Friedrich (Fred) the Great

It's been a long time - which means that this entry will be a long one!

I've been trying to make notes as we've traveled so I'll try to retrace our steps. I'll go backward...

Today was our first day of classes. The program is hosted by Humbolt University - home to 29 nobel prize winners. Right now I am looking out the window at a statue of Freidrich II (the Great); he's the man responsible for much of Berlin's grandeur - but more on that later.

The British Embassy is across the street from our apartment and we have a fabulous view of the Holocaust Memorial from our bedroom windows.

This morning we started classes at 10:00. There are 120 students in the program - approximately half from the US and the other half are from the rest of the world. We have small sections of about 24 students each day. In my small section there are 8 students from Tulane University (New Orleans) as well as students from Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Italy, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Canada, Brazil, Finland, Guatemala, and Germany. There is also a student from George Washington University in DC. We mostly do role-playing exercises in our small sections.

We've already made several great friends - Valentina, Livia, Jadwiga, Eugene (pronounced You-jen, who is from Lebanon), and Bart. It's pretty amazing to have students from all over the world (37 countries are represented) communicating in English.

Berlin has been suffering from its hottest summer ever, but it has cooled down a bit today. There is no air conditioning in our apartment or in the school. Linda and I didn't get much sleep last night because of the heat and because of our rowdy neighbors!

Yesterday, we had a little fiasco with our laundry. When we checked in on Saturday, we were told that we would have a washing machine in our apartment. The man working at the desk told us that we should check again because he was sure that we did have a washing machine in our apartment, but that they would take care of it on Monday otherwise. We stopped by the office yesterday and they told us that there was nothing they could do about it and that we would have to move into a different apartment and pay the 50 euro (about $65) cleaning fee. So, we did our laundry in the sink.

The program sponsored a bus tour of the city yesterday. Berlin has about 3.4 million residents (about the same as when the wall fell). As I was a kid when the wall fell, it was a great history lesson for me. You can tell when you are in the former West Berlin because the little blinking man that tells you when to cross the street wears a hat, whereas in the former East Berlin, he has no hat. Our apartment and school are in the former East Berlin, but we can see the former West from our apartment window (about one block to No Man's Land). There are at least two of everything in Berlin - operas, zoos, etc because East and West each attempted to develop its own city. There is a ton of building going on, as well as a lot of demolition. I'll tell you more about Berlin as we explore more.

Saturday afternoon, we flew from Krakow to Berlin. While in Krakow we visited Wawel (pronounced Vavel) Castle and Cathedral. Wawel Castle was built in the 10th Century and remodeled in the 1500s. We didn't go into the Castle, we just walked around the castle grounds. Right next to the castle is Wawel Cathedral, resting place of Saint Jadwiga. The story is that Queen Jadwiga asked a crucifix whether she should marry King Jagiello of Lithuania. It told her yes, and Lithuania and Poland were unified in 1386. The Cathedral is also home to the crucifix. Jadwiga - one of the Polish students studying here - told us that there is much more to the story as Jadwiga (the Queen) was in love with someone else and Jagiello was 20 years her senior and not at all attractive. Jadwiga was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

There is also a dragon's den on the castle grounds. Legend has it that there was a dragon who terrorized the city - eating livestock and virgins until a clever shepherd put a fake sheep full of sulphur in the dragon's den. The dragon drank so much water from the Wisla that it burst.

Also, Krakow is home to Jagiellonian University - opened in 1364 - the third oldest in Europe.

We spent most of our time in the Stare Miasto (Old Town). The Rynek Glowny is the oldest market square in Europe. In the middle is the Sukiennice (cloth hall). Linda and I found a lot of fabulous amber and coral in the square.

On Friday night, we ran into a group of Brits having a stag (bachelor) party. Actually, we were eating dinner and 30 Brits overran us. We let them borrow a chair from our table which turned into a bunch of really interesting (although at times very obnoxious) conversations. A couple of them were in a band, one was a big soccer fan, and one of them claimed to work for John Gotti. This was actually the third group of men we saw having a stag party there. They were certainly the loudest and the biggest.

Friday morning was just as action-packed. We intended to go to Spis Castle, but it didn't work out. The information desk told us that there were buses to Zakopane (in Poland) at 10:00 and 1:05, but we later found out that those were return times. We waited at the bus station and got on the first bus we saw headed to the border. We weren't the only ones who were furious when a bus with "Zakopane" written on the side drove past the bus station as we were getting on the other bus. This was a 40 passenger bus with approximately 65 people on it (and many of us had large bags/luggage). We made it to the border - it was a beautiful ride with panoramic views of the Tatras. There was no town at the border, so we walked across border control and looked for some sort of bus station. We ended up in a sketchy mini-van with some Spanish hobos. The driver didn't look old enough to be driving, and certainly not experienced enough to be taking the corners as fast as he was! Zakopane was very built up, very touristy, so we were glad we stayed on the Slovak side.

We then rode the bus to Krakow.

On Thursday, we were in the Vysoke Tatras (High Tatras) in Slovakia. We stayed in Tatranska Lomnica. I have many great pictures, which I'll try to upload soon. We made our way halfway up one of the mountains riding on the lift. There was another lift that took people all the way to the top - Lomnicky Stit. The cable car was a long ways off the ground and it was pretty overcast, so it didn't really seem worth it to put ourselves through that scary ride!

The day before we were in Eger, Hungary. We originally were a little disappointed with the town, but later found the Valley of the Beautiful Women. After WWII, land was so cheap, that wine cellars sprung up all over the area. In the Valley, there are 28 wine cellars that people pop in and out of, tasting Hungarian wine. We found out where the name must have come from - we could get two glasses of good wine for less than $1. The locals were very hospitable and encouraged us to stay and listen to the live, traditional music. Of course, you were encouraged to leave the musicians a small tip. We headed back to our hotel relatively early for our early morning train to Slovakia.

It's been great, despite a few disappointing moments. At this point, I would recommend that everyone make it to Krakow - it's a beautiful and welcoming city.

We have internet access at the school, so I hope to keep up better than I have. Hope all is well in Kansas!

If you're registered to vote as a Republican in Kansas - you'd better vote tomorrow! My picks - Robin Jennison, Sandy Praeger, Ron Thornburgh, Lynn Jenkins - they're great people and great Republicans.

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