Olomouc

The capital of Moravia, aka the other side of the Czech Republic.

It was amazing. It's a town of about 100 000 people, though it feels like 50.
When we got to the hostel, which is owned by two expat Aussies, we were greeted with cups of tea, jolly giggles, and a detailed map of the very best things to do. The furthest thing away from our hostel was 15 minutes walking which is my favourite thing.

We went out for a wee walk around the town, and came back promptly at 5pm for home made chocolate cake -better than my secret recipe - and a custard pie. It was someones birthday. We were also served champagne. After that we went out with the birthday celebrators for an authentic Czech meal, which is actuallz pretty gross, and then some beers at the university pub. Becuase of the boiled dough balls, I didnt last long and promptly went to bed.

The next day we watched the astronomical clock. The communists rebuilt it, and lets just say, it's special in its own peculiar way. I have actually realized that I hype on the crappy communist architecture a lot. But they are terrible.
We wandered around for a bit, and then headed to the best tea shop ever. For about 7 dollars, I had a pot of the best tea Himalayan tea, some great hummous, and Sahlep..whatever that is.
Then - the highlight of the day - a visit to the Arch Diocese museum. Our party got yelled at no less than 10 times. I dread any further visits to any house of god.
I got yelled at because I tried to read a micro sign title of a painting which forced me to enter within 40cm of the proximity of the painting. We were perfectly respectful, but because of these torments Spencer and I decided the best retribution was to make out in the jewelry room. I'm only immature when duty calls.
Speaking of which, the Catholics are loaded. Those Jewels are gi-normous.

That night we went bowling. I broke 50 barely. We played with our adopted Australian Dave, and a couple from Boston.

The next day, as per the post above, we biked out to the pond where three of us stripped to our knickers and took a chilly dive in. After that - another visit to the beloved tea room and a trip to a national hockey game. This, by the way, costs 3 dollars. The opposing team was a bit like Italian Soccer Players in that they fell to the ice and cried like babies incessantly...to the point where the referees ignored them and a fight almost broke out.
During the first intermission, three tennis balls were thrown into the crowd. Clayton caught one and for some reason gave it to me. Next intermission, I had to go out on the ice with this two other boys and attempt to hit a puck into a little round hole. I missed, but I got a grab bag with a women's magazine, and this dvd for called Girls Want I 2. Essentially its soft porn for the 12 year olds. Many a giggle was had over that.

The night ended with the hostel occupants attacking the free clothing box and playing dress up. I will have to show pictures as no words will do justice to the debauchery.

Now we are off to Vienna. Im rather sad to leave this place.

Prague

If you have many ten dollar bills, and you have nothing to do, you can find some tourist attraction to ease your mind. Entertainment comes in 10s. Of course, finding the native population of this city is virtually impossible....which is why I've spent about 10 dollars a day.

Prague has been interesting. I have no idea what normal people do here on the average day, I don't know how they manage to eat out. I've seen about two modern buildings, and they only draw us foreigners. Where are all the usual people?

In any case, there are a lot of really intersting old buildings here. Gothic, Rococo, Art Nouveau....whatever else. Cubism. Prague is supposed to be the master, or the home of all emerging art forms. The hub. I wish there was a present day tour; there must be a reason , apart from cheap liquor, that the Prague Quadrennial is held here.

The landscape is beautiful, the fall colours were also quite lovely. Since we keep heading south, we keep hitting each city in the peek of it's autumness. This is a dream come true for me!

We had two very interesting days. One day we took a train to Kutna Hora to see the bone chapel -as in, people made flower pots and chandeliers out of excess plague victims remains. It's pretty neat, and I swear to god it smelled unnatural in there. But the church was in the UGLIEST small town ever. It was like visiting a town twice the size of Alvinston for some weirdo relic.

Then yesterday, Spencer and I snuck out of the hostel to have an alone day. We went to the northern part of the city (where no tourist deigns to go!) and we visited the zoo. My first zoo ever! (I think?) It was amazing. Prague's zoo ranks 7th in the world. THe cages were clean, the animals looked happy, and the did have a fair amount of space. However, without a struggle to survive, can you really call them happy animals? They just kind of sit there and get stared at. It's amazing to be sure, but they don't seem very much like animals, just house hold pets.
I saw an elephant (my favourite) and some giraffs, fishing cats and spider monkeys. The saddest lot though, were the gorillas. They were quite content, and they had the biggest jungle to play with. Three of them were dozing, and a wee one was annoying them to play. The bigger gorillas were dozing and pushing him away or rubbing his head to quell him. It was so saddly human. I wish I could have seen them in the wild.

The last day we were all supposed to have alone time. I planned, again, to go see the old synagogues. Unfortunately, it was another holiday.... and everyone elses plans fell through too. The tram museum was closed for Spencer, the Sex Machine was too expensive for Scott, and apparently it was too cold to go paddle boating, since they were closed. Then we ordered pizza, and it was horrible. Worst last day in the city ever.

I have finished this post in a wee gem of a town called Olomouc. O-lo-moats.
Today, we biked over to this giant pond, very reminiscent of Campbells Park, but with less hills and no maple syrup. We found a swinging rope that dropped one deep into the lake. So of course, I jumped in. It was really chilly, and the bike ride home very wet. But Dave , a random Australian we have adopted, and Clayton both followed suit. It was great. Im off to a hockey game now.

Krakow and Auschwitz

The difference between Krakow and Warsaw in like the difference between black pointy spikes, and white fluffy clouds.

We've spent full days here in Krakow. The first day we did another free walking tour. The girl who did it was not perfectly fluent in English but she showed us the improtant bits, and at least we know what they are.

She showed us the ancient city gates. The walls have been torn down and replaced by a circular forest. That was a lovely idea. I love it when green space takes precedence over office space. THe castle terrace is stunning. She also showed us the platform area where Jews were deported to Plasow, which is now a memorial of big empty chairs. She also showed us part of the old ghetto, a part of the wall which surrounded it, and Schidler's factory. (The only remaining original part is the gate....and it's located in a gross part of the city)

The houses surrounding the ghetto are decrepit, but still unique. Only necessity would ever make me live there....as in, if there are no houses left on earth.

I have no idea how I made this city a WWII stop. but the next day we all packed onto a bus to get to Auschwitz and Birkenau. That was horrifying. As soon as I got there I was nervous. We a 15 minute film, footage taken by Soviet Soldiers who liberated the camp. Then we had a guide take us through the camps. It was either that or buying a book to take us through.

I barely made it through the film. The guide was worse. The museum is built into old barrack blocks. One block is preserved as the barracks, another one houses maps and pictures taken by the SS, and several buildings hold the stolen objects held in Kanada. There were 20 tonnes of female human hair, rooms of the shoes, and children's shoes, luggage, brushes, pots and pans.

Then she showed us Block 11, where there is the death wall (people are lined up and shot), and the horrifying prison. She also took us into a surviving crematorium.
Auschwitz is almost pretty.... there are trees, the buildings are red brick, and the paths are made of cobblestones. ... I hated that. I wanted it to be ugly and horrible.

Then we took a bus over to Birkenau which is 2 or 3km away. Here most of the Barracks were wooden and torn down. All that remained is the chimney. The space was enormous and quiet. We made our way down past the train tracks to the bombed out gas chambers, and crematorium. We saw a pond which is still home to the ashes of thousands of murdered people.

You can see a village close by, and kids were biking past on the road. How do you live there? That is what I want to know? The reason the wooden barracks no longer survive is because returning polish families had to tear it down and use it to make their houses after the war.

That experience was horrible. I kept thinking of Eva, and how she lived here for a time. I felt so terrible for her.

Anyway, not to end this note on a Debbie DOwner moment, yesterday we had a free day. I went to a picture exhibit in the old Jewish District (which is where our hostel is) That night, 10 Polish workers who live here temporarily were drinking vodka. Somehow they managed to give me three...and I was applauded for not taking chasers. I'm sure if it weren't for the beer, I would have felt fine today. Alas I did not, and managed to leave the cozy hostel only once for supper (Pierogies) Those guys drank 4 bottles of vodka last night...and they went to work at 6 in the morning. WTF??? They drank me under the table.
As they've just arrived back from work, I'm getting winks and nods.

There is much more to say about Krakow, but I must pack! We live at 6 in the morning tomorrow!!!!

It's Prounounced Varshava

So Warsaw was miserable. To be fair I was sick. But I was also quite bored. Speaking to other Polish people outside of that city, they say the people they know there love it. It must be some really REALLY underground culture that's hidden from us outsiders. Let's just say it's not tourist friendly.

Because everyone bombed the shit out of the city it was rebuilt. However, it was rebuilt during the time of communist rule. (Did you know that communist buildings are quite similar to Nazi buildings, except Nazi buildings are more aesthetically pleasing?)
The communists built large cement blocks, with sculptures of creepy looking working class folk everywhere. And by large I mean huge. Communist architecture, especially that built by Stalin makes you feel small. But not small like big trees make you feel small. I'm not in awe of the building, they're just scary.

There is a series of ugly underground malls. A lot of big buildings with not much in them are on the ground level, and the most useful stores are underneath...where the trolls live.

There is no major highway bypassing the city, so everyone has to drive through it. This makes the roads unnecessarily big. Like wise the sidewalks are huge for only a small number of people actually willing to walk. I must admit we took the trams a lot and *cough* didn't pay.

Really, the city has not a lot to offer tourists. But what it did have to offer was poorly signed, therefore difficult to find.
We did manage to find the geeky technology museum which is a throw back to the 50s. This museum essentially lined up 20 different vacuume cleaners from the 1900s to the 1950s. Because the signs are in Polish, the only thing any of us could learn was the aesthetic evolution. ...Lovely.
They also had iron smelting Dioramas. Awesome!
The coolest, and slightly saddest part of the museum was this really keen, well educated older lady who explained to us basic scientific experiements - like that ball thing where they keep hitting each other in a row. It's sad becuase she obviously has no one to talk to ever, and is clearly really intelligent. The museum was primitive, with mostly hand painted pictures, and hand written signs. I liked it. But that was actually the highlite of the trip.

We managed to find a bombed out bank which was part of the non Jewish uprising in 1944. That was really cool looking! We also walked through a the royal park and the old city. The old city was built in 1960-2000 becuase it no longer existed. It was pretty, but a very typical tourist trap.

On our last night there was a free charity concert going on, so we walked over to see that. We stayed for aout 10 singers (each singing two songs and went home)

.....and that's about it.
Happy we went, can't say I'd ever go again.

Why I love Berlin

FINALLY!! A computer with free access, and a normal, happy keyboard.

I shall answer the above.

I love Berlin because:
1. It's an exciting city with a lot of developments, architecturally, and economically. This makes it a place for exciting opportunities. There are many contentious issues with these developments as well. How do you merge two cities, with two different identities, and two very different recent histories?

1a. Berlin is a great place to develop. It's built on a marsh, so you have to build out, not up which makes it a sprawling city, bigger than Paris. Becuase so many buildings were bombed, or are now in a dreilict state there are many places to be torn down and rebuilt. There are also places that need to be preserved. Who makes the call? There is a war been sentimentalism and capitalism.

2. Their independent art scene is amazing. There are hundreds of small caches where artists live, work, or decorate. The city is filled with graffiti. That in itself is a contentious issue. Even Banksy has graced a wall with his giant astronaut graffiti. (Google Bansky if you don't know who he is. He's unbelivable)
The artists themselves, and that scene is so well connected. It's what is lacking in Toronto. There is a real sense of a unified community there, and it's not hard to get into that community. That scene in Toronto is exclusive and snobby.

2a. Tachelese art garden. Tachelese means 'Speak Truth'. It was an old shopping centre from the early 1900s that got bombed out. After the wall came in, painters and sculpters came and squated in the building. They lived there, and used the space as a workshop. The building is covered in graffiti, and it houses not only workshops but a modern dance studio. (It would be a wicked place to see a dance show)
Of course, the capitalists want to tear it down for office space. Unfortunately, the building is on a plot of land too expensive for the city to buy.

2c. The city actually would have bought Tachelese. THey support them now, through a cheap rental contract (1 euro a month) and pay their electiricty and gas bills. Even though I'm overseas, I still know that Steven Harper is a douche bag, and that he's insulted all 'normal people' everywhere. Berlin supports the growth of culture, and helps to sustain what is already there.

3. The German language is beautiful. Their metro system is wholly navigable. When people don't understand you, they enjoy watching you mime what you want. They're so nice.

4. They pay homage to their errors. The 'Holocaust Memorial' or really 'The memorial for the Jews murdered' is a sign of penance. It is itself surrounded by arguments, but at least the citizens are thinking about. The monument is perfect for me. It invoked a feeling no sculpture that size has ever done. Whether or not the monument is effective is irrelevant though. The fact that they admitted a huge error, and gave an exorbitent amound of money and a valuable plot of land to remember it, is astounding.

5. They've come through so much. There is a chip on the city's shoulder, and they bear it really well. This city could be the only authentic emo kid I've ever met. And I love it for that.


So Berlin was amazing. The first day I had completely to myself. OUr hostels were in the heart of East Berlin, so the area is up and coming. Some buildings are disgusting, but other are lived in, and cozy. I walked down the East Gallery - the longest remaining part of the Berlin wall that has been muralled and graffitied. Then I walked over to see the Berliner Dom. This is a giant ostentatious cathedral. IN the basement is the crypt. I've never seen one before. Buried in the crypt are several prince and princesses of Germany. It's a weird feeling. I wouldn't want to be the night guard!

After that, I just sort of sauntered around the Gendarmarkt, and then back home. I always walk too far the first day.

Because we only had a short amount of time, the next day, my fellow travellers and I did a tour of the modern art scene. This tour wasn't about the history, but about the neighbourhoods and hidden gems. I loved it. This is where we saw the Tachelese, and other alley ways that lead to cool places. I saw a bombed out train station. Beside it was a place where you could rock climb, or skateboard, or come for a drink. It was built amongst the ruin, and it's a cheap place to have fun.

The next day we did another free tour. This one covered the history and architecture. The guide was supposed to take us out for hours, but instead it took us about 5. He was so smart, and had so much to say. I think I need to read more about this cold war business from a non-American perspective.

At one point, we were standing in this parking lot, surrounded by fancy communist housing blocks. (The luxurious ones) The guide told us, that we were standing over Hitler's Bunker, where he'd killed himself. The site is obviously unmarked so that neo-nazis can't have a shrine. The bunker has since been dismantled and covered up. But to not know where you are standing, and then to be told....is a really crazy feeling.

The best monument that I saw, was not the HOlocaust memorial, but the memorial for the thousands of books the Nazi-Students burned. On the site of the burnings, is a hole in the ground covered by a piece of glass. Inside are whitewashed book shelves. They're empty.
By it is a quote from a Jewish author, written in 1820. Roughtly translated it says: "Where they burn books, they also burn people."

The city didn't feel too touristy. There were definitely bits swamped by tourists, but they didn't overtake the city like they do in Edinburgh. I think the city has managed to keep its identity that way. So I managed to feel included, but not invasive. I like that.

Anyway. That's all I have to say about Berlin!

Its hard to find the internet, and keyboards that make sense.

The title is the reason I havent posted. I cant find the apostrophes. Please Mom, forgive me!

So. Amsterdam.
It was lovely, and something a bit more robust than quaint. My ye olde Dutch blood was tickled with delight upon arriving. Ive eaten many a pastry.

The first day I bought a year long pass to check out many museums for free. This came in quite handy. I saw Rembrandts old house, refurnished according to a list of his possessions. I also poked my head into the Dutch Resistance Museum. And by poked I mean I was in there for three hours. I was fascinated by a presentation of three very special ladies in the socialist resistance. Two of them survived, the other was captured and executed-murdered. Her name was Hannie.

The story was stunning, but Ill have to write it a better time. After that, I was pooped. For some reason, I always walk way too far on my first day in a city.

The next day we walked down the red light district, and visiting coffee shops. Thats all I have to say about that.

The lovely thing about Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Berlin is the access to free tours. Theyre three hours long, and they give you a rundown of the history, and very interesting facts about architecture and folklore.

The highlight of the trip, was obviously the Anne Frank Huis. It was almost a culmimnation, but not a closure, of everything that Ive read about her, by her. It was so wonderful. It such a peaceful, poingnant space. I think she has managed to invoke such a patriotism around her, so many people think about her and love her, that she may be unique in having found a certain kind of peace... more so than any of the other murdered people. I think that was most shocking. That it wasnt a panicked experience, or a stressful experience. Shes managed to leave a very distinct, youthful, joyous identity behind. So I think in her case especially...the Nazis were abysmal failures.

After the Anne Frank Museum I hit up the Vangogh Museum, the Foam Photography Museum and this random 17th C house with a church in the attic. What I love about Museum cards is that you arent guilted into staring at things you dont care about. You can go, and then you can leave without worries. Likewise, you can go again.

I have good hostel stories...specifically how we got roped into a Bible Discussion (they bribed us with free food and told us we were going to play a game)...but I wont elaborate incase we have some sensitive Betties reading this.

Then I took a stressful train ride to Berlin. The train ride. Well - that area of Europe is flat, so it reminded me of home, and I said -No wonder the Dutch settled in crummy old Alvinston - but they had windmills. So the original Dutch win.
The train ride was stressful when I had to make a connection, and all the directions were in German. I was told one platform, but it was changed to another. Luckily two older Berliner ladies took care of me. THEN, when the connection (1 hour late) finally arrived, this nasally lady would announce things for 10 minutes (seriously) in German and then say - We have reached Hannover. Goodbye. WTF??? (What The F#ck)

I arrived in the black night of Berlin. I scored a bus ticket through mime, and found my way to my hostel for a good nights sleep.

I LOVE Berlin.
And Ill tell you why later.
LOVE LOVE LOVE Berlin.

My internet time is up! Tomorrow Im off to Warsaw Poland. But the hostel has free internet.

Toodle oo!!!