Tag Archives: Europe
Český Krumlov
I have been trying to work out how to describe Český Krumlov, Czech Republic, just right… it is not at all what I expected, which shouldn’t really be a surprise given what I have already experienced on this trip. But if I had to describe it… this is where I would live if I was indeed, a Disney Princess… which is something I have given more thought than I care to admit. But it would be seriously perfect for this, tiny cobblestone streets, a beautiful river, picturesque skyline and an ancient castle complete with a bear moat… seriously a moat with bears instead of water… not ideal for the bears right now, but definitely Disney princess movie worthy… because it would be cartoon and the bears would be part of the family in a totally animal rights approved way.
Just to add to the magic that was Český we stayed in the one of the greatest places I have ever walked into… The Old Inn, right in the town square. An Inn which I am pretty sure has just been added to over time. The stairs and floors have no real order, you just follow the signs around twists and turns until you get to your room… which for us was right up the very top… in the attic… it was super cosy and ticked ‘have a room in the attic, complete with slanted roof’ off my life bucket list… although the roof did make the shower a little more complicated then it should have been… I have never had to kneel to shower… and I hope I don’t have to again… but it was fun for a night.
Oh… and we visited our 4th museum for the year today… which means no. 76 is off the list. Not bad for day 12 of 2016!
Auschwitz-Birkenau
As we drove out of Poland today we stopped at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Words can’t really express what it was like to stand where so many others stood in horrible conditions. To walk through the barracks they lived in. To see the conditions, breathe the air, and hear the stories of those who had gone before.
Auschwitz is an eerie place, but being there today in the cold, still, foggy conditions made the realities of its use during WWII so much more confronting. As I stood there rugged up with thermals, 3 jumpers, scarf, gloves and thermal woollen socks in my sturdy shoes, still shivering, I couldn’t help but think of those forced to work in similar weather conditions with nothing more than prison pyjamas and bare feet. As we walked though a remaining barrack at Birkenau that had housed hundreds of women in cramped and uncomfortable bunks, it made our race each morning for a good seat on the tour bus seems ridiculous, when all 50 of us would have been housed in just over 6 bunks. And as I looked at what little remained I was reminded that we as humans know when we are doing something wrong… we cover our tracks, we blow things up so they can’t be identified, burn things down and remove the evidence… we know… they knew.
I think the thing I have been finding most confronting particularly about WWII is lies the Jewish people were told constantly and despite the fact that so many never returned, so many still came with hope. Hope that they were in fact going to a better place, hope that work would set them free, hope that they would live, despite what they had heard and could see. They came under the lies of resettlement, bringing their best belongings. They were told they would live in rooms complete with twin chimneys – stoves for heat and cooking, stoves that were never used. The were told they could stay with their children as they were washed, only to have their dignity stolen as they stripped down and then held the hands of their loved ones as they died together. Only to have their belongings sorted, donated or sold. Only to be exploited even in death.
It’s hard to believe that it isn’t just some horrible story. That this actually happened… and that despite it’s warning not to let it happen again that mass killings and genocide seem to continue with uncomfortable frequency.
There was a quote in the doorway that said:
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
George Santayana
And I think we forget too often… I hope that I never forget the things that I have seen today… that I never gloss over a past this horrific. But more than anything I really do hope it stops repeating.
Kraków
Working my through all these places has made me realise how little I actually know about anything… and that the little I did know is so tainted with Hollywood… most of it is incorrect… enter Poland just to confirm this…
So here are some Polish fun facts that I now know are true because I lived it… or I read it while in Poland… so that makes it legit.
- Polish Dumplings are a thing… they are called pierogi and they look a lot like Asian dumplings… but they have their own Polish flair… I can’t tell you which came first, but I can tell you both are delicious.
- The Warwel Castle in Krakow is said to be built on the lair of Krak the dragon… so it’s may not be confirmed fact… but I did learn it at the foot of the castle so I think it counts… it also carries it’s own fact and legend… FACT: there is a statue of Krak the dragon outside the castle… LEGEND: it apparently shoots fire every 15mins or so… I saw some fire from a distance… but despite waiting right up close… I never saw it again…
- Oskar Schindler was a complex guy… he saved a lot of people… but I am not sure if that was always his plan… I am sure glad he did, but I not convinced he is the clear cut war hero I thought he was before I checked out the museum they made in his old factory.
- There is a church… in the Jewish quarter that has a fairly sizable prison cell on the front of the building where adulterers were held… so everyone could see… and so they could have some time out.
- There is a dagger hidden in the main market square… the dagger is said to be the weapon used by one of the two brothers who built the towers of St Mary’s Basilica to kill the other brother because he was jealous that the tower his brother built was better than his… Oh and in the tower there is a trumpeter that plays the ‘Krakow Anthem’ but only up to a certain point… It is stopped abruptly because legend has it the trumpeter was shot in the throat when sounding the alarm way back in 1241… They re-enact it one the hour every hour…
Budapest
Every country we go to makes it much harder to pick my favourite stop… the whole of this continent is incredible… Today I am writing from Hungary… seriously… did I just type that? Hungary… who would have thought? Hungary… well Budapest in particular has once again blown my expectations out the water… last night we climbed to the top of ‘Buda’ and looked out over beautiful ‘Pest’ and then enjoyed the incredible thermal pools that our hotel… which was pretty flippin awesome before we found this out… was built on. Seriously is there anything better than sitting in a 40°C thermal pool surrounded by snow? Probably not… especially considering it crosses no. 47 off the list. We also got to check out the local Hungarian cuisine and the local nightlife at possibly the most random building I have ever been in, an abandoned communist building converted into a night club, fitted with the most eclectic collection of art… memorabilia… nostalgic… random things.
But I think the highlight of Budapest has to have been today… After traveling with 48 other people for 10 days sometimes it’s nice to just hang out with your favourite person… alone… so today Dave and I explored everything we could possibly find in Budapest… The Castle, St Matthias’ Church, St Stephen’s Church (This was runner up to highlight… it has a dead guys preserved hand… in a little cabinet… on display… that often participates in parades… so very good!), the Parliament building, the shoes along on the Danube – an incredibly moving memorial to the Jewish people who were murdered there in WWII, the ‘House of Terror’, Hero’s Square, a pretty incredible Ice skating rink, an enchanting castle in the park (yep… no. 75 is now off the list too), the market place, a ride on the worlds first underground rail system, a beautiful dinner by the river looking over to our incredible hotel and then finishing the day by sneaking into the rock church behind a local and just pretending we knew what we were doing… all in very very very cold weather… sunny, but freezing… like -6°C freezing…
It has been so incredible to see so many amazing places, but even more special to be seeing them all with Davo… I couldn’t have picked a better travel buddy… and we aren’t even halfway yet!
Dear Slovenia… Sorry I misjudged you.
Ok even though it is ‘Wordless Wednesday’… this Wednesday also needs some words because we only have one night in Slovenia and I need to tell you that I was completely wrong about it.
Going into Slovenia I expected a poor country with lots of concrete and limited beauty… I don’t really know why I expected this… it’s just the image I had when I thought about it… I guess it was my prejudice. It turns out I could not have been more wrong.
Slovenia… well both Bled and Ljubljana anyway, were beautiful, enchanting places, filled with all the best Europe has to offer, beautiful architecture, cute streets, an abundance of delicious food and a pretty epic castle. It also had the best lights I have seen to date, turning a dark winter into a pretty magical experience. And even though we only got to see the capital (Ljubljana) in the dark, it is on my list of top places… especially given it is the home of the most delicious upgrade to the vanilla slice I have ever tried… the Kremsnita.
Venezia
Okay, so it turns out it is going to be a lot harder to share the key things I have learnt while away purely because of the volume of new information my brain has taken in and processed. I am fairly ashamed of how little history I actually knew before starting this trip. I had always thought of myself as pretty knowledgeable and well versed culturally, just strategically hidden in a fairly thick occa accent (I am not sure if that’s how you spell occa… I am pretty sure it isn’t, but if you know the correct way, let me know…). So instead, you’ll probably just get some good old fashioned reflection and highlights. So here we go…
Happy New year! This year as I mentioned in my last blog we have started the year in beautiful Venice. Last night we headed to a masquerade party at bar just outside of the Venice you see in the postcards… on I guess what would be considered the ‘mainland’. Because we joined the tour group in Rome, we didn’t have quite as long to find masks for the party and thanks to a jam packed day of touristing, we didn’t want to waste time hunting one down or pay the prices down town Rome offered, especially seeing as though everyone else paid a fraction of those prices back in Florence or Milan before we got there. Thankfully some of our new friends had upgraded their masks and so, had a second mask they were happy for us to have… so both of us, yep, even Davo, masked up for the night. New Year’s was actually a great night, even though neither of us were expecting it… it’s hard to party with 50 people you’ve never met before they pop the masks on, let alone when you can’t tell who is who and two more tour groups were added to the mix. But it turns out that the night really helped us get to know the group and become part of the tour group which was a relief. We were a little worried that we would be the newbie outsiders for the whole tour despite the fact that we were already making friends, but we didn’t to worry… Anyway… that’s how we brought in the new year.
January 1 we headed into Venice, Venice and it was just as I imagined. In the walking tour we looked at St Mark’s Square, St Mark’s Basilica, The Bridge of Sighs and had a chat about the history and culture of the town. Venice is unbelievable and although I had heard rumours that it smelt… due to the mostly stagnant water making up the canals that divide the 100+ islands… the advantage of going in the middle of winter… is that it doesn’t. It’s just pretty. The little streets and pokey houses were picturesque and every corner I turned I felt the need to take more pictures.
I think the highlight of the day was checking out the local transport, the gondola. We did ask our gondolier to sing, but he informed us he only did this after a lot of alcohol. We also went for quite an adventure back on the mainland to find a restaurant that was open for dinner on New Year’s Day and stumbled upon a town square complete with ice skating rink… For our one day in Venice… I think we spent it pretty perfectly. Oh and numbers 1, 59 and 74 all were crossed off the list… Possibly the most successful list day 1 in list history.
Roma
I am not really sure what these blogs are going to look like over the next little while, but I really wanted some way to document this incredible trip that Dave and I have somehow managed to pull off.
A trip to Europe has been on my list of ‘must dos’ for a number of years now, and here we are… actually traveling around Europe. I think perhaps the best way to document our adventures would be to document the things that I learn in the different places that we go… and (spoiler alert) post about the things I cross of the 2016 list. I apologise in advance if these get a little boring, or too much… but it is what it is, and it will probably be a very long time before we do anything like this again.
So here we are in Rome, Italy, stop number 1. Not only has Dave managed to navigate us from Rome international airport to our hotel on public transport, he has also successfully delivered us to our new bus load of friends who we will spend the next 21days with.
Rome is magnificent! Every where I look there is something interesting and beautiful. Before we met up with the tour Dave and I walked and walked and walked, just taking everything in. We found some pretty neat things… you know the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain… nothing that exciting… just kidding it’s flipping awesome. Once we caught up with our 48 new friends we walked some more… well a lot more and saw some more pretty amazing things… the Spanish Steps, the inside of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon and The Vatican – including the Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Square and Basilica. We also ate a lot of delicious food, pizza, pasta, gelato… so much good food, after all.. when in Rome!
Wordless Wednesday: When in Rome
The Most Curious George 