Jun 2009

Just a quick check in before I leave for Vienna.

Yesterday I visited the bulk of the sights in Krakow (didn't make it to Auschwitz or the salt mine, unfortunately) with Jason and his three college friends named Joy, Meg and Allegra. The best sight that we made it to, in my mind, is St. Mary's Cathedral which is in the north-east corner of the main market square (Glowny). Inside the church was decorated in a orthodox-cum-catholic style with the traditionally advanced architecture of a catholic church but featuring the highly decorative icons and painted ceilings so typical of orthodox churches. It is to color what Rococo is to texture. Unfortunately, not pictures were allowed but you can probably do a google image search for St. Marys in Krakow and find some nice shots.

It was nice having company while sight-seeing. I probably wouldn't have been as motivated to see everything were I alone. That's what I'm facing in Vienna but perhaps I'll make another short-term friend(s) to keep me company. Well, I have to get on the road. I don't want to miss my train! Wish me luck as I have to transfer in Katowice (Ka-to-vee-tsay) bound for Vienna. Habsburgs here I come.

Got up late this morning. I had set the alarm for PM AND the wrong time. Realizing that we were waking up 15 minutes after the time that we had planned to leave for the airport I loudly exclaimed "SHIT". Hearing the hurried movement in the neighboring room, Anne, Daryoush and Ella got up as well. We quickly finished a couple tasks and were out the door in probably less than 10 minutes.

Upon arrival I quickly bid Laura adieu. I had hoped to spend more time with her before jumping our planes in opposite directions but a quick goodbye kiss had to do. I jumped on line to get through security and raced to the gate only to discover that I still had 45 minutes before the plane left. As it turns out the Stockholm airport, Arlanda, is much less hectic and intense than its American and British counterparts. I was left feeling remorseful that I could have indeed spent more time with Laura but I had opted to hang out in a room with a bunch of strangers.

The flight to Krakow was very uneventful. I had heard rumor of thunderstorms around southern Poland but thankfully they didn't materialize while I was inbound. It was rather overcast but the descent was smooth and easy.

When I stepped off the plane I was greeted by warm and humid conditions. Krakow airport is the most crowded airport that I've ever been in -- at least to my memory. It was difficult to walk through the immense crowd.

Thankfully, I found an ATM rather quickly and withdrew 300 Zloty (roughly $100). But when I went to buy a train ticket to the Krakow city center I discovered that the machine only took small denominations of Polish money. I walked on hoping to find a place to buy a ticket from an actual person but as I approached the little platform that appeared to be the Airport rail station I realized that I had no option but to return to the Airport and try to get smaller bills.

At this point I found another American in the exact same predicament as myself, Jason Burke. Together we walked back to the airports, bought some coffee, used the change to buy train tickets (less than $2! DAMN I love Eastern Europe and their reasonable prices!) and returned to the train JUST before it left (catching the train necessitated running and sloshing hot coffee all over my hand, but that's the price of rushing).

Once in town I checked into my hostel (Mama's Hostel which couldn't be in a better location from a tourist's standpoint) and together with Jason grabbed some lunch. We went to a very swank looking restaurant and in total, including drinks and tip, spent less than $7 each.

Now that I'm showered and rested I'm waiting to meet up with Jason and his three friends. Hopefully they'll keep me from being too lonely in the absence of Laura.

We've been staying with Anne, Daryoush and Ella for the past four days. It's been a great time: Anne, Laura and I went to some tourist attractions in and around Stockholm, including Carl Milles's home/museum and Sigtuna - the medieval capital of Sweden; I went to an Iranian demonstation/protest in downtown Stockholm; Laura went shopping with Anne and Ella; Laura and I spent countless hours playing with Ella; we all had dinner at Daryoush's parents home; and I was thoroughly beaten at poker by Daryoush, his brother, his father and his cousin.

We spent the day today at Daryoush's family's summer home about 20 miles away. We had a BBQ and went swimming in the lake. Now we're doing laundry and starting to pack up because tomorrow Laura has to head home :'( and I'm heading on to Krakow, Poland. I'm both excited to be moving on to Eastern Europe (it's been EXPENSIVE here in the west, plus I feel more comfortable there as a tourist) and bummed out because I won't be with Laura any more.

So, tomorrow I'm on a plane to Krakow at 9:20 and Laura's on a plane back home at noon. I'll be (probably) checking in more often now that I won't have to worry about ignoring Laura while I do blog stuff.

Tricked by the fairly inexpensive cost of booking passage on board the Tallink/Silja line between Stockholm and Tallinn, Laura and I jumped at the possibility of venturing into the territory of the former Soviet Union. This is in marked contrast to my trips to places such as Hungary or Bulgaria because Estonia was actually a constituent republic of the Soviet Union and not simply in their sphere of influence. Despite the cheap ticket price the cost of transporting oneself in reasonable comfort was relatively astronomical.

Acting on the advice of Rick Steves, Laura and I decided to spring for the Smorgasbord - an all you can eat buffet. The quality has apparently slipped since Rick Steves took the Silja ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland as the food was fairly bland. At ~$35 it was nothing short of a disappointment. Drinks also ran in the vicinity of $8 each. While traveling you have to let go of some of your frugality but it was very difficult to feel good about spending that kind of cash.

In the morning we awoke and disembarked the ship into the capital of Estonia. Tallinn was very pretty and incredibly easy to traverse by foot. The entire old town was only about 1 kilometer in length. Another unfortunate fact was that we arrived during the Midsummer holiday. It's Estonia's biggest celebration!... but it's celebrated by closing up shops, museums and government offices and heading out into the country for a 48-hour party. At least some of the sights were still open. Among the sights that we got to was the huge Russian Orthodox cathedral strategically built by Czar Alexander during the period of Russification of Estonia. Of note: Orthodox churches tend to be fairly plain in their interior architectural detail (at least in contrast to the detail of a Rococo Catholic cathedral). Instead, Orthodox churches invest their money in "icons" which consist of highly decorative "paintings" of saints and Jesus covered in gold, silver and jewels. They're truly spectacular to behold but due to the draconian photography rules in so many sights here in Europe I can't produce photographic examples. If you do a search for "Orthodox icons" I'm sure you can find some brilliant examples.

We ate lunch at a great Russian restaurant in the central square of Tallinn, Raekoja Plats. We were going to eat at an Estonian restaurant but the fact that it was another buffet turned us off and the Russian restaurant was highly recommended by our guidebook. The review was completely apt as the food was pure class - maybe even being the best meal we've had on our trip thus far. The rest of our time in Tallinn was spent tramping around doing some souvenir shopping and eventually we made our way back to the cruise-liner.

Back on board Laura and I decided to make the most of our cruise. We bought tax-free cans of beer and cider from the super market and drank them up on the deck while the sun set (which, due to our location up north didn't happen until well after 11pm and even after it set the sky never lost it's pink/purple hue). Then we caught the midnight show in the lounge at the back of the ship -- an unintentionally funny act called "Viva Las Vegas" which consisted of some impressive dance routines and some hilariously bad covers of American dance songs from the 70s. What made them bad wasn't the musical acumen that accompanied them but rather the Estonian or Russian accents of the people singing.

In the end we had a great time on the cruise and Tallinn made the trip totally worth it.

As you can tell from the photographs we've already gotten to Stockholm and spent a few days. Unfortunately, internet has continued to be somewhat spotty which has limited my ability to update the blog. However, we've had a great time in Stockholm (and Tallinn, Estonia which I'll get to in the next post).

Our first day we arrived via plane, train and feet both tired and sweaty from the surprisingly warm weather in Stockholm. Following the previous two weeks of mediocre-at-best weather in the UK we expected more of the same but came in to bright, sunny days.

When I whipped my backpack off at the hostel Laura exclaimed something to the effect of "EWW GROSS!" at the fact that my back was virtually a pool of sweat. Needless to say, jumping in the shower was priority #1. (Of note: in Stockholm there tends to be no demarcation between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. The shower just drains into a hole in the floor.) After getting cleaned up we gave Anne, Daryoush and Ella a call and had a nice picnic with them at a park in the center of Stockholm. Then we walked through the old town and eventually back to the Hostel where Laura and I gave Ella the present we bought for her in London (a tomato that squishes when thrown against a hard surface and then regains its shape after a few seconds). It was great seeing them.

One of our top priorities upon arrival in Stockholm was doing laundry. To our pleasure and gratitude we discovered that our hostel offers complementary laundry service. The downside? There's only one washer and only one key. Throughout our first day in Stockholm we repeated checked back with the front desk to see if the key had been returned but by midnight we figured that it was a lost cause for the day. First thing in the morning we got the key and started our laundry. It wasn't the best timing but we figured that being a couple hours late start to our sightseeing wouldn't hamper our enjoyment too much - especially considering we'd have fresh clothes afterward. 7 and 1/2 hours later our laundry was finally done. Just in time for all of the sights and museums to close. Who knew laundry machines could be so slow?!

Anyway, we still managed to walk around the old royal hunting grounds (now called Djurgarden). It's basically just a huge green park in the north-east of central Stockholm that reminded us of the forests in the Pacific Northwest.

The following morning we checked out of the hostel and went to collect our tickets for the cruise to Estonia. Then we headed back toward central Stockholm to check out the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a massive warship constructed by the Swedes in the 17th century. Unfortunately, the sheer size of the Vasa was also its undoing - it only sailed for 20 minutes before sinking into Stockholm harbor. After 350~ years the Swedes pulled the Vasa from the bottom of Stockholm harbor surprisingly intact and spent 25 or so years restoring it. Now it's a fantastically preserved wreck of an incredible and old battleship. Among the rescued treasures were the worlds oldest surviving sails. While at the museum we stopped by the on-site cafe to try their "reasonably priced" (in quotations because Stockholm is amazingly expensive) Swedish meatballs which were great.

After the Vasa museum we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and made our way back toward the harbor to disembark on our voyage to Tallinn.

Laura and I are in Terminal 5 of Heathrow awaiting our plane to Stockholm at the moment. We got up much too early to catch a bus from Oxford to Heathrow this morning. At least we made it with plenty of time. Surprisingly, security is much more strict here in Heathrow than I've ever experienced in the US. By the same token all of the security seems more like intimidation than actually secure. This is because Laura and I noted numerous methods that could be employed to completely undermine the process - somewhat worrisome. As psychologists will tell you, psychotic behavior is usually driven by a desire to "beat the system". The more challenging we make "the game" the more likely people are going to try to beat it.

Well, our gate has just been called - we'll check in soon!

Not a huge amount to report. Laura and I drove down from Edinburgh to York this morning and explored the city which included Yorkminster, the old walls of the city (we walked about half of the way - 1 mile) and the old town. We started out by having afternoon tea at an old shop called Betty's. The clotted cream and jam on the scones was fantastic.

Following our tea/snack we visited Yorkminster. We started by climbing the tower and checking out the views over the city then finished in the choir room watching Evensong. The Evensong was spectacular and we had seats directly behind one row of the choir men. The deep bass notes rumbled the ancient cathedral in a truly spectacular way. I also learned while visiting Yorkminster that Constantine the Great was crowned emperor of the Roman Empire in York back in 308 AD. This is particularly interesting because Constantine was born in Nis, Serbia - where I'll be staying next month for some weeks.

First thing tomorrow morning we're heading back to Oxford to hang out with Chris and then on to Stockholm on Saturday! More photos to come tomorrow PLUS a description of our awesome time climbing Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh!

I want to reiterate that most of the recent entries are entirely out of order - just examine the date under the title of the entry to see the dates that the post describes. For instance - the Cotswolds happened before St. Andrews. St. Andrews happened before Edinburgh. However, the most recent blog entry is for St. Andrews, the one before that is from the Cotswolds and the one before that is from Edinburgh. I will be adding a post about Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon shortly as well.

Man, my blog is getting messy and requiring a lot of these posts....