Zjave
David Parker Joined: June 2nd 2006
Logged in: January 25th 2007
Logged in: January 25th 2007
Travel Blog Posts
The Forest
I'm home now, I got out of London two days before all that mess, I'm very lucky. But I figured I should update the rest of the blog, I'm about one week behind! Freiburg is in southwest Germany, right next to Basel, Switzerland. It was one of our favorite cities- people rode bikes everywhere, full of anarchists and hippies, there was a protest against police brutality the day we left and some protests against Israe by the local Lebanese community as well. But the reason why people go there is mainly to see the Black Forest, which was really nice. We just relaxed for two days, riding our rented bikes around. Except for one day I had a really bad fever and couldn't think straight and left a poster tube on the train full of people's ... read more
Tor
Munich was an odd city. I found out that lots of "German" things- lederhosen, pretzels, weisswurst, etc., are actually Bavarian, which is conservative and talks different, so it is basically the it is like the American south. Except its in Germany. Munich was much more beautiful than Berlin, much more compact and less hectic. However, I couldn't shake the odd feeling I got when our great tour guide, Ozzie, "the only Black man in Munich," told us that although Munich has done a great job rebuilding from world war II, it has completely whitewashed its involvement. I learned a lot, we walked the same route that Hitler and 2,000 Nazis did in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 I think, which ended in a failure and during the jail term Hitler wrote Mein Kampf. It was ... read more
The World Clock on Alexanderplatz
What can I say about Berlin? Well, let me tell you this: Berlin is the coolest city ever, and I don't think I can talk to you if you haven't been there. I can't really explain why, I just feel like a better person than you after seeing Der Stadt. So please go to Berlin or stop reading right now. We were really really fortunate to be able to stay at my friend Francisco Blache (I probably spelled his name wrong) house in the suburb near Grunau station for four full nights. The first night, we just went for a nice night swim in the nearby lake, but the next day we were off. Francisco explained to us that Berlin is the biggest construction site in the world. True enough, the closest thing Berlin has to ... read more
The Dunes
We took a rickety old train to the supposedly sleepy beach resort of Leba, along the Baltic. Well, it was full to the brim with Polish holiday makers trying to get to the beach, so we ended up with a decently priced room, except it was far away from everything. Our uneasiness among the heat and the crowds melted away instantly when we rented some bicycles, which I havent rode on this whole trip, I almost forgot how great they are. We took the seven kilometer ride to the Slowinski national Park, after making a stop to buy some picnic foods. We had lunch on the Baltic coast, with views of not much because of a strange fog, except for some school groups. The water was actually a bit of a disapointment, because it was sort ... read more
Gdansk
The title of this journal is in honor of Tomek. When we arrived in Gdansk, the Dizzy Daisy Hostel was full, but they directed us to another one, the Baltic Hostel, which was "3 minutes away from the train station." That was their motto on the brochure. Well, the directions were really bad and we wandered into what seemed like the Polish projects- tough guys sitting on porches, either pointing in a helpful manner, but still unwelcomely, the proper direction. When we finally came there, our friend Tomek, a pot-bellied middle aged Pole, showed us around. I think he was slightly drunk, this was about 9:00. Our tour was like this: (In Polish accent) Here is shower. Man... Woman... No Problem... (wink) Here is toilet. Here is toilet. Here is room. Man, here. You, here. This- ... read more
Torun is a very, very gorgeous town in central Poland that is famous for three things: 1) being stunningly quaint and beautiful 2) their famous pierniki, or gingerbread, and 3) birthplace of Kopernik, or Copernicus as he was known in Latin. Unfortunately, because of my poor judgement, we missed the first train and thus had less time than I would have liked here. Torun has 200,000 people, but it wasn't damaged much in WWII and it really seemed like the most authentic and fun Old Town we had been in, the town square was full of locals, not tourists, and there was even the ruins of an old Teutonic order castle that you could practice shooting arrows for 4 zloty. I didn't, but I'm a cheapskate and the arrows looked questionable. It was located on the ... read more
Warsaw, or Warszawa, is the largest city and also the capital. Unlike Krakow, it was not spared from WWII. In fact, the Nazis razed over 85% of the city. As a result, the city is not what you'd call pretty, except for a few blocks in the old town. Still, Warsaw has been one of my favorite cities so far, for atmosphere and attitude, I suppose. There are not as many tourists here, but the people didn't stare like some did in the other towns, I guess that they have too many other things to worry about. We stayed in a really cheap hostel out of the center called "Big Blue." True enough, it was really a Big Blue building, a student polytechnical dorm, rented out in the summer. It was there that I first tried ... read more
Cloth Hall
Krakow is the old capital of Poland, and now has been discovered by tourists. Still, it was very pretty, and a good introduction to Poland. Poland is closer to Eastern Europe than Hungary and Czechia, and I like that, the people are tough as nails. And they love John Paul II. Don't mess with him. Everywhere has a street named after him, they sell velvet paintings of him, anywhere he was there is a plaque. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a law that to speak ill of him is punishable by stoning. We actually somehow managed to see none of the major tourist sites in Krakow, but we did discover Green Way. In Poland, they have cafeterias called Bar Mleczny, or Milk Bars, that are subsidized by the government. We haven't been to one ... read more
Olomouc town square
Sure you've heard of Bohema. Prague's the capital of that region, Bohemian is an adjective that applies to hipsters. But I'm not a hipster. That's why Sam and I went to Olomouc, the capital of the Moravian region of the Czech republic. It is a mid-sized city of 200,000, we were originally planning to stay one night, but we stayed 2 because it was so relaxing. There wasn't really a whole lot to see, it was just the atmosphere and the great people at the hostel, I talked to some Finns about their compulsory army, a Frenchman about the E.U. and Zidane, some Aussies about the West coast, etc. We also went to a tea house with a snobby guy who, when we told him we wanted green tea, said "we have 50 kinds." Whatever, we ... read more
View of Tyn Church from Town Hall
What is there to say about Prague? I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, its got some of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. On the other hand, there are so many tourists that coming from Eastern Europe, I felt almost disgusted. I know I'm a tourist, but these people will pay 3 dollars for a bottle of water, and that's a little weird. We stayed at "the Clown and Bard" hostel, which was alright, though it was full of what Sam call's "Bros." They are usually American, wear sandals, baseball cap, and board shorts. There was a bar downstairs, and even though our room was on the fifth floor, we could here the "chug! chug! chug!" at 8:30 pm. Oh well. I would reccomend that everybody visits Prague, its just as beautiful ... read more
