Venezia

Venice!

I had the most beautiful train ride ever from Munich to Venice, where we went through the Alps!!

Beautiful and amazing and trip highlight!

I got to Venice around 6ish and took a water ferry to my hostel! A water ferry! My hostel was down some dark alley but it was actually really great! It was small and cosy and Marco, the owner, made you eggs in the morning!

Anyway, Venice! Lots of canals and masks and gondalas. Very nice and truly no other city in the world which you could even compare it to. Except maybe The Venetian in Vegas.

At the hostel, I made friends with a girl called Courtney who was from Perth and turned out she met Lynne and Jenny Dowdeswell in London! Small world. Small Europe.

I was in Italy two and a half weeks but the best meal I had was here in Venice and home made. Firstly, Courtney and I found this wine.

Two euros a litro! We were surprised when the man asked if we wanted to taste it before we bought it, but we did and it was really good wine! We then found a deli where we purchased freshly made pesto and sundried tomatoes! Carrots, salami, cheese, olives and crackers later, we had the best dinner I had the pleasure of experiencing in Italy. All it needed to make it complete, were Erin, Ashlee and Kathy! And maybe wine glasses, but I’m not complaining.

Wigilia - Polish Christmas Eve

Today is the sacred day of Christmas. But wait Anna, Christmas was a month ago. I am about a month behind in my blog so that makes sense.

My Ciocia spent the day in the kitchen and I spent an hour on the phone talking to Mum and my brother. Christmas Eve here is called Wigilia (Vigilia) and this is when Polish people celebrate Christmas. We set the table with a white table cloth (this symbolises something) and put hay underneath the table cloth and a little on top (I think this symbolises baby Jesus’s manger). Most importantly, there’s always an extra place set at the table for a welcome guest and also for those people who can’t be with us.

Back in the day, the tradition was to buy a live carp (fish) and put it in the bath tub, then kill it for the Christmas dinner. I don’t know who still does this, but we bought ours at the local supermarket (live), the man killed it for us and we took it home. The first time I walked in to the supermarket and saw live fish swimming around in the tank was weird. Imagine walking into Coles or Woollies and there’s a fish tank with carp jammed in all flapping about, doing whatever it is that fish do. Anyway, carp is symbolic of something too and while we don’t eat meat on Christmas Eve, white fish is a must.

Barszcz (beetroot soup) is the Christmas soup and also pierogi (dumplings) are a necessity. There are twelve courses altogether, I think to represent the twelve apostles? Clearly, I am well versed in the meaning of Polish Christmas.

We drank a couple bottles of wine, opened presents and ate Christmas cakes (gingerbread, poppyseed cake and baked cheesecake). All in all, a fun Polish Christmas night. It was very different from the normal hot Australian night Christmas with my Mum and my brothers but it was exciting to be in a country where celebrating on Christmas Eve is the norm!

Back in Jelenia Góra!

                 

Back in Jelenia Góra (Poland), I spent my time ice skating,

 

learning to ski,

 

and I even met a lady who was a prisoner in Aushwitz when she was thirteen years old! Amazing. When she spoke, I wanted her to tell us more but at the same time, I didn’t want to hear anymore.

There was also an (exciting) moment when we were driving home on the freeway and we hit ice and the car skidded across two lanes towards the side of the road and, just as I was thinking we were about to roll, we gently tapped the snow piled on the side of the road and calmly drove off!

After New Years,

 

I went to my Mum’s old high school! I spoke to the English class about Australia and they asked me about poisonous animals and kangaroos.

We also went for ‘biegowki’ which is kind of running on skis. I’m not sure how exactly to describe it but went 10kms there, had some beer and sausage, then 10kms back. Lots of fun and great views. We were on the Czech border so that was exciting, too. 



Putting on my skis



 

 Christmas next, and then we go to Italy!

Hamburg to Jelenia Gora

My last day in Hamburg, Anni Ka and I spent in the city, shopping and eating waffles and banana splits. We also went on a sight seeing tour and I got to see the entire city from the top of one of those red double decker buses!

The next morning, we woke up at 5am (arghhhhh!!!) and after breakfast, took the train into Hamburg. I waved goodbye to Anni Ka and her Mum from my 7am train and began the journey home.

I could tell straight away this was a Polish train as there was no dining car. On my three hour train trip from Amsterdam to Brussells there was a drinks cart with snacks on it but on my six hour trip to Wegliniec, nothing! After nearly getting frostbite waiting at the train station for two hours (no heating), I hopped on the train to Jelenia Gora. Frosted windows and going at a snails pace, this has Poland written all over it. When we got to Jelenia Gora, there wasn’t even an announcement or anything! I just scrubbed the ice away from the window, saw a sign and realised we were at our destination! A positive from this train trip was that I made friends with a German guy who spoke English, so when I finished my book, I gave it to him! I got the book from Kathy in Minnesota, so it has now been to Australia, America and Europe and also been through three different hands. Hopefully, he’ll too pass it on to a random train stranger one day!

Waiting at the train station was Mariola and -22 degrees! On the way home we dropped by the new Tesco supermarket and bought some things including ice cream. When we got home, the ice cream went on the balcony. Is a normal freezer even -22 degrees??!

Hamburg

Some of you may remember Anni Ka, who Kathy and I met in San Francisco and I met up with again in New York! Well, she invited me to stay in Hamburg and how could I say no?! So I trained it from Berlin to Buchen where Anni Ka and her sister, Silvie picked me up. I actually only got off the train on a whim. Lots of people got up so I assumed it was a main station and when they said the next station was Buchen, it sounded kind of familiar. I was very lucky and grateful when I saw Anni Ka standing on the platform waiting for me!

So we drove to Anni Ka’s home town where she lives with her family on a farm!!!! They have lots of cows and even two calves! For dinner we had potato salad, sausages and curry ketchup (all so German!!) and then went to bed.

The next day we went into the city of Hamburg and spent the day checking out the city as well as the biggest Christmas markets in Germany! Then a snow storm hit and within ten minutes, what was before the streets and paths were now completely white! It came out of nowhere! Anni Ka and I thought that staying indoors would be a good idea so we went to the Miniature Wonderland. It is a place where they have built countries based around railways. The first country was Switzerland. There was also the Swiss airport which took six years to make! The planes actually took off and it took up a lot of space.

Of course there was Hamburg, as well as Austria and Sweden. And America! Namely, Vegas!!!

The trains were connected to all the countries and there was also day and night! At night, the lights would dim and the cars would put their lights on! It was very realistic! In conclusion, the miniature wonderland was totally awesome.

The next day, I went to Anni Ka’s sister's school for her ‘English’ class and talked about Christmas in Australia. So I realised that I don’t know much about Australian Christmas because we celebrate Polish Christmas on Christmas Eve. So I tried to think about what my friends do on Christmas and I told the kids that everyone goes to the beach. They laughed (a little too much) when I told them we have plastic Christmas trees and we put them up at the start of December. Then I told them about Polish Christmas and then they asked some questions, like if we have an easter bunny. It was awkward and I have never spoken such horrible, stilted English but I had loved it all the same.

As Anni Ka and I walked out of the classroom, a girl ran up to us with paper and a pencil and asked me to sign it for her! Celebrity! So I wrote, 'Greetings from Australia’ and then all of the kids came running up wanting their own signatures! Celebrity!!

That night, Anni Ka’s brother’s friends came over with their sleds and hooked them up behind their Dad’s tractor. Then Anni Ka’s Dad drove us around down a street and through a field a couple of times! I was really nervous at first, like going on a Royal Show ride for the first time, but then once we were going it was awesome! We couldn’t feel our feet or hands because of the cold but it was totally worth it! We even passed some cars and gave them a quick wave!

I had a great time in Hamburg with Anni Ka and her family so a huge thank you to the Deecken's for a fantastic couple of days and hopefully I'll be seeing you in soon in Australia!

Berlin Two

Guten Morgen!

Today I woke up to some bad weather so I decided on a sleep in and a long breakfast. Breakfast is 5.50 euro for all you can eat until 2pm so I started at 11am (for breakfast) and then continued on to 12.30pm (lunch) and then headed out for the day. I was aiming for the chocolate factory and walked through Checkpoint Charlie on my way!

Checkpoint Curry - very witty

Christmas at Checkpoint Charlie

The chocolate factory was crap. It was pretty much a big chocolate shop and they were making a roaring trade (and a mean hot chocolate), but no demonstrations or free tastings or anything exciting like that. So after that, I went shopping and spent money I didn’t have on clothes I didn’t need to squish into a suitcase that wasn’t big enough. Then after buying a postcard for Mum, I strolled on over to the biggest Christmas markets in Germany! It cost me a Euro to get in and it was so crowded!!!! I looked at everything, tried and tried and tried to take a video (my camera was not cooperating), then made a beeline for the hot chocolate and hightailed it out of there. It was just too busy, people were everywhere and you could barely walk through in some places!

So many people! (Really good photo)

Waffles with your choice of topping

Just trying out some different camera settings

When I got back to the hostel, I took everything out of my suitcase and did a repack. Everything fit, just! I put on my finest and headed downstairs to the bar. After a couple of glasses of gluwein (the warm wine stuff), we headed out for a pub crawl.

The first place was my favourite. There was lots of nooks and crannies, different types of chairs, holes in the walls etc and there was a living room stuck to the ceiling upside down. The second place was 70’s themed and the third had fluffy pink walls. The last place we went was a techno club and outside you couldn’t even tell it was a club.

Hamburg next!

Berlin

 



The train from Amsterdam drops me off at the Haupbahnhauf (the Berlin central train station) and wow what a train station. Perth airport has nothing on this. It is 5 levels of McDonalds, Burger King, The Body Shop, a supermarket, clothes, jewellery, alcohol etc etc. It’s a freaking train station! What does Berlin airport look like if this is the train station?? So anyway, after walking around the station twice I finally found the bus and headed to the hostel. At the hostel, I got a welcome drink – cup of coffee and then the girl sat down with me and a map of Berlin and asked what I wanted to see. One: my room and a shower. Two: As someone who had done no research on Berlin at all, I answered, “The Berlin Wall and a chocolate factory”. Since then, I have learnt that a little bit of research is always welcome and that I need to go back to Berlin because there are a lot more things I want to see.

The next day I went on a walking tour and we took in a fancy German neighbourhood not bombed during the war,

A park with a waterfall in summer, from where you can see a spy tower the Americans built during the Cold War,

And the biggest hill in Berlin. Fun fact: it is manmade. After the war, there was a lot of rubble so they dumped it all in this one pile, then planted trees all over it and now it is the biggest hill in Berlin. I really respect the straightforwardness of the German's solution.

We also went to the Turkish markets where I purchased some freshly made Turkish Delight (very good), the Christmas markets where I purchased a chocolate coated banana  and a carnival theme park thing where I tried my first gluwein! Gluwein is warmed wine. It wasn’t that good but I had more the next night (when in Rome!) and it came in a boot and you got to keep your boot!!

We also walked along what is left of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, my camera has begun the awful process of dying and so, of course, I have heaps and heaps of scenic pictures taken from the train but none of the historical and meaningful Berlin Wall. This is pretty much what it was like though.


Auf Wiedersehen!