bundestag and other fascinating places and then Dublin and a Few days wandering around the west of Ireland I can't help but think that in three days I'm on a plane heading back for home and the trip is over .... for now.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
an odd couple of days
The last few days have been rather odd our time in the mountains was great and far too short,
the walks around town and up into the mountains to catch the cable car to the snow were great.
The hostel itself was fantastic to stay in, a traditional style Polish mountain houst built in 1905 with timber everywhere and beautiful carvings in the beams. The staff were incredibly friendly and great fun to hang out with and this was the only hostel I have actually had trouble convincing myself to leave...If I had the time I would have easily stayed an extra week or two there.
But sadly I had to leave and come down to see Kraków, the city is very nice and the hostel is... interesting - the atmosphere is great and it is interesting to stay at a place that is at the back of an alley. The first night here we literally dropped our bags and booked in for a tour of the Wieliczka salt mines. The tour of the mines is fairly basic taking you down to 135 metres below ground through a small portion of the salt mines to see the various chambers carved out of the salt by the miners... the carvings and the history of the mine are both fascinating, the mine itself was only shut down in the last decade for mining but still operates as a tourist destination and since it opened in the 13th Century it has been running for over 700 years.
Then after some of the best times in the trip came the most sombre... the tour from Kraków out to Auschwitz. Words just can't describe the place one monet you are able to fool yourself into thinking you are on just another tour and then you turn a corner and are confronted with somethng that just drops you. I had two moments that really struck me, One was turning from a model of the gas chanbers to be facing a cabinet full of the canisters that held the poison used to kill people in the chambers. The second was a massive display of human hair, a display easily 20 metres by 5 covered in women's hair that was found amongst 7 tonnes (the hair was used to produce textiles after it had been shaved from prisoners). I came away from the tour unsure of exactly what to think and I'm not sure I'll have digested it all for some time yet. Needless to say meeting up with some people on the bus and spending the afternoon and night after the tour partying about Kraków was necessary to maintain some sanity.
Now I'm spending time just wandering about town seeing the sights before I head for Berlin on Saturday night.
the walks around town and up into the mountains to catch the cable car to the snow were great.
The hostel itself was fantastic to stay in, a traditional style Polish mountain houst built in 1905 with timber everywhere and beautiful carvings in the beams. The staff were incredibly friendly and great fun to hang out with and this was the only hostel I have actually had trouble convincing myself to leave...If I had the time I would have easily stayed an extra week or two there.
But sadly I had to leave and come down to see Kraków, the city is very nice and the hostel is... interesting - the atmosphere is great and it is interesting to stay at a place that is at the back of an alley. The first night here we literally dropped our bags and booked in for a tour of the Wieliczka salt mines. The tour of the mines is fairly basic taking you down to 135 metres below ground through a small portion of the salt mines to see the various chambers carved out of the salt by the miners... the carvings and the history of the mine are both fascinating, the mine itself was only shut down in the last decade for mining but still operates as a tourist destination and since it opened in the 13th Century it has been running for over 700 years.
Then after some of the best times in the trip came the most sombre... the tour from Kraków out to Auschwitz. Words just can't describe the place one monet you are able to fool yourself into thinking you are on just another tour and then you turn a corner and are confronted with somethng that just drops you. I had two moments that really struck me, One was turning from a model of the gas chanbers to be facing a cabinet full of the canisters that held the poison used to kill people in the chambers. The second was a massive display of human hair, a display easily 20 metres by 5 covered in women's hair that was found amongst 7 tonnes (the hair was used to produce textiles after it had been shaved from prisoners). I came away from the tour unsure of exactly what to think and I'm not sure I'll have digested it all for some time yet. Needless to say meeting up with some people on the bus and spending the afternoon and night after the tour partying about Kraków was necessary to maintain some sanity.
Now I'm spending time just wandering about town seeing the sights before I head for Berlin on Saturday night.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
What a great time....
It's now the last night of my stay in Zakopane and the time here has been great -
I spent today loafing about the hostel and hiding from the cold and the rain outside while catching up on some sleep after sitting up all night chatting with people here at the hostel.
I've finally been able to complete a comple of my goals one for this trip and one in general - one thing I wanted to bring back was a set of polish crystal glasses and I lucked into finding two fantastic sets here in Zakopane for an amazingly good price compared to buying crystal at home, now I just have the challenge of getting them home in one piece.
The other, and far more exciting, was my trip up into the snow - the days before we arrived saw rain over Zakopane and up on the mountains so we hiked up to the cable car and took the ride into the mountians to see what we could see. It was fantastic to finally get to seem my first snow - no fall while we were up there but it was great fun to trudge around in the snow and throw a few snowballs. The one disconcerting thing was the path along the top of a steep ski slope was very icy and in places was like walking on a sheet of ice and in others nice soft powder which you sunk into to the knees.
So after the relazing time here wandering about town and the mountains tomorrow we hop a bus back down to Krakow and see what we find there.
I spent today loafing about the hostel and hiding from the cold and the rain outside while catching up on some sleep after sitting up all night chatting with people here at the hostel.
I've finally been able to complete a comple of my goals one for this trip and one in general - one thing I wanted to bring back was a set of polish crystal glasses and I lucked into finding two fantastic sets here in Zakopane for an amazingly good price compared to buying crystal at home, now I just have the challenge of getting them home in one piece.
The other, and far more exciting, was my trip up into the snow - the days before we arrived saw rain over Zakopane and up on the mountains so we hiked up to the cable car and took the ride into the mountians to see what we could see. It was fantastic to finally get to seem my first snow - no fall while we were up there but it was great fun to trudge around in the snow and throw a few snowballs. The one disconcerting thing was the path along the top of a steep ski slope was very icy and in places was like walking on a sheet of ice and in others nice soft powder which you sunk into to the knees.
So after the relazing time here wandering about town and the mountains tomorrow we hop a bus back down to Krakow and see what we find there.
Monday, October 6, 2008
The Rushed Update
So it has been a little while since I could get online and update and now I get a chance...Paris and London gave me litle time to sit in front of a computer but here I am in Zakopane in the mountains of Poland's south and I can just kick back and relax.
So here goes..London was fun as many of the tourist sites as possible crammed into two days starting with a tour of the HMS Belfast a cruiser moored in the Thames now used as a floating museum, I saw this one from a distance last time I was here but did not head in and got a chance this time to wander about the exibits and read up on some war time history of the vessel. Add to this wandering across Tower Bridge, The Tower of London - in which I highly recomend the tour run by the Beefeaters, all ormer military men who now are the Queen's official bodyguard and keepers of the Tower. The men that take groups on tours have a keen and cutting sense of humouor making the time in there highly enjoyable. Top all this off with a trip to the Camden markets an absolute chaos of colour and intruiging sellers just about anything you are after can be bought here a couple of hours just wandering about is both great fun and great danger to the wallet.
Paris again was chaos and filled with as many tourist sights that could be covered in two days and after the first day of wandering about just looking at all of the impressive buildings we did the inside of Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph each with their own fantastic view of the city. The highlight of the time here for me though was the long queue for the tour of Notre Dame, while waiting in line a street performer, wearing a latex Quasimodo mask, was making passes up and down the crowd on the other side of the street sneaking up behind people and then waiting for the look of shock when they discover him standing next to them. his best trick was to come up behind a couple, seperate the guy from the girl and then follow along with his arm on her shoulder waiting for her to notice that the person they had been walking with had been replaced - this one more than any other drew howls of laughter from the queue watching on.
So here goes..London was fun as many of the tourist sites as possible crammed into two days starting with a tour of the HMS Belfast a cruiser moored in the Thames now used as a floating museum, I saw this one from a distance last time I was here but did not head in and got a chance this time to wander about the exibits and read up on some war time history of the vessel. Add to this wandering across Tower Bridge, The Tower of London - in which I highly recomend the tour run by the Beefeaters, all ormer military men who now are the Queen's official bodyguard and keepers of the Tower. The men that take groups on tours have a keen and cutting sense of humouor making the time in there highly enjoyable. Top all this off with a trip to the Camden markets an absolute chaos of colour and intruiging sellers just about anything you are after can be bought here a couple of hours just wandering about is both great fun and great danger to the wallet.
Paris again was chaos and filled with as many tourist sights that could be covered in two days and after the first day of wandering about just looking at all of the impressive buildings we did the inside of Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph each with their own fantastic view of the city. The highlight of the time here for me though was the long queue for the tour of Notre Dame, while waiting in line a street performer, wearing a latex Quasimodo mask, was making passes up and down the crowd on the other side of the street sneaking up behind people and then waiting for the look of shock when they discover him standing next to them. his best trick was to come up behind a couple, seperate the guy from the girl and then follow along with his arm on her shoulder waiting for her to notice that the person they had been walking with had been replaced - this one more than any other drew howls of laughter from the queue watching on.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Hello Bruces
for those who are not familiar with it watch this video
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA
then read on....
Imagine if you will a group of Australians and a mad Irishman wandering about Dublin refering to each other as Bruce in the manner of the Python sketch. This started about midday and continued on till late that night through such fun as six of us walking in file past a young fellow who had been pulloed over by the Garda (Police) and each of us in turn greeting him with a cheery "hello Bruce" and then the last in line hearing his confused explanation to the police that "no I'm really not Bruce". Top off the day of wandering the Irish countryside with great views of Wicklow and Dublin with a night in the local pub after Jugger training with all the Australians being called Bruce (in a loud and badd aussie accent) and all the or Irish referred to as "Not Bruce" the night was full of confudion and chaos including a couple of hours of mystified acceptance from "rule no.1"
Our time in Ireland was great and the last week of my trip is definately now going to be filled with a return to Ireland for some more Jugger and some wandering about the countryside.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA
then read on....
Imagine if you will a group of Australians and a mad Irishman wandering about Dublin refering to each other as Bruce in the manner of the Python sketch. This started about midday and continued on till late that night through such fun as six of us walking in file past a young fellow who had been pulloed over by the Garda (Police) and each of us in turn greeting him with a cheery "hello Bruce" and then the last in line hearing his confused explanation to the police that "no I'm really not Bruce". Top off the day of wandering the Irish countryside with great views of Wicklow and Dublin with a night in the local pub after Jugger training with all the Australians being called Bruce (in a loud and badd aussie accent) and all the or Irish referred to as "Not Bruce" the night was full of confudion and chaos including a couple of hours of mystified acceptance from "rule no.1"
Our time in Ireland was great and the last week of my trip is definately now going to be filled with a return to Ireland for some more Jugger and some wandering about the countryside.
Monday, September 29, 2008
The next step
Well the next stage of the journey was pretty interesting...
after saying goodbye to Glenn 3 times before we left - once in Oktoberfest the night before we left (not expecting to see him before he flew out) then once again at oktoberfest after he materialised at our dorm on the day we flew out and then again running into him at the train station as we left to catch our flight.
oh I forgot....one more time at the airport as we waited over two hours for our delayed flight from Munich to Dublin - apparently there was some major failure of air traffic control in the UK which prevented a large number of flights from going over the UK. After much delay and confusion we finally made it into Dublin with a short scramble for a taxi we made it to Mark's place where we have proceeded to take over and turn the world upside down.
Some great games here against the Irish Juggers and some good touring around the sites like the Book of Kells at Trinity College and the Old Jameson Distillery the time here in Dublin has been fantastic. The one disappointment is the huge change in the city from the memories I have of my last visit the city has grown rapidly and areas are over-run with tourist traps drowning out the atmosphere I remember, but if you know where to go or have a local with you the good places still exist they are just a little outside the tourist areas. With my last week of the trip still unplanned I am giving serious consideration to hooping a flight back here for the last part of my trip just to get some more time here in the Ireland finding out what else has changed and get some more wandering in.
after saying goodbye to Glenn 3 times before we left - once in Oktoberfest the night before we left (not expecting to see him before he flew out) then once again at oktoberfest after he materialised at our dorm on the day we flew out and then again running into him at the train station as we left to catch our flight.
oh I forgot....one more time at the airport as we waited over two hours for our delayed flight from Munich to Dublin - apparently there was some major failure of air traffic control in the UK which prevented a large number of flights from going over the UK. After much delay and confusion we finally made it into Dublin with a short scramble for a taxi we made it to Mark's place where we have proceeded to take over and turn the world upside down.
Some great games here against the Irish Juggers and some good touring around the sites like the Book of Kells at Trinity College and the Old Jameson Distillery the time here in Dublin has been fantastic. The one disappointment is the huge change in the city from the memories I have of my last visit the city has grown rapidly and areas are over-run with tourist traps drowning out the atmosphere I remember, but if you know where to go or have a local with you the good places still exist they are just a little outside the tourist areas. With my last week of the trip still unplanned I am giving serious consideration to hooping a flight back here for the last part of my trip just to get some more time here in the Ireland finding out what else has changed and get some more wandering in.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Oktoberfest Final day
Well after a couple of days here in Munich it has been great time.
A fantastic rest stop for those of us who picked up the flu that has been
going around and a really interesting time to potter about the city.
Our final night was quite relaxed and we could just sit about relaxing.
Krys and Wendy got away safely on the start of their adventure in the Mediteranean.
Glenn is still down at the Oktoberfest enjoying the local brews and the party atmospher while a few of us have said our farewells before he heads for Africa and scarpered out of the rain to go back to the room and crash. An evening of eating, a little drinking and partying with the table of Italians next to us was a great way to finish our stay.
so now we rest up and prepare for our trip to Dublin.
A fantastic rest stop for those of us who picked up the flu that has been
going around and a really interesting time to potter about the city.
Our final night was quite relaxed and we could just sit about relaxing.
Krys and Wendy got away safely on the start of their adventure in the Mediteranean.
Glenn is still down at the Oktoberfest enjoying the local brews and the party atmospher while a few of us have said our farewells before he heads for Africa and scarpered out of the rain to go back to the room and crash. An evening of eating, a little drinking and partying with the table of Italians next to us was a great way to finish our stay.
so now we rest up and prepare for our trip to Dublin.
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