Last day in Turkey

Up at 9:30am (just woke up… I was running on adrenaline or something), had breakie with Sheena, then got ready to go. Ollie also decided to join us to go see the Topkapi Palace.



This palace was where the head of the Ottoman empire was located. It was really impressive. On of the main highlights was the crown-jewels. There was an 86 carrot diamond!!! It was the size of my palm. And also a crest with a ruby and two emeralds, each about 5cm in diameter. Soooo much wealth in there, if anyone knows any good thieves, that’s where they should be hunting.

The other highlight was the harem. This place has very nice designs on all the walls and some magnificent bedrooms. It also had a lot of boards with text explaining the whole thing. The sultan had a band of eunuchs (guys with their nuts chopped off) protecting his harem (bunch of chicks who “serviced” the sultan). From the harem, the sultan had 4-8 “favourites” whom he shared his bed, and 1 Queen Mother (main wife). The Queen Mother had the power to choose who the sultan could and couldn’t have, and also had lots of political power, sounds like a fair system.



Anyway, after 4 hours wandering around the palace, we were toured out. So we went somewhere for a traditional Turkish lunch… kebabs :-P
Ok, this was actually traditional. They give you the meat and all the veggies, and a plate of flat Turkish bread, then you make your own. It was really yummy, and quite cheap.

After lunch we all went our separate ways to do stuff. I went to the Grand Bazaar again to get a couple more things. After the Grand Bazaar, I was very sick of people harassing me to buy stuff… and people using their favourite phrase “My friend… where do you come from?”

Another thing that was very strange about Turkey was the traffic. It was so chaotic and pedestrians had no right to cross when they had a green walk symbol. You risked your life everytime you were near a road! Oh and they so desperately want to be part of the EU, they even have the EU number plate design, with the EU stars missing :-P

So I got back to the hostel: touristed out, shopped out and sick of crowds. I decided I wanted a simple evening, so found one of the three bars in Istanbul that was playing the NZ rugby game. It was good fun to watch (especially coz NZ kicked Scotland’s ass), and met a random Kiwi living in Denmark (Sam), and a German girl living in Munich (Bea). Ended up talking with them for a couple of hours after the game.


I got back to the hostel around 10pm and caught up with Sheena an Ollie again. We ended up heading down stairs to have a few drinks with the people in the hostel, including the bar-tender. It was so funny, we would ask for a drink and he would make jokes like “can’t you see me working hard here?” (while he was sitting at our table drinking beer with us).

It was a fun way to end the night, as at mid-night I got picked up by the shuttle. I slept all the way to the airport (1 hour). Then got through customs et al, and started chatting with a couple of random girls who I met in line waiting for customs. One was Polish and the other Latvian… both living/studying in Zurich. It was a good way to kill some time, then got on the plane and had a couple more hours sleep.

Train ride back to Stuttgart was interesting, the train broke down in the middle of the track for about an hour. I didn’t mind, I just dozed while they fixed it.

So got to work at 10am… nice and “fresh” with a few hours sleep.

Good weekend though. It was so different to everywhere I’ve been so far. Well, kind of a mix of China meets Europe, with a friendliness that is hard to describe.

Day two in Turkei

I got up around 9:30 as I was meeting Tolga at 10:30am. I had another traditional Turkish breakfast (at the hostel) with Sheena (Canadian girl I met the night before). Chatted about all sorts and then I left to meet up with Tolga.

He was with his girlfriend and they wanted to show me more of the city. Also, the dinner was cancelled for some reason, so he wanted to come tell me in person. His girlfriend was training to be a tour guide of Istanbul… for Turkish tourism. She could speak English (but was shy about it) and some German.

We headed over to Taksim, which is the “really” European part of Istanbul. The tram took us to the bottom of the “hill”… then the metro took us to the top. This was a cool metro system, it was all up-hill, and they don’t use a motor in the metro. It is pulled up the hill by a big pulley system. As one is going up, the other is coming down… cool huh?


We wandered down the main shopping street of Taksim and had a look around. At the bottom of Taksim, there was a pedestrian underpass to get to the other side of the road… in here there was a gun market. Was really strange to see.


We wandered back along the bridge, and again through the Egyptian Bazaar. We walked around the city for a bit, then Tolga and his girlfriend went on their way. He was such a friendly guy and just couldn’t do enough to help me :-) He told me to ring him if I had any problems at all… it was a really kind gesture.

Anyway, after they left, I went straight to the Grand Bazaar. This place was absolutely packed to the brim! I spent about 4 hours wandering around, getting haggled and doing a bit of shopping. It reminded me much like China… except they could speak English here and were not as pushy. Ended up spending quite a bit, but getting some really cheap stuff: couple of casual jackets, socks, belt, t-shirt, jeans… all the essentials.


After my shopping, I went back to the hostel to unload. I met up with some Slovenians and a German guy in my room. The Slovenians were heading over to Taksim for a beer, so the German (Ollie) and I joined them. On the way out I bumped into Sheena again and made half a plan to go see the Topkapi palace the next morning.

It was a pretty casual night, wandered around the main shopping street, which was absolutely packed! And stopped in a bar for a few drinks… then eventually went back to the hostel. Once we got back, the Slovenians went off to bed, so Ollie and I went down stairs for a couple of beers and watched Oceans 13.


I was in bed around 4am… which was much later than I thought it was!

Big first day in Istanbul

Well… travelling there was a major journey. I left work at 7 to catch the train to Frankfurt (about 3 hours away). I managed to get a couple of hours work done on my paper during the journey. My flight was at 11 pm… arriving at 3am… eek :-P

It was ok, I got a couple hours sleep on the plane. Then a friend of a friend picked me up from the airport, named Tolga (friend of Ersin). It was really great… I got a ride to his home where his mum had prepared breakfast/dinner and a bed for me. So I ate breakfast/dinner at 4:30am, then had a couple of hours sleep. After freshening up, I was invited to Tolga’s sister’s house for breakfast. They just kept feeding me :-) It was traditional Turkish breakfast: tomatoes, olives and cucumbers from the garden, with different cheeses, eggs, sausage and Turkish bread.

Tolga’s mum took a real liking to me ( don’t even mention the yo mama jokes peoples :-P ), even though she couldn’t speak a word of English. They invited me to a big family gathering and dinner the next night, of course I accepted.

Tolga and I started our journey from Asia to Europe. Istanbul spans two contents, and he lived in a small city just outside Istanbul on the Asian side. It took an hour for us to get to Istanbul. During the train ride, people would jump on between stops and walk around the train selling stuff: pens, watches, all sorts. It was common practise in Istanbul, so sayith Tolga.

Istanbul is HUGEMUNGOUS! (I know that’s not a word). From 20 mins into the train journey… we were in the outskirts of Istanbul. Upon arrival we had a wander around the Asian part of Istanbul City. There were lots of souvenir shops and stuff. Tolga knew half the owners… but they didn’t have anything that tickled my fancy.


(Sultanahmet from the fairy)

After that we headed across the water to the European Istanbul via fairy. The views were cool and you could see a panoramic view of the city. Upon arrival, we quickly made our way to the hostel so I could check in and drop off my heavy pack (laptop adds a bit of weight). My hostel was in Sultanahmet, which is the main tourist part of Istanbul. It was a strange experience… anytime you even thought about reaching for your map, someone asked “Can I help you”. The Turks are extremely friendly and helpful… which is lucky because their streets don’t have road signs! So the map was pretty much useless except if you had view of a landmark.

After sorting myself out, Tolga guided me around Istanbul. It was the middle of Ramazan, a Muslim period where they can not eat or drink (nothing! Not even water) during sunlight. So everywhere you went, the restaurants were empty. Also, Tolga didn’t have much energy because of it… but he still showed me everything.

The first stop was walking around the outside of the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia. They were spectacular, very very different to what I’ve seen so far, so they still had the wow factor on me ( unlike Catholic churches nowadays :-P ).


After that, we wandered through the gardens of Topkapi Palace. There wasn’t much there really… really quiet and not much beauty about it.

Next destination was the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. This place was a bustling Bazaar that sold gold, spices, sweets and honey. Every 5 steps you walked, people gave you free samples to try. It was great… if you’re a slight bit hungry, go here and you soon will be full!

We wandered through the city, then caught the train to the University near Sultanamet. This was a pretty cool looking uni… but it was guarded, and security would only let you in if you were a lecturer or a student of the uni. The Uni was also close to the Grand Bazaar, we just walked past and had a quick look. It was packed with people... sooo many people.

After this, Tolga had to leave, so I said good-bye and I would see him tomorrow.
Upon Tolga’s departure, I visited the Blue Mosque to see the inside. This was a cool experience. You have to take your shoes off when you go in… but it is great because the carpet is so soft that you sink into it. Inside was beautiful. Really different. I took my photos and sat around for a bit. Probably spent an hour there. It was free to enter as well… their religious buildings aren’t perverted by tourism yet, like some other places.


Nachste halt, Aya (Hagia/Saint) Sofia. This was a bit church built during the ….. and was converted to a Mosque during the Ottoman empire. It was now a museum. Going inside was really different. You think that when you convert a church you would completely change it to meet your religion… but here it was something special. There were still mosaics of Jesus and Gabriel on the walls, along with big Arabic inscriptions and shields. A mix of Catholism and Islam…. Really different.


I wandered around this place reading everything, learning the history and admiring this strange construction. Spent over two hours cruising this place. I then went back to the hostel to chill.

The next few hours consisted of writing my paper (I know I was supposed to be on “holiday”) , watching pirated movies on the massive screen at the hostel and chatting with randoms. Ok, it was more of the latter two, but I still did some work :-P

Oh did I mention how awesome this hostel was? It had its own bar, along with a massive plasma screen and surround sound system, with a bunch of pirated movies to watch. The staff were extremely friendly and one even joined us for drinks quite often :-) If people go to Istanbul… then stay here: “Istanbul Hostel” (I know it’s a hard name to remember).

I went out for a couple of hours in the evening to see the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia by night. There were also thousands of people out on the streets, eating and having fun. Apparently it is always like this during Ramazan, everyone comes out to party in the evenings because they are allowed to eat!


It wasn’t too much of a late night, I was in bed by 1am.

Last day in Hungary

Today I got up at a reasonable hour of 10am.

Had seen pretty much all I wanted to see of Budapest, so decided to head to the flea markets.
I took the directions in the travel guide, and couldn't find it when I got off the bus! Also, I left my infamous Highlanders hat on the bus.... many good memories gone with that hat :-(

I think the markets were closed though. I had conflicting information from different sources. I couldn't be bothered wandering around a section of the city, without a map, looking for something that may or may-not be there. So got back on the bus to head back to the city... over-all a pretty crap start to the day :-P

Anyway, I got back to the city and checked out a massive building in the south of Pest. It happened to be the Grand Market Hall of Budapest. There was heaps of stuff in here: meat, alcohol stores, souvenirs and all sorts of knick-knacks. There was a restaurant in there called "Fakanal" hehe. After wandering around for a bit, and getting some yummy fruit, I headed to the Statue Park.



After a bit of a mission (catching about three different buses/trams) I arrived at the Statue Park. This thing was truly weird. After the communist occupation of Hungary, they decided it wasn't a good idea to have all these Soviet Communist statues around the city. So, instead of destroying them, they packed them up and moved all of them to this park that's about 45 minutes out of the city! It was really cool and some of the statues were massive! There was even a flower arrangement in the shape of the Communist Star :-)



Back to the city, chatted with some fellow travellers on the bus (Americans + Aussie). I walked up toward the National Museum, which was quite an impressive site from the outside. During my walking, I bumped into a huge march of Hungarians, all waving flags and chanting. I asked one of the locals what was going on, and it was a right-wing protest against the current government... I guess it was the same thing at Heroes Square the day before.

It was kinda cool to watch for a few minutes, then I got over it. My last stop was the Cow park again. Just to see this truly weird and memorable exhibition. The best one was the "Rubik's Cow"... chosen so because the "Rubik's Cube" was invented by a Hungarian (bet ya didn't know that!) I found it out from a store vendor, who was selling the "secret boxes" designed by Mr. Rubik's as well. It took 7 steps to open this keep-safe box, which was pretty cool.


I made my way back to the hostel, stopping for a bite to eat. Checked my email (for the first time) and found out that Justin (American from Krakow) was also in Budapest! If I had actually bothered checking my mail I would have been able to catch up... oh well, shit happens.

Left for the airport and that's about all she wrote.

Oh, talked to a random Hungarian dude named Czaba (Pronounced "Chubba"). He was living in Germany and could speak English and German. Kept me entertained for the flight home, got his contact details just in case I was heading down to Freiburg in my travels.

Got home and half unpacked before crashing... as I didn't get back home until just after mid-night.

Overall, Budapest was alright. 3 days was plenty for it though, and after seeing Prague and Vienna, it wasn't as impressive.

Next weekend is a big flight though... Istanbul! The largest city in Europe (depending on which rankings you look at of course). Looking forward to it.

Day two in Hungary

Woke up at about 9:30... felt like lunch time though!

It was a slow start to the day and it wasn't until around lunch time I actually left the hostel. I managed to get a couple of tag-alongs to keep me company throughout the day, Laura and Alice (Pommy girls that I talked to when I got home).

So, started the marathon of a walking tour and got to the waterfront of the Pest side (Budapest used to be three cities: Buda, Pest and Obuda). Saw the main things down there: Parliament, Chain Bridge some pretty awesome buildings. Very similar to Vienna and Prague, but lesser impressive, with lots of traffic around.


We crossed along to the Buda side of the Danube and wandered around the Royal Castle Hill, which was quite nice. Hardly any people about, you didn't even feel like it was a tourist destination. It was very peaceful and very nice to walk about.


After Royal Hill, we decided to head up to the Citadell... where the best views of the city could be obtained. It was a bit of a hike, but I'm glad I've still got most of my fitness about me. The views were great! We sat up there admiring the view for around half an hour. There was also this massive statue of a chick holding a feather.




After that we wandered around the top of the hill as there was a nice walking path. Then walked back down the hill and across to the Pest side of the river again... along one of the other bridges. We were taking lots of photos everywhere, as there was quite cool stuff all over the show.

Eventually we made it to the main shopping street. I was the "bad" conscience and gave the girls that little edge they needed to buy some scarves they were looking at :-P

At one of the main metro stations, there was this strange little set-up with all these painted cows! Very artsy fartsy, but cool to see. And a club that had a water fountain above it... so when you look through the roof you see this rippling water, very interesting.


The girls had to book their train for Krakow, so we wandered to one of the main train stations... which happened to be the wrong one, so had to make it to the other one (quite far east of the other one). The train stations themselves were quite impressive. And one thing you have to love about European cities, you can walk everywhere! Everything is centrally located, which is great!

(Train Station)

So after our massive day of walking, we decided to go get some Hungarian cuisine for dinner :-) Met an Aussie girl in our room who had just arrived and she came along with us. The restaurant was quite cheap. For four of us, with drinks, mains and side dishes it cost 9000 forints ($NZD 70)

We got home and the girls went off to bed as they had very early trains to catch: 5:50am and 6:30am.

I started chatting with the Swedish girls and the American guys from the first night. We ended up heading out... just for a drink at a pub on a Sunday :-)

We never made it to the bar as we bumped into a couple of Hungarians on the street. They started chatting with us and we ended up drinking with them on the street! A real random experience. Oh, btw, Budapest seemed really safe at night, even with the molesting prostitutes :-P

It was a fun night, just getting some drinks from the local 0-24 and chatting with them. The two-Americans plus the Hungarians were musicians. They ended up doing some freestyle beat-boxing and rapping on the street. Our group grew when some other randoms joined us, an Irish guy and some Aussies.


The Irish guy was, I hate to say it, very stereo-typical. He was pissed and looking for a fight. He ended up having a bit of a scuffle with one of the Hungarians, which I found most amusing. After that, our hostel-crew left and went home to bed.

Such a random night but heaps of fun. That's something you can't really do in many places isn't it! I'm loving Europe's loose drinking laws.

Day one in Hungary

Well hello kids.

Skip the boring stuff (no hassles at all)... and arrived in Budapest at 1pm.
I had read the guides and had a minor idea of what I wanted to do.

The hostel was a little hard to find, and turned out to be a quite little 3 bedroom one in this random apartment. It was still good and the staff were extremely friendly. Oh... and once I got back to Germany I realised I had double booked myself at hostels in Budapest! Luckily they only charged me for the first night... ooops... I guess I just lost track of which places I had booked.

Anyways... upon arrival I met two Swedish girls (they seem to be everywhere!) named Isabella and Julia. They had just arrived as well and were going to check out the local baths. It was on my list of things to do, so I tagged along with them.

Walking up to the baths was quite cool, I walked through the Oktagon which had the museum of Terror (didn't visit it but heard it was cool). Also walked through Heroes Square which had a protest going on against the current government.


Arrived at the baths and realised I hadn't changed any Euros over... so they sent me on a wild goose chase to try and find an exchange. There were none around the area! I then actually stopped to think for a second and used my credit card :-P

Anyways, the thermal baths were quite nice. The hottest they were was 38 degrees, but it was a big outside pool that you could just relax in. Pretty cool atmosphere with people playing chess in the water! They also had a sauna, which had a 16 degree pool right outside. You hoped in this freezing water for a few minutes then went in the sauna. It was a strange experience.


Ended up staying around 3 hours before leaving. Overall impression was ok, NZ's thermal baths are slightly cheaper and you have more variety in temperatures. These baths were just bigger. I wouldn't complain about the $5 they charge at the Mt. Hot pools anymore :-P We do have it quite good in NZ and I'm realising it more and more while I'm over here.

After the pools, the girls went off to the supermarket to get some dinner. 1 was vegan and the other vegetarian, so found it very hard with the Hungarian cuisine. I decided to go check out Heroes Square and City Park. It was a nice walk with some strange art exhibitions around the place.


I eventually got back to the hostel around 7pm and cracked open a Hungarian beer while watching some basketball. Started chatting with some people from the hostel and eventually there was a large group that were heading out on the town (2 American girls, 2 American guys, the 2 Swedish girls, and me). Went to this really cool bar that had vines growing all over the walls. It was really strange but awesome! I ended up chatting to a couple of Pommy boys at the bar for a bit then joined the rest of the group.

After a few beers, bed was calling me (I was shattered!) so I left and walked home. Got lost for a bit and had to get my drunken sense of direction with my map. I got accosted by a prostitute on the way home. They are pretty full on, she flat out grabbed my crotch and told me 2500 florints ($NZD 20). When I said no and tried to walk away she grabbed my belt, so had to basically force her off! They must be desperate for money when they are only charging that amount!

Anyway, after my escape from the STI machine I got home and was in bed :-) Talked to a couple of Pommy girls who came home just after me then promptly went to sleep as I was shattered.

Heidelberg

Ok, I’m here for a gathering of geeks guys. It’s an international conference for Pattern Recognition (among other image analysis techniques). So boring to most of you, but interesting to me.

Monday night stayed in a pretty nice hotel.

Tuesday, went to conference all day. Then went for drinks with some of the people there. After that I checked into my new hotel which was closer to the venue.

Wednesday, In the evening, did a guided tour of Heidelberg.
Was pretty cool little city, but I think I heard more Americans than I did Germans! It is one of the places that Americans like to visit. Mark Twain visited here when he was writing his novels.

Also, learnt a bit of history. Heidelberg went through a shitload in the past. The biggest one was the castle being destroyed several times during the 30 Year War and it has been left in ruins. It has got one of the thickest walls out of any medieval structure... 11m thick!


There were some pretty cool views of the city by night!


Thurs, conference then the conference dinner which was pretty cool.

Friday, conference, then on the train home. Writing my paper at every spare moment I had!

Anyway… short and sweet. I’m going to try and keep up with my blog but I’m pretty flat out with writing my paper and stuff. May not be as detailed as I have been in the past :-) Head down bum up until I leave.

Next destination… Budapest! Woohoo.

Half a day in the Polski Capital.

Got up and had breakie then out the door as I only had 4 hours to visit the city!

I went to the Old City…. well what was left of it! In fact, the old city that I visited was mostly rebuilt after the war. It was a flying visit and then I went to the Uprising museum.


This museum was pretty good, the main focus was about the Warsaw / Polish uprising near the end of the war. It also explained how the Nazi’s tried to eliminate Polish culture completely during the occupation. Banning Polish language and destroying Polish history / cultural literature.

It also explained how the Polish combated the much superior Nazi forces using guerrilla urban warfare. They lasted quite well until Hitler wanted to make an example. If people want to see the summary / Hollywood version of it, see “Uprising”, I thought it was a good movie and the museum just helped fill in some gaps missed by the movie.

One major thing… Hitler wanted to make an example to Europe showing what happens when you stand up to the Nazi empire… so he ordered the complete destruction of Warsaw. The entire old town was blown up and 30% of the city was levelled… this is not including the amount of buildings destroyed during the battles. Warsaw was just ruins after the war! After the war, when the soviets were in power, they rebuilt the main town square and the old city.

Just outside the museum was the “wall of remembrance” which has got the names of the Polish people that died during the uprising… it wasn’t a small wall.


After this I didn’t have much time, so it was a quick trip back to the hostel to grab my bag then off to the airport. I didn’t get a chance to get to the top of the “Palace of Culture” to see Warsaw from a vantage point… but oh well.

I arrived at the airport about 15 minutes before I needed to check in (which is usually plenty of time). I found out that my terminal wasn’t the main one and was a 5 minute walk away. When I arrived there were people queuing out the door. Luckily, some other people were in the same boat as me so we pushed through to the front and checked in… with 1 minute to spare!

Got through the customs checks (got another stamp) and got on the plane. Arrived back in Stuttgart where the pilot got claps for the landing because of some minor-turbulence. In Germany, they seem to applaud the pilot in the most minor of turbulences. But I guess anything is a soft, easy landing after my Croatian flights!

So, as you can see… that was the most disorganised, badly planned, losing things, almost missing every bloody train/plane/everything trip I have ever done. And it was fantastic! I really loved Poland and want to go back at some stage (next time round). The time I spent there was defiantly not long enough. Don’t know why it was so great… it just was.

This week I’m off to Heidelberg for a conference.

Krakow to Warsaw

I got out early enough to try and enjoy the day. I walked around the old city of Krakow and did the touristy thing.


My next stop was the police station to report my camera… of course, they didn’t speak English, but they managed to communicate I needed to sit in this room and wait to be served. After about an hour (time for me to do some more work) they had a translator on the phone. I explained that I just needed to make a report so I could make an insurance claim. They said they could do it and they arranged an appointment at 5pm to see the translator.

So, I went out and enjoyed the rest of the day. I walked around in the overcast / semi-raining day. I saw the Old Town and Castle (which were pretty cool).


The main church in the old city had one of the most impressive interiors I’ve seen in a church. On my way back to the hostel I randomly bumped into Rachel and Richard again… such a strange coincidence!

I got back to the hostel about 4pm… just as it started to piss down. I started talking with the girl on the desk (who was the one that joined us the first night) and told her about my camera… and she said “this one” and pulled out my camera from the desk. So yay! I got my camera back… and even got her to call the police station to cancel my appointment so I didn’t have to walk in the rain. It was such great news!

I ended up chilling out at the hostel chatting with Justin for a couple of hours until I needed to go to the train station and head to Warsaw. I didn’t want to leave Krakow because I thought it was a fantastic city! Don’t ask me why, because I can’t put a finger on it. It’s just a great city… good atmosphere, not too many tourists, yet it’s tourist (English) friendly. Just a great city and I want to go back. Oh also, Poland has lots of great eye candy for me… those of you who know me know I’ve got a weakness for dark hair with blue eyes… which was a plenty in Poland.. Heaven :-P

Anyway, I arrived in Warsaw and it was pissing with rain. I walked to the hostel and got pretty wet, well I had my rain jacket so not too much. Two most useful things in my travels so far: my snow-jacket and my big back pack (thanks mum!)


I couldn’t be bothered facing the rain again, so I sat down and chatted to some guys in the hostel. We watched the final of the US Open and watched Federer win for the 4th time in a row. Then I went off to bed.

If anyone goes to Poland or Romania, stay in a “Nathan’s Villa Hostel”, it is the greatest hostel I have ever stayed in. You won’t believe how good until you stay in one! It’s the cleanliness and convenience of a hotel, with the atmosphere and friendliness of a hostel.

Auschwitz

Welcome to the most depressing day ever!

First, I woke up at a reasonable time and got ready for the day. My camera case was open and my camera was gone. I went to the front desk and they didn’t have it. So… I assumed it was stolen. I was surprisingly not too upset, travel insurance would cover it, but I was gutted that I couldn’t take any pictures.

Anyway… can’t let that hold up my day. I tagged along with a couple of people from my dorm room as they were heading to Auschwitz (if you don’t know what this is then I don’t know what hole you’ve been living in) as well. Chatted with them on the 2 hour bus ride and then went our separate ways when we got there because I wanted to do a guided tour. Today happened to be the only day with semi-reasonable weather… still cold but at least it wasn’t raining.

Now, this was probably one of the most morbid experiences of my life. The tour started with a 15 minute documentary explaining how Auschwitz was run. It had live footage of when it was liberated by the soviets and other such stuff. After the movie, people were crying walking out.

We started the tour… first we got given these badges and then the tour guide let us through the main gates. It turns out the badges we were given were used to mark the Auschwitz prisoners… and we got lead through the gate like people were back then… it was really strange.


I managed to get some pictures of the complex using my phone camera. Some places I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures though. Anyway… I’m not going to go into too much detail on this but you can read a lot on Wikipedia and other such stuff on the Holocaust. I am just going to let you know some of the morbid details that really hit home fore me.


1 - 1.5 million people (men, woman and children) were exterminated at Auschwitz during the time it ran from 1939 – 1945, most being Jews. It was the largest Nazi extermination camp. When a train arrived containing a load of passengers, the fittest men were selected to be “slave labour” the rest were sent straight to the gas chambers… about 75% of each trainload was sent there. Most slave labour people lasted less than 3 months due to poor conditions. The burners there could burn up to 2000 corpses in 24 hours… yet some days this wasn’t fast enough and they had to burn piles of bodies. Over all the extermination camps and Ghettos, 6 million out of 11 million European Jews were murdered during the war… and almost 100% of the Polish Jews were exterminated.


I only cried twice during this tour (which surprised me how little). The first was the room showing the medical experiments that were performed on children, seeing their deformed malnutrition bodies was just horrible. Most of them were then executed or tortured to death, then autopsied to see how the experiments affected them. The second was the story about Father Maximilian Kolbe. A prisoner escaped, and as punishment, the SS selected 10 men to die in his place… by starvation. One man that was selected cried because he had a family on the outside. The Monk heard his cries and chose to go in his place. After two weeks in the “starvation chamber” the monk would still not die and had to be executed by the Nazi. The man who’s life he saved survived the war and lived to a good age.

The gas chambers did not affect me as much as I thought they would. They were pretty bad… but still not as bad as I imagined.


The whole experience I could write a LOT about… as it really did affect me. Not a pleasant experience, but I’m glad I did it. With seeing the Nazi museum in Nuremberg and Auschwitz, the events tie together… and it’s still hard to believe such an atrocity happened.

Anyway… got a bit teary even writing the above passage.

I met a couple of people on the tour and started chatting with them afterwards, they were heading back to Krakow by car. I caught a lift with them. It was a Scottish lass (Rachel), an Irish bloke (Richard) and a Polish guy (can’t remember his name).

I ended up going to dinner with them at a random town pizza place that was in the basement of someone’s house! They were really cool and I’m going to try and make it to Glasgow to catch up with them.

I got back to the hostel after dinner etc, and the Poms and Justin were there, along with another Pommy girl (Tori). So, we got some drinks and after a few hit the town. Got home and went to bed eventually.

So a bit of a weird day really… I fully recommend that anyone go to Auschwitz if they get the chance. It’s just so unbelievable you just have to do it!

On my way to Poland

Well, I didn’t do much this week. I have started writing my paper now so I’ve been pulling 12 hour+ days at work to get it done on time. At least I’ve got something to write about and I’m confident that I will be able to get it done on time :-)

Friday morning I started my journey to Poland… now just to let you know, this was the worst planned everything going wrong weekend I’ve done so far :-P but it was still fantastic!

First, I had booked my flights in and out of Warsaw… as soon as I had booked them, everyone said “Warsaw’s shit… you should go to Krakow”. More about that later :-P

I got on my bike and just made it to the train station in time. I biked as fast as I could and ran as soon as I got off my bike, and the train just pulled up…. Whew!

So, from there everything was ok and I got some work done (reading that I’m doing at the moment) while on the train and on the plane. Checked in and arrived at Warsaw no problems. It was raining in Stuttgart, but above the clouds the weather was lovely.

Even though Poland is part of the EU, everyone still needs to go through a control point (which I haven’t had to do much)… I got another stamp in my passport! Woohoo.

Ok, so I got on a bus and went to the main train-station…. to head to Krakow :-) It wasn’t too expensive and only a 3 hour train ride. It took me an hour to get a ticket though because I had to find someone that spoke English, then wait to be served for ages.

Fast forward 4 hours (getting some more reading done) and I was in Krakow…. Where it was PISSING down!


I walked to my hostel, got some beers, and sat down with some of the people in the hostel and proceeded to drink quite a lot. I met some Poms and an American named Justin. Also, the girl on the hostel front desk for night shift joined us for a drink and some conversation… running to the door to let people in when need be.
(Justin)

That was my first day: travel, rain and mayhem… I could have planned this soooo much better, oh well.

4 Corners of Praha

Today I was up and out of the dorm by 9am. The others in the room were not so awake, as I heard the Portuguese guys and the French girls come home at 6am... another big night for them!

Today I wanted to do all the things I hadn't done yet, well... within reason :-)

The first stop was the Czech markets, to the east of the city. This was pretty much the same as any other markets I've been to, but it was pretty big. I couldn't find much I wanted to buy, so I only got some boring stuff: undies, socks, bike light and a new back-pack. It was all quite cheap too which was nice. I did walk around checking it out and ended up spending a couple of hours here.

Next stop the Jewish Museum. Now, the Jewish Museum is actually. The actual museum itself is just an admin office, and all the exhibits are inside the Synagogues spread out all around Josefov (Jewish Quarter). So I got the ticket to see everything except the New-Old Synagogue (the oldest Synagogue in the world). But I took pictures of it anyway, just couldn't go in.


Jewish cemetery: This was pretty morbid. The cemetery was about the size of a small city block, and there were 12,000 grave stones (and more buried than that!) The Jews were denied any more land to bury their dead, so they build a wall around the area, covered it with dirt, then buried more people. They did that several times. The result is:


Klausen Synagogue: This one didn't have much to offer, some silver collections and books and stuff.

Ceremonial Hall: Again, lots of books and stuff. Had some quite impressive massive silver crowns... but you weren't allowed to take pictures.... so I did :-)


Maisel Synagogue: Can't really remember what was in this one, silver pointers and things I think. Didn't leave much of an impression.

Pinkas Synagogue: This one has been turned into a holocaust memorial with a difference. The walls are painted white, then over that is 80,000 names printed on the walls. They are the names of the Jews from Bohemia (area of Czech that Prague is located) that were exterminated during WW2. This is only 80,000 names, and it covers every wall from top to bottom, 3 rooms, 2 stories. Imagine how much 6,000,000 would take up! On the top story there were 4,000 pictures from Jewish children. They were collected by someone who used to entertain the children (well try to take their mind off things) at Terezin extermination camp... out of the 10,000 children there only 242 survived. Pretty morbid huh.


Spanish Synagogue: This one was the most impressive. It's not actually Spanish, but is named so because it is as beautiful as another one located in Spain. The inside was painted in dark colours, with gold trimming everywhere. Very impressive. It also had one of the larger collections of Jewish Silver.


That was the end of my Jewish tour... onward and upward (literally). I was heading for the Petrin Observation Tower, which is a small replica of the Eifel Tower (Paris), only built ontop of a hill. It was West of the city, and along the way I stopped at a set of gardens (don't even know what ones). There were peacocks and peahens wandering around, even had an albino one which I have never seen before. It also had a massive fountain with heaps of goldfish in the water. I then started my ascent and got to the top of the hill (took a while), then started my ascent of the tower (366 steps)... but it was worth it. You could see for miles around every direction of Prague... and further! Got some nice panoramic shots of the place.


Next stop... the big swinging pendulum thingy. Yip that's right :-) It was to the North of the City so a bit of a hike. The story here is once Czech was freed from Soviet occupation, they ripped down the Stalin statue... and had an idea to put a massive metronome in it's place.


From here I headed to the TV Tower to the East of the city... by Metro this time. This building was just weird. They decided to put babies crawling around on the outside of the building. I went to the top of this and chilled out over an expensive beer (for Prague anyway... cheap by any other standard). I watched the sunset from here which was quite cool. I was one of the only people in the cafe, so I ended up talking to the bar-girl for a bit as she was also bored. I stayed until it was quite dark and you could see a really cool view of Prague by night, simply stunning.


I left here around 9pm, and took some photos of Prague by night along the way. I hadn't actually seen Prague by night yet... and it was amasing. Check out the photos in my gallery and you'll see.

I got back to my hostel (south of the city) around 10pm... and after a shower + talking to a couple of people I was on my way to the bus station. I couldn't find it at the Metro stop and I almost missed my bus :-) I got there in the end and that is the end of my grand tour of Prague... all 4 corners in one day.