May 1st 3:00pm (May Day)

I'm sitting in a bar with Danielle, Jeff, and Bennet a Torontonian whose now living in London. We are drinking beer out of these large tubes.


Big Tube of beer


Bennet and I

April 30th 9:40pm (my time was crazy last entry)

Alright, my time was way off last time, and now I am in Fisher (Fischer?) Pub, which is one floor below ground in the Krakow Old Town. The walls are all exposed stone.

So I just had to go buy our beer, but it doesn't make sense that I had to do it since they both went to the bathroom, and I gave them the money for the beer, but then they gave it back to me and had me to do it.

Anyways, an interesting addendum to my previous entry is that sometime when you tell people that you do not speak their language they will laugh and tell you (in their language) "But you just spoke my language!"

Which will really confuse you.


Fisher Pub

April 30th 10:00pm maybe 9:30pm

In da Klub

Sitting at a table at a beer hall in the Old Town in Krakow. Great thing to know in your visiting country’s language when traveling is “I don’t speak your language. Do you speak my language?” add “Thank you” and a “Hello” in there and you will be fine, unless of course they do not know English, at which point you may be screwed.


Old Town Krakow, biggest old town square in Europe

Danielle just arrived with my beer and Jeff is trying to warm his beer with his hands because they served it to cold. So that’s it for now I guess because this writing is pretty rude, or lame according to Danielle.

Either was, I just wanted to say that there is a rugby tournament this weekend in Warsaw (not here in Krakow) and that is it a 5 day weekend here in Poland because of May Day and Polish Independence day. So when we were sitting in the Warsaw Old Town a few days ago we were surrounded by rugby teams from around the world. There was an Australian or a New Zealander team on one side (Shh-don’t tell them that I cannot tell them apart) and a group of English guys on the other, with a team from Moscow sitting in the middle with us. As the day progressed member from other teams like Germany and somewhere else arrived. The teams were singing songs at each other and funneling beer.


Having a beer in the Warsaw Old Town


Australian rugby team in the back, they are the guys with the white shirts and ties. (funnel not pictured)

Today we woke up drove to Krakow, then walked around and went up the hill to Wawel castle, which was pretty cool.


Two dudes, Wawel Castle


Wawel Castle, sans dudes

Time to go, my beer is half done and I have not been talking to anyone lately. Polish music is blaring through the speakers now, and the lights have been turned off, I guess it’s Dance time?!?


Wooo Krakow


It's dance time

April 30th 4:00pm Krakow

Whoops pierogies came so I had to cut that last entry short.

I'm writing this on a tiny table in a huge hotel room across the street from the Krakow old town.


Notebook, on a tiny table in a huge hotel room across the street from the Krakow Old Town.

Driving here took longer then it should have, as all highway driving here in Poland seems to. We're going to check out the old town soon. Everyone else is getting ready, but I am (of course) already ready.

So where was I, ow yes (note to self mention the terrible bathrooms encountered along the road and the Polish ladies and the German man "Not a toilet, more like a latrine") so crabby ladies at the Royal Castle. After that...I thought that we were being followed by some toughs...whoops everyone else is now ready so I've gotta go.


Room one of our hotel room


Room two of our hotel room

Aprith 29th 9:30 pm

Law courts in Warsaw, I think...and a dog


Warsaw rising monument and Danielle

At the same pierogi restaurant as last night, got a late start on the evening as Danielle fell asleep and Jeff at two sandwiches at 7:30pm so we had to wait to eat. We decided not to go to the Old Town again so we just walked here, which is about 10 minutes away from our hotel.

Went to a milk bar today that is located just outside of the old town. Had some strong instant coffee and some crepes covered in sugar and stuffed with cottage cheese. Pretty good but strong all the way around.


Milk bar in the morning

Went for a tour of the Royal Castle (got into a big fight with Danielle before hand, not much fun on a foreign country), which I as underwhelmed by, but I think that has to do with the fact that it has been totally rebuilt and is still a bit Spartan. Also if you take a tour of the castle make sure to keep your ticket out because various old Polish ladies will ask for it about five times.


Royal Castle staircase

I also got into trouble with one of the castle workers, I'm not sure what I did but she sort of yelled at me. I said: "New Rezumium" (I don't understand) and she said something like: "Well then why did you ask me a question?" but I hadn't, so I'm not really sure why she got mad. They also have people at every doorway telling you which way to go (you cannot go backwards in certain rooms) and which rooms you can and cannot enter, and not to lean over the ropes to read who the painting were of...


Outskirts of the Old Town, Royal Castle on the right and statue of King Zygmunt Waza


Old Town square Warsaw

April 28th 9:40pm

Palace of culture

Well we've been in Warsaw for 24 hours and we have had no problems yet, all of the guidebooks warned up about the possible problems one might face when in Warsaw.

We checked into the Ibis Hotel that is about 15 minutes away from the old town. It's a bit of a fancy hotel (**) but when you convert the 259 Zl between three people to Canadian it's not to bad.


Ibis hotel Warsaw

Got into Warsaw yesterday, walked to the Old Town, had a beer and some pierogies, and then watched the people tossing fire around the square.


Fire jugglers in the Old Town

Then today it was up at 8:00am and then of to the Canadian embassy, which has basically been re-done and I did not remember any of it. Then off to the house I lived in for two years back in 1984. Didn't really recognize it, so it didn't really do that much for me. I do think that my brother really enjoyed it.


The old house, and my brothers head

The Iraq embassy is across the street from the house (the Iraqi diplomats used to park in our driveway without permission) and there was one guard out front. So we stood around and took pictures and then left. A while later we came back and there were three guards out front, coincidence or did they come out because we were taking pictures next door?

Ate breakfast in a fancy-schmancy place, darn zloty conversion working in our favour. After we ate we walked around a bit more (back past the house where the above happened) and then into the car and off to the Warsaw Uprising museum, which was very cool.


Warsaw rising museum

If you get to Warsaw one thing you'll notice (unless they've changed things) is that you will find little adds for brothels all over the street and tucked into your car door after you leave it for a while. Prostitution is illegal in Poland but apparently they do not do that much about it.

Also streets in Warsaw, and seemingly all of Europe for that matter, seem to change names randomly as you go down them. Well not really randomly, they do it at intersections but it still makes it very confusing when you are the navigator and everyone is getting annoyed with you, even though you are doing your best.

After the museum we went to Wilanow palace, which was closed but we could walk around outside so that was cool. Took a lot of photos since it was the first castle/palace for me in Europe. They were also restoring the palace, which meant that much of it was covered in netting and stuff, but it was still very neat to look at.


Wilanow palace

Did I mention that my brother wanted to go to a supermarket after the Warsaw Rising (not uprising, I have to remember that) museum? Yeah he did.

After the palace back to the hotel and then to a pierogi place that has over 40 types of pierogies. We got the potato pancakes to start and then Danielle and I each got the cheese pierogi sampler, which is 5X2 different cheese pierogies. Turns out that one of the cheese pierogies still contained meat, but we caught those before eating them. So a note to vegetarians, in Eastern Europe, cheese does not equal (<>, !=, ~=) vegetarian as it does in North America. Otherwise a great meal, if a bit out of the way.

Which brings me to my next point about street numbers. Street numbers here are not a linear as street numbers are in Canada (or maybe they are more linear?). Which means that it may say 12 on one side of the street and 27 on the other, then 14 and 35. I think that this occurs because different sides of the street are even and odd (just like in Canada) but they never miss a number. So say you have a park on one odd side of the street and houses on the other. The even numbers will continue to climb as you pass the park, but the odd numbers will not change until a building starts at the end of the park.

Then after dinner we had some chocolate pierogies for dessert (tasty) and headed to the Old Town for a walk. We didn't go inside the Old Town instead we just headed back to the hotel, picking up some beer and green onion flavored chips. The beer is pretty cheap 4zl for 500ml or about 1.5 (divide by about 2.6) Cdn, not bad.


Chocolate pierogies

Tomorrow the Old Town during the day, maybe a milk bar to eat, to the big fancy shopping mall for some shopping, and after that Krakow and Bamberg. No more Prague, Prague has been cut from the team due to time constraints.


A little something for the librarians

April 27th 6:00pm

Note to self, refrain from driving from Berlin to Warsaw in the future, it takes a long time. Really. Some 500km or 560km has taken us about 8.5 or 9 hours, ow yeah!


Polish countryside on a rainy day from the inside of a Ford.

Seems that every Polish highway (single lane or 1.5 lanes (more on that below)) must go through the centre of every town possible. Not just that but they will sometimes have stoplights which will back the traffic up, ow say 20 to 30 minutes. At first you are confused but after the third or fourth you sort of get used to it.


Me, experiencing another holdup on the highway

There are also squeegee kids that take advantage of this, and the fact that you have a German license plate or Euros, to force wash your car. Although one group of men were very nice about it and did it for free after we told them that we didn't have any money.

Do yourself a favour next time you are driving through Poland take the toll highway. Even thought it is in the middle of the country and not touching the German border in any way it will speed up your trip. The highway is being extended so perhaps when you are there the drive will be better.


Horse and buggies are still used to transport sugar beets

But now we are getting into Warsaw so I'm thinking that we may get two full lanes soon.


Diving on in to Warsaw

Aprith 26th 2:30pm

In a beer garden North (just) of the Spanish embassy in Berlin. Saw the Berling wall earlier today, very neat.


Berlin Wall

Just got out of the Reichstag, which was quite cool. It took a long time to get in, 1.5 hours. There was a German-Australian in front of us. Born here in Germany, but has lived in Australia for 24 years. Nice man, visiting with his relatives from Stuttgart. He lives 20 minutes from the back and 1.5 hours from the mountains where he can sky, which I think is pretty cool. He told me that Canadians and Australians are very similar.


The Reichstag

Bought two coffees out in front of the Brandenburg gate, felt a bit weird because it was a Starbucks but it was the only one (coffee shop) that I could find.

In Germany they demonstrate numbers with their fingers and thumbs. So I do a two (zwie) with my two fingers (index and middle) and then the woman behind the coulter does the same thing but with the index finger and the thumb. Slightly confusing.


Brandenburg gate

Almost finished my biere and breadzel, eating and drinking slowly while I finish this entry.


I'm the beer in the middle

Washroom = WC here (water closet)


Public pissoir in the middle of Berlin (Not shown: my feet)



Not-so pensive in Berlin

Editors note: Moments later my brother and I got into a large fight. Things were resolved and the trip continued.

April 26th 7:30am

Morning, waking up in Hotel Transit sleep was deep last night dreamt of the Parisian subway system which I've never seen before.

Hotel transit is a nice hostel, we it's really a hotel, hotel, we got a private room, the three of us for 30 Euros a piece, 11 more then for the dorm, breakfast is included.

Went to Seerose for dinner last night, some sort of Berliner vegetarian place that the guidebook mentioned. The food was really nice and cheap, well I do have to remember that I am paying Euros and not Canadian.


Mmmmm tasty

I just did some stretches, man am I tight, but the stretch really felt nice.

Went to the Biere Express for two German beers list night (8.50 EU for 4, mine and Danielle's). Then to this small Turkish place for a snack. Met this guy named ______ (Omar?) from Sudan. He's been in Berlin for 12 years and told us that it was a very safe city, said you could sleep on the street and no one would touch you.


Bierey goodness

Breakfast time now, gotta go, apparently the food is great.


Pensive in Berlin

April 25th 5:00pm (German time)

Welcome to Berlin, note the writing on the doors

Lying in our hotel room, it's been about 24 hours and I've had about 20 minutes of sleep. I am very tired.


Our room at Hotel Trasit

Perhaps that's why I do not feel that impressed by Berlin? There is so much graffiti here, and not just small graffiti, large graffiti that covers entire walls.


Ahhh Berlin

I also know why you need a converter for your plugs, I wonder why they are so different and which is better if any?


European plugs

We are going out for a beer and some food and then off to bed.

Editors Note: I was just tired, Berlin is a really great city.

April 25th

Frankfurt airport


The car we rented

Driving down highway A5 in Germany. German soil is different that Canadian soil.


Typical German Autobahn

I feel like a knob talking German to Germans, almost like I am insulting them by butchering their language. So far there have only been two people that I have talked two:

1. The man at the Hertz counter where we rented our car.
2. The man who ran the coffee shop in the Frankfurt airport, where I ordered the largest cup of coffee that I could. It was tiny.

It's disconcerting to learn that German radio talks about the O.C.

30 minutes into driving and my brother has to pee, sheesh, he's got a terrible road trip bladder.


Stopping for a pee and a cheese sandwich

April 25th?

Not sure what the date is now, it's morning really early morning German time, like 6:00am or something like that, which makes it about midnight Toronto time.

I just had my morning coffee, and I sorta feel like crap. 37,000 feet and all you see is a blanket of clouds a few hundred feet below us.

The sun is coming up and I can see the wing of the plane out of the window.

I really want to go to sleep before having to drive. I've been down for about 20 minutes so far.

Ah it's 12:30 am Toronto time officially, my brother just asked Danielle, so that means 30 minutes to Frankfurt, time for some more sleep.


My midnight morning

2 hours later

Well got into a brief argument with the lady behind me. She had her foot up on my armrest, instead of saying something I tried to surreptitiously push her foot off with my elbow. She got mad and called me rude. She was right, I was rude, I should have just asked her to move the foot, but she was rude to have had her foot up there.

I've had a glass of scotch and am now finishing a glass of red wine, which is all right.

I as ordered my glass of red a German (?) gentleman carrying a young daughter caught behind the drink cart smiled at us. Danielle and I smiled back at the man and he held his girl up to us and said: "Your future plan."

I said: "Na, maybe in four or five years!"

He Said: "We waited eight years."

Danielle said: "Well then we have four more years."

I still don't know what time it is but I am watching "After the Sunset" and drinking red wine at 37,000 feet.


Journal, water, and wine

April 24th

Natasha drove us to the airport, small snag on the way, seems one of her tires was very low causing us to shimmy back and for during a curve on the 401.

Brief stop at an Esso to fill up the tires (50 cents) and then we were on our way.

Airport went well, no snages. Took a bus out to the "outher" (?) airport, took a while but no big deal.

Danielle, Person's airport.

I'm pretty excited about going to Europe for the first time. Lots of Germans on the flight, which makes sense sunce we are on a flight to Germany.

I can tell that Danielle and my brother are both a bit nervous even though they both have been to Europe more then once.

I am sitting on the plane right now waiting for it to take off, I have not idea what time it is, but it has to be after 4:15 pm and before 5:00 pm.


Danielle and I on the plane.

We take off at 5:00pm Toronto time, and we land in Frankfurt at 7:00am, which is pretty wild.


My brother, checking out his stuff on the plane.

Back in Kanady

Well, so the trip is over, we landed in Montreal last night and after a few flights passed us by we finally hooked up with a plane full or buisness people and took the one hour "flight" to Toronto.

It was great to be back and see the cats again, they were in good moods and very cuddly, old Dodger is purring away in my lap as I type this right now. Very tired last night, very very tired. Got up in Frankfurt at 5:00 am, took off at 10:00 am and landed in Montreal at 12:00 am (Canada time). But I ended up staying awake until 10:30 last night and was able to sleep untile about 8:30 - 9:00 am this morning so I hope that my sleep schedule is back to normal.

Now I must go and get ready for my trip back to Winnipeg, which happens tonight, yeah more time on a plane, at least this one will only take 2.5 hours.

Pictures and more details of the trip will follow.