My European Holiday, part I
So I spent 2 weeks in Eastern Europe over our break, and it was really educating and enlightening. I mean, you don't really think of Eastern Europe as like a party all the time place to be (with the exception of Prague), so it wasn't that kind of vacation (plus I was with the 'rents), but it was still really interesting. I don't have any pictures yet, but soon, my friends. Soon.
Plus, the for three days before the trip, I got to go back to NYC, one of my favorite cities in the world. Stayed in the Theater District, at the heart of Times Square, so it was very convenient to get from place to place. Luckily, we got to Chinatown and SoHo before sheets of rain were pouring down upon us.
My parents and I went on a tour to Eastern Europe over my 2 week break from hell (read: school). It was very educational, and there were a ton of things to see. Of course, since the majority of the countries I went to had been under the communist regime until recently, they are still trying to pick up the pieces and get their newly bestowed democracies together. That said, they've come a long way, baby. All of these countries have turned to tourism as a ways to a means. All of these countries have an abundance of Western influence from clothing to the McDonalds that adorns every corner.
Flew from JFK (which is an embarrassingly dirty airport, especially in the international terminal) to Helsinki, Finland in an overcrowded, too hot, cramped flight on Finnair. Finnair is like one of the rudest airlines I have ever been on, and I regularly fly Southwest. The agents were assholes/bitches, and the flight crew was very curt. However, they do give free booze, of which I did not partake. Naturally.
Caught a connecting flight from Helsinki to Warsaw. After settling in to our hotel, we were taken on a city tour. It was a Sunday, so one of their main shopping/touristy streets was closed off for pedestrians. Our group walked to the Old Town of Warsaw, which had to be rebuilt after WWII, and it's a really cute little square. Of all the European Nations I went to on this trip, the Polish were the nicest bunch, in terms of not sneering at American tourists. Although, wherever I go, I always hear a Konichiwa or Ni Hao, which angers me. Warsaw is a cute town, a lot of culture (and Chopin's heart buries in a pillar of a church) and architectural treasures. Our visit preceded that of Pope Benedictine by two days, so the city was busy with cleaning efforts.
While there, we went on a folklore dinner with our group of 33 (mostly geriatrics, there were 2 people around my age), and of course (just my luck) during the audience participation segment of the polish dancing (not polka mind you) I was chosen to go up there and dance. The guy who picked me was really nice, he's in school to be an engineer and this is his night job.
After two days in Warsaw, we embarked towards Krakow, the former capital city of most of Europe. The coolest thing about Poland is that it was under the control of so many different empires and countries, and at one point for like 400 years, it wasn't even on the map, but that somehow it fought back through recent German and Russian occupation to become their own free nation. On the way to Krakow, we stopped at a church with a religious artifact called "Our Lady of Chestahova" which is a Black Madonna figure that has different dresses made of amber and diamonds. It's said that the Black Madonna has healing powers.
As an aside, i think I've been to more churches and synagogues in the last two weeks than in my 21 years + my parents combined ages.
After seeing the Black Madonna, we went on to Auschwitz. This ws the most depressing part of the trip. It is a horrible, but necessary location to go to. The crimes on humanity that were committed in those grounds are like unfathomable. To think that where you walk, millions of people cried while they and the others around them were being murdered is really humbling. The barracks where Jewish prisoners, gypsies, poles, homosexuals and other deemed miscreants to the Nazis have been turned into a modest museum. There were 10 or so living buildings, and in each one, there are sparse letters and relics from that era. One of the rooms has a length wide glassed off case filled with hair from victims of gas chambers. You see the pictures in books or in movies, but this was so real.
By this point, it had already been a tough day, so we got to Krakow, had dinner and crashed.
As I said in an earlier point, I read a book called the Trumpeter of Krakow when I was in 8th grade for an academic pentathalon. In this charming medieval town on top of a hill in Poland, the trumpeter plays a little past each hour, but he only plays half the song because according to lore, he was shot in the neck before he could finish. Of course, this is a lie, because the church where this was alleged to happen hadn't even been built yet. But nevertheless, only half of the song is played to this day.
They have a town square too, and this is a really quaint, large open square, with a lot of restaurants and a central shopping hall with a lot of woodcrafts and toys. There's a huge castle and cathedral near the square, and a pretty big jewish quarter. I don't know, I like it, it was a charming little city that was for the most part untouched by the war. Also, it is the place where JP2 (Pope John Paul II) was the archbishop before he became the pope. Our tour director, Renata, was confirmed by him when she was little. While in Krakow, we also went to the salt mines that miners carved statues and works of art into pieces of salt. It was interesting, I have the pictures to prove it.
Some notables while in Poland: they have a lot of kebab stands that aren't as good as the Gyro Van (those in KC know what I"m talking about), I drank vodka at breakfast. They have a lot of free flowing alcohol in Eastern Europe.
Next hear about my jaunt through Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria...for now, I've got two classes and nothing to do this summer, so I'm going shopping.