Lviv

5th of July – 8th of July

Welcome to Ukraine! The land where cigarettes cost as little as $0.20, beer costs $0.40 and ice cream comes in wrappers with BMWs on the front. We arrived on an overnight bus to Lviv at the break of dawn, a trip that included a welcoming 3 hour border crossing. We arranged our accommodation with a family in a house since our only other realistic choice was to stay at the Banking Academy Hostel. No kidding!

With faded, ornate buildings and friendly, unjaded locals, it feels very much like Prague because everyone drinks beer like it’s soda while they walk between job interviews. It’s also similar because it’s beautiful but daunting because no-one speaks English.
One could never truly be in Ukraine if one has not cleaned and tasted sunflower seeds. Here, Zhenia buys a glassful from a sweet lady on the street.


The beer drinking spot of choice is the central avenue, Prospect Svobody, which boasts an enormous status of Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), the revered national poet who embodied and stirred the national consciousness, while achieving literary respectability for a Ukrainian language then suppressed under tsarist Russian rule.
Here the locals gather to smoke, sing songs, chat up girls and play chess. All of course, with a bottle of beer in hand.
Later, we climbed the Zamkova Hora to see the High Castle. The 14th century ruined stone fort at the summit was Lviv’s birthplace and offers the best vantage point of the modern city.
A bit on the morbid side and not so much your typical tourist attraction is the Lychakivsky Cemetary, compared as the Père Lachaise of Eastern Europe. Unlike in Paris, no one is holding a vigil for Jim Morrison but it is a final resting place for many important Ukrainians and Poles alike.
Museum of Folk Architecture and Life was a day trip, or rather a hike, up to a somewhat isolated woodland area where we walked around and saw different styles of old farmsteads, windmills, churches and school built in Ukraine. Here, Zhenia stands in the gates of a chimneyless wooden house built in the 17th century in the Lviv region.
Another example of folk architecture with elaborate carvings and straw roof.
Zhenia stops to talk to some nuns eating lunch.

Krakow

30th June - 4th July
Like Prague, Krakow is firmly set on the tourist trail so we stepped in time with the camera snapping hordes and the late-night kebab feasting. The Old Town square is large and houses an old and beautiful market. One can watch the world gawk and pace around the clock tower from which a trumpet plays and stops abruptly (a reinactment of an old scene involving a trumpeter that warned the town of an oncoming invasion and was shot with an arrow while playing).

Here's Zhenia in the courtyard of the Wawel Castle that overlooks the city.

We spent much of our time in the Old Jewish Quarter. Here's Z shopping for our luncheon.
We took a visit to Oskar Schindler's factory building where he saved 1100 jews from being deported to Auschwitz.....
Surprisingly, very few tourists make it out here. Not much of the original factory remains and the reconstruction of what once was his office has little more than a desk and a hat stand. However, there are some plans to complete the museum and to refurbish the factory into a modern art gallery.
Strolling around on our last day in Krakow, we suddenly stumbled on a dark little bar on the outskirt of the main square in (name of jewish section). Black and white portraits lined the discolored walls, while pre-war furniture and other antiquated accents made the entire place look trapped in time. Even the hard-cover books arranged to appear some-what accidentally placed around dark corners and cabinets felt like stepping into the lives of those old photographs on the wall.

Wroclaw

26th June - 29th June

The train ride from Prague to Wroclaw (pronounced Vrots-wauf) was hot and muggy and we fell asleep in the sticky leather seats but oddly enough we took turns sleeping and managed to photograph each other without the other one knowing.



Poles are among other things proud, particularly of their cherries and strawberries. Fortunately our stay in Wroclaw coincided with the harvest. We managed to finish a kilogram of strawberries and half a kilogram of cherries on a lovely afternoon in the park with our new buddy from Toronto, Alex.

Though not as popular as it's eastern neighbour Krakow, Wroclaw has an kind of an honest character since it has not been gentrified to the same extent.



It still retains plenty of really fucking ugly soviet style buildings, however, a lot is being done to improve things here. It really shone in our eyes though, because the people were super friendly and the milk bar food is GOOD.

NB. Many thanks to Alex for guiding us through Milk Bar protocol with his expert Polish language skills.

Prague

23rd June - 26th June
Probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Already swamped with tourists when we arrived, we were just two adding to the melee. Almost every inch of the main square has been appropriated for posh restaurants and bars. We decided to avoid the centre altogether and visited the outlaying parks in the residential areas between World Cup games and found the lesser known (and therefore less visited) Krizíkova fontána located behind the White Elephant Exhibition Hall. This thing is a feat of engineering with it's spouts choreographed to everything from Mozart to Shania Twain.

Of course the world cup played an important part of our brief Prague visit, where our days were organized around the all important matches. A lot of time was spent finding the most dodgy "sports bars", often utterly deserted, just to watch the game.

Saxony Switzerland

21st June

As a birthday girl, I had a choice of what we were going to do on my glorious day. A day trip to Saxony Switzerland sounded nice so we took the afternoon train.

As we got off the train, the road led to an ancient forest and as we got deeper and deeper into the greeness the smell of moss and wet leaves was all around. Millennia have shaped the boulders and rocks into smooth shapes and we could see many trails of water and rain.

The hike through the forest didn't take long but when we approached Basei the view was unbelievable!

An old-fashioned ferry with an actual steam engine and a whistle took us back to Dresden down the Elbe river. The ride took three hours and was entirely filled with castles and mansions of the old times when Dresden was the financial and political capital of Germany. In 2004, UNESCO declared Dresden and the surrounding section of Elbe river valley to be a "World Heritage" site.

We arrived back in Dresden by 8 pm and Nazan (a wonderful woman from Turkey who was attending a conference in Dresden) organized a birthday party for me, full of hot and tasty Indian food, wine and even a chocolate cake with candles!! I was so surprised and flattered and even had the birthday song sung for me.

Dresden

14th June - 23rd June

What can we say? We loved Dresden. After originaly planning to only stop here one night before heading onto Prague, desperate to avoid the world cup mayhem, we totaly got hooked to the place...

A nightview of Dresden.

The Church of our Lady, which was only rebuilt recently after the damages of World War II.

Tom calls this "The Boob Shot" because we can't remember the name of the building. So there it is!

We slept at Hostel Die Boofe, which literally means a natural shelter in Saxony Switzerland's climbing region where one can stay during a storm. Owned by the coolest and most eccentric of characters, Danilo, this hostel and all her staff and residents were heartwarming and welcoming. Seeing Carole was definitely the most anticipating moment of the morning because she's got a spunky attitude and makes the best cup of coffee this side of the Berlin wall.

Carole, Kyle from Northwestern University and Zhenia display their morning churpiness.

During our stay, Dresden had a 3-day music festival in Neustadt (translated as "New Town" but is actually the older side of modern-day Dresden) that began in 1990 as a demonstration against capitalism and luxury reconstruction of the area. Neustadt has been celebrating itself ever since. One street of the festival was set up for children and had a large merry-go-round and puppet theatre. While all the children were completely in awe of the hand-puppets in the box, one girl stood up and walked over to the theatre box. Zhenia captured the moment as she is yanking the poor puppet out.

During this time, we met Storm and Warren from New Orleans who were also staying at the hostel. For the next 4 days it was impossible to separate us.

While relaxing on the bank of the Elbe river, Zhenia started chatting with a German couple, Nina and Jorn, and before we could say "Prost!" or "Cheers!" they invited us to their apartment for dinner and football. The below picture was our first experiment with the timing setting on our camera. From top left: Jorn, Warren and Tom; from bottom left: Storm, Zhenia and Nina.

On the day that Germany was to play Ecuador, there wasn't a single bar in town that wasn't packed with people. We stumbled on "La Rue", a French and Jewish restaurant owned by the curious Moushka who handed us a free bottle of Cider and said "Say Hello to Brooklyn for me!" on our way out. Here, Warren and Tom are victorious with the new gift.

On the night of the 20th, while Tom watched the England vs. Sweden game at a local English pub, Zhenia took a Night Tour with Anna, the guide and Dresden's personality extraordinare, to experience the culture and history of Neustadt. When we arrived back at the hostel, there was a welcoming committee waiting for us to begin the party that was to last until 5 a.m.
Zhenia, Anna, Danilo and Jason begin the early part of Zhenia's birthday celebrations.

Our final thoughts on Dresden: YOU MUST GO AND EXPERIENCE DRESDEN AND STAY AT HOSTEL DIE BOOFE!!!

Barcelona

11th June - 14th June

Barcelona, the fashion Neverland where fashions never die. You name it.......from the girl in Doc Martin's and a tie dye t-shirt to the fellas with MC Hammer pants.....it's all here. Punks, Skaters, Hippies, Rastas and the ubiquitous Goths are all represented and the mullets here would put any trailer park to shame. And lets not leave out the "Rat Tail" which is still going strong in these parts......

We're only sorry we didn't have the means to document the cultural time warp that has a hold on this city. Unfortunately, the below picture is the only one we have in Barcelona (courtesy of the photo shop guy who sold us our camera). Guess it sums it up pretty well...

To better see this wonderful city, we decided to book a scooter. What a ride and worth every penny! We saw all the highlights and lowlights of Barcelona and didn’t have to walk a single block. Unfortunately, we were unable to take a single picture of the curves and mosaic magic of Gaudi (thanks to the Sahara desert) but here are a few shots that we picked up off the internet. Yeah, I know it’s lame but you’ve got to see it for yourself if you’re a Gaudi virgin.

La Sangrada Familia



Park Guell




Casa Mila

Jarandilla de la Vera, Spain

6\6\06 - 10\6\06

After tracking down my mum and dad in Madrid we crashed their holiday plans and invited ourselves to come with them to Jarandilla de la Vera in western Spain. We stayed in the local Parador (government run hotels in historic buildings around Spain), which was essentially a converted castle originally built for King Carlos V to spend the winter of 1556 before going on to the monastery at Yuste to wait to die.

Needless to say, we ate and drank very well and relaxed despite dad's shirt (and socks).


The highlight of our time here was the walk to Yuste, following the road taken by Carlos V. It was stinking hot but along the way we found several natural pools to swim in and cool down - this one was our favourite...



Many thanks to Mum and Dad for taking us, and for the pics for the log all taken by Mum.