European Adventures

In April, Brian and I met up with our best friends, Magda and Jeremy, for some European adventures.  Brian and Jeremy, and our other friend, Brett, headed to Tilburg, Netherlands for a metal music festival called Roadburn, and taking advantage of this opportunity, Magda and I went to Poland to visit Magda's Babcia (grandmother).  A radtastic time was had by all.  Since I wasn't in Tilburg, (or Eindhoven, where the boys were based), I didn't get to experience Roadburn first hand. Thus, you are stuck with only my half of the adventure :).

As a result of awesomeness of modern travel, we all met up at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.  Magda and Jeremy had a long flight from Calgary, so they arrived a few days early to sleep off the jet lag, and as a result we were all raring to giver once we found each other.

Ain't we cute?

From Amsterdam, Magda and I traveled to Warsaw, Poland, and I must say, having a Polish-speaking bestie is pretty fabulous :).  Many people in Poland spoke little English, if at all, so she was definitely a saving grace for me.  Thank you for ordering all my food, Magda!! :D

Warsaw, as I learned, was pretty much flattened by WWII both structurally and economically, and the communism vibe is still pretty apparent.  The architecture of most of the city is bleak and without pizazz, and many areas appear to be in some state of disarray. That's not to say that Warsaw isn't a place worth visiting, but there are half finished buildings Magda pointed out to me that have been half finished since the 1950s.  Also, there are buildings that were constructed on a make-do basis, and without any real planning process, so they look like a series of additions made from whatever materials were available at the time.  Sometimes I couldn't tell if an apartment was thriving or a squat of some kind.  At the same time though Warsaw is in the middle of a full-scale, and seemingly city-wide public transit development that looks to be a means of expanding and building commercial and economic development in the core, which is a shiny, sky scrapered downtown.  It's a city of many contrasts, with some citizens hitting the streets dressed to the nines, and others looking quite the opposite.  I really enjoyed my short time in Warsaw because it is so different from any other place I've visited, and it is clearly still in a state of transition.

The *Joseph Stalin* Palace of Culture and Science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science,_Warsaw).  Key landmark when trying to find your way around without being able to understand the road markings :).

Sweet chandelier at The Kebab King, a donair restaurant.

That's right.  When in Poland, get donair for dinner.

Courtyard view from our hostel. It's a very popular place for moms with toddlers and people walking their dogs.  In fact, there are little parks like this all over the place, which is great.  Many of them have neato monuments and statues in them, but I couldn't read the inscriptions to get a gist of what was being remembered most of the time.

Chopin must have lived or studied here.  We also found an office once occupied by Marie Curie that had been turned into a museum.  Totally cool.  Or rad, if you're into radioactivity puns...

BFF with a suitably Magdalena-type car.

The older part of Warsaw was destroyed in the war, so they rebuilt it as it would have looked before the destruction.

Look, Edmonton!  Train on the roadway and no one's getting hit!  No safety arms, no bells, no flashing lights!  Impossibru!!!

Magda said that she remembered these buildings as a child as "milk carton houses".  Good analogy methinks.

The main square in the old quarter.  They were just in the process of setting up for a film festival as well as all of the outdoor restaurant spaces.

Perogy-specific restaurant!!!!  Fantabulous for prairie Canadians :).

Heading toward the castle wall.  In the little nooks artisans were selling their wares.

No idea what's going on here, but I suspect this wall/castle had been around since 1656...

Despite the milk carton-esque architecture, there is also a love of round buildings and edifices.

I love how colourful and happy this place looks.

Aaaand, a trip to Poland wouldn't be complete without trying to understand the effect of WWII.  This is a demarcation of the location of a section of wall encompassing the Warsaw Jewish ghetto.

The lighter bit in the middle is the ghetto, with the remainder being Warsaw City.

An explanation of the ghetto and the wall, thankfully translated for the Polish-inept.

One of many memorials for Jews slain during WWII.  The plaque indicates that on a certain date "Hitler's men murdered" a number of Jewish residents of the city at that location.  These memorials are clearly visited often by those directly affected.

From Warsaw, Magda and I trained it to Krakow!  This is the river by Magda's babcia's apartment :).

Gorgeous churchy building.  The different styles of brick are so neat.

There were oodles of horses and carriages in which to tour the City.  I kind of took pictures of all of them... :).

Supercute couple playing traditional Polish muzak.

This is the centre of a huge shopping/restaurant square, and I believe this is a church.  The middle of the building is a makers' market full of woodwork, jewellery, handmade toys and leather goods.  It's A-MAZ-ING.

Yay!  Been part of the EU for 8 years :D.

It was a beautiful day, which of course required hand-squeezed specialty lemonade.

Cool floating lady.

So interesting.  Like right out of a fairytale.

Yep, I'm leaning on some ran do's car.  But it's a Polski Fiat.  How can you not love something this cute called a Polski Fiat????

Beautiful church down the street from Babcia's house.

Outside of Krakow is this UNESCO world heritage site - a salt mine!

Unbelievably, people started mining salt here in the 1200s...
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine)

Even the chandeliers and light fixtures are made of salt.

Some of the miners were so talented that in addition to their day job, they also carved figures and scenes of religious and historical significance.  Unreal.

Since the miners spent so much time underground, and due to the high incidence of fatal accidents, they built several chapels within the mine for worship and prayer.  This is the largest and most intricate, not to mention hundreds and hundreds of feet below ground.  Amazing.

Mmmm, salt chandelier looks like a jellyfish.

Sadly, we had to leave Poland and head back to the Netherlands to meet up with the metal heads.  Magda and I flew back to Amsterdam, and bussed our way for an overnight stay in Haarlem.

Haarlem!  This photo does not do this quaint place justice.  People cycling everywhere, all the lovely buildings with different facades.  Absolutely lovely.

Seriously, it doesn't look real, does it?

Beautiful church just outside the hostel.

Heiney Hotel!

After an all too short stop in Haarlem, it was time to go round up the boys and head in our different directions.  Magda and Jeremy were leaving that afternoon to go on a month-long tour of Japan and South Korea, and we came back to Edinburgh.  It was a WONDERFUL trip.  If you're thinking of taking a trip to Poland, do it!  It's such an interesting and diverse place, and mostly untouched by tourism.  Also, the Netherlands is gorgeous.  Green, clean, organized.  Magnifique.  Can't wait to go back!

M

M&B Go to Dublin

Last October, Brian and I headed over to Dublin (the real one, in Ireland) for a short break, and it was great!  I know this post is a little late.  I really don't know why it's taken me this long to get the pics up.  Stupid brain.

When you think of the UK and Ireland, most people conjure up scenes of rain and cloudy skies.  Here in Edinburgh, it actually rains just as often as it does in Edmonton, which is roughly one good day of rain every week or two on average.  What's different is that we get this "Scotch mist", which appears to simply be low hanging clouds.  It feels like a very very light shower, and lasts usually for only a few minutes, and can come and go throughout the day.  This occurs most days, but I wouldn't really classify it as rain because you can get by without an umbrella and you don't get overly wet.  It just makes stuff damp.  In Dublin, however, it rains.  As in torrential sheets of water falling out of the sky and being blown at you by gale force winds from all directions.  We had never seen so much rain in a 5-day period in our lives.  When we asked the locals about whether this was an anomaly, they confirmed that no, that level of stunning wetness was pretty much the norm, all year round.  Yikes!  Brian and I would go out walking, then retreat back to the hotel and dry our shoes with the hotel blowdryer, and then head back out again.  We even melted the blowdryer...  Nonetheless, the city of Dublin was gorgeous and we did have a fantastic time.  Mostly because it is the birthplace of my favourite band, U2 :).

The first place we visited was Kilmainham Gaol (jail), one of the first "prison"-type jails to replace the dungeon concept.  

Although it's really bright and open in the building, there's a creepy coldness about it.  This gaol housed many political and other prisoners, ranging down to 5-year-old children caught stealing on the streets, and including the masterminds of the 1916 Easter Uprising.

If you've seen the Daniel Day Lewis film In the Name of the Father, a large part of it is filmed in this section of the gaol, being "The Victorian Wing".

B, looking cozy in one of the cells open to the public.  This is one of the more 'modern' cells of the newer Victorian Wing.  The cells from the original build were a lot smaller, danker and just plain yucky.  

Courtyard linking some of the older and newer wings.  Those who have seen In the Name of the Father may recall the bit when Guiseppe died and the prisoners put fire lit paper out the windows.  

Former execution site.  

From the gaol, we moved onto much happier subject matter...

Well, this just sort of speaks for itself :).

That's one happy man right there.

Learning about barley threshing.  Because we didn't get enough of that from home :).

In front of the giant waterfall in the middle of the Guinness brewery.  The water used by Guinness is a key ingredient.

B really liked the Taste Experience.

And then we made it to the rooftop bar for some perfectly poured craftsmanship.  Lucky B got my free beer as well.

Mmmmmmmmmmm good :).

By accident, we found a Tim Hortons outlet thing.  Doughnuts and all.  We must have looked like total crazies, screaming at the sign, but our excitement was not to last long.  We bought coffee from here the following morning, and it was utterly atrocious.  Not just bad, but toilet swill water bad.

B and I try to find the Hard Rock Cafe in cities we visit so we can have nachos, and look what we found at the Hard Rock in Dublin!  An original Trabant from U2's ZooTV tour!  I got just a wee bit excited at this...

Some of the grounds at Dublin Castle.

A really nifty window grate thing at Dublin Castle.  Wouldn't mind some of these myself.

We walked over to Trinity College to check out the Book of Kells.  I must say, the University must make a KILLING off that exhibit because the entry fee is highway robbery.

Worst. Timmy's. Ever.

Trinity College was pretty nice though.  Really compact and cute.

Not a bad place for higher learning, hey?  They know how to do school over here.

Then, of course, we went U2 hunting!

At Windmill Lane Studios, feeling the Canada love :).

This photo does not appropriately catch my excitement...

Messages from visitors at the new Hanover Quay Studios.  The wind was so insane over here I was afraid of getting blown into the water.  It massacred my umbrella eventually, though :(.  

We walked through what felt like a hurricane to find this awesome gluten-free restaurant on Dame Street.  We were both soaked all the way through at this point and looking for some warm and tasty goodies.

Soaked and cold and hella happy at seeing so many historic U2 places.

THE hearing aid store from which Bono obtained his nickname.  It has of course been renovated, but you could tell this was a U2 tourist hotspot by the rolling eyes of the staff inside when I turned around after getting this picture taken.

THE school at which the 3 other members of U2 responded to Larry the drummer's post on the community board about forming a band.

It's now seemingly a private school and they know to keep U2 weirdos like myself out with gates and security.

After that much walking and rain all for my sake, B definitely deserved this beer.

In the middle of the city was this awesome park.  I bet it's gorgeous in the summer.

The Spire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spire_of_Dublin)  in the middle of O'Connell Street.

Daniel O'Connell Monument at the end of O'Connell Street, facing the River Liffey.

The General Post Office, which was a major pivot point in the Easter Uprising of 1916.  There are bullet holes and shrapnel marks all over the pillars and outer walls.  So.  Neat.

Dublin is a really cool place.  The architecture is completely different than that of Edinburgh, and it has a very different vibe.  In fact it's very similar to Glasgow in many respects.  I kind of wish (a) that we had more time, and (b) that the sky wasn't dumping on us at every turn so we could actually appreciate the beauty and intricacy of the buildings.  Oh well, guess we have to go back!!! :D.  It's an expensive city (even in relation to Edinburgh), but totally worth a visit, even if you're not an uber U2 fan.  If you do head to Dublin, let us know and maybe we can join you!

M