May 20th, 2007 - hey there folks...its a rainy sunday here in Romania...and probably the last weekend i need to prep for school...as we have four weeks left in the classroom, although the last week doesn't really count....so exciting...it been a stormy weekend here...and we had a HUGE storm on friday night...thunder + lightning...the works...it was beautiful...bucharest also hosted its first ever formula racing event...i guess the city looked good on TV...i didn't watch but others did....i am trying to finish off my feb break with this entry...so it could be quite long...just a warning...but then again, if you ever hear from me, you know i am wordy....but below and above are the shots from prague....i loved this town...quaint, old world and fun...it was a great visit with my friend jennifer...the shot above was from our first hour in the city....sitting along the banks of the vlata having lunch....it was a beautiful day....hope you enjoy the pictures :)
this shot is of the palace side of the city at night...the palace is huge...and the main part you can see is the cathedral....just stunning at night...i forget what its like to have a river running thru a city...but everytime i got somewhere with water, i realize how much i miss it...important for the next living place i have decided :)
the astro clock is pictured above...probably one of the most famous spots in prague....every hour it "chimes" and there are usually a ton of folks watching it...it has meaning for both parts, but even the guide we had couldn't remember what the heck most of it was for...i did get the sun and moon position...but that's to be expected :)
this is the charles bridge...we stayed on the opposite side...and needed to cross it quite a bit...its a cool, pedestrian only place...stunning and full of artisans....i bought things, which is very unlike me...but i loved the folks who were selling their wares...the bridge was quite cool as well...and very pretty when lit up at night....
prague is where franz kafka is from, such a mororse writer....you should read metamorphosis if you get the chance...but it is strange ...anyway...i thought this statue/work of art in front of the kafka museum was hilarious...the men's hips swiveled and they were found peeing...just funny :)
this is me and my favorite building in prague...its called the fred & ginger dancing building....its it amazing!!!! i just loved it....
the jewish section of prague is quite tiny, as is the population...it never returned to its former glory before world war 2....but the jewish section is a beautiful part of town...most of the buildings are historical landmarks...and the most incredibly crowded cemetary was there...
prague has a wall to commenorate john lennon...it is full of grafitti and is quite striking...this is only about 1/4 of it....but i did like this section....
this shot was taken in the old portion of the town...its a water source from a long time ago...now its a beautiful metal structure...although we were told its bad luck to touch it....so i am assuming based on that it is no longer used...still...its pretty :)
here's another art oriented shot in the old part of town...aren't they cool chairs...and they were huge...i should have gotten a picture on them, but we were touring the city at this point and moving quite fast to get to the next part...i still liked the look of them...very creative...
the shot above is the ceiling of the old town hall...so ornate...just loved it....this place is used for weddings...as a matter of fact, while we were around the old town hall, we saw about 5-6 weddings come out and take pictures with the astro clock...beautiful setting, wouldn't you say...it was funny, our city guide said this was the one place in the city people had to reserve at least 1/2 a year in advance...jennifer and i just giggled as we know how long people reserve things in the states....the world is so different....
i love this shot from the top of the old town hall, looking down when the astro clock is about to chime the hour...a friend of mine who was just in prague last weekend said the amount of tourists there now is just crazy....so glad i was there in feb...it was crowded, but bearable...
here's another shot from the top of the old town hall...this is what i always picture in my head for old-world, quaint type of town in europe...so it was great to finally see it and from above no less :)
here's jennifer in the tower with the shot of the main square church behind her....the lady tyn church...very cool and has a ghost that haunts it...we took a ghost tour of the old town...it was fun...but not really scary :)
here i am with the palace in the far distance...unfortunately the day we were up there was a bit hazy and very windy...it still was beautiful to be there...
prague is sometimes compared to venice...there are a few places where there are canals...and in this specific canal there is a water wheel...no longer used...but we had a guide tell us it still moves...we stayed really close to this spot in a quiant B&B...i would highly recommend it to anyone...the charles bridge b&b...
here's another shot of the palace...especially the cathedral..you can pretty much see this structure from anywhere in prague...as it is up on a hill and HUGE!!!! quite an amazing piece of architecture...bad spelling i think...oh well....
here's the gothic entrance to the cathedral...it kept getting interrupted while being built so it starts off gothic, but changes three or four times as you get further from the entrance...its cool...
this is the cathedral from the back....just a stunning building...and we didn't get to visit it for very long....timing as you know is everything and we were just off for this building...oh well...i'll go back i am sure...
this was a cool building in prague, the jewish section to be specific...i just loved the outside woodwork of it...and you can see david's star all over it if you look close enough...
while we toured the city, we actually came across the romanian embassy....the hungarians and the romanians hate each other it seems...as most of the revolution here when the dictator was here was started by the hungarians who lived here...and the the romanians have never given them credit...but maybe i have the wrong story...anyway...i thought it would be funny to show you a romanian embassy....
the next few shots are from two of the many churches in prague....the one above is st. james...i loved the altar section and the ceiling of this church....
this is the ceiling....just incredible...and this picture does not do it justice...
this enormous chandelier is in st. nicholas...its a russian church and the chandelier is in the formation of the tsar's crown....its HUGE...and breath-taking....and of course i had to get a final shot of me and a beer and a shot and a pretzel...these are the mainstays of the czech republic....seems to be a theme of alcohol in eastern europe and of course, you need to try it all at least once...
i had a blast in prague and would recommend that city to anyone...beautiful views, excellent food, fun artisans and just a great overall place to be...get there is you can :) i'll be back with turkey and italy....i will get this finished before i head out for my summer plans...i promise...i have four weeks....hope all is well...
5/2/07 - hey there folks....well, i decided i needed to update yet again...and i can't believe i am still in february break pictures....and i still have prague left to go....so many beautiful places...so much to put on my blog....this entry is concerning warsaw....what a fun and quaint town....also, quite the amazing story of a town in WWII and how they had to rebuild this city brick-by-brick....when the nazis left warsaw they burned it literally to the ground...the pictures and historical accounts of this time are incredible....while jennifer and i were in warsaw we went to the historical museum in the old town.....wowowowowow....just an amazing history....the shot above is the square where our hostel was - kanonia square....the pink house on the left is the one we were in....
this is a shot of the old town main square...you have seen a shot of this before, when i was there for one night in august...but back then there were tons of cafe umbrellas and a gelato stand...this is actually the same angle...but much chillier...this however did not stop the artists who were selling their pieces....nope, they were out on this very brisk morning selling their works....its just such a quaint square...its everything i picture when i think of old style europe...just stunning....
within this square there is a statue to a mermaid....not really sure on the history here, but it reminded me quite a bit of joan of arc statue i have seen elsewhere...and doesn't it look great with the buildings behind it :) i really like this shot....
polish folks do like their alcohol during the cold winter months and the hot summer months...during our trip through old town we came across this person dressed as a walking beer...the alcohol most consumed by poles though is vodka...just like in russia...i did bring some bison grass vodka back...and there is a piece of bison grass in the bottle....they actually have free range bison, a bit different from the american type, in the southern part of poland...we didn't get to see them, but we did read about them....
the shot above is the classic square shot....included is the pillar of one of the kings (left) and the royal palace (right)...and then the old-styled buildings which were built by hand from the original destroyed houses after WWII....its just impressive to know that these people after being persecuted came back to where they were and rebuilt their city as a population working together....just amazing!!!!
i loved the building above...its not necessarily famous, although it is part of the culture & science building complex and is a current day theater...but don't you just love where they arrows point to the front door....just a great picture and use of space....doesn't it just make you want to enter :)
the shot above is from the culture science building....a leftover from the communist regime...it is HUGE...and quite a beautiful building....they definitely built long lasting, enormous buildings in the communist era....but it did show us a great view of the entire city...and where we went during the day....plus we got to see the city light up at dusk and a nice start to the sunset...it was quite windy though....happens on 60-something floor buildings :)
here's that humongous building created during the communist era...the culture and science building (or something like that) its interesting....because of past communist rulings here in romania and other eastern european countries...a national holiday falls on may 1st....may day to celebrate the workers of the country....so yesterday we had the day off...and it was great!!!! i know poland gets the same day off for the same reason....pretty cool....
within in the building there was this cool technology exhibit...and above you see jennifer playing in one of the parts....you walked through these cool strings and this camera picked up your motion and attached musical notes to the strings you walked among...it was quite fun making all this noise by just walking through this "forest of strings!"
during our day in warsaw, beatta, a friend jennifer's made in africa, took us to two of the royal residences...the one above was the nightly getaway palace because its really still within the city...this place had some great walking paths and lots of peacocks...the architecture was quite greek in some places and they had this cool outdoor theater...but the pictures i took didn't really come out well...the nickname of this palace was the "royal toilets"....didn't really ever figure that out...i thought they were quite nice :)
here's one of those peacocks fellows displaying for us....he was chasing after about 5 females and all of them turned their tails up at him....poor guy....we thought his feathers were quite beautiful, but what do we know....we aren't female peacocks :)
here's jennifer and beatta in front of what i called the birthday cake palace...that's what all of the bright colors reminded me of...a lot of this palace was under renovations, but it was still fun to walk around the grounds and see what it would like when they were finished...beatta was a wonderful guide and took us to an amazing periogies place...she got a kick out of how we pronounced those food names as well....polish has lots of j's and v's and y's....all in weird places...its a really hard language to understand....
in my opinion this picture above is one of the funniest from the trip...in one of the squares in warsaw they have this fake palm tree....and in the winter they remove all of the palm fronds...because its winter.....hahahahaha....so the trunk you see is of a fake palm tree that lost its leaves for the winter....i love it!!!!!
the pictures above and below are from the same chocloate place - very famous in poland - wedel....we had a quick stop in for a hot chocolate, aka pudding....yummy...i have to say i love this "italian" styled hot chocolate...you need a spoon to drink it...and i just seem to find it everywhere in europe...or maybe i seek it out....but the shot above was before i dove into the chocolate...and the shot below is one happy dani....i was lovin poland in this shot :)
okay....so there's the update from warsaw...one more stop from the february break...prague...i will try and post those pictures in the next week or so....the problem is i have a ton...i will probably do prague in two installments....such a beautiful city....and then of course i have to do my trip to italy with my folks and the two trips i took to turkey....plus, i just found out i am headed back to budapest...this time as a chaperone for a middle school sports team...ms girls softball...and the school covers all expenses...you just can't beat it :) so i'll be back soon...i hope :) hope everyone is well and that you enjoyed this stop in poland....
May 20th, 2007 - hey there folks...its a rainy sunday here in Romania...and probably the last weekend i need to prep for school...as we have four weeks left in the classroom, although the last week doesn't really count....so exciting...it been a stormy weekend here...and we had a HUGE storm on friday night...thunder + lightning...the works...it was beautiful...bucharest also hosted its first ever formula racing event...i guess the city looked good on TV...i didn't watch but others did....i am trying to finish off my feb break with this entry...so it could be quite long...just a warning...but then again, if you ever hear from me, you know i am wordy....but below and above are the shots from prague....i loved this town...quaint, old world and fun...it was a great visit with my friend jennifer...the shot above was from our first hour in the city....sitting along the banks of the vlata having lunch....it was a beautiful day....hope you enjoy the pictures :)
this shot is of the palace side of the city at night...the palace is huge...and the main part you can see is the cathedral....just stunning at night...i forget what its like to have a river running thru a city...but everytime i got somewhere with water, i realize how much i miss it...important for the next living place i have decided :)
the astro clock is pictured above...probably one of the most famous spots in prague....every hour it "chimes" and there are usually a ton of folks watching it...it has meaning for both parts, but even the guide we had couldn't remember what the heck most of it was for...i did get the sun and moon position...but that's to be expected :)
this is the charles bridge...we stayed on the opposite side...and needed to cross it quite a bit...its a cool, pedestrian only place...stunning and full of artisans....i bought things, which is very unlike me...but i loved the folks who were selling their wares...the bridge was quite cool as well...and very pretty when lit up at night....
prague is where franz kafka is from, such a mororse writer....you should read metamorphosis if you get the chance...but it is strange ...anyway...i thought this statue/work of art in front of the kafka museum was hilarious...the men's hips swiveled and they were found peeing...just funny :)
this is me and my favorite building in prague...its called the fred & ginger dancing building....its it amazing!!!! i just loved it....
the jewish section of prague is quite tiny, as is the population...it never returned to its former glory before world war 2....but the jewish section is a beautiful part of town...most of the buildings are historical landmarks...and the most incredibly crowded cemetary was there...
prague has a wall to commenorate john lennon...it is full of grafitti and is quite striking...this is only about 1/4 of it....but i did like this section....
this shot was taken in the old portion of the town...its a water source from a long time ago...now its a beautiful metal structure...although we were told its bad luck to touch it....so i am assuming based on that it is no longer used...still...its pretty :)
here's another art oriented shot in the old part of town...aren't they cool chairs...and they were huge...i should have gotten a picture on them, but we were touring the city at this point and moving quite fast to get to the next part...i still liked the look of them...very creative...
the shot above is the ceiling of the old town hall...so ornate...just loved it....this place is used for weddings...as a matter of fact, while we were around the old town hall, we saw about 5-6 weddings come out and take pictures with the astro clock...beautiful setting, wouldn't you say...it was funny, our city guide said this was the one place in the city people had to reserve at least 1/2 a year in advance...jennifer and i just giggled as we know how long people reserve things in the states....the world is so different....
i love this shot from the top of the old town hall, looking down when the astro clock is about to chime the hour...a friend of mine who was just in prague last weekend said the amount of tourists there now is just crazy....so glad i was there in feb...it was crowded, but bearable...
here's another shot from the top of the old town hall...this is what i always picture in my head for old-world, quaint type of town in europe...so it was great to finally see it and from above no less :)
here's jennifer in the tower with the shot of the main square church behind her....the lady tyn church...very cool and has a ghost that haunts it...we took a ghost tour of the old town...it was fun...but not really scary :)
here i am with the palace in the far distance...unfortunately the day we were up there was a bit hazy and very windy...it still was beautiful to be there...
prague is sometimes compared to venice...there are a few places where there are canals...and in this specific canal there is a water wheel...no longer used...but we had a guide tell us it still moves...we stayed really close to this spot in a quiant B&B...i would highly recommend it to anyone...the charles bridge b&b...
here's another shot of the palace...especially the cathedral..you can pretty much see this structure from anywhere in prague...as it is up on a hill and HUGE!!!! quite an amazing piece of architecture...bad spelling i think...oh well....
here's the gothic entrance to the cathedral...it kept getting interrupted while being built so it starts off gothic, but changes three or four times as you get further from the entrance...its cool...
this is the cathedral from the back....just a stunning building...and we didn't get to visit it for very long....timing as you know is everything and we were just off for this building...oh well...i'll go back i am sure...
this was a cool building in prague, the jewish section to be specific...i just loved the outside woodwork of it...and you can see david's star all over it if you look close enough...
while we toured the city, we actually came across the romanian embassy....the hungarians and the romanians hate each other it seems...as most of the revolution here when the dictator was here was started by the hungarians who lived here...and the the romanians have never given them credit...but maybe i have the wrong story...anyway...i thought it would be funny to show you a romanian embassy....
the next few shots are from two of the many churches in prague....the one above is st. james...i loved the altar section and the ceiling of this church....
this is the ceiling....just incredible...and this picture does not do it justice...
