So back now in Germany at Sandra's place in Karlsruhe, and another 3 nights before I flew out of Europe.
They had a plan for our time, generally centred around food, which was all good with me. Dinner once I arrived on the first night. The next day, which was not overly sunny in the end we went to the lake to relax and swim, and that night a BBQ in the park. Monday was the trip to France, Starbourg to be exact, which was like an hours drive away, and then Tuesday making spring rolls to gear up for Asia, and me attempting to pack my bags again....
The lake was nice, seeing as where they are in Germnay is very far from the sea, I think nearest coast was Italy, the lake is filled with people, but had some nice surrounding park area to lie down, the water was a little cool due to it being a cloudy day, but it was refreshing definitely.
That evening we went to the park to BBQ, very nice evening sitting around, although the park wasn't so lit, so you had to cook, eat and pack out before it got dark around 9pm.
For Strasbourg, was nice to see some French again, although English and German generally spoken everywhere, potentially due to Germnay being so close and the place used to be German at least a few times.
It a nice old town centre though, of course the required spiral stairs to walk up and get the view, and outside the old town centre you can see a lot of the European Union buildings.
The target of the day however was to find some flammekucken (tartes flammbes) for dinner, and so at around 5-6pm we headed out of the city centre looking for a smaller village on the way back to Germany to have it.
However, driving through we found absolutely nothing.....whenever something was open it never had what we wanted! Eventually after asking at a pub, we were told places are never really open before 7pm and there was a place down the road from where we were.
So after a drink to pass the time to 7pm, sure enough once we walked back, it was not only open but getting very full! We got our flammekuchen, which is like a very thin pizza base, with bacon and onion and sauce on it, also we got a traditional and a couple varieties with cheese, very tasty, as was the local Alsace rose wine we had with it.
After that we drove back into Germany and the day in France was over, still very cool though that you can drive to another country for a day
Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/20090825Strasbourg#
Friday, September 4, 2009
Poland - Krakow and Surrounds
So arrived into Krakow main train station at like 5.30am with kind of reasonable sleep, but my check in at the hostel wasn't until like 12pm. Luckily it wasn't too far a walk with my bag, and I could dump all my stuff and have some breakfast there before heading out to walk around old Krakow town at like 7am.
Was actually really nice as there were not that many people out and it was nice and peaceful, later in the day when all the tourists emerged, the place was packed to the brim, so not the nicest, and as all old town centres are now, pretty much packed with cafes and restaurants.
But I walked around a lot if the inner city, through the Jewish quarter, around and over the river, down to the castle, which is more a wall with other buildings inside, doesn't seem like a castle castle, they do have a cave as an escape point though which was cool.
Also wandered through some churches and climbed more spiral stairs, always plenty of spiral stairs to be found.
The next day I was heading out of the city to visit Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt mine.
Auschwitz was very strange, compared to the other concentration camp I have been to in Austria, which was very interesting, actually you could gather the meaning behind it being left for rememberance, Auschwitz was like a strange theme park, there were just so so many people, tour buses, tour guides with specified audio channels for your language, made it strange.
I understand why they need to let in all people who want to see it and so the message of its huge cruelty and mistreatment of people should not be repeated, but it almost made it lose its point.
Birkenau was a big better to get this sense, possibly the bigger more empty space of what once was gave more room to think, but I think it spread the people out also
Was actually really nice as there were not that many people out and it was nice and peaceful, later in the day when all the tourists emerged, the place was packed to the brim, so not the nicest, and as all old town centres are now, pretty much packed with cafes and restaurants.
But I walked around a lot if the inner city, through the Jewish quarter, around and over the river, down to the castle, which is more a wall with other buildings inside, doesn't seem like a castle castle, they do have a cave as an escape point though which was cool.
Also wandered through some churches and climbed more spiral stairs, always plenty of spiral stairs to be found.
The next day I was heading out of the city to visit Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt mine.
Auschwitz was very strange, compared to the other concentration camp I have been to in Austria, which was very interesting, actually you could gather the meaning behind it being left for rememberance, Auschwitz was like a strange theme park, there were just so so many people, tour buses, tour guides with specified audio channels for your language, made it strange.
I understand why they need to let in all people who want to see it and so the message of its huge cruelty and mistreatment of people should not be repeated, but it almost made it lose its point.
Birkenau was a big better to get this sense, possibly the bigger more empty space of what once was gave more room to think, but I think it spread the people out also
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Slovakia
And then into Slovakia, where I was to be for six nights, and luckily thanks to my flatmate in Ghana, who is Slovakian, leaving Ghana a couple of weeks before I did, I had someone to show me around the whole time and so my time was very maximised.
Flew into the capital, Bratislava, and I can again see examples of how different New Zealand cities and towns are to other countries. We have a slightly smaller overall population than Slovakia, and yet Auckland is a much larger city, due to our bizarre over urbanisation in one place, and our lack of really any type of large apartment blocks in density, and lack of smaller older town centre.
Which is what this city has, kind of outer suburbs, which are still quite apartmenty, and inner denser apartment areas, along with the old town centre.
Spent the afternoon walking through here, and enjoying nice cold drinks, as for pretty much all my time in Slovakia, I found it very very hot during the day, and freezing at night.
Also interesting to see, after excessive Coke drinking in Ghana with the heat, and it being a pretty commonm cheap drink in NZ as well, still cheaper than milk I assume, that its like premium product here, pretty much as they have their own alternative which initially I found nice but not very sweet, but even their Coke to match has equal levels of unsweetness, so prefered the local alternative.
Also fantastic for the day heatness was the cheapness of ice cream , like 50 cents per scoop, totally awesome, even if Smurf flavour didn't quite live up to expectations, all others were good.
Anyways...next place was to a village where there was a music festival on, of which the main act was the Offspring....where I knew more songs of theirs than I thought I would so all good, also fascinating to look around at all the different types of people turning up to this kind of thing, seeing as some of the other act were Slovakian punk and more I don't think I listened that closely to...
Next day were off again, by bus and train, which was interesting cos like thousands were all trying to leave at the same time by bus from this place, to the home town of my friend, from where we were able to spend like the whole day going around and visiting castles.
First was the 'newer' of the castles, still in ruin, but good enough that they renovated it for people to look through and get a good idea, and its on a place with amazing view of the surrounding area. Including down to the river right below, from which we took a boat trip, you have to look at the photos, as I can't describe the boast well, and the photos probably don't help much, but its just like a flat piece of interlocked wood, with tiny tiny sides, but it worked well enough andwe got through.
Then walked through to the older of the ruined castles, which was in a very good state of ruin, like incredible to try and imagine how it must have once been used, even where a floor possibly could have been!
Next day was the beginning of the more serious walking, and a test as to how well my feet and legs were going to function on hills after the practical flatness of Ghana, and was well tested first up with a nice steep slope to get to a cave, a dry cave which seemed like it didn't go anywhere but couldn't have kept going and going I suppose of you were flexible enough...
Luckily the next ruined castle I didn't have to carry up the backpack, so made my feet a whole lot lighter, so not such a demanding hill, but still another cool ruin, not idea how it would have functioned.
The afternoon, got some quick Slovak culture at this open air museum where they've bought togther the different houses and buildings from all the regions and constructed them again into a mini village, very cute wooden houses.
Then time to move on to the next town, which was my friend's university town, Banska Bystrica
From here the next morning we caught a train to the middle of nowhere-ish but where there was an ice cave, which was very cool, both literally and figuratively......
And this started out our big day of walking, we had to cover like 7 hours to get to the next place where we were to catch a bus, so an interesting test for me, cos even though I walked a lot in Ghana, not so much with hills and only in jandels, hadn't really worn covered shoes, let alone hiking boots in months! There was agony in the feet by the time I finished, but was totally worth it and by the next day my feet had recovered so all good.
The walk went through the Slovak Paradise National park, which has very cool walks where you follow a river bed, which needs ladders and walkways to help you get through the different places such as up the like 50m waterfall, oh and not so much water is coming down while you go up.
At the end of this day we had made it to Poprad and from here the next day we went in the morning to the High Tatras, starting at one lake and walking through to another, very very beautiful, especially so as it was nice summer days. Possibly why there were so many people out around walking the trails also, quite possible we walked past like hundreds on our 2 hours or so journey from lake to lake to train stop.
The afternoon was then castle visiting time, and this one was a lot bigger and a lot more fixed than all the others, they has put back in a lot of floor, and it had helpful audio guides and all, in the gift shops you could even buy African masks from Ghana! Don't ask me why......
After the visit to the castle though it was time to head back to Poprad and say goodbye for me to get on my train towards Poland. Possibly one of the coldest train rides I have ever had, thank god for my sleeping bag, or its possible I may have frozen to death!
And so ended my time in Slovakia, beautiful country and very lucky I could fit in so much in so little time as had someone to show me around and figure out all the buses, trains, times etc.
Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/20090820Slovakia#
Apologies cos my photo taking again, never can effectively capture the full picture, but I try.....
Flew into the capital, Bratislava, and I can again see examples of how different New Zealand cities and towns are to other countries. We have a slightly smaller overall population than Slovakia, and yet Auckland is a much larger city, due to our bizarre over urbanisation in one place, and our lack of really any type of large apartment blocks in density, and lack of smaller older town centre.
Which is what this city has, kind of outer suburbs, which are still quite apartmenty, and inner denser apartment areas, along with the old town centre.
Spent the afternoon walking through here, and enjoying nice cold drinks, as for pretty much all my time in Slovakia, I found it very very hot during the day, and freezing at night.
Also interesting to see, after excessive Coke drinking in Ghana with the heat, and it being a pretty commonm cheap drink in NZ as well, still cheaper than milk I assume, that its like premium product here, pretty much as they have their own alternative which initially I found nice but not very sweet, but even their Coke to match has equal levels of unsweetness, so prefered the local alternative.
Also fantastic for the day heatness was the cheapness of ice cream , like 50 cents per scoop, totally awesome, even if Smurf flavour didn't quite live up to expectations, all others were good.
Anyways...next place was to a village where there was a music festival on, of which the main act was the Offspring....where I knew more songs of theirs than I thought I would so all good, also fascinating to look around at all the different types of people turning up to this kind of thing, seeing as some of the other act were Slovakian punk and more I don't think I listened that closely to...
Next day were off again, by bus and train, which was interesting cos like thousands were all trying to leave at the same time by bus from this place, to the home town of my friend, from where we were able to spend like the whole day going around and visiting castles.
First was the 'newer' of the castles, still in ruin, but good enough that they renovated it for people to look through and get a good idea, and its on a place with amazing view of the surrounding area. Including down to the river right below, from which we took a boat trip, you have to look at the photos, as I can't describe the boast well, and the photos probably don't help much, but its just like a flat piece of interlocked wood, with tiny tiny sides, but it worked well enough andwe got through.
Then walked through to the older of the ruined castles, which was in a very good state of ruin, like incredible to try and imagine how it must have once been used, even where a floor possibly could have been!
Next day was the beginning of the more serious walking, and a test as to how well my feet and legs were going to function on hills after the practical flatness of Ghana, and was well tested first up with a nice steep slope to get to a cave, a dry cave which seemed like it didn't go anywhere but couldn't have kept going and going I suppose of you were flexible enough...
Luckily the next ruined castle I didn't have to carry up the backpack, so made my feet a whole lot lighter, so not such a demanding hill, but still another cool ruin, not idea how it would have functioned.
The afternoon, got some quick Slovak culture at this open air museum where they've bought togther the different houses and buildings from all the regions and constructed them again into a mini village, very cute wooden houses.
Then time to move on to the next town, which was my friend's university town, Banska Bystrica
From here the next morning we caught a train to the middle of nowhere-ish but where there was an ice cave, which was very cool, both literally and figuratively......
And this started out our big day of walking, we had to cover like 7 hours to get to the next place where we were to catch a bus, so an interesting test for me, cos even though I walked a lot in Ghana, not so much with hills and only in jandels, hadn't really worn covered shoes, let alone hiking boots in months! There was agony in the feet by the time I finished, but was totally worth it and by the next day my feet had recovered so all good.
The walk went through the Slovak Paradise National park, which has very cool walks where you follow a river bed, which needs ladders and walkways to help you get through the different places such as up the like 50m waterfall, oh and not so much water is coming down while you go up.
At the end of this day we had made it to Poprad and from here the next day we went in the morning to the High Tatras, starting at one lake and walking through to another, very very beautiful, especially so as it was nice summer days. Possibly why there were so many people out around walking the trails also, quite possible we walked past like hundreds on our 2 hours or so journey from lake to lake to train stop.
The afternoon was then castle visiting time, and this one was a lot bigger and a lot more fixed than all the others, they has put back in a lot of floor, and it had helpful audio guides and all, in the gift shops you could even buy African masks from Ghana! Don't ask me why......
After the visit to the castle though it was time to head back to Poprad and say goodbye for me to get on my train towards Poland. Possibly one of the coldest train rides I have ever had, thank god for my sleeping bag, or its possible I may have frozen to death!
And so ended my time in Slovakia, beautiful country and very lucky I could fit in so much in so little time as had someone to show me around and figure out all the buses, trains, times etc.
Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/20090820Slovakia#
Apologies cos my photo taking again, never can effectively capture the full picture, but I try.....
Moving on from Ghana - London
So not in Ghana any longer but will continue to write until I am actually back home. So for my two weeks in Europe which were great after coming from Africa to get back to some more normality I'll split the writing up into places.
First was a day and night in Germany, staying with a friend of mine who was in Ghana and come back to Germany about 4 months ago. I bought her some plaintain chips as a memory and some quality Nigerian movies she could reminise on.
But I was only staying here at this point for a night before moving onto London, and time was occupied with food really, lunch from a bakery with so much nice bread to choose from, together with some camembert, amazing!
But then off to London early morning the next day to try and visit the city more properly than I had before and to stay with Wayne and Emily.
London was pretty much as I remember, packed to the brim with tourists and huge amounts of people everywhere. Also wasn't prepared for the massive amount of chain stores, everywhere you went you saw the same things, practically from block to block, and not every just the international chains, but ones which I didn't realise where chains until I kept seeing the same name everywhere.
But it was good, finally got to see the Changing on the Guard which was not soo exciting, but interesting that all tourists in London practically converge on this one point at this time, and then spent most of the rest of the time walking around parts of the city I hadn't had a chance to before like Covent Garden and Soho.
And spent some time in the British Museum, in the Greek and Egypt sections, which are painfully packed with tourists, and the Africa section, which is pretty much downstairs in a basement and does not have many people going through, but was interesting, had some Ghana stuff, most of it though from Nigeria.
Was here for two nights before my next stop, which was Slovakia.
Ok, was gonna have a few photos but they refuse to upload currently so will post and try again later..
Ok they've come in now, and in random place, but hey, have the British Museum, with Greek vases, and Ghanaian kente, then me outside what I think is Buckingham Palace.... and then some part of the changing of the guards.
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