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Now that we’re finally home after several weeks of traveling (and about to leave again), it’s time to catch up on the blog. I call this “just in time” blogging :)
In mid-July, Eric’s parents came to visit, but instead of coming to Poznań, we met them in Stockholm. For this trip, we rounded out their Baltic adventures by visiting Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Sweden. Most of our traveling was on the ferry lines, which worked out really well.
In fact, the first thing we did after meeting them in Stockholm was get on the ferry to Tallinn. This gave us the opportunity to see the Swedish coastline up close and to check out all the cute little houses.
The ferries had multiple restaurants, stores, bars, a theater and even a casino. On one boat, it appeared that the casino also served as the children’s playroom.
(I’m not sure if you can read the sign, but it states in three languages that children under 18 are not allowed in the casino. This little boy wasn’t the only offender. I counted more kids than adults at one point.)
We spent two nights in Tallinn, Estonia, which is a well-preserved medieval town that was once part of the Hanseatic league. They like to play this up quite a bit, and many of the restaurants and museums feature people in costumes. It was kind of Disneyworld-ish at times. Here’s the main square with the market vendors selling all kinds of souvenirs and baked goods:
Around the city, there is still a lot of the old wall still remaining.
Later, we took a walk along the top of one section.
We also check out the naval mine museum, which had all sorts of (hopefully) disarmed mines from several different countries. The tour guide was this old guy who knew just enough English to give us the basics. He would stand in front of the mine and say something like, “German. Second War,” and then rap on it with his pointer and make the explosion noise. One of them was very deformed, because “parachute no open.”
One of the more popular souvenirs was anything made of wool: hats, mittens, sweaters, socks. It was funny to see people trying on sweaters in the 90 degree heat. You can see some of the selection behind me.
On our way to Helsinki, we saw the boat from our cruise last year pulling into port. Tallinn is a popular cruise ship and we saw tours from several different boats during our two-day visit.
We quickly learned the following about Helsinki: it is not a major vacation destination. It was a nice city and I really wouldn’t mind living there. Just don’t make it the focal point of your European vacation.
We naturally checked out Helsinki’s #1 Tourist Attraction, the Suomenlinna Fortress. The southern part of this island complex was used for coastal defense, and it still has a bunch of the old coastal artillery, along with the ammunition bunkers.
It is also the home of the Finnish Naval Academy. These prohibitive signs prevented us from making any comparisons with the US version:
The island was pretty neat, but it happened to be very cold and windy that day. I really wished I had bought a wool sweater in Estonia.
The culinary highlight of the trip was the salmon soup. Eric and I also had reindeer, but it kind of tasted like a kebab.
After another ferry ride and a few hours in the car, we arrived in Riga, Latvia. We all agreed that Riga was a beautiful city, especially all the splendid Art Nouveau buildings.
Here’s another travel tip: Don’t go to Riga on a Monday. Absolutely everything (minus the restaurants) is closed. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of cool stuff to see:
The last leg of our trip was to the uber-expensive city of Stockholm. Based on a friend’s suggestion, our first stop was the Vasa Museum, which turned out to be awesome. (Thanks, Paul!)
This giant warship sank in 1628, after sailing less than a mile. The icy-cold and brackish waters of the Stockholm harbor preserved it until 1961, when it was finally hoisted to the surface and had a museum built around it. The museum not only features the ship, but information about the preservation and the various other items that were salvaged from the wreck.
(Here is their website if you want to check it out. The large, dark interiors + puny flash = our photos not coming out so well.) We highly recommend this museum, but be prepared to stand in line for tickets.
Our second day was mostly spent wandering around the city. We also visited the Royal Castle, where we toured the royal apartments, the treasury, and watched the changing of the guard.
Some interesting facts:
1) The military band that played at the changing of the guard ceremony included an ABBA song in their repertoire.
2) One of the rooms in the palace was refurbished with modern Swedish furniture as a gift to the king, to celebrate some anniversary of his coronation. I’m gonna guess they went with high-end stuff, but it was really hard to tell it wasn’t from IKEA.
(Admit it, when you hear “Sweden,” you immediately think “ABBA,” “IKEA” and “Volvo.” Bonus points for “Swedish Chef.”)
Other funny story: When I was checking in for one of the ferries, the Latvian cashier double checked our names by saying “Ann, Eric, Kay…and one more Eric.”
So here are Eric and One More Eric with their boat, the Saint Eric.
I realized today that I better knock out some blogging before the travel season really hits us. Our latest adventure was to jolly old London so Eric could do some research for his dissertation.
After the Nazis invaded in 1939, Poland set up a government-in-exile in London. This shadow government remained there until the fall of Communism in 1989. One of the major players in this organization was Władysław Sikorski, who became the Prime Minister and Commander in Chief during WWII, though he was killed in a plane crash in 1943. The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London now houses all the records from the Polish forces fighting on the western front during the war. So Eric spent two full days staring at old documents from their impressive collection.
While he was there, I focused on some high quality sight-seeing. I have mentioned before that we usually employ our “viking raider” tactics, and try to see as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. In London, I discovered a way to do this even faster – and it didn’t involve an open-top sightseeing bus.
I went for a sightseeing run!
I actually spent a lot of time on Google Maps planning this out. I picked out a bunch of (relatively) closely packed sights and came up with a straightforward route. As you can see by the map, “straightforward” is a relative term.
I didn’t bring the camera, so I’m stealing some of these from Wikipedia. The next day, Eric and I spent the evening visiting some of the sights via the Tube.
Hyde Park with the awesomely ornate Albert Memorial
On to Piccadilly Circus, which kind of reminded me of Times Square. There were lots of tourists here, also with the associated tourist stores. (Wikipedia photo)
Trafalgar Square was cool and I was impressed with how tall the Nelson Column actually was.
Crossing over the Thames, the giant London Eye marks the Guaranteed Tourist Area.
But once you get to the Eye, you can see Parliament and Big Ben back across the river.
Westminster Abbey featured an encampment of protesters, whose grungy appearance detracted from the otherwise beautiful architecture. (Wikipedia photo)
On the way to Buckingham Palace, I stopped to watch the going-on at the Horse Guards building. Their uniforms looked very fancy, but probably really hot. (Wikipedia)
The Mall down to Buckingham Palace looked very stately. The flags weren’t out when I ran through, but I thought this picture was cool. (Wikipedia)
I think the Queen was visiting the US when we were there. A bunch of tourists were waiting in front of the palace, but I’m not sure for what. The changing of the guard, maybe? (Wikipedia)
So that sums up my little tour. In total, it was almost 9 miles. I was smart enough to bring water with me, since it was pretty hot that day.
I also enjoyed London for the simple fact that I understood everything that was going on and I could communicate with confidence. For me, that was really a luxury.
We ate fish and chips and watched World Cup Soccer in a pub called the Red Lion…seems very British. Also very British: speaking Polish with the waitress. No kidding.
So, now that I am up to date on the blog, I feel justified in leaving again. We are off on our northern adventure in the Baltic.
Well, after 20 months of owning a car, it finally happened. We got…The Boot.
Adding insult to injury was that this happened right in front of our building. Explaining why might take a while.
The first part of the problem was the new road. After 10 months of construction, it was finally completed about two months ago. Now we have the most beautiful road in Poznań.
As part of this new road, they included a random paved 20’x30’ section. (There is a silver car parked there in the picture.) To the casual observer, this looks like either a) parking spaces or b) it should have a basketball hoop. There are no signs posted and no lines.
Our nice new road has a sign prohibiting parking on the bike path or on that side of the road. But surely this couldn’t apply to the tiny parking area.
As the guy was un-booting us, he confirmed that it did. We then asked what that space was for and he just shrugged.
In May, Poland suffered widespread flooding in all of the major rivers. There was some coverage in the American media. The flood plays a critical role in this story, because this is why we were parked outside to begin with. Our apartment sits right behind a 105-year-old retaining wall over the Warta River. Here is the view at normal river height:
As the water continued to rise, there was concern over the integrity of the wall. One of the newspapers contributed to the fearmongering:
(When I saw this, I could understand “This wall might something.” The dictionary informed me that runąć means “collapse.” Yikes!)
At the highest stage of the river, the underground garage was below the water level. There was an evacuation plan, and we even had a suitcase packed up with our important documents and some essentials. Thankfully, we didn’t need it. The building administrators recommended that people move their cars and belongings out of the garage. So of course, we complied.
Therefore, we were a little P.O.’d about getting the boot. We thought we had parked legally after having to abandon our garage due to the possibility of our apartment building collapsing into the river.
But the guy who removed the boot was super nice about it. He took all our documentation and told us how he lived in Hawaii for four years. As Eric was taking out his wallet to pay, they guy holds out his hand and says, in a weird John Wayne-type accent, “Settle down, tiger.”
So in the end, we didn’t have to pay a fine and our apartment didn’t fall into the river. Doesn’t get much better than that.
For our latest trip, we busted out of our Central European comfort zone and headed down to Istanbul for a long weekend.
Fellow Olmsteders Mike and Nichole were gracious enough to let us crash at their place. Thanks to their extensive library of guidebooks and helpful tips for public transportation, we managed to pack in a lot of sightseeing into three short days. Here is the whirlwind tour:
Our first stop was one of the most famous buildings in Istanbul, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque.
It isn’t blue on the outside, but the name comes from the intricate tiles decorating the inside.
Hanging from the ceiling were impressively large chandeliers, that weren’t much higher than head height.
There was so much to look at and it was kind of overwhelming.
Nearby is the Hagia Sophia, which held the record for largest cathedral for a measly 1000 years. Think about that for a second.
It is hard to fully grasp the idea that this building is almost 1500 years old. It was first built as a cathedral, then after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, it was converted to a mosque. The secular government of Turkey has since started restoring some of the original Christian elements and it is now a museum. Simply amazing.
Our trusty digital camera has lots of settings. However, we definitely could have used a “huge, dimly lit building, where the flash isn’t going to do you any good and probably isn’t allowed anyway” setting.
Large portions of the interior are under restoration. In one section, historians have stripped off the paint to reveal Byzantine-era mosaics.
Farther down the road, overlooking the water was the Topkapi Palace. It is a collection of several different buildings that made up the palace complex, and now hold exhibits from the National Museum.
Both the interiors and exteriors are equally impressive.
One of the coolest displays was definitely the Treasury, where all the items were:
- Gold
- Excessively jewel-encrusted
- Surrounded by hundreds of screaming Turkish schoolchildren
I think it might have been Field Trip Day at Topkapi Palace.
We also forayed into the insanity of the Grand Bazaar. The guidebook summed it up best with the phrase, “nothing can prepare you for the Grand Bazaar.” Very true. The whole thing is a giant rat maze, which is made narrower by the vast amount of goods bursting out of the different stalls. Souvenirs, jewelry, rugs, water pipes, jeans, leather goods, and pottery are all prominently displayed and competing for your attention. Add into this the pushy salesman and their catcalls and you start to feel like the walls are closing in.
We have discovered that speaking Polish to each other in these situations proves useful. We can still communicate with each other, while ignoring all the English that everyone is yelling to the passersby. This almost backfired when we found one guy selling perfume on the street who spoke a few words of Polish and proceeded to hound us for two blocks while (correctly) throwing out lower and lower numbers. Props to that guy.
The Spice Market was a similar experience, but since many of the customers are locals, there was more yelling in Turkish. We picked up some apple tea, meat spice, and some Turkish Delight, which was delicious!
Despite all the madness of these places, we did find some peaceful spots in this crazy city. In particular, the Roman cistern, a subterranean water collection facility, proved calm, cool, and interesting. Spanning several acres, the Romans collected and stored drinking water in a huge underground room supported by hundreds of columns. The columns were all “repurposed” from other areas, hence there is a mishmash of designs.
We spent an afternoon on a boat tour of the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus. Walking around downtown, it is hard to conceptualize just how big the city is. A four-hour boat ride that spans two continents, while remaining in city limits, helps illustrate that Istanbul is ginormous. We highly recommend taking a boat tour. This was a great way to see a lot of basic sites and get a good feel for the city.
There are a few things that you see everywhere in Istanbul:
1. Tulips. Despite Holland’s claim to the contrary, tulips are originally from Turkey. Fortunately, they were still in bloom during our visit.
2. Fisherman. Every public place with water access will be packed with people fishing. This includes freeway overpasses.
3. Turkish Flags. We thought Poles liked flying flags. Poland’s got nothing on Turkey. We passed one apartment building where one resident had completely covered his downstairs neighbor’s window with a flag. Only one flag in this photo, but you can tell that it is huge.
4. Stray dogs that you would want to pet. We saw countless stray dogs, most of whom appeared to be well fed and well taken care of.
5. Kebab stands. Just like Poland.
So that wraps up our Istanbul trip, and only a month or so late. Thanks again to Mike and Nichole for an awesome trip!
