Defining Movement

WOW! Things have been amazingly busy since my last post (I am aware that it was close to a month ago)! I am currently almost halfway through a 4-week intensive TEFL course in Prague, Czech Republic. I have been doing about 18-hour days that are chalk full of courses, lesson planning, grammar assignments, and teaching practices in front of students. However, all that is for another post! Right now I would like to tell you a little bit about my trip with Patrick...

First of all, it is important to know that Patrick, my best friend, has just graduated from physical therapy school at the University of New Mexico, this being one of the big reasons for his excursion to Europe. Congrats for that! Anyway, to the trip. Patrick and I met in Munich on July 27 and proceeded to tour Vienna, Budapest, Croatia, and Prague over the following two weeks. We loosely labeled it an 'eastern' European trip. It was quite the trip and was an absolute blast! Things were kept high paced, as we had a maximum of 2 days at any given destination; sometimes we only had a single day or a part day and overnight. Needless to say, this made for quite a significant amount of time in transit, as much of the traveling was done internationally. I will shamelessly compliment ourselves on our not missing a single bus (which accounted for the majority of transport) or train the entire trip.

As there are a TON of photos from these two weeks, I will just write a short blurb before transitioning into each location, but will primarily stick to captions.

Munich, Germany

Munich was great. We stayed with a man named Wolfgang and his family via the home sharing website called Air BnB. We had a ton of fun checking out the various palaces and gardens within the city and we decided that we wouldn't at all mind having our own personal gardens for meditation, writing, and just enjoyment. We also visited Dachau during our time in the area.

Pat enjoying his first German beer

Nymphenburg Palace

In the back of the Nymphenburg Palace walking around in the royal gardens

The gardens were huge, as you can see from the distance to the palace
in this photo. They had countless trails winding through them and there
were four small palaces within it.

Inside the palace....not poorly decorated

A bulldog keeping watch over the street. Made
me think of my sister and her Gonzaga
mascot

Jewels and loot of the Rreidenz's treasury

BMW museum

Olympic park

Vienna, Austria

Next on the city of Vienna! Patrick and I decided that the city was not a city that we would like to live in, but that it was an extremely interesting city to visit. It seemed very eclectic and more free-spirited than Salzburg, which is the only other Austrian city that I have been to. Salzburg seemed quite western European and we agreed that Vienna began to look much more similar to something we would expect to find in eastern Europe. We thought that Vienna maybe represented a defining point between the cultures of the east and west.

The parliament building

St. Charles Church

Hanging out along the Danube

Hundertwasser Haus (Hundred Water House)

Pat deep in thought about his next move

We decided to take the lift....us and our two bags each

Budapest, Hungary

We both really enjoyed Budapest and wished that we had more time there. We think that we saw the main sites, but there was just so much there to see that we had to miss a lot. One of the amazing things which I do not have photos of here is the thermal baths. We actually went to two in the two days we were there. The first and main one was Rudas, which was a gorgeous old stone building with multiple temperatures of baths as well as various saunas and steam rooms. This baths had a special night session that began at 10 p.m. and ended at 4 a.m.We ended up staying until roughly 2 in the morning before walking to the house.

View from the citadel

Buda Palace

Interesting sculpture near the town center

Dome of St. Stephan's cathedral

View from the top of St. Stephan's

Scary window ad for some...cabbage?

Sibenik + Krka National Park and Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

Our final destination before Prague was Croatia. In the end, we realized that we easily could have spent the whole 2 weeks in Croatia and not grown bored. Croatia is an absolutely amazing country, and not just for the reasons we usually think. Most people think of the beaches and islands when they think of the country, but we realized that it is so much more. On the bus ride from Zagreb to Sibenik we saw farmland, huge mountains, and lowlands. We also saw a National Geographic display in Sibenik that had roughly 30-40 photos with descriptions from all over Croatia; they mentioned a ton of cool places and landscapes that would have been a lot of fun to visit. It turns out that Croatia has quite a spread of national parks and natural attractions.

First beer close to our pension in Sibenik

Krka National Park was just a 30 min. shuttle out of Sibenik and, as you can see,
was an extremely popular tourist destination

The Patagonia boys

A gated alleyway in Sibenik

Sibenik has a fortress in its old town that is now used for concerts and
other cultural events

Panorama from the fortress wall

Croatia produces a lot of wine, another unexpected thing for me

We had the MOST DELICIOUS mussel
meal in Sibenik at our pension. They
were called in from the supplier right
after we ordered them

Boardwalk at Plitvice Lakes National
Park

Catching some zzz's after a long day of
walking

Our last destination was Prague. This city, my new home, will be the subject of my next post.

I am currently writing from Robert's (a friend of the family) house in Sindelfingen, Germany. He is on a trip to the states for the summer and has been kind enough to let me hole up here for the next week until Patrick comes for the last leg of my trip before settling in Prague. It is a great opportunity to relax, read, write, and just be boring while I have the chance. However, the last couple weeks have not been at all boring. I arrived in Sindelfingen, which is just outside of Stuttgart, after a magnificent time with Kasia and her family in Kobylnica, Poland, a small town just outside of Slupsk if you are trying to locate it on the map.

When traveling alone one of the things that becomes most apparent is the lack of friends, family, or home. I was lucky enough to find all three of these things in Kasia and her family. They were amazingly kind, helpful, and would not stop pushing food in front of me the whole time I was there...which is a signal to any Pavlik that he/she is among their own! During the week we toured Kobylnica, Slupsk, Ustka, Gdansk, Sopot, Gdynia, and even checked out a few sites in Berlin. I will go through the various events of the week photo by photo, with commentary entered between and in captions.

After the 20 hour bus ride from Paris to Berlin, I took a short 2-hour shuttle from Berlin to Szczecin, Poland, where I was to catch the train to Slupsk.

The train was from Szvzecin, Poland to Slupsk
and it was the first time that I had been in one
of the classic coaches

I was picked up from the Slupsk train station by Kasia, Magda (her sister) and Marcin (Magda's boyfriend).

Marcin and I in front of the old American military base in Slupsk

Ustka beach on the first evening in Poland

It was obligatory to rub/grab the mermaid's breast(s?) at the
Ustka harbor and to make a wish that would then come true. I
am ashamed to confess that I was so distracted I forgot
to make a wish.

Pirate tours are offered

Typical Polish ale with dessert waffles

Kasia and Czarek (her boyfriend) took me
to an American restaurant in Slupsk so
I could sate my craving for a burger (something
I had made public on Facebook a few days
earlier on the 4th of July).

Post office in Slupsk. Poland is credited with
the invention of the postal stamp.

Slupsk downtown, by the river

Witch's tower where, you guessed it, all of
the witches in the middle ages were tried
until they were found guilty (and put to
death) or innocent (proven by their death)

Kasia and Czarek at my favorite herbaciarnia in Slupsk

They had over a hundred teas to choose from and
the atmosphere was perfect, right along the
river. A fantastic place to be with friends
and to simply relax and chat

We took an overnight trip to Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia. We went up by train and then Marcin and Magda drove up the next day to pick us up. Gdansk is where Kasia is getting her Masters in English and Czarek is pursuing his law degree.

The University of Gdansk

Walking along the river in Gdansk

The famous Neptune statue in Gdansk

View from the top of the cathedral in Gdansk

Sopot, by the marina and beach

The most Asian-looking Sheraton outside of Asia

Optimal cooling down fountain in Gdansk...at least 5 different types of water streams
for your playing pleasure

Gdansk shipyard with the museum to the right.

View of Gdansk from the top of the hill. This particular shot is looking out on the shipyard area. Gdansk used to be one of the biggest producers of ships but the yard has been shut down for some time due to political problems

One of the stadiums for the Euro 2012 cup...for those of you who follow soccer

Marcin, Magda, and Kasia checking out photos on the Sopot beach

Kasia and Czarek ready to try their first quesadilla...

...of course it could never be the same without green chile.

Kasia and Czarek took me on a bike tour of Kobylnica

Marcin, Magda, Kasia and Czarek (with me in the mirror) enjoying ice cream in Ustka
on the last evening in Poland

Marcin owns a flat in Berlin that he is in the process of renovating, so he was planning on traveling to Berlin that Sunday. He invited me along and so he, Magda, and I drove to Germany's capital. My bus to Stuttgart didn't leave until 21:45 so we checked out a few of Berlin's sights before they continued on.

Berlin's Hauptbahnhof, or main train station, is immense and new. It was completed roughly five years ago

Magda and me in front of the German Bundestag

The Brandenburg Tor

The first stoplight in Europe

Memorial to the fallen Jews

Magda and Marcin sent me off with a bag full
of cherries and gooseberries from their garden as
well as with some dried polish sausages and a
bunch of other goodies

The last day in Berlin I really wasn't feeling too well and had a cough and sore throat, which made me quite ready to arrive in Stuttgart and sleep for awhile. Nicht so einfach. I was able to battle through the 8 hour bus ride from Berlin to Stuttgart (even though I think half the bus may have supported a movement to kick me out while it was moving, due to coughing) and arrived in Stuttgart at 6:00 a.m. I found my way to the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof and then from there took the S-bahn (suburban train) to a stop in Sindelfingen and proceeded to find my way home. Breunigerland is a huge shopping center in Sindelfingen, which Robert lives by, and serves as a light in the German darkness when attempting to navigate.