Backpacking At 30: 2011

Brussels - Chocolate, Pomme Frittes and Comics

At the end of our stay in Paris, my mother headed back home to Georgia. Luke and I then continued our journey to Belgium.

We spent 3 days in Brussels with a family of four. Their home was super comfortable and the family was very hospitable. One evening we all went to eat true Belgium pomme frittes (french fries), which to be honest, tasted like normal french fries with mayonnaise.

During our time, we visited the Grand Place, which was beautiful as all of the buildings were very ornate.

Checking Off Touristy Places in Paris

We had a huge checklist of places we wanted to visit in Paris with not nearly enough time, but we were able to manage to check Notre Dame, Pere Lachaise and the Louvre off the list.

Notre Dame was lovely, and its size was quite massive. It was probably not my favorite church that we visited in Europe (my favorites were St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican- of course and St. George's church in Prague, which was simply more ornate and beautiful than words could describe), but Notre Dame was definitely impressive. Saw Notre Dame - check!

Ahhh Paaareeeee

I finally have a consistent connection to actually be able to upload pictures. Time is going by so quickly and I have so much left to blog about here in Europe. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Ahem, well our next stop was Paris. We spent a week in Paris in an amazing apartment that allowed for me to actually cook for a change. After eating out all the time, I was hankering for a good home cooked meal (bonus: I got to go to the local market to buy fresh ingredients to try out).

While in Paris, we did many typical touristy things including visiting the Eiffel Tower (of course). We went up to the top of the tower and drank champagne as we enjoyed the views.

My little guy enjoying the view

The Land of Mustard

We decided to pick a small city in France so that we could relax/recover from our time in Italy. We also thought it would be interesting to explore what a small city is like in France, so we decided on Dijon.

This mustard was awesome - it has basil leaves in it.

A Delightful Day in Florence

After we had seen Rome and had our fill of pasta and pizza, we spent a day in Florence on our way to France. In Italy they have a saying, "il dolce far niente" or "the sweetness of doing nothing". It represents that time is not something that can be spend, wasted or passed, but that it simply just IS. Every moment holds the possibility of goodness.

I have always thought of this whenever people talk about or describe Italy, but quite honestly, I never felt this or noticed this when we were in Rome.

In Florence, however, I could sense a more laid back and relaxed city. I could easily understand this phrase and see how it could be applied here.

When we arrived, we had absolutely no idea what to do or what to see. We leisurely explored the streets, visited another amazing European church, saw the statue of David and found a quaint small restaurant to eat at. While we sat and ate, they had the Beatles and Frank Sinatra (the waiter was sure to point out to us that Frank Sinatra was Italian) playing in the background. We never felt rushed to see/do anything. We found our way around and marveled at whatever came our way.

We only spend perhaps 10 hours in Florence, but instantly I could tell that this was a city that I would be more than happy to return to.

Duff man says oh-yeah!

Visiting the Vatican

What was probably my favorite day in Rome was our visit to the Vatican City. We were able to see St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. It is definitely something wondrous to see.

The churches in Europe are amazing and it is interesting to see how each country has a different style of architecture, but they are all elaborate and have amazingly high ceilings. It's a form or art in itself.

Mama Mia!

Once we were able to escape from Venice, we found ourselves in Rome. We explored the city some and saw many of the beautiful monuments scattered around the city. Of course, we did the typical touristy stuff: visited the Colloseum, Vatican city, and ate pizza and pasta.

But, what also made this part our trip different is that my mother met us there to visit Italy and France with us!

Venice: Been There, Done That.....Next!

Let me preface this post by saying that Venice is a beautiful city, or at least for the first 5 minutes.

Before I start my potential rant about Venice, let's first talk about our overnight train journey to Venice. There was this romanticized idea of what an overnight train experience would be like as neither Luke nor I had ever experienced it before, but um, it was not that at all. Most of all, they are loud and impossible to sleep in.

Before Ze Germans Get Here

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Good internet is hard to find, but hopefully I will be able to catch up this week to our current location (WHICH IS PARIS BTW!).

Our next stop on our whirlwind tour was Vienna. Time for some wiener schnitzel and itty bitty sausages.

We only stayed for one day, but it was a really good day. We were able to explore the city, visit a museum and find an awesome restaurant to eat at. It is a really pretty city and has that good ole german ingenuity. It was easy to find our way around.

Try to prounouce this....I dare you.

Going to the Prague Zoo - Oh Yeah!

After constant traveling and seeing monument after monument, old building after old building, it is easy to become desensitized to the different cities and sights. So we decided to do something different, we went to the zoo.

It was so interesting and cool because there were so many different animals that we have never seen before. Of course though, one of the first things we saw were flamingos, not really so exotic for Floridians:

I Heart Prague (^o^)

Our next stop was in the most awesomest city ever! PRAGUE. We decided to travel via a day train to enjoy the countryside. When Luke went to the dining cart to get a beer, he wanted something authentic, a REAL Czech beer, and this is what they gave him.

Hehehehehehe.

Krakow in a Nutshell

Our next stop on the itinerary was Krakow, Poland. We arrived and stayed in our first hostel, Mama's Hostel. What an experience. On our first night, we got zero sleep, mostly because some guy was trying to get into some girl's bed and they were arguing the whole time. Then somewhere around 6am, someone woke everyone up to crash a Polish wedding. I am still not quite sure what that was all about.

We decided to change to a more private room, but in our time there we met some very interesting people from New York, Netherlands, Canada and Australia. It was definitely a new experience, both good and um, not so good (I like my sleep).

What was cool about the city was the main square, where there were more restaurants and cafes than you could imagine many street performances throughout the night.

While in Krakow, we visited the Salt Mines, Auschwitz and Wawel Castle. The city is very beautiful and I would want to return to spend more time there as 4 days was simply not enough. Here are some pics from our stay there. Warning: this is a very heavy photog post.

Making it to Morskie Oko

I am quite far behind in blog posts as we had lost internet for a short period. While we were in Zakopane, we were determined to see Morkie Oko, which is an amazing lake at the top of a mountain. To get there, iit requires about 3 hours walking.

Mountain Climbing in Zakopane

While in Zakopane, we knew that we would be doing some hiking in the mountains. Our first venture was to Kasprowy Wierch, which is a famous peak in the Tatra Mountains. We did have a little help from a cable car though :). Once we reached the top, we were able to climb higher and enjoy some amazing views. Pictures could not capture how awesome the place really was, but here are some anyways.

Festivals and Fireworks

We planned our visit to Zakopane to coincide with the International Festival of Mountain Folklore. The festival included performances from folk dance groups from around the world. They took a park and made a "village" that included different food vendors, crafts and of course alcohol. WOOT!

The 12 Days of Zakopane

We have been in Zakopane, Poland for almost 12 days, which is the longest stay on our Euro trip. First of all, Zakopane is beautiful. It is a mountain resort town (very touristy), with horse drawn carriages, people dressed up as characters (I even saw Toadwart from Gummi Bears), cute houses and kitschy souvenir markets.

Big Trouble in Little Minibus

Though I have talked a bit about the cities that we have visited thus far, I have not yet mentioned how we are traveling between cities. While in Poland, we have been taking buses as they are fairly cheap and can be faster than taking trains.

But when I say bus, I really mean a mini bus not much larger than a cargo van with seats that must be made for children based upon how small they are. There is no air conditioning. There is no bathroom. That brings us to our next adventure: Taking an overnight bus to Zakopane, Poland.

Over the River and Through the Woods.....

Our next stop was in Zamosc, Poland, which is a small city not far from Lublin. Here we stayed with Luke's grandmother and cousin in the center of the old town.

Even though this was the first time I had met them, I felt as though they were family. Babcia Wanda welcomed us into her home and Kuba always insisted on helping us with anything we needed. Language was definitely a barrier for me here as many times (ok most of the time), I needed Luke to translate. Fortunately, Kuba spoke some English and was able to help with the translation.

Luke with Babcia Wanda and Kuba

Lublin Part Deux

For your viewing pleasure, here are some more photos from our time in Lublin. Enjoy!

Celebrating Lublin Style

Our second stop was in Lublin, the city where Luke was born. We expected to have a quiet stay in Lublin, perhaps meet up with an old friend while there. When we arrived, we realized that our visit coincided with a Renaissance festival, a holy holiday and Remembrance Day (similar to Veteren's Day). FTW!

The renaissance festival had a very different feel from the festivals in Florida. Well for one, you do not have people riding large roosters through the town.

Warsaw - Part II

On our second full day in Warsaw, we planned on meeting with Kasia (Luke's cousin) for dinner. We set out to explore the city and see what we would find. Plus we were able to get more familiar with the public transportation system, which can be quite confusing between the buses, trams and metro train, even when you have the map!

Old Town

This is the Palace of Culture

Uwaga! Uwaga!

After what seemed to be an endless day of exhausting travel, we finally arrived in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday night. We found our way to our hotel (the Westin) and we were so happy to get a good night sleep. I guess that may have been too much to ask.

First thing in the morning, we are woken up by an extremely loud alarm, saying "Uwaga, Uwaga (Attention, Attention)....and a bunch of other polish words that I did not understand." It was a fire alarm and of course we are in our pajamas ON THE 9TH FLOOR! By the time we made it to the 1st floor, an announcement was made that it was a false alarm. ugh! Welcome to Warsaw.

New Beginnings

This being the first post of my blog, I thought it would be good to tell you a bit about myself and my upcoming journey. After living in Florida for all of my life, my husband and I have decided to leave our current life behind to start anew in Canada. On our way to Canada, we decided, why not backpack through Europe (and yes I do know that Europe is not on the way to Canada). This is a collection of adventures that we will experience through Europe and beyond.

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Backpacking At 30