Brief Notes on Slovakia

After spending time in Poland, I expected Slovakia to be pretty rundown. For some strange reason, I had imagined most of Eastern Europe to be shabby and neglected. Well, Überraschung! Slovakia is nice. I mean...really nice. Our jam-packed trip (tacked on to the end of our time in Vienna) lasted only a mere two days. In that time, however, our friend and guide, Noemi, managed to show us a fair bit of her beautiful country.

BRATISLAVA and NITRA:

Picturesque Downtown Bratislava

Outside a Restaurant in the Outskirts of Nitra
(The Slovakian landscape reminded me a lot of Franken in Germany.)

Noemi and Steve in Bratislava

Cozy Confines of a Delicious Slovakian Restaurant

Deserted Downtown Nitra on a Quiet Sunday Afternoon

Wiener Weather

I don't want to jinx it, but the weather in Munich is finally summer-izing. For the first time this season, walking ten minutes from my house to the U-Bahn made me perspire. Everyone in the streets was eating ice cream (except for me). And, I actually managed to acquire some red on my bare shoulders, etching a fat tan line into my exposed skin as a warm reminder of the beautiful day.

Summertime in Munich is the happiest time in Munich. Beer gardens fill to the brim with people, just as the steins overflow with brew. Music blares from green spaces across the expanse of the city as people bask in the vitamin D glory.

A few weeks ago, Steve and I traveled to Vienna spend the day with one of Steve's old professors, Andy Markovitz, who is teaching a summer course at the Universität Wien. We also stayed to play tourists for a few days following our meeting.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), the majority of our time in Vienna was spent ducking through the rain from one cafe to the next, from one museum to the next. For the most part, the weather was opposite the glorious blue-sky heaven that we Münchners experienced today. Yet, if there is one place to be when it's frigid and damp, it's Vienna. Nothing warms you better on a soggy, 40 degree day than sitting in a cozy cafe nook, drinking a Viennese coffee, and eating a delicious piece of cake. Gotta love café kultur!

Ladies and gents, VIENNA:

Café Kultur at Its Finest...Afternoon Cake at Café Central
(In the late 19th century, Café Central was a meeting place for the intellectual minds of the time. It was often frequented by Lenin, Trotsky, Freud, and Herzl. These smarties must have come for the cake, because it was delicious!)

"In Love in Vienna Today: 352091" +2

Side Entrance to the Hofburg Palace
(The Hofburg housed the Habsburg dynasty...sadly, I can't really tell you anything more about it, except that it is a HUGE, gray concrete complex.)

Figlmüller: The Best and Biggest Schnitzel EVER!
(Schnitzel at Figlmüller was recommended to Steve and I by my tandem partner, Jana. And man...that was the best schnitzel I have ever tasted! It was also giant...bigger than my head...COLOSSAL. Despite its vast expanse, I was excited and determined to eat the entire stuck. Unfortunately, I vowed to post only five pictures per place visited for my current blog posts series, because I have pictures of Steve and I attempting to devour our groß meal. Steve succeeded. Sadly, however, just under half of my schnitzel ended up in a take-home bag and then in the trash. I became too full to finish. They say, "Waste not, want not," but I would have been happy for a smaller portion size.)

Silhouette of the City Hall
(The rain finally cleared during our last evening in the city.)

Too Many Questions

Picking out five pictures from our trip to Poland was next to impossible! Steve and I spent an extremely full week exploring Krakow and the surrounding area.

Throughout the course of our trip, we toured museums and castles and we ate TONS of perogies. (Yum!) We were also shown around some small towns in "real" Poland via A. Rodriguez (no, NOT A-Rod!), our friend from UNC.

Lastly, we also paid our respects to and mourned over those who perished at Auschwitz. There, we learned a great deal about the Polish perspective on World War II.

Sifting through the 150 pictures from our trip, I found myself wondering how to narrow down our visit to just five snapshots. Should I include a picture from Auschwitz? What about the view from our rented apartment? Or pictures from Poles celebrating Easter? Did I even mention that we were there over Easter weekend?

Additionally, Poland is developing. Much of the country is still overrun with poverty. Should I focus on the contrast between the beauty and newness of downtown Krakow and the rundown outskirts of town? So many questions...

Without further ado, my answer is below. I decided to focus on KRAKOW:

View of Downtown Krakow from Outside the City Gate

Wawel Castle

(Gothic Castle built in the Center of Krakow sometime before the 14th century.)

Rundown Train Station Outside of Krakow

(Traveling by train in Poland is actually quite an adventure. Most stations either have one hard to read sign or no sign with the stations' names. Announcements are only made in Polish. And, the trains run pretty slowly. In order to exit at the correct station, one must know the exact time of arrival to said location. If the train is late, you are pretty much out of luck.)

Graffiti in the Old Jewish Quarter, Krakow

Kraków-Płaszów Camp Holocaust Memorial
(In October 1942, Jews were deported from Krakow ghetto to a concentration camp at this site. The Nazis destroyed this camp in 1945, after which, the remaining prisoners were sentenced to a death march to Auschwitz. Now there are a few monuments scattered around the grounds. It only took Steve and I about 45 minutes to walk here from downtown Krakow.)

P.S. Out of respect, I decided not to post any pictures from our visit to Auschwitz. I believe that Auschwitz deserves its own full post. However, I am not sure if I am ready to go there.

Parrots and Pictures

Where was my camera when I needed it today?! While riding the tram home, a woman boarded with a parrot. Yes, A PARROT! And no, I was not hallucinating.

Luckily, it was a very well behaved parrot. It did not squawk or defecate during the ride. Yet, I was a bit sad that the parrot didn't talk. I wanted to know if it speaks German.

In turn, the parrot left me pondering a curiosity I developed, sparked by watching old seasons of "The West Wing": Is Sign Language a universal language? For example, if a taub German and deaf American want to communicate, are they able to do so with out learning a new language?

Realistically speaking, I guess I already already knew the answer (duh Jamie, ASL - American Sign Language), but fortunately for you, I looked it up anyway. Through Wikipedia, I learned that like oral languages, sign language followed its own path of development. Even British Sign Language and American Sign Language are "mutually unintelligible," even though the two countries share the same spoken word.

Anyway, I am going to take the next few days to post my top five favorite pictures from each place Steve and I have traveled over the past few months. If you're nice, I may even share some stories along the way.

First up, BERLIN (March 2010):

Park Inn Hotel, Alexanderplatz
(This is the amazing view from our 27th floor room during our stay for a Fulbright Conference. It was amazing!)

Knut
(As a baby, Knut made headline news as a baby polar bear born in captivity at the Zoologischer Garten Berlin. Now, Knut is all grown up.)

Salz und Pfeffer
(Make no mistake, the lids on these salt and pepper shakers, at a random vegetarian restaurant in Berlin, were not switched as a practical joke. On average, Germans love salt and detest spice.)

The Robot
(Dancing at a chili - yes, the meat dish - party. Enough said.)

Brandenburg Gate at Night
(Once commissioned as a sign of peace, this Gate continues to awe me.)