on the way to somewhere
..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Warsaw, Sochaczew and elsewhere in Poland
3We originally planned on visiting Poland to see our two friends, and nothing more. Anton, our friend from school was visiting his girlfriend Ola, who lives in Warsaw. Since he was there for a few months it was perfect for us to catch up with them on the other side of the world. Ola has visited us in Australia, so it was nice to see her in her home country too. We had no real plans of what we wanted to do and what we wanted to see, just that we wanted to see them.
Our visit to Poland was however, unintentionally relevant. The day before our train from Berlin to Warsaw we had visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, as Jess has mentioned in her post on Berlin. It had set us up to see just exactly what this meant for those affected by the war.
As our train slowly brought us into Poland and eventually Warsaw we realised that Poland wasn’t going to be a rich country. We arrived in Warszawa Centralna, the central train station, to the familiar face of our friend from Adelaide. We had a quick greeting then began walking to Ola’s apartment, a quick 10 minute walk down the road. As we began walking Anton explained to us how Warsaw was a combination of old and new. It is predominantly filled with old “Commie Blocks”, aka apartments built for the masses in the communist days, with some newer buildings dotted around the place, usually by the larger corporations and some newer apartments.
We arrived at Ola’s apartment, welcomed by Ola, a welcome banner on her door, and lunch. We had a bite to eat over a catch up, and then changed for the night ahead. I won’t bother telling too much in detail here – Anton and Ola had friends around to farewell Anton from Poland (he is leaving soon), and to meet us. We went through more than enough vodka at their place, and then left for the local pub for more booze. Long story short the next day was one of the worst and best days of my life.
We woke around 8am, in a rush for the train. What train? Honestly I had no idea. I had an agonising headache, but had no time to think about it. We put our clothes on from the night before (and smoking is legal in pubs here, so that didn’t help the hangover situation) and began our power walk to Centralna. We were heading to Sochaczew, the town in which Ola’s parents live, for a feast. Excellent – I needed food.
Jess and I bought our tickets, and as Ola was buying tickets for herself and Anton, the train arrived. We ran for the train, and Ola followed. Anton was hanging out of the door to keep the train stationary, however it just left. Ola was left at the platform! Some cursing in Polish and a few phone calls from Anton to Ola and her father, and we found out what was happening. Ola was on the next train and had a refund for the tickets, and the Police were waiting for our train at Sochaczew. Long story short, Ola’s father has a bit of power with the authorities and he isn’t afraid to use it. The hilarity of the situation perked me up a fair bit too which was great.
We went back to Ola’s parents’ place, and met her mother and auntie; before long Ola had arrived too. Ola’s father offered to take us to a town nearby that had a thermal pool where the water is heated naturally. We spent around an hour or so there, just relaxing in the water, and occasionally running out to roll around in the snow. Yep, true story, we were in bathers, on the snow. It sounds bad but realistically it was maybe a few minutes of freezing cold and then you’re back in the perfectly warm pool again.
We returned to Sochaczew to find the biggest feast we have ever had waiting for us. It was around 3 or 4pm by this stage and we were given soup (served in bread), ribs, chicken cutlets, potatoes, salads and more. And cakes of course. Thinking this was it we settled down on the sofa to watch some Winter Olympics. About two hours later we found us eating dinner. More vodka, more beer, more soup, pierogi, and so much other food. We were all so full, and extremely satisfied.
It was so nice to be able to stay in a home again. We only spent a few days at Ola’s parents place, however that time was some of the best in the trip. You stay in a hotel, a hostel, and even Ola’s apartment, and you get the impression that while people may live there, they don’t consider it home. It’s a place to stay while they achieve something. We thank Ola’s family very much for making us feel so welcome. They both really went above and beyond for two complete strangers – it was so generous.
Throughout the rest of our time in Poland we stayed predominantly in Warsaw. Anton toured us around a fair bit during the day (including taking us to the Warsaw Uprising Museum which was excellent), and then any other time she could spare we would spend with Ola. One night we walked through a much more “classy” looking part of Warsaw and had some chocolate at E.Wedel’s, and another night we grabbed some Chinese and feasted upon it back at the apartment.
We were lucky enough to be toured through Old Town by one of Ola’s friends and gain some solid local knowledge on the area and how it has been rebuilt. While many countries may take these “historic” areas for granted, Warsaw clearly does not. The majority of these buildings were destroyed by the Germans during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. As a result, in order to have this area live on, they have all been rebuilt, often funded by local families and small businesses.
There is so much I could talk about, but for fear of dragging on I will leave it at this. Poland itself is a very interesting place. The history is not too far in the past, and you can see it all around you as you catch a train, drive along a highway, or walk along a street.
To Anton and Ola, thanks for taking care of us and guiding us around. Thanks for the food, thanks for the local knowledge, thanks for the accommodation, and thanks for the comfort. It was nice to be able to let our guards down for a few days and know that we were safe in your hands.
Vampire Weekend at Astra Kulturhaus in Berlin
0709 days
I’m no music reviewer, I’ll leave that to my brother in law (re: savetwofour.com). I am however, a music lover and a tourist in a foreign country and these two things combined with an awesome set is a beautiful thing.
Jess and I booked these tickets quite some time ago. We had no idea where the Astra was, how big it was or what the crowd was like. We have however, been fans of Vampire Weekend for a few years now, and we planned on being around Berlin at this time so we took the chance.
We walked towards where the Astra should be… It wasn’t there. No signs, just a scummy looking courtyard. We walked passed assuming it was elsewhere but ended up back at the gate to the courtyard trying to find out where to go. We walked inside, through the snow and mud and found a light with an “Astra” logo. As it turns out this whole area was some sort of (probably pseudo) underground music scene.
While the outside of the building was tired and covered in graffiti, the interior was very grand. There were multiple bars, cloak rooms, plenty of velvet and a couple of chandeliers to light the place up.
We grabbed a few overpriced drinks (5.50EUR is a lot to backpackers!) and then found our way to the front of the stage in prime position for the support band, Fan Death.
Fan Death were alright. They supported well with some quality music and their drummer was great, although their general act and image was a bit too “bandwagonish” for me. You know.. Karen O (YYY’s) clothes, an ET doll as their prize posession and so on. Regardless, they put on a good show and lets face it, a live band is always better than on an album. No disrespect! Before Fan Death finished, I was lucky enough to take a quick photo of Vampire Weekend’s set list. Jess and I were both so stoked at this point – it was the first concert we’d been to for years as we’ve been saving for this trip.
Vampire Weekend went off. For those who don’t know they are an Indie Rock band from New York City. Ezra Koenig, the lead singer kept telling the crowd he wanted us to sweat. We were drenched by the time the concert was over, and we weren’t the only ones. The concert was an opportunity to see the band as musicians, rather than seeing them on a film clip. Bass guitarist Chris Baio swapped guitairs every second song, and played a double bass at one stage.
They played songs old and new. Jess loved Oxford Comma while I’ve been struggling to get Cape Cod out of my head ever since. Their set actually helped me to enjoy and understand some songs of theirs that I had previously felt indifferent to.
Ultimately we had a great night. We were able to really let loose and have some fun. We walked back to the S-bahn and went back to the hostel for a few hours sleep – at 5:30am we were up to board our train to Warsaw, but that is another story…
Berlin: City of Contrasts
3I loved Berlin. It is the first city (although I’m sure it won’t be the last) that we have left and I can confidently say I want to go back to. This is partly due to the fact that I have left with the feeling that we should have done more. Even though we did visit the sites and go to an amazing concert, I feel as though there was just so much more out there waiting for us to see.
Prior to leaving Copenhagen, Jase had carefully studied the maps and train routes so we knew exactly which trains to catch to arrive at our hostel, at approximately 11:30 pm. Unfortunately all his careful planning didn’t account for the hour delay we experienced due to the ferry that our bus from Copenhagen needed to board. As we exited the bus station in Berlin we made our way through the cold night to find the train station. We hurriedly tried to interpret the German ticket machine as a train (perhaps the one we needed to catch, perhaps not) approached. We didn’t get tickets in time so figured we would just wait for the next, only to find out that we had missed the last train for the night. We considered catching a bus but in the end caught a taxi. The taxi driver was very friendly and helpful. As we learned duirng the drive, our hostel was situated on a road that had only existed for 5 weeks.
Our hostel, called the Hotel Meininger was, as Jase put it, a money making machine. I was not as disappointed by it as much as Jase was but I did understand his frustrations. Its excellent location and expansive number of 4 bed dormitories meant it was very popular with school groups – who stayed in the masses for the whole time we were there. Despite its cleaniness and convenient, yet expensive bar, the hostel was much more of a hotel – lacking that community feel. Probably the most frustrating thing was that the small guest kitchen was often closed for “private meetings” between hotel staff or school groups, meaning that we could not access or cook our food.
But enough of that, on to the amazing city itself. Filled with so much history, there were many sites that we wanted to visit. Our first stop was the East Side Gallery, a Berlin wall recreation beautifully painted by several artists. The original artists that had painted the wall were invited to come back almost 20 years later to repaint their work on the new wall. I was really moved by some of the images and enjoyed strolling along the footpath, taking in the detail and emotion behind each of the works of art.
On our third day in Berlin we went on a free walking tour of the city. For me, this was a definite highlight of our whole trip to date. Our guide, Benjamin, was a young American living in Berlin. He was a fantastic guide – so enthusiastic, knowledgeable and entertaining. What made the tour so great was that while we saw many of the main attractions of the city, we discovered much of the history behind it – something we wouldn’t do walking past the sites on our own. The tour included sites such as the Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, churches and other historic buildings.
The next day (our last day in Berlin) we went exploring once more, starting with the Reichstag (Parliament House). This was an amazing building with a glass dome positioned on the top, which is free for the public to access. The idea of the glass celing and dome is that democracy should be transparent and that the parliament members seated below only have to look up to be reminded of the people they are serving. The dome has a large walking ramp spiraling round it which gives fantastic views of the whole city.
A short walk through the Tiergarten led us to the Holocaust Memorial once more. While we had taken a moment on the previous day’s tour to walk through the myriad of concrete blocks, I wanted to go back to visit the underground memorial museum. I always knew this would be a difficult stop for me, not because I’m Jewish or in any way closely tied to victims of war… I guess I am just an emotionally sensitive person. As we walked through the dark rooms, reading excerpts of letters, listening to accounts of concentration camp experiences, I wept openly. It was such an awful period in history but an important one to reflect on and remember the millions of victims.
After the emotionally draining experience of the Holocaust Memorial we needed a pick-me-up. Our deliciously filling doner pita and the amazing Vampire Weekend concert were the perfect solution. The day was a really fitting way to end our time in Berlin… the confronting experience of Berlin’s past, contrasted to the high of an overseas band performing to the vibrant youth of the city.
Two days in Copenhagen
2We arrived in Copenhagen at 8am in the morning after catching an overnight bus from Stockholm. It was a new experience for the both of us and I personally found it fairly comfortable.
It was Valentines Day, and when we arrived it was snowing lightly. Thankfully it was quite still compared to Stockholm and while the temperature was cold (-3 degrees Celsius) it was a lot more comfortable.
We had a hotel room for the night staying at a place called Hotel Alexandra. Travelling as a couple often presents itself with advantages – in this case we were able to find a last minute hotel room for cheaper than two beds in a hostel dorm. We booked it the day before and tried our luck with an 8.30am check in. Luckily the room was free. Hotel Alexandra is located right near the Tivoli and for walkers like us it couldn’t be in a better location.
The benefit of a hotel room is that you have a bathroom to wash clothes in and more space to dry them. Sure, you get privacy too, but at this point in the trip we were banking on doing a fair bit of washing! After washing the clothes and having a quick freshen up we went for a walk to see what we could find. Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens.
They are a bit different to those back in Australia and the one we saw in Singapore. Although flowering plants are few and far between, the snow brings it’s own beauty to the gardens. There was also an excellent greenhouse which was the perfect place for us to thaw out. From here we walked throughout Copenhagen aimlessly. We didn’t have a lot on our list of objectives here so it was nice to take it easy for a change.
Valentines Day ended with us finding an “eat all you can” pizza place called The Astor. Anyone who knows us would have a good idea of how much pizza we ate, and all for 59DKK! We went back to our room and watched some TV together ready to call it a day.
The day after we walked over to Amalienborg Palace to watch the Changing of The Danish Royal Guard. It has been pretty cool watching this in a few different countries now. I’d say Denmark has had the most impressive so far. After freezing in the cold for about an hour, the guards were changed and we were off on our way to Kastellet.
Nearby was a statue of The Little Mermaid, named after the story by Hans Christien Andersen. Interestingly enough, Copenhagen seemed like a fairytale place. The gardens and the snow, the lights at night, and the music! I swear they had Disney music playing when the trains arrived at the station.
On top of all of this it was even more of a fairytale for me; pretty much everyone in Copenhagen is a cyclist. The infrastructure is amazing, and according to the owner of a local bike store “the drivers have to watch out for bikes”, not the opposite that applies in Australia.
Short and sweet once again, just like Athens. While you could spend some time here exploring the day to day life, we both had a great two day visit.
Our Getaway in Stockholm
1We spent five nights and five days all up in Stockholm and it was a really different experience to our last few stops. We took it easy here, going out a bit each day but not really pushing ourselves to spend whole days walking around the city. I think the weather has contributed somewhat to this. Being from Adelaide in Australia we are just not used to such freezing cold temperatures. While the weather was bearable, it did make it less appealing to spend long periods of time outside as our faces would just get too cold!
We didn’t do as much site seeing in Stockholm either. On our second day here we visited Gamla Stan (Old Town) but that was really about it. Old Town is located on one of Stockholm’s islands and is made up of historic buildings, including the Royal Palace. It was here that we viewed the Changing of the Guard, which was pretty impressive. There was much more to see than the Athens equivalent as it goes for approximately 45 minutes and has a bugle, drum, marching soldiers and flags.
Our other days were spent wandering the shopping district along Drottningsgatan, relaxing at the hostels and, my favourite, snowboarding at Hammarbybacken!
We shared our time between two hostels while in Stockholm. The first was at City Hostel in Kungsholmen and the other was Skanstulls Vandrarhem in a trendy area called Södermalm. We both liked City Hostel a lot more despite Skanstulls Vandrarhem being in a bit better location. City Hostel felt more welcoming, more organised and was just more cosy. The fact that we didn’t have to share a dorm with a sleep apnoea sufferer who sounded like she was drowning in her sleep helped too!
Despite the cold, we really enjoyed our getaway in Stockholm. I know Jase was absolutely blown away by all the beautiful countryside we passed on the bus ride out of the city and I appreciated the different style of travel it brought to our adventure.
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