Finito! The Final Posting

It’s been an insane past 3 months…

I’m beginning to write this final post from the airport in Athens and will likely finish at some point on the journey back home. But before I conclude this blog, I want to give a run-down of all the cities I’ve visited in the past few weeks, as well as some final thoughts and stories about this summer.

The past few weeks on my European odyssey with Alex have included more excitement than frankly either of us could handle. But the experience could not have been more unforgettable and worthwhile. So here’s a run-down of the trip city by city.

Warsaw – Warsaw is a very underrated city to visit and was a fantastic place to live. The first and foremost reason is the Polish people. I have never been anywhere else where people show so much pride and solidarity as a nation. And it shows. The streets of Warsaw are remarkably clean and the people are extremely hard-working. Beyond that, there is so much living history and beauty within the city itself. The Old Town in Warsaw is one of the most historic sites you’ll find in Europe, and the spectacular Lazienki Park in the center of the city is extremely impressive.

Lazienki Park

Berlin – You never run out of things to see in Berlin and the pace that Alex and I were keeping to see as much as possible in 2 days was inhumane. Berlin is full of history, but is also more of a modern city than anywhere you’ll find, including most places in the US. Our trip had a burst of excitement in Berlin as we were running around the city trying to get our Eurail passes validated, when we all of a sudden were threatened by a crazy man with a broken beer bottle.

Potsdamer Platz

Leipzig – Having lived and studied in Leipzig, I’m entirely biased. It’s not the most scenic city to visit, but it’s the #1 place to see if you want to know anything about East German history. But beyond that, most of the best known people in German history have lived here and there is plenty to see dedicated to them, such as Martin Luther, Bach, and Angela Merkel.

Goethe Memorial

Dresden – My favorite place to visit in the whole world. I have never been anywhere more beautiful than the old town in Dresden. Not only do I have so many personal memories there, but seeing the impressive churches and palaces that are still blackened from the firebombings of WWII is just indescribable. Dresden is just the perfect city that fits my interests and personality.

Dresden Old Town

Prague – Just a wretched city. Don’t believe any of the hype about Prague. It’s dirty and there’s nothing worth seeing that isn’t packed by an excess of annoying tourists. Stay away from this place. Granted, being rebels and getting fined on the metro has something to do with my bitterness, but my opinion of this pit of misery still stands.

Vienna – No place has more beautiful palaces. Vienna is just a classy city. All of the buildings on the most mundane streets have such detail that is incredibly impressive. The Schönbrunn Palace makes Versailles look like Barbie’s playhouse. Vienna is absolutely worth visiting. It’s was the perfect antidote to our misery in Prague.

Austrian Capitol Building

Lugano – Given that we had the most insane train ride getting there, Lugano was well worth it. No city that I have ever seen has more breathtaking surroundings. The mountains and lakes in Lugano are amazing. Not to mention the surrounding cities, such as Locarno that are definitely worth seeing.

Lake Lugano

Milan – These were the highlights of our time in Milan: Tom gets sneezed on by a Somali pirate, and Alex gets served a “pizza” that was nothing more than a piece of bread with some vegetables on top. Don’t believe any hype about Milan. It’s an awful, dirty city with nothing to see or do. Not to mention the bums that care nothing about their surroundings and don’t mind urinating on the sidewalks (which we witnessed frequently). I’ve been all over Italy and love everywhere I’ve been with the exception of Milan. Milan is an embarrassment to the country of Italy.

Alex's "pizza" in Milan

Turin – Turin will always have a special place in my heart. Our best story of the trip happened there, and it showed that Turin has one hell of a kick-ass police department. Within an hour of Alex having his wallet stolen, he got it back as we watched the suspect in his jail cell… frickin’ awesome! Beyond that, Turin is really a very clean and beautiful city in the Italian Alps. And the people there are great. Alex and I both agree that the best restaurant we’ve both eaten at is “Seven Up” in Turin. The greatest Italian food on the planet by far. Turin really is a spectacular city for so many reasons, I highly recommend it.

Turin on the River

Monte Carlo – This city just exudes wealth. Awesome marina full of massive yachts that each have their own crews. It’s also extremely modern and definitely worth visiting. It’s immaculately clean and you can have a great dinner at the marina for a reasonable price. Visiting Monte Carlo made up for the time that we spent in the hellhole that is the country of France.

Monte Carlo Marina

The Entire Country of France – Never go there! The people are miserable and show no pride in their surroundings. The entire country smells of nothing other than cigarettes and urine. People litter everywhere and nobody cleans up after their pets. All the stereotypes of French arrogance are understated. It’s just disgusting, and the people are absolutely miserable. Then again, if I had to live in France, I’d be miserable too.

Barcelona – We only spent a few hours here, but it seemed like a decent city, of course part of that may be just being anywhere other than France. However, the train ride in through the Spanish countryside was really quite beautiful.

Greece – I’m so glad that we had a whole 5 days in Greece, because the sites were just phenomenal. Day one we went to the Acropolis, which is not only extremely significant historically, but also gives fantastic views of the entire city of Athens. Day two we went to the Temple of Poseidon, which was my favorite part of our time in Greece. It’s not a touristy area, and the views are just spectacular… many of the best pictures of the whole trip came from here. Day three we toured the Port of Piraeus as well as the Olympic Stadiums in Athens, which are plenty historic in their own right, one of them being built entirely out of marble in 400 BC. On day four, we drove over to Corinth and saw the ancient ruins, hiked up to the castle above the city (though we couldn’t make it all the way to the top in the 110 degree heat), visited the church where St. Paul would preach to the Corinthians, and saw the Corinth Canal which is massive and was built entirely by slave labor. On our final day, we met with Alex’s family in the Greek countryside for the feast of the Virgin Mary… and believe me it was a feast. I had never eaten so much in my life. I cleaned my plate about 4 times, and each time I did Alex’s aunt kept shoveling more food on my plate… don’t get me wrong, the food was amazing, but I was about to explode. Still, I’ve really come to love the Greek food… the Greek salads and gyros are absolutely amazing when done right. And one thing that really surprised me during our time in Greece is how much it looks like Southern California. Athens looks exactly like LA at night… all sprawled out with the mountains in the background. And our drive back from Corinth felt just like the drive up to Santa Barbara. The similarities were quite eerie. But I’m so glad that we had a car to get to all these places… it would have been impossible without one. And thank God that Alex has lived here and knew where everything was, I would have been completely lost otherwise. Our time in Greece had very little difficulty (other than us climbing up one of the tallest mountains in Athens at sunset and forgetting where we parked on the way down). Germany and Greece were honestly my two favorite parts of the trip, since in both places Alex and I got to show off our second homes and knew the best places to visit ahead of time.

Cape Sounion

There are so many more stories that I just don’t have time to write about, but will be sure to share with people in person (like the insane beer bottle guy in Berlin, the Somali pirates in Milan, and getting lost on a mountain in Athens). Nonetheless, it’s been an unforgettable and exhausting summer, which is just the way I wanted.

Well, folks, that’s it for my blog this summer. I don’t plan on doing anymore regular postings, but if something in the future really sets me off, I now have an established forum to rant. So, peace out.

Euro-Odyssey Pics

Here are my photo albums from this summer:

Warsaw: click here

Berlin: click here

Leipzig: click here

Dresden: click here

Vienna: click here

Lugano/Locarno: click here

Italy & Monaco: click here

Greece: click here

“You Want to Get Nuts?! Let’s Get Nuts!!!”

Here is the latest major episode that changed the course of this epic trip…

After having Alex’s wallet stolen and credit cards canceled canceled in Turin, we set out on trains to reach the French Mediterranean coast.

So we take trains for a few hours to Nice, France.

As soon as we get out of the train station in Nice, all we see are sex shops and packed streets that smell of nothing other than cigarettes and urine. Nice was just an absolutely disgusting city. It amazed us how little pride the French have in their surroundings. For a people who are so arrogant to care little about their surroundings was just shocking. Everyone was smoking and just littering on the ground (not to mention the urine-soaked sidewalks). It was like walking into a third world country. The city of Nice is just an embarrassment to humanity. It was a major disappointment, but not a complete surprise given my past miserable experiences in Paris. France is just an awful country to visit. Never go there.

We then walk the streets of this wretched city (holding our breath the entire time) and finally reach our hotel. However, we find out that our reservation had been canceled along with Alex’s credit cards. So we have to go to another hotel.

We get to the second hotel (where the guy tries ripping us off by charging more than the price of the room, which we caught him doing) and get our double room. We’re told this is a nice classical hotel. Then we get to the room and find out that my bed is in nothing other than a cage (some Orwellians may say a loft) at the top of the room. So we drop our bags and take the 20 minute train ride to Monte Carlo to get the hell out of Nice for the evening.

The first thing we do upon arriving in Monte Carlo is go to the train station ticket office and find the first possible trains to Barcelona. Only a few hours in Nice disgusted us so much we were prepared to get the hell off French soil. Since Alex’s credit cards were canceled and all of our hotel reservations lost, we decided to go rogue and screw the plans and reservations that we had for the next few days simply to get the hell out of France.

After asking the guy at the ticket counter for the quickest route to Barcelona, he starts belly-laughing at us and telling us we need to take seven trains to get there starting at 5:00am the next day… We did not care, that’s how much we wanted to get out of France.

So we enjoy Monte Carlo for the evening (which is a phenomenal place to visit), have a great dinner at the marina, and head back to Nice that night.

We wake up the next morning at 4:30am to take the first possible trains out of France. It took seven trains to finally get to Barcelona, but by 8:00pm we were on Spanish soil. (By the way, the Spanish countryside is absolutely beautiful).

Once we arrived in Barcelona, we walked the streets looking for a hotel. Finding a hotel last-minute was bound to be expensive, so at 9:00pm we made the ultimate decision in going rogue and hurry to the airport to catch a flight to Athens two days earlier than expected.

We get to the ticket counter and find out that changing our reservation to get on the earlier flight would cost 250 Euros ($350) between us. We initially hesitate, but then Alex and I put together 250 Euro when Alex slams it down on the counter and utters the classic George Costanza line of “You want to get nuts?! Let’s get nuts!!!”

So we get our tickets to Athens for 11:00pm that night, and at 3:00am we arrive in Athens. So within 24 hours we went from Nice, France, traveled down the entire French coastline, through the Spanish countryside and flew from Barcelona to Athens. The journey required 7 trains, 2 buses, an airplane, and a rental car to take us through 3 countries in one day.

Going rogue was a massive success. We have spent the past two days in Athens visiting the Acropolis and Temple of Poseidon, which have been absolutely amazing. We have no regrets breezing through the other parts of the trip. And we have a Romanian thief, who is now in an Italian prison, to thank for giving us this opportunity. Now we have the next 3 days in Athens and will conclude this epic journey shortly. But still 3 days left, so the excitement is not over yet, folks!

The Night in Italian Jail

So we’re sipping beer at a café in Turin, then within the next hour we’re doing a ride-along with undercover Italian cops.

Here’s how it went down:

At 6:30PM, Alex and I get tired of walking around Turin, so we decide to sit down at a nice café in one of the main squares. After about 5 minutes, a beggar comes over with a laminated sheet of paper and sets it down on our table asking for money.

Alex starts shouting at the guy in Greek and after about 30 seconds the guy disappears and runs down the alleyway near the café.

So we sit there for a few more minutes enjoying our drinks, and when it comes time to pay, Alex realizes his wallet is missing.

We start frantically looking around the table and it is nowhere to be found.

So we think back to the beggar that came up to our table and it occurred to us that he stole Alex’s wallet.

We get up and pay as quickly as possible. Alex’s eyeballs were filled with rage and looked as if they were about to pop out of his head. So we go running down the alley that the thief went down looking all over, including trash cans where the thief may have ditched the wallet. But our attempts were hopeless.

We saw no way of getting this thing back.

So we head back to the hotel with Alex just fuming in a profanity-laden rant. We go down to the lobby and Alex starts calling his credit card companies and having his cards cancelled and replaced.

Out of nowhere, Alex receives a facebook message saying “Hi, I’m an Italian policeman. I found your document. For contact please call metropolitan police, and ask for Mr. Sellone.”

So we call… and within 10 minutes two undercover Italian cops show up at our hotel and take us on a ride-along scoping out the place where the thief took Alex’s wallet.

They then take us to what appeared to be some sort of safehouse that looked like an abandoned industrial building, but turned out to be an undercover police station. We went into the waiting room and had on closed circuit television the live feed of the thief and his accomplice in their cells… just awesome!!!!

They start asking Alex and me questions about the incident. Alex then signs an affidavit about the events of that night and we are both given the line up photos of the suspects. It turns out the thief was a Romanian who had been caught doing this before. And the cop told us that the penalty for this sort of crime, given the suspects prior record, would be 3-10 years in prison… that could not have made us happier.

A little later, the two suspects start making a of lot noise in their cells. One starts singing, then they start communicating with each other. Hearing this, one of the cops (who was a complete stereotypical Italian) starts yelling “Finito! Finito!”

The suspects do not stop. So then this one big muscular cop puts on a pair of leather gloves… then it really starts getting awesome.

He brings over a nightstick, takes each suspect out of their cells one at a time, and seriously slaps them around for a while… I could not help but have a stupid grin on my face… I love the Italian justice system.

Alex then jokingly starts calling the cop carrying out the interrogation Jack Bauer… the cop didn’t understand the reference… but it was deservingly given nonetheless.

Seriously though, these cops were amazing. Probably the coolest group of guys I’ve ever met. They were joking about the whole incident with us, but still did an extremely thorough job in the whole matter.

Alex even got his entire wallet back with all of the money in it and everything. Absolutely nothing was missing.

After filling out some more paperwork and having our statements given to a judge, we were free to leave. Our trip to the Turin Police Station was absolutely fascinating and that experience has made this entire trip worthwhile.

We then went for a late dinner to the greatest Italian restaurant ever called “Seven Up” in Turin. We ate like kings after this experience. Boy, do I love Turin and the Italian justice system.

Tom smiling after hearing the beatings of the suspect in the hallway

The kick-ass stereotypical Italian cop

The infamous black leather gloves used during the beatings

Alex's affidavit saying he wants to press charges and the stolen wallet

Tom watching the live feed of the suspects in their cells

"Johnny" the awesome cop in charge

The Night Train in Purgatory

Our train ride from Vienna to Zurich was, as Alex and I both agree, the most insanely awkward experience of our lives… and that says a lot.

Here’s how it went down…

We get on the train at 10:00PM. There is nobody on the train and we had a whole 6 person cabin to ourselves. We each took 3 seats, lied down, and planned to get a pleasant night’s sleep on the 10 hour ride to Zurich… not a chance in hell.

Over the next half hour, more and more people flooded the train. We were doing all we could to preserve our immaculate situation of having a cabin to ourselves. So we put our bags across the seats and just hoped that people would walk by thinking the seats were filled… that didn’t happen. People kept asking if the seats were free. So we decided to lie to half the train and tell them we were waiting on our parents. That worked… for a little while. By the time the train was so filled that people began lining up in the hallways, it became clear that we weren’t going to be able to hold the fort much longer. So Alex tried to distract everyone by pretending to call someone on his phone telling them to hurry up and get to our seats… but hope was lost, we were no longer going to have our own cabin.

So as long as we still had a little control over the situation, we decided we were only going to allow a few people into our cabin who we approved of simply to avoid a massive uprising on the train. Plenty of creepy looking people tried taking spots in our cabin, but Alex in his role as gatekeeper somehow turned them away and held to a policy of only allowing people we approved of into the cabin (ideally attractive girls). We did eventually allow one decent looking girl into our cabin, but had to also budge when a middle-aged Austrian guy forced his way in. There were a few other characters sitting outside in the hallway, whom I will explain shortly.

Being stuck in such an awkward situation with strangers (and having half the train already hating us for lying to them), Alex and I had to discuss the situation with each other in code. So we gave each of the characters on the train their own codenames. The attractive girl in our cabin was codenamed JV and the middle-aged Austrian guy was named Vegetable Lasagna (as a Seinfeld reference).

We also offered a seat to a Spanish girl in the hallway, who refused to sit with us. So we nicknamed her Miss High Standards.

And then there was the man who dominated the night. There was an obnoxious Czech guy sitting outside our cabin in the hallway, who was loud, obnoxious, and creepy who we nicknamed Igor. He began the night by trying to hit on Miss High Standards and offered her what he called “Czech wine,” which was in an unlabeled plastic bottle filled with something that looked like it had already been drank. Given our experiences in the Czech Republic, Igor made my disgust for the Czech Republic put it below North Korea on my list of favorite countries.

Anyhow, as Igor continued obnoxiously hitting on Miss High Standards in the hallway trying to get her to drink his clearly spiked “Czech wine”, Vegetable Lasagna became increasingly infuriated. The looks that he was giving everyone around him (including us) seriously frightened me. He looked as if he was about to pull an axe out of his bag any minute.

As Vegetable Lasagna’s aggravation levels visibly rose, JV looked as if she was becoming increasingly mortified by the social dynamics surrounding our little rail cabin. Then our train stops in the middle of nowhere… for the next half hour. Wonderful… just what we need… a longer delay. This only made Vegetable Lasagna reach aggravation levels that Mel Gibson would be appalled by.

This gave Igor more time to get drunk off his “Czech wine” in the hallway and loudly and obnoxiously harass Miss High Standards. A major problem was arising as Miss High Standards was unfortunately encouraging Igor and his obnoxious, ridiculous behavior.

About 20 minutes later, Vegetable Lasagna and JV abruptly leave our cabin… we’re not sure if they were actually getting off or had enough of the insanity around them.

So as those seats opened up, Miss High Standards eventually smartened up and joined our cabin along with 3 of her other Spanish friends (who we did not know were with her at the time). Oh, but that did not stop Igor from harassing the now 4 Spanish girls in our cabin. The cabin door was still open, and he did not stop with the freakin’ “Czech wine.” The girls wouldn’t drink it, so he downed the whole 2 liter bottle with his red-shirted sidekick.

But, of course, Igor had more booze and started pulling out and drinking bottles of beer. By this point, he was sweating profusely and his pupils were obscenely dilated… I had never seen someone with crazier eyes.

We were now caught in the crossfire of Igor and the Spanish girls in our cabin. The Spanish girls were originally friendly toward Igor, but that really began to wear and things began getting tense as Igor got drunker.

As Igor kept offering the girls booze, at least one of them got to the point of flipping him off.  She then closed our cabin door and turned out the light to try and block out Igor. But naturally he responded by pounding on the glass windows to our cabin.

Igor then goes away for a little while and gets distracted by the cabin next door. The Spanish girls in our cabin start to go to sleep. But Igor did not forget about them. He then comes back with his camera and starts taking pictures of them in their sleep (though he probably only got pictures of reflected flash from the glass on the cabin). Still, he could not have been creepier.

We found out that the Spanish girls were planning on getting off at one of the next stops in Salzburg… and of course Igor starts shouting how he is going to take their spots… in our cabin.

If that were to happen, I would have jumped out the train window.

The closer we got to Salzburg, the harder my heart was pumping, and the more I was praying that this freakshow would not force his way into our cabin.

However, as the Spanish girls got off the train in Salzburg, we were pleasantly surprised to find Igor passed out flat on his back in the hallway just outside our cabin.

Instead of him joining us in our cabin, we had a really cool young Italian guy join us in our cabin, who put his feet up, kept the cabin light off, and took up enough space to block out the cabin doors and any hope of Igor joining us.

Igor did eventually wake up and thankfully became distracted by harassing the cabin next door to us. We eventually got some sleep on the train, but the craziness that was the first four hours of that train ride will live in infamy. In fact, we even captured much of it on video, which is being held top secret at this point.

Still, our experience on the night train to Zurich has been the most unexpected and memorable experience of this journey thus far.

Here are just a few of the quotes from Alex and I that night:

Alex: “I wish this train would just…”

Tom: “…derail??”

“I think I’d rather go to Somalia now over the Czech Republic.” - Tom’s opinion of the Czech Republic plummeting sharply as Igor continues to disgrace his country

“Oh look, someone is playing techno and Igor is taking pictures of the floor.” -Alex examining the sorry state of affairs aboard

“Do you have a rosary by chance?” -Tom getting ready to pray that people will disembark at Salzburg and Igor will disappear

“Honestly, I don’t care about my self-image anymore.” -Alex rationalizing the over 98,746 lies he told everyone who wanted to sit in our cabin

“I hope this stop isn’t a double-dip recession” -Tom fearing that another Igor might embark on the train in Salzburg

From Hell to Heaven: Prague to Lugano

Since the last posting, we’ve had a rollercoaster ride from Prague to the South of Switzerland.

Prague quite honestly was just a miserable city. I’ve heard so much hype about it, and just don’t get it. If you want to do a tour of world capitols, Mogadishu, Somalia probably has more to offer than Prague.

Absolutely nothing went right for us in Prague. First, we get off the train and the train station is just full of people oblivious to everything going on around them. I got run into about 57 times by clueless people having no idea where they are going. So then we check into the hotel, leave our bags and get set to see the city. We go to buy our metro tickets and ride the metro to the old town. And of course, the freakin’ medieval-era ticket machines only accept coins. And the tickets cost 100 Kronen (equal to 5 American Dollars). Imagine having to buy a $5 bus ticket from a machine that only accepts quarters… nobody carries that much freakin’ change on them! So Alex and I went along with the brilliant idea to buy the discounted youth tickets with the change that we have… which sounded great at the time… until we went to the tourist trap where we got stopped and fined 30 Euro each. And the guy could not have been more of a jack-ass to us. What a frickin’ start to a day!

Then we try to brush it off and make the hike up to the Prague castle (which is basically the only attraction worth seeing at all in the city). And it was a complete disappointment. It was full of clueless tourists being herded from one building to the other. The most disgusting part was in the cathedral, where people were elbowing each other in the back for space to take pictures… and to actually get in and see the church… you had to pay! You should never have to pay to go into a church! And I refuse to do so.

So we made the trek down from the disappointing castle, and in our fury against the Czech Republic we decided to support America and eat at McDonald’s, KFC, and get coffee at Starbuck’s (which I had never done before). In short, Prague sucked. I would post some pictures of Prague, but it doesn’t deserve them.

KFC - the best part of Prague

In turn, we got on the earliest train to Vienna possible, and thank God we did. Vienna is just an amazing city. No other city has the palaces and level of class that Vienna does. Every building in the city has immaculate detail. And some of the churches there are just some of the most beautiful in the world, particularly St. Stephen’s Cathedral and St. Peter’s Church. The Schönbrunn Palace is just massive and worth a trip to Vienna all by itself. We were constantly on the go in Vienna and it was all absolutely worth it. It was the perfect antidote to the misery that was Prague.

Inside St. Stephen's Cathedral - Vienna

Then we set out for a 10 hour train ride to Zurich… which Alex and I both agree turned out to be the most insanely awkward experience of our lives… that ride deserves its own blog post which will follow shortly. There is simply too much to say to fit inside this posting.

Anyhow, we eventually arrived in Lugano, Switzerland, which is as close to heaven on Earth as you will ever see. The lakes surrounded by enormous mountains and palm trees is just the most phenomenal place to relax. We also caught a train to Locarno, which was equally impressive. That is not even to mention the food… However, these places are also ridiculously expensive, which is why we’ll be on a train to Italy tomorrow morning. Nonetheless, we’re going to savor our time in Switzerland while here. I have never been a place with a more beautiful terrain and scenery.

Lugano, Switzerland

Anyway, as I mentioned we’ll be headed South to Italy tomorrow going to Milan and Turin in the next couple days, then we start hitting up the Mediterranean cities of France, Spain, and Greece. We’re only half way into this European odyssey, so there will be plenty more to come.

More pics:

Vienna

Switzerland

European Adventure: Days 1-6

In the past 6 days, we’ve been to Warsaw, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, and Prague…

I’ll give a short synopsis, then Alex will give his first impressions of the cities on this leg of the trip. I always think it’s more interesting to hear someone’s first impressions. Having lived in the first four cities, I really don’t have much to say that I haven’t already. Still, there have been plenty of unexpected experiences along the way that Alex will discuss further…

Nonetheless, here’s my little synopsis. Warsaw was a phenomenal place to spend the last couple months and I’m already starting to miss it. Berlin is amazing every time I go back. Having spent a year in Leipzig, it was great to return and see how the city has changed. Dresden is my favorite city on this planet to visit, and if you ever go, you’ll understand why. Prague, on the other hand, was just a disaster.

Here’s Alex’s guest post:

Greetings from Prague! First off, I want to thank Tom for allowing me to guest post on his blog today. I myself do not own or operate a blog – mostly because I’d probably end up regretting half the things I’d write about – so kudos to Tom for taking the risk! This has been quite the trip so far. As you may already know from Tom’s previous posts, we are in the process of barnstorming 10 countries over a period of 18 days.

This journey began for me on July 28th when I departed JFK for Warsaw. Funny story on that actually. My flight was scheduled to leave New York at 11PM that night. I arrived at JFK however, at 4PM to have dinner with my good friend Miriam Keim who was laying over in JFK on her way back from Israel. We decided it would be cool to meet up and tell our stories from the first part of the summer. While I did end up chatting with Miriam, it was only for a brief time. I found out that my flight to Poland actually got CANCELLED, but they were able to put me on the earlier 5PM flight at the last minute. This shorted our planned reunion from several hours to just 20 minutes, but ultimately it was a good thing. If it weren’t for Miriam, I would have showed up to the airport 3 hours later, only to be turned back. So, instead of a miserable drive back up to Connecticut, I was in a LOT Airlines Boeing 767 playing a delightful game of peek-a-boo with a little Polish girl. Too bad she was 20 years younger than me…

Anyhow, I arrived in Warsaw the next day. Tom picked me up from the airport and we took the bus to his apartment. Tom really lucked out with his living arrangement. His balcony had an amazing view of the Palace of Culture and Science – a structure one might call the focal point of the city. From there, Tom gave me a tour of the city. Our first stop was outside the Presidential Palace where a memorial site still stands mourning the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and the other government officials on that airplane which crashed last spring. There were many bystanders on the street continuing to pay their respects. It is still hard to believe that such a tragedy took place. We continued through the old town, which had many buildings, shops and restaurants of great character. Something I really found inspiring was the religious faith of the Polish people. We stopped through many beautiful churches and in each one of them, there were many locals stopping in to take a knee and pray for a few minutes. One of the nice things about Warsaw is that it’s not particularly a “touristy” city (something also true of Leipzig and Dresden which I’ll comment more on later). Instead of passing through historical sites and churches with a herd of people, I was able to view these interesting sites in a more natural and local setting which gave me a much wider perspective on them and allowed me to enjoy them more. From there, Tom took me across town where we walked by many of the government buildings including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where Tom had his internship this summer. Finally, we took a walk through Lazienki Park, which is honestly the most beautiful park in a city that I’ve ever been to. It put Central Park in New York and the Boston Commons to utter shame (to give you an idea). The park was lush, it had many different trails and places to sit, and there were statues of Frederich Chopin everywhere! It was quite a cathartic experience to walk through the park after being cooped up in an airplane for 10 hours with zero legroom… On the way back to Tom’s apartment we stopped off at the church of St. Alexander – which was my favorite church for obvious reasons… Unfortunately as we were leaving, I spotted two drunk Polish men urinating on the side of the church. Sorry, St. Al… The next day we checked out more sites in Warsaw and had dinner in the old town with Tom’s friend Martyna. All in all, Warsaw was awesome. One thing I noticed was that everyone on the street had an ice cream cone in their hand! I guess after the Polish winters, they are more than ready for them…

Memorial at Polish Presidential Palace

Our next stop was Berlin. We headed out on the train the next morning. Let’s just say that our first train experience could have gone a little better. There was this old man at the station who kept harassing us to buy his half broken chess-board that looked like it was a biohazard (frankly, the seller could have used a shower himself…), and then once we boarded, the fun really began. There was this Dutch guy who was sitting a few rows back from us who – I kid you not – spent 3 out of the 5 hour train ride insulting the United States of America with his friend. I was seething the entire time. I’ve never heard so much nonsense in my life. He was throwing out insult after insult, and I’m sure that Tom got tired of me responding by muttering things right back at him under my breath (I didn’t actually confront him, per my better judgment). I hate to play the World War II card, but honestly, if it weren’t for the brave men and women in the US Military, this clown would either be speaking German or Russian today, so how about canning it?

Anyhow, we finally reached Berlin and after dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we set out to see the sights. First stop was the Brandenburg Gate, which I’ve dreamed of seeing for years. As a history major in college – mainly focusing on German history and 20th century international relations – I was quite excited to see Germany given their central role in both the two world wars and given how their country was completely destroyed after the second one. Let’s just say, they’ve bounced back. I was thoroughly impressed with the infrastructure in place (both commercial and residential), the new buildings (particularly in the eastern side of Berlin), and the memorials to those who had died during the war. Furthermore, it was interesting to see the portions of the Berlin Wall that remained up for viewing and to visit the Checkpoint Charlie Museum where one of the rooms specifically showcased President Ronald Reagan (well deserved).  I also enjoyed sampling some of the food in Berlin – particularly the Doener Kebab– which is sold all over the place and consists of meat with sauces and vegetables (kind of like a gyro….probably why I liked it so much given my Greek heritage). The next day we went to the top of the Reichstag which boasted an excellent view of the city and also passed by Konrad Adenauer Square to see the statue of Adenauer who was the first Chancellor of West Germany after the war. This was somewhat of a pilgrimage for me, because Konrad Adenauer is one of my heroes. He was single-handedly responsible for stabilizing the fragile post-war German political system by meshing several conservative and Catholic splinter parties into what is today the CDU Party of Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union), and his foreign policy was responsible for the close alliance Germany shares with the United States today. We walked around Berlin more and took many photographs of different government buildings, Prussian palaces, churches, etc and then called it a night.

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

The next day we went to the cities of Leipzig and Dresden – the heart of former East Germany. Tom actually lived in Leipzig when he was studying abroad in Germany and therefore knew the city inside and out – as with Dresden which is only an hour away (actually….he knows pretty much all of Germany!). That has clearly been an advantage for me. What takes tourists days if not weeks to cover, Tom and I have seen in a matter of hours. We’re also quite fond of walking and have amassed at least over 20 miles of walking thus far (and to think, we’re only 3/10 countries deep!). Anyhow, I really was impressed with this part of Germany, particularly Dresden. Again, this city was like Warsaw – not particularly filled with tourists (although honestly, it should be…) which made it more enjoyable. The vast majority of the older structures (churches, palaces, clock towers) were still blackened from the firebombings of World War II. It sent chills up my spine to walk though the cobblestone streets of this city hearing the church bells ringing, the violinists playing, and considering what this city has gone through. Just 55 years ago, it was complete rubble, with utter misery for its residents who bore the brunt of the final days of the war that ended Germany’s era of National Socialism. Today, the city is fully rebuilt and at peace, but yet the artifacts of that era still remain, and stand quite tall. It really makes you think… Dresden was my favorite part of the trip thus far.

Dresden Old Town

The next day (this morning) we left for Prague. I was originally really excited to visit here given all the hype on Prague….but honestly, there is no comparison to Germany. Took us about 2 hours to see the main highlights. The rest of the city is not particularly impressive. Perhaps some of my more negative view of Prague is due to Tom and myself getting caught trying to use youth tickets on the metro here and getting fined 60 euros. This was my bright idea of course, and accordingly I will be treating tomorrow at dinner in Vienna…. But in all honesty, folks. If you want to visit this part of Europe – go to Dresden instead.

Tomorrow, we’ll be heading off to Vienna and from there we’ll begin our descent into the Mediteranean. I’m looking forward to taking that train ride through the Alps down to Lugano, Switzerland and the Locarno film festival just next door; should be an interesting people-watching experience. The thought of the food we’re about to get a taste of in Milan and Turin in Italy already has me salivating, and I’m also looking forward to journeying onto the classy streets of Monte Carlo and seeing Barcelona. Finally, the grand finale to our trip will be Greece where my family lived from 1997-2005. I’m really looking forward to showing Tom the Acropolis and driving up what I like to call the MCH (Mediterranean Coast Highway) to see the Temple of Poseidon at the tip of Cape Sounio.

Well folks, that’s all I’ve got for now! Thanks for reading, and keep following us on Facebook. I’ve already uploaded several albums and will continue to take many pictures. This is shaping  up to be one heck of an experience!! Over and out!

Here are a few photo albums from the trip: (Check back for Alex’s albums coming soon)

Warsaw: Tom’s – click here

Warsaw: Alex’s – click here

Berlin: Tom’s – click here

Berlin: Alex’s – click here

Leipzig: Tom’s – click here

Leipzig: Alex’s – click here

Dresden: Tom’s – click here

Dresden: Alex’s – click here

Prague: Alex’s – click here

Zorro Invades Poland

I just had the weirdest frickin’ birthday dinner I could have imagined…

We ate at a Mexican restaurant in Warsaw…

Perhaps the strangest part came at dessert…

First, the waitress ties a bib around my neck. Then they turn off all the lights in the restaurant…

Then a nutcase dressed like Zorro comes running out with sparklers and a piece of cheesecake, while they ring a cowbell over my head…

Afterward, the Polish Mariachi band played the Macarena in the background… it was just freakin’ weird…

Anyway, in a few hours I pick Alex up at the airport and we set out on our European odyssey… Let’s do this!

Final Thoughts on Warsaw

Things are wrapping up here in Warsaw, but before I leave I’ll give a few final thoughts on my time here.

I’m writing this while eating some of the most amazing cherry-filled egg pancakes, and I’d like to thank my Grandma J for getting me acquainted with all the Polish food before even getting over here. I made a conscious effort to try everything I could while here… but still couldn’t stomach the kishka.

I hate to invoke a Garth Brooks song, but I learned to thank God for unanswered prayers. I had plenty of frustrating experiences with not getting internships that I had my heart set on, but in the end I truly believe everything worked out for the best.

As much as I enjoyed and learned from my internship, I still have no idea what I want to do with my life, so don’t even ask at this point. Hopefully, I’ll figure something out in the next year.

Poland is really an amazing place to be. I’ve never been somewhere with so much living history. Walking around Warsaw I see 700 year old churches, next to communist era architecture, next to modern skyscrapers, next to World War II memorials. And now the country is going through rapid transformations to cope with its past. It’s been awesome to experience.

Well, now I’ve reached the point where I have nothing left to do. I’ve finished all my work at my internship and seen everything in Warsaw.

So unless something unexpected happens, I very well may not be making another blog post until I set out on my European adventure. I’ll be celebrating my 23^rd b-day this Wednesday and Thursday begins the big European tour.

Hard to believe I’ll be back in Deutschland one week from today visiting my 3 favorite cities. That’ll be one hell of a b-day present.

I’ll try to keep y’all updated during that journey, as I’m sure there will be much to report. So until then, peace out.

Gay Pride and Nazis

So today I ended up in the middle of a clash between a Gay Pride Parade and a group of Neo-Nazis.

And luckily I got some video.

Here’s a bit of the clash:

Now I’ve had more than my fair share of strange days in my life and today is definitely up there.

I knew my weekend vacation got cancelled for a reason.

The parade was the Euro Pride Parade, the largest gay pride parade in Europe, and one of the first in Poland, so it has caused quite a bit of controversy here.