Krakow

Our last day in Krakow started with a trip to the bakery next door. We ate in a park on our way to the castle, which is "arguably the site to see in Krakow." We walked the steps up to the castle and were greeted by a large, metal, fire-breathing dragon, which seemed to double as a children's jungle gym. We continued up the hill and walked around the castle grounds. We toured the beautiful statesrooms with marble floors and staircases and lavish ceilings. When buying our tickets for the states room we also purchased tickets to visit the dragon's den. We got to a small opening with a lady standing out front taking tickets and she told us to enter through the small door, which started our lengthy trip down the nauseating, spiral staircase. Finally we got to the bottom, where it was chilly but definitley a site to see. It was an underground cave and we had fun walking through it.

We then returned to our hostel to do some much needed laundry. Instead we fell asleep and decided to do laundry when we woke up because it would take 2 hours per load. We woke up around 7 and put a load of laundry in. Nicole and Franki went to the train station to buy our tickets to Bratislava, while Denise and Amanda stayed behind to "finish up the laundry." After finally buying tickets on the tram after looking for a ticket booth forever, Nicole and Franki were on their way to the train station. They were given a nice surprise at the ticket counter because they found out that they needed the passports to make the reservations, which were in the hostel... of course. By the time they got back to the hostel empty handed (2 hours later) they figured they would have some laundry done. Unfortunaly the first load was still not done... and wouldn't be done for another hour... so they said. Many rounds of euchre later the laundry was still not done... now it was about midnight. We decided to go to bed and pack our laundry in the morning. The one laundry load that consisted of three pants, five tank-tops and some underwear took an amazing 6 hours to complete. Needless to say the majority of our clothes are still dirty.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

This was our hardest visit yet. We feel it was an important site to see and are glad we went, although many tears were shed.

FAND mail

Previously this blog only allowed members to leave comments... now that we are finally sitting at a computer in English we've been able to change it so anyone can leave a message... so please feel free to leave comments :)!

Public Transportaion Issues...

After our Warsaw detour we arrived in Krakow ready to embrace Poland. We first tried to hale a taxi but apparently taxi drivers here aren't hungry for buisness and left us on the side of the road. Frustrated, we decided to find our way using public transportation. Nicole approached the ticket office to find out exactly how to get to our hostel and purchased our tickets. We waited forever for our tram and had to cross two lanes of traffic in order to get on.

At our second stop we noticed a man checking tickets... even though he looked like a civilian. We were so relieved that we had bought the tickets, had them validated and had them ready to hand to the man. After handing him the tickets, the man still wanted more. Apparently our bags also needed tickets to ride the tram. We tried explaining that we had no idea and we had just arrived. They would not hear it and handed Nicole the fine slip, 72 zitis a bag. Nicole tried to pay him the 10 zitis that it would have cost to bring the bags with us, but he insisted that he wasn't a ticket booth and threatened to call the police.

At our stop, the ticket checker and his sidekick (who kept asking Nicole for our passports... to which she continued to ignore) escorted us off the tram. They took us to an ATM so we could withdraw money because naturally we told them we had no money to pay the fine. Franki and Nicole went into the bank. Franki distracted the ticketcheckers by pretending to use the ATM while Nicole attempted to ask a banker if we were being scammed but he didn't speak English. Denise and Amanda remained outside with Amanda desperatley attempting to cry. The girls walked out of the bank and while Nicole asked to see their identity badges, Amanda instructed Franki to cry... and she did.

We lied and said we had no money to take out so they threatened to take us to the US embassy. They said that the embassy would pay for us and we would have to pay five times the original amount when we returned to the states. Nicole told them to hold on while she called the hostel to find out if we could pay them later leaving us money to pay them. As she walked away with phone in hand... she dialed the US embassy only to find out they were closed. Remembering our cousin Gabe's blog and his run in with the police in India we decided to let them go ahead and call the police... figuring if they were going to take our money we wouldn't go down with out a fight.

Denise, Amanda, and Franki sat down on the side of the road trying to look especially pitiful, which wasn't hard considering we had been traveling all day. All the while Nicole continued to call any number possible to find out if they were legitament. A half hour later they approached us with a "proposition," if we would promise to always buy tickets for our bags they would let us go. The stale mate was over and we had come out victorious. We hurriedly collected our ticketless bags and ran in the opposite direction of the ticketcheckers towards our hostel. At the time it was the worst experience abroad... ever... but now its another story for our blog... aren't you proud Aunt Etelka!

Warsaw

Arrived, saw the synagogue, ate, got back on the train. We were forewarned by a local on the train that Warsaw wasn't much to see, and after a couple hours we agreed and decided to go to Krakow earlier than planned, which turned out to be in our favor.

Berlin

Berlin is awesome... nothing like we expected. The city is packed with history, museums, and commercial centers. We were very happy that we gave up a day in Brussels so we could enjoy three day in Berlin. Our first day was mainly spent recovering from the nightmare train, but later that evening we ventured out to the Sony Center (in "The Glass Mount Fuji" building) for yet another dinner and a movie (Melinda and Melinda). We went to bed early in our beautiful hostel.

The next day we met in the lobby of our hostel at 10:15 to begin our 8 hour WALKING tour of the city. The owner of the tour company, Terry, met us and quickly walked our "doddling" (as he called us) patoots to the next stop. He told us "If Germany isn't invading their neighbors every 25 years, they're digging holes in the road or making noise... and often doing all three at once" he then proceeded to tell us this philosophy verbatum a few more times before dropping us off at the gorgeous temple to meet our tour guide, Preston. While Preston was from Oregon and lived in Berlin, he tended to speak in a combination of an English and Australian accent. He stuttered and carried a rainbow umbrella the whole day(it didn't rain) ... enough said. Despite the odd tour guide, the tour was very informative and literally walked Berlin. Highlights included Checkpoint Charlie, parts of the wall, Hitler's covered bunker, and much much more. After the scheduled 8 hours, Franki and Denise decided they didn't want to take advantage of the tour company and left early (among other reasons). Nicole and Amanda stayed on for the extra 2 hours and saw museum island and the book burning site. Needless to say that night we crashed.

Our final day in Berlin got a late start. After finally booking our hostel, getting our train tickets and putting money on Nicole's phone we were ready to start. Amanda went to two museums while Franki, Denise, and Nicole ran errands and walked by the zoo. With little time to go in they saw a rhino and three alpacas through the gate. We all met up at the Checkpoint Charlie museum and read stories about incredible escapes over, under and through the Berlin wall. We then went to Berlin's parliment building and took an elevator to the top. We walked around some and then entered the glass dome on the top of the building. The view was incredible and at this point we realized how far we had actually walked the previous day. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and arrived back at our hostel around 11 pm, packed, slept and woke up at 5 for our 6:42 train to Warsaw, Poland.

Brussels/worst night train ever

We left Amsterdam in the morning and made the trip to Brussels. It could have been a combination between us four being tired or the slums that surrounded the train station but we quickly decided our two days in Brussels down to one. We locked up our bags and with our night train tickets in hand (for that night) we headed out into the city seeking Belgium chocolates and waffles. Our search led us to the beautiful and quite impressive buildings, including the town hall and a church. We spoiled ourselves with warm waffles and ice cream among other toppings. We then decided to do a little sight seeing. Amanda knew about a famous statue called Manequin Pis and we set out to find it. We were all amazed at the size of the statue... it was smaller than some of the replicas you could buy in the stores. We then bought dessert at the Manequin Pis Choclateria (real Belgium chocolate). Later we went to dinner and a movie (Monster in Law) and then caught the night train to Berlin.

In our hurry to leave Brussels, we settled for tickets on the night train with no beds. We were in a six person room with two other people and no reclining chairs. We looked rather silly sprawled out on our 4 chairs and the floor (yes... we took turns lying on the floor... that being our most comfortable substitution for a bed). Nicole woke up with a mysterious battle wound on her arm... but other than that we survived the 9 hour nightmare.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam gets an A plus and beats indiana for changing temperature. We arrived in the city in 100 degree, humid weather, but we didn't let that stop us. Instead it was our hostel that set us back a couple hours since we arrived only to be greeted by a post it that read 'be back at 2.' Since it was only 10 am, we bought breakfast from a bakery and took our bags to a nearby hostel and asked them to keep them for us. So thanks to the hemp hotel we were ready to start our day despite not being able to change out of our night train clothes or shower...

Our first stop was the stayokay hostel near Vondelpark to meet up with Denise's friend Evan. Evan and his friend Justin (who happens to be the cousin of one of Nicole's future roommates )accompanied us to the Heineken Experience where we drank beer and learned how to make it. Nicole also had the honor of throwing her own beers at the bars and even beat Evan in a beer throwing contest. After the Heineken museum, we all went to eat falafel and then went to a coffee shop to relax. We split up from the boys to check into our hostel and shower and later met up again at Boom Chicago for an improv comedy show. The show was hilarious and a great end to a wonderful day!

Since it rained through the night, the next day was rather cool and windy. Denise, Amanda, and Franki went to the Van Gogh museum while Nicole went to the Reijldkjdlsfjk museum which housed a lot of Rembrant paintings. We met up after the museums to go on a ferris wheel ride that gave us a great view of the city. After the ride, we went to the Anne Frank House and had lunch. The House was interesting to walk through and is just a historical preview as to what we'll see in Poland. On our way home, we stopped in the red light district, but missed the spectacles that come out at night.

Overall, Amsterdam was fun since we got to hang out with friends, see museums and a show!

Switzerland

Oh how we all love Switzerland! We arrived in Zurich around noon and fell in love immediately. How could we not? Zurich has lakes, mountains, and chocolate!!! Gabi, my (nicole) grandmother's second cousin met us at the train station and we magically fit the four of us girls and our huge packs into a european car! Gabi took us to his apartment near the center of the city, we dropped our packs, ate lunch, and went for a walking tour of the city. We saw the huge cathedral, the church with stained glass windows by Chagall, and commercial center. After the tour, Gabi left us to wonder through the shopping district for the afternoon. We met back at the apartment and Gabi had dinner ready for us. We ate with Dina (the eldest daughter), Gabi's wife, and Dina's friend Sandy. After dinner, we all (everyone at dinner plus deborah (the youngest daughter)) went to the lake and actually went swimming at 9pm. The water was a little cold at first, but we all warmed up eventually (minus franki who gave it a go, but didn't make it all the way in) One would think the day ended here, but instead, we rushed back home, changed, threw up our wet lake hair, and went salsa dancing with Dina and Sandy. The salsa club was great! We had so much fun watching (key words: fun and watching) all the couples dance. We made a debut on the dance floor during the one hip hop song that played all night. Everyone in the club was so talented and really friendly. Needless to say, we were wiped out and went straight to bed after the club.

The next morning we had a later than anticipated start to Lezern. The train ride was only an hour and we took a ferry boat ride across the lake to a tram that would take us up one of the mountains. The scenery was breathtaking and we all felt a little bit guilty for experiencing something so amazing!!!!!!! The ride up the mountain, the view from the top, and the ride down were equally amazing! We were surrounded by mountains, green hills, and even got to see Swiss cows (they are cuter than they smell.) Everything ran smoothly all day long until we tried to get home on the train. It took us awhile to figure out that the train wasn't going to Zurich because none of the trains were running... we experienced the first train strike in Switzerland. Gabi called us to tell us it was all over the news and the whole country was on strike. We eventually made it onto a bus that dropped us off in Zug and then we took another bus to Zurich. It wasn't the most fun experience of our trip, but at the very least, it was a story for the blog... hope you enjoyed it.

That night we saw Leah for a bit who was also stuck on a train earlier that day and then called it an early evening.

Today, Franki and Denise went to the zoo and they really enjoyed it. The zoo was very big and had a large monkey exhibit. Denise was impressed with the zoo and we all know her standards are high. Amanda and I walked around the city and bought rings from a market we happened upon. We also took picture of a couple of the hundreds of bear statues that can be found all around the city. Artists decorated hundreds of plaster bears that sit outside of stores and line the streets of Zurich, they're really cute and interesting. Amanda and I also tried to see an art museum, but the main collection was under renovation. Later, we all met up with Deborah and went for a paddle boat ride a.k.a our exercise for the trip. Now we are getting ready to leave for Amsterdam and it's bitter sweet. I wish we could have stayed here longer.

A HUGE thank you to the Taus family who were more than hospitable to us. They are a wonderful family and we are also so happy that we had the pleasure of staying in their home.

Munich

Since we arrived late we didn't have much time in Munich and decided to go to dinner. We went to a cute little resteraunt with one major perk you got a free slice of cake with every entree. We were also invited to join a table of three American students studying abroad in Munich. There knowledge of the German language proved to be very helpful in the cake selection process. After dinner, we engaged in a serious euchre tournament, did some laundry, and called it a night.

Today, we got up early, enjoyed a free breakfast and had a full day. First, we visited a ginormous castle with a grand entry way and gardens that stretched far beyond what the eye could see. After planning Franki´s future wedding in the gardens, we headed to the English Gardens. Naturally, since it´s the largest park in europe, we spent 45 min looking for it. It´s amazing what you can avoid when you don´t have a map and you translate a sign that says ´park´as a parking lot....

Once in the park, we savored a liter of german beer and pretzles bigger than our heads. We walked for a couple of hours through the park, seeing a chinese pagoda, japanese tea house, and surfers trying the man made rapids.

The weather has been perfect and tonight we plan to go out for real and celebrate amanda´s birthday...

Oh... the trains!

To pick up where we left off... the Motzart Pub was excellent. The food was good and the desert was excellent. The palatzinkys (spelling? a.k.a crepes) where just like Grandpas... mmmm delish!

The next mornign we woke up a bit late for our scheduled 8 o'clock train and the next one left at 10:30 so we made our way to the grocery store to pick up some breakfast. We went back to the hostel to eat and then headed to the train station. We asked what platform our train was leaving from and were happy to see it was waiting for us on platform 7. We got on and settled in for our train ride to our final destination Munich... and the trains final destination Hamburg. As you can probablly guess our trip did not go quite as planned. After being on the train for 4 hours (playing cards, frequenting the food car, and sleeping) we got ready to listen for our train stop. Our train stopped and we were unsure of where we were so we asked a local, who had just got on the train, if we were in Munich to which she replied that our train was not going to Munich. We waited another 45 minutes until our next stop in Nurmeburg and got off. While we were waiting for our transfer train (another hour) we decided to get some lunch. We then got back on a train and headed towards Munich... this time for real. We talked the whole way, avoiding sleep and assuring we did not miss our stop. Apparently we were listening too hard because at the first mention of Munich we sprung up from our chairs and exited the train only to realize that we just got off on a tiny platform that resembled a balance beam with no sign of a large city in sight. A bit worried we asked some people still standing on the train at the door way if we were in fact standing in Munich, when they said no, we hurriedly leaped back on to the train and remained standing until our next stop in Munich. Once again we got off the train and this time had no problems finding our hostel.

Vienna

We met up in the paris airport where we flew to vienna and were so excited to see Nicole and Amanda waiting for us at the end of customs. We took the metro to the area our hostel was located and proceeded to get lost with our heavy backpacks for about twenty minutes... we finally found out that we'd been trekking in the wrong direction and turned around. After retracing our steps we finally found our hostel. We lucked out because we got a new room with a private bathroom. It's a great hostel for an excellent price! We then sat around to catch up for awhile before heading out for a night on the town in honor of Amanda's birthday. We ateat a fabulous restaraunt, on their 7th floor outdoor balcony overlooking the Stephansplatz cathedral. We then stolled the streets before taking a tour via horse and buggy. We enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate at the oldest cafe in Vienna before calling it a night and headed back to the hostel. We played euchre while catching up on some much needed and much missed cousin time.

Amanda and Nicole woke us up at 9 in the morning to start Amanda's birthday day. We went to the market near our hostel and picked up some bread, cheese, and fruit for breakfast. We then headed into town for some birthday cake at a cute pastry shop, were we surprised Amanda with a singing candle and sang happy birthday. Then we caught the metro to Shönbrunn, a castle where different royal families lived. We began our tour in the castle grounds, walking through the gardens and visiting the various ponds and statues. (Don't worry Mommy I took lots of pictures for you in the gardens - Franki) After that we went into the castle and took a guided audio tour. It was very pretty and we've decided that it's a perfect place for a wedding! Amanda and Franki served as our musical entertainment as we made our way to the modern art museum, which was... well interesting. We are now wasting some time before the Motzart Pub opens so we can get our hostel special on some weinerschnitzel! Tonight we plan to have a festive birthday celebration before awaking for tomorrow's train ride to Munich, Germany.

* Franki * A * N * Denise *

Milano!

Back to Italia, but just for two days. It was so nice to be in the country of Gelato and pesto and pizza once again. First of all, a note about the place we stayed in...wierdest hostel ever. This place was reallz cheap and in a decent location, so that´s why we chose it, but our guidebook failed to mention that it was run by a group of socialists and was more like a commune than a hostel. We were put randomly into a room where we shared a loft bed, and there was another young woman there, along with two middle-aged men. One of these guys was nice but talked our ears off, and the other one snored to the high heavens...You have never heard snorring like this...he sounded like he was choking on his nose, and Nicole and I suffered from less-than-adequate sleep for two nights because of this dude.

Aside from that, the visit was nice. We enjoyed the cuisine (as much as we safely could in a two-day period). We checked out the cathedral, a beautiful Gothic building, and walked around the center of town and window-shopped at GUCCI, PRADA, LOUIS VUITON and the like.

Because Nicole hadn´t seen a single cinema-show since she left the states, I escorted her to the movies TWICE, although it wasn´t really my idea. The first night we saw ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, a phenomenal film that we had already seen, but never had experienced in the theater, a huge difference. The second night we saw WIMBLEDON, a cheesy Kirsten Dunst romantic comedy (I know, pathetic, right?) I was surprised that I was enjoying the completely predictable movie from beginning to end, and accredited it to the fact that I haven´t seen bad romantic comedies in so long.

We did try to accomplish the utmost cultural feat in Milan--seeing Leonardo da Vinci´s LAST SUPPER. So we find Santa Maria Della Gratzie, the obscure church where it lives, and were DENIED. They were booked until mid-july, and even though they apparently guide "25 people every 15 minutes" by the painting, they just couldn´t squeeze us in. And to think that was the sole reason I returned to Milan...oh well.

The day before we left, we excitedly worked out the kinks of our intinerary with Franki and Denise, booking hostels and such. Now we are all together, but I will sign off and let somone else right about our reunion in Vienna.

If you are trying to post and you are not a blog member, we are trying to change the settings, but they are in Austrian right now, so we´ll see what we can do.

Much love,
f AMANDA nd