A few pictures (which i did not take)

I saw this women and the man below play at McDermotts pub last night. They were joined by an irish bagpipe and acoustic guitar. They were phenominal.

The Cliffs of Moher. I had hike the bottom half of the cliffs yesterday and today i drove out the far end (see upper right hand of picture) and hiked around an old tower that is still standing.
This is the Aille River Hostel where i am staying.

Doolin

I'm staying at a wonderful hostel on a small river in the tiny town of Doolin, in county clare. They are renowned for their traditional music which is performed at informal jam sessions in the few local pubs in town. So far this place is perfect, a coffee shop, a small deli/grocery and a crafts store which sells used books. Coffee, food and books. Perfect. Awesome scenery as well and this hostel is really cosey. Went to see Cliffs of Moher today, which are close by to Doolin. Pretty good but i liked Giants Causeway and Fair Head much better. Tons of tourists at Moher. Last night i went to The Crane in Galway city and saw a traditional music set, with about 10-12 musicians and singers. All improv, unplaned jam. It was wicked. 3 fiddles, 2 accordians, 2 banjos, 1 guitar, 1 madolin (thingy), a small flute, and later two people who sang and played guitar along with everyone else. Talked with an older women from galway about life and such. Upstairs "crooked still" from Boston was playing.. what are the chances that a boston band plays while in the same pub as me.? sold out though. too bad. Internet is expensive and the free kind usually doesn't let you upload pics.. Maybe, soon. Just think: green.

Giants Causeway, NI coastline and Galway

Hello from Galway!

For the last few days i've traveled from dublin, west to county Sligo then north along the coast curving around eventually to the Giants Causeway which is in North East Ireland. I saw so much beautiful countryside, rolling hills, mountains, oceans calm and rough, and drove out onto a few peninsulas. Giant's Causeway and Fair Head were the best so far. Giants Causeway is a set of huge cliffs which interesting rock formations. From there you can see Fair Head to the east. This is another massive cliff which i hiked to the top of and peered over the edge. The hike was through farm land with only tiny trails to guide your way and nothing on the cliff to stop you from failing off. Wait till you see pictures. The east coast of northern ireland was also very beautiful, extremely rugged seas and some forests. I drove all the way down to belfast and was going to spend a few hours but parking was problematic so i drove diaganol west back to Sligo and stayed in the same hostel as a few days ago.. luckily i left some food there by mistake and it hadn't been thrown out, so i had free dinner that night after a long drive. Right now i'm in Galway city. Very nice place, small, nice square in the middle and some wonderful looking pubs. I watched a women playing a traditional irish instrumental that looked like a cross between a bag pipe and accordian. Tonight i'm going to "The Crane" which is supposed to have the best jam session for trad. music in galway. Tomorrow i may go to the Aran Islands and then head south to The Burren area, to Doolin because i've been told by numerous people that they have _the best_ music in all of ireland in the pubs there. If i don't get stuck there, then south to county clare and kerry (yes, cliffs of moher, dingle, et al). So far i've only had 1 traditional irish meal, breakfast. What a heartattack. 1 egg, 6 pieces of toast, 2 sausages, 2 _slabs_ of bacon, 3 or 4 pieces of some type of sweet bread, beans, a grilled tomato, half dozen whole mushrooms. i didn't eat lunch or dinner. really. Sometime soon, i'll have some "pub grub"...

Green, Green and Green

Now i see why green is for irish... All the hills and valleys are a thick patchwork of green, segmented by old stone walls or bushes. Its very beautiful so far.The hillsides are full of cows and sheep of all different colors. Right now i'm in Donegal town in Donegal county, near the west coast, north of Sligo County, where i spent the night in a youth hostel with a frenchmen, dane, aussie and kiwi, watching simpsons, southpark and other american tv. it was very relaxing. I'm driving a little Fiat Punto 4 door. Not as small as i hoped but good enough. Driving on the left side of the road was quick to pick up, although there are times where you have to double check before turning,, a hint of doubt coming into your mind as to what side you should be on. Besides being green here, its expensive, on par with London i would imagine but with far fewer hostels and "cheap" accomodations. My current plan is to continue north along west coast and come around to the Giant's Causeway and then cut a diagonal back to the west coast again. I'm also pondering Iceland after realizing that ireland is a small island. I'll see how far i've made it after 5 days and maybe geta cheap flight to iceland.

Work Will Free (you)

Today i visited concentration camps in Oświęcim, Poland. There is Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II aka Birkenau. The following are the only photos i took. Ask me more about it in person.


Beautiful tree covered lane.. The grounds and buildings here are "relativley" nice because it was not designed as a death camp but rather a campus for soldiers.



One of the entrances to Auschwitz with the words "arbeit macht frei", meaning "Work Will Free" (you) or "Work Liberates".


Israeli students visiting, flying many many flags.


This is Birkenau, which was designed from scatch for the purpose of extermination. The main entrance/guard tower sits at the end of this rail line, look hard and you will see it and realize how large this place is.


Inside the latrine houses, "Behave Calmly"

Poland Pix

In Vienna, Austria, the old men play chess. In lublin, poland, they play cards in the park.


Countryside, travling by train to Krakow from Lublin

A hazy morning in Polska

Walking down the mine shift at the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Recently closed in 1996, started production in 1300s and the area has been used for salt since 3000 BC.



Inside the mines are incredible statues and monuments carved out of the salt rock by common workers. This women is the patron saint of the mine and is recieving a diamond ring (which she had thrown into the mine early)... i think.

Mine tunnels, note white salt walls. they also mine "grey" salt.


We were allowed to lick the walls if we so inclined... i was not.


A carving of a gnome. Miners believed these creatures lived and worked in the mines.


The church inside the mine.. Crazy!! Gorgeous carvings all over the place and it is still used as an active chapel. notice the carving at the middle top of the picture (in the middle of the altar), it is glowing. The grey salt is so pure that it can be illuminated almost as if it were a clear substance.

Dedicated to the workers

A miners prayer. I think it is the other prayer (not pictured), which ends in "God Bless". Miners would not say hello or goodbye but rather God Bless.

Romania pix

View from "palace of the people" in bucharest.


concrete apartment buildings at the other end of avenue seen above, built during communist rule. now sprouting all types of adverts.


The Infuriated Donut. i'll take this over dunkin donuts any day.


Another church in bucharest. People to left of church are lining up to hand in prayers and intentions to be said by priests inside.



Carpathian mountains, on the train to Brasov. If you look closely at the high peak on right, you will see a cross. Placed there in memory of all the romanians who died in war.

Church art in Brasov


From a cemetary in Brasov


Brasov is the second biggest city in Romania... this entitles them to a HOLLYWOOD type sign in the mountains. You can hike or take cable car up there for great views.


Peleş Castle in Sinaia


Can you tell which bill is worth more?


So called Turkish Toilet..

Ireland ahoy! - update

Krakow has been really nice so far.. Took the redeye train (5:30am) from lublin to krakow, staying at Nathan's Villa Hostel (run by nathan from lowell, ma). Went to see the big salt mine 30 minutes away. It was wicked. Tons of statues and even a church carved out of salt rock. Wait for the pics. Tomorrow i will go to auschwitz early and then hopefully start my journey to Ireland. I'm going to skip berlin.. just not feeling the big cities anymore. After buying the lonely planet book on ireland i meet a couple from ireland in the big plaza here. They filled me in on the best part to visit and what to avoid.. I will attempt to rent a car and travel the west coast, going as far north as Mayo area. Wish me luck! Hopefully upload some pictures soon, don't hold your breath though.


UPDATE:
just booked my flights and car; i will land in dublin on 19th, rent a "mini" car (e.g. really small, not mini the brand), drive to northwest and then make my way down coast to catch a flight on 30th from Cork. This will be my first time driving on left side of road (on purpose) and with a stick shift at that (automatics are uncommon and expensive).. Wooohoooo!!

I'm hoping my car will be about this size:


Also - Good Lord is ryanair cheap!! My flight over was expensive cause i booked last minute but my flight back to london was roughly $17. That is great.

Lublin, Poland

Hello from Lublin, another quaint city/town.. I just booked a super early train to Krakow (5:30am), I will stay there for a day or so, then to berlin and then i think i will fly to ireland for a week or so.. europe is starting to all look the same. I'm yearning for more country settings but that is difficult when traveling by train, without a car, so i've decided to bang out the last few cities i'd like to visit and hopefully get over a week in ireland. If anyone has lovely spots for me to see, please email or leave comment, ASAP. I will be home in two weeks from now. It will be a nice change of scenary and i cant wait to see everyone and for caitlin and i to share stories.. we'll need to have a massive slide show party.

To repeat - send ireland suggestions now!!

Bye!

Warsaw, Poland.

I landed a few hours ago in Warsaw. 1 hour flight from Bucharest. My bank card works and staying at a nice hostel. So far the city seems nice.. It was almost totally flattened in second world war, so most is new. There is a small old town that i may visit tomorrow but my priority is to get out of here and into the country. Will be heading south and stop in a few towns on my way to Krakow. Meet a couple from NY and two businessmen from CT and an older married couple from Ohio who were helping at an orphanage in bucharest.. Got yet another stamp in my passport and picked up some more weird money. I will hopefully have a nice collection when i get back.

Okay - trivia time. First person to answer correctly will win a trinket from europe.

Below is a picture of the "palace of culture and science" in Warsaw. It was a gift to Poland from Stalin during polands domination by Russia. Many poles have a strong dislike for the building. The question: why do these same poles say the best view of warsaw is from its observation deck?

Romania

The wild ride that is bucharest...

I met a woman in budapest (who has a boyfriend, don't worry!) who was supposed to spend 6 weeks there.. budapest (in hungary) is a great city but i suggested that she is slightly nuts to spend all her time in one place.. And so the short of it is that she asked to travel with me, and we ended up flying to bucharest, capital of romania. It was great to have someone to travel with and ended up being a total life saver, when, at bucharest airport (decided to skip the 12+ hour train ride) i discover that my bank card does not work.. i have never gotten into teh habit of taking out huge sums of money because its so easy to just hit the ATM. i also did not have a return ticket, 1 way, in order to be flexible with where i go next. If i hadn't been traveling with her, shirley, then i would be pan handling at the airport, now still.. I did end up figuring out a way to get money out of my credit card (there is 1 bank big enough which allows you to withdraw on your card at the bank counter). phew. I, we, stayed in a great hostel called the funky chicken. The accomadations were okay but the people i meet were great. Talked with 2 germans, 3 guys from holland (where if you are 6ft in height, you are considered short, seriously), dave the rave from UK (wonderful guy), 2 brit women, and a bunch of others, including a guy from finland who lives in argentina but has spent the last 3-4 months in bucharest. Also randomly meet a german (who lives in vienna) on the way to see the palace (see below). People drank, played chess, read books, watched english language TV :) Wonderful. Some short images to describe Bucharest: loud, dirty, poor, congested, smog, communist style concrete buildings, huge "palace of the people", wonderful othrodox churches, friendly people, a lot of stray dogs.. This is definitely Eastern Europe. Budapest (hungary) had 1/8 of the eastern feel this place does. Mixed heavly into the commie vibe is capitalism booming strong, with huge billboards on the old communist built apartment complexes. very odd constrast. The major redeming factor of this place for me was visiting the orthodox churches, experiencing the people practicing their religion: everyone makes sign of cross when passing the church, they kneel on the stone/marble floors (ouch), their are no pews, big golden pictures of religious figures which are touched and kissed, huge lines of people writing down prayers and offers to be said by multiple priest all at the same time..


Also today and yesterday i spent a day and night in Brasov, 3 hours north bucharest. This is second biggest city, wonderful place, reminds me a bit of old town in prague. In the morning we paid the hostel owner, a wonderful man named gabrielle to drive us to Sinaia, 1 hour south to see the castles (thanks maryann!!). They were fantastic, ornate decorations, a lot of gorgeous carved wood, marble, all types of design. Couldn't take pictures inside, so look up Sinaia castles or something (they actually have different names but you'll find them). Then he drove us back to bucharest so shirley could get a flight back to budapest (and eventually back to california where she is from). There were no flights going to ukraine or Poland and I decided to skip Turkey because my bank card won't work their either.. (my bank doesn't support a few countries, including the above mentioned.. small detail i forgot about, will be fine once in poland). I'm also skipping ukraine until further notice because the visa details are still a little sketchy and the airport women said they may hassle if i don't have a return ticket (and i only book 1 way!). I'm also skipping Republic of Moldova and Trainsdneistr after speaking with an ex-pat who said the visa price will be infalted because i'm American, he paid 130 euro to get entry. So I am heading to Poland, Warsaw, tomorrow afternoon. I'm back at the chicken hostel for tonight. It was good traveling with someone for a few days but i am well ready to get back on my own.



Look, me! in a photo! Standing in front of the gienormous "palace of the people" built by last commie dictator of romania (who was overthrown and put to the firing squad in 89). This is the 2nd largest building in the world, the first being pentagon.
Ortho Christian church. I don't think i took any pictures inside, but wonderfully different from the churches of western europe. very dark, heavy painted walls with designs and pictures. Most are black inside from soot from being light by flame before dawn of electricity.
This is also bucharest. Perhaps one of the worse looking buildings, but things generally don't get too much better.
Another shot of the palace
Another concrete apartment block. Go communism!

In green, dave from england, others: from holland, clockwise: a journalist, a nueropycsh doctor, a medical doctor. Spents a few hours talking about english language dialects, politics and life. wonderful.
Our tour guide for the palace, an awesome guy. A native of bucahest. He always asked us "why do you act like this is a funeral?". Everyone was very quit on the tour.. I felt it was partly because of his... voice.. attitude.. mannerisms. which i've found to be typical of the city. He gives off a vibe of being serious, perhaps monotone at times.. but then he cracks jokes and other stuff and you see he's really not like you first thought. Its slightly hard to explain.. In the end , i really liked the romanian people.
These are two models of the Dacia automobile company. WHen the communists were in power, everything was controlled, rationed and manufactored by The State. You want a car? You go on a waiting list to get a Dacia. I learn later that only one model was made at a time, for a run of several years. Our host in Brasov could tell us how old any car on the street was just by the model.. You wouldn't of even had the choice between the two above, or color. Just CAR. On top of all this, they are pieces of junk and feel like a tin can. That was all was available during the communist rule. Nothing else. So really, not to sound cliche, and not that i like everything about the US car market or capitalism, but this alternative sucks.. period. It was very eye opening.


Another wonderful church.

Hello from Bucharest

Just a quick update, i am currently in bucharest, romania. Tomorrow i travel to brasov (in the country) and then back to bucharest. Afterwards i will either do:

1. republic of moldova, to see the "country" of transdienstr (which officially does not exist) and that is supposed to be like visiting USSR, they use rubbels, have statues to lenin, stalin, old russian tanks, etc. wild. then perhaps onto ukraine and back around to poland and berlin
or
2. south to istanbul and other parts of turkey (and maybe jordan?). and then who knows where..

Love you all
jon

Vienna Pics

This poor dog could hardly keep up with slow paced owners..

the golden cabbage on top of art musuem

nicely decorated subway station
opera house

segway store! you could buy or rent, they had different models for sale including one fitted for off-roading

Budapest

Budapest is made up of two parts, buda and pest. Really. Buda is the older section and Pest the more modern. I arrived this afternoon and after an hour of trying to obtain hospitality, i am now lodged at the mellow mood hostel in downtown pest. These past two days have been quite strange indeed. Last night in Vienna i went to a johnny cash tribute show in the first rock club i've found so far in europe. it was out on the outskirts of vienna (e.g. west roxbury in boston) and had a steep door fee, 15 euro, and i missed all the opening bands 'cause i figured it said 8pm, so that means doors at 8 right? Wrong. They start early in vienna. I got there around 10:15 and the last band went on at 10:30.. They did a great job with the covers. Opened with folsom prison blues, played that song "jackson" (not real title) and a really sad slow number about a girl named rose. Good stuff. felt like i was home again... until they started speaking german and people started singing along in sometimes broken english :) that made it quite surreal. The band was made up of the following characters: Rick Steve's (travel guide on pbs) german cousin was on acoustic guitar, his black haired brother on bass, and their grey haired father on lap steel. The singer looked like John Belushi and the drummer.. well, he was nothing special. They also had guest appearances by a british women who did vocals and some older gentleman who played the recorder (??). And also two young guys on trumpets for Ring of Fire, which they played twice, once to close and then again as an encore.. at which point i left. they also played folsom prison blues, again. I guess they don't have that many songs under their belt. or they like to really please the crowd. Great time though. Part two of the strangeness, or rather, americana wave i've been experiencing - tonight i walked around pest for a few hours and ended up taking the metro (oldest in europe by the way) to heroes square. And what do they have there but the biggest motorcycle rally i have ever seen in my life!! :) A conservative guess would be 1000 bikes. The majority were sport (non-cruisers) but i saw ever style imaginable, scooters, mopeds, dirt bikes, 4 wheelers, harleys, old military bikes, etc etc etc.


I like this building, real eastern europe flavor.
Basilica of Saint ???

Opera House
This was only half of the riders.. Heroes square to the right

At 8, everyone lined up on both sides of this street all the way until the buildings at the very very end. Maybe 8 city blocks