They wake up in the morning and they drink their coffee black
They love their woman one beat shy of a heart attack
On the way to work they might stop by a fishin’ hole
That’s how country boys roll
Yeah, they work, work, work, all week til the job gets done
Weekends they bar-b-que and have a cold one
They run on a big ol’ heart and a pinch of Skoal
That’s how country boys roll
So, a hooker wants me to take her back to my room. This raises several issues, and you won't guess the most interesting one! But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself...
In the 1st weekend of October the important Muslim holiday Eid Al Adha, known in this region as Eid El Kebir, took place. Discussed in detail in this blog 2 years ago, it involves the ritual sacrifice of animals such as sheep, etc. My school did not have classes the following week, so off to Romania and Poland I went!
My first stop was in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. I had previously reserved a room in a hostel for 3 nights through Hosteling International, an outfit that had served me well for 15 years. My first ever flights on Alitalia from Casa thru Rome to Bucharest (not Budapest!) went very well. When I arrived at Henri Coanda Int'l Airport (still popularly known by it's prev. name Otopeni), I stepped out of the arrival area to get transportation to my hostel. Very surprised at the lack of info for travelers. I was finally able to get on the right bus to take me into the city center.
When I walked up to the address for the hostel, I pressed the buzzer which allowed me to open the gate to enter the property which listed 3 sites at that address. No one was to be found at the hostel location! A man from one of the other addresses comes out and explains that the hostel closed 2 weeks ago!! Needless to say, I had not been notified!!! He suggested I try another hostel on that street. They were booked and suggested I try another one a couple of blocks over. I was in luck there. It turned out to be not nearly as bad as may sound in writing. Nonetheless, it was not cool.
That evening, I am taking a stroll down a big street and happen to make eye contact with a very attractive woman. She approaches me, and I think you can guess where this is going. Yes, she is a lady of the evening. Well, it was evening - not so sure about the lady part. Anyway, during our intellectual discussion of world events she suggests we go back to my room. I'm sure the 6 other people I shared it with would have found that very interesting...
I decided to do one of the "Hop On, Hop Off" bus tours. The price was right. Unfortunately, the English-language headset did not work, but it didn't much matter because the tour was nothing special. It was a disappointing surprise.
I also took one of those free walking tours you see advertised at places like hostels, etc. I've done a handful of them now and have always been very pleased. I most highly recommend, can't say enough about them. The mid-30s woman who led us was a young child when Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was deposed in 1989. She shared a fascinating perspective while describing places and events during the tour. A couple of times she matter-of-factly told us stories that made our jaws drop in shock and horror; she saw our reactions, shrugged her shoulders and said (I'm paraphrasing) that's life - you take it and move on. Life under Communism and during the transition to democracy hasn't been so neat and easy.
Some pictures:
(courtesy of Google)
I went for an aerial shot to show the Parliament Palace, the largest administrative building in the world, still under construction (~ 95% complete) after several decades. In a design competition, it was chosen the winner by Ceausescu simply because it was the largest.
Formerly called Palace Square (the [not pictured] former Royal Palace-now National Art Museum is there) Revolution Square. Ceausescu gave a pair of speeches there in 1968 and 1989. The first was a high point for him; the second lead would quickly take a dramatic downturn for him and lead to his execution. Notice the Memorial of Rebirth, upon which the 'potato' representing Communism is impaled on the spire representing democracy. The (look carefully) 'blood' was not the artist's creation, but an act of vandalism.
The original statue of Romania's beloved King Carol was taken down and melted to be used for other purposes by the Communist regime. The officials who wanted to replace it did not own the artistic rights to be able to put up a replica, so they changed but a few small details like the stance of the legs and the length of the jacket ;) Everyone seems to agree it works!
The Romanian Athenium is a particularly gorgeous building that hosts the George Enescu Philharmonic, and has inside (I did not go) what is supposed to be an extraordinary fresco depicting Romania's history. Notice the 5 small circular pictures above the entrance. They honor a quintet of patrons of the arts. The 2 men farthest to the right held a mutual hatred, so their profiles face away from one another :)
My (smoking hot) tour guide speaks to us at the national history museum in front of a statue of a nude Roman emperor Trajan holding a she-wolf evocative of the founding of Rome that has the tail of a dragon protruding from its neck. It is universally mocked, and people constantly take parodying photos in front of it. Do a Google search - it's worth the few minutes of your time :) I am sure there is other info she gave, but I barely heard a word of what my future wife tour guide said because I was constantly fantasizing about her ;)
I would place Bucharest below some of the other Old World cities I visited (and not just because I had to actually threaten another overly persistent street whore to leave me alone). Still, it was very nice and worth the visit!
Next on the itinerary was a flight to Poland. I flew into Warsaw's Chopin Airport via Romanian carrier TAROM. Get a map of Poland in your head, see where it is situated in relation to Germany and Russia, and think of how the capital city of Warsaw fared during WWII. Not well. But, they sure have recovered in the decades since - what a wonderful city!
This time I had an easier go of getting into the city center, and when I arrived at my hostel, and it was actually open for business - WOOHOO! Pierogies and kielbasa in a hip area within walking distance of my room - double WOOHOO!! 24-hour liquor stores - triple WOOHOO!!!
I took a walking tour through an outfit called Orange Umbrella. My tour guide Gawel was not as gorgeous as his Romanian predecessor, but did a fine job still. We were challenged on our recall of what we'd seen and heard, and the free shot of ice-cold vodka and greasy treat at a local establishment at the end of the tour was a pleasant surprise :)
Old Town was completely rebuilt after the war; I'm going to go with another pic from above:
(courtesy of Google)
The principal sight is the Royal Castle:
On the Castle Square rises a very tall column with a statue of King Sigismund III:
and nearby is a small statue of a boy-soldier to remind of the youth who participated in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising:
I just uploaded the highlights of what I saw over a couple of days; Warsaw is an awesome place to visit! While there, I called an audible and took a train 3 hours to the southwest to the former capital city of Krakow. This time, I arrived at the city without a place to stay that night, but it was of my own doing. I researched quickly beforehand and found several cheap, well-reviewed hostels very close to the main train station; I found success with the first place I tried.
Krakow was even more amazing than Warsaw!! I didn't know that it is very highly rated among all major cities by travel people. I cannot describe how beautiful it was!!! The Old Town area was marvelous; its central feature is the Market Square - I go one last time to the fine folks from Silicon Valley for some assistance:
(courtesy of Google)
It was even more charming in the evening; I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner of wild boar tenderloin wrapped in bacon with potatoes at a restaurant on the square. Mmm, bacon...
The original reason I was going to to that corner of the country was to take a tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Memorial and State Museum. I had camera issues from shortly after I got to Krakow, but it's just as well, because I wasn't much in the mood to take photographs. The camp rose from an abandoned Polish military barracks. Visitors may take pictures almost everywhere; here are simply a pair: the first is of the wrought-iron gate with the infamous inscription Arbeit Macht Frei, or "Work Makes (You) Free". The inscription was but one part of the ruse the Germans used to make the inmates think they would leave some day, The second is of the railroad line into A-B II that runs all the way to the furnaces in the rear of the property so as to be more "efficient". I'm glad I went, and saw with my own eyes what, remarkably, human beings are capable of doing to one another. Part of me wishes I had never seen it.
On that note we will end this post...
Well if you don’t know your way around
They’ll draw you a map
And if you’re broke and you ask
They’ll give you the shirt off their back
All they need is a little gas
A few dollars to fold
That’s how country boys roll
