Florence, Italy

Pics:

1) Cathedral

2) Cathedral again

Aaaah, Florence. The city I truly took for granted. I wasn't here long. One day I went to Pisa, the second day I wandered a bit, but then because I met some really cool Canadian girls, I went to Rome a day early. I really didn't see much of Florence as you can probably guess from my lack of pictures, but sometimes it's more important to be with cool people than be in cool places. I may go back someday, but I'm really not overly fussed to be honest.

Pisa, Italy

Pics:

1) Eating PIZZA in front of the Leaning Tower of PISA hahaha, how funny is that

2) Me sitting on the tower

3) Me leaning on the tower

4) Me pushing the tower

5) Erin, her sister Laureen and I

6) The gang taking goofy pics

Funny story: First day I arrive in Florence, I'm walking down the street with my backpack on to find the hostel, and lo and behold I run into a girl I went to university with! Just randomly on the streets of Florence, I see a girl from Edmonton I haven't seen in three years!! So bizarre! Talk about a small world. My first day I went with Erin and a few others to Pisa to see the leaning tower. We ate pizza in Pisa, and spent the afternoon in the sun chilling and taking the dumbest touristy photos we could think of. I headed back to Florence, and they all moved on to Rome or elsewhere.

F

Budapest, Hungary

Pics:

1) The Irish girls (Sive and Sarah)

2) Statue at Citadella

3) Me in Budapest

4) Millenium Square

5) Funky Mini

6) Parliament

7) Memorial to the 1953 uprisings, outside Parliament

8) St. Stephen's Cathedral

9) Budai Var

10) The Danube with Parliament in the background

Budapest was nice and hot. Beautiful weather while I was there. Everyone said to me how amazing the city was, and it was pretty cool, but I don't think it was one of my favourite's by any means. I met some pretty cool people though, two nice Scottish guys and a couple of lovely Irish girls. The first day I had in Budapest, I just sat in the park with the Irish girls, relaxed, talked, etc. It was really nice. I've learned that even when travelling, sometimes you need to just sit in the park and chillax.

Bratislava, Slovakia

Pics:

1) 'UFO' Bridge

2) View of bridge from castle

3) Hrad Castle

4) Slovak Parliament

5) Tom and I on the Danube

6) Town Hall

7) Presidential Palace

8) Hrad Castle

9) "The Worker"

I originally decided to go to visit Bratislava because a friend of mine that I worked with in Edmonton is studying there. I thought, hey why not go see Tom? So I did. And it turns out this is a lovely quaint city on the river Danube. We had good weather while I was there, saw some of the sights, and just hung out together. I did manage to try the local absynth, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are certainly known for this. I was obsessed with their modern 'UFO' Bridge across the Danube, and I really enjoyed hanging out with Tom. Looking forward to seeing him again this summer in Etown.

Krakow, Poland

Pics:

1) Slowacki's Theatre

2) The Barbican

3) Kazimierz shops

4) St. Mary's

5) Cloth Hall on Market Square

6) Market Square

7) Wawel Castle

8) Castle Gate

9) View from Wawel of Krakow

Krakow was a really beautiful city. I woke up on a Thursday in Krakow to the sound of church singing in the Market Square. I went out to find the square packed with people, all focussed around St. Mary's Basilica. I spent some time in the square just in awe of this sight, then continued on through the city. The castle, Wawel, was pretty amazing. It's free to go inside the walls, you only have to pay to see the indoor exhibitions which I opted out of. You get a great view of the city from Wawel Hill anyway. I continued on to Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter of Krakow. It was an interesting neighbourhood, very vibrant, with new Synagogues, Jewish buisnesses and eateries, etc. Apparently during WWII, Kazimierz was turned into a ghetto.

Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II Birkenau

By far the most humbling experience of my trip so far, a trip to Poland definitely merits a trip to this place. In the town of Oswiecimiu there's not only one concentration camp, but three. Two have been preserved as museums, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. I went to Birkenau first. They've left many of the barracks up that survived, though before the end of the war, the Nazis attempted to destroy as much documentation and any other proof of the mass genocide; so the crematoriums are now just rubble. You get to go into some of the barrack buildings, which gives you quite a chill. This camp is extremely large, I was shocked at how big it actually is. It's so bizarre to see the actual locations the most famous genocide in recent history took place. We've all read about it, seen the pictures, etc, but it still doesn't answer any of the questions we all have about it. I can't say a visit answers those questions either, but it's certainly one of those things that makes you wake up and have a look at the world around you.

The second camp, Auschwitz, was basically a massive museum. This camp was already an army camp pre-WWII, so the Nazis utilized what was already there. Many of the buildings in the camp house museums on different themes. For example, almost every European nation who lost victims in the Holocaust has their own memorial building, there're buildings about the resistance movement, what the Nazis took from the victims (hair, glasses, clothes, shoes: you actually see heaps of these things). They've even preserved some buildings to show what it was like for the prisoners in these camps.

All in all, it was a really important experience to have. I'm thankful I'm blessed to have the CHOICE to go to these sights as opposed to being herded like cattle. I was thinking about that on the train ride this morning, because so many people would've been carted in on that same journey without any say whatsoever, not to mention a knowledge of the horrible fate that was coming their way. I know we all have a choice in our own fates to a degree, I just hope we choose to learn from the past and never see something like this happen again.

Wroclaw, Poland

I went to Wroclaw not because I knew anything about it, but to visit my friend Martyna who studies there (I worked with Martyna last summer at Planet). It was great to see her again, and as it turns out, Wroclaw is an extremely interesting city! Doesn't hurt that one of Martyna's close friends is a pro Wroclaw
tour guide, literally. The city (based on it's geographical area, and obviously for political and historical reasons) has been a part of the Austrian Empire, Hungary, obviously Germany (3rd Reich) and Poland. The symbol of the city is a small dwarf: there are 70 of them throughout the city, the reason being a funny 'revolution' in the 80's against communist rule. During the 80's, whenever there was graffiti of a protesting manner written on the walls of the city, the police would come by and simply white it out with white paint. Obviously that left loads of white blotches all over the city, so what did these people do? They returned to the spots to illustrate a dwarf in different ways. Earlier forms of protest were being replaced by the use of humour: the police had no idea what to do! One time, they even arrested 100 some people dressed as Santa, which apparently made world headlines. Anyhoo, it was great seeing Martyna again, I would highly recommend Wroclaw to anyone who gets a chance to go there.

Pics:
1) Martyna and I in the rain
2) Dwarf who ate too much
3) Oldest restaurant in Europe
4) City Hall
5) Tour guide Marek and I in front of the university
6) Jailed dwarf