The end of the Trek

Kiev was really awesome. In the inner core of the city where we stuck to, things are very promising. We agreed that the look of the buildings and feeling of the atmosphere was very similar to Warsaw. If any of you have a serious entreprenurial spirit, you should learn Ukrainian because the time is ripe there and it is the Land of Opportunity. Kiev has a long way to go before the entire populace has reached to levels of more than just survival mode and an expat from Chicago told us that the outskirts of the city are still very slummish, but they are definitely on their way up and it was very heartening.

After our horrible introduction yesterday to the Ukraine (the train and not being able to buy tickets, etc) we didn't expect too much of Kiev. Our hostess at the hostel wrote down on paper our request for train tickets and told us a better place to buy them and we managed to get our return tickets to Warsaw as planned. Whew! That was a huge load off my mind and we couldn't have done it without her writing it down for us. We quickly discovered this was going to be the norm. Luckily I had studied the cyrilic alphabet and a few words on the train ride and it came in really handy becuase very very few people spoke english. Not that people were impolite, but if we couldn't speak Ukrainian or Russian, they just didn't bother to try to communicate with us.

The two days that we were there we wandered all over the city and looked at a lot of cool sites. At the Ukrainian Orthodox church headquarters they have a cave system of thousands of bodies and we visited a piece of it housing numerous saints. It was kinda creepy and I also felt a twinge of guilt at gawking at this spectacle that was such a huge religious experience for them (people make pilgrimages to this place).

Like any mass transit system anywhere, after you take it once, you should kinda have the hang of it and it isn't so bad. We took the subway numerous times and it was cheap and easy (as long as you have a rudimentary grasp of cyrilic). As you can see from my pictures, Kiev is built up on a hill and in the flood plains surrounding the Dnepr river. When they built the subway, instead of attempting to navigate the altitude change, they built the subway pretty much at the flood plain level for the entire city. When we were in the upper city, we had to take 2 long escalator rides down to the platforms; when I say long, I mean long. They were easily about 10 stories each and even though they moved faster than normal escalators in the mall, the ride was 1minute 50 seconds on each. Crazy.

We had a bit of a scare the first day because Jason couldn't pull money out with either his credit card or bank card. His bank card had been frozen and he got that fixed easily, and we think he had hit his 24hr limit for the credit card (we had to pull out a bunch of money to pay the hostel the first night). Once we got it taken care of we bought tickets to the Ukrainian National Opera House. I had really hoped to see the ballet, but the only show playing before we left was the opera Faust. The opera house was beautiful, we had fantastic seats for about $10 each, and the show was great (and they even had some ballet in the last act!).

On the last day we happened upon a demonstration by what we believe was the foreign relations department building. I have since read up on it and it was an anti-NATO protest. I know that tensions between Russia and Georgia are escalating but hadn't paid attention to why. Reading about this I now understand that Russia is - of course - against these countries joining NATO and the people demonstrating were probably Russians living in Kiev. I would suggest this news blog for a summary of the situation: go to the June 20th entry http://blog.kievukraine.info/2008_06_01_archive.html

The trip back to Warsaw ended up much better. There was no first class train, but we had upgraded from the Ukrainian second class to the Polish second class car and it was night and day difference. We had only 3 beds but no 3rd occupant which was nice. The compartment was just much nicer in general, including our own sink. A guy in our car - some train official though not sure in what capacity - spoke German and helped get us settled. He asked us to carry some vodka and cigarettes for him and we did. What the heck. At the border they never even asked us if we had anything to declare so it wasn't a big deal at all. And I have to mention the border stop this time was at about 10pm so it we were actually able to get a night's sleep. Not too shabby!!

So we picked up the car in Warsaw, which we had left at the hostel, and headed to Frankfurt Oder in Germany. It was a really long day - there was tons of road construction and at one place we were backed up for miles due to an accident in the middle of the one-lane construction. Crap! We thought for awhile we may never get out of Poland! Well we did, and the next day we drove down to Munich. We had an extra day to get the car washed (it was embarassingly dirty) and our luggage figured out (we bought a box to check for some of the extra stuff we had picked up). I had hoped to finish up the blog but we didn't have internet access at the place. We flew to Frankfurt and ran into Drew who ended up sitting right in front of us on the flight home. And one last really long flight and we were back in Portland! And it was cloudy! Go figure.....

a quick note

I don’t have time to write much, but I did add a lot more pictures. I culled the best from Jason’s stash for all the places since Venice – when my camera was stolen – and uploaded for your pleasure. I figure once I get home I probably won’t get around to it so I better do it now. We are currently in Munich and will be turning the car in tomorrow and then flying out the day after. Yippee!! My own bed!!! I will add a blog entry about Kiev later. Tschuss!! J

planes, TRAINS, automobiles

Oh geez, the train ride to Kiev deserves it's own post for sure, but I guess I better quickly sketch Warsaw. There literally wasn't much to Warsaw to see. The city was flattened by Hitler in response to the "Warsaw Uprising" at the end of the Nazi occupation and they did a very thorough job. We went to a museum that explained all about the rising and it was really interesting. There was a guy that left over a 1000 pictures of everyday life during the occupation and underground journalism was kept alive with a surprising amount of video footage remaining. Very informative and powerful exhibit, very well put together.

Poland played Austria in the Euro Cup so we went to a bar recommended by the hotel to watch it. It was full of young people and they projected the game on a nice screen in a *gasp* non-smoking room. It was fun to watch with all those Polish.

Ok, the train ride. We had booked berths in a 4 person cabin for the overnight train to Kiev. The two other ladies were Ukrainian so we were unable to really communicate with them. I had packed some crackers and water and had read there was a snack car for any other items we may want, but after walking through the sleeper cars we came to a dead end! No restaurant car and therefore there was also no place to sit and hang out except on our bunks. We took the top two bunks and pretty much everyone went to bed after the first stops (the train left at 9:30pm). Thank goodness for earplugs! The motion of the train was actually pretty soothing, but it was a very clackity, loud affair. At the border, the Polish guards checked the Ukrainian passengers for duty items - this is at 2am, and took a long time. Then a little while later we were stopped again and the Ukrainian border patrol came through. First they checked the Ukrainians, then they checked everyone else. Then they took they moved the train and jacked it up to change the wheels because the track width is different in the Ukraine. After that, the border guards came through and returned our passports (boy, were we nervous with our passports being confiscated!) and finally we were on our way again. We remained on the train for the entire process which took about 2-2.5 hours. And this is standard because we arrived on time. The next day in daylight my suspicions were confirmed about the state of the bathrooms: the toilets emptied right onto the track which explained why they had locked the bathrooms while they were changing the wheels. :-) There was an official person in each train car and they sold a few things to eat and drink and there was hot water available, but of course we were not prepared for any of this and the people only spoke Ukrainian so we had to just make do with what we had. We arrived in Kiev the next day at local time 2:30pm.

After wolfing down some food, we tried to buy some tickets to return to Warsaw. We stood in several lines and couldn't find anyone to speak english or understand that we wanted to get tickets. It was miserable. We finally gave up figuring the hostel could help us and went to take the subway. We spent over 30 minutes trying to find the damn subway! There is a major lack of signage in Kiev and what they do have is all in Cyrillic - we were screwed!!! And we were so tired it was unbelievably frustrating. Finally, we managed to find it and get to the hostel. The folks wrote down some info for us so we could show it to the ticketing people the next day. It began raining absolute buckets, as in I haven't seen it rain this hard since the monsoons in Phoenix. We went to get dinner and were both soaked in less than 2 blocks even trying to run from one cover to the next. With the weather and being exhausted from the train ride and subway ordeal, we then went to bed. There was a free Paul McCartney concert that night which was supposed to be a huge big deal but I was in no shape to partake.

I have to get moving so that is enough for now. Off to explore Kiev!!!

Rounding the Turn

Our last day in paradise couldn't be without a little excitement or life just wouldn't be interesting, right? I was laying out in the yard reading and was stung in my tricep by a wasp. My upper arm is still pretty swollen, but I seem to be alive just fine. After I was stung, Jason anxiously checked progress of the swelling every so often (he is so allergic to stings we would have needed to find a hospital if it had been him). After awhile my tongue swelled up a bit too, so we jumped in the car to find a pharmacy to see if we could at least get some antihistamine. Well, apparently no one in Poland needs them cuz they don't have them here. But, the swelling wasn't too bad so we figured I was in the clear even without it. We sure would have felt better though if we had found some.

Back in civilization and feeling the looming weight of work coming up. It is dawning on me that I am supposed to be sitting at my desk and working away again in only 2 weeks. While I wouldn't mind getting home soon, that sure doesn't mean I relish going back to work.

We arrived today in Warsaw, but it is only a stop for the night and then tomorrow we take an overnight train to Kiev. After Kiev we race back to Munich and fly home. So close! Tonight is another soccer match for Poland in the Euro Cup so we will go out to find a place to watch it.

Sometimes you can't beat doing nothing

Currently we are sitting around doing pretty much nothing in Wilkasy, Poland. It is in the northeast, in an area that could be considered a 1000-lake-region. We came here for some respite, to sit around and recuperate after all the going going going that we have been doing. We are here for 6 nights in a little cabin and it has been awesome. The weather has been fantastic (probably around 85 everyday) and it is very relaxing. My German has also really come in handy here since this area is becoming increasingly popular with German summer tourists. Yeah for me! Yesterday we rented a sailboat for the day and it took us most of the day to tootle around the big lake we are next to. It was a ton of fun and Jason was in his element. The only downside is that his allergies are pretty bad here. On Sunday night we went to a bar to watch the Poland/Germany EuroCup soccer game, but had to leave because his eyes were so bad. Poor guy.

By the way, the roads here in Poland pretty much suck. Even Czech Republic was tons nicer! But to be fair, almost every road is also under construction so I think they are trying (not sure how they are paying for all of that ?).

We leave the day after tomorrow to go to Warsaw. Bummer, it is great just laying around in the sun and reading and drinking our wine that we brought from Italy. But I am really looking forward to going to Kiev next.

Krakow

We went to a large system of salt mines and took a tour. It was really cool. The mines are at least 700 years old and extend over 300 km. During their spare time, the miners would carve things from the salt - there are gnomes, lots of religious figures, modern looking scultpures, and even several entire chapels! The main chapel was carved by a group of guys over a 4 year period and was incredible. The cristals in the chandeliers were even made from salt, the floor carved to look like tiles, and 3-D bas relief of various religious themes carved into the walls. Absolutely incredible. Apparently they actively use the space for mass on Sundays and they hold weddings and concerts in there sometimes. We did the really tourist thing and ate in the cafeteria they have cuz Jason was so giddy with excitement at the prospect of eating 300ft below ground.

That night we hooked up with Drew and Kevin and went out for some drinks and dancing. We found a place with a DJ and a small crowd (but what do you expect on a Tuesday?) and had a great time. Too good. We both were a bit hungover yesterday and didn't get out to see the city as we had planned. But honestly, at this point what's another castle?

Today we are off to Auschwitz concentration camp and then a stopover in a place called Lodz. Tomorrow we head up to the Mazury Lakes region in the NE of Poland for a 6 day decompression. Not sure about the internet access there and all, so you may not hear from me for awhile.

Oh, and I almost forgot. As we were about to leave Czech, Jason was pulled over! He was totally speeding and we didn't have the toll sticker, but somehow he managed to talk his way out of it. He shouldn't have been able to and I for sure thought we were going to be fined (they usually demand payment on the spot) and of course we had just topped off the tank to get rid of our Czech crowns. But he did it - playing the dumb tourist. Amazing!

Last but not least, I added a link to Jason's web album of pics. I am too lazy to go through and create my own album of his pictures, so you have to put up with looking at his. He only does a few pictures from each place, but at least it is something. Enjoy!

Hello Poland!

Salzburg was pretty cool and one of my favorite places so far. After the ice cave, the next day we wandered the town and toured through the castle. It is pretty much an intact fortress and we discussed the amazing differences between the English castles - which were built explicitly with defense in mind and seemed very dark, dank, nasty places to live - and these central European castles that are fortified against attack, but still seem to be bright and comfortable to live in. The refinement of the continental Europeans make the English seem barbaric (imagine that while conditions in Braveheart were going on, composers were vying for court positions in Vienna).

Next was on to Prague. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a little town for our first meal in the Czech Republic, but didn't stay any longer than that becuase we had a long drive ahead. Next we stopped to check out the "Original Budweiser" Budvar Brewery. It seemed to be just as big an operation as the Miller plant we toured in Wisconsin.

After Austria, Prague at first came across as very communist-era run down. But upon closer inspection we decided that Prague was a very nice city with some fantastic detail in the architecture, but just dirty. The buildings were dirty, the streets dirty, the people not as nicely dressed. There seemed to be a lack of pride. During the first day while touring the sites, we kept seeing a lot of Scots in kilts. When we reached the city center there were a hundred or so sitting around the main fountain. We casually walked by listening for someone with a lighter accent that we would be able to understand and then asked what was going on. Turns out, Czech Republic was hosting Scotland in a soccer game that night. Well, that sealed the deal for Jason and we spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out how to get tickets. The stadium had about the same number of seats as PGE Park, but centered around the entire field like a normal stadium. Our cheap seats (~$10) ended up being in the 2nd row midfield. We looked right out over the field, but it was partially blocked by the fence and I guess that is why it was considered a bad seat. There were tons of Scots and they cheered and chanted the entire game. The Czechs were not nearly as organized, but I also think there were a lot of people mixed in like us (I heard lots of English speakers). The Czechs ended up winning 3-1 and it was a really good game - lots of fun!! We headed back to the hostel and I dragged Jason into a local pub nearby our place. Definitely a hangout for only the locals, but every beer we have tried has been fantastic and this place was no exception. Beer is also cheap - the local brews are about $1-1.50 for a half liter. Beat that!

We finally managed to hook up with Kevin and Drew the 2nd night, they had been sick as dogs for the last few days with some virus. So we took it easy and walked around a bit and had a couple of drinks and called it a night.

From Prague we have made our way to Poland (bye bye navigation system!) and are in Krakow for a few days. Time to get ready for the day - we are going to some salt mines today. Later!