So first off, Berlin was amazing. The people are so much nicer there, unlike Warszawa, and you don't have to pay for museums, because history lines the street; whether its the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie or the Reichstag, all free to see. Even better are the free walking/cycling tours they have, each guide pouring his knowledge out to us, and all for just a tip at the end. By far the best way to see the city by day (by night, definitely check out the pub crawls, all for the low low price of 12 euro max). The highlights of the trip would have to be realising how ignorant my generation is, especially when it comes to the Berlin Wall (I didn't realise until that trip that it was only months before I was born that it came down), the friends I made, and the things I saw that most people would never dream of seeing. Since my camera was out of batteries, and after a failed attempt at buying batteries in the metro stop's kiosk (ass sold me flat batteries!), I have nicked some photos from some mates that I made on the trip (cheers!).
The part of the wall we saw, with some stranger. Noone has pics on Facebook of us by the wall yet...grrr
Checkpoint Charlie (1euro to take a photo with this guy!)
Where Hitler's bunker was (no memorial because it would become a shrine for neo nazis)
The Holocaust Memorial (pretty emotional/thought provoking walking through it)
Museum Island (actually is an island!)
Looking up from the Sony Centre (Sony's European Headquarters)
and Tiergarten where we went nudist spotting and played on a Flying FoxNothing much happened for the 2 weeks after Berlin, but 2 weekends ago I went to the ski village of Zakopane (much like Aspen, Colorado). It was a beautiful place, and some awesome views from up the top of the mountain. I have some photos, but my cams not on me, so those will come later.
The weekend after the Zak, we went to Prague for the long weekend. Prague was beautiful, and not too expensive. We spent three nights there, and had two of the most perfect nights of my life. The first night was just spent in the hostel playing a game known as "waterfall", a legendary drinking game. The day after that we did all the touristy thing such as the big church, waiting for the clock that is not worth waiting for, saw the overcrowded Charles Bridge, and had an authentic Czech meal. That night was spent at the biggest club in Central Europe, five stories high, each with a different style of music. The first floor trance (I think), second house, third disco (light up dance floor included), fourth R&B, and fifth lounge.
The day after the big club was spent doing more touristy things, and just kind of getting lost in the city. That night, everyone else was too poor or too tired to go out, so I went to a club with a US Marine, Canadian Software developer, two girls from Perth and two girls from Ireland. The club is describable as "ghetto" and "smells of weed", so we got out of there promptly and went up some big hill with the worlds biggest metronome and watched the blood red moon rise over the city lights. We then walked over the Charles Bridge at 3am, as recommended, which was picturesque. There was no one else on the bridge except for a stoned busker playing the recorder, a couple having a candlelit dinner, an American girl running across in only her undies announcing it was her 21st, and a random standing by the relief of Joan of Arc. The relief of Joan of Arc is supposed to bring you good luck if you touch it. It is amazing to see that over the 600 years of the bridge's existence, the figure of Joan has been kept a startling bronze while the rest of the scene has been tarnished by centuries of weathering. I thought out loud to myself how cool it was to think that this tradition has been going for 600 years, and that thinking of how many people have touched it is astounding, to which one of the girls in the group said "Ew, think of all the germs!". Haha.
I got back into Warsaw on Monday morning, and that afternoon I was on a train to Krakow for another holiday. Again, a beautiful city, but after two days, there isn't much to do! Sadly, I was out of batteries again for my camera, so I didn't manage to get any photos. But I guess you can
Google it if you're that keen.
Most of my 4 days in Krakow was spent, again, just walking around the old town and going up to Wawel Castel, all toursity things like that. The one thing for me that Krakow has over Warsaw is that the old town is authentic. Unlike Warsaw, Krakow was left, for the main part, intact after WWII, and so the old town is actually old, unlike Warsaw's, whose old town was rebuilt in the late 1900s.
I got back into Warsaw last night and spent the most part in a Latino Dance Bar, to watch Tomek (Zosia's son) play the drums in a band. It was good fun, but the beer was overpriced, twice as much as you should pay!
I spent today visiting the school and having lunch with friends from the hostel, and then caught a train to the lovely city of Poznan, to meet up with some of the GAPpers (haha, the name of the organization has been changed from GAP to Latitude, due to the clothing company GAP suing the programme, so therefore we are now Latituders!). Not sure what this weekend has in store for us yet, but the highlight of the weekend will definitely be the Red Bull Challenge, where participants make flying machines and the winner is whoever manages to fly the furthest.
So thats it for now, and I'll make sure to write sooner.
Ryan
The weekend after the Zak, we went to Prague for the long weekend. Prague was beautiful, and not too expensive. We spent three nights there, and had two of the most perfect nights of my life. The first night was just spent in the hostel playing a game known as "waterfall", a legendary drinking game. The day after that we did all the touristy thing such as the big church, waiting for the clock that is not worth waiting for, saw the overcrowded Charles Bridge, and had an authentic Czech meal. That night was spent at the biggest club in Central Europe, five stories high, each with a different style of music. The first floor trance (I think), second house, third disco (light up dance floor included), fourth R&B, and fifth lounge.
The day after the big club was spent doing more touristy things, and just kind of getting lost in the city. That night, everyone else was too poor or too tired to go out, so I went to a club with a US Marine, Canadian Software developer, two girls from Perth and two girls from Ireland. The club is describable as "ghetto" and "smells of weed", so we got out of there promptly and went up some big hill with the worlds biggest metronome and watched the blood red moon rise over the city lights. We then walked over the Charles Bridge at 3am, as recommended, which was picturesque. There was no one else on the bridge except for a stoned busker playing the recorder, a couple having a candlelit dinner, an American girl running across in only her undies announcing it was her 21st, and a random standing by the relief of Joan of Arc. The relief of Joan of Arc is supposed to bring you good luck if you touch it. It is amazing to see that over the 600 years of the bridge's existence, the figure of Joan has been kept a startling bronze while the rest of the scene has been tarnished by centuries of weathering. I thought out loud to myself how cool it was to think that this tradition has been going for 600 years, and that thinking of how many people have touched it is astounding, to which one of the girls in the group said "Ew, think of all the germs!". Haha.
I got back into Warsaw on Monday morning, and that afternoon I was on a train to Krakow for another holiday. Again, a beautiful city, but after two days, there isn't much to do! Sadly, I was out of batteries again for my camera, so I didn't manage to get any photos. But I guess you can
Google it if you're that keen.
Most of my 4 days in Krakow was spent, again, just walking around the old town and going up to Wawel Castel, all toursity things like that. The one thing for me that Krakow has over Warsaw is that the old town is authentic. Unlike Warsaw, Krakow was left, for the main part, intact after WWII, and so the old town is actually old, unlike Warsaw's, whose old town was rebuilt in the late 1900s.
I got back into Warsaw last night and spent the most part in a Latino Dance Bar, to watch Tomek (Zosia's son) play the drums in a band. It was good fun, but the beer was overpriced, twice as much as you should pay!
I spent today visiting the school and having lunch with friends from the hostel, and then caught a train to the lovely city of Poznan, to meet up with some of the GAPpers (haha, the name of the organization has been changed from GAP to Latitude, due to the clothing company GAP suing the programme, so therefore we are now Latituders!). Not sure what this weekend has in store for us yet, but the highlight of the weekend will definitely be the Red Bull Challenge, where participants make flying machines and the winner is whoever manages to fly the furthest.
So thats it for now, and I'll make sure to write sooner.
Ryan
2 comments:
Hi Ryan - great post
Europe is just a different world, You are there out at 3am whilst here in NZ everybody is tucked up in bed by 9.30 !
peter
Ryan - thanks for the comment on my post - Hawkes Bay is a pretty special place thats for sure. Sounds like you are having loads of fun - I was exhausted just reading about it. Needed a cup of tea and a lie down at the end!
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