Sorry for the random writing style of this email, I only have a few mins before dinner!
Vienna (Wien) Day 1!
Arrived early in the morning after an interesting sleep on a night train. Vienna has a lot of free/near-free bikes that we signed up to use. Our couchsurfing host Martin (who, btw, is very nice) took us on a short bike tour of the the ring, or first district. When it started to rain too much, we ducked into buildings (had a great juice in the cafe of a museum). One of the buildings we went to was the Austrian parliament, where we ended up getting a 20 min video history of vienna/austria. Went out for a good, cheap meal, and then back to Martin's where we watched "The Third Man" for another taste of viennese history.
Day 2!
Mark and I had a fantastic time today. We got up pretty early and walked around the main district. We visited two museums: the Leopold, and the Secession. The Leopold was fantastic, they had a great exhibit of Kolo Moser's works, and a few other really great artists. We also went to Cafe Central, which is a very famous old coffeehouse (Wien has a great coffeehouse tradition, it's the perfect city for me!!) and had some great coffees and shared a piece of their signature cake (this was breakfast #2, after breakfast #1: gelato). We then walked to see the famous (and old) Ferris wheel from the movie 'the third man,' and then it was back to Martin's for an amazingly refreshing shower. We're just getting ready to go out for sushi now - hooray!!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Guten Tag!
Hi from Berlin!
This is by far them most beautiful city that we've seen so far, which is saying a lot. Mark and I rented some bikes today and biked around the city (and for a few hours, joined a free bike tour that gave us so much info). There are so many incredible places here. Despite biking around for about 7 hours, I feel like we've only had the most cursory tour of the city. Tomottow we're hopefully going to see more places in more detail.
It's a bit incredible to be in a city that has been around for such a long time, but feels completely new. Even the buildings that look really old are new - most had to be rebuilt after the war. Also, it hasn't even been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall (of which we've seen many fragments), and you can feel the rebirth that is still occurring. The weather was fantastic today, but is supposed to be a bit rainy tomorrow so we will likely hit up some museums, and our favourite cafe. We'll be here until Monday night, when we catch our first overnight train (we splurged for the couchettes rather than the upright seats) to Vienna. I've found us a place to stay (couchsurfing again!!) and I'm very excited!
This is by far them most beautiful city that we've seen so far, which is saying a lot. Mark and I rented some bikes today and biked around the city (and for a few hours, joined a free bike tour that gave us so much info). There are so many incredible places here. Despite biking around for about 7 hours, I feel like we've only had the most cursory tour of the city. Tomottow we're hopefully going to see more places in more detail.
It's a bit incredible to be in a city that has been around for such a long time, but feels completely new. Even the buildings that look really old are new - most had to be rebuilt after the war. Also, it hasn't even been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall (of which we've seen many fragments), and you can feel the rebirth that is still occurring. The weather was fantastic today, but is supposed to be a bit rainy tomorrow so we will likely hit up some museums, and our favourite cafe. We'll be here until Monday night, when we catch our first overnight train (we splurged for the couchettes rather than the upright seats) to Vienna. I've found us a place to stay (couchsurfing again!!) and I'm very excited!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Dzien Dobry!
Wow - loads of internet access here in Slupsk!! I'm trying to upload some photos now, if it works then I'll share them here or post a link :)
As with pretty much every trip that I go on, I leave updating until I've done so much that it's overwhelming to think of putting it all down. I think that the last time I wrote, I was in Krakow. Since then, Mark and I have been to Zakopane (in the South of Poland), on a farm near Wroclaw (aka Breslau) - with massive food poisoning from an ill-conceived idea to eat kebab from the basement of a train station, in Gdansk and many surrounding areas, and now in Slupsk.
Gdansk was really, really nice - mostly because Mark's family there was amazing. We spent almost the entire week with his cousin Bozena's daughter Weronika, who was our faithful guide and co-mischief-maker. We managed to see (I think) everyone on Mark's dad's side there, which was no small feat. A lot of time was spent on the coast of the Baltic Sea - testing the water, swimming a little, a lot of walking, and some amber-hunting (I found some!!) We also toured around the Stare Miastro (old town) where we snuck onto the roof of the famous 'Golden Gate' and had a beautiful, exclusive view of Gdansk's most famous street.
As for family, wow. We spent one day with Mark's cousin Ella's family, where we got to celebrate the double birthday of her son and daughter. While we were there we also went to see Stuthoff concentration camp, which was just a few minutes away. We spent a day on Mark's uncle Stachu's (sp?) farm, where we picked raspberries (Maliny) and cherries (Wisnie) that I turned into a crisp for the aunt and uncle that we stayed with. Bozena and family took Mark and I to see Malbork - a famous castle about two hours from Gdansk that dates back to the 1200s. It had been destroyed completely during the war, but was restored in the following years. I'm feling a bit of old, beautiful building overload, but I'm going to soldier on because I know I have many, many more to see! After the castle, we went to a rented cabin on a lake, where we swam, kayaked and grilled kielbasa to our hearts content. Mark's aunt and uncle were wonderful - I will probably be full until Africa from all of the amazing food that his aunt made for us. Most of it was made from fruits and veggies from their garden and the farm! They also gave us some wonderful gifts - to Mark, a ring, and to me, an ambernecklace. I was blown away. And completely rivalling Rafa's grandmother for 'most adorable woman ever' was Makr's babcja Kowgier. From when she held my hand the whole way home from the train station the first day that we met, to the goobye hug today, I felt nothing but love from her. Awww... I miss her so much already!! It was so sad to leave them today, but we were looking forward to meeting Mark's mom's side of the family which made it a bit easier.
Slupsk, whie a bit more low-key, has been so nice. We've sat and talked (as best as we can with Mark's pretty good Polish, and my terrible Polish), ate, and went to their garden. They are so nice and I'm really looking forward to spending this week with them. Tomorrow, Mark and I are going to go to a beach, and possibly again on Wednesday. After a lot of rain during the first week in Gdansk, the weather has turned absolutely beautiful.
Ok, so if all goes well, I'll put up some pictures tomorrow. I'm off to bed now, and I'm sorry if there are too many spelling/grammar mistakes. I think the Polish spell check won't be of much use and I'm too tired to proofread :)
Love,Jen
As with pretty much every trip that I go on, I leave updating until I've done so much that it's overwhelming to think of putting it all down. I think that the last time I wrote, I was in Krakow. Since then, Mark and I have been to Zakopane (in the South of Poland), on a farm near Wroclaw (aka Breslau) - with massive food poisoning from an ill-conceived idea to eat kebab from the basement of a train station, in Gdansk and many surrounding areas, and now in Slupsk.
Gdansk was really, really nice - mostly because Mark's family there was amazing. We spent almost the entire week with his cousin Bozena's daughter Weronika, who was our faithful guide and co-mischief-maker. We managed to see (I think) everyone on Mark's dad's side there, which was no small feat. A lot of time was spent on the coast of the Baltic Sea - testing the water, swimming a little, a lot of walking, and some amber-hunting (I found some!!) We also toured around the Stare Miastro (old town) where we snuck onto the roof of the famous 'Golden Gate' and had a beautiful, exclusive view of Gdansk's most famous street.
As for family, wow. We spent one day with Mark's cousin Ella's family, where we got to celebrate the double birthday of her son and daughter. While we were there we also went to see Stuthoff concentration camp, which was just a few minutes away. We spent a day on Mark's uncle Stachu's (sp?) farm, where we picked raspberries (Maliny) and cherries (Wisnie) that I turned into a crisp for the aunt and uncle that we stayed with. Bozena and family took Mark and I to see Malbork - a famous castle about two hours from Gdansk that dates back to the 1200s. It had been destroyed completely during the war, but was restored in the following years. I'm feling a bit of old, beautiful building overload, but I'm going to soldier on because I know I have many, many more to see! After the castle, we went to a rented cabin on a lake, where we swam, kayaked and grilled kielbasa to our hearts content. Mark's aunt and uncle were wonderful - I will probably be full until Africa from all of the amazing food that his aunt made for us. Most of it was made from fruits and veggies from their garden and the farm! They also gave us some wonderful gifts - to Mark, a ring, and to me, an ambernecklace. I was blown away. And completely rivalling Rafa's grandmother for 'most adorable woman ever' was Makr's babcja Kowgier. From when she held my hand the whole way home from the train station the first day that we met, to the goobye hug today, I felt nothing but love from her. Awww... I miss her so much already!! It was so sad to leave them today, but we were looking forward to meeting Mark's mom's side of the family which made it a bit easier.
Slupsk, whie a bit more low-key, has been so nice. We've sat and talked (as best as we can with Mark's pretty good Polish, and my terrible Polish), ate, and went to their garden. They are so nice and I'm really looking forward to spending this week with them. Tomorrow, Mark and I are going to go to a beach, and possibly again on Wednesday. After a lot of rain during the first week in Gdansk, the weather has turned absolutely beautiful.
Ok, so if all goes well, I'll put up some pictures tomorrow. I'm off to bed now, and I'm sorry if there are too many spelling/grammar mistakes. I think the Polish spell check won't be of much use and I'm too tired to proofread :)
Love,Jen
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