Europe 2009 - Eastern Roads. Yah, ish Good!!

SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2009
EASTERN ROADS – YAH, ISH GOOD!

Ahhhh Europe - Land of ice-free beverages, sub-par hotel rooms, pay-restrooms, and “Erotic Libraries”. What it lacks for in creature comforts, it certainly makes up for in history, culture, and all around good times. I had been thinking about a tour of Eastern Europe for quite some time and it was certainly a good time but it was also packed with a lot of culture and history and I walked away with a real sense of how the last 60+ years have really had an impact on that region (and not in a very good way) in the midst of getting a glimpse of a region that has a wealth of potential as it find its identity and forges ahead.


DAY 1: DEPART FOR BERLIN

This has been such a heavy travel year with my work assignment in California to the point where I haven’t really been “home” for an extended period of time since 2008. Since my full-time assignment ended, I have been splitting my time between Pennsylvania and California and I didn’t have a full week back home before I left for this trip. That chaos prevented me from really preparing for this trip as I probably should have. This was going to be my fourth time in Europe and considering this was a guided tour, I really just focused on making sure I had my wallet, passport, and camera (with the appropriate accessories). That would only haunt me in minor ways later but in the end, it all worked out well.

My flight departed from Newark Friday evening and I was flying to Berlin via Zurich. I was able to see Joe at the airport for a few minutes before boarding. Overall, it was a smooth flight to Zurich and I had a two seat row to myself which was nice. One would think that would have enabled to me to sleep properly (as all flights to Europe are overnight) but no – it was insanely uncomfortable (which was accentuated by the guy in front of me who somehow managed to read the newspaper with his light on for the ENTIRE flight, and every time he raised the paper to turn the page, his light reflected directly into my face). Luckily, I had a four hour layover in Zurich which enabled me to nap a bit and at least some rest. I woke up just in time to catch my Air Berlin flight to Berlin.

DAY 2: ARRIVAL IN BERLIN
Upon arrival, I was dismayed to discover that my Blackberry was not set up to work internationally and thus I was going to be truly on vacation for at least most of the trip. I arrived at Tegel Airport, got my bags, and had decided to take public transit to get to my hotel. I’m usually fine with public transit so long as it is a subway system. Buses usually give me pause because they are somewhat subjective with routes they take and what stops they make. Regardless, I had some time so I figured I would a little adventurous. I managed to successfully take the bus to a subway (“U-Bahn” or “U” station). After I got off the bus, I had a hard time finding the U station and walked around a bit with my luggage trying to find the underground entrance. I managed to find it and get to my stop. After walking in the completely wrong direction for a few minutes, I was able to find my place of residence for the next two nights, the Hotel Belmondo. Overall, it was a standard European hotel but what was cool about it was the doors to the hotel rooms were actually two sets of double doors which I thought was kind of cool.

I had a couple of hours until Joe arrived and we all met together as a tour group so I decided to meander about. I walked around the corner and discovered the remnants of a bombed out church (The Church of Kaiser Wilhem). It was bombed out during WWII and left as a monument and historical museum. It would be my first exposure (of many) to the effects of WWII on this entire region. I continued to walk through the streets and found some random sites but nothing too noteworthy. Upon my return, Joe had arrived and was checking in just in time for our first group gathering.

After the standard orientation, we all met together to head out for our first group dinner at a restaurant a few blocks away. The walk was an amusing one because our restaurant was right across the street from an “Erotic Museum”. You keep it classy Berlin. The meal was a decent one - we had the standard German schnitzel which was decent. The after-dinner plan was to visit the Reichstag at night which would require taking the subway. We were told that the subway trip to the Reichstag would be fairly straightforward but once we got to the U station, we realized it wasn’t as simple as we thought and had to actually change from the U-Bahn to the S-Bahn (don’t ask me what the difference is but they aren’t directly connected – you actually had to leave the U station, go outside, cross the street, and go into the S station).

We arrived at our destination and emerged to see the Brandenburg Gate at the end of Unter den Linden, the main street that follows the heart of Berlin. Just pas the gate and to the right sat the Reichstag, the home of Germany’s Parliament and the famed site that was burned by Hitler during his rise to power. It was recently renovated to celebrate the re-unification of Germany after the fall of Communism to include a huge glass dome. People can climb the dome via a spiral walkway. In the center of the dome is a conical structure of mirrors that at the right angle, allow you to see directly down to the desk of the members of Parliament. The symbolism is strong here and you immediately realize the complex history of Germany and how profoundly it has impacted this country, even today. Essentially, the mirrors serve as a symbolic reminder to Germany’s government that the people will keep a watchful eye over all that they do in order to keep everything in check and prevent radical people from ever seizing power again.

When we arrived, the building was all lit up and was quite impressive. There was a line of people trying to get in and as we stood at the end, one of the doormen came out and said they would stop admitting people at 10pm and it was highly unlikely that we were going to get in. Joe and I decided to go and take some night shots. As we were doing so, a bunch of other tour people arrived and suddenly the line to get in was moving really fast. As we ran to get in line again, we made it in just in time. As you enter the building you are herded into a class case where both doors close (apparently for security purposes).
You take an elevator up the roof level where you are able to climb to the top of the dome as well as walk around the roof of the building which offers views of the Berlin skyline. As I surveyed the landscape, I was expecting to see a vast dichotomy between East Berlin and West Berlin in that I was thinking I would see a slew of skyscrapers and development on the capitalist West side and nothing on the formerly-Communist East side. While I would see differences during the following day, they were nowhere near as pronounced as I had expected.

We took the S-Bahn and U-Bahn back to the hotel to get some rest for a packed day of touring Berlin.

DAY 3: BERLIN

Berlin, in general is a fascinating city because, among other reasons, of its history. First, Berlin was the place of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the heart of the Third Reich. As a result, the city was pretty much destroyed by Russian and Allied Forces towards the close of the war. While that alone would make the city interesting enough, what followed WWII made the city even more complicated. As a result of the Allied victory, it was decided that both Germany and Berlin individually would be split into four areas controlled by the United States, England, France, and Russia respectively. Since Russia was Communist, the areas it controlled were vastly different from those controlled by the capitalist countries. What made Berlin especially interesting is that it was a divided city in the heart of Soviet-controlled East Germany. What most people know of Berlin today is associated with the Berlin Wall and the fairly-recent fall of that wall as a symbol of the end of Communism and the Cold War.

After WWII, people were allowed to freely move between East and West Berlin. The Soviets soon began to realize that people were leaving East Berlin (and subsequently East Germany because once you were in West Berlin, you could easily board a flight to West Germany and ultimately, freedom from Communism). Literally overnight, Communist guards strung a barbed wire border and you were no longer freely allowed to cross from East to West Berlin and doing so would result in you being shot. In a few days, a formal wall was constructed and everyone in East Berlin was essentially a prisoner. The wall was actually two layers deep with a “death strip” in between. The Death Strip was a few rows of barbed wire that was lit by flood lights and patrolled by guards every six minutes. Anyone in the death strip would immediately be shot. There are countless stories of people trying to escape, some successful but most not.

As the foundation of Communism was beginning to shatter, a high ranking Communist official in East Berlin had indicated that people would soon be allowed to travel between East and West Berlin again. When pressed for an answer by a reporter as to when, the official was caught off guard and suggested that it would be immediate (which was most likely a mistake on his part). Hearing that, people swarmed to the wall and in a spontaneous event, the wall came down, Communism fell, and Germany was on its way to being reunited.

Off course this little summary doesn’t do the history justice but it does provide a very brief backdrop as to the complex history (and division) that has helped shape this city and made it a very interesting place.

Our day began with a guided tour. We emerged from the U Bahn to see a gigantic structure that was the East Berlin TV tower. It’s essentially a huge spike with a silver ball near the top. It was built by the Communists to show everyone in West Berlin how “advanced” East Berlin was and today, it has become the defining structure in the Berlin skyline. There is a funny story about the tower – the Communists were notoriously secular and had nothing to do with religion. They had contract with a Swedish firm to build the structure and it was designed such that when the sun shone on the silver sphere, it reflected in the shape of a cross. While the Communists thought they were building a structure to show East Berlin’s might, they instead got a holy monument that became known in West Berlin as “The Pope’s Revenge”.

We met our tour guide Fabian in a courtyard where we began to learn about some of the dynamics of Berlin - most of the historical heart of Berlin was in the former East Berlin. We made our way past some statues of Karl Marx and another Communist (one things Communists did right was grow beards – they were definitely solid) and ended up in front of the Berlin Cathedral. Berlin had always been the seat of power in Prussia and Germany and this was one of the few remaining structures from the original royal dynasty (and by royal, I mean a few Dukes who made themselves royalty). For quote a long time, Germany was made up of a bunch of individual states. In order to unify them under one country, one of the “kings” knew that he needed a threat that would require these individual states to depend on his army for protection. He in turn sent a note to France that he knew would provoke war and it did. The Franco Prussian war ensued and Germany emerged as a unified nation.

As the bells of the Cathedral kept ringing and ringing and ringing, we had to move further away to hear Fabian’s history lesson (which was quite good). We moved down Unter den Linden and saw The National War Memorial which has become a building dedicated to the memory of those that were lost in all Wars. As we moved on, we had to side track a little bit because the Belin Marathon was in full swing during the day which added a festive air to the city. We made our way to Bebel-Platz which is the site of the Berlin Public Library. This was also the site of the famed Nazi book burnings. Today, there is a memorial to the event in the plaza that consists of a window in the ground that allows you to look down to a chamber that contains empty book shelves that represent the 20,000 books that were burned at the time. During the event, the Nazi’s burned any books it thought to be in conflict of the ideals of National Socialism which were mainly any books that had to do with arts, religion, and especially, anything even tangentially related to Judaism. Perhaps the most disturbing part of the memorial is a plaque that had the words of poet Heinrich Heine on it from 1820: “Where books are burned, in the end, people will burn”. The foreshadowing was frightening and just added to the air of sadness as you thought about what happened here and how that eventually played itself out in one of the most horrific events of our time.

We then made our way past some large buildings to where Hitler’s Chancellory once stood. The building had been completely destroyed by the Russians after they seized Berlin but you got a sense of just how massive the structure was as it took up a whole city block. Today, it has been replaced with apartment complexes. The Communists were great at taking symbols of Nazi power and turning them into bastions “for the people”. For as good as Communists were at growing beards, they were terrible architects. They were so bad in fact that Communist architecture was given its own name: Brutalism. Essentially, think of a box with windows made out of gray concrete and you have it.

We made our way into a garden to a sewer grate. Our tour guide stopped and pointed to a pile of dog poo and told us that below that spot was where Hitler’s bunker resided (kind of ironic). In actuality, Hitler’s bunker was a massive structure consisting of two major areas. As the Russians were closing in on Berlin, Hitler and his closest associates had admitted defeat. Hoping to avoid Mussolini’s fate of being drug throught the streets of Italy, Hitler had committed suicide along with his newly minted wife by not only shooting himself but by biting down on a cyanide pill at the same time. He gave his guards instructions that he was to be burned as soon as he was dead and the guards did just that. The Russians didn’t know whether the pile of ashes was actually Hitler when they arrived but they were able to later confirm it by looking at dental records (apparently, Hitler had quite the sweet tooth).

Not wanting Hitler’s bunker to become a place where former Nazi’s would come back to honor their fallen leader, the blew up the bunker. What they didn’t realize was that there was a whole second area that they didn’t discover until they went to build the apartment complexes that stand there today. After using a lot of dynamite, the total structure finally imploded on itself and today is a garden and parking lot.

About a block away from the Führerbunker is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It consists of numerous gray block that arranged in rows. As the ground level decreases, the blocks become taller so as you walk through, the city around you essentially disappears. After a short break, we walked past the former Nazi Air Force Ministry. It seems that this was the one building that Allied Forces were unable to hit in their bombing raids despite numerous attempts; the massive size of this building, coupled with the fact that the one thing Germany was specifically exlucded from having after WWI was an Air Force, made that fact pretty ironic. After the Nazi defeat, it became head to the Communist Party and was the site of a famous uprising in the 1950’s. A few workers were unhappy with their lot in life and took a huge risk by protesting outside the HQ. They protested and surprisingly, nothing happened. The leadership at the time decided the best course of action was to “ignore” the demonstration and in a week or so, quietly arrest the protestors at their homes. This strategy backfired because once everyone got wind that the protestors went unpunished, massive protests broke out since there was no fear of repercussions. Of course, there were repercussions and the protests were quelled with a massive show of force.

Outside the Air Force Ministry was a banner that was supposed to depict Communist Life which of course painted everyone being happy and parading around; an ironic site given the remnants of the Berlin Wall stood only a few yards away. The building was the closest point to the Berlin Wall and was quite high and was thus the source of a famous escape story. An elevator repairman once smuggled his family into the building and hid them until night fall. He had some contacts show up at the wall on the West Berlin side and getting his family out onto the roof, threw a rope to the other side. The building was high enough that you could have an angular trajectory over the death strip to the top of the far wall. His wife went and was supposed to be followed by his son who, at the moment of departure, got cold feet, began to cry, and demanded an explanation of why he was supposed to do this. This came of course at the most inopportune time because the guards were patrolling the death strip every six minutes and time was of the essence. The father eventually convinced his child and everyone escaped to safety. Thereafter, guards patrolling the death strip were required to check above them with flashlights for people attempting to escape.

We finished our walking tour at the former site of Checkpoint Charlie. Aside from the touristy mockup of the border shack, there is little there to denote the importance this area once had. All that officially remains is a large sign that has two pictures of soldiers from both East and West Berlin on either side. What I didn’t realize was that the Cold War nearly came to a head at Checkpoint Charlie in the 1970’s. Apparently, someone had the job every day of passing through the border to ensure that the East Germans would allow it. One day, he was stopped and asked for a passport so it could be stamped. The diplomat refused because doing so would have legitimized an East German State. Tensions grew and before you knew it, Russian tanks and US tanks sat facing each other at Checkpoint Charlie. The situation was defused when Russian tanks withdrew around the block but left their engines revving so their presence could still be known. The Americans, seeing the tanks withdraw claimed victory and backed down as well and thus, WWIII was averted.

After the tour, we had free time to explore the city. We started off by having lunch at a little stand outside the museum district. I had some variety of meat that ended in –wurst smothered with ketchup and mustard on a mismatched bun (apparently, when they ask you if you want ketchup, that means both ketchup and mustard).

We made our way to the Pergamon Museum which housed some of Berlin’s antiquities (some recently returned from Russia). Of particular note in that museum was the Gates of Babylon which was quite impressive. It consisted of blue tiles with pictures of lions and other wild life scattered throughout the massive structure. Having some more time to kill, a few of us decided to go check out the German History Museum which was quite comprehensive. We focused our time in the Nazi section which, to the German’s credit, was not glossed over. You got a small sense of the conditions in Post-WWI Germany that led to Hitler’s rise, one of which was the amazing hyper-inflation that plagued the country. They couldn’t print money fast enough to keep up with rising prices which had a huge impact on the country. It contained various elements of propaganda, Hitler Youth Posters, uniforms, etc. It also had Hitler’s desk from the Chancellory which was quite massive (Hitler liked his offices and buildings to be larger than life to make people feel smaller). What struck in particular was a Nazi knife from JA Henckels. I have a set of Henckels knives in my kitchen today and they are one of the largest knife manufacturers in the world I believe. It was strange for me to see a company who supported the Nazi regime in any way still be in business (at least under the same name) but when you stop and think about it, most companies were involved in at least some way. Following the Nazi section of the museum was the Communist section of the museum and you quickly get the sense that while better than the Nazi’s, the Communists weren’t much better.

After the museum, I decided to take a long walk down Unter den Linden to see the Reichstag during the day. It was a beautiful building slightly reminiscent of the Acropolis but was sadly trashed due to the marathon that day. Regardless, it was a beautiful day weather wise and I was able to get some good pictures.

I took the S Bahn and U Bahn back to the hotel and we had a local dinner at a Pizza restaurant. After a short break, we got back on the bus for an optional excursion that walked through East Berlin and talked about the Stasi (East German secret police), the Wall, and Communist Times. The tour included two stops at bars with included drinks. To get to the second bar, we had to race against another team following letter drops and other clues that was meant to be in the same spirit as those former East Berliners that were trying to secretly communicate with friends in West Berlin. Of course, the atmosphere was a little falsified because you had groups of 30 young people running around loudly – we probably would have gotten caught by the Stasi.

Our tour began with a part of the wall and death strip that was being restored to its original state including the Death Strip. You couldn’t really see much because the restoration was still in process and the inner wall blocks most of your visibility. Surrounding the area, you see comics that have a dark humor about them describing little stories about what it was like to be around when the wall was in full effect. We heard stories about how when the barbed wire first went up overnight, there were some apartment complexes right on the line and people starting jumping out windows before the government boarded them all up. Eventually, people would have to start
Finding more effective ways to escape and one of those ways was digging tunnels. The Germans would catch on to that and eventually use sonar to detect tunnels under construction and would also train their dogs to send vibrations under the ground. One tunnel of particular fame was Tunnel 57, named after the 57 people who escaped through it to West Berlin. The guards caught on and shut it down quickly, arresting some West Berliners who were unfortunate enough to be caught on the East Berlin side. We ended up at a former Communist bar to enjoy a few drinks and German soft pretzels. Our tour guide claimed that the other group won the contest by completing the challenge in a shorter amount of time but I don’t think that was accurate at all. Regardless, we all got to share in the prize of chocolate covered marshmallows.

After the bar, a few of us went to a club to hang out before calling it a night. If case you are wondering what’s hot on the German night club scene at the moment, all I can tell you was that Sex Bomb was being played which was stunningly humorous.

DAY 4: BERLIN TO DRESDEN TO PRAGUE

We got on the road early in the morning and made our way to Dresden en route to Prague. Dresden is a bout a two - three hour drive from Berlin and it a pretty cool city. It was almost completely (85%) destroyed during WWII and the interesting part is that no one knows why. It was to be subjected to four major bombing raids but only three made it through (the fourth “accidentally” hit Prague). No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings from the Allied perspective as to why they actually occurred (or at least offered a definitive explanation). What makes Dresden special though is how it responded to those bombings. It spent the post war years meticulously reconstructing the city to its original glory based on drawings and prints of pre-WWII buildings.

After a brief tour, we were off to get some lunch. Being tired of meats ending in –wurst, I broke down and got a quick meal at McDonald’s and spent the rest of the next hour or so exploring the city.

We were back on the bus and heading towards Prague. Prague is a beautiful city and I would imagine that 5-10 years ago, it would have been the perfect place to visit. Unfortunately, all of the tourists have discovered this town and brought with them the gypsies and chatchky vendors that prey on visitors. The abundance of people crowding the town definitely detract from the overall grandeur of the city. Of course, I’m highly aware of the irony that I write that as a tourist myself. However, I think there is a difference between the way I travel and the busloads of older people (no offense to older people) who walk around wearing name tags of their tour company and wander around in droves hesitant to experience any culture on their own. Perhaps I’m being pretentious but so be it.

Prague is perhaps the only major European city that went unscathed during WWII and that fact alone contributes to the uniqueness and beauty of the city which holds the largest example of Gothic architecture in all of Europe (and I would imagine the world). There are two parts of town separated by the Vtlava River. On one side is the old Castle and Cathedral in the Hradčany section of town. We arrived on one of the three main bridges that span the Vtlava just in time to see the sunset behind the Cathedral which was a nice touch. We them made our way into the main part of Prague.

Across the river is three main areas (among others) that make up the heart of Prague: Josefov which is the old Jewish Quarter, Staré Město which is the Old Town, and Nové Město, which is the “new” town.

The Jewish Quarter is the best-preserved in all of Europe. When Hitler visited Prague, he liked it so much, especially the Jewish Quarter that he decided that it would be preserved as a museum to an extinct species (he was a lovely man). As such, it wasn’t touched and stands today (despite the lack of a significant Jewish population there). The Old Town is centered around the Staroměstké Náměsti which is the Old Town Square. In the Old Town Square, you have a few things of note. First is the Spanish Cathedral which is the token church on the square. To the left of that is a statue of Czech hero Jan Hus who was a Catholic priest that burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for his reformist, Protestant views. Also on the square is the astrological clock which is both a normal clock as well as an astrological one (brilliant, I know). Every hour, it puts on a glockenspiel-esque show that countless people line up to see and are subsequently disappointed in. Of course, the fact that it is older than anything we have in the United States makes it somewhat appealing. It essentially has two windows that open and have revolving statues circle though. The side of the clock is flanked by four statues, two of which represent mortal sins, vanity and greed; an “infidel Turk wearing a Turban”; and skeleton that rings a bell representing death calling everyone home at the end to account for their sins.

After mulling around in the Old Town, we looped up to New Town (passing the Sex Toy Museum along the way) which was where most of the shopping and other sundry shops are before looping back into Old Town for dinner. Todd, the tour guide, knew of a great rooftop restaurant that a few of us ate at that gave us a stunning view of the Old Town Square as well as the Cathedral across the river, all of which were lit up at night – really cool.

After a great dinner, we called it a night.

DAY 5: PRAGUE

We began our full day in Prague with a walking tour of the Hradčany area consisting mainly of the Cathedral and the Castle. Today, it is the seat of government for the Czech Republic. Most impressive was the St. Vitus’ Cathedral which is entirely contained in the castle complex. Built in 1344 but not completed until the 1920’s (talk about a project that wasn’t finished on time), it is an amazing example of Gothic architecture from the Gargoyles on the roof to the entire façade. Sadly, we just missed the Pope’s visit as he was scheduled to arrive the following week. We walked through the Castle complex (and there isn’t really a “Castle” that you would normally picture but it was a sprawling complex with the Cathedral as the centerpiece) before exited into town. At the top of a fill, you could see all of Prague laid out before you and there was a lingering fog that really added a neat effect; Prague is know for its steeples and there are more than 500 that permeate the skyline today. Before crossing the Charles Bridge, we took a detour to see a special statue of two men peeing in a pool beneath their feet. The waists of the two men move side to side and their unmentionables move up and down. You can apparently text message a certain number and the statues will then write your message in the pool below with their “pee”. Sadly, my cell phone didn’t work internationally, otherwise, it could have been a costly day ☺.

We made our way to the Charles Bridge which the most famous of the three bridges that span the Vltava River into the Old Town. It is the only Pedestrian bridge and is lined with numerous statues and it dumps you out into Staré Město. Before you cross the bridge, you come across a street that is really a canal and the Czech’s call it their little slice of Venice. One of the interesting things about Prague is that they work hard to compare themselves to some of the other popular cities in Europe, namely Venice and Paris. In fact, they build a replica of the Eiffel Tower (well, actually, just the top of it) on a mountain and claim that it’s “higher” than the actual Eiffel Tower. It’s sad in a way because Prague is a pretty unique city and they don’t really have a need to compare themselves to any other but alas, they do, and it’s cheesy.

We made our way into the Old Town where our tour ended. Joe and I made our way into New Town (via an unexpected route) and headed up a long road called Václavské Náměstí towards the National Museum in order to have lunch at a place called The Beer Factory. The Beer Factory has large tables with four beer taps in the center of each table. They charge you by volume so you can drink as much or as little as you want without waiting for anyone – pretty cool. After a pretty traditional Czech meal (not really) of Spaghetti and Meatballs, the plan was to head down to the Jewish Quarter. I decided to take the subway one stop just to say that I’ve been on it. We emerged near the Quarter and made our way to the ticket booth. For a flat fee, you can visit the cemetery and a few of the synagogues. Like most of Europe, there aren’t really any Jewish people (at least in significant numbers) still residing there so it has become a museum of sorts. Jews had been persecuted in Europe long before Hitler arrived (although not to the same extent) and this area was walled in as a result of that persecution. Because they were walled in, they had limited space to do things like bury their dead. As such, they had to manage to bury 100,000 people (although only 12,000 tombstones are visible) in an incredible tiny area. The cemetery sits at a higher elevation than the rest of the Quarter because it holds so many people.

We saw about six synagogues in all but they were turned into museums so I didn’t really get a good sense for what a functioning synagogue is like but you could tell they were pretty plain. That is of course, except the Spanish Synagogue which was fairly ornate with gold trim everywhere. The first synagogue we went to was fairly powerful; it was empty but on every wall was the name of a Czech Jew who was murdered by the Nazi’s – really sad.

We ended up back at the Old Town Square and walked through the Spanish Cathedral which was stunning before deciding to wander the streets and alleys of Prague to just “get lost”. We did just that and ended up coming out by the river and walking along the Vltava in view of the Cathedral on the hill. We met up with the group for dinner at a restaurant called the Michal. The food was decent but the sell on this place was that they had authentic Czech music and dancing. The restaurant itself was really small and divided into three rooms. The musicians and the dancers switch between the two outer rooms and those of us sitting in the middle room got the shaft. After booing the band and dancers every time they passed us by, they finally stopped, played, and danced for us (for which we cheered).

Prague overall really is a beautiful city. As I said, it isn’t the unspoiled cheap cultural destination it was probably 5 years ago but it still has a lot of charm and I’m really glad it was preserved and lived throughout the chaos of WWII.

DAY 6: PRAGUE TO VIENNA

After a fairly relaxing time in Prague, we were off again towards Vienna. Before we crossed into Austria, we stopped at what was referred to as “no man’s land”. Prior to the fall of the Soviet Empire, the Czech Republic was Communist and thus crossing the border between Austria and Czech was like trying to cross from East Berlin to West Berlin after the wall went up. Border crossings could take huge amounts of time (6 hours +) so over the course of time, this complex was constructed that had a castle and other really cheesy things consisting of restaurants and shops and play areas for kids – it’s kind of like a weird version of Disneyland gone wrong. What’s funny about it though is that it’s this huge area in the middle of nowhere. Since the Czech Republic joined the EU, there is no border crossing station so this complex just sits there for the amusement of people like me. We ate lunch in the Castle-themed section where a wench served me some pork and rice before ridding ourselves of some Czech Crowns before we made our way to Vienna.

We arrived in Vienna and we certainly did not have enough time there. We had part of the evening and then a few hours the next morning to see the city. Whereas Prague had this Gothic medieval vibe, Vienna was definitely a city built by the arts. By walking through the streets, you could almost hear classical music playing everywhere (even though it wasn’t). Vienna is famous for many things but most of all, it’s famous for being the home of Mozart. We arrived and immediately had a walking tour of the city. The bus dropped us off at Maria-Theresien Platz which is flanked by two identical buildings that serve as museums today. We cross the Burgring (part of the large ring road that surrounds the old city) and entered into the Helden Platz which is right outside the Hofburg Palace which was the main residence of the Hapsburg family.

The Hapsburg Dynasty was powerful in Europe and affected many countries. It can be traced back as early as the 1100’s and the bloodline is still present today (although they don’t rule anymore – since 1918). Unlike most rulers in Europe, the Hapsburg’s did not interest themselves with conquest and instead focused on the arts and protecting their cities. In order to stave off invasion, they married parts of the family off to other ruling families throughout Europe. One of the unfortunate habits of the family though was that they mostly kept it within the family and inbreeding was quite rampant. It is believed that the portraits we see today were slightly altered to hide the affects of inbreeding but one key factor all Hapsburg’s had was a protruding chin.

One of the notable members of the family was Elisabeth or “Sisi” as she is belovedly referred to in Vienna. She was Queen during the late 1800’s and was known for her ridiculously small waste (20 inches). She was stabbed but because her corset was so tight, she was unaware of the severity of the wound until it was far too late.

Sidebar: History of the Austrian Flag
The Austrian Flag consists of three horizontal bars: red, white and red. It is rumored that in the early 1200’s, Duke Friedrich II (the last of the Babenberg Dynasty) like war and to fight people. He cam back from a battle one day and began undressing. His shirt was covered in blood except for the spot where his belt was. He always wore his belt tight as such, the blood was prevented from soaking through. When he removed the belt, he saw the blood stains above and below the white stripe where his belt was. He liked it so much, that became the flag.

Our tour continued to JosefPlatz which is where the world famous Spanish Lippanzier Stallions are housed. They are the famous white horses that prance and dance and are the last truly pure bred horses in the world. They were actually in their stables that day so we saw them (but they weren’t performing). We eventually made our way through the streets of Vienna to St. Stephen’s Cathedral and then looped back up through the town to head to our hotel. Our hotel in Vienna was quite nice (one of the nicer on the trip). After we had some time to get ready, we met back at the bus for an optional excursion.

We made our way to the Schonbrunn Palace which was the Hapsburg’s summer estate. It’s a massive complex that sits a good distance outside the old city walls. We had dinner at a restaurant inside the palace. It was a decent meal consisting of soup and chicken. The real treat was the Apple Strudel for desert. The Austrians definitely love their coffee and their sweets and I would learn more about that tomorrow.

After dinner, we made our way to a wing of the palace that contained the Orangerie which is apparently a room where they used to keep Orange Trees. It is also a room that Mozart was known to pay in during his time. We were treated to a classical concert that played both Mozart and Strauss’ pieces and it was really cool. Of particular note during the concert was the lady in front us who defied the rules and took pictures during the show. She probably took about 50 pictures, none of which turned out. Every single picture resulted in a black screen because there wasn’t enough light. That didn’t stop her from trying to get that picture….repeatedly; logic be damned.

It was a fairly late show so we headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s rest.

DAY 7: VIENNA TO BUDAPEST

We only had a couple of hours in Vienna to explore which certainly did do the city justice. Joe and I mapped out our general route ahead of time so we could maximize the experience. We headed straight down to Stephansplatz for the Stephansdom, or St. Stephen’s Cathedral. It was a pretty standard cathedral (for European standards) but we were able to climb (and by climb I mean take the elevator) to one of the towers to get a good look at the city. Vienna doesn’t really have a definitive skyline and unfortunately, most of the “interesting” parts of the city were on the other side of the church and thus blocked from view by the roof of the cathedral. The roof itself however was pretty cool because it was made of different color shingles and on one side, the shingles were arranged to form the logo of an eagle.

After escaping the tower before the large bell in it rang, we bid adieu to one the happiest and cheeriest elevator operators I’ve met in a long time and ventured across the square to the Manner store. Manner is a sugar wafer with chocolate in between and also happens to be the favorite snack of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He loves it so much that he used it in on of the Terminator movies. He was exiting a store he just destroyed, and threw some candy on the checkout counter and that candy was Manner. Overall, it was pretty decent.

We made our way back to the main part of the Old Town towards the Hotel Sacher. This Hotel is famous for creating the Sacher Torte which is a sweet chocolate cake. It was invented in 1832 by Franz Sacher and is probably Vienna’s most famous dessert. It is only made in Vienna and Salzburg and shipped all over the world. (Of course, I’m sure there are imposters). The cake consists of two layers of dense, not overly sweet chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing on the top and sides. It is traditionally served with whipped cream without any sugar in it, as most Viennese consider the Sacher Torte too "dry" to be eaten on its own.

We made out way and looped around the Opera House which unfortunately we couldn’t go into because the tours were later in the day when we had to be on the road. We ended up at a restaurant called Rosenberger’s. It was actually a good restaurant that served good a la carte. You paid not by weight but by plate size so I thus attempted to stack as much salad as possible on the smallest possible plate. The cashier gave me a look that said “really?” but thankfully, she didn’t speak English to convey in words just how ridiculous she thought I was with my tower of salad.

With time running short, we decided to walk through the Burggarten which borders the backside of the Hofburg Palace. At the entrance of the Burggarten off the Burgring is a statue that honors Mozart. After a short time of taking pictures, we headed back to the bus and were on our way to Budapest.

After about a three hour bus ride, we arrived in Budapest and quickly jumped into a very quick bus tour of the city. When you arrive, there isn’t really anything that would stand out to you about the city but once night falls, it’s an absolutely amazing city and it would become my favorite stop of the trip. Hungary is a huge part of my blood line, especially on my dad’s side of the family and that really added to the intrigue of the whole city. Budapest is a city of more than 1.7 Million people and is comprised of three smaller “sub-cities”: Buda, Pest (pronounced “pesht”), and Óbuda which stands for Old Buda. The three were united around 1873 to form the Budapest that we know today.

Perhaps what makes Budapest so appealing is that it is similar to what Prague was 5-10 years ago in that it hasn’t really been discovered by the mass of tourists yet and as such, the city hasn’t learned how to exploit them which really helps add to its charm. On top of that, the history, the food, the heritage, and the presence of an underground network of hot and mineral springs makes it a fascinating city.

Our bus tour began at Hősöktere which stands for Hero’s Square which sits at the entrance of the city park called Városliget. It commemorates some of the Magyars that fought during the early years of the Hungarian Empire. From there, we drove down Andrássy Út which is the main street that runs through Pest (one of the sub-cities that comprise the overall city which I’ll talk about below). This street houses a wide variety of buildings from numerous embassies to museums, to Opera Houses, etc. We made our way through the streets of Pest and crossed the Duna (Danube) River into Buda. Buda is where the wealthy resident live in addition to the Buda Castle, Citadel, and other historic structures. We went to the top of the mountain and took a quick photo break which offered a good panoramic view of Budapest just as the sun had set. We drove over into the heart of the castle complex and headed over to the Fishermen’s Bastion. Built in the early 1900’s the Bastion is a castle-like structure with seven towers that represent the seven Magyar tribes that joined to form Hungary. The view from the top of the hill is quite good, especially at night as the city is all it up.

We ended our somewhat rushed and brief tour at a boat dock on the Danube where our dinner cruise commenced. We had an amazing spread of Hungarian dishes consisting of goulash and of course, Chicken Paprikash. People were astonished as they watch me ate and swore I had been starved for the last few weeks given the number of times I went up for more. I have essentially grown up on this stuff so I was very excited to get the original. The main difference between the Hungarian version and mom’s version is that instead of rice, there are dumplings and the sour cream isn’t mixed in with the broth, it’s held separate and you mix it in yourself while you are eating.

The cruise was probably one of the highlights of the trip for me. The food was great but the view was even better – especially of the city at night, it really is amazing. Most people got hammered off the free wine so everyone was on the top deck socializing and enjoying the view not paying a single ounce of attention to the tour guide below narrating. Great times indeed. After the cruise ended, we all went on the bus and most of us ended up being dropped off at a great bar in Pest on a side street off of Andrássy Út near the Opera House called Morrison’s Pub. The bar was underground and consisted of the main bar, an area for Karaoke, a room with a few foosball tables, and night club/dancing area. The place redefined the concept of a fire hazard but I think that just added for the fun. Almost immediately, this place became a hit because beers were only 100 forints which, at 250 forints = 1 euro, they were less than 50 cents and a lot cheaper than water.

The evening started off with a bunch of us singing karaoke which was hysterical because the Hungarians would eventually come up and try to sing an American song or a Hungarian song. We would try to sing along to the Hungarian songs but that was really a lost cause. Equally as amusing was listening to the Hungarians sing American songs (although their English was light years ahead of our Hungarian). We eventually moved to the dancing room and had a blast. One person in particular, Jim Huang, decided to party a little too hard during the dinner cruise and was so drunk at the club, he passed out at a table. As soon as the group discovered this, they decided to stack things on his head (which was down on the table) which eventually included a few beer cups and a sign. The random Hungarians sitting next to him at the table were highly amused.

After a good couple hours, a few of us decided to call it a night and we took a cab back to the hotel.

DAY 8: BUDAPEST

We were thankfully able to spend an entire day in Budapest which was time well spent (and in fact, I could have used another day). I decided to follow our tour guide Todd around for the day as he generously offered to take us through the main sights of Pest. We took the subway down to the Parliament building. As we walked around it, we found ourselves on the bank of the Danube where a touching memorial was built to honor the thousands of people the Nazi’s shot, killed, and threw into the river. The memorial consisted of old shoes (metal) that were simply staggered along the banks of the river.

After some reflection, we moved on to St. Stephen’s church (which still houses St. Stephen’s actual hand). The church was beautiful (which is true of all European churches) but what stood out to me in this particular church were three things. First, we were there in the early afternoon and the sunlight was streaming through the windows directly onto a marble wall with a candelabra on it. Second, the organist started playing the massive pipe organ that was present and third, a choir of people from Norway was traveling through the Church and broke into an impromptu hymn. All of that combined to make it a very worthwhile visit.

Next we headed down Váci U which is a shopping corridor leading to the main market, the Vásarcsarnok. It’s essentially a huge building with two floors filled with food and crafts. One thing was quickly apparent when you walked through the market – the Hungarians like their meat. The food was amazing and I even found some kiffels. I have to say though, they were nowhere near as good as Grammy’s or Mom’s. Instead of having a light and fluffy or sugary dough, they had a heavier dough and while good, it still didn’t compare. I ended up picking up a few souveniers for myself – a hand stitched throw for my kitchen table from a nice lady who was about to leave on vacation and one of those wooden dolls that stack within themselves (hopefully that makes sense because if not, it sounds really weird).

We made our way back to the appointed meeting place for food – Fâtal Restaurant. Our tour guide, Todd, had warned us that the portions were large but his warning underestimated the actual size they were. There were so big that they warranted everyone taking pictures of it. First, there was a the schnitzel that was larger than someone’s head. The salad’s were heaped ridiculously high, one table ordered a tower of fish that could have fed half the city and my chicken paprikash was massive (but delicious). It took us a good while to digest the monstrosities we were just served before we were back on the tour, this time stopping briefly to see the Central Synagogue. Behind the building is a sculpture that’s a silver tree with hundreds if not thousands of branches with a little leaf at the end of each. On each leaf is a name of a Hungarian person who was murdered by the Nazi’s during holocaust.

After that stop, we made our way back up Andrássy Út towards the House of Terror. The building, when you approach it is very identifiable because it has a black extension coming out of the roof with the word TERROR inscribed in it. The building itself was first home to the Hungarian Nazi Party. When WWII ended, the Communist secret police moved in and used it as their headquarters so it was a symbol of fear for most Hungarians for quite some time. Today, it is a museum that portrays its history. Perhaps the most prevalent part of the museum is the basement which was an actual Communist prison, complete with gallows – pretty interesting. One of the more fascinating facts I learned in the museum was that the Secret Police were headed by a man named Gabor Peter who was the most feared man in Hungary. Over time however, he fell victim to Stalin’s anti-Semitism and was murdered. After years of faithful service to the Soviets, the turn around and kill him without a thought because of his religion. You get a sense here (and it was prevalent throughout the trip) that while the Nazi’s were horrible, the Communists really weren’t any better and the entire region was under this harsh rule for nearly 50 years.

After House of Terror, we made our way up to the park area to Széchenyi Gyógyfürdo which is an bath house built by the Roman’s on top of Hungary’s natural hot and mineral springs. Most bath houses in the world frown upon clothing but thankfully, Hungary requires that you wear something (which translates into Speedo’s for most people). I was really excited for this because it was a pretty unique experience. After haggling over some locker space, we were all changed and ready to go. The complex consists of a lot of pools both indoor and out. The indoor pools are mostly cooler and fed by the mineral springs. The outdoor pools (which took us forever to find) were built on the hot springs. We loafed around there (along with most of the group) for a few hours and it really was a neat thing (we don’t really have public bath houses like that in the USA). In the basement, they had sauna’s which were pretty hot. Outside, they had cold pools to jump in which really couldn’t have been healthy considering you were just sitting in a majorly hot room. One sauna was so hot, they had shaved ice that you could take in their with you to keep you cool.

Closing time at the bath’s rapidly approached and we all headed back to the hotel for dinner and decided to have an easy night of relaxing. In the lobby of the hotel, there was a little bar area with a flat screen TV on the wall. When we had checked in the day prior, the Penn State vs. Temple game from last Saturday was actually showing on EuroSport!! Very weird.

DAY 9: BUDAPEST TO SLOVAKIA TO KRAKOW

We got an early start for a day of driving up through Hungary, Slovakia, and into Poland. We stopped at a quiet town called Banská Bystrica for lunch. After driving through the countryside, it seems liked this town was in the middle of nowhere and it was a great little stop. In the 1990’s, Slovakia split from the Czech Republic in what was called “The Velvet Divorce”. After the split, Czech got most of the industry and Slovakia was left with a mostly agrarian economy. Both are part of the EU but Slovakia has a much smaller (and manageable) economy and as such, was able to move to the Euro whereas The Czech Republic still has a way to go.

Banská Bystrica is a quiet town that has a traditional European town square with a few churches and other sundry buildings. In the middle of the square sits a black obelisk that is a monument to the Soviet Union / Communism. We had about two hours to enjoy some lunch and just take in the town which was a nice change of pace. As we walked through the square, we found a good pizza place off a side street that gave you a whole pizza (decent size) for only Є3 and found an ice cream place that gave you three scoops for less than Є1. At the end of the street was a billboard advertising Disney’s Up! but it had the Czech word for up which was Hore which we found kind of amusing.

On the way back to the bus, we stopped at the grounds of a museum. Outside, they had a variety of Soviet Area weapons, tanks, and even a plane. After getting some amusing pictures (riding the guns and tanks), we made our way to a little park and watch some of the people throw around the “futie” (Australian football) before making our way back to the bus.

After a few hours, we arrived at the Polish border which would be the last border crossing we came across on the trip. The border had a restaurant and two areas with a currency exchange. Poland is one of the few countries that has its own currency but really doesn’t accept Euro’s at all (whereas most countries that have their own currency in most cases will accept the Euro). Ironically, the two currency exchange rate places had different rates and of course, I chose the worse one (and they wouldn’t match the place on the other side of the rest stop). While we were there, a wedding pulled up and had a reception at the restaurant located at the border crossing which I found kind of amusing. Perhaps it was a great restaurant but it just seemed odd to have a wedding at a border crossing. It was still a neat thing to see though with everyone dressed up and a little band playing. After exchanging some currency, we got back on the bus and were heading towards Krakow.

On the bud, I started to get a sore throat and that would begin a few days of feeling under the weather. While it never became a really horrible disease, it definitely stayed with me for a few weeks as I still have a lingering cough now. Joe also got sick in a similar way and it spread throughout most of the group towards the end of the trip. I think I caught something at the Hungarian bath house in Budapest.

We arrived in Krakow later in the evening. After dinner at the hotel, a few of us took cabs to the downtown area to get some night shots and see what was going on. The old town of Krakow is pretty nice and is based around a large town square with, shockingly, a church. There were an abundance of outdoor café’s surrounding the square and it was packed with people. Krakow is dominated by college students since one of the oldest universities in Europe is housed there. We made our way around the square and walked down Grodzka St. towards the castle area. Our walking tour was brief and since we were either tired or under the weather, we caught a taxi back to the hotel to get some rest before a full day of touring.

DAY 10: KRAKOW

Poland, despite the many jokes made at its expense, is a fascinating country from a historical perspective. Krakow was the capital until 1596 when a Swedish King Zygmunt III (pronounced Sigismund) decided to move the capital up to Warsaw. It may strike you as odd that I said Swedish because the Swedes never “conquered” Poland (although they apparently tried). Poland’s royal dynasty dates back to the early 9th Century. One of the more famous Kings was Kazimierz III (pronounced Casimir) who is the only King in Polish history to be referred to as “the Great”. He was known to be a very tolerant person and invited all people from Europe to come and reside in Poland, including persecuted races such as the Jews. Because of this, Poland today is still a melting pot of different cultures. After the line of Kings dided out, Poland was one of the first countries in the world to actually elect their kings which is how the Swedish King came to be (although he was more interested in regaining the throne in Sweden than in ruling Poland). It was this King who moved the capital north to Warswaw and people in Krakow today are still bitter about it.

Overall though, Poland has had a rocky history. Sadly, from 1795 – 1918, Poland never actually existed. Instead, it was divided up between Russia, Prussia (Germany), and Austria. The Polish people would come to resent this (for obvious reasons) and tried to rebel unsuccessfully a few times. It wasn’t until 1918, after WWI would Poland be allowed to function as a state. During the time Poland didn’t exist, the leadership of the various areas would try to impose their culture on the various areas they controlled and as such, made celebrating or practicing any part of Polish culture openly illegal. Thankfully, the Poles continued their traditions in secret so we did lose any of it today.

To start off the day, we met our tour guide Eva at the hotel and we started our tour of the city. We started off in the Jewish Quarter. At the time of the Nazi occupation, there were initially around 70,000 Jews living in Krakow. The Jewish Quarter was located in an area called Kazimierz (named after the King). During the reign of Kazimierz the Great, the Jews lived in peace alongside Christians. However, with subsequent rulers, those relationships deteriorated and after Jews were once again discriminated against, they were forced to moved to what was then an island on the other side of the Vistula River. The area would be called Kazimierz after the King and they would reside peacefully there for many years.

The old Jewish area is home to a couple synagogues and various other buildings. In the main courtyard, there is a small monument to the Jews that were murdered by the Nazi’s. There is also a very old building that has not been renovated that was once the home of Helena Rubenstein who apparently built a cosmetics empire (the girls knew the name, the guys did not). While we were in the courtyard listening to the tour guide, her cell phone rang and she told us it was her father calling to make sure she got up for work that day because it was a Sunday and they knew she was out late with her friends the night before; amusing.

From there, we drove past the Krakow Ghetto. For the most part, the ghetto does not resemble what it was during the Nazi occupation but the main square is still there. The ghetto was formed on March 3rd, 1944 and was one of five ghettos set up by the Nazi’s. Many of the Jews were sent to neighboring villages and towns but nearly 20,000 remained and were forced to move from Kazimierz to the ghetto; an area that was previously inhabited by 3,00 people. There were two major deportations from the ghetto, one in 1942 and the other in March of 1943 the latter of which culminated in the liquidation of the ghetto. Today, the square of the ghetto remains and in it, sculptures of chairs that are meant to have people sit in to ponder what had happened there.

There are two people who have emerged as heroes from this area with respect to the Nazi’s crimes. The first is the better known Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who helped save over a thousand lives and is the subject of the well-known Steven Spielberg movie, Schindler’s List.

The other person who is well known today in Poland is Tadeusz Pankiewicz, the non-Jewish owner of The Eagle Pharmacy. Pankiewicz got special dispensation from the Nazi’s to maintain his pharmacy in the ghetto and served as a support mechanism for the Jews living there. He would hide Jews, provide them medicine, and smuggle goods in and out of the ghetto.

A few blocks away from the ghetto was Schindler’s factory which is exactly how they portray it in the movie. You can’t go in it today but they are in the process of turning it into a museum.

After our tour of the Jewish sections of Krakow, we made our way up Wawel (pronounced Vavel) Castle which was the the historic seat of power in Krakow. The area consists of a few buildings including a Church and an Italian Courtyard. In front of the castle area sits the statue of a dragon which is tied to a legend in Warsaw. It seemed that the Polish didn’t really know the true stories to a lot of things but certainly had a lot of legends to explain their history. Here is the legend of the dragon:

Long ago in Poland’s early history, On the River Vistula, there was a small settlement of wooden huts inhabited by peaceful people who farmed the land and plied their trades. Near this village was Wawel Hill. In the side of Wawel Hill was a deep cave. The entrance was overgrown with tall, grass, bushes, and weeds. No man had ever ventured inside that cave, and some said that a fearsome dragon lived within it. The young people of the village didn’t believe in the dragon. The old people of the village said that they had heard their fathers tell of a dragon who slept in the cave, and no man must dare waken it, or there would be dire consequences for them all. Some of the youths decided to explore the cave and put an end to such foolish talk. They thought that they knew better and dragons were just old stories from the past. A group of these young people took some torches and went to the cave. They slowly entered the cave until they came to a dark mass of scales blocking their way and the sound of heavy breathing. The boys ran as the dragon awakened and roared. Fire came from it’s mouth warming the boys heels and backs. When they were far enough away, they looked back and saw the dragon at the entrance of the cave, very angry being awakened from it’s sleep. From that day on, the people knew no peace. Every day the dragon appeared and carried off a sheep or preferably young virgins. The populace made many attempts to kill the dragon but nothing succeeded and many of those that attempted were killed. The hero in this part of the story differs. In the village lived a wise man, or a shoemaker or a shoe makers apprentice named Krakus or Krac. He got some sheep and mixed a thick, yellow paste from sulfur. Krakus smeared it all over the animals. Then led them to a place where the dragon would see them. The dragon came out as expected, saw the sheep, roared, rushed down the hill and devoured the sheep. The dragon had a terrible fire within him, and a terrible thirst. It rushed to the River Vistula and started drinking. It drank and drank and could not stop. The dragon began to swell, but still it drank more and more. It went on drinking till suddenly there was a great explosion, and the dragon burst. There was great rejoicing by the people. Krakus, was made ruler of the village, and they built a stronghold on Wawel Hill. The country prospered under the rule of Krakus and a city grew up around the hill which was called Krakow, in honour of Krakus. When Krakus died, the people gave him a magnificent burial, and erected a mound over his tomb which can be seen to this day. The people brought earth with their own hands to the mound, and it has endured through all the centuries as a memorial to the person that killed the dragon of Krakow.

And today, they have a statue of a dragon that spits fire every half hour or so.

After our tour of the castle area, we made our way back up to Old Town Square (which really is the highlight of the city). Eva was stalling for time because at noon (just like every hour on the hour, 24 hours per day), a lone trumpeter plays a song from the top of one of St. Mary’s Church’s towers. Today, the trumpeter is someone from the Fire Department but is meant to symbolize a trumpeter who was on watch in the early 1200’s. He sounded the trumpet when he saw the Tartan Army preparing to invade Krakow. His signal helped the Polish army mobilize and prevented them from being ambushed. The legend (sic) is that the trumpeter was shot in the throat by a Tartan arrow and thus, his warning call was cut short. Today, the trumpet that plays ends abruptly in mid note to commemorate this. The trumpet, as stated, is played every hour on the hour in each of four directions from the Church Tower.

After our tour ended, we had some free time and since we were all starving, we were on the hunt for lunch and since we were in Poland, we had to have pierogies. Eva the Tour Guide directed us to head down Florianska Street to a restaurant called Alter Ego. About half the group wandered down that way and we ended up sitting in the patio outside the restaurant. I should stop here to mention that throughout most of the trip, we had amazing weather. There wasn’t a cloud in site until the last day and it was perhaps the best week Eastern Europe had seen throughout the summer. Most tables on the patio were covered by tents and we soon found out why after we sat down. The trees that provided shade were chestnut trees and the nuts were mature at this point of the year and thus dropped from the tree. Perhaps this is in bad taste but you got a sense for what the bombing raids during WWII were like. CHESTNUTS EVERYWHERE, falling left and right. At times, it seemed like they were coordinated to fall as soon as people stepped out from under the cover of the canopies. And when they fell, they fell hard making extremely loud noises when they hit the wooden deck. It made you wonder how many chestnut related injuries or even fatalities occur in a given year in Poland. It could be high enough to warrant a charity: for only 5 cents a day, you can help prevent chestnut related deaths. Perhaps not.

The lunch was awesome, as was expected. You realize just how crappy the store bought pierogies are here in PA. Everywhere we went, we found that there were three main types of pierogies which the popular being pierogies ruske which consist of mashed potatoes and cottage (not cheddar!) cheese. Other varieties include meat-filled, spinach, and one with cabbage and mushrooms. Perhaps the best pierogi is the dessert pierogi. At Alter Ego, it was pierogies filled with strawberries covered in sweet cream. I’m still drooling over them.

After lunch we had some time to walk around and we headed to the end of Florianska Street to see the Florian Gate. During medieval times, there was a huge wall surrounding Krakow which help prevent invasions. Today, the wall has been replaced with a garden-type area that encircles the Old City. The Florian Gate was one of the few entrance points and marked the entrance to the Royal Way which was the path that dignitaries walked to get from the entrance of the city to the Wawel Castle.

From there we went back to St. Mary’s which was perhaps the most memorable church that we saw on the trip, at least for me. The irony in that is that the exterior of the church is very plain, almost Presbyterian but as soon as you walk in, it’s truly amazing. Unfortunately, there was a mass going on so we weren’t allowed to take pictures. You are supposed to be able to climb the tower of the church but we had an excursion to get to so we weren’t able to climb to the top for a bird’s eye view of the Old Town Square.

We met up with most of the group for an excursion a salt mine. This salt mine is quite famous and is listed as a UNESCO site. One of the oldest salt mines in the world is in the town of Wieliczka and had been producing table salt from its foundation in the 13th Century all the way up until 1996 when the finally hit the water table and had exhausted most of the salt reserves. The mine itself is over 300 km (186 miles!) long and the 2 hours tourist route covers less than 1% of the mine (which is truly amazing after taking the tour). What makes this mine a little more special than most others is that the miners who have worked there throughout the years both spent a lot of time down there and were fairly creative. As such, they began to create sculptures in the salt formations. Inside the mine, you can see lots of gnomes, trolls, statues of people, busts of kings, and a variety of other things sculpted out of the sand. The centerpiece of the whole thing though is a full cathedral that was carved in the mountain. It had an altar, chandeliers made from salt, and recreations of famous sculptures like The Last Supper. It’s a monstrous cavern and it actually a fully functioning church that has a service every weekend (and I believe it’s the lowest church on the planet).

There is also a salt sculpture of Pope John II. The Polish people love them their famous people. At the top of the list is Pope John Paul II who the Polish know as Pope Jana Pavla II. They have his picture and name plastered everywhere. The other person they are in love with is Chopin but we will get to that when we arrive in Warsaw. I would imagine they would also have talked a lot about Roman Polanksi, the famous director, but he was just arrested that week in Switzerland on charges from over 30 years ago so there wouldn’t be much to brag about.

At the end of the salt mine tour, they had of course, a bar and the tour guide Todd treated me to a shot of some of the worst vodka in the world. It was so bad that I had to return Todd’s generosity by buying he and I ice cream bars to chase it.

The rest of the evening was free time so Joe and I decided to relax a little bit and find a restaurant on the square to jus simply relax. European service, in general, is nowhere near the level it is in the States and the upside of that is that you don’t have people rushing you out so they can seat someone else. We had great seats in the Old Town Square and enjoyed watching people, horses, and even wandering musicians pass by. After that, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel to get some rest for the next day.

DAY 11: KRAKOW TO AUSCHWITZ TO CZESTOCHOWA TO WARSAW

We had another early start for what we all knew was going to be the most emotional day of the tour and the reason that most of us were there: Auschwitz. Auschwitz had been on my mind for a few days prior. I was exposed to the Nazi’s throughout the tour on various levels and I knew that this was going to be the culmination. The odd part is that I was fearful that I wouldn’t be emotionally touched by visiting Auschwitz and that fear turned into a little bit anxiety. In all, I just wasn’t sure what to expect (which was true of most of the trip which made it that much better).

Auschwitz consisted of three camps. Auschwitz I was the initial camp that initially started off as a work camp. It grew to become a death camp because Dr. Mendel, the famed Nazi scientist who conducted cruel and inhumane experiments on Jews did all his research here and perfected (if you can call it that) the mass extermination of people using Zyklon Gas. Mendel was known as the “Angel of Death” and performed unimaginable experiments. He tried to inject people with things to get their eye color to change and had a horrible fascination with twins.

Auschwitz I was very well preserved and has been converted into a powerful museum. Auschwitz II which is also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau is a monster camp that was built for a single purpose – killing people and I’ll talk more about that in a second. Auschwitz III was more of a labor camp and consisted of a factory which is still in operation today. We didn’t visit Auschwitz III – Monowitz but I was stunned to learn that the industrial factory is still in operation today.

When you enter Auschwitz I, you enter through the Museum visitor center where you get a headset to listen to the tour guide as you go throughout the museum. I wonder what it must be like to be a tour guide there – perhaps the most depressing job in the world. As you exit the entrance, you are immediately struck by the two rows of barbed wire and the guard shacks. On the main path into the camp, you see a guard tower and the traditional “Arbeit Mach Frei” (“Work shall set you free”) sign that spans the main road. As you pass under it, you hit the main road which runs perpendicular. This road is flanked by identical brick buildings that served as housing for all of the prisoners. When you are in the middle of the camp, as sick as this sounds, it doesn’t look that bad. The buildings look nice and there are trees lining the road – it’s almost like a small military base. When you enter the buildings though, the idea of beauty quickly leaves you. The barracks have each been converted to hold various pictures and remnants form the camp. Building or “Block” Number 5 houses the Material Proof of Crimes which consists of massive amounts of shoes, luggage (still with people’s names), items people brought to the camp not knowing what truly awaited them, and worst of all, hair, lots of hair that has since lost its color with the passage of time.

The living quarters have been preserved in one of the buildings and shows stacks of wooden bunks or floors simply covered in hay. The bathrooms were small and prisoners were only allowed to use them for extremely short periods during a day (short as in barely even able to go to the bathroom).

At the end of the street is the block that housed the prisons. There were prison cells that were isolation cells, darkness cells, and other inhumane areas. Outside of the block was a courtyard where shooting executions were held. There was a wall in front of the back brick wall where people were shot. The windows surrounding the courtyard were covered with wooden slats so the people living there couldn’t see what was going on.

After walking down the main road, you pass the gallows where many prisoners were hung and you ultimately come to the crematorium. As we entered, we came into this dark, large room. At that point, the tour guide simply said “and this is the room where you would be gassed” and it hits you. You look up and see two vents where the gas would come in. Aside from the entrance, there is one door on the side of the room and this is where 2 furnaces sat. As you look at them, it’s nearly impossible to comprehend what happened here and why. You almost have to block everything out because the true realization of what it would have been like is entirely too painful to even begin to comprehend yet alone fully understand. Further baffling was the fact that this crematorium was “small” compared to the others at Birkenau. It was really meant to perfect Mendel’s experiments on mass extermination.

After you (solemnly) exit the crematorium, you walk along the perimeter of the camp towards the exit. We all got on the bus and headed to Auschwitz II Birkenau. This is the camp that most people picture when they think of Auschwitz with the train tracks that arrive at a large building with a single tower. When the Germans deserted Birkenau, they destroyed as much as they could have to hide what went on there so most things were either left as they were discovered or reconstructed to give people a sense for what things looked like.

Birkenau, compared to Auschwitz I, is massive and there is no mistaking what the camp was built for. For as far as the eye can see in both directions, you can see the brick chimney stacks which is all that remains of most of the “living” quarters that once stood there. Railroad tracks bisect the camp with living quarters on either side. At the rear of the camp on either side of the tracks are two of the main crematoriums which were imploded and remain in that state today.

We stopped at one of the reconstructed barns which had bunks to show what it was like during operation. The shed next to it had the bathrooms which consisted of a large concrete tank with a circular holes on the top that ran the length of the wooden shack (and wooden shack is the best way to describe the structures).

As we walked down the main path along the railroad tracks (flanked by guard towers and lots of once-electrified barbed wire), we walked past the sorting area where people were sent to either work or die and arrived at the remains of the crematorium. As you walk around them, you are cognizant of what went on there and that you are most likely walking on the ashes of the people who were murdered there and dumped.

The crematoriums were mostly underground and had a staircase where people were led into the main chamber. As soon as you were in here, you were dead and there was no hope for you. The first chamber required you to disrobe. To prevent panic, you were told that you were going to shower and the Nazi’s had screwed fake shower heads onto the ceilings of the next chamber where you were pushed into. Instead of getting a shower of water, they were gassed when the doors were closed and sealed. It took about 20-30 minutes for the gas to fully kill everyone. After that, the doors were opened and people were put into the furnaces and cremated. Horrible.

At the rear of the camp is a monument commemorating those that lost their life at the camp. Every country who had someone that lost their life there had a plaque in their own language commemorating those lost.

As we walked back towards the exit, I was struck by the people who were walking around there. First, there were children running around and laughing, ignorant to the solemnity of the place and what actually went on there. It was an example of the power of innocence and gave you pause. The other thing I noticed was the amount of Germans walking around. It was so strange for me to see that, similar to how it was weird for me to see Japanese at Pearl Harbor. Every German school student is required to visit a concentration camp as part of the curriculum and I say kudos to the Germans for not trying to push their history under the carpet. Yet, I can imagine what it’s like to look at a place like Auschwitz as a German. While the people today aren’t directly responsible, it has to impact them. Of course you realize that nearly every nation in the world has some sort of atrocity that weighs on their conscience over the course of history but I wondered, how much time has to pass to really separate yourself from that, especially when it comes to national identity?

We ended our tour and got back on the bus but I noticed just before departing that there were little wildflowers sprouting around the camp and their contrast against the barbed wire that hovered above them seemed ironic.

What followed Auschwitz was a very long bus trip to Warsaw by way of Częstochowa. Częstochowa is a city that is home of the monastery of Jasna Góra in which the Black Madonna resides. This monastery and the Black Madonna is by far the most popular tourist destination in Polish for both visitors and Poles alike (more than even Auschwitz). The Black Madonna is rumored to be painted by St. Luke himself on a cypress table top that once belonged to Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. It is rumored to be part of dowry in a marriage between royal families from Constantinople (where it resided for many years) and Kiev. The painting is accredited to saving the monastery of Jasna Góra during a 17th Century raid by the Swedes. This “protection” led the King of Poland to crown the Black Madonna as Queen and Protector of Poland. The painting is also credited with saving its church from a fire but not before having turned black from the flames. It is called the Black Madonna because Mary’s face is pure black.

There are two prominent scratches on the painting said to be made by an invader in the 1400’s. He struck the painting twice and before he could do so a third time, he dropped to the ground in agony and died. They tried to repair the scratched but were unable to do so as they kept re-appearing.

The Black Madonna is also known to heal people. When you enter the Monastery, the walls are flanked by crutches of people who claimed to be healed by her power. We arrived very late at the monastery because all of Poland is under construction and we sat in traffic for far longer than intended. We had at least ½ hour there though and a mass was going on. After a few us wrestled with whether or not we should take pictures during the service, we all decided to do so in the midst of those worshiping (and I guess we all cashed in our Catholic chips on that one).

After that, we were on our way for another few hours until we arrived late in Warsaw. Our hotel in Warsaw was the nicest of all the hotels by far and comparable to a US hotel. We had dinner (which was decent) and I was up in the room after 9pm. Literally two minutes after I entered the room, my phone rang and it was a friend from high school, Mike Dietrich, who was waiting for me down in the lobby. I had known Mike was living in Warsaw and hadn’t really talked much to him since high school other than the occasional Facebook dialogue. With my Blackberry not working well throughout the week, we made intermittent contact and his timing at the hotel was impeccable. Despite being under the weather, I went down and we went to an Irish Pub in some office building in the heart of town to enjoy a few Guinness’s and catch up. It always amazes me the impact Facebook has on today’s society and it was cool that I was able to catch up with someone that I otherwise would never known lived there or even thought of.

DAY 12: WARSAW

The next day was spent touring around Warsaw. Warsaw is much bigger (and urban) than Krakow as it has been the capital for quite some time. It was almost completely destroyed during WWII and had been rebuilt in its original image since. The centerpiece of the city, much to the chagrin of the locals, is the Palace of Culture and Science. It is an imposing structure built in the Soviet style as a “gift” from Stalin to the people of Poland. It is the tallest structure in the city and still represents in some people’s minds the Soviet rule of the people of Poland (not a popular subject). Plus, a lot of people think it’s ugly. Because it symbolizes Warsaw, they can’t really tear it down so instead, they are building skyscrapers surrounding the building to somewhat hide it.

Our tour began at Lazienki Park. At the entrance to the park sits a statue of Marszałek Jozef Pełsudski who is one of the more famous people in Poland (the tour guide referred to him as one of the famous “mustaches”). He has been credited with Poland regaining its status as a country after WWI. In the middle of the park is a reflection pond surrounding a statue of Fryderyk Chopin. The tour guide would always say that Chopin was Polish Polish Polish; three times so everyone would remember that fact (as I said, they love their famous people). Chopin was born in Poland and eventually moved to France where he died of tuberculosis. While his body resides in France, his heart actually resides in a church in Warsaw.

The bus ride from the park to the Old Town followed the old Royal Way which was a nice street, lined with historical buildings that have since become embassies for various countries. Along the route is a statue of Charles de Gaulle who is pointing in the direction of his favorite donut shop and an artificial palm tree which is only meant to serve as a conversation piece apparently. We were dropped off in the Old Town known as Stare Miasto. As I mentioned, it was completely destroyed during WWII and has been rebuilt since and looking at it today, you wouldn’t really know it was all built in the 1950’s. It’s a typical European town with two large squares. The first is a semi-square with side streets that lead to the main square (Rynek Stare Miasto) where our tour ended. We had some free time so we first headed back to a Pierogi shop where we feasted on more pierogies than our stomachs could handle (the apple cinnamon dessert pierogies put us over the top but they were worth it). To aid in the digestion, we walked a bit and went down Nowomiejska Street passing through the old wall that used to fortify the city and ending up at Marie Curie’s house (she was also born in Poland). We turn left and followed Długa St. and ended up at the Supreme Court building (which is actually pretty cool – green and gray with lots of modern pillars). In front of the supreme court is a massive sculpture that depicts the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. As WWII came to a close, the Polish Army tried to liberate Warsaw from it’s German captors before the Soviets “liberated” it. They felt that if they could defeat the Germans and drive them away before the Soviets entered the city, they could claim sovereignty. What ensued was a massive uprising that killed 16,000 Polish soldiers and around 200,000 civilians were murdered by the German soldiers. The Polish Army failed and the Germans in retaliation leveled about 35% of the city, block by block. To make matters worse, the Soviet Army was stationed outside the city and could have helped but decided to wait for most likely two reasons. The Poles could risk their lives to fight the Germans and in turn, Soviet lives could have been saved and second, with Polish losses, no one would stop the Soviet occupation that was to come.

We made our way back to the entrance of the Old Town and climbed up to the top of a tower that looked over the first square to get some good pictures. After descending, we walked a bit more before ending up at a coffee shop waiting for the bus.

We headed off to an excursion back into Lazienki Park but this time to “palace” (which was really more of a nice mansion) where the Polish Royalty used to reside. Inside waited Iwona Klimaszewska who was to perform a private piano recital for us of Chopin’s work. She was amazing and didn’t use any sheet music. She was a teacher at the State Academy of Music in Warsaw and has traveled the world playing Chopin’s music. It was quite delightful (the best way to describe it) and we even had a little intermission complete with Champaign.

After the recital, rain had started to fall (the only day we had to deal with it) and we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our last dinner together as a group. We went to a restaurant in Old Town called BrowArmia which was a microbrewery. Dinner was quite good and we all hung around socializing and taking far too many pictures, most of which Joe and I (ok, mostly I) tried to ruin by jumping into the background.

From there, most of us went out to a local bar called Paparazzi. My friend Mike had warned me that it was a bit pretentious and he was certainly right. We were definitely underdressed for the evening but had fun nonetheless. After a few drinks, most of us headed home to the hotel to pack up everything for the flight home the next day.

DAY 13: WARSAW

Our last morning was very low key. Most of the people had left on the bus in the morning to head back to Berlin leaving only those of us who were flying out of Warsaw. We shared a cab to the airport with Emma and Brandon and made it there early enough such that the ticket counter wasn’t even open yet. Because we were flying British Airways to Heathrow and then Continental from Heathrow to Newark, we weren’t able to get our tickets for the London flight which was worrisome because I was fearful that I was going to get a middle seat which for an 8 hour flight is not a pleasant experience. Our lunch on the flight from Warsaw to London was terrible – a sandwich with some sort of cheese on it and plastic tube (not kidding) of milk.

We arrived at Heathrow in Terminal 5 and had to go to Terminal 4 which you would think would have been an easy walk. No, it was a 20 minute bus ride – the airport is crazy (and this wasn’t the first time I’ve flown through there so you’d think that I wouldn’t have been surprised by that). It’s definitely on par with Schipol in terms of size and craziness. We got the transfer desk and lo and behold, I had a middle seat while Joe mockingly showed me his window seat. I asked the lady to see if I could get a window or an aisle seat and she quickly told the flight was oversold and there was nothing she could do. We got to our gate and I found a very helpful gentlemen who was able to prove that the prior woman lied to me and he was able to get me a window seat. After a quick lunch of a chicken Caesar salad which cost about $20 when you did the conversion, we were on our way. The flight was actually pretty smooth. I watched Ray (which was good) and Terminator Salvation (which was terrible) and we had arrived in Newark early. That’s right folks, early and Newark in the same sentence. My dad was waiting for us and thus ended a fantastic vacation (one that has taken me a few weeks to get over – and quite frankly, I’m still not over it).

I took nearly 3,000 pictures on this trip and learned more than I could ever have hoped to. I also made some great new friends (as evidenced by the 30+ Facebook e-mails a day I get from discussions surrounding pictures).

CURRENCY

I remember when I was little and my dad traveled to Europe, he would bring me home Francs, Kroner, Deutschmarks, and other varieties of currency. With the establishment of the EU, those currencies wouldn’t exist by the time I was able to travel abroad and I thankfully had to deal only with the Euro. This trip changed that. With the fall of Communism, Eastern Europe is still a developing area and as such, their economies don’t allow them to use the Euro quite yet.

While Germany, Austria, and Slovakia were all on the Euro, the others were not. In the Czech Republic, Crowns were the currency and the exchange rate was around €1 to 25 Kč (Czech Koruna or Crowns). The constant currency exchange made it a bit difficult because you only wanted to take out exactly what you needed. Getting the currency was easy but exchanging it back was difficult because nobody wanted it. Nearly all the currencies we used were dying (and fared poorly against the USD and the Euro) as they were going to be obsolete in the next five years most likely.

In Hungary, they had the Forints and the exchange rate there was a ridiculous €1 to Ft 250! That made math extremely difficult because you not only had to convert that to Euro’s but you then had to convert if to USD to understand the full impact. On our first day in Budapest, I went to an ATM to take out what would equate to about $40 USD because that went a pretty long way in Hungary. Because I was tired and on vacation, I was unable to do math. I knew that 250 * 40 = Ft 10,000. For some unknown reason, I then multiplied that by 4 thinking that only got me ~ $10 USD. The ATM gave an option for Ft 50,000 so I hit that. As soon as the money came out, I realized my mistake and was walking around with about €200 worth of Hungarian Forints, a mostly useless currency. What made it worse is that the ATM gave me Ft 10,000 bills so while it was cool to walk around with Ft 10,000 bills, I felt really dumb. Luckily, I was able to exchange currency with other people in my tour group and was able to get rid of nearly all of my Forints so it worked out really really well (thankfully).

In Poland, the currency is the Złoty and the going exchange rate was about Zł 4 to €1. Surprisingly, Poland was the cheapest country that we visited.


HISTORY

I think that over all else, this trip was about history and I didn’t quite expect that. When you realize just how much had gone on in the region of the world since the 1930’s (and even before that), it really is amazing; you had the Nazi’s and then the Communists, both of which had a profound impact on the region (to this day).

In high school, you always spend a lot of time learning about WWII and in an effort to get there you gloss over WWI. WWI however represents the culmination of a lot of tensions that were built up since Napoleon’s time and even before. After Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna met to essentially divide up Europe and set up years of tensions that would eventually culminate in The Great War. In particular, there were growing tensions between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the neighboring Serbia which had been increasing in size. At the time, the German Emperor had told Franz Josef, the head of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that should he decide to go to war, Germany would back them. In the background nearly every country in Europe had formed some sort of alliance backing other countries (which was the key to understanding why the war broke out in the first place).

The Austrians were given a reason to go to war when Archduke Franz Ferdinand (a fairly unpopular guy) was assassinated by a radical Serbian group known as The Black Hand. Their intent had always been to murder him and after three failed attempts, one of the members happen to be sitting outside when his car came driving down the street (which apparently was an odd route for him to take). Coincidentally, this particular member of the Black Hand capitalized on his luck and murdered Ferdinand who happen to be the only heir to the Austrian throne. Austria sent Serbia its list of demands lest it declare way and surprisingly, Serbia conceded all but a few minor details. The details were enough to declare war.

So…..

Austria declared war on Serbia.
Germany was allied with Austria so it was now at war.
Serbia was allied with Russia so it was now at war.

Germany then invaded Belgium enroute to France to take back a territory it lost at the Congress of Vienna. This then pulled England into the War.

This drew all of the British Empire into the War.

The Germans then sunk a US ship so they were brought into the war. And the complexities continued.

The War was only supposed to last a short time and was viewed by many as a necessity to enable everyone to sit down and redraw the European map. The War instead lasted many years and ended up with the fall of once-great empires as well as decisions that would eventually lead to WWII.

One of the main decisions was the one to make Germany pay for reparations as a result of WWI. This bankrupted the country (after a few other additional demands were made) and left people in poverty. Hyperinflation ensued and money couldn’t be printed fast enough to keep up with rising prices. The currency was essentially worthless and left the German people in despair. Adolf Hitler capitalized on that despair in his book Mein Kampf and eventually used this issue to bring National Socialism to the forefront and take over in Germany.

Hitler used his gifts for persuasion and propaganda to entice the German public. He made promises to restore Germany to greatness by promising stability in people’s lives. While winning over the public, he hired criminals to carry out strategic assassinations and deeds that would allow him to claim total control over the Third Reich.

Of course, this is a watered down history (and perhaps not entirely accurate, but close enough) but you can at least see the complexity of it and how it had a dramatic impact on the region. After WWII, Russia was able to gain control over most of the region which kept the area in a general depression for many years. Only now is the region coming into its own and it has a fairly bright future.

Through all of this though, it makes you really grateful that your ancestors left and moved to America when they did. Otherwise, I could have spent my childhood years as a Communist – and that’s just weird to think about.


LANGUAGE
Here are some of the new words I learned on the trip:


German:

Hello – Guten Tag
Goodbye – Auf Wiedesein
Thank You - Danke
How are you - Vie Gayts
Entrance - Eingang
Exit - Ausgang

Czech:

Hello - Ahoj (Ahoy!)
Good day - Dobry den (Dobree-den)
Thank You - Dekuji (De-koo-jee)


Hungarian:

Hello - Szia (See-ya)
…and that’s about it….

Polish:

Hello - dzień dobry! (Gin-Dobray)
Thank You - dziękuję (Gin-Coo-Yay)


FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall this was a fantastic trip. I went in with little expectations (and preparation) and I think that helped me relax and enjoy it more than I would have otherwise. Part of the uniqueness of the area is it’s history and you really get a sense for the struggle the region had for so many years. At the same time, that is bolstered by the bright future that awaits it. While some of the culture that you see today will go by the wayside, the area will continue to be unique for many years to come and that’s pretty exciting.

Couple that with some of the great people I met on the trip, it was definitely one of the better ones – and I will look back fondly on it for some time to come. As with any trip, I’m able to have a much better perspective on life I’m afforded here in America and the privileges that come with it, past, present, and future. But I also walk away with a better understanding of the perspectives someone from another part of the world might have and that really is priceless.

The Hearst Castle

When I came to California and started to put together my list of sites to see, one of the possibilities that people kept mentioning to me was The Hearst Castle. Located in a desolate little village about half-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco, it was quite a hike and required an overnight stay but was well worth the trip.

I knew I wanted to go so it was a matter finding a time and that opportunity presented itself last week. I had to spend a few days in Chicago and initially thought that my flight was returning on a Friday. I could then get an early start and head north on the 4-5 hour drive. It turned out however, that my flight was returning late Thursday night which meant that I could have gone to work on Friday. In the end, since no one really expected me here at the plant, I only came in for a few hours to have a conference call and headed out around noon.

The drive up north was really one of the highlights of the trip for me. Once you get North of Los Angeles, the scenery and terrain becomes very different from that of Southern California. Instead of large sandy beaches and concrete jungles, you have lakes, cliffs, vineyards, and rolling hills. It reminded me of a cross between Tuscany and the hills of northern England. Since only a hotel room awaited me, I was in no rush and decided to stop a little bit on the way up. First stop was at Pismo beach which is really a vehicular recreation area. Essentially, people can take their cars right on the beach and camp. Just south is a sand dune preserve. Unfortunately, it was too far south to walk to and from what I understand a bit dangerous because there are Hummers and Dune buggy’s flying all over the place.

After a brief stop in Pismo, I went up to San Luis Obispo which is the home CalPoly University. It is definitely a college town with your typical downtown of shops and a few restaurants. I ended up eating at a decent BBQ place and taking a brief drive through the campus before heading north up to San Simeon.

San Simeon is a small village that was really established to help support the construction of The Hearst Castle. Nearly all of the land surrounding the estate is still owned by the Hearst Corporation. The Hearst Corporation is still a large force in the publishing industry and publishes magazines such as Redbook and Good Housekeeping among other well-known names. Among those interests is the Hearst Ranch which is utilizes the massive expanse of land surrounding the estate.

W.R. Hearst’s father became one of California’s wealthiest men when he discovered silver in San Simeon hills. He used that wealth to buy a significant amount of land surrounding San Simeon. William would come to fall in love with this land as he began to build his own fortune in Newspapers. During his youth, his mother took him on a trip throughout Europe and this would also have an impact on him. His immense wealth and both his experiences in Europe and his love for San Simeon would eventually lead to the construction of what would become one the most elaborate architectural and artistic projects in the country.

The Hearst Castle would never be a “completed” work as Hearst like to change his mind often. Significant progress started during the 1920’s with the majority of the estate as it sits today being completed in the 1940’s. The cost would be $6 million is construction and $3 million for all of the art. Hearst commissioned a female architect, Julia Morgan, to take on the project in her “spare time”. She would invest a good portion of her time, especially on weekends, to work hand in hand with Hearst to create this elaborate estate. Morgan was famous in her own right getting a degree in Civil Engineering and being the first woman to gain a certificate in Architecture from a famous Parisian school. Morgan was not only the architect but she was also the landscape architect and the interior decorator. It is also known as La Cuentra Encantada (the Enchanted Hill) or as Hearst referred to it, “the ranch”.

In the mid 1950’s Hearst’s estate donated the castle and property (but not the surrounding land) to the State of California which made it into the state’s most successful State Park. People aren’t allowed to roam the estate freely but instead must be accompanied by a guided a tour at all times. As such, they created a Visitor’s Center at the base of the hills where the property is located. You have to take a 5 mile bus ride through the rolling hills to get to the isolated estate – a ride that is really amazing.



I started my day fairly early on the first tour. Essentially, instead of having one comprehensive tour, they break it out into four separate tours (each of which you have to ride the bus back to the Visitor’s Center for). Tour #1 is essentially the introductory tour. Because I started early and the “June Gloom” that plagues California was in full swing, the hillside was covered in fog. While it added a neat effect, it was terrible for pictures. The property essentially consists of about 5 different houses – most of them being guest houses, a recreation area (consisting of tennis courts and a pool), and Casa Grande, the main house. All tours start at the Neptune Pool (which is the well-known outdoor pool) and end at the Roman pool (which is the indoor pool). Tour #1 took you through one of the guest houses and hit some of the major aspects of Casa Grande. Heart wanted to ensure that his construction had the most up to date amenities and technology so not only did everyone have their own bathroom but most bathrooms had showers, not bathtubs (which was a novelty during that time).

Casa Grande is a massive building that was built to mimic a church Hearst saw in Spain. The main entryway led into a huge Assembly Hall where Hearst’s guests would gather before dinner. For me, it was reminiscent of a great hall you would expect to see in Camelot or one of the castles of medieval England. Nearly all of the interior of the castle was decorated to reflect medieval European flair from the paintings to the tapestries, to the woodwork, to the most amazing ceilings I’ve ever seen in a residence. Part of the wall of the assembly area was a doorway that led into the dining room which consisted of a table longer than any I’ve seen. Hearst’s parties were apparently legendary and he hosted a great many people (especially Hollywood-types) at his estate. Surrounding the dining area were flags that represented the different districts of Sienna, Italy.

The dining hall led to a “breakfast room” which was a “small” sitting area that got its name from he window that faced east to watch the sunrise. Nearly all of the views from any window include rolling hillsides. The breakfast room led to the Pool room with two pool tables and mill fleur which was a tapestry that translated to “a million flowers”. These tapestries were owned by only the wealthiest people during medieval times. The Pool room then led into Heart’s movie theatre. It was nearly a full size theatre (at least full size for the 1930’s and 40’s). Heart had married and woman named Millicent and then separated from his wife (very taboo in the day) to spend time with his Hollywood girlfriend, Marion Davies. Hearst owned a movie production studio that would produce all of Davies’ films and he would make his guests watch movies his studio produced when they came to visit.

The Roman pool, the ending point for each tour was pretty neat. It was a heated pool (which was impressive for the 1930’s). For all of its splendor, it was rarely used. Most of Hearst’s guests chose the outdoor Neptune pool. Additionally, most people in the 1930’s didn’t know how to swim so they just hung around poolside. Hearst was known to frequent “local” department stores and buy out their entire swimsuit section for his guests.

After the ride back to the Visitor’s Center, I took in the Hearst Castle movie which was shown in a surprisingly large theatre. It was your standard state park documentary with cheesy actors and a feaux-dramatic story intertwined with historical facts. Overall, not terrible. The funny thing is that they sold the movie on DVD for $30 (that’s $1 per minute) in case you wanted to take it home. After watching the movie, they handed out coupons for 50% off the DVD. Really? What’s the point? Nearly everyone watches the movie that goes there so why not just sell it for the original price? Are people really ignorant enough to think they are getting a “great” deal that will cause them to actually buy the DVD? < /end soapbox>.

I headed back up the mountain for tour 2 which took you through another guest house and back into the main house to see Hearst’s bedroom (which was surprisingly small) and his study. We also saw the massive kitchen which as pretty cool. Hearst never viewed his estate as a hotel and as such, there was no room service. If you wanted something, you had to go to the kitchen to get it. During this tour, there was a couple who brought their two little children on the tour. Now, I don’t have anything against kids. But – you are going to a house filled with priceless heirlooms. There are no ropes separating you from said heirlooms. You are also supposed to stay on a small, special carpeted path because the rugs are older than your great-grandfather. This is not a good recipe for kids, especially kids with ignorant parents. Thankfully, nothing was broken nor were any beds jumped on but lots of things were touched that weren’t supposed to be. After the second tour, the fog began to burn off a little bit and you had better views of the surrounding countryside. We headed back down to the Visitor’s center for an overpriced lunch.

Tour #3 was amusing for me. We got on the bus and as we started the tour, the tour guide (same as Tour #1) looked around and asked, “Does anyone besides this gentleman here speak English?”. One person (out of 20+) raised their hand. Everyone else spoke Chinese only. Essentially, I got a personalized tour which was pretty neat. Of course, the tour was continually interrupted by the tour guide telling the people that they had to stay on the carpet and not touch anything. These people were worst than the children from the previous tour, much to the tour guide’s frustration (and my amusement). Tour #3 essentially focused on all of the bedrooms of the main house which were pretty amazing, especially the rooms in the bell towers.

After a long day of touring, I headed back down to the Visitor’s center to take my leave of Hearst’s Estate. Before driving back to Irvine, I decided to take a quick detour north to see the Elephant seals. About 4 miles North of San Simeon, there is a small beach that is home to quite a few elephant seals. The seals were in their molting stage which meant that they were lazy and looked like they had leprosy. Overall, it was a neat stop, especially as I got to see some seals yell at each other and posture as they tried to find the most comfortable position to loaf and do nothing.

I ended up passing through LA just after sunset and since I had my tripod in my trunk, I stopped at the Griffith Observatory to see the LA skyline at night and ended up getting some awesome night shots in the process.