Last of Poland and start of Berlin

Ok, so you've seen a few pictures above as it has been a couple of days since my last post. I'll try to go through and explain a little about each.

So I had the last day in Poland in a place south of Krakow called Zacopane. It's a small town but was very touristy and busy as it provides a great viewpoint to see the Tatra mountain range and also has some world renowned ski jumping facilities. It was a really beatiful area and if you look closely at the mountain range profile you can see the silhouette of a famous knight (hint, he is lying down). That was an excellent last day and it was sad to say goodbye to Poland and my excellent tour guide Ania ;)

I had an 8 or so hour train ride yesterday to get to Berlin and met up with Robina there. Today was the first full day of sightseeing in Berlin and we first went to visit 'Checkpoint Charlie' to learn some of the recent history of Berlin. We next visited the biggest remaining part of the Berlin wall and you can see a photo above of me getting some action at the wall. In the afternoon we visited Charlottenburg Castle which although didn't strike me as fantastically impressive on the outside (in the scale of castles that is), the interior was truly amazing. However, no photos from that one as they're not allowed. Instead I have some photos from the grounds of the castle. They had a very beautiful garden and I've posted a photo of the 'craziest' flower I could find. Also above is a shot of the castle looking back at it over the gardens (and some body of water I can't remember the name of).

Berlin has been pretty cold and rainy which is a bit of a change from Krakow. I hope to see some better weather in the coming days here. Oh well, I think that is about it for now :)

More adventures in Krakow

Here's a picture from a crazy chapel cavern approx. 100m under the ground in a salt mine. Everything you can see is carved out of the salt and most stuff is made of salt like the chandeliers and stuff. Was a really far out place to visit and amazing to see the things you can carve out of salt.

Had a fun night out exploring a couple of bars in Krakow and the first time I've partied in this city. Once again a good bunch of people to meet and hang with from the hostel.

Today Ania had a good idea to hire some bikes and we had a lovely ride along the main river through Krakow which you can look up on the internet because I can't say it and can't be bothered getting out the character map to write the funny letter in it. As I write this I just thought I should post a pic of it so that will turn up above.


I'm going to be quite sad to say goodbye to Krakow/Poland on Monday morning but the good times will continue in Berlin as well I'm sure.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

The trip yesterday was not really about happy 'touristy' stuff. I went with Ania to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. There is a lot of disturbing stuff to see especially what happened to children there. It was also crazy to hear some more detail on the medical experiments they were performing on people (both dead and alive). So, definitely a worthwhile visit and of course any problems you have in your life tend to disappear when compared with daily life in the concentration camp. It's one of those places that gives a lot of perspective.

The previous day we visited the university campus in town and just general sightseeing of the Krakow centre. Ania has been a great 'tour-guide' and we still have some very interesting trips to go on (salt mine today - better get ready soon).

My general plan for the next little bit is to go to Berlin on Monday to catch up with Robina. I will spend a couple of days in Berlin and then head back to Hamburg to 're-group'.

Thinking of all you guys.

Hangin in Krakow

So just a mini update as not too much time for internet today. The fabulous weather has continued and today Maike, Nicole and Ingmar have gone back to Germany ;( Caught up with Ania for the first time yesterday so she will be my tour guide here for the next couple of days. We've got a few things planned so should be pretty action packed. Will try and post some highlights in the next couple of days.

So, heya to all! Will catch you again soon.

Krakow, Poland

Well, the mystery tour brought me to Krakow which was surprising for a couple of reasons. One was that I didn't know where I was going but also it was one of the places I was going to be going anyway. So, pretty cool to be able to travel there with friends. The city is beautiful and the weather has been awesome, the hottest so far. For the first couple of days we have been staying a little out of the main city and tonight we move into a hostel in the city for a couple of days. It's been easy and cheap (like everything) to get into the city from where we were staying and kind of nice to see outside a big city for a bit.

I'm not actually sure what the picture here is of. Just me cruising round doing some 'happy-snappin'. It was quite close to a really cool old church we visited. The church tour was quite neat and we got to go up into the bell tower and the royal tomb among other things.

I think I'm going to be in Poland for a little while so will keep you updated.

Quick update

Hi,

I've been chilling out in Wilster (Maike & Nicoles hometown) for the last couple of days. Have been pretty low key but enjoying the time.

Mystery trip starts early tomorrow morning so getting real excited now.

That's about that really and will let you all know where I end up.

:)

Update from Hamburg and area.

Ok, so finally a photo with me in it, Nicole says hi to everyone as well. Of course amusing to find a 'Down Under' bar in the middle of Lübeck. Lübeck is the place that I flew into with RyanAir which is fairly close to Hamburg - turns out it is a really scenic little place as well. Also pictured is Holsten Tor which was the main gate of the wall of Lübeck. If you Wiki search on that landmark you get to a see a slightly better pic and some decent info. So in future I will just put in Wiki links so you can see what I've visited - nah, just kidding!

The weather has been fantastic since I've been here and Ingmar and Nicole have been taking me round some great sights! We went to a beach place on the Baltic sea that has an exhibition of sand castle art, very interesting and I've just added the pic of the sand version of the Holsten Tor mentioned above to give you an idea.



Had dinner and drinks with Maike & Daniel and Nicole & Ingmar last night and that was really nice to catch up with them all.

Well that's about it for now - Bye, bye :)

Good sightseeing today

Well today was a decent day for sightseeing. First thing in the morning I visited the Vasamuseet which is a museum dedicated to the warship Vasa pictured above. Apparently this is the only restored 17th Century ship in the world. It was very impressive and the museum was very comprehensive. I guess the interesting thing about this ship was that it sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage - d'oh. Having sunk in the waters of the Baltic sea meant it was preserved very well as a certain wood eating sea worm or something like that does not flourish there. It is an absolutely amazing salvage job as well and I highly recommend visiting this museum to learn all about it.

In the afternoon I went for a canal tour in a tourist boat. Once again a very informative trip and the weather has been absolutely stunning today so that was really enjoyable.

Off to Hamburg to catch up with the crew tomorrow. I'm not too sure what my internet scene is going to be like so will post as I have the opportunity.

Bye :)

Wander in Stockholm

So here are a couple of pics from a wander round Skansen which is an open air museum showing all about the natural history of Sweden. It's crazy seeing these really big slug things cruising round everywhere. I put a bit of my foot in so you can get an idea of the size of them.

Stockholm is a very beautiful city and it's very interesting to wander around the various little islands (archipelago again) that make up the city. It is also quite easy to navigate around with all these little islands providing good landmarks.

I randomly ran into a guy from my last hostel stay here while at Skansen and that was quite helpful as he has been in Stockholm for a few days and was able to point out some cool places for me to visit while I'm here. So, I'll try to get as many of those in as possible.

Till next post ;)

Last night in Gothenburg

So, tonight is my last night here in Gothenburg and I thought I'd do a quick little post to let y'all know my plans. I'm taking the train to Stockholm tomorrow and will be there for 3 days.

The sun has been out today in Gothenburg so it's been a really nice day. Mainly just wandering around the city again and also went to a natural history museum. The museum was hard case and it was a bit tough going as the signs were mainly in Swedish.

I've really enjoyed my stay here but hearing good things about Stockholm as well - so let's see :)

Sunshine!

Finally we've got to see some sun here in Gothenburg. I thought I'd post a pic that has a bit of blue sky in it just to celebrate.

I've been taking it pretty easy here over the last couple of days, plenty of wandering round checking out the various interesting buildings and fortifications of Gothenburg. Have managed to go for a couple of runs while here as there is a nice park just round the corner from the hostel.

I hope you're all going well too.

Trip on the Bohuslän

We went for a steam boat ride on Sunday and the weather was a bit poor but we got to check out some of the interesting land formations and main harbour of Gothenburg City.

Today (Tuesday) the sun is out - yay! Nothing particularly exciting planned but will just be nice to enjoy some light.

Cool city, weather not so flash

I went on a little canal boat tour on Friday and that was a really cool way to see the city. The photo above is from that tour. The weather continues to be rainy and overcast, so apart from being a bit warmer it's not that different to back in Christchurch when I left.

I've been meeting some great people in the backpackers and we've been having some good nights out over the weekend. The night life here is pretty cool! Actually finding myself settling in here a bit so nice that I have a few days more here.

As you might see the posts are getting shorter so I must be having more fun ;)

Today we are off on another boat tour through some of the little islands so as long as it doesn't rain it should be nice.

Good morning Sweden

The photo is just a view out of the window as I'm sitting down and writing this post.

Well I arrived here in Gothenburg City (Sweden) last night and basically did nothing except have some munchies and go straight to bed. I had a really good sleep and made sure to sleep in till 8am instead of hopping up at 3am like I did in Frankfurt (still working on the old time zone a bit). I've just had the yummy Swedish breakfast and am browsing some tourist stuff to sort out what I can keep myself occupied with here. Today is going to be a pretty quiet one having a look around the local area. So far, 2 out of 2 hostels has had free wifi which is pretty cool and means I'll get a chance to post some updates fairly regularly.

The flight into Gothenburg City was really interesting because the land formations were quite different to anything I'd seen before. Crazy little cool shaped islands everywhere. Although I guess that is what you'd expect with an archipelago (Southern Gothenburg archipelago).

Oh well I'm off for a wander round...

Frankfurt briefly

Here I am with a bit of downtime and doing this post before I head off to the Frankfurt (Hahn) airport to catch my flight to Sweden.

I have been pretty busy since arriving with organizing my SIM card for cheap phone and data usage while in Germany. I've got it mostly working and it has been really helpful in sorting out the return of my baggage which didn't quite make it all the way to Frankfurt with me yesterday. Unfortunately I haven't quite got the data part working which is what I mostly want to use it for. There is plenty of time to sort that out though once I get to Hamburg where I also have the assistance of some 'translators'. Back to the baggage I ended up going back out to the airport first thing this morning to pick it up myself. Their delivery service wasn't available last evening when it finally arrived in Frankfurt and they didn't know when they could get it to me this morning and I couldn't wait for my change of clothes so just utilized the very efficient train system to pop out to the airport and back.

I managed to hold out the jet lag yesterday and stayed up till about 9pm so hope that helps me to start adjusting to the time zone. I also got in a couple of wanders round the city and took that attached slightly wonky photo looking over the river Main which runs through Frankfurt.