WELL. That is all I can say about the last week-ish. My head is actually spinning with the number of things I’ve just done alongside the list of things I have to so. In fact, just for this entry, I have jotted down notes all over the back of a recent printed off ticket for one of my shuttle buses, with the remaining room reserved for a to-do list.
But, come what may, it’s been a blast. Last week, as I mentioned, I hit Krakow, Barcelona, and Rome. Then, within a 6 hour turnaround, I headed to southern Germany for a music festival called “Southside.” Obviously it would be impossible to chronicle every detail of all the places in the last ten or so days, but thanks for my notes, I can give a fairly accurate account of most.
So. Rzeszow, Poland, is the closest city to Krakow that RyanAir flies to from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. So Rzeszow it was. We [my West Virginian friend and I] arrived in its airport, and… well, it’s essentially a trailer with a passport check. From the looks of it, a new airport was being built alongside it, so ours must have been temporary.
The travel to the dirty, new-ish looking city of Rzeszow was… how can I put this… depressing. Honestly, aside from Krakow being wonderful, everything we saw on the 30 minute-ish bus ride from Rzeszow Airport to the city center, then from its train station to Krakow was along these depressing lines. It’s as though Poland never quite got out of the post-WWII and/or Cold War days; everything is fairly dirty, unorganized, and generally bleak. For anyone who has ridden down parts of US Hwy 301 towards Florida after I-95 came along, you can see something similar: things that may once have been great have now broken down into no-man’s land.
In Rzeszow, just to top off the pie, we saw something that only could have come out of a horror story: as we walked toward the train station in legitimately dreary weather, we saw a man aggressively shaking his girlfriend/wife/lover/whatever in the middle of a public square. She was bleeding from her nose or mouth… not just dripping, full-fledged BLEEDING, and was spitting it on the man as he shook her. Remember, this is in public, and no one seemed to do anything about it. I felt terrible, but there was no one around to ask, and those in Rzeszow (in our brief experience) spoke little English anyway.
But, moving on.
So, we get on the train bound for Krakow, and wowwwww at the train. It had to have been out of the 1970s or so; bare tube lighting, simple old leather benches, and no railings anywhere… all in all, probably one of the scariest things I’ve been on. It was safe, come to find out, but mannnn did we feel like cattle being shipped off to auction.
As the last bit of bad news for our trip to Krakow, I had bought the wrong tickets apparently, but luckily a lady sitting next to us (who taught Italian, so it turns out), translated between the ticket master and us. We were able to get a refund for the wrongly bought ticket, though, so all was well.
Poland being by far the cheapest place I’ve been, the 3 hour train ride only cost something around 30 Zloty for us both. That is insane, considering the current exchange rate is 1 Euro = 4 Zloty. Wow! So, something like 6 Euros each for a 3 hour train ride… not bad!
When we finally got to Krakow and realized we were in civilization again, we decided it would be easiest to just catch a cab from the train station to the hostel we stayed in, which turned out to be the coolest hostel EVER. It was also my first hostel EVER, so it definitely was a good choice on my friend’s side to book it.
Should you ever go to Krakow, stay at “Greg and Tom Junior Hostel.” No, the name is not original, but it’s ranked 3rd or so of all hostels in Europe! For veryyyyy cheap, you get to meet awesome people, you get a towel (something I came to realize is not standard in hostels), and are close to both the historic city center and the historic Jewish quarter. On top of that, the staff are incredible and the hostel offers CHEAP Saturday night all-you-can-eat traditional Polish food (which is wonderful, although I can’t begin to explain what it is…) along with unlimited vodka shots!
So there’s my advertisement for Greg and Tom.
Both nights, we got into heavy partying with the random people we met and the staff of the hostel. We even kept tally on our arms via a sharpie marker how many shots we all took as a competition, but I won’t delve into that. Krakow has a surprisingly hopping night life, although it’s the first place I’ve been in Europe thus
that does not allow drinking on the streets. But no matter.
The first day we spent going on a free walking tour of Krakow, something I deem quite handy; I’ve been on tours before, but those we got for FREE in both Barcelona and Krakow were better than any paid tour I’ve attended. They work for tips, obviously, which makes them more motivated to be interesting in my opinion. The city of Krakow itself isn’t what I would call spectacular, but it was certainly worth the trip to see it, especially considering how cheap everything was!
After the morning walking tour (yes, believe it or not, we attended a morning tour… Polish vodka is the best around, and left no hangovers!), we sombered up and paid 90 Ztloy (about 25 Euros) to go on a tour of nearby Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The tour entailed an hour and fifteen minutes ride on a coach where a documentary was shown of the camp in English, a roughly 3 hour tour of both the primary Auschwitz and Birkenau camps, and the return bus journey to Krakow.
Oh, what a terrifying experience it was. It was the sole reason we visited Krakow, though, and I believe it was well worth the trip. The entire facility, with many original structures intact, is devoted to the memories of those lost in Auschwitz. 1.3 million people were imprisoned in the camps connected to Auschwitz, of which 1.1 million died. I just had to look at the picture of the placard that describes the numbers of the victims I took while there, and it gave me yet another chill.
The most eerie part of the camp, to me, was that of the room dedicated to tons and tons (literally, as in counting by 2000 pounds) of human hair shaved off of prisoners upon arrival. The room contained several tons of the hair itself as an example, and showed the various articles including blankets and other cloth articles the Nazis made out of the hair.
The other part that got me the most: one of the original crematoriums still stood just outside the camp fencing. I was faced with standing in a building where literally hundreds of thousands of people had been gassed and incinerated in an efficient Nazi process, with some of the original kilns still in place.
I won’t dwell much more on Auschwitz, being that there honestly is not much you can say about a monument to such atrocities. All I can say is, in my opinion, members of armed forces of ANY nation should be required to visit Auschwitz and take in the atrocities that wars, when unchecked, can result in.
Moving on.
Due to our short time span available to travel, we moved out. Or, so we thought. We got to the tiny airport in plenty of time, but were herded into another room after standing in line for twenty minutes or so to board. Then, as it happens, we were told that our flight, scheduled to leave somewhere around 8pm originally, had been delayed until around 2am. So that was fun. What else was there to do but drink cheap Polish beer!
Well, we finally ended up in Barcelona around 8am the next morning after an hour long shuttle ride from Girona, the airport RyanAir serves Barcelona with. Luckily we found a girl that helped us with Barcelona’s surprisingly awesome, new, and clean subways, and aside from walking around lost for thirty minutes or so, we finally found our hostel ON THE BEACH around 9am.
Did I mention the hostel was ON THE BEACH?
Naturally, the both of us being tired from the ridiculous delay, we did the obvious. Nap on the beach! We napped until around 11am, and well rejuvenated (albeit a bit sunburnt), went back to the hostel to clean up a bit. As soon as we entered the hostel, a random Polish hippie girl asked us if we wanted to join a free walking tour of the city, and we naturally agreed.
What a good decision! Once again, just as in Krakow, the free walking tour was a win. The walking tours had two option: explore the various Gaudi buildings in the city or explore the ‘old city.’ Gaudi was apparently a famous architect specific to Barcelona, and let me just say… his buildings are certainly interesting.
The first day, we took the Gaudi tour. It was quite interesting to see his architectural style, if you can call it that, throughout the city. It’s hard to describe what Gaudi style is. The closest I can say, actually, is gaudy, otherwise known as over-the-top-to-the-point-of-being-ugly. Most of the buildings, in my opinion, were just insane enough to be interesting without crossing the hideous threshold.
The famous Gaudi cathedral, though… that I am at a loss. It’s simultaneously the most beautifully hideous building I’ve ever seen. I’m just not sure what else to say. It’s absolutely massive, and it’s certainly a cathedral, but it’s just odd. The style… well, just Google “Gaudi Cathedral Barcelona” and you can see what I mean.
The building of the cathedral is certainly Spanish in nature in terms of time. Let me put it this way: the cathedral was one of Gaudi’s last pet projects before he died. He died somewhere in the 1920s (I believe), and the scheduled completion of the cathedral? 2026. So, the cathedral still is not finished. I put a few pictures of it on Facebook, and I’ll try to post the link at the bottom should you be interested.
Our tour guide on this particular stroll was highly entertaining and what I would deem as “highly European.” As I said, she was Polish (ironically, being that we just came from Poland), and the epitome of the “European experience.” For example: intermittently throughout the tour, she told us of wonderful places to party, the effects of ecstasy on her the night before, and the best ways to hitch-hike. You would never guess these things by looking at her, but she had absolutely no qualms sharing her experiences!
That night, we got extraordinarily lucky: for whatever reason, a huge fiesta festival was going on. We noticed a lot of streets blocked off as we walked into Barcelona, but had no idea why. As we found out, this was to allow thousands of people to crowd the streets beginning in the early afternoon (after we tried Paella for the first time, which was AMAZING). Groups of 20-50 people all dressed in similar costumes, as though representing a clan or some close-knit organization, and paraded through the streets with huge clusters of people playing random instruments.
It was awesome! Imagine the greatest marching band you’ve ever seen, then de-formalize it and make it rock twenty-fold more. Everyone was having an absolute blast, drinking everywhere in the streets, dancing along with those in the parade (if you can call it that), and having a generally awesome time. This went on, as I said, from the early afternoon until well after midnight.
Along the way, I met some random Germans (naturally), some insane Spaniards, and several good bottles of champagne. Towards the end of the event, each band stopped at their final “party station,” for lack of a better term, and lit huge streams of sparkling firecrackers hanging in lines over the streets, blowing jets of sparks all over the street for about ten minutes as the bands danced through the hot sparks. So much for worrying about city fires or flesh burns.
It was truly incredible; I’ve never seen anything like it in my life! We got extraordinarily lucky, and I still haven’t the slightest idea what festival it was. Any people I asked just said Barcelona has random fiestas like that quite frequently. Sounds like a win to me!
Anyway, the next day we took the other tour offered, that of the old city. It was quite nice to see all of the old buildings reaching back into Roman times, and surprise: our tour guide was another Polish girl! Barcelona must be the haven for Poles wanting warmer weather.
The tour guide told us a highly amusing story too regarding Christmas traditions in Spain. According to her, in order to get gifts, children take sticks and beat a log to “poo out presents” from a bag. Not sure what’s up with that one.
Manger scenes, again according to the guide, also often hold a random man alongside the baby, wise men, and animals, who is squatted down in order to… well, poo, to keep things clean here. Apparently this is meant to show that we’re all human, even the baby Jesus. Again, not sure what’s up with that, and haven’t researched it to see if it’s actually true…
There is a law in Barcelona that states you cannot be half-naked in public. However, if you are completely naked, you are in the free. That’s my kind of city: if you have your shirt off and an officer comes up to give you a citation, just strip totally naked and you’re home free! Spain, in my mind, has some strange situations arising, but I like it!
A few notes about the city itself: it was surprisingly clean for being such a large and internationally visited city. Seriously, it was quite German-like in its organization and cleanliness. The metros were the absolute best I have ever seen, America or Europe, in terms of cleanliness, organization, and general “niceness.” It was a treat to ride them!
Aside from these plusses, Barcelona was surprisingly cheap! I can’t for a minute say it was at all close to being as cheap as Krakow, but for being such an internationally recognized tourist destination, I was surprised at the decency of the prices there for food, transportation, and goods in general.
Barcelona gave me the feeling of Miami more than anywhere else I have been. Alongside the obviously old city is a thriving new feel of commerce and bustling people surrounded by large marinas, a cruise terminal, and [of course] a beautiful beach.
Speaking of the beach: the sand is not as pretty as Miami, but it’s quite interesting. It’s a bit rocky, as I have found all of the sea shores around the Mediterranean, but the coarseness of the sand feels quite good to walk on. As for the water, it’s not as clear as my former trip to southern France, but it’s justtttt as cold. I was proud of myself, though: I forced myself to swim in the Mediterranean for the first time! It was FRIGID, but I can say I have been completely submerged in the Mediterranean Sea. So there.
One of the girls we met from Canada on the tour quickly became our friend, and we hung out with her throughout the day until we had to leave. It’s quite nice meeting cool people!
I learned something about language, too. Catalonia, the region of Spain that Barcelona is situated in, apparently has its own language, a mix of French and Spanish, called Catalonian. If you move to Barcelona, the city will pay for you to take language classes for it! How about that.
Again, it reminds me of how rationalistic Europe is; America speaks, for the most part, the same language; even specific parts of specific regions that are smaller than American states in Europe can speak different languages!
I must say, in making a list of my favorite places I’ve been, Barcelona is certainly towards the top of the list. I’d say of the larger cities I’ve visited, it’s probably the one I would be most likely to live in thus far. That means I’d consider living somewhere around Monaco or Antibes for smaller cities and Barcelona for larger ones. But who knows: there are plenty of places to go!
Unfortunately, as all things great must end, we had to head to the airport by midafternoon the second full day we were there. I don’t regret it, though, as I truly feel that you can get the true feeling of a city within two days of visit. No, you can’t get the full feel of the cities you visit this way, but I think the “gist” of it can be obtained. That, and I can pretty much judge how much I like a city within the first hour I’m there. It’s all about the “feel.”
I’m a quick judge.
So, after watching a beautiful sunset in Girona after the hour shuttle bus back, we flew into Rome. Naturally we had another flight delay, but at least the Girona airport was quite nice, and the delay was only an hour instead of six.
Rome!
It was too late when we got to Rome (after midnight) to make it worth going out and exploring, but we found our hostel easy enough and ended up staying up until well after 4am talking to a Canadian girl who lived in Paris for the past year about… well, everything. She was quite sweet, another testament of how many awesome people you can randomly meet while traveling (especially in hostels).
By 9am the next morning, we were out and about exploring Rome. What can I say… Rome! It was absolutely surreal being in such an historic city. Whereas I really had no expectations of Barcelona or Krakow, I had high ones of Rome; after all, it is Rome. And boy was I not let down!
Just as Milan reminded me of New York City, Rome did as well. However, I felt far safer in Rome, and the dirtiness (while it existed in abundance as in any huge city) was not as bad as what I briefly saw in Milan. The rail system was quite competent, too, being quite easy to navigate. It wasn’t as clean as Barcelona’s by any means, but quite acceptable and wonderfully allowed us to visit many parts of the city in extremely short periods of time.
I really only had the one day in Rome, being that we arrived late in the evening and I had to leave early in the morning the next morning. We therefore set out to see as much as possible, and although I wish I could have stayed one more day, I feel quite accomplished and acquainted with Rome.
The first thing we did was go to the Vatican, where we enrolled in a 40 Euro tour. Words cannot describe the epic-ness of the Vatican. Spectacular, gargantuan, serene… just throw any all-encompassing word for complete awesomeness and you have Vatican City. The buildings are magnificent, and as we went through the tour of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, it was difficult to keep my jaw from dropping in sheer awe at the raw beauty of the plentiful paintings and statues.
Seeing the numerous frescos and statues I have seen in so many text books and movies was unreal. I even got a picture inside the Sistine Chapel itself of the God reaching-out to Adam fresco that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling. Pictures were allowed everywhere except inside the chapel itself; I had read years ago that Sony donated millions of dollars to restore the frescos throughout the Basilica complex in exchange for sole publishing and licensing rights of the reproductions of all the artwork therein contained. Note, that’s why you see Sony pictures having a hand in films such as Angels and Demons, and you can imagine the cashflow Sony enjoys because of the rights.
But, me being me, I managed to get a few shots of the inside of the chapel itself, so my apologies Sony.
The best part? We got to see the Pope! I got several cool pictures of him (including one after the service he gave with him in the courtyard of St. Peter’s Basilica in a red sombrero), and learned that on Wednesdays around 10am he does a service in the square. How about that luck!
After the Vatican, we walked through many historic plazas, fountains, and sights. I can’t even begin to name them all, but they were all quite beautiful. Watching our time, we hopped again on the Metro (which is also cheap—you can get an unlimited day pass for 4 Euros and some change) and headed towards the Colosseum.
Literally: walk out of the Colosseum metro station, and WHAM. There’s a huge Colosseum.
Wow.
It’s even bigger than I expected it to be! I was at a loss of words seeing it with the ancient Roman Forum ruins in the background. On the spot, I decided we had to pay to get tickets to see the inside, and after my travel mate convinced the ticket agent we were European Union citizens (being that they get half off entry fees; 7.50 Euros instead of 12 or so), we went in.
Ironically, the girl we hung out with in Barcelona randomly found us! Who would have thought… we had planned to meet up with her in Rome, but ended up not having internet access to find her on Facebook. Being that she had no working phone, we had no way to contact her. So, imagine our surprise when we ran into her again!
So, we all toured the Colosseum for the better part of an hour, and although we were too late by this point to get into the Roman Forum ruins, I’d say it was well worth the money as it was.
I cannot remember the name of the place we went next on the metro, but needless to say there were fountains, an obelisk, twin churches, and a hill we climbed that allowed us to watch the sun set over Rome. Awesome! I love sunsets as it is, and although it wasn’t over the ocean, it was still quite beautiful. The number of church and cathedral domes highlighting the city in front of the sunset was simply dazzling.
On top of that, the spot we were in allowed us to see the entire Vatican City. It’s insane to think that you can see an entire country at one time from one place!
After visiting one final fountain and dinner, we escorted our new Canadian friend to her train station (as her hostel was outside of the city), and found that the metro line that took us to our hostel shut down at 9pm for track construction. So, an hour and a half walk later, we made it back to the hostel totally exhausted, having seen the better part of Rome’s highlights in roughly 14 hours. It was certainly well worth the walk, though!
Rome itself, in terms of random observations, was as hot as Savannah is in the summer time. I’m sure it gets colder, but you’d never guess it from the time we were there. Even though it’s hot, though, if you’re a lady don’t be tempted to wear a tank top; many of the religious sites will not let you in unless your shoulders are totally covered and your skirt/pants go down at least to your knees!
The ice cream in Rome was not what I expected. In Germany, everyone advertises “Italian Eis,” which is what we call gelato. Italian ice cream I expected to be likewise, but it was closer to a creamy American treat instead. Still delicious!
Be careful with power outlets in Italy. It may just be that the building we stayed in had odd outlets, but they certainly did not match our universal power adapters. Same voltage as the rest of Europe, but different outlet styles.
All in all, I wish I had another day in Rome. It blows my mind that anyone we spoke to (including our tour guide from Rome) wonder at all the tourists being blown away by the ancient city. But, I guess it goes alongside growing up in a certain place. People tend to not recognize the beauty of places they’re from.
I had to reach the bus for the Ciampiano airport (RyanAir’s Rome airport) by around 6:30am the next morning, and it was strange how few people a New York City-like city had out and about at that time of morning. There’s no way you could pay me to be up at that time, and apparently the Italians agreed with me. So, in about six hours, I was back in Trier after flying back to Frankfurt Hahn and taking the shuttle bus to Trier.
Note here that I left my traveling friend in Rome; I came back to Trier early due to the Southside Music Festival which she was not attending. More on that later.
As it so happens, I am on a train en route to Paris as I chronicle the past week’s experiences. The Bulgarian I’m with is quite amazed at my good use of time, but what else would I have to do during the 3-ish hour train trip from Trier to Paris? Again, more on that later.
For now, how about another section of random notes. For these and the previous commentary, I’m referring to the back of a bus ticket I printed out. I made many notes en route from Rome to the Ciampiano Airport to remember what all I should discuss, and am quite glad I did!
When you travel, don’t be like me: remember to bring a razor, and pack at least one extra pair of clothes regardless of the airline weight restrictions. I found myself wanting both and without either.
Different countries have different words for “push” and “pull” when it comes to trying to open doors. This can be a hilarious experience for those watching you try to open a door, so I suggest doing what I do. Each time you approach a door which you cannot ascertain which way to exert leverage to open it and people are around, either wait for someone to go through it OR… act distracted, as though you’re not paying attention, and give it a slight push. If it doesn’t budge, you’ve just alerted those passer-bys that you simply weren’t paying attention and knew exactly what you were doing. A little Shakespearian acting never hurt anyone.
Be careful when trying to understand numbers too. The number “one,” when written as the numeral 1, typically looks like the arching part of a triangle without a bottom. I frequently think “1” is “7,” so watch that. It appears to be common throughout European cultures.
When it comes to hostels, don’t set your expectations high. That way, should the hostel be awesome (as ours was in Krakow), you’re blown away. If that ends up not being the case, just remember that a hostel is what it is; it’s meant to be a cheap alternative to a hotel, so don’t expect to get a towel, and don’t expect any amount of privacy. Your experience rests solely on how you set your mind up for the experience, although those you meet can have a huge influence too.
When it comes to traveling, I’m falling in love with the European way of life. Europeans typically have a “go with the flow” attitude, with many of those I have met moving to the various places I’ve met them in on a whim. Whereas North Americans tend to stress when traveling over time and money constraints, most of the Europeans I have met simply take it as it comes.
That being said, I’ve come to the conclusion that travelers in Europe are a collection of rich Australians traveling the world. Seriously, I have yet to visit a city without a few Aussies taking in the sights. I’ve been a few places without Americans, but thus far… nowhere without an Aussie.
The thrill of travel, albeit tiring and conducive of wanting to rest a day once in a while, makes me excitedly want to see as much as I possibly can. This is, of course, impossible due to money and time constraints, but there is no shortage of things to see! This makes me wish that I did not have the massive student loans I have; Europeans that I have met typically have little to no student debt due to the largely socialist governing systems under which they live, allowing them to pack up and go whenever and wherever they want with little problems. They do not typically go as all-out as the Erasmus students such as myself do, but that is because they have all the time in the world to get out and see things.
Unfortunately, in America, it’s just not so simple. I’ve been known to go out on random trips, but I can’t just go see California at the drop of the hat. At the same time, though, America is much more monogamous than Europe is; if you’ve seen Ohio, you may as well have seen Kentucky in the larger sense of things, whereas the same geographical distance in Europe is like here to the moon!
Speaking of student loans, I had a random thought: if the exchange rate (that is currently raping me) stays similar to what it is in coming years, it may be worth moving to Europe upon graduation to get a job; that way, I could pay off my US Dollar student loans with “less money,” being that a euro is worth more than a dollar! Something to consider…
Many of the people I have met have been able to make relatively respectable money on the side while studying by teaching English in high schools for a few hours each week. Had I known of these kinds of opportunities, I would have jumped in… but it appears to be something you have to be “in the know” to be aware of. Should I ever come back, it’s certainly something I’ll look into.
For now, that’s about all the wisdom I have to pass on in terms of random observations. So, here are the links to the photo albums I mentioned before, and my next entries will discuss Southside and Paris!
Krakow:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2055970889592.2121727.1554191092&l=6af32a408a
Barcelona:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2056084212425.2121735.1554191092&l=0d72eada18
Rome:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2056185734963.2121739.1554191092&l=745c7406f3
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