Pictures

Sorry for the lack of pictures everyone. Unfortunately, I have not had access to a computer with the capabilities to upload. I will post some as soon as I can! :)

Paris: May 25 and 26

Monday morning, we got up early to repack everything and get ready to catch the bus to Paris. We arrived so early that we were able to hop on a bus that left an hour earlier than planned. :) This was a good thing since it took almost 4 hours to get there. We arrived, hopped on the metro, got off on the wrong stop and walked probably .75 miles to find our hotel with all of our stuff. I was joking that we would end up at the top because I always did when we were in Paris. Well, we checked in and the man told us we were in room 31... on the 6th floor... up the spiral staircase... with no elevator. It was actually kind of funny as we each had about 40+ pounds of stuff to carry with us.

Anyway, we checked in, bought some groceries for lunch, took a few pictures at Notre Dame de Paris, and just wandered the area. Eventually, we hung out in an internet cafe for a while trying to figure out the details of the rest of our trip. We walked around, got a crepe for dinner, and walked around the Latin Quarter. We almost went home but decided to go into a bar along the road because they had Sangria on special. We made friends with all of the hosts and finally left a little after midnight. Unfortunately, it was raining and I didn't have and umbrella so I walked a couple miles or so in the rain... not pretty.

We hopped in bed and slep the morning away on Tuesday. After getting organized, we didn't make it out to the city until around 3, but we still managed to grab some pain au chocolat, head over to the Arc de Triomphe, walk over to the Eiffel Tower to take some pics and then take the metro to where we thought the Moulin Rouge was. It's really too bad nobody in Paris seems to actually know where it is. We asked about 5 people and after piecing everything together... we realized that we still had about a mile to walk. We finally made it there but just took some pictures since tickets for shows were running up to 180 euros. Too rich for me. I think the plan is now to head back to the Latin Quarter to find a nice dinner, head home, and then catch a flight to Morocco in the morning. :)

Brussels: May 23 and 24

We made it to Irina in Brussels without too much hassle. The metro is under construction, so we have to take a bus every time we want to go from central station to her house, but it's not terrible. Anyway, we arrived and it felt so good to be in the city again. The three of us (Megan, Irina, and I) ran some errands around town, and decided to go catch a movie to relax for the evening. Then, we just wandered around town, got some gelatto and Belgian fries and hung out in Grand Place for the evening.

When we got back to Irina's that evening, she tried to teach us a Russian card game, but Megan and I were having the HARDEST time figuring it out. I think we finally got it in the end.

Then, in the morning, it was time to go back to my old church in Brussels. We got up early, stopped off at the bakery, and hopped on public transport all the way to church. When I got there, I was able to see Thomas, Tornike, Erika, Edjun, Damien, Sajjad, Patrick, ...everyone! It was wonderful! :) Unfortunately, there was no young adults group meeting afterwards so a few of us decided to go out to lunch. Damien, Megan, Sajjad, Irina and I ended up wandering around Brussels following Sajjad for almost an hour I think trying to decide on a place for lunch. Finally, we ended up eating at the same place we always went to when I was living there last year. Afterwards, we found Megan some Belgian chocolate and went to visit the Delirium (home of over 2000 beers). Finally, we got some ice cream again and relaxed in a park for a while before deciding we should go back and meet Irina. Surprise though... Irina called and said Brigitte would be able to come meet us so we turned around and met the girls at central station and went out for some cocoa at the Exki. The people were so nice, they let us stay until over a half hour after they closed... just the four of us catching up. Then, back to Irina's to practice some cards and get to sleep.

Improvements

Ok, things have gotten much better. Well, I arrived in Belgium after the last train back to Amsterdam so I had to stay. I was supposed to have met Megan near baggage claim but she thought I had missed my flight or something, so she went back to Amsterdam. The ticket booth was already closed, and I almost missed the last train to Brussels Centrale. I hopped on the train, found the conductor and paid him on the spot and then found a nice guy on the train who let me use his phone. I got ahold of my good friend Irina from my old church in Belgium. We were supposed to stay with her this weekend, but she was nice enough to let me stay with her once I arrived in Belgium. She was amazing and came to meet me at the central station, brought me back to her house and I FINALLY got to take a shower and have some mint tea, relax, and get some sleep. Although.. at this point, I still didn't know yet that Megan had made it to Amsterdam.

I checked my email, found out she was there and decided to take one of the first trains there in the morning to try to meet Megan by 11. Irina and I got some delicious croissants, and headed for the train station. There were some delays, so my train didn't get into Amsterdam until almost 11:30. I started walking towards where the hostel was and was lucky enough to find Megan in the street. United at last! :0)

We spent a few hours trying to be good tourists in Amsterdam(seeing all the essentials: canals, tulips, clogs, etc.). Then, I went to call my friend Sara to tell her we were coming to meet her in her city, but I didn't have a working European phone. We ended up calling from the police station because nobody seemed to know where the payphone was. We arrived at the train station in Den Haag (Sara's city) and hopped in her friend's car to head to the beach. We tried some Dutch pancakes at a cute little restaurant and umm... Megan and I started feeling really odd, but we decided to go on a long walk through the paths in the dunes. Our two groups got seperated, and eventually we all ended up meeting on the beach, relaxing, and playing in the water of the North sea a bit. It was nice, and by the end of it, we had probably more than a 10 km or at least 6 mile walk on the beach.

I was so jet-lagged and exhausted by that point so Sara made us some dinner and I fell asleep really soon after. Then, the next morning, we slept in and took a train to visit this cute, traditional Dutch town called Delft. We had lunch along the canals, had our first ice cream in Europe, and bought little wooden shoes.

Finally, we took the train back to Den Haag to explore a little bit. We decided we wanted to try Heineken here but most of the places weren't open. We walked into a little street cafe and ordered a beer. They said ok, but couldn't seem to find them. Finally, they gave them to us, but they were warm - so we choked them down and went to meet Sara after she got off of work. We went to this AMAZING Korean restaurant and tried some really interesting foods. We all left to walk around Den Haag for a bit and see some more of the sites, headed back to Sara's to watch a movie and get some sleep. Tomorrow morning, Megan and I will be headed back to Brussels to see Irina and all of the good people at IBC. Things are looking up!

A trip with Amber: CHAOS

So - first they didn't have me registered as having purchased a ticket when I arrived in Minneapolis. Then, I was already there a few hours earlier than normal since I came with a friend who was on an earlier flight.

Then, we boarded on schedule, but sat on the plane for 2 hours while the air conditioner did not work... it was over 100 degrees for 2 hours. Then they had us get off so they could do maintenance work, and finally had us get back on at 10:30. I rode between a Turkish man named Rem, and a Hungarian grandpa named Peter.... who didn't speak any English and needed alot of help figuring everything out with the delays. It was a little chaotic, but we got along well. Didn't arrive in Amsterdam until more than 4 hours after I was supposed to and then was delayed on my flight to Brussels until 9:15 that night. I'm frantically trying to find a place to stay in Brussels since we will have missed the last train to Amsterdam by the time I arrive. Off to try to catch my flight to Brussels. Here we go again...

Planning again...

So, my last entry was from Poland, almost 10 months ago. I never finished posting about the end of my trip to Europe, because I didn't have convenient internet access. However, it was amazing, wonderful, and everything I could have ever dreamed of. Then, I flew home and got caught up in the chaos of finding a job and getting ready to start school. Well, all in all, I've been home in the U.S. for almost 9 months.

And I'm going stir-crazy.

Naturally, this means I'm planning another trip. I'll be leaving on May 19 on a flight to Belgium. I will only be there a few days, but will be visiting quite a few other places. In general, my tentative itinerary is as follows:

Belgium (Brussels, LLN?), Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam), France (Paris), Morocco (Casablanca, Marrakech, Rabat, Essaouira, Fes, suggestions?), France (Marseilles, Cannes?, Nice, Monaco, suggestions?), Switzerland (Basel, Interlaken?), Turkey (Izmir, Istanbul, Inner Anatolia, suggestions?)

All in all, I'm pretty excited. I will be gone for just over 6 weeks, and will get a chance to visit many of the amazing people I met while I was traveling last year. Wish me luck, and send me suggestions please!

Poland Day 1: Auschwitz (pictures to come)

June 15: So this morning, I overheard the plans of the roommates and decided since they had already figured out the logistics, I would go along to visit Auschwitz. I've been to the Holocaust Memorial in D.C., I've been to places like Omaha Beach, and I've heard all of the stories about the history. Nothing compares to walking through the gas chambers where millions of people were misled into believing they were going to get a shower. Nor does any of it compare to standing outside of the ovens used to dispose of over 2 million bodies.

Backing up, I hopped the bus in the morning, got to Auschwitz and was unhappily surprised to see food and souvenir kiosks outside. It seemed a bit disprespectful to me. However, I quickly went inside the compound and paid for my tour. It started with a video explaining the basics of what happened for anybody who wasn't familiar with it, then a walking tour through Auschwitz I, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the bigger of the two camps, about 3km down the road). A little factoid: they got their names from the city they're in: Oswiecim.

First step was through the gate: it read Work sets you Free. This was surrounded by electrified barbed-wire fences. We then went through many of the buildings where people were to stay, saw the beds, rooms, facilities, etc. Without too many details: the process tended to go something along the lines of people would arrive, be forced to strip down for a "shower", be gased by a chemical known as zyklon B, and be disposed of. This consisted of shaving their hair to sell as raw material for fabric, removing gold teeth, sorting all of their posessions, and then burning them. However, this took too long in the ovens, so they would make piles in the woods to get the job done more quickly. How, HOW was this kept quiet? The point about shaving their hair etc. was to explain part of what we saw. When the camp was liberated, they found tons of human hair, over a million sets of shoes and clothes, piles upon piles of eyeglasses, toothbrushes, prosthetics, etc. Basically anything that could be salvaged, was taken and stored. It was crazy to walk through the halls of these things and think that each shoe, each pair of pants, each comb belonged to someone exterminated there.

Well, it wasn't over. I then made my way over to Birkenau, which was the setting of Schindler's List, with the railroad track, etc. This was where many of the "scientific experiements" took place. They were testing poisons on children etc. Here, the process was a bit different. It was mostly the same as above, except that as soon as the people arrived on the trains (up to 8,000 per day), they were sorted into those fit for working, those worth experimenting on, and everyone else. Everyone else was killed like at the other camp. I'll stop with the gory details, but the experience was surreal to be walking in this place.

Well, then it was back on the bus to head back to Krakow and catch some sleep to get ready for the next day.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road? Poland Day 0

June 14: So what's the best way to get to Krakow? Get there any way you want, but you probably don't want to follow me. To begin with, I was running late, but wanted to get a gift for my friend who is letting me stay with her for free in Denmark later this week - so I got a box of Neuhaus chocolates.

I just made it to the train, but then the train was running a little bit late. Also, I apparently filled out my ticket wrong and had to convince the person validating them that I wasn't trying to cheat them out of 4 euros. Then, because the train was late, I missed the bus to the airport meaning I had to grab a taxi. Ugh.

All was fine with the flight until I realized that while I thought I had all of my hostel information and directions written down as I usually do (with more information than I'll ever need), I had nothing more than the hostel name... oh yea because I had forgotten my map on the floor in my room. So I'm sittting on the bus that runs between the airport and the city center with a bunch of Polish people.. and I started to get a bit nervous. All I knew was that it was going to be nearly 11 pm by the time we arrived and that my hostel was somewhere on the opposite side of Krakow from the bus station. So - I started talking. I heard some Americans and thought they might have a guidebook. They didn't, but they told me to talk to the Polish guy behind them.... the guy who spoke no english and just looked at me like I was crazy.

It turns out that while he spoke no english, he understood... because about a half hour later he handed me a telephone with his son on the other end who offered to have a friend look up the hostel and get me directions. Fabulous! Well, when we got to the bus station, they also realized that it was on the opposite end of town and insisted on giving me a ride. Well, they were nice and the son was cute so hey.. why not. ;) I ended up getting a free tour around Krakow by night and a ride to the door. I did end up saying goodbye to that box of chocolates that I bought earlier in a last ditch effort to say thank you. Anyways, I made it! And I was greeted by my roommates: 4 English and 3 Irish guys. Oy... it's going to be a long trip.

Prague Calling

June 8-11: Well I finished exams and studying and am now on a last minute tour of Europe. I flew to Prague on Sunday without too many issues. The problems started after I landed. I got to the city and it turns out that my directions weren't so great. I was walking towards a castle instead of a church, and probably would have continued had I not met Alexander from Belarus. He was walking and looked as innocent as I was so I started a conversation and managed to spend 2 hours walking around lost in Prague. FINALLY I found my hostel which turned out to be in a little quaint lane off of the old main square. It was cute and quiet and perfect. I then spent the last hours of the day wandering around getting a feel for the city. The day was over, but the life at the hostel wasn't, and I met quite a few people, learned about accounting in the UAE, and learned how to play Euchre with some guys from Purdue.

In the morning, I got up and took a walking tour to see all of the different types of architecture in the city, as well as to find out a general overview of the city's history. Then it was walking around a bit more, and hanging out in the old square. They had set up some big screens to show the EuroFest 2008 soccer games, so that was fun. Later that night, my friends showed up, and we met up to go check out the Charles Bridge, where we just sat for a while taking pictures, watching boats come in, and enjoying the lights of the castle. Then... it was off to bed.

On the 10th, we spent the better part of the day touring the castle/palace and everything that it included. There was the Vitus Cathedral, the Golden Lane, the National Gallery, etc. It was beautiful and took us up until about 4 or 5 o'clock to get through everything. We decided to go visit the castle gardens, but apparently took a wrong turn and found ourselves hiking on rickity wooden planks through a mini-forest about 30 feet straight up from the road. Well, we finally made it back to civilization after about 45 minutes of wandering and decided it was time to try a Czech beer: Gambrinus. It was fabulous, even better than the Belgian beers. Then, we wandered the city some more, spend some more time at the Charles Bridge, stopped by a little music place on the river, and turned in for bed.

In the morning, I was enjoying the outskirts of the city, just wandering around people-watching, etc. Then I headed off to the airport to head back home to Brussels. Hopefully the next post will have more historical/interesting information and maybe even some pictures. Don't count on it though - my camera has decided to stop working and I don't really have the cash for another one. We'll see what I can work out.

Studying by the Seaside:Oostende and Bruges

So the past 2 weeks have really been filled with studying, writing papers and taking exams, but I'm nearly finished!

May 21: I had to take advantage of my location. I have been studying in my room so much lately that I decided to take a break. There was a train in the morning that got me up to Oostende, which is Belgium's largest seaside city, by about 11. It was beautiful and definitely had a very nautical feeling. After walking around town a little bit, seeing the cathedral, and the main monuments, I took some time to relax and study on the beach. A word of caution: no matter how long it has been since you've walked along the beach, never forget that the sea can create some surprisingly large waves. Now is the time where I add in another hour of studying while I waited for my jeans to dry. :0)

Well, I didn't stay all day because I was meeting up with my bible study group in Brussels that night and I wanted to check out Bruges again. If you've been following the blog, you probably know that I went there a few months ago, when it was a bit chilly. It's like whole different place now, filled with markets, beautiful flowers, and bikes galore. I'm glad I got a chance to see it again. After walking around for a bit, it was back for another Wednesday evening in Brussels.