Vilnius, Lithuania

Vilnius, Lithuania

November 28, 2009

Hello everyone. Trevor and I decided that it was time to see what Europe has to offer. We took a bus that was suppose to take 10 hours (11pm-9a), but our bus driver was awesome and got us there in 8 hours. Our first stop on this crazy trip was Vilnius, Lithuania. So at 7am we decided to find our hotel in Vilnius by walking. It only took us 20min to get there and the lady at the hotel let us check in early (which was super sweet). Unfortunately we had a bit of a set back with my not feeling well, but after a couple of hours I was able to start our exploring. We decided to head to the Old Town and that's pretty much where we spent our day. We first saw the egg statue, that was slightly less impressive than the Vegreville one, and then proceeded to the Gates of Dawn, the only remaining original gates to the Old Town. The Old Town was cool, with cobble stone streets and beautiful Gothic churches. They were just incredible when you went inside. The ceilings were painted and they had beautiful statues everywhere. It was awesome. Searching for a cash exchange place was quite a struggle and after some time we decided that Trevor would run back to the bus station to exchange money. What a wonderful man! After some exploring we went to have some Lithuanian food at a restaurant called Cili Kaimas, where they had a pet rooster (that I was hoping wouldn't be what we were having for lunch). I opted for chickenless dishes and went with fish instead. It was very yummy. Next I wanted to go see the Museum of Genocide (apparently not to be missed). It was incredibly moving and creepy. In the basement is the original KGB prison (with execution chamber). This place was definitely more creepy than Alkatrez. After some debate we decided to hang around the Old Town some more and went to the Cathedral where there is apparently a miracle tile that if you find it (first) and stand on it and turn around clockwise your wish will come true. Luckily some girl found it for us (and it was clearly worn from people standing on it) because you really would have to look hard to find it. Trevor spun on tile now we wait to see if his wish comes true. We then went to Vilnius University which is pretty cool, but unfortunately it was dark at this point and difficult to see. We also stopped by St.Anne's church, which looks really gothic from the outside, and walked by Pilies gatve which is a road that has sunken into the ground due to the town being built on a swamp. Lots of cool stuff, really neat town. I'm hoping we'll have a chance to come back. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our trip to Riga the next day!

More to come!

SMILEJ
The Travelling Prentices

Poland-November 9, 2009

November 9, 2009

Trevor and I just had our 15 month anniversary (not that we really celebrated it, but it passed yesterday). Poland is feeling more and more like our home each day. It's funny though. There are days I step outside and, of course, know that I'm in a "foreign country", but I listen for a second to people talking and am surprised to realize that I understand what they are saying. It's such a strange feeling. In Edmonton I would get excited to hear someone talking in Polish because it would happen once in a blue moon. You hear Chinese and Arabic way more that you ever hear Polish back home. But here, I hear it all the time, see it on all the signs and posters and it's just plain weird. I like it but it's still taking some time to get use to. In the last little while Trevor and I have done some more exploring around Warsaw. We actually haven't done much, if any, exploring on our own. It has been mostly with my family. I have now met another family member and it wasn't really until this morning that I completely understood the relation. I've always thought of her as my mom's cousin because that's the way my mom quickly explained it to me. Really she's my mom's second cousin. It's my Ciocia Halina (ciocia meaning aunt because as we do back home, everyone is called aunt and uncle here). Her mom and my mom's mom (my grandma) were cousins. We had a lengthy chat about my grandma's family. We're trying to work out a family tree and we managed to add 100 people just last night! It's incredible! Anyways, she has been great, taking us to a couple of the big touristy spots in Warsaw. We went to two palaces now, one that literally translates to washrooms because of a new concept in bathrooms that was incorporated into the palace, and the other is Wilanow (from the combination of words meaning new village). They have both been pretty specatular, though I have to say the palace Lasienek was by far my favorite. Around this palace is an incredible park with free roaming peacocks and squirrels that will eat out of your hand and if you're good enough they'll even climb your leg for a little bit of food. The pigeons here are crazy about food too and you'll have about 20-30 pigeons surrounding you before you know it. The peacocks will also eat from your hand though they're a little bit less crazy. I would love to see all the places we've seen, in the summer time. I have been told they look incredible. Now that the leaves have all fallen, it's a bit less impressive, but I'm sure it's like our river valley. We have also been getting to know my other family more and more too. They have been incredibly generous, inviting us over to their house every few days. Trevor and I have had so much Polish food and it's been awesome. The last time I had this much Polish food was when my Grandpa was still cooking at home, maybe 10 years ago. It's been a long time. It's funny how when you have it, you don't really care for it. It's even funnier that I didn't really miss it until now when I'm having it every other day. Maybe it's because I never really thought of it as Polish food before. I always just figured that soup, or meat and potatoes were a common house food and didn't think anything of it. Now that I'm seeing that the recipes my Grandpa was using are almost the same as those that people here are using, I'm realizing that I was eating typical Polish food, not just typical home cooked food. It's fun to think about these things. More to come soon :D

Poland-November 4, 2009

We've made it and we're at least good for the next three months without anyone wondering what we are doing here. We have a house that we can always return to. We have a place to cook food and we have the most basic stuff, like a bed and some dishes and cutlery. It has been a very interesting week. We have met many people, eaten lots of Polish food, experienced a Polish holiday and visited an attraction. At the same time, I have had plenty of opportunity to do absolutely nothing. It's been pretty terrible, on the lazy front, but maybe it's good for me. Okay, let me tell you about how this week has gone.

The first night we learned how uncompatible our electrical devices are with their outlets because Trevor blew our fuse by putting the power bar into the wall without a transformer. No worries, my uncle is an electrician. We decided to wait until the next day (since we were going to sleep already). Day two in Poland we found out how far Centrum was, downtown. Our house is only 3 stops of the metro away from downtown. We walked around a bit, but it rained on us so we headed back and waited for our family to get off work. They were to come by to help us get a plan for Trevor's cell phone. When they arrived we told them about our lack of electricity (thank goodness for headlamps, because at this point the sun had set.) There was a bit of panic and very innovative uncle was able to fix the problem temporarily saying that we better not stick anything else into the outlets. There would be no need to fear. We headed out back to Centrum where we found out that had we walked South rather than North we would have seen a giant mall rather than just little shops. They also explained to us the Palac Kultury i Nauki (translated the Palace of Culture and Knowledge) that has within it 2 theatres, a pool, a museum and a movie theatre! That might not be all, but I'm not sure. We also found out where we would be getting internet for the next little while. They have a store called Empik (it looks like a Chapters) with wireless. We then headed back to their house for a little while and then headed back to ours. They are 1 metro stop away from us. Day 3 we went to Empik where Trevor got some work done. I actually went after him, staying at home to be lazy that day. We experienced the Polish McDonalds this day, which was actually almost identical if not even better than at home! This is going to be a good place ;) Anyways, I decided to return before Trevor because my uncle was coming over to fix our fuse. He came over and we had a chat and then he invited us over to their house again. So off I went and phoned Trevor to meet us there. It was a bit quiet over there. My cousin, or second cousin or whatever position he is at (my uncle is actually my mom's cousin) was there too. It's been a bit awkward with the new family, but nothing unexpected. Their English is incredible so when Trevor's over they tend to talk in English more. It's funny because both my uncle and Trevor are in the same position. Each only has one language, though understands the odd word in the other. Everyone else knows much more English and can converse. I have been labeled as a walking dictionary since I know more in both languages than anyone else, though I have failed the odd time because my Polish is good, but not that good. English though is starting to slip. My brain is definitely getting some exercise! This night was especially entertaining because my family got to experience a conversation between my mom and I. They thought it was absolutely hilarious how I spoke to my mom in English while she spoke to me in Polish. I'm sure some of you have found that hilarious too. The next day as a group we went to see This Is It. The theatre that we went to was a lot more flat than our theatres, but otherwise, not much different. This was the most exciting part of Halloween. Trevor missed Halloween back home. The following day was the day we had come for. All Saint's Day. Here, everyone goes to the cemeteries and goes to see the gravesites of their relatives on this day. It's a huge occasion. The cemeteries are packed and they sell candle holders and huge flowers leading up to the cemeteries. It was incredible to see. We went to my grandma's site first and then off to my Grandpa's parents. We met my Grandpa's brother and his wife. They are now filling in as my grandparents while we're in Poland. It was incredible how many people were there. The flowers that they bring are mostly chrysanthemums and they bring them in pots. The flowers are massive (two feet high and two feet wide). The gravesites are not like in Canada. They have tomb like structures that stick out of the ground. It looks like marble coffins everywhere. On these they place the massive flowers and candles. At night the candles look amazing. Here in Poland they believe it's extremely important to remember their dead. After our cemetery visit we were invited to late lunch at my aunt's mom's house. Here we met my aunt's siblings and their families and ate a traditional Polish meal. Included in this meal was tripe soup which I had always heard about but never tried. Reluctantly I tried it and it was very tasty. Trevor had no problem with eating intestines. After we had our fill here we ended up going over to my Grandpa's brother's house for another meal. The idea of losing weight was definitely lost this day. We looked at some pictures from 1966 of my mom, Grandpa and uncle. It was great. The next day was uneventful. The following day we spent time with my Grandpa's brother and his wife and we went over to the Stare Miasto (old town) to walk around, as well as visited my mom's old home and then back to their house for food. Homes here are mostly apartments and even the houses appear to be town houses. I think if you want to see a house, you have to get outside of Warsaw. I find Warsaw to be very Americanized. There are a lot of the typical stores like H&M, Sephora, and others and a lot of things you can buy here are American brand like soaps and shampoos. They only really big difference I see is that everything is written in Polish (which also makes my brain work because I can read but somewhere at a Grade 2 level where words are not yet familiar so I have to sound everything out. It's extremely tedious but good because after some time it will be faster.) I will write again soon.

SMILEJ
Amanda

Day 14 London to Warsaw

Day 14

Oct 28/09

Trevor took our Wicked Van back into town without me while I had to get all of our luggage into the main building of our hotel. For most of the day I wrote emails and did some other computer work until Trevor arrived. We then quickly bought some lunch at a nearby grocery store and it was off to the airport. When we had purchased our Aer Lingus flight to Poland we had understood that you could have one 20kg bag each and then each bag weighing up 20kg was an extra fee. We had automatically paid for an extra bag because I knew there was almost no way for me to have only one bag. Unfortunately we found out that in actual fact the TOTAL weight of the bags you bring can be 20kg! And, for every kg over it would cost us 9 pounds! We were 18kg over which would cost us 162 GBP or $320 ish!!! That was ridiculous! Thankfully the person we were talking to said that he would only charge us 15 pounds for being one bag over our 3 bags we had already told him about. That was a relief. The flight wasn't very eventful. It was neat that many people on board spoke Polish and that they played the instructions for flight safety and other announcements in Polish. It was once we landed that my nerves started going again. I was so scared. I didn't know who was going to pick us up or really what they looked like. I was just hoping that they would recognize us (we had sent them a picture earlier). Customs was ridiculously easy. They just stamped our passports and off we went. And finally the moment of truth arrived. The few pictures I had seen of my mom's cousin and his family were almost 20years old, but they only looked slightly older. Everyone came; my mom's cousin Grzegorz (Gregory), his wife Grazyna (Grace) and their two kids, Mateusz (Matthew) whose 19 and Ola whose 13. The meeting wasn't even too bad. We said our hellos and we realized that everyone but Grzegorz speaks a bit of English and they said my Polish isn't too bad. They drove us over to what will now be our home for the next (at least) 3 months. A cute little apartment, it has a small kitchen, a bathroom (with only a tub, no shower), a very tiny washing machine, closet space and a living room that works as both that and a bedroom. It's perfect. We also went over to their house for a bit where we saw how a typical Polish family normally lives. They too have a tiny apartment. They have 2 bedrooms (each of the kids has their own) a living room, a bathroom and kitchen. Their bathroom doubles as a laundry room (as does ours). Their apartment apparently just got renovated so it has a very modern look to it now. Ours looks like a typical older apartment building in Edmonton. We had a late supper with their family with tomato soup and sandwich type items and then we headed back on the metro to our apartment. They only live one stop away from us. That was enough excitement for one day. We would see what we would do the next day.

Day 13 Downe

Day 13

Oct 27/09

Today was another slow day. We visited Downe, a small town outside of London. Here, Charles Darwin and his family lived for 40 years. Because we started our day so early, we were too early to visit Charles Darwin's house so we sat on a bench and read and watch TV until 11a. The tour of Darwin's house and garden was really neat. It was an audio tour again and described how he used his children to help him with experiments and pretty much his whole house was a huge experiment. It talked about his wife (and how they were first cousins). It was really neat (not the first cousin thing). Apparently Darwin studied plants a lot and in the green house he had venus fly traps and other carnivorous plants. I thought it was an extremely interesting thing to take a look at Darwin lived and how he came to the conclusion that evolution existed. Once we finished with the tour we decided to drive to Gatwick to check in to our hotel and do a last minute clean up of our van. We wanted to make sure we were ready for our flight the next day. We did some internet stuff and went for supper and watched some TV (like British Who wants to be a Millionaire) in the lounge. It was a very nice and relaxing day until I had to call my Polish family. This was essentially the first contact that I would have with my family. I was to make a phone call to them letting them know that everything was going according to schedule and we would be there the next day. Man I was so nervous it was ridiculous. Thankfully the conversation was very quick and painless. Now for the meeting…

Day 12 Kelvedon Hatch

Day 12

Oct 26/09

Today would end up being very calm. Our only destination for the day would be the Secret Nuclear Bunker Kelvedon Hatch. We decided to take our time in the morning and didn't check out of our room until we had to at noon. Apparently this bunker had been ready to go at a moments notice only a few years back. They had built sometime after WWII in case of a nuclear attack. It could hold up to 600 people! It was really weird. The whole thing had an audio tour and the only contact with people that you would have on the tour is with other tourists. Otherwise, you paid at the end of the tour and they just kept telling you that you are on camera and you are not allowed to take pictures (on signs). The whole thing stunk, as if the air flow wasn't very good. They had mannequins set up everywhere to look "realistic" though people clearly played with them because their wigs were falling off. It was a 3 story bunker with only 200 beds so they way it worked was that you would sleep for 8 hours and then someone would take your bed. They had films all over talking about how to be safe in your own home in case of a nuclear attack. Every once in a while on the audio guide they would say "you'd die, but this was to help pass the time" or "you'd die, but this was to keep you busy until then" or messages like that. It was absolutely ridiculous! At the same time, it was a very interesting concept. Trevor is now all gung ho about creating our own bunker. We'll see… After our very interesting (and slightly creepy) tour, we made ourselves pasta as the sunset and watched Star Trek on the computer and then headed out to find our last parking spot for the rest of the trip. We had supper again at McDonald's ( I know I shouldn't but I couldn't help it. I have to try it in each country. Unfortunately we missed Scotland, but even for me, 3 X in 2 weeks is a little much). We ended up having to park in an actual parking spot. Luckily it didn't charge us until 8:30a so we set an alarm so we could leave before then. That was the end of that day.

Day 11 Cambridge

Day 11

Oct 25/09

Once again I woke up before Trevor and took a walk around the "wood" which turned out to be an area with lots of ferns and flat plants, and some trees around the outside, just beside a farmer's field. It also apparently was an area for people to walk their dogs because the only people that came in the area were those with dogs. We drove over to Cambridge and found ourselves a parking spot and then headed over to the many colleges that make up Cambridge University. This town was really neat. Everyone here seemed to ride their bikes everywhere and there were tons of bikes parked all over the sidewalks. The first stop was to the college where Stephen Hawking now teaches/researches, Gonville and Caius. In this college in the Great Hall is a series of stained glass windows made for the past professors of the college among those include Francis Crick, one of two men who discovered the DNA structure and John Venn, the man who invented the Venn diagram. It was then off to Trinity college to see Sir Isaac Newton's apple tree descendant. Some of the colleges charge entry fees, so we decided not to enter Trinity college to look around. Luckily the tree is just outside the college. Next geek atlas motivated destination was the Eagle pub where Watson and Crick had announced their discovery of the DNA structure. We had lunch there, where I had a traditional English Sunday roast. Next we went to the Mathematical bridge, a bridge claimed to have been built by Newton, but our geek atlas told us that it wasn't the case and it was just a nice wooden bridge. While there we watched some people punting boats down the little river. You could rent a little wooden boat and punt down the "canal" like in Italy. It was hilarious to watch as people almost fell into the water. Finishing up in Cambridge we try to seek out some free internet, to no avail, so we headed out of town to our next parking spot, as close to our next destination as we could. It was tough work and in the end I decided I wanted a shower so we headed to another Travelodge for the night.