Euro Memoires: Volume 1

INTRODUCTION

So I suppose I should give you context as to why I decided to go on this trip. I mean, one would not instinctively ask this question, because it is assumed that everyone must do backpacking in Europe, or else they haven't lived. You just aren't a person unless you've lived out of a bag, stayed in hostels, seen tourist attractions, made friends with people who live elsewhere in the world, and learned quirky little facts about foreign countries- all during or shortly after university before you get stuck in what is ironically called 'real life'. Of course, teaching English overseas is an equal substitute for backpacking.

So then, since i dont have a choice of not traveling, the practical question is why did i choose backpacking over teaching english overseas. that, my friends, is a simple question to answer. I simple did not appeal to the idea of spending my day with children named Ruby, who because of their accent call themselves Loopy.


PAST DETERMINES FUTURE

However, my reason for choosing to travel at all is more long-winded than that. I was perfectly content with not going anywhere, since I have for 11 of 12 months an aversion to spending money. However, when my partner Eric said he wanted to go to Germany, I said "Not without me, you're not!"

Now why would I, an independent diva, say a thing like that? Obviously, I have hangups from certain past long-distant relationships [yes you M-Train, and I mean it in the kindest lovingest way cause I cared about you and missed you a lot] and was afraid that my current man would fall in love with Not-Ottawa.

So I says to Eric, I says: "Hey why don't we do that backpacking thing" To which he replied no. He had a more charitable idea of WOOFING, which in a nut shell is working manual labour for room and board. Well, I agreed, and we were looking into that, until someone else told him it would be a good idea for him to backpack across Europe. He approached me with this brilliant idea "That's WHAT I said!!!"" I said. GAWD *queue booming Eric laughter*


I'VE BEEN EVERY WHERE, MAN/ THERE AND BACK AGAIN, MAN

The rest was sorta easy. It just flowed from a couple of starting points:

!. If going to Europe, must visit family in Poland for heritage reasons and to fulfill wishes of Babcia (my grandmother)
@. If going to Europe, must take absolute cheapest flight (which turned out to be Montreal-Pairs)
#. If going to Europe, must go to Amsterdam because I said so.
$. If going to Europe, must go to Germany because Eric said so.
%. All other visits must be on way as our time frame is 3 weeks.

So as you can see with those conditions the entire trip is already planned.
Montreal-Paris-Amsterdam-Berlin-Warsaw-Krakow

Superlatives II

Longest train ride:
Trip from Krakow to Paris.

From the time the train departed to the time we arrived in Paris, it was 26hrs. 24hrs were spent on the train itself. It actually wasn't so bad, especially the over night part in the couchettes. It was really romantic to travel like they did in the good old days. This trip was more pleasant than our flight back to Canada which was 7.5 in flight, 15.5hrs total from Paris to Ottawa. The flight offered two movies ('Yes Man' and '7 Pounds') a meal and a snack, and yet this didn't compare to the lovely experience on the train with the couchettes.

Worst hostel
3Ducks in Paris

The only redeeming quality of this hostel was that it had good coffee. none of the other hostels or hotel offered a good tasting coffee. However, everything else about the hostel sucked.

Items of distaste:

1. the shower had no temperature control. the only option was scalding hot, and a button had to be pushed to turn it on. On top of that, there was no where to place one's soap, so that one would have to clasp the soap in one hand, cup scalding water in the other and splash it on ones body. It was the worst shower I have ever come across in my life!
2. the breakfast was an awful tasting croissant, a dry bun, and a choice of two different jams. it was the lamest brekky of all the others.
3. the place was in courtyard style, which seems nice at first, until you can hear the drunk gurls trying to sing (they think they sound good) you never have an opera singer try to sing when they're drunk, but for some reason gurls like to sing Disney songs when they get plastered.
4. They make you pay for your sheets. Some places require a deposit, but 3Ducks keeps your money and the sheets smell like bleach.
5. The whole place needs upkeep. I mean it's cute that every thing is old fashioned, but I don't think water damage on the floors or soil mattresses that are sunken in, or pigeon pooped decks or skittles from past clients on the floor, or dirty dingy walls in stairwells really contribute to the atmosphere of the hostel.
6. They dont have lockers. All the other hostels had lockers that you could use as long as you had a padlock. Here, if you had a shared room you must keep your belonging at the mercy of strangers.
7. The staff sucked for the most part. The only exception was a Brazilian who was studying in the arts, but all other staff were grumpy and/or didn't know any information.

Worst Attraction
The Louvre, in Paris

Yes, I went. No, I didn't like it. I saw the Mona Lisa, and that was no more special than any of the other treasures in the place. In fact there were so many that I just sorta got board. Also, the exhibits are not really placed in such a way that they are well displayed. There is really just too much shit there. We also payed an extra five euro to see the temporary exhibits, however, there were none at that time. No one warned us of this, in fact staff even directed us to the places were they would be on display, no one even knew they weren't on display and charged us for it. We also could not escape the museum to eat. there are a million emergency exit signs. One sign will point you down a stair well, and as you descent, there is another sign point up from whence you came. Finally when we found a place to eat, there was but 12 tables to sit at, while an empty cafeteria lay just beyond, reserved only for those willing to pay for food. I hate the Louvre.

Superlatives

Best hostel:
Sunflower Hostel in Berlin.

This hostel was nice and had good atmosphere. You did have to buy the breakfast for 3 Euro, but it was all you can eat with deli meats, cheese, three kinds of bread, three kinds of cereal, several interesting kinds of spreads, and several kinds of fruits. Also, there breakfast time was the longest of all hostels. The rooms were nice and clean. They were eco-conscious; staff was friendly and knowledgeable; it was quite quiet and had laundry on site.

Best breakfast:
Mazoviecki Hotel in Warsaw.

This was a "Sweedish Bar" which is similar to buffet. It has a bunch of cold items on a table which you can select from. Every day the items elaborate, different and delicious.

Most beautiful city:
Krakow, Poland.

This was by far the most beautiful city of all- even more than Paris, way more charming than Paris.

Most interesting attraction:
Wieliczka Salt Mines near Krakow.

This is a very large salt mine, which no longer mines for salt rock. It contains 200 chapels. We saw 2% of the salt mine and saw three chapels. There is this amazing chapel carves from the salt rock made by only three men, and is beautiful enough to get married in!

Most exciting show:
Blue Man Group in Berlin.

What can I say, they were absolutely AMAZING! It was just so well done with the acting and the drumming and the joking! Gawd, an ear to ear grin. I liked it even better than the Broadway Monty Python.

Most Bicycles:
Amsterdam

There was soooo many bikes that is was overwhelming. There wasn't enough space to rack all the bikes. In fact, there were entire bike parking lots!!! I also got hit by a bike :(

Strangest thing:
I think the strangest thing was seeing a man in Amsterdam riding a bicycle. He had a baby seat in the back with a baby in it (that's not the weird part). He had another baby which was sitting (nay! sleeping!) on the handle bars which he was holding up with one hand while steering with is other!!!!!!!!! The more unbelievable thing is that the area is so packed with ppl and bicycles, and one can only imagine that one is would be pushing luck to carry a baby on a handle bar with so many stops and starts.

Eurotrip

If you've been following my twitter, then you already know about some of the little tidbits from my journey. However, 140 characters is not enough to really explore my observations. I have quite a few things to decant. If only I had some way of writing down my observations and then publishing them so that my friends could easily access my observations.

Hey! Wait a minute. I happen to have this Blog quite conveniently entitled "Observation".

Nice.

I think the first thing I will do is some superlatives. Then in future posts I tell anecdotes and stories.

As for pictures, I've got some from my phn which are digital and some from my cousin Wojciech (pronounced Voy-stek). The other pics where taken with an old camera, you know, the kind with film. Some times it takes me no less than half a year to pic it up from the store once it's developed, so don't hold your breath.

S'all for now.