I'm more than a week behind, so I'll hit the highlights:
Saturday: Wedding. Ceremony started 16:30, left reception 0700 the
next morning. Drunk waaaaay to much (their hand signal for "let's
drink" is similar to our "cut this guy off." Seriously.) But David
drank more and, well, ask him for that story. Tons of fun.
Sunday: Backyard BBQ. A common misconception is that Poland is
Eastern Europe, which is what I've been calling it all along. I stand
corrected: Poles consider themselves Central Europeans. Russia is
eastern Europe. Going to spend the night at Unieow castle.
Monday: Toured the castle, grounds and nearby town. Got into a
little fender-bender (everyone's ok, but this deserves its own
entry-some other time). Spent some time up in the rafters of a little
church in Lask. Had pizza with corn-strange to me but it wasn't bad.
Tuesday: Drive-thru tour of Lodz before we catch the train to Warsaw.
About 30 minutes into it we stop and are told there's a derailment up
ahead, so we backtrack a little and get off, supposedly so a bus can
take us around the crash. We end up getting back on the train and
continuing on, arriving 2 hours late. I am bad transportation karma
personified. Tour Warsaw (hard to believe this place was completely
levelled 60 years ago), spend the night at K's friend's mom's
apartment. Oh yeah: Polish women-FIIIIIIIINNNNNEEEE! I think I have
whiplash.
Wednesday: Krakow. I split up from Dave and Cheri, who try to find
their way to the salt mines. I hang around the Jewish quarter before
meeting them for dinner-I am craving something besides cabbage, so we
go for Mexican, which comes with-yup, coleslaw. Goddamn. Have a
drink at a jazz club before they head off for Prague. Yikes, now I'm
alone.
Thursday: Auschwitz/Birkenau. Not much new to be said but just a
real palpable sense of sadness. It took a lot of willpower for me
just to stay and see everything.
Friday: Hanging around Krakow some more, just people watching, then
the night train to Prague. shared a sleeper compartment with a
Brazilian and two Germans (who ended up nearly naked-ha! What did I
tell you!).
Saturday/Sunday/Monday: Prague. Hotel is far from the city center so
I get familiar with the transit system, which works beautifully.
Beautiful narrow cobblestone streets, large squares, churches, the
whole nine. Tomorrow I'll visit Cesky Krumlov then off to Budapest to
meet up with my friend Tibor, an architect in Seattle.
5 comments:
What happens in Poland.....Stays in Poland..:o)
Unless it makes for a really good story.
A couple of addenda:
I resolve to never compare or refer to anyone or anything as a Nazi or Hitler. I cannot make such glib comments after seeing firsthand giant piles of human hair from the victims, or the films of the survivors, barely alive and emaciated from their torture.
Second, I will never make another Polack joke, not that I really ever do. The Poles have somehow gotten a bad rap for being dumb, yet I have found they are quite the opposite. Stubborn, maybe, or fiercely independent, but not dumb.
First of all, if you're not into seeing Germans naked, I don't know why you went were there are Germans. Those people can't keep their clothes on!
Second, if you don't enjoy naked Germans, remind me not to send you some links.
Third, post some photos of some of the Polish (or Hungarian) hotties, will ya?
Oh yeah, and stop bumming us out with Holocaust references, dude. You're supposed to be enjoying yourself, and we're supposed to get a kick out of living vicariously through your ribald adventures.
Post a Comment