PiÃ³ro » Germany

Just in time for Christmas

Matthew Pioro — Tue, 24 Dec 2002 01:05:21 +0000

Here come a whack of pics. These photos cover the bulk of our stay in Poland, including school, and our second foray into Germany. Just click the Pics button to the right and pick Collection 5. And here’s a special Christmas treat for everyone—especially those on dial-up—all the of these images are Web optimised. I know, I know, it’s about time!

The final leg

Martha Heckman — Fri, 29 Nov 2002 19:55:56 +0000

So the train from Wrocław to Hamburg was dope. 2nd class but we felt like royalty: foot room, free chocolate. Bye-bye bleak East, hello glittery West. Tobi, thanks for letting us crash and disrupt your studies in beautiful Hamburg. Props to the peeps in your flat. The train to Kempten to see Kate was a 14 hour marathon. Bye-bye high speed inter-city, hello discount regional travel. But the seven stop-overs and the cool conversation thanks to Stephan, made time fly. In Kempten we had beer for breakfast (we are told it’s the thing to do), went on day trips to the Alps, and saw some crazy fairytale castles. Kate, thanks for letting us crash. Flo, the food was great and thanks for letting us cook up pictures on your computer. Then it was off to see Michelle in Grenoble, France, a cool little French town in the Alps. It’s a town that breaks all the French stereotypes: the people are friendly and don’t get insulted when you try and speak French to them. Michelle and Andreas, thanks for letting us crash. Props to your peeps. From there, it was Paris for a night and Charles de Gaul Airport in the morning.

Iâ€™m a bad, bad son

Matthew Pioro — Wed, 20 Nov 2002 16:06:09 +0000

I forgot my mother’s birthday. I knew it was coming. In fact, two days before, while Martha and I were on the train from Wrocław to Hamburg, I remember saying, “I have to email my mom in two days.” And did I? No. Instead, I was wandering around the Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s red-light district. A friend walked me down Herbertstrasse, a small block only open to guys over eighteen (no, I wasn’t IDed). No women are allowed to walk down the street, which is odd, ‘cause there were lots of women in the windows waving to me. They were all wearing tight clothes, from leather to PVC. Still, it wasn’t as outrageous as I’d hoped. I’ve seen episodes of Bleu Nuit that were more risqué. So I wandered around this den of sin without one though of my mom. Looks like Freud was wrong…

On our way out

Matthew Pioro — Mon, 11 Nov 2002 09:53:14 +0000

So after a week of letting all the school drain out of our systems, we left Kraków for the south of Poland. Zakopane is essentially Whistler, Poland, but cuter. I’m sure this place is just overrun during the summer hiking season and the winter skiing season. November is neither of these. Our converstation at the tourist info place went like this:
“So are any of the ski hills open?”
“No, there isn’t enough snow.”
“The hiking trails then, they’re open?”
“Some, maybe, there’s too much snow. You’ll have to ask at [this other tourist office that knows stuff about the mountain conditions].”
“Okay, how about the funiculars.” (There is one to the top of Mt. Gubałówka and another to the top of Mt. Kasprowy.)
“No, one is closed for the week, the other is closed for the month.”
“Um, right. Okay, how about the Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz Theatre?” (Famous for launching the theatre of the absurd in Poland.)
“No, closed until Christmas.”
“Are there any galleries or museums?”
“Yes, here’s a list. But they are all closed today and tomorrow.”
“Great. Thanks.”
“Enjoy your stay in Zakopane.”
Despite these hurdles we had a wicked time. We got some funky 70’s style room in a house and spent three days hiking in the snow covered valleys of the Polish Tatras. Gorgeous. On our last day, we even acquired a guide dog. Some random puppy thought he’d walk us through two of the western valleys. Nice doggy. We thought about puppy-napping him.
Then it was off to Wrocław. Beautiful, hip city, with miserable weather. More snow. Back in full traveller mode, looking at churches, museums and galleries.
So that’s it for the land of pierogi. In an hour we are headed for Hamburg.

Martha and Matthew, where are you?!

Matthew Pioro — Thu, 15 Aug 2002 09:28:49 +0000

Here’s the big up-date on our humble travels. I did mention in a previous blog that we were in Vienna, Austria, but let me tell ya how we got there.

From Istanbul, we wanted to go to Budapest. However, we didn’t fancy the train ride through Bulgaria (where I think we needed visas, not a good thing to find out at the last minute!) and Romania, which would have taken roughly 33 hours. Some Swedish lads we met in Rome did this trip. They said it’s hard to make friends with the Bulgarian border guards. So we flew. The cheapest flight on Turkish Air was to Vienna. Talk about culture shock when we landed. We left a city of 16 million, where everyone wanted to sell us a carpet. There were always calls of “Yes, please. Yes, please. Hello my friend,” as we walked down the street. When we got to Vienna, it seemed like a ghost town, where no one j-walks (Martha did her best to teach them.) Still, Vienna was cool. Big on the haute-culture tip.

Then it was off to Győr, Hungary. Smallish tourist town with some industry around the edges. The cheapest digs we could find the town were at the university campus. The student dorms were bleak, in that crumbly Cold War kitsch kinda way. Many vandals tried to brighten up the place with graffiti. The hallways were barely lit and herds of uniformed Hungarian cleaning ladies would cruise the halls every morning. Martha and I spent one morning trying to dodge them on the way out. There is only so much smiling and nodding you can do as some cute little old lady babbles in a language that isn’t related to anything else in Europe.

Budapest next. There we scored a sweet place. It was a full on flat, complete with shared kitchen and bathroom. We didn’t have to do much sharing because we didn’t have neighbours for most of the stay. In Budapest we celebrated two months of travelling. We were warned about the two month mark. Friends said that’s when things start to get rough. Well, they were right. Both Martha and I were tired and grumpy through most of our stay in Budapest. Sometimes a city can totally suffer at the hands of your mood. Not Budapest. Our flat also had the Cartoon Network. We saw Kate, Martha’s sister, who was taking advantage of all those German holidays. It was cool seeing a familiar face, if only for a short time.

Off to Berlin on an over-night train. Everything got locked up before we fell asleep! Berlin is über-cool. It’s got such a good vibe. Even the street lights ooze history. We saw the Brandenburg Scaffolding (the Gate is covered up for repairs, the scaffolding is a once in a lifetime thing!), bits of the old Berlin Wall and Men in Black II in the new Sony Centre. Our beds were in old East Berlin at a gigantic hostel, perfect for those who need to hear a lot Bob Marley or hang out with affected thrift-store fashionistas. Our time in Berlin was divided between seeing the sights and trying to arrange things for St. Petersburg (which is still going on here in Finland). We found out the hard way that travel agents actually know very little about travelling. “We only do plane tickets.” is a common response. Most of the info we needed we found (surprise!) on the Interweb. So, when our time wasn’t wasted by silly plane ticket agents, we were surfing (sadly not blogging). They did get us a cheep flight to Helsinki though.