Blog 4 - welcome to the language barrier!!!

BLOG 4 Poland and the Czech Republic

Hi all. It's 6pm in the evening where we are, early morning in Melbourne. We've been on a train all day, probably the last train for a while. Thought I'd make a start on catching up on the last couple of countries we've been to since the last blog (yeah, that doesn't sound weird at all!)

We left completely satisfied with Berlin, fairly well rested, got some runs in, ate and drank more than we should etc. Kids even did some homework!!!! On the train to Warsaw we sat with a German guy and we spoke for about an hour completely in German! It was probably exasperating for him, and exhausting for me, but at least a realisation that six years of schooling wasn't completely wasted!

 

Warsaw was the hardest place we've encountered so far and the least English language-friendly place (I feel like such a snob saying that). Signs were rarely in English, people were often (not always though) well intentioned. Taxi driver took us to our accommodation. It was the cheapest AirBNB we've used so far...only a few tram stops from the old city, but really basic - oven had dirty dishes, no wifi though promised, beds like concrete, but the guy who owned it was so well meaning and told us of his life through the hard times in Warsaw, we kind of just sucked it up. In the morning, Renae went for a run and got lost, I caught a bus...and got lost...

But ALL that aside, the Stare Miasto (old city) was beautiful and we spent every night there eating, drinking, enjoying the music, drinking, shopping and drinking. We even had a drink or two...

 

I stole away for an afternoon to the Polish Poster Museum (no, don't switch off, polish art and design is incredible - check out the pictures!), we took the kids to the Copernicus Museum, which as Renae put it, was Scienceworks on Steroids. Very hands on, kids loved it despite the hour queue initially. Saw a really basic planetarium show and if we'd looked carefully we could have seen one probably written by a friend of ours (sorry Tanya!).

 

 

 

Polish food was a highlight: pierogi (Billies favourite), hunter stew, Sour sausage and egg soup, potato...everything!

 

 

Polish poster museum

After Warsaw we went south to Krakow. Walking into the sunshine, having a sandwich in the park at the outer wall of the old city, we agreed that we preferred Krakow in the first 30mins than the whole three days in Warsaw. Me with a front and back pack and the girls wheeling their packs, we looked like a mother duck and their ducklings! We wheeled to our accommodation (again AirBNB, similar price, same issues...I felt I would never get more than two hours uninterrupted sleep again, with all of the sirens, screaming, trams...)

Krakow is beautiful, and knows it too. Tourists know it as well, because they were everywhere. The main square in the old city is amazing. Quite big, the architecture, statues and churches were stunning. It was nice just to sit on a chair with a coffee and watch the people. Girls did a horse ride around the sites while absorbed free wifi and applied for jobs in the UK.

 

 

We did two outings. One was a trip to the salt mines in Wielicska We did this over two days as Billie was sick on day one and she and renae went the following day. It was an unusual place to see. You travelled a long way underground and the guide (who was hilarious...a bit like Natasha from Boris and Natasha) told you about the history of the salt mine and how they mined it, but they had also created these amazing sculptures and whole rooms, including two chapels!

 

 

The other outing (for want of a better word) was Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was a stunning day when we went and the countryside we passed on the hour it took to get there was lush and tranquil. It seemed almost ironic as we walked through the camps - seeing the Arbeit Macht Frei sign, standing in the chambers, seeing the piles and piles and piles and PILES of suitcases, shoes, shaving brushes...all the hair.

Our guide left us with the words "do not forget this place" and it is something I know I will never forget. It was hard to gauge the girls reactions. I think a lot of it simply was beyond their scope of reasoning. I guess they're not alone with that.

 

 

 

So in the desire to get a good nights sleep, we decided on a sleeper car from Krakow to Prague. Best we could do was a midnight change of trains in Katowice, and then on from there. Jessie got a blood nose in the middle of the night...and the we were in Prague!!!

 

Breakfast overlooking the George Bridge up to the castle, watching the swans, all very quiet. Prague rivals maybe Paris as the most beautiful city in the world. No question. None...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We checked into our hostel (that Jessie chose, so she knew it was riding on her!) in a family room...and immediately booked another two days. It was an unreal place to stay. There was a guitar and piano (ahhhh), there were activities every night and the kids were part of them all (making soup, spaghetti, there was Czech beer tasting...okay they didn't do that!). We made some great Facebook friends and it was nice for Renae and I to talk to adult human beings that weren't each other.

 

 

Another walking tour, again split over two days due to general exhaustion. Our guide was the lovely Andrea, who had a Czech mother and Slovak father, from Czechoslovakian grandparents, so understood the conflicting history and gave a great factual (how the hell do they remember those DATES) and personal details. We are remembering to give feedback to Trip Advisor, Hostels International and airBNB about our experiences - anyone who travels should do the same.

 

 

The main square was again amazing, not that you could see it through the vendors, horses and tourists (bloody tourists!!). And walking along the George Bridge was a bit like leaving the MCG just after the siren. So it's not too surprising that my highlights were my 7am run through the city, when I had it to myself - just me, the other runners, guys with tripods (no way you can use a tripod during the day)...and brides getting their photos done...yup, that's normal! That, and the time in the hostel, and just walking around a timeless, magical, majestic city...oh, and the Jewish cemetery (see comparison of Jewish cemetery and Berlin memorial below)...and definitely the cheap beer!!! Jessie and Renae would say the Segway tour...why walk when you can Segway!!

 

 

 

Okay, so now we are in...Vienna (insert Ultravox boom boom-boom, pow-pow reference there). It's Friday night, we pick up a car Sunday and HIT THE ROAD!!!!! The EuropeanCaravans are going Thelma and Louise! But first, there's a "Third Man" museum to see ( you've never seen the film? Hire it straight away - Orson Welles, best final scene in a film ever) and free wifi to exploit.

 

I'll stop here as Im noticing that my blogs are becoming Rowling-esque and getting bigger with each one. We are missing you all. Any contact is good contact. Wish us luck as we navigate the wrong side of the road.

Love from the EuropeanCaravans!!!

 

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Blog 3 - Leipzig, Berlin and the great recalibration

Blog 3 - "Leipzig, Berlin and the great recalibration"

From the people that bought you "Harry Potter and the..." No not really...

This is a bit of a catch up blog, reminding you (and me) of what we did last week! Currently I'm in a Krakowian (I'm sure that's a word) cafe, sapping their free wifi, and awaiting a train to Prague (an overnighter sleeper...oohh, hoity-toity) after a week in Poland. That blog will come in a matter of days...it's basically that our accommodation promised wifi and delivered, well, not much of anything really. Zlotys don't go far these days.

Back to Leipzig, or as I like to say, "that place where we did four loads of washing"!

We had a few days there, and it was basically just to break up our train journey to Berlin. It's a pretty place, but where we stayed was a bit backwater, a fair hike to the Mitte/Altstadt/Stare Miasto...place with the pretty old buildings and town square.

Our accommodation through AirBNB (get on it if you're travelling) had cats and rabbits, which the daughters loved, but was about 2mx2m which left us a little stir crazy (more on that to follow...)

 

I had a beer called Gose, made using coriander and salt. It was a bit of a perfumey boutique experience, and I loved it after two sips, and after five sips I was a little over the experience.

 

Other than washing, renae bought a new backpack and I spend three hours trying to send her old one (plus a LOT of clothing, gee we overpacked!) back to Melbourne. It very nearly ended with me throwing it in the nearest river due to a combination of my poor German language, and Deutche Post bureaucracy. (Computer sagt "nein"!). Sharon it's on it's way back! ;)

Then there was Berlin, the highlight of the trip for me so far. We were greeted at our apartment - the view looked over the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, the reichstag and the Brandenburg gate, and Hitler committed suicide in his bunker underground about 50 metres from us.

We hit the Zoo, the biggest in Europe. I was worried we'd peaked at Singapore, but the berlin one was still great (still, our kids could go to a park with a meerkat and anorexic squirrel and find it captivating!). The aquarium was the best I'd seen though!

 

Running around the Tiergarten - the enormous parkland that makes up a good part of Berlin, was a highlight. Getting lost, not so much.

We did a four hour walking tour of the city, which (if its possible) exhausted and captivated us all, including the girls who retained almost all of it. Nikolai our guide took us through the many eras of berlin, from early settlement, to the Kaisers, to the Nazi rule and then the wall up/down and present day. It was brilliant. Girls loved the stories of escape from the "death zone", and the memorials to the book burning, Kristallnacht and Holocaust victims were so moving.

(Memorial to the holocaust...tiergarten in background)

And then we made our own chocolate...! See, something for everyone!!

 

Kept the museums to a minimum, though the Pergamon Musuem and museum island generally were amazing. We've seen a lot of things in our one month already that have the title "UNESCO heritage listed", and for that I'm grateful, and feel fortunate.

 

And the food...pig knuckles OMG (takes a lot for me to use that rather overused acronym)...and theyre quite fond of beer...in fact they are throughout Europe.

We then caught the train to Warsaw...aahh but that's for another time. Renae's off looking for an English book for Billie. Jess has embarked on Harry Potter #1, so that's her whole holiday reading taken care of!

We're still having fun, but learning that more time in less places, a bit of countryside action, meeting families at hostels, and splitting the girls up sometimes are important for everyone's ongoing sanity!

 

Post again real soon. Love to all from the Carolinvandenbergs.

 

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Blog 2 from Frankfurt

Blog 2 - the EuropeanCaravans are actually in Europe!

 

Guten abend! Week two finds us in Deutschland, and I'm having a lot of fun digging into my year 12 brain that has been dormant for so long to try and speak German to the Germans. The conversations go something like this (I've translated to pseudo-English so you get the drift!)

"Hello, how are you? Can I please get a tram ticket to Allerheiligenstrasse?"

"Have you &(): for the ~{<*%£>\ with ~#%€\?"

"Sorry, I don't understand"

"You must before #%+{ (something about left side, I think) %++€£¥\ to the end of the station"

"Er, okay thanks"

(Renae) "Did you get all that?"

(Me) "um...sure!?"

Actually I am doing slightly better than that.

 

Here are some Amman, Jordan pics:

(Selfie with roman forum in background)

 

 

We left Amman with little sleep. People certainly like honking their horns till all hours, and just as the city began to still, our alarm went off. ("Every F****in' City" by Paul Kelly - if you don't know it, download it as it's the soundtrack to our trip...just don't play it with small children around)

But there is something unique, breathtaking and heartbreaking about Amman. You feel fortunate both to have experienced somewhere like it, and also with what you have, when you see so many with so little.

Flight to Germany was okay, only that it was our fourth with Royal Jordanian and we'd all exhausted the good things to watch and listen to...though Billie seemed content to watch The Croods on every flight. There's something goldfish-like about that girl!

 

Frankfurt is a pretty city. We've seen some of the old churches, the town square which is hosting an Italian Week fair (great night sitting under the setting sun, drinking Apfelwein (basically dry cider) and eating antipasto). We visited the Museum of Modern Art which was in a fantastic building a bit like a labyrinth (which kept the kids amused once the thrill of seeing canvas bags with writing on them wore off (yes Jess it's art, no Billie it's not dumb...well...).

We also went to a museum in pitch black. It was run by visually impaired guides and the aim was for you to experience the sensation of total sight deprivation. You were guided in a group of about 8 through rooms where you needed to rely heavily on hearing and touch. You were given canes to navigate your way around. As someone who works with hearing impaired, I found it fascinating. As someone who has minor panic attacks if you are not within a metre radius of her, Billie struggled a bit!

And yep, had beers in steins, and eaten all forms of sausage. Weather's still 30's, and I know that's drawing no sympathy from the Melbournians amongst you!

Natural history museum was cool. Here's a picture of an old fossil...looking at a dinosaur (yep I'm going to pay for that one!)

 

We leave by train for Leipzig tomorrow, then on to Berlin for about a week, then over the border to Poland!

Bells are chiming, time for dinner. Bye from the EuropeanCaravans!!

 

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