Christmastime in Krakow

As I will be missing Christmas with family for the first time ever, my mom decided to make the transatlantic trek a few weeks before so that we could celebrate early.  Instead of exchanging a lot of things that I would eventually have to ship back to the USA, we thought we give each other a trip as our main present.....destination?  Krakow, Poland.

We set out on our journey east not quite sure what to expect.  I had been told that Krakow is the jewel of Poland, and as for mom....well, Poland has not quite cracked the top ten of must see destinations for her.  However, we were excited to see how Europe does Christmas.  Arriving on Thurs afternoon, we dropped our bags, bundled up (it was -2 C) and headed to the Rynek Główny (market square).  Here we were greeted with the Christmas Market, complete with mulled, spiced wine and various Polish treats roasting on grills and cook-tops.  One hardly noticed the chill as the sights and smells warmed on contact.  Watching over the festivities was the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady...a magnificent church with unequal towers serving as a sentry protecting the medieval town square.  We ended up spending a good bit of time in the Market Square, which was the focus of the evening activities.

Our trip was not all shopping and soaking up Christmas cheer.  On Friday, we heading out to Wieliczka to visit one of the largest salt mines in Poland.   The mine operated for over 700 years before being shut down in 1996 due to economic reasons.   The mine continues to a depth of 327 m, although the tourist route covers only 1% of the mine.  The mine consists of chambers that have been created by the process of mining, and in which the miners themselves carved elaborate statues and sculptures from the rock salt during their "down" time.   Their artwork is amazing, and in many cases, the statues could be mistaken for professional artists.

Perhaps the highlight of the journey below terra firma was the Chapel of St Kinga, a massive santuary carved entirely from rock salt by 3 different miners.  This santuary is a working church, with amazing accoustics and it hosts concerts, masses and even weddings (nope, not gonna get married in a mine in Poland).

Our Saturday excursion took us farther out of the revelry of Yuletime Krakow to a town named Oświęcim, which is more commonly known by its German name, Auschwitz.  Auschwitz is officially named Auschwitz-Birkenau and consists of about 50 seperate sites in the area.  We visited the areas called Auschwitz I and Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau).  Its hard to explain the emotions and thoughts that occur setting foot on the grounds of the largest Nazi extermination camp.  It was snowing during the visit, sometimes lightly, sometimes quite steadily.  In anywhere else, the snowfall would have added an element of beauty to the outdoor scene.  At Auschwitz, it only added to the overwhelming feeling of loneliness and isolation.   While I feel its important to reflect on the past, including all good and bad, successes and failures, it was a difficult struggle to be in the presence of such horrific acts on people by people.  

With the impression of the past on our minds, we finished a both joyous and somber holiday to Krakow, and returned to the UK to celebrate the season of peace.

"You are entering a whole different world"

These were the words spoken by the driver who met me at Kiev airport upon hearing that this was my first time in Ukraine.  While the forboding tone put me off a bit, I was already getting such a feeling after going through one of the most chaotic immigration processes yet (7 lines, no direction, and many scary men with large guns in camo).   Driving the road into the city, I was not very impressed by the surroundings....desolate houses, gray sky, and an overall gloom over the area.   Not much improvement as we arrived at the hotel....nice place, but the surrounding "down town" Kiev was a grey, dreary place that was not inviting.

My co-worker dragged me out for dinner, and we walked the short way towards the main street of the city centre.  Here is where we started to go wrong.  We based our flightplan off the directions my taxi driver had given me ("See the building with the MTC on top?  Go there, then turn right").  Wladek had a map, however when we attempted to match up the Metro station in front of the TGI Fridays (yup...seriously...it was written in Ukrainian, but there was no doubting it), we realized that a) the map was in Latin alphabet --aka"translated" Ukrainian, b) the street signs were in Cyrilliac-based alphabet and c) we had no idea where we were.  Well....it seemed that most of the cars were coming from THAT direction, and logic says that at the end of the day, most cars leave the city centre.....so we went THAT direction.   Luckily, our faulty logic paid off, and we ended up on the main shopping street in Kiev.  Here, the buildings were obviously constructed during the post WWII communist period, with the box shape dotted with equally spaced, uniform windows in rigid grids.   But instead of the dish-water gray of the outer city, here the buildings were painted in welcoming pastels.  What struck me the most was that seemed to be a basement invasion of capitalism in these otherwise severe buildings, as we passed shop fronts of Tiffany's, Bvlgari, Dolce &Gabbana.  It was like the city was struggling with a new identity.

We strolled the streets a bit longer, going from a dreary stone alley to a colorful tree-lined avenue in a single turn.  Finally, we popped into a grill for dinner and enjoyed a nice light salad with a crisp glass of wine.  Not "typical" Ukrainian cuisine, but I am sure that will come in the coming days, as we leave Kiev tomorrow for Dnipropetrovsk.

Now THAT's a Pub Crawl!

Its a little hard to plan a party from across an ocean, so I decided that this year, the celebration of James' birthday would have to be a smaller affair then the shindig thrown for his 30th.   So......as James walked thru the International Arrivals area at 7am on Friday morning, he was greeted with SURPRISE...we're spending the weekend in Ireland!!!!   That's right, he had 24hrs to get over jet lag, as we were headed to Dublin first thing Sat morning with one goal.....enjoy some Guinness!

We dropped our bags at the hotel, hopped a bus, and headed straight to St. James Gate and the Guinness Storehouse.  I have been to quite a few breweries in my time, but I was duly impressed with the Storehouse.   Standing in the world's largest pint glass, the first thing you see is the original lease signed by Arthur Guinness.  We made our way up the glass to the Gravity Bar, to enjoy the best pint of Black Gold ever tasted.

As most of you know, James and I are frequent partakers in a world-wide scavenger hunt known as Geocaching.   For our activities on Sunday, I had found a 22 stage geocache which required us to do possibly the worlds longest pub crawl.  At  each stage, we used longitude and latitude coordinates to direct us to the location of a pub in Dublin, where we would answer a question.  At the end, we would use the answers to help us find the coordinates of the last stage, a 23rd "bonus" pub.  So at 11 am, we embarked on our mission to see 23 of the most historic, eccentric or traditional pubs in the area.  As we were not in college anymore, we choose not to partake at every stop, but instead pick those which we found the most interesting.   Our first pint was at the Palace Bar, whose dark, wooden interior was full of little booths and hidden tables was the ultimate in what an Irish pub should be.   Before we knew it, we had spent 45 mins listening to the locals discussing rugby and football and other going-ons. 

Our journey continued and we were soon gently coerced by the promise of an Irish jig.  Settling in for another pint and some music, we were soon serenaded to the tune of Led Zepplin....hmmmm, not quite what we bargined for.  Alas, we made it through some more classic rock covers, and the occasional Christmas carol (only 76 shop lifting days until Christmas, folks!) before the duo launched back into a good ole-fashioned Irish drinking tune!  We left when the group took a break, and headed thru more of Temple Bar, in and out of some great pubs and quite a few more pints (and even an Irish coffee!).  Stop #15 was at the Stag's Head, which boasted a 99 year-old mount overlooking the bar.  The stag looks pretty good for its age, only missing one eye, that was swiped during a bachloer party last year.  At this point, I had switched to half-pints...still, an admirable effort.

By far our most nostalgic stop was at Neary's.  This was a favorite haunt of James' mom during her years in Dublin, so we lingered a bit longer there.  We enjoyed a pint, chatted with the barkeep, and watched the locals coming and going as the afternoon wore on.  Our journey finally ended at the Dawson Lounge.  With its tiny red door, and sign boasting the smallest pub in Dublin, we were rewarded by following a narrow staircase below the street to a tiny, cozy basement pub.   What a great find, and an awesome end to a perfect day!!!

We were off the next day, so after some visits to more gardens and a few cathedrals, we shared a last pint, and headed back to reality.

Happy Birthday James!!!!

Say Cheese!!!

Arriving in Geneva after delays and re-routing due to the French strikes (causing some airspace to be closed), I was finally ready to begin my quick weekend away.  Unfortunitly the weather was not the crisp, cool fall air that was hoped for, but a damp, frigid drizzle that seemed to permeate the bones.  But no worries, after all, I was here for the annual Neuchatel Wine Festival!  

Maria and I wasted no time after work on Friday heading down to town to partake in the festivities.  Now, my concept of wine and beer festivals is that there are all the local merchants who have set up boths to let you sample their wares, and if all is pleasing, a bottle or two (three, four, etc) maybe be purchased for indulging at home, or in our case, while relaxing on the shores of Lac de Neuchatel.  So as we descended (Maria does like mountainous regions, so once again, my legs got a workout) into the streets, we were greeted with a level of revelry unexpected and quite intoxicating!  

This was no WINE festival, it was a full fledged street party in honour and celebration of the beverage we know as wine....basicly an excuse of the entire town (and half of France) to take to the streets, enjoy carnival rides, all types of food, street fare and all the adult beverages you can handle.....a bit curious was the actual LACK of booths selling wine, but we did find some and enjoyed the atmosphere for the evening.  

Saturday morning, we decided that we wanted to take to the quieter and more beautiful countryside, so we fired up Maria's new car, and headed out for a day-long tour of some of the local lake towns.  First stop was Murten, which was about as picturesque as you can get when it comes to Swiss villiages.  But quickly we were onto our second stop, Gruyeres.   As in the cheese.  As in the cheese which serves as THE base for fondue.   I have one word to describe what a trip to Gruyeres is to me.....Mecca.  It is not a secret how deep my love of cheese goes, and frankly, I make a mean fondue.  But visiting the source of it all.......as I said...Mecca.  

 

Of course, all good things require some work, and for us, it was the short but steep hike from the parking area to the gates of the town.  But as we entered the gates, the distinctive (and from some unappriciative types, smelly) aroma of well aged Gruyere filled the air.  All of the many cafes and resturants advertised their well-known fare, however we decided to check out the town, and its chateau before partaking.

The Chateau d'Gruyeres is a small castle overlooking the countryside and pre-Alp ranges.  The air there was crisp, the views were amazing, and slowly the noise of the crowd slipped away, and if you listened carefully, the sound of the cowbells tinkled gently amoung the clouds that obscured the snow-caps of mountains.  It was truley breath-taking.

Back in town, we headed to one of the local establishment to finally indulge in a pot of steaming cheese and a glass of crisp local wine.  As we walked in, the first thing that hit us (and it really was an assault on the senses) was the aroma of very aged cheesed mixed with very raw cheese.  As it turns out, not only was our pick a resturant, it was also a frommagerie, which was in the process of making a batch of Gruyere.  So not only did we get to enjoy our own fondue, we got to watch the making of future batches :).

Maria finally tore me away from the town of my future retirement, and we headed back to Neuchatel via the Lake Geneva-side town of Vevey.  After having a lunch of cheese, bread, and wine, we thought it wise to take a stroll along the shore of the lake, taking in some of the unusual scultures lining both the boardwalk and the shoreline.  We got back to Maria's just in time to catch more of the celebration, this time in the form of fireworks over the Lake.  Now THAT's the way to celebrate wine....

 

On Sunday, we had an early afternoon train to catch, so we decided to take advantage of the clearing skies by hopping a ride up Mount Chaumon to get an elevated view of the Lake, along with hopes of catching glances of Mts Blanc and Eiger, which you can see on clear days.   (No such luck, on the Alp spotting, but no worries, I will be hitting the Alps for some skiing later this year).  It was a nice way to cap-off an indulgent, yet very relaxing weekend!

 

 

So long, farewell.....

Well, my time down under has almost come to a close.  I am sitting in the Air New Zealand lounge, waiting for my flight to be boarded.  My last week in Australia has been more work then play, but I did get the chance to see a new state, Victoria, and see a bit of Melbourne.  

Melbourne is a interesting city.  It has its high points, and definitly has a style, with the Victorian era design prominent in the buildings, but its not full of "sights".  But it has some great food and social scene.  I had the pleasure of a local "insider" view, as my friend Meagan, put me in touch with her friend Vanessa.  Vanessa was kind enough to show me around on my one evening free, so after she picked me up at the hotel, we headed straight to the Eureka SkyTower, which hosts the highest observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere.   We headed up to the 88th floor, and caught the last rays of sun as twilight decended on the city.  It was a beautiful sight and Vanessa pointed out the highlights of the city from 285 meters in the air.  It was an incredibly windy night, and you could see the glass flexing in the winds!!

Once we were done with our viewing, we headed down to the Yarra river to grab dinner at the Blue Train Cafe...a favorite spot of Meagan's.  The food was amazing, the company better, and it was nice intro to Melbourne.

Unfortunitly, it was all work from there, and I did not get to spend much more time in the city, except to sleep.  And now I am on my way back home.  But Australia has given me a bit of a teaser, and I can't wait to be back.....as soon as possible!!

From the Valley to the Hills

What to do with two free days in Australia?  Trying to minimize travel and maximize the seeing potential, it seemed best to limit travel to about 2 hours outside of Sydney.  Virginia had only one more day in Australia, so we decided that Saturday would be spent exploring some of the wine country in New South Wales:  Hunter Valley.  Now...how best to do this?  Wanting to enjoy our day and not have to worry about choosing the wineries or driving after the tastings, we booked with a company specializing in bringing people to the boutique wineries of the area...no Lindemans or Wyndham for us!  

So bright and early (0810), we were picked up and heading towards the Hunter Valley.  First stop:  Iron Gate winery, which both grows and produces the wine onsite.  They only sell to a handful of restaurants in the area, so the only way to bring this home was to buy at the winery.  The tasting was private, with our group of 10 people have our own presenter, and amoung the offerings, we tasted the Hunter Valley staples of Semillon and Shiraz, and an "up and coming" varietal: Verdelho.  The Verdelho was a very pleasant surprise for me.  This Portuguese grape was introduced to Australia in the 1800's, and has become more popular in the last 15 years.  After the tasting, there was a quick tour, and then we were off to the next venue.  Kelman Vineyards is set up as a co-op, with the residents of the neighborhood all invested in the vineyard.  In addition to the still wines, we tasted a semillon sparkling, and some specialty dipping oils. 

We had a bit of "free" time for lunch, so Virginia and I continued our tasting, but this time at the Hunter Valley Cheese shop.  Now that's what I call a good lunch!  Our final tasting of the day was at Ernest Hill Winery.  A special treat awaited us here, as a mob of grey kangaroos joined us amoung the vines for a great photo-op!  As the sun set, we headed back to Sydney, a few bottles of wine in hand.

Sunday I was on my own, so I headed west toward the Great Dividing Range and caught a train to Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains.  The Mountains are named for the color of the light reflecting off the oils emitted by the eucalyptus leaves.  As the train approached our destination, the clouds came charging in, and we arrived in the midst of a small hail and wind storm with the temperature about 20 degrees cooler than in Sydney.  Not exactly what the weather channel had predicted!  I quickly ducked into a sporting goods shop to add to my "southern hemisphere wardrobe".  Lucky for me, it was end of season, so this so-called impulse buy did not cause too much damage. 

Warm and cozy, I strolled 2km towards Echo Point, an amazing look-out over the Jamison Valley and the Three Sisters rock formation.   Aboriginal legend is that 3 beautiful maidens were transformed into the formations by their witch doctor, helping them escape the unwanted advances of some suitors.  The witch doctor died before he could change them back, and they have been trapped in the stone ever since.

Echo Point is the tourist spot of this town, so there were throngs of tourists who bused the short distance to take pictures and move on.  In search of some peace and solitude, I found the Prince Henry Cliff Walk, which winds it way down along the cliffs, into the Jamison Valley via the Great Staircase and onto the Katoomba Falls.  The unpredictable weather and numerous rough steps kept most people away, and began to take in the beauty of the mountains.   The walk was challenging enough to keep most casual tourists at bay and to give a good workout, but not overly strenuous.  As I approached a break in the trees, I looked back across the valley, to see a rainbow stemming from the Three Sisters.  It was a perfect moment.   Continuing my trek, I came to the Katoomba Cascades, a precursor to the Katoomba Falls which lay ahead. 

I began the long decent down the Furber Stairs, a 1.5 km staircase constructed in the early 1900's that lead down the Katoomba Falls, giving spectacular views of the Three Sisters, the Falls, and the Jamison Valley.  The stairs are narrow, dark and damp, as they wind through a cool climate rainforest, and once at the bottom, I decided not to make the climb back up, as the end of daylight was catching up with me once again.  From the bottom, I walked the boardwalk through eucalyptus groves and past abandoned coal mines to the Skyway Cable Car, which offers a "cheater" way in and out of the valley.  Having taken the legitimate way down, I enjoyed the views as the glass chamber swayed us back to the top of the gorge.  With some awesome pictures and very tired legs, I made my way back up to the train station, and napped on my trip back to Sydney.

The best 5k of my life

Today, it was not about time or personal bests.  Today's 5k was all about witnessing the beauty and power of the sea, the blue skies, and the brisk ocean breeze.  Following the advice of some of my Aussie-experienced friends, Virginia and I grabbed the bus around noon and headed to Bondi Beach, the closest the ocean gets to Sydney.  The Pacific was out in full force today, and as we approached the beach, the thunderous surf made promises of some serious waves.  No surfers on the beach today, so we sat and admired the crashing of the water against the rocks, before heading out on the cliff tops to Coogee, a 5km walk along some of the most beautiful coastline I have ever seen.

The walk itself was straight-forward, however the brisk head-winds and numerous rocky steps and inclines made hitting the gym un-necessary.  As we passed through veils of sea-spray as the waves made their way up the cliffs, I saw ocean baths scattered along the shoreline.   I had never heard of an ocean bath, but it was a sea-side swimming pool, which was filled by the waves crashing over the edge.   Even though it is winter, and the South Pacific is on the chilly side (as I found out the other day), there were swimmers in some of the baths, getting in their evening laps.

The cliff path winds past some of Sydney's most beautiful beaches, including Bronte, Clovelly and Tamarama, all with their own charm and appeal.   Not a lot of beach goers out today, which made the walk along the shore peaceful and serene.  Probably my favorite section was the sun-bleached memorials at Waverley Cemetery, overlooking the sea as a final resting places. 

As 5pm approached, we were chasing daylight during the last 1.5km, and as we when we reached the Coogee Boardwalk, we finally saw the enclave of surfers, getting much more action then those at Manly on Monday.  Finishing our afternoon "stroll", we toasted our afternoon with a few pints at the Coogee Bay Hotel beach bar, and watched the sunset over the waves. 

The start of a beautiful friendship.....with Australia!

I am not sure it had sunk in when I boarded the plane in Bangkok that I would end up in Australia in a bit less then 24 hours.  For me, it was one of those places that I never thought I would get to see in person.   But there, I was, buckled in, with my seat back and tray table in their upright and locked positions.  1.5 hours after the departure time, we were off, with 10 hours to wait to see if I was going to make my connecting flight in Bangkok (I only had a 1hr 50 min layover).  Decideing that it would do no good to fret about it, I settled in for a 3 movies, 2 meals, 1 snack and 0 sleep.   No worries, the flight went by rather quickly, and we landed at Bangkok with 30 mins before boarding began on my next flight.   Thank god my bags were checked all the way thru and that there was no passport control.  At least I got my 15 mins of a brisk jog in after clearing security.   Hopefully, I will get to do some more exploring on the way back.  :).  Settled into flight #2, I was encouraged that I was dozing slightly as we pulled away from the gate.  When I woke we were taxing to the gate and I could not believe that I slept the whole time!  Then I noticed that it was slight daytime, and that I had only slept an hour.   Due to some replacement of a spare part, we left finally left Bangkok about 2 hours late.  No matter, I slept my way thru most of the second flight anyway, and landed at around 10pm.  45 mins later I was all settled into my hotel, and looking forward to a bit of touring in the morning.

Meeting up at breakfast with my collegeuge, Virginia,  we set out to one of the most familiar harbours in the world.  There are a few places that I have seen in pictures or thru media and have thought that they would be incredible to see in person.   Amoung these are the Eiffel Tower, Mt. Everest (from the ground...), Antartica, Machu Picchu, and the Sydney Opera House.  As we approached the Circular Quay and the harbour, the Opera House appeared from behind the ferry docks, and with the midday sun sparkling off the roof, and the water rippling softly in the foreground, it was a beautiful moment.  The structure is unique and stunning.  I very much want to see if the accoutics are as artfully engineered as the exterior.  Maybe later this week.....

Finally turning our back to the Opera House, we admired the Harbour Bridge towering above the water.  Then we noticed the people walking on the top of it.  I am not generally afraid of heights, although over the last year or so, I have become a bit nervous on long, narrow stair climbs; but the thought of climbing all the way to the top of the bridge gave me a bit of a pause.  But just for a moment as I agree to give it a shot with Virginia later this week.   So stay tuned.....

We took advantage of the warm, sunny day in late winter to walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens, and then caught a ferry to Manly, which is home to one of the surfing beaches around Sydney.   It was great to walk barefoot in the sand and dip my toes in the Tasmen Sea (and indirectly, the South Pacific).  The water was MUCH colder then I had expected, a reminder once again that once you cross the equator, south does not equal warm! 

After a few hours watching the waves and catching a bite to eat while the surfers waited for the perfect curl, jet lag had started to take its toll, so we headed back to Sydney.  Not quite ready to give up the day, we wandered through the surrounding areas, taking in some great 19th century buildings, including the GPO (General Post Office), which has been restored and houses many shops and eateries (think the Old Post Office Pavilion in DC) and the Queen Victoria Building. which was originally built as a shopping center in the late 1800's. 

Since its winter, the sun sets around 5:30pm, and the fading light gave us no hope of fighting off exhaustion anymore, so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.   Off to work tomorrow.....but never fear...more Australia adventures will follow of the next 2 weeks.