KRAKOW, POLAND

Poland is one of those countries that I have always known was out there, but could tell you practically nothing about it. So when April casually mentioned heading to Krakow for a weekend, of course I said, “Let’s go!”

freezing but smiley!

Johnny Quest, our appropriately-named pilot, landed us safely in Krakow on Friday morning, and after arriving at our hostel, the girl working the desk lead us to an entirely different building. We stayed in a four person room with kitchen and bathroom, all alone, in a separate building on a floor with no other hostel tenants. Talk about privacy!

Friday was our day to take in the sights and eat pierogis. I’m not sure how I feel about pierogis, but if anyone can tell me what they are normally topped with, I would be most grateful. April and I have decided on either bacon, white beets, onions, or perhaps just chucks of fat. Krakow is the only major city in Poland that wasn’t destroyed in the wake of WWII, and the ancientness of the place can almost be felt. The city to me smelled old, like bricks, smog, and campfire, but in the best way possible, and right across from where we were staying, in a park that circled all around the city, were ancient medieval wall ruins. St. Mary’s Basilica is known for it’s ornate wallpaper and blue ceiling, but both were trends in all of the churches (and restaurants!). We made out way to the Oskar Schindler Factory in the former jewish ghetto of Krakow, and loved the museum there. The interactive museum around the Nazi reign in all of Poland, whose strict and horrible leadership to normal Polish citizens tends to get overshadowed by the monstrosities committed against the jewish population.  We ended the evening drinking beers out of straws in a jazz bar downstairs in the main square, or what we thought to be downstairs. 

Any guesses about what is topping these babies?

Beet root soup!

So many birds. I don't enjoy birds.

blue ceiling #1

blue ceiling #2

blue ceiling #3

blue ceiling #4

Oskar Schindler Factory, same one from Schindler's List

The next day on our free walking tour, we learned that the medieval ground level of Krakow, like most cities in Europe, would be considered the basement today. We learned that one of the Earth’s Seven Chakra points in Hinduism happens be on a wall of their castle, and that the authorities don’t particularly enjoy the number of people who come to hug the wall every year. We walked all over the city, got to see the famous Fire-Breathing Dragon statue, were mistakenly identified as Australians by Australians, and even happened to better our Polish along the way. (“Dziekuje” means “thank you” and “Masz piekne miesnie” means “your muscles are beautiful.”) I found it very interesting how little our guide spoke about the communist reign of Poland, but figured it was probably too close for comfort. 

The wall in the process of providing Chakra

It was kind of a little sunny!

Sunday was the day I’d been secretly anxious about, and at 9:30 our tour guide picked us up in front of our hostel and we drove the hour to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. I have never had a very good track record with car sickness, and this day proved to be no exception, as our driver swerved in both lanes, passing cars and blasting heat in the van at 100˚Celsius, not even Fahrenheit. While fighting my sickness furiously by scratching an orange and sniffing it with all of my might, the addition of a beyond graphic video of what the Soviet Army discovered upon arriving at the concentration cramp put me over the edge. I can proudly report that the first thing I did upon arrive at Auschwitz is loose my breakfast.

entrance to Auschwitz

In the end, my tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau was nothing to have worried over. I had pictured people crying everywhere, graphic pictures, and moving collections of all that remains of the victims. While there are startling photo galleries and there are entire building devoted to the leftover shoes, toys, prayer clothes, and hair of the Jews, I barely saw anyone crying. There were times when I would walk through the only standing gas chamber and crematory and want so badly to feel pain of what the millions of people had been through. Or I would look out on the over two miles of Birkenau and the field of only chimneys, all that remains of the hundreds of barracks, and want to cry about how lonely it felt. Or I would stand on the sorting platform where thousands of people were sent to the crematories before even recording their names. Or see how small the train cars were by which they were delivered 80 at a time. Or the black-and-white photos lining hallways. The list of misery and desolation goes on and on, but my feelings on my visit wouldn’t change. It’s too impossible to feel empathetic, or even sympathetic. I don’t know if humans are capable of physically or emotionally experiencing sorrow on such a scale. I do know, however, that it was difficult to shake the feeling of hopelessness that took over only moments after walking through to the other side of the electric fence. Hopelessness to the point of worthlessness. I guess Auschwitz-Birkenau still serves the purpose it was built to accomplish.  

signs surrounding the perimeter

prosthetics 

piles of children's shoes

hallways of photos 

gas chamber

train car

memorial 

Birkenau

My favorite part of Krakow was Kazimierz, the former jewish district. After experiencing such a feeling of hopelessness that Auschwitz-Birkenau can allocate, it was refreshing to walk around Kazimierz and see a place that’s up and coming and full of life. There were galleries on every corner, and of course any new art scene is extra exciting for me, but I think that Kazimierz is on the verge of being something very exciting to the art world, and Krakow is very well on it’s way to being the next Prague, or place that everyone loves to visit in Eastern Europe. Plus they have a breakfast place with fresh bagels, an absolute godsend for any American traveling after living in Europe for awhile. 

Kazimierz

street art

In other news, I’m taking a baking-super-sweet-American-desserts fast until Valentine’s Day in hopes of not draining our entire house of sugar at such an alarming rate. Already counting down. 5 more days!

They Can't Feel Anything, Right? - Sie Können Nicht Fühlen, Richtig?

So it was crab galore at the Niemeier residence last week, but with a hint of surprise, complication, and crazy, like most things seem to go around here. Lesson learned: When Germans say fresh, they mean fresh.

After searching long and hard for crab meat in numerous grocery stores and speciality butchers, Sandra and I found a promising (and rather expensive) store that said they would order it for us. The purchase was made and we were to pick up the crab on Thursday. I will remember it perfectly for years to come, much like how people remember where they were when JFK was shot or numerous other traumatic experiences of this scale. I was upstairs mid-diaper change and making sure Mathis didn’t launch himself off of the changing table, when Sandra came home and informed me that I was needed downstairs. She spoke lots of German. I tried to understand. I thought what she was telling me must have been lost in translation and a misunderstanding on my part. We switched guard of little, half-naked Mathis, and as I approached the trunk of her car, I heard a horrible scratching noise. Claws on styrofoam. No. Way.

"Oh no. They're moving!"

Yup, they were alive. As in not dead. As in still living. And they weren’t all crabs! They were a bunch of crayfish and two giant crabs with little legs. After rounding them up and double checking the trunk for stranglers, Sandra, Mathis, Kara, and I ended up gathered  around the table in a staring contest with these live animals, waiting for operation boil-a-bunch-of-crustaceans-to-death to take place. Christof slept through the whole thing. After a large pot was delivered by Bernd and several hundreds of phone calls to my parents later, we ended up with enough crab meat for four baby crab cakes, and a feast of crayfish that we enjoyed with my friend April later that night.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"I hope you can't feel this!
Thank you for dying for our nourishment!"

Self-picked, freshest of the fresh, crab cakes!

It was delicious. And what makes my family here extra great is how they are ready to try again! Sandra found more crab meat! In a can! As in not living, I’m guessing. Hopefully. Please. Now if only I can get over that scratching noise... 

Death.

Ripping heads off of crayfish!

Our crayfish are friends until the end.

Crabby - Verdrießlich (I'm 100% positive the joke doesn't translate)

When I get back to the States, I am only going to eat crab.

You have no idea how hard it's been to find crab meat here! I dying to eat crab cakes, crab legs, crab stuffed things, crab dip (hot or cold), anything crab. Man, I really miss crab meat.

And Mexican food. Those two things. 

The day I get back to America I'll accept any sort of Mexican food that includes crab meat. Thank you for your attention. 

Good thing Mathis is so cute to make up for it. 

Happy New Year! - Frohe Neues Jahr!

New Years Eve in Germany feels very similar to New Years Eve in the States. There’s drinking, good food, fireworks, pretty much everything you could ask for in a celebration. 

We packed up Mathis with all of his necessities and headed to the Kückmann household. Kara came too. She's very afraid of the fireworks. Just like Gretchen! Really, the only difference between them is approximately 70 pounds. 

Kara trying to eat Tom.

Gretchen trying to eat me. 

We ate dinner (oh, pink herring salad) and played with a few fireworks before Ben had to go to bed. We were informed to wake him up at 11:45pm to see the whole street shooting them off, but at midnight that task proved very impossible. The kid sleeps hard. To pass the time, we played a game called Activity, which is really fantastic and I hope we have it in America so I can buy it and play everyday! It’s Charades, Taboo, and Pictionary, all rolled into one game. It's especially hilarious if you play it in a language you barely understand. The boys team kept having to take me out in the hallway behind several layers of closed doors in order to explain the word I was supposed to draw or act out. Even with our handicap of me, the girls team dominated. 

Julia and Ben and Fire

Baby Phones of all the Boys

Losers!

It is very important for Germans, even if they don’t know English, that they make time that night to watch a black-and-white, ten minute British play called “Dinner for One.” So important that this scene plays at least 10 times on TV on Sylvester(German for New Years Eve). It involves a senile woman, her eager butler, and a lion rug. And that’s “Dinner for One.” 

At midnight, we shot off fireworks. We drank champagne. We spoke with neighbors. We went home. It was the first time in a long time that I had spent New Years quietly in a family setting, and I really enjoyed it. 

First New Years in the Snow!

My new year has gotten off to a solid start. I was the star of a very interesting middle-school English report entitled “The Life of an American Au Pair.” A wonderful topic if I do say so myself! After a couple of rehearsals here, I went one early Monday morning to the middle school girls’ English course and answered a series of questions in front of the class. I spoke, they stared with open mouths, and then there were no questions to follow. I love it! I discovered middle schoolers are exactly to same everywhere, in which they are all way too cool for school. It was really a lot of fun, and I hope that I can start to tutor some students in English. 

2011 is great in other ways too. My German course started back up. I’ve stuck with my New Years resolution to do yoga every day. Mathis is learning to crawl. I’ve been planning a lot of trips. I’m going to Poland at the end of the month and the Netherlands and Belgium in February. I had plans with friends three nights this week! I made cinnamon rolls from scratch!  I’ve been playing a lot of piano lately. I’ve been eating a lot of cinnamon rolls lately. 

Wishing you strong beginnings, plentiful adventures, and sugar comas in 2011!

Better Late Than Never! Part Two - (since no German translation) Teil Zwei

A cute picture of Mathis and my Parents to preface.  

Breakfast was always a struggle to find from the location of our hotel, but on Thursday morning I knew it wouldn’t matter. I’d been talking about eating döner kebaps (delicious Turkish fast food and probably my favorite thing about traveling in Europe) to my Dad as soon he’d step foot onto European soil, and the plan was made to buy them at the Berlin train station and eat them for lunch from our reserved first class seats on the train to Rheda-Wiedenbrück. Taxis were taken, a Whopper from Burger King was randomly eaten by my brother, platforms were found, döner was bought, our train arrived. 

But where was our train car? I had purchased first class reservations solely so we would definitely have a seat, but both of the first class and a few second class cars were missing. Just not there. With the whole of Germany traveling the day before Christmas Eve, the cars were so full that my brother squeezed onto the first step of the entrance before the doors barely missed shutting on his backpack. After riding a few stops with nothing to keep us from falling but the other bodies pushed against ours, the four of us made it into a hallway and settled in for the rest of the 3 hours. A very busy hallway, I might add. Sometimes the train would rock to the right and we would find ourselves looking through the window straight down to the ditch below. Sometimes the train would rock to the left and we would find our bottoms against the windows of the lucky passengers with seats. And sometimes an extra large woman with an extra large backpack, unfathomable in size and girth, would wedge herself skillfully between the wall and my dad, standing in the hands-up-you’re-being-robbed pose while being squished from face to shins against the window.

a little cramped...

It’s ok! It’s fine! I just have to keep telling myself I had the best döner kebap probably ever in Vienna. I’ll get over my lack of wonderful döner. Standing up on the train for over 3 hours is not the party of the life time, but there are worse things. For example, that cold döner situation. Man. I’m still bitter.

Somehow we made it to Gütersloh, and thankfully Sandra forced Christof to come pick us up there, instead of us having to ride one more train. From then on the weekend went more smoothly than I could have hoped for.

See, the boys are good for something.

Except for the couple or more times that we got a car stuck in snow, with different combinations of 2, 3, or even 4 Bridges’ shoving away. Man, that was a lot of snow. 

Oh, and the time my parents overslept like teenagers, and Christof had to go check on them. But honestly, both of those times were even fun! 

On Christmas Eve we decorated the tree and explored Wiedenbrück, which my family found especially beautiful. 

Widenbrück on Christmas Eve

Any free second throughout their time here was spent playing with Mathis, of course. and Kara too.

Taylor entertaining everybody

Germany has their big Christmas celebration on the 24th, so we headed to Martha and Bernd’s and had a typical German dinner with pork that I always love and sauerkraut that I actually liked. Beer and wine were drunk, songs were sung, stories were told that seemed to be understood in both English and German, and presents were opened. I got way too many gifts than I should have, the best of which being a trip to either Croatia or Belgium/Netherlands! Taylor slept in the basement while he was here, and my parents hotel was in walking distance, which proved convenient when we were so tired from celebrating! 

Mom, Julia, and Tom

Bernd and Ben

Marko, Taylor, and Christof singing

Oh Tannenbaum!

Sandra opening an Octopus from America!

It was our turn on Christmas Day, and after a walk in the woods that was more like trekking through over two feet of snow, the Bridges family opened our smalls gifts to each other and began work on my favorite part of Christmas, cooking the Lowcountry Boil. Thank goodness I got a can of Old Bay as one of my christmas presents! 

Probably my favorite picture of the whole trip.

Items were modified according to what we could find the day before in the grocery store, but all in all with the good reviews and when not a scrape was left on the table (except for on the brown paper in the middle that everyone was excited to learn was for throwing your shrimp shells), we’d found a dish that can be enjoyed across countries. Thank goodness for the power of computers, because with mine we got to talk to Grandé and Monkpa on Christmas Day! We ended the evening with the only way we know how, watching Christmas Vacation in German with English subtitles. Just as hilarious as ever.


The 26th was Explore the Castle and Rheda day, as well as Fancy German Dinner day. 

The square in Rheda

Everyone at the Ratskeller! Thank you, Grandé,
for such a wonderful meal!

Both were excellent. My family couldn’t stop commenting about feeling like they were in a postcard, with the half-timbered houses and huge snowflakes falling. They also couldn’t stop worrying about their flight which had to leave in under 48 hours. For my dad’s birthday the next day, we headed to the nearby town of Münster, which I always really enjoy seeing and which has a very rich history. The treaty to end the 30 Year War was signed in their courthouse in 1648! I bought snow boots, Taylor found German soccer jerseys, and the car got stuck in the snow just one more time, to grow on! 

When we got back to the house, cakes were set up on the table and the entire family was on the way over to celebrate my dad’s birthday! After two invigorating rounds of “Happy Birthday”, we ate cake and I think my dad did have a happy birthday. 

Happy Birzday zu You!

They spoiled my dad!

The next morning at 5am my family got a final glance into the real Germany as we drove on the German Autobahn to the Düsseldorf Airport. Just like in a race car. (only joking, Sandra!) The roads were luckily free from ice and my family got to the airport early. As we said goodbye, it was hard to be too sad, half from being so tired in the early hours but half because we had such a wonderful time. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from the trip and while I might forget what we ate, some historical dates that we learned, or how to properly shove a stuck car out of snow, I could never forget how much their time in Germany meant to me. I am so thankful I have the type of family that is not only accepting of their wandering daughter and sister, but that would also fly across the Atlantic to come visit her. You are the best.

To many, many more travels together, right Taylor and Dad?!

Better Late Than Never! Part One - (no german translation because they are always so punctual) Teil Eins

I contemplated for way too long about when and if I should go to the bathroom. I was sure I would miss them if I did, but I had forgotten to find the bathroom on my early morning train ride to the Düsseldorf airport. My family’s flight was right on time, but customs and baggage claim put them over an hour behind. Finally, I saw my brother’s hair coming from the international section and felt such a sense of relief that they were actually in Europe and I could now use the restroom. Immediately we fell comfortably into the American role with coffee from McDonalds, followed by a train to downtown Düsseldorf, a tram ride uptown, and a short walk to our beautiful mansion-style hotel. 

Our lovely hotel in Düsseldorf

Our rooms were not ready, but we left our bags and started out on a day that seemed to last 90 hours. My poor jet-lagged family members were such great sports as I dragged them around through Christmas Market after Christmas Market, to the Old City (and a very delicious German restaurant) and up to the top of the Rhine Tower. 

Where my family had their first German food.

The Rhine Tower being lost in the snow storm.

After sitting and admiring the view of Düsseldorf that increasingly became more minimized and hazy, we walked into a huge snowstorm that pounded my tired family in the face until the tram finally arrived. The day concluded with my dad wiping out on a giant sheet of plastic hidden under snow, goulash soup in a Christmas Market, a tram that wasn’t running, and a taxi ride to take us back to the hotel. I think my brother was asleep before 6:45, but my mom and dad made it until the unruly hour of 8pm. 

The amount of snow that accumulated on our deck overnight.

Things moved understandably slower on Monday morning, and even though both of the airports we would be using to get to Berlin were closed over the weekend due to the terrible snowstorms that pounded Western Europe, our flight looked good to go that afternoon. After a brief panic of not being able to find the one 8 1/2 x 11 sign in all of Düsseldorf with information about our airport shuttle, we took the one hour bus ride to the middle of absolute nowhere and happened to find a small airport there. Waiting for our chaotically arranged flight, we saw the grid of fifty or more slept-in cots and were extra thankful that we picked the single time to fly in Europe that weekend where we wouldn’t be spending the night in the airport. 

A very abrupt landing put us in Berlin, and we wound through the maze that is Berlin-Schoenefeld Airport, where my mother was concerned by the machine guns held by your run-of-the-mill and very average security guards. We followed the usual pattern of taking a train to a tram to our hotel. We checked in to the hotel, were excited to see Aunt Fran, and headed to the dinner reservations I made for the evening. I thought it would only be appropriate to introduce to my family to Germany by eating at the restaurant at the top of the center of the German government: the Reichstag. 

We ate there! Top right!

Our taxi driver dropped us off at the beautiful building and there were more machine guns, this time up close and personal as we were asked by security to show our passports and lead into a small building, where more security stared at us in silence. We stared back. They asked us to show our purses and open our jackets, and we were herded out of the small building and into the Reichstag for more security checks. An elevator took us to the famous dome and the delicious restaurant, and we laughed the rest of the evening about exclusivity like none of us had ever experienced before. 

Even though we had three days and three nights in Berlin, the time flew by in a whirlwind of historic and very cold sights. Due to temperatures of -5˚C we opted for a bus tour to take us to all of the main sights including: 

Checkpoint Charlie

The East Side Gallery (the largest portion of the Berlin Wall)

The Brandenburg Gate

Palace Charlottenburg and my dad's head.

and also Potsdamer Platz, the Jewish Museum, Unter den Linden and many, many more. The next day brought us to the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, and the emotions that the memorial evoked, from deliberate disorientation to hopefulness, were particularly emphasized with the snow.

Holocaust Memorial

Aunt Fran had to leave a day early, so we said our goodbyes and finished the day with the Cathedral of Berlin (which you have to pay to enter and that is absolutely ridiculous), the largest fish tank in the world, the DDR museum, and our final Christmas Market. 

The Original Berlin Christmas Market

Things remained just as entertaining as they did cold in Berlin with more than few people who mistook my blond hair, blue eyed brother as German and also with a unique subway performance of a particularly round, santa hat wearing 7-year-old, who played a mouth powered piano and had middle-aged, saxophonist sidekick. 

Trying to warm up with Glühwein!

We drank mulled wine, strong coffee, and sampled all the beers. We ate curry wurst, schnitzel, candied almonds, great pizza, and breakfast that was labeled American. We met friendly Germans who were more than willing to lend a hand, and got an up close and personal view on Thursday of some more German citizens on the train ride to my town...