Saturday, 11 July 2009

Wroclaw: Get this, pronounced Broats Claw



There is a place here where you pay based on how much your food weighs. It's half price after 8 pm. I haven't spent more than 4 american dollars on a meal since I have been in Poland. On average, my budget is like $8 a day, getting coffee and beer and food out. It's awesome.
Wraclow is prettier and bigger then Poznan. I have been walking around the city all day and keep finding new and nicer things to look at. It's weird though, there is the huge market square with insanely old looking buildings and then right next to it is a huge mall with an all glass exterior. The whole city is like that, old against new.
I have yet to meet an American in Poland. I heard some Canadians talking about Manatoba, but that's as close as it comes. And instead of asking if I speak English when I shake my head in confusion, they offer Russian first.

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Poznan: Pronounced Pots-nan

Poznan:
The city center is gorgeous. Big clock tower,
lots of churches around.
I had some polish food: Cabbage, Pork and Boiled Potatoes.

This has to be one of the best stories yet though. Pawel, my host asks if I want to try some Polish beer. After we buy it, it goes in my bag. We pass a guy being questioned by police, he says it's because the guy is drinking and
it is illegal on Polish streets.
We get to the river, he says it's ok to drink here, no one comes here, you can see police from miles away.
I put down my empty can and wouldn't you know it...undercover police. My thought process is something like "I'm being deported. No one can speak English here. They are goi
ng to detain me."
I don't know if Pawel said it was his or they just couldn't give me a ticket because I wasn't Polish. They did
look at my ID though. Anyway, Pawel got a ticket, I got nothing.
Have a place lined up for Wraclow, pretty excited to get to a bigger city.
Oh, and I love and miss you all very much.

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I write to you from Poznan, Poland.
Today, Caroline made me pancakes for breakfast. They were served with macademia nut honey.
I then got my haircut. It's a lot cooler, a little shorter and a little bit more like a mullet again :)
I took a train from Berlin to Poznan where I am staying with a young guy with dred locks and his sister. I am looking forward to days and days of perogies.

Monday, 6 July 2009

Sauerkraut

Today I ate Sauerkraut. I normally hate the stuff, but here it is quite nice.
I was planning on going to Hitler's Bunker, but turns out the Russians turned it into a parking lot.

Sunday, 5 July 2009

Happy Fourth

I met some American's in a toy shop today. I wished them a happy fourth. It made my day.

Today's activities included breakfast, open market, toy shop where they had miniature everything--like miniature sewing machines, miniature food trays, toilet paper, instruments, delicious cup cakes with milk, and saute over fries at a dutch restaurant. Ya, so mostly food. But nice food.

I also wanted to briefly comment on how nice Berlin's trains are. I think they are twice as wide as New York Metro and the train stations are quite clean. The chairs are all cushioned and covered in cloth, so the seats are comfortable. They also have a tram and bus system so I am pretty sure you would never need to walk any where, but we still did walk a lot.

Saturday, 4 July 2009

Berlin: Round 2


Well, here I am. Back in Germany. I woke up from my 1.5 nap at 3:30 this morning to catch my fligh
t from Edinburgh to Berlin. I met 5 guys from Ohio--they attend Miami--in the airport who were also on my flight. The Ohio love made my day. I caught all the right trains and made it to my destination without getting lost.
Caroline and Max are so great. I am so happy to see them again. When I arrived they gave me some iced mint tea, we went and got bagels, Caroline scheduled me an appointment to get my hair cut and we got the beer I loved the most here last time, raspberry flavored. So treaty.
We rode past the remains of the Berlin wall again and ate some German pasta/potato combo for dinner. Oh, and Caroline bake
d a cake.




Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Nice People

These are some of the people I have made friends with whilst I was here.


Ruari...Somehow, Ruari has been to Ada more than I have. He worked there like three summers in a row and by chance was friends with some of my friends. He was the one who took me to Arthur's Seat and introduced me to some fun new spots.




Alison....has a car. And she showed me all of Scotland in it. Alison is Scotland. With her I played highland games, drank irn bru and tea, saw sheep in the road and ate haggis. She has traveled every where and has become completely invaluable.














Lauren...Midwest Love. Lauren is married to Alex who I couchsurfed with last summer. Lauren was my go to girl and pretty much kept me occuppied like 70% of the time I was here.















Rob...kiwi. Fellow couchsurfer. We met while playing frisbee. He lives with three spanish people and introduced me to a plethera of drinking games. He also cooked for me. Which makes him a winner.















And Luis....Luis and I met on one of Alison's adventures. Spanish and more full of life than, like, anyone. He took me salsa dancing and pretty much made my life. He dipped me. Like proper, movie dancing dips.