Easter Vacation

I organized a last minute trip for Easter vacation by choosing to travel with Pascal and Karina to Germany. They were headed to see Pascal's family and offered up a cheap ride. After crossing the longest bridges I have ever been on (a few miles long) we made it to Hamburg, Germany.

My plan was to stay two nights in Hamburg and the catch a train to Copenhagen, Denmark and then get picked up in Copenhagen two days later. Hamburg was a beautiful city. It is known as the Gateway to the World and is the second largest shipping harbor in Europe. It was nice to walk around the city, see the infamous Reeperbahn, hear the German language, and enjoy all that Germany had to offer. 

Besides the city being beautiful, my favorite thing in Hamburg was the Miniature Wonderland. An entire two floors of a building dedicated to miniature recreations of places in the world. There was everywhere from Switzerland, to the Americas, to Hamburg, and Scandinavia. The work in progress is Italy and that should be very cool when it is complete. All of the worlds are connected by trains, 12 km of track to be exact. It is such a huge place and you could spend many hours there (I spent three). It's something you have to see to really appreciate. I was very excited when I saw the tractor pulling portion in Bavaria! It was really neat to have tractor pulling shown off. One really great thing about the miniature world is that there were little quirky things hidden everywhere; a tractor crashed into a house, a nudist colony, a group of hippies, kids in the sunflower field, etc. I would definitely recommend going here if you are ever in Hamburg! 

I caught the train to Copenhagen and had one scare on the way there. I fell asleep with headphones in my ears and woke up to a stopped train and everybody getting up and getting off the train. I was really confused and ask the people sitting near me. The only reply I got was "Didn't you listen to the announcement?" I have to admit I was freaked out for a bit! So, I just followed everyone and hoped for the best. Turns out, that while I was sleeping, the train was loaded onto a ferry to cross the water. This was quite a relief for me. I have decided that I really enjoy riding trains and it is one of the best ways to get around. They are smooth, scenic, and comfortable. 

Copenhagen turned out to be beautiful! I was there alone for one day and the following day the Italians plus Latvian came and I hung out with them the rest of the time. I really fell in love with the part of the city called Nyhavn. It was a beautiful area with a ton of people and cool boats. On the last day of the trip we ate smørrebrød, near Nyhavn, which was absolutely delicious. At one point I misjudged the white stuff to be cheese and it turned out to horseradish. Wow, was I in for a surprise! Overall, the danish cuisine was really good and I would eat it again. 

A really interesting part of the Copenhagen trip was the free guided tour that we joined. The guide was very friendly, funny, and told great stories. We spent three hours walking around the city and learning the history. Copenhagen burned down multiple times, which in turn required a watchman to be in the tallest tower in the city in order to catch a fire before it spread. We saw the harbor, opera house, Royal Palace, Marble Church, and much more. It's easy to see why so many tourists love Copenhagen. We also visited the famous Little Mermaid although it turned out to be nothing too special. 

I had another amazing adventure through Europe. I absolutely love traveling. It is great to see and experience new things. I believe that you learn just as much traveling as you do by going to school. It's one thing to read about history in a book, but when you are there seeing the sites or learning in a museum, it feels so much more real. Lesson of the day: Never stop traveling, never stop learning. 

Eating My Way Through Poland

I was not able to say no to a trip to Poland with a native Pole. I traveled with Emilia and Jonathan to the great country of Poland last weekend. We visited Warsaw, Krakow, and Lodz. So we made a big loop around Poland. A night in Warsaw, 12 hours in Krakow, and the rest of the time at Emilia's house near Lodz.

Arriving in Warsaw brought upon the reality that this city was completely destroyed during WWII. Warsaw was a very different city and I think it struggles with its identity. There was a huge modern skyscraper next to a junky looking house next to an "old town" building. After seeing the pretty old town and a few monuments around the city, there wasn't much else to see. I had my first Polish meal consisting of pork knuckle and potatoes. Thus began my journey of eating my way through Poland, the land of meat and potatoes.

We stayed in Warsaw that night and woke up super early to catch a train to Krakow the next morning. I had the full Polish experience since there were no seats left on the train and we were assigned standing room only. I was a little nervous about a 4 hour train ride standing but like always, it worked out. We found a set of fold down seats in the aisle and stayed in those seats for the rest of the journey, even though we had to get up to let many people pass through.

Krakow turned out to be way better than Warsaw and more of tourist city like other cities I have visited. There were many friendly people, street markets, bars and restaurants, street performers, and a ton of sights to see. Krakow was never destroyed and thus had a much older city feel to it. We visited the Wawel Castle, Cathedral, the Dragon’s Den, Old Town, Kazimierz, and walked around quite a bit more. It was a very beautiful city with something to see around every corner. For lunch I ate some kluski and pierogi. Pierogi is absolutely delicious and I would even consider trying to make it at home! Dinner consisted of half of a duck, potatoes, beets, carrots, and cabbage. All for about $13! Poland was so cheap especially after being in Sweden for a few months. I think upon my return to the USA, I will think that everything is really cheap. Even though we only had 12 hours in Krakow we made saw a lot and ate very well. We caught a bus to Lodz that evening and slept most of the time.

We arrived in Lodz and Emilia’s dad picked us up around 2:00 AM. He was a very friendly man although he did not speak English. This proved to be difficult but Emilia worked as a really good translator. We met her mom when we got to her house in a little village outside the city. If it was my parents, they would have said goodnight, and see you in the morning. But, this was not the case. Her parents were very welcoming and offered us tea and chatted with us for quite some time. I think we finally made it to bed around 4:00 AM!

The next day was much lazier than the previous days, but no one would be able to do much with how much food we were fed. I’m sure Emilia’s mother spent the entire day in the kitchen since they fed us what they would usually eat during Easter. We had a big breakfast, massive dinner and a satisfying supper. (In Poland the three meals are breakfast, dinner, and supper). I was impressed with dinner and the mushroom covered pork. It was so delicious and there was also two other kinds of pork that was good as well. There was even three different cakes for us to try after dinner! I haven’t eaten so much food since Christmas! Polish people don’t go hungry, that’s for sure!

In the evening we went to Emilia’s University and she showed us around. The humorous part of the tour was when she showed us the architecture building, which was the ugliest one on campus! Afterwards, we met with her friend and walked around Lodz, seeing the various murals and the famous shopping street. Lodz was a nice city overall.

The next morning we woke up early to head back to Warsaw and catch our plane in the afternoon. We checked out the Warsaw Uprising Museum while in Warsaw and that was really cool. Lots of great information and really showed the struggles that the city went through over the years.

I was sad that our journey in Poland was coming to an end. I literally ate my way through Poland and would say that it was the best food I ate in Europe. That is probably because it was similar to what I grew up on, meat and potatoes. If you go to Poland, you cannot complain that you can’t afford to eat in nice restaurants! I recommend everyone to go to Poland to see what the Polish culture is all about. I’m proud to be 25% Polish. Thanks Grandpa.

You might need to wipe your mouth now as you may be drooling from the delicious looking food. J

Rome, Italy - Incredible City & Culture

Ahh Roma, how great you were to me! Last week I hopped on a plane at Gothenburg Landvetter airport and made my way to Rome. I had a layover in Brussels, Belgium along the way so I fulfilled a bucket list item by eating Belgian chocolate in Belgium. :) I bought an entire kilogram of chocolate so I am still eating it! Anyways, Rome was bound to be incredible with all the historic sites and all the delicious food to eat.

Upon arrival, I met up with Tyler, one of my friends from Platteville, since he ended up being in Rome the same time I was. It was great to catch up and hear his stories of studying in Scotland. We checked out all the sites that he wanted to see for the last time since he was leaving on the next day. We ended up walking around and seeing everything from the Trevi Fountain to the Vatican City to the Colosseum. I visited all of these sites several times while in Rome. All of the sites are just breath taking when you finally see them in real life instead of seeing photos or videos.

My next three full days in Rome were going to be very busy with all the sites I wanted to cram into a small period. In order to see it all, I did a lot of walking but it was worth it. In Rome, you can get lost and stumble upon a beautiful fountain or a cute family restaurant. That is the wonder of this beautiful city. My first day I made the long walk from my hostel over to the Vatican. It was about an hour walk, but like I said Rome is beautiful. After seeing the long line for St. Peter's Basilica, I decided to check out the line for the Vatican Museums since I had heard horror stories about 2-4 hour long lines. After waiting just a half an hour I was in to one of the best museums in the world. I had only planned to be there for a couple of hours but there was so much to see that I ended up being there for 4 hours! I even decided that my favorite painting in the world is Raphael's last painting. The Sistine Chapel was breath taking as well. The rest of the museum was very cool and you could spend days looking at everything. Later in the afternoon I had a surprise when I walked into St. Peter's Basilica. I saw Pope Francis!! There was the celebrazione della penitenza which was essentially a mass that involved confession on the sides. It was interesting since I did not understand a single word that was said. It was amazing to see him and hear him speak. So many people in the world dream of that opportunity. When he left I was within a few feet of him! Afterwards I found a restaurant to eat some delicious pasta and rest my feet and then called it a day after a stop at the beautiful Trevi Fountain.

 

Day two was very exciting as well. I saw all the big historic sites. The Roman Forum was really sweet and it was easy to imagine what Rome was like all of those years ago. Palatine hill was interesting also. But it was the Colosseum that really wowed me. It it so incredible that they were able to build such a huge structure almost 2000 years ago. I cannot even imagine how many people visited the site in the past couple thousand years. A few other stops on my way were Circus Maximus (where the chariot races were), the church where the Mouth of Truth is, Vatican City (again), and a nice walk up the Tiber river. You can see all my adventures in the photos below.

Day three was spent filling in the gaps that I missed and relaxing after all the miles that I walked the previous days. I went and saw the Villa Borghese which is a beautiful park, the Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, and The Vatican (again, I really wanted to get to the top of St. Peters Basilica but it was either too late or closed by the time I got there. I still didn't get to see it on this last day.) I also spent some time just wandering around watching street performers and walking into random beautiful churches. Rome is just really beautiful everywhere and you can just wander around and enjoy your time.

I really could write an entire novel about my time in Rome but then nobody would want to read it. While in Rome I ate a ton of delicious food and wine including spaghetti carbonara, pasta with swordfish, pizza margarita, pizza napoli, abbacchio (a roman lamb dish), and vino della casa (wine of the house). I also started off every morning with a cappuccino and a croissant. I can't forget about the delicious gelato that I ate every day too! Yum! I really felt like an Italian there since I ate all of their delicious food! For me, traveling is just as much about the food as it is about the sites.

To anyone debating whether they should go to Rome or not. I will tell you GO! Rome is amazing and one of those places you always here about in school or in the movies and when you are finally there it feels so unreal. Thanks Rome for the incredible time! Hopefully I can return some day!