Eastern Europe: Final Stretch
You guys are probably getting tired of Eastern Europe photos, so I'll whiz through the last four destinations in a single blog post. First stop(s): Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia and Hercigovina.
The main old town square by night. There is a mosque to the left and to the right, the Sebilj. It houses a drinking fountain and apparently, if you drink this water, you will be drawn back to Sarajevo. I did, so let's see if this myth holds true.
One of the many "Sarajevo Roses" you can find scattered around the city. Shelling during the war led to the death of many civilians and the sites where an exploding shell killed someone, the holes in the concrete were filled in with red paint.
The city of Mostar, which is a little south and west of Sarajevo. The bridge here is a new replacement for a 400-year-old bridge that was bombed during the recent war. Sarajevo, being the capital of Bosnia and Hercigovina, had more funding and aid to repair any war damage. However, Mostar still bears many scars. While most of the old town (pictured here) have been fixed up for the sake of tourism, there are still long stretches of street where bombed out buildings remain.
Cafes and stores along the Neretva River. I have never in my life seen such stunning emerald green water.
Dubrovnik, Croatia. It's a shame that the weather wasn't on our side. But even so, the city and the surrounding landscape were beautiful.
Hooray, a little bit of sunshine on our last day in Dubrovnik!
At the end of our trip, Kim stayed on in Croatia for a few more days and I flew back to Berlin to catch my flight back to Manchester. This is the Reichstag building. The dome on top was destroyed by Allied bombing and was replaced with a glass and steel dome. Some people think it is an eyesore (sort of like the glass and steel pyramid entrance to the Louvre), but I think it's kinda neat. But then again, I like the Louvre pyramids, too.
The old Nazi administration buildings (if I remember correctly, Hitler's office was here somewhere) with remnants of the Berlin wall. Just beneath the walls, where there is now an outdoor war history museumy display, are the recently excavated Nazi bomb shelters.
The Brandenburg Gate.
And thus ends the photo chronicles of my month-long trip around Europe. I promise no more vacation photos. Instead I'll get to regale you with tales of suburban life in Santa Clarita Valley. Oh, the anticipation!!
Budapest, Hungary
Budapest was very unlike Prague or Krakow, which were both relatively small and easily walkable. In contrast Budapest was HUGE and spread out. The things I remember most about that city were my first (and quite possibly last) caving excursion and a fun slightly drunken wine tasting experience.
The Opera House.
The Fisherman's Bastion, part of the old city walls. To me, it looks almost like Cinderella's Castle in Disneyland!
The Parliament Building, which is right alongside the Danube River. The River cuts Budapest into two sub-cities: Buda (the more residential section, under which we went caving) and Pest (the more industrialized, tourist-friendly part).
The Palace, I believe.
Me and Kim sipping some of Hungary's many different types of wine. I thought wine tasting would be a good thing for me to do, because I'm really ignorant when it comes to the different types of wine out there. Unfortunately, after the first three or so different wines, they all started tasting the same. The only thing I learned is that I don't like muscat wine. Waaaaay too sweet.
Civic
Let's take a quick break from Europe photos so that I can introduce you to my new baby:
Krakow, Poland
Before I get into Krakow, can I say dear God, welcome back to America. The land of the free, home of the brave, and
playground for overeaters.
Moving on. Krakow was our next stop after Prague and after the bustling busy streets of tourist central, Krakow was a welcome break. It was quiet and manageable, without losing any of the charm you'd expect to see in the beautifully preserved old cultural capital of Poland. The food here was my favorite of all of the places that we went to and even though it was heavy on meat and potatoes (like ALL Eastern European food), it was delicious and CHEAP. I never expected to be so well-fed for something like 3 bucks. I need to find me some of these yummy recipes. The dish I remember most vividly:
pierogi. The pierogi ruskie is to die for. Yum.
Now, on to the photos!
The imposing outer city walls. If you were invading Krakow, this is the view that would greet you.
The main square. At 200m by 200m, this is the largest city square in all of Europe. To the left you see the gorgeous gothic Basilica of the Virgin Mary and to the right, the Cloth Hall (apparently the world's oldest "shopping mall").
The fantastic Wawel Castle. Funny/interesting story: despite the fact that Poland is like 98% Catholic, there lurks in Wawel Castle, what would be considered an abomination to the devoutly Christian folks. As according to Hindu belief, there are seven chakra points on the planet and one of them just happens to be in the basement of Wawel palace. To deter believers, the Wawel authorities have cleverly covered the exact location with informational sign boards so that no one can actually stand above the chakra stone.
The palace cathedral. The reason why you can't see the actual cathedral is that over time, many of the kings have requested additional chapels to be built in their name, eventually obscuring the cathedral walls.
Krakow (like every other city in the world) was full of pigeons. This one stood out because it has a ring of bread around its neck. It can't reach the bread on its own, and if other pigeons come to try and eat the bread, this pigeon runs away in a flurry of flapping wings and feathers. I guess it's doomed to bear its burden until it rots off. Poor pigeon. Poor, fuuny pigeon.
Wieliczka Salt Mine. This salt mine is hundreds of years old and completely carved out by hand. It has over 200km of passages and thousands of rooms. This room is the chapel, hewn out by the efforts of three men who spent like 50 years doing it. The walls, ceiling, and floor are all rock salt. There are rooms large enough that people can bungee jump from the ceiling (there are a couple of crazy guys who did just this and they now hold the world record for the first and only underground bungee jump).
Auchswitz and Birkenau. Eastern Europe has had a tumultuous history and every city we went to bore the scars of Nazi occupation and Communist rule. Considering its recent history, Eastern Europe has done an amazing job of picking up and moving on, and while many must still remember the oppression of years past, it seems as though most of the people are optimistic about the future.
Prague, Czech Republic
Now for photos of my trip around Eastern Europe! After meeting in Berlin, Prague was the first stop for me and Kim. Such a beautiful, pretty little city (albeit full to bursting with tourists!).
The famous Charles Bridge. It's impossible to cross the bridge without bumping into someone, stepping on peoples' toes, getting in the way of other peoples' photos, having your own photo sessions interrupted, running into street vendors...
The streets of old town.
The main square at night. Apparently, Kakfa's family lived in a house just off of this square.
A statue dedicated to Kafka (the figure sitting atop the headless, handless suit-clad man).
This statue cracked me up. The two figures are peeing into the pond and as an added bonus, their hips swivelled back and forth and their penises moved up and down!
The crazy 70's era sci-fi-esque subway station near our hostel (this is the hostel where the water spontaneously cut out for the day).
Say hello to skulls of some of the black plague victims whose bones ended up decorating the walls of the ossuary in the little village of Kutna Hora. Apparently, the bodies of about 40,000 plauge victims were buried in mass graves near the original Kutna Hora church. When the church was moved to a new location, all of the important graves were dug up and transferred, but the remains of these 40,000 anonymous people were just dumped in a pile outside the main building. They were left there until a local family commissioned a monk to have his way with the bones just piled up in the churchyard and to decorate the interior of the church itself. The result: a super-cool but super-creepy experience.
The centerpiece of the bone church: a chandelier composed of every different type of bone which can be found in the human body.
The coat of arms of the family (I think) that commissioned the decoration of their local church. A little creepy, isn't it?!
Goodbye Manchester and Hello Cali
My year in Manchester has come to a close and after a very long, very delayed flight (6 hours delayed, in fact), I find myself back in my parents' house in Santa Clarita. While it's nice to be back home, I am going to miss Manchester a whole lot. To the Victoria Park massive, to my fellow MRessers: thanks for the fun times, debaucherous evenings, Smith building coffee breaks, and general craziness. You guys are the best!
And without further ado, you all get a series of photo entries to recap the last one and a half months or so, starting with Manchester Pride.
Pink, pink everywhere!
Festively dressed for the parade.
Surprisingly enough, Manchester has a line dancing club.
Does anybody know to whom these lost children belong?
JP and Chris having a blast. Well, JP seems excited anyway!
Joining in the party with my all-too-appropriate rainbow shot.
There are also photos of me dressed in a velcro suit sticking to a velcro wall somewhere, but I'm gonna have to find them. Those should prove to be adequately entertaining and slightly embarrassing, but anything for my faithful readers!
My MRes dissertation was handed in on Friday, September 8th and to celebrate, some of the MRessers and I went out for drinks and mayhem.
Pai, Vicki, and Vera.
Vicki, Steph, Vera, and Cristina.
Simon, Rachel, and Kim.
Lizz and me. Congrats to Lizz who is off to be married soon. Everyone and their mom is getting married! I guess I'm just that age now where people are starting to pair off. It makes me feel kinda old...
Funny faces...
Funny faces part deux.
And a toast to all of us for finishing up a year's worth of butt-busting hard work. I'm gonna miss you guys!
Rain, Rain, Go Away
We arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia yesterday morning and were unfortunately greeted by gray clouds and rain. Hasn't been sunny at all, which is unfornuate. On our whole trip Croatia was our final destination and our only beach stop and also since this is my first time seeing the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas, I can't say that I'm not a little disappointed. Especially because there is apparently a beach only 400 meters away from the place where we are staying. Oh well. Hopefully, tomorrow will be sunny. Fingers crossed.
Bosnia and Hercegovina
I hope you guys aren't getting tired of reading these photo-less blog entries. But even if you are, I feel obligated to continue writing these, just in case you're bored or just in case you are actually still interested. I'm gonna have to do a set of photo-based entries after I get back to the States. Don't worry, that isn't long from now, just a couple of weeks.
Sarajevo is a surprisingly picturesque city surrounded by really pretty mountains. Despite having recently suffered a terrible war, much of the city has been rebuilt to postcard perfection. Kim and I are in Mostar now, a city that is a little southwest of Sarajevo. The old town of this city may be one of the most beautiful places I have seen... Old white stone buildings and bridges spanning an emerald green river all surrounded by stunning mountains. However, parts of Mostar are still very distubring, as there are still many bombed-out buildings lining the streets. For those of you who haven't ventured over to Bosnia and Hercegovina, I would most certainly recommend it.
Tomorrow, we head to Dubrovnik in Croatia for a little bit of beach and sun before Kim and I go our separate ways. I can't believe this trip is almost over, but I can't say that I won't be happy to sleep in my own bed, shower in my own bathroom, and enjoy a nice fat burrito in sunny California.
And some obsevations from my travels. You know you're in Eastern Europe when:
- There is a Communist museum in every city you visit.
- You have been reduced to using toilet paper that more resembles newsprint paper than quilted extra soft cotton.
- You are given tissue paper for napkins
- The water supply spontaneously cuts out in your hostel and the rest of the neighborhood.
- There are weird little bugs in your hostel and some in your bed.
- Domestic beer is CHEAPER than coke
- A full meal with soup, main course, and a drink costs $3.
