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Published: August 8th 2007
Hello everyone, (photos are not posting here so to see some new ones : http://www.flickr.com/photos/10992773@N02/ )
Wow, I have not been able to update in a long while. You may not have known but this lovely site I am using crashed and it has lost my previous blogs. I am slightly devastated. I thought I was going to vomit when I found out. If anyone is computer savvy and has the time, there are instructions on how to help find my blogs and put them back. I am unsure if I will get the chance. On to bigger ansd better things...
I will try to keep this brief and organized:
I love Holland! It is a really beautiful place, I met lovely people, the canals are great, the sense of freedom is invigorating and the way of life is at a nice pace. Liber, a friend I met through couchsurfing that lives in Miami, flew to Amsterdam to meet me. We stayed 30 minutes from the city in Utrecht with our host Merel. She is a great joy. (I do not know if I told you all of this as I can not see my last posts. lol) We had frites in Amsterdam and I was so happy to have them, went to the Anen Frank House and Van Gogh Museum, walked along the red light district, once in the day and once as the lights were glowing
and reflecting on the canals. Although there are drugs around in the cafes and prostitutes working in the windows, I really liked it there. It was nice to sleep in another town, a rather quiet one. We also walked around Utrecht which also has the same sorts of cafes and beautiful canals. The buildings and city life in both places is wonderful. I really want to go back to Holland, see all of it...
Amsterdam was a whirlwind trip, Liber left for the states a couple of days after we arrived and I went on to Germany. Long story but because of my alarm not being on local time he missed his flight and apparently took a train to Belgium and flew out the next day from there. 😞 OOPS. The train to Berlin was long so I thought I would stop in Hamburg along the way. I really only had an hour and I saw shopping areas, street performances and Mercedes Taxi's. It looks like it may be a lovely place, but I had to continue on.
Berlin: My host Sarah in Berlin is a fun 20 year old girl. I stayed with her for 5 days and I call her my German sister. We got along quite good and had fun on the town. The day after I had arrived we went to a boat on the river that played Reggae music. It was an older crowd which is hard to come by in Euro-clubs, and crazy enough it was filled with so much pot smoke you felt a little tipsy just being there. The ambience of the crowd was fantastic, we danced the night away... literally... We got in her flat at 5am. I felt young again. Sarah went around a bit with me in Berlin. We did laundry together. I went to Checkpoint Charlie and the museum. The museum was very overwhelming. I managed to get stung by a bee on my upper thigh in my pants?! We went to the brandenburg Tor which was once surrounded by the Berlin Wall and also to the East Side Gallery where murals once stood on the existing Berlin Wall but it has since been destroyed by bad and meaningless graffiti. We went to a boat hostel and bar one night to meet couchsurfers along with Agnieszka from CS, it was for foreigners to go and practice language skills. We met CS people and I also met a guy named Patrick that coincidentally would be going to Woodstock. After the boat we went to another Reggae club with about 6 people we met that night. We had a great group and had a good time, however the vibe of the place was crap in comparison to the other place. Too many people, drunk people, young people, dirty... Kelly had sent me an email telling me she had visitied a Nazi camp in Berlin, this was not in my book abotu Berlin. I looked it up and within 30 minutes left to find it. It took nearly 2 hours before I arrived. It was a large and eerie place. I saw jail cells, beds, mass graves, crematoriums etc... perhaps the typical things of this sort of camp. I only had 3 hours and I think even 2 days would not be long enough. It was a horrible place, but I will be going to one even more horrible tomorrow. I thought of my time in berlin like traveling in a time machine of sorts. I was constantly in a train or underground, so much time traveling and waiting. The city is so large. There are so many museums there that I was overwhelmed and honestly did not see any of them. Nothing realyl struck me that I had to see it other than the Judische museum and I chose the camp instead. If I went back to Berlin it would be for a couple weeks of only museums (therefore much money is needed). Side note - I ate more cheese sandwiches and I am seriously needing a toasty maker when I get my own place again. ALSO: In Germany you pay anywhere from .50 to .75 cents CRV for buying a drink in a bottle. A bottle of water had cost .19 euro and the deposit was .25 euro. crazy? Well, it makes everyoe recycle because they spend tons of money on the containers so they can get it all back.
I met some couchsurfers at Lichtenberg station to head together to Kostrzyn, Poland for the Woodstock Festival. The group I went with were lovely and perhaps the most sane at the festival. Sibelius is a 19 year old German boy, mature well beyond his years. He was the organizer of our meet and I felt as though he watched over us a bit. He brough along extra tents (thank God). Agnieszka is my lovely Polish friend from CS, we bonded lots. Rhiannon is a young girl from England, she is slightly wild. Alex was a very mellow guy from Germany, also a big brother type. (strange thing I was the oldest of them all) We took the train along with other festival goers. When we got to the city another CS that lives there met us at the station and took our extra luggage to her house for safe keeping. Many belongings are stoled and lost at the festival so it was a great option for us. We boarded an overloaded bus to Woodstock and although we were a day early the grounds were filled with campers. When you walk in you are greeted by people washing in the sinks and the row of porta potties. Along the path between the forrest was the Hare kryszna area where live music had started, vegetarian hot food was being served, Q and A about the religion amongst yoga, makeup, astrology etc... We headed towards the main stage and actualyl got a great corner. Sib gave Agnii some supplies and she created a large CS banner so we coupld make it known who we were. Other CS people found us throughout the weekend and stopped to say hello and have a chat. We met them from all over the world. The crowd was about 200,000 people (apparently half the usual) and this was the 13th annual event. The festival is the largest outdoor festival in Europe and we were told it is the last one. The grounds are mainly walked by that of punks and metal heads, all wearing crazy hair dos and steel toed boots. I had an instant fear of the toilets and ther was good reason for it. I saw more people puking and peeing in front of me than my life altogether. I was thankful for the Hare K. area as they are sober people and peaceful. The time not in my tent was mainly there. The ground was all dust/dirt/sand and wild unmanaged grass, set among the middle of forrest land. Evenings were extremely cold and I am so thankful that Sarah gave me her little sleeping bag to take or I would have had pneumonia. The bands played on till very late at night and all through the day. The festival was beyond words to be honest, it was a you had to be there type of thing.
At 2am Saturday night Agniee and I headed to the train to catch our 4am train to Warsaw then Radom. She had told me about the impatient Polish people, well she was not kidding. When the train arrived she was lucky enough to get ahead of many because she had a small bag, I was pushed enough to fall over on the steps of the train then yelled at and walked over! Madness. Thankfully she got a seat, because the majority around us sat on top of each other in the aisle and in front of the train door and many stood for the entire 8 HOURS. Ugh. From Warsaw we took a 3 hour train to her town. After 4 days I was finally able to take a shower and I can not express the filth and the pimples on my face enough. eew. We ate and slept well that night and again the next day. We walked around her town at night and it was quite nice. I left tuesday after she took me to the local market where people collect flowers and fruits from the forrest and sell it on the street. I got nectarines, my saving grace in Europe and I also got some Pierogis at a market. She had originally asker her grandma to make me some, told her not to put meat, basically her grandma did not believe her or did not think it was good to be a veg so she put meat anyway. lol I did not eat them. The pierogis I bought were alright, a few were fruit and cheese (so i ate them cold on the train) and a few were cabbage and mushroom that I cooked later in Krakow.
On my train to Krakow I accidently sat in 1st class and was forced to 2nd. I stood in the aisles for sometime. I met a Polish man that tried desperately to communicate with me, I had no clue 99% of what was going on, but every now and then somethin would make sense and he would be so thrilled. He was lovely really. I should have tried harder but I was so not in the mood at the time. I got to Krakow and followd my directions to Patrycks house from CS. When I got to his small flat he told me he had overbooked. He though he was getting 2 French people also, but 5 came. He also had me a Czech girl in a flat the size of a bedroom. Kindly of Patryck he sent me to his friend Michaels house. Michael is a lovely British guy living in Poland for 3 years now, he teaches English and does some other phot related work over summer. He is great fun and I think we both got the btter end of the deal. 😊 Patryck took m,e to Micahels house and then we all went to a bar in the old Jewish town where we met with the 5 French and one Czech. I had a poormans pizza which was fantastic (cheese, mushroom, green onion and pickles) it was on a long french bread style pizza thing. We continued on the the side of the river just under a Castle and they all shared a couple bottle of Vodka. I of course had to pee so Michael took me to he Sheraton. Apparently it is a big deal to get in and he didnt want to go in with me but he had to go as well, he said pretend we are together and just walk in. We grabbed each others hands and strolled in like we knew exactly what we were doing and we belong there. We peed and walked out like normal people. lol From the river we all went to Patrycks house, we basically have walked all over Krakow. We sat outside and they shared more vodka. Michael and I had a little rough time finding our way to his place, but we got in as the sky was getting brighter. The city of Krakow was gorgeous by night, much quieter and the weather was wonderful. My new shoes have broken and my feet have had enough. The cobbles are not feet friendly. I got some history lessons last night. This morning Michale woke me at 9, I jumped in the shower and when I got out I was greeted by a lovely breakfast. We chatted abit and then met with his soon to be Puerto-Rican American roomate. lol We all had some laughs along the walk and I got more history lessons and words of wisdom fro Krakow survival. I walked witht he boys to work and then retreated here to a net cafe to have piece of mind and update you all.
That was a lot of info even being brief. I must see the city now. I hope everyone is well. I am wonderful!
OH A FEW THINGS I have learned and picked up on along the way:
I am going to be a recycle and conservation Nazi when I get back. I have seen the difference in how Americans live and Europeans and man, we certainly live as though we have the right to destroy the world. It is crazy. None of this is meant to offend anyone but I am going to tell it like it is.
Nobody here leave anything on (lights, appliances, computers...) Not only is it all off, but everything is unplugged.
Water is not left running, you give a squirt for the dishes and turn it off, squirt to rinse.
Newspapers, TV, Media, everything here talks about Global Warming and what needs to change. They also make note to remind people that Americans are runing the earth. I think they may be right. During the time of conservation and such, I feel shame to say I am American. They live and breathe and walk this stuff. We shrug it off. They put people to shame on recycling and energy saving. In Utrecht the residents are given energy saving lightbulbs for free. It is major I tell you.
The states shoudl charge more for the bottles to force recycling more and less purchasing of plastic bottles. Buy a Brita!
Laundry- if they have a machine, 99% of the time it only washes. My clothes hung dry in a few hours and they were fresh and saved so much energy. This will be a hard one for me to adopt, but I want to try honestly.
Toasty makers- these things are amazing, seriously I want one. Also I think I have mentioned the water kettle thing (which I have seen and used, but I want one now)
Transportation in the states is crap!
Ok enough now. lol Love you all. PLEASE RECYCLE AND TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS!
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Cori
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Polska!!!
Erin, I wish I was with you!!!! Krakow is one of my favoritest places in the whole world! If you need any recommendations about what to see/do, let me know!