First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who read this, it was really nice knowing that people back home cared about what we were doing and all. I know I really got behind on blogging, I haven't done it for a month, but that's how it goes I guess! I didn't even make it through blogging about even half of our adventures, but I'm sure you will hear about them at some point. Being back in the United States is strange, but the culture shock isn't as bad as either of us anticipated. It is nice to have a warm bed, three meals a day and hot showers, not to mention a fresh change of clothes every now and then. But traveling was the most educational, insane, amazing, kick ass and ass kicking thing I have ever done in my life. It is the biggest goal I have ever accomplished, nothing can compare to that experience. And for all the nay-sayers out there that think we should have followed the status quo and gotten jobs straight out of college, I say "Life is short. Plus, you wouldn't understand, it's a backpacker thing." Here is a final list of conquered cities:
Brugge, Belgium
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Milan, Italy
Bellinzano, Switzerland
Lugano, Switzerland
Trieste, Italy
Rijeka, Croatia
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Lokrum Island, Croatia
Makarska, CroatiaI
sland Hvar, Croatia
Split, Croatia
Munich, Germany
Dachau, Germany
Nurnberg, Germany
Cheb, Czech Republik
Prague, Czech Republik
Ćešky Krumlov, Czech Republik
Vienna, Austria
Salzburg, Austria
Florence, Italy
Rome, Italy
Pisa, Italy
Cinque Terre, Italy
Cres Island, Croatia
Ljbluljana, Slovenia
Venice, Italy
Brussels, Belgium
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year....
NEXT STOP: SOUTH AMERICA!!! (to be continued....)
Monday, December 3, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Dachau
I forgot to do the best and worst of Munich. BEST: The lighthearted atmosphere WORST: The prices!!! Too many €€€!!
OK on to Dachau...we spent half a day here. It was the first concentration camp ever constructed and served as a model for the rest of the camps. What can be said about this place? It is terribly hanting. I cannot say it was a great expereince, but it is something I think everyone should see. The gate the prisoners walked through states "Work will set you free" There is the large open space where the roll call was held every morning, there were abotu 35 bunks they lived in in terrible conditions, but these were torn down after liberation. They rebuilt a few to show how they would look. Dachau mainly housed political prisoners and Cathoilc priests. While it was not a death camp like Auschwitz, the primary function was for labor so many people worked to death. Around 40,000 people died here. There was a building used for manufacturing tools and this place has been turned into a museum where you can read about what happend at Dachau and watch a short film. Behind this building is another buliding, this one was where the experiements and torture were carried out. There is a hanging pole, an execution wall and inside are cells where the prisoners could stand only, it is terrible. this place was left intact and was occupied for a short time by the US military at the end of the war, but they didnt touch anything. The cells are terribly dark small and cold. They had some picturse and documents about the terrible experiments that were performed here. Dachau was a large training base for the SS. The building is used by the German government today, but it is not included on the concentration camp tour. Some of the grounds had to be recreated becasue in the anger and sadness that followed the war much of it was torn down (mainly just the bunkers). There was a section of land outside of the camp where the crematorim was. Although Dachau had a gas chamber constructed towards the end of the war, it was never used. They did expand their crematorium through the war and were able to burn about 20 bodies at once. Sometimes they would jsut hang people above the entrance to the oven so it could be done quickly. At the end of the war, the coal had run out and the bodies were just piled in massive piles around the crematorium. The American soliders saw this and before they did anything they brought the people of the city of Dachau to come niside and bear witness to what had happened. The citiyens of the city had been lead to belive this was more or less and reform type camp, where the prisoners had been learning how to behave better or something. Tehn the soldiers had to dig two mass graves, each holding about 1,500 bodies. These graves lie in a peaceful area just behind the crematorium, in addition there are more execution walls in this grassy area as well as graves for the ashes from the crematorium. We had an audio guided tour so we knew what was going on most of the time, and we got through everything but we stayed until close and you really could have erad everything it would have taken an entire day. It was a terrible testimony to what happened during the Holocaust. It is strange to think it happend not long ago. It puts you in an incredibly somber mood, you really dont know quite how to act after that experience. I am so glad we did it though and so glad that Germany has taken so many steps to showcase the horrors as a way to make up for what happened, rather than destory the camps in an attempt to cover up mistakes made by Hitler. It is illegal to read Mein Kampf, and if you get drunk and feel like saying heil hitler to a cop, you will get clubbed and taken to jail. The people are still a bit sensitive about the whole thign and are aware that the world has a certain perception of them still becasue of all that happened.
OK on to Dachau...we spent half a day here. It was the first concentration camp ever constructed and served as a model for the rest of the camps. What can be said about this place? It is terribly hanting. I cannot say it was a great expereince, but it is something I think everyone should see. The gate the prisoners walked through states "Work will set you free" There is the large open space where the roll call was held every morning, there were abotu 35 bunks they lived in in terrible conditions, but these were torn down after liberation. They rebuilt a few to show how they would look. Dachau mainly housed political prisoners and Cathoilc priests. While it was not a death camp like Auschwitz, the primary function was for labor so many people worked to death. Around 40,000 people died here. There was a building used for manufacturing tools and this place has been turned into a museum where you can read about what happend at Dachau and watch a short film. Behind this building is another buliding, this one was where the experiements and torture were carried out. There is a hanging pole, an execution wall and inside are cells where the prisoners could stand only, it is terrible. this place was left intact and was occupied for a short time by the US military at the end of the war, but they didnt touch anything. The cells are terribly dark small and cold. They had some picturse and documents about the terrible experiments that were performed here. Dachau was a large training base for the SS. The building is used by the German government today, but it is not included on the concentration camp tour. Some of the grounds had to be recreated becasue in the anger and sadness that followed the war much of it was torn down (mainly just the bunkers). There was a section of land outside of the camp where the crematorim was. Although Dachau had a gas chamber constructed towards the end of the war, it was never used. They did expand their crematorium through the war and were able to burn about 20 bodies at once. Sometimes they would jsut hang people above the entrance to the oven so it could be done quickly. At the end of the war, the coal had run out and the bodies were just piled in massive piles around the crematorium. The American soliders saw this and before they did anything they brought the people of the city of Dachau to come niside and bear witness to what had happened. The citiyens of the city had been lead to belive this was more or less and reform type camp, where the prisoners had been learning how to behave better or something. Tehn the soldiers had to dig two mass graves, each holding about 1,500 bodies. These graves lie in a peaceful area just behind the crematorium, in addition there are more execution walls in this grassy area as well as graves for the ashes from the crematorium. We had an audio guided tour so we knew what was going on most of the time, and we got through everything but we stayed until close and you really could have erad everything it would have taken an entire day. It was a terrible testimony to what happened during the Holocaust. It is strange to think it happend not long ago. It puts you in an incredibly somber mood, you really dont know quite how to act after that experience. I am so glad we did it though and so glad that Germany has taken so many steps to showcase the horrors as a way to make up for what happened, rather than destory the camps in an attempt to cover up mistakes made by Hitler. It is illegal to read Mein Kampf, and if you get drunk and feel like saying heil hitler to a cop, you will get clubbed and taken to jail. The people are still a bit sensitive about the whole thign and are aware that the world has a certain perception of them still becasue of all that happened.
Munich
I know I wrote a bit about Munich, but I wanted to finish up. We went on the bike tour and learned so much about the city, it was jsut lovely. The architecture is really quite nice and the history is fasnicating. Munich was started as a salt trading town by monks and later more and more people settled there. It was hit quite hard by several plagues. The Glockenspiel in the Marienplatz is a huge attraction that dates back to the 14th century, basically it is a huge clock with little dancing people in it and everything in the clock has a meaning. Munich is the capital of Bavaira. Bavaria is like Beer Land. The people there have a very light hearted and carefree spirit, they love their beer and celebrations. I particularily liked Germany becasue the trains were always on time, the Germans English was great, the people were the friendliest we have encountered, and everything was quite clean. Munich was horribly expensive but there were no beggars, I didnt feel in danger at any time, and the subways were incredibly clean. I thought the city fantastic and would like to return again someday becasue I didnt feel Id seen everything. We went to the infamous Hofbrauhaus, which is now a toursty place(another reason I really liked Germany, I didnt feel it was entirely a tourist trap, the city kept its own beat regardless of tourists) the Hofbrauhaus also was the site of Hitlers first rallies. It is a giant beer hall and its really hot. After Oktorfest it wasnt as cool, but it was still really neat. We went to the Chinese beer garden in the Englisch Garden on our bike tour, and went to the Hofbrauhaus (our second time) with the tour group that night. Munch of present day Munich has been rebuilt becasue it was demolished during WWII. But it si fantastic and the weather was surprisinlgy quite nice. The Englischer Garden is much larger than Central Park and much more beautiful and clean, it even has a nudist section and we saw naked people playing frisbee. The food wasnt phenominal but we had to try the sausages and saurkraut for the experience. All in all I really enjoyed my time in Munich and wish I could have stayed a day or two longer.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Things I will never take for granted again
This is a list of things I have come to appreciate over the course of the last few months...
NEVER AGAIN WILL I TAKE FOR GRANTED:
-hot showers!!
-the dryer
-knowing what stuff means
-central heating
-the cheap cost of living in KS
-the freedoms i have
-free internet in libraries
-never paying to pee
-free refills at restaurants
-free chips at restaurants
-free water at restaurants
-the dishwasher
-the garbage disposal
-my perfectly straight teeth
-my privacy
-the smiling customer service in the states (for the most part!)
-my MUSIC!
-seeing and talking to family-friends every day
-in general, the abudance of opportunities i have as an american
Things I do not miss while abroad:
-expensive wine
-the pizza and pasta
-my cell phone (dont know how i will deal with it when im back)
-noisy TV all the time
-rush hour traffic
-the celebrity gossip
-drama amongst friends
I do miss KU but not going to school and working simultaneously, I really miss my family-friends and familiar food (esp now that we are living in a communist convent, haha). It is really werid not knowing what movies are out or have come out or what is gonig on in the news, I really have no clue, I am kind of tired of wearing the same crap day in and out becasue it is annoying to wash and rewash but I look at my possesions differently. I have way too many clothes. I do miss wearing different outfits but the fact is there is not reason for me to have all the crap I have. I have lived almost 3 months without 99 percent of my bullshit and am just fine. The funny thing is that changing your lifestyle has different effects on different people. I do realize now how little I can live on and how much excess we cloud our lives with. However, I dont know if I am just a creature of habit, an American pig, or most likely both, but I miss some unnecessary comforts I didnt think I would, namely the hot showers and the dryer...and people eat quite simply here. I have mixed feelings on this also. Yesterday we had lunch and everyone is like "Oh I am fine with just bread and cheese" Matt and I are like "Ah! WE need salami or something!" Teh Croats told us that we eat a lot, they dont understand becasue we are skinny. Well I look at it and think, ok , you really can get by on cheese, bread and soem fruit, you really can simplyfy your life and cut out the crap and streamline it and all that good stuff...but I like the richness of food and the colors of my clothing, I dont nkow what that means, maybe I am a glutton or materialistic, but I love beef tips and fried chicken and baking high caloric desserts...I love food and all kinds of it, I dont see how you can not! Last night I dreamt of food, so did Matt. He dreamt of breakfast and I dreamt I ate these two dishes of food, and they were so delcicious in my dreams, there was even a cheesecake! I know I am not covering any travels but just my thoughts. OK going to wrap this one up now I am hogging the computer, Im going to go read my Dance Europe Magazine that cost me 13 dollars....Matt is drawing a vulcher.
NEVER AGAIN WILL I TAKE FOR GRANTED:
-hot showers!!
-the dryer
-knowing what stuff means
-central heating
-the cheap cost of living in KS
-the freedoms i have
-free internet in libraries
-never paying to pee
-free refills at restaurants
-free chips at restaurants
-free water at restaurants
-the dishwasher
-the garbage disposal
-my perfectly straight teeth
-my privacy
-the smiling customer service in the states (for the most part!)
-my MUSIC!
-seeing and talking to family-friends every day
-in general, the abudance of opportunities i have as an american
Things I do not miss while abroad:
-expensive wine
-the pizza and pasta
-my cell phone (dont know how i will deal with it when im back)
-noisy TV all the time
-rush hour traffic
-the celebrity gossip
-drama amongst friends
I do miss KU but not going to school and working simultaneously, I really miss my family-friends and familiar food (esp now that we are living in a communist convent, haha). It is really werid not knowing what movies are out or have come out or what is gonig on in the news, I really have no clue, I am kind of tired of wearing the same crap day in and out becasue it is annoying to wash and rewash but I look at my possesions differently. I have way too many clothes. I do miss wearing different outfits but the fact is there is not reason for me to have all the crap I have. I have lived almost 3 months without 99 percent of my bullshit and am just fine. The funny thing is that changing your lifestyle has different effects on different people. I do realize now how little I can live on and how much excess we cloud our lives with. However, I dont know if I am just a creature of habit, an American pig, or most likely both, but I miss some unnecessary comforts I didnt think I would, namely the hot showers and the dryer...and people eat quite simply here. I have mixed feelings on this also. Yesterday we had lunch and everyone is like "Oh I am fine with just bread and cheese" Matt and I are like "Ah! WE need salami or something!" Teh Croats told us that we eat a lot, they dont understand becasue we are skinny. Well I look at it and think, ok , you really can get by on cheese, bread and soem fruit, you really can simplyfy your life and cut out the crap and streamline it and all that good stuff...but I like the richness of food and the colors of my clothing, I dont nkow what that means, maybe I am a glutton or materialistic, but I love beef tips and fried chicken and baking high caloric desserts...I love food and all kinds of it, I dont see how you can not! Last night I dreamt of food, so did Matt. He dreamt of breakfast and I dreamt I ate these two dishes of food, and they were so delcicious in my dreams, there was even a cheesecake! I know I am not covering any travels but just my thoughts. OK going to wrap this one up now I am hogging the computer, Im going to go read my Dance Europe Magazine that cost me 13 dollars....Matt is drawing a vulcher.
Volunteer Program
I will write and catch up later becasue I am over a month behind, but to answer questions about what we are doing with the volunteer program...it is on the island of Cres, which is outside of Rijeka in Croatia. It is a small island and in the summertime is usually overflowing with tourists, but as it is November there are literally about 30 people in the town of Beli, and the volunteer program is situated just outside of Beli. So its really really dead. We are part of the Eko Center volunteer program, you can get details at essentialcroatia.com but basically we do random things to help the center run smoothly. Show guests the exhibition, yesterday we picked olives at a grove and we also spent part of the day restoring a wall on the trail. The place is set way back and it runs like a small communist colony. This is a great experience becasue then you realize why communism is a lovely idea but really really shitty. It is one persons job to cook, one to clean the toilets and the rest do the "labour" for the day like restoring teh walls or whatever. What is annoying about this is that we really have no say as to what we eat, and nothing is yours, everyone works for the good of the whole. We are sleeping in a dorm and it is freezing the worst conditins i have ever slept in becasue there is no heat in any of the buildings and the room is literally about 50 degrees. WE both have about 5 really thick blanekts on, taking a shower is totally miserable. The days arent too bad when the sun is out though. The first day we were here was All Saints Day which is a national holiday in Croatia, so we didnt work. Instead we took a 5 hour long hike around the island, it was tiring but very lovely. We read poems along the way and took in nature. We also explored this crazy deep cave along teh way..there were bats inside and everything. That part was really cool. The bulding is divided into three parts...the sleeping and showering quarters that are so damn cold i spend as little time there as possible, and the exhibition area with all the information about griffon vultures, then the place iam now which serves as a communal gathering space, also has a kitchen and a small stove we put wood into to prevent getting hypothermia. They have little odds and ends to eat for our meals but in my opinion it is quite meager...food is expensive though. Everyone here except Matt and I are vegetarians so we have been eating really random things and meatless meals with soy that other people fix...it has been an experience. As of tomorrow we will be the only two volunteers left...this weekend were joined by Dan from England, Sofie from France and a group of three twety smoethings from Croatia. There is a 19 year old girl running the program as well and a few advosr types taht pop in occasionally. In the back of the eko center are the vultures, huge ass birds that are quite scary to look at. The goal of the center is to promote the rehabilition of the birds as they are essentail to Croatias envoronment...like many species they are endangered. To protect them we have to do all sorts of random crap, restoring teh walls is for the sheep, the sheep are the food of the vultures, picking olives just seemed like free labor to me, but apparently teh trade off is that the olive oil that reslults from the olives we picked goes back to the eko centar for cooking, but not all of it of course. Personally, since we had 6 college educated individuals on board this weekend, i thought that building walls and picking olives seemed to not utlize us to our full potential, but what the hell do i know. IT is a nice little community with its definate flaws but thats just how it goes I guess...the Croatians were a nice enough group but they kept inviting me to their pity parties, and I always respectfully declined. There are times, especially here at the centar, that everyone is just rambling on in Croatian and we dont know what is going on and they dont bother to fill us in, its frusterating. There is also a little puppy here and it is very cute but such a little shit, it constantly bites your leg and is freaking out like satan. Right now it sounds like it is possessed next to me. I hope this short summary lets you guys know what we are doing...today we had our "day off" and slept for 11 hours, no joke, we are both just exhausted from traveling and ready to come home. Packing and unpacking and wearing the same stuff is just getting old. And unfortuanlty I find that I am not as excited about seeing new things becasue you get to a point where its just information overload and you start shutting down. IT has been quite the experience though. We came here Wed and will leave next Sunday morning, I will probably lose my head by then but the nature around is very beautiful. We went on a boat two days ago and spotted the birds in their natural habitat, tomorrow they are droppoing matt and i off at some random location for 8 hours to observe the birds actions in the wild and write it down. This would be much more pleasant if the weather was just a bit warmer...oh well. We have both burned through a few books, I just finished one about 14th century Florence and he is reading Huckleberry Finn!! There are lots of funny stories and other things to tell but I will tell them later on I guess. You should know that yesterday we were picking olives fro this old croatian man and he was asking us a few questions about oursleves so i told him about me being croatian and the last name is babić and so he started calling me ms. babić. Then Matt farted and i started cracking up and he says "Ms Babić, what is so funny?" And i jsut told them all that Matt had gas. Poor guy.
Friday, October 19, 2007
I heart Bavaria
bavaria is amazing. Not only are the germans really really nice but the culture is just so fantastic...laid back, a little bit alcoholic but ther architecuter of munich was so lovely, the weather was perfect and the city nice, so clean, the trams and trains amazing. Germany and Austria have such excellent train systems, always on time and so clean! I really had no expectations of Germany and this worked out for my benefit becasue I really like it so much, i feel like i must go back to germany some day...every place so quaint. I want to go back and see Dresden, Berlin, Frankfurt and back to Munich, the first place I really felt like I didn't have enough time to spend there. We decided to go on a bike tour that day, even though it was a national german holiday and nothing was open...we went on a free bike tour that relied on tips, we had a funny but obnoxious tour guide from ireland. the bike tour was fantastic. we saw so many wonderful things and leanred so much, the weiredest thing is the nazi history that previals throughout germany, you can see that they have really tried to make up for some of their horrendous past...but munich was where hitler started his first political rebellions and where a lot of stuff happened, and a lot of it at the hofbrau house. more later....in florence now
bitten by the bed bug
well guys, the hostels have caught up with me, and i have officially been attacked by bed bugs. i think it may have happened in salzburg, which is weird becasue it was a really nice little pension we stayed in...i think i may have to email them. i woke up this morning from the train and had the welts all over me, except i noticed a few before we boarded the train so i think it happened before then. so gross i know, and matt doesn't even have them...so that is sick. the weather in florence is lovely although the town really isn't...overtouristed...i am at the point where if i see one more church i will vomit, also getting really sick of repaacking unpacking just feeling gross and dirry, it has taken six weeks but i am at that point. not really homesick although i do miss you all but just sick of being wihtout things and wearing literally the same shirt each day...oh well guess i have to go buy some italian clothes...hhaa will try to blog later if you have facebook the pics are up there!
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