2009

The blog is back and is showcasing life in America!

On to Western Europe...

Michelle and I headed south to the Czech Republic after our short time in Poland. We took the night train to Prague and from there took a train to Ceskey Krumlov, a small town south of Prague. It was a beautiful, little town that had a river running through it, a medival castle on the hill, and colorful houses and shops throughout the winding cobblestone streets. Another picturesque city but this time a bit more low key and remote. We found ourselves relaxing in our hostel, wondering through and getting lost on all of the back streets, running through the countryside, canoeing down the river, and renting bikes for a nice ride outside of town. And yes, we were those crazy foreigners who found ourselves in workout attire running through the historical castle and weaving through groups of tourists. Also, we were the only ones in our bikinis floating down the river and through the town drinking a few Czech beers! Oh, fun times!!!! We found a fabulous hostel that fit the sleepy little town perfectly and simply enjoyed the Czech atmosphere!!! We only stayed for two nights and then made the 4 hour trip back to Prague. A nice taste of nature combined with a simply splended historical town!! I spent some time in Prague, which I have already visited four years ago, so it was interesting returning. Michelle and I split ways at this point because she wanted to venture into Germany where she had once studied abroad. Our plans were to meet in Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest. So, I was riding solo in Prague for a bit. I met up with Matt and Tony, the Kiwi guys from Krakow, and certainly had some fun times. We got out of the city for the afternoon and ventured to a spooky little town to walk the streets and see the main attraction; the bone and skull decorated church. The guys had heard of this attraction and just couldn't wait to see the masterpiece. Well, once there it was certainly a sight to see; human skulls and bones were hanging from the ceilings and walls. Definitely a creative and artistic creation of human remains, however, a bit creepy in retrospect. The guys imaginations started running away from them and they had so much fun convincing themselves that we were going to get stuck in the creepy little town over night. In their favor, we did see some biazzare things; such as hillarious backfiring cars, bikes with gas motors attacted and mullet taxi drivers listening to heavy metal music. After our afternoon beer overlooking the city, we were in search of a mode of transportaion back to Prague for the night. However, before heading to the station we grabbed a few more bottles of beer, and some cheese, bread and sausage for the train....with the essentials in hand we found our way with a little help from the local teenagers on which bus to take to the station and boarded it! However, the night didn't end there because of course we had to wait for our train but who wanted to sit around and wait! We ran back to the store in a mad dash for more alcohol and food...and even met our teenagers again! So fun! Before I knew it my time in Prague was over and I had to meet Michelle in Germany....Oktoberfest time!!! It was Michelle's dream to attend the biggest beer festival in the world! Let me just tell you a bit about the famous Oktoberfest. Over 6 million people attend this festival each year and consume over 1,600,000 gallons of beer. There are six German beers: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Paulaner and Spaten. These breweries set up shop in Munich and have huge tents for thousands of people to drink huge steins of their beer. Michelle and I went with another girl from the states, Brennen, and our German friend, Gotz. On a Sunday afternoon, Oktoberfest was packed with people in every tent which made it difficult to find a seat for the four of us. After much pleading we sat with a group of Aussie and Swedish guys that entertained us the entire night! We received a few roses from an Italian man, danced in the isles with German women, and "Prosted" (cheers) with surrounding tables!! Beer stein after beer stein....loving the Augustiner beer, we ended up dancing on the tables to the local music with Germans and living Oktoberfest to fullest! The atmosphere is purely German with people wearing the traditional clothes, servers caring six or more huge beer steins, and people chowing down on pretzels and sausages. What's not to love??? Well, Oktoberfest was an amazing experience but it soon ended because I had to be rushed to the ER the next morning. It turned out that I had a kidney infection that I was not catering to and therefore, had to be admitted for two nights. No worries though...I am back in action after my admission to the German hospital. Michelle was a great nurse and visited me with loads of food and great stories about Oktoberfest!!! After I was finally released, we found ourselves on a train to Italy. Currently, Michelle and I are sitting in Milan, Italy visiting one of our Japanese friends. We are currently job hunting via internet and will probably be moving to Spain for employment.....keep your fingers crossed for us. Overall still loving the on-going traveling........

Riga, Latvia to Krakow, Poland

After our 5 day time spent in St. Petersburg, we were off to Lativa. We had heard Riga, Lativa was a lovely city filled with cobblestone streets, beautiful canals and lots of night life....perfect for Michelle's 25th birthday! We celebrated with full style and even hit up the amazing sky bar that had an incredible view of the city. Happy 25 was done right with a full night out on the town including meeting so many new friends along the way. What a cute little European city to bring in a quarter of a century!!! We decided to stay a bit longer in this party city due to the bus to Krakow, Poland only left on certain days. However, we didn't seem to mind and spend our days by the canals, exploring the city sights and outside a bit, and of course hitting up the night life one more time before moving on. We stayed with a great host who was actually was free-lance stair designer and also was active in a band that played music similar to stomp. Quite an interesting guy with a carefree and loving life attitude....a great host!!! Thanks Kris! Poland here we come.....perhaps not the speedest way possible but we arrived in Krakow nevertheless. The bus took 21 hours....yikes!!!!!!!! We are still not quite sure what that bus driver was doing besides going round and round in circles. When we boarded the bus it was a full ride which left Michelle and I snuggling up to strangers....hope they liked our bobbing heads after a few sleeping pills! However, by the end the two of us and two Kiwi boys were the only ones left on the extremely long bus ride....I take it that everyone else just had enough and the crazy foreigners were the only stupid ones to actually consider this a travel option! But it does add to another travel story....trains, boats and buses! Krakow, Poland was a beautiful city with a nice town square where we stayed....even had a room with a view! Michelle and I made friends with our New Zealand guys to became a traveling foursome around the city. The greatest highlights were the excursion to Auschwitz, the concentration camp. It was certainly one of the hardest things to witness when the reality of the history stands you in the eye. At moments, there are times when your heart just aches for the people that had to suffer through this life occurrence. The camp was so large with remains from everything from shoes, eye glasses, suitcases, and wooden bunks from the people who died there. I could not describe the horrible conditions and the overall sense that comes over you when touring such a moment in history. A experience that will certainly not be forgotten.... On a lighter note, we found a wonderful bagel shop and I ate the most delicious perogies ever!! Yummmm....Polish food! Before heading out of the city we took a tour of the salt mines which to be honest wasn't anything to brag about. But loved the city and had a few wonderful nights out on the town. It is now off to Czech Republic (by train this time) and working our way to Oktoberfest!