Jess Takes On The World

Wroclaw

Wroclaw was a bit of a long stop for me, and well, not every city is a winner. I really didn’t enjoy my time there much. It’s a smaller city and there wasn’t much to do, the people weren’t terribly friendly, and I just didn’t love what it had to offer.

The highlights are the dwarf statues around the city, the church island, and the huge city forest I got to explore. The museum of contemporary art was really nice as well, and there was a synogouge with some super interesting exhibits on genocide (Jewish and Rwandan genocide), the role of women in the Jewish faith, and how immigrants feel like Wroclaw is Home.

But Wroclaw was decimated in WWII and stifled under communism, which really shows through in the city. A lot of the architecture is ugly, Soviet blocks. What isn’t Soviet are very Disney-feeling buildings in touristy places like the town square. It leaves the city feeling manufactured.

The history here was really interesting and I did like that, but this city left a lot to be desired for me. Apparently there’s a Wroclaw-Krakow rivalry like an LA-NYC rivalry between the cities. I vote for Kraków, hands down!

Anyway, the story of thee dwarves is really neat. Under communism, the anticommunist group was called Orange Alternative and their symbol was a dwarf. To commemorate the group that fought against the Stalinist oppression, the city put a dwarf statue in their old meeting area as a memorial. Then artists loved the idea and started putting the dwarves EVERYWHERE. Now there’s over 300 of these little dudes all over the city. It’s cute, unexpected, and fun!

Anyway, here are some pictures, I don’t want to spend that much time writing about Wroclaw.

Now I’m in Berlin and WOW. This city is incredible!

Xoxo, Jess

I’m an idiot.

Somehow I skipped a day. I thought the 7th was the 8th. All day long.

I checked out of my hotel, I packed my bags, did my laundry, GOT ON THE BUS, left Zakopane, arrived to Wroclaw.

And it wasn’t until I was on the bus, thinking, “huh, sure is odd my reservation number wasn’t on the list, that’s never happened before” that I looked at the date on my phone and realized OH WOW, TODAY IS SUNDAY THE 7TH, NOT THE 8TH.

So I’m a disaster.

But it all worked out 🤷‍♀️

Stayed in my hostel last night and woke up ready to see the city!

Zakopane

This is a lovely little town—popular in summer for hiking and popular in winter for skiing. It’s in the Tatry mountains and is really gorgeous. I’d like to come back here and do more as well!

I didn’t get to try out skiing because all the English lessons were booked and I don’t want to try my hand as polish when it comes to my bodily health.

I mostly walked around the city and got some much needed R&R. I finally have my own room (!!!Thanks mom and dad!!!) and I’ve been enjoying the freedom of space.

There’s a really cute Main Street that’s still all done up for Christmas which is quite busy in the evenings when everyone is back from skiing and it’s fun to walk down.

I leave tomorrow for Wroclaw, Poland. I’m excited to get back to a city, I’d love to spend more time in the mountains but would rather do so with a travel buddy..next time I’m wrangling one of you jokers to come with me!

Xoxo, Jess

Also included above, the most delicious hot chocolate and a european mainstay, kabab. The guy gave me a free coke and I didn’t have the heart to tell him I don’t drink it because he was so nice to just give it to me.

Krakow

Wow, what can I say about krakow? I had entirely too much fun in this city. Krakow totally surprised me and now I understand why so many people I met while traveling told me I HAD to visit this city.

Krakow is a small town. But old and gorgeous and it has a castle complete with fire breathing dragon (no joke, the dragon breathes fire).

On my bus from Budapest to krakow, I sat next to a Russian woman named Victoria who quickly became my friend. 1. Because she was so chatty and sweet 2. Because there was no wifi and 3. Because the mountain roads we took to get to krakow made it impossible to sleep on the bus. But turns out it was my (very) good fortune to meet her! We exchanged contact info and agreed to sightsee together.

Then I got to my hostel, which was a cute little thing basically directly on the main square (totally lucked out!). Here I met my next two besties, Yura and Andrew. They’re from the Ukraine and I can’t actually say either of their names correctly. Trust me, we tried and all gave up. Mad respect to people who learn languages so different from their own.

My first night, the boys took it upon themselves to show me around the city. We got a couple beers and walked around. I saw the castle by night, the dragon (who must have been sleeping because no fire breathing this time) and some of the main streets. It was really nice and they were so sweet and welcoming. It was a great way to start of my time in krakow. I woke early the next morning, cooked some breakfast and was ready to see what I could see and make some New Year’s Eve plans, woooo 2018!!!!

The guys woke up and we walked some more of the city, got to see the castle by day, the main square, etc. They were my personal tour guides. Then we met up with Victoria and went to a bar where we met up with a bunch of people from couch surfing. Another Ukrainian man, a Spaniard, a Pole, a Brit..we had a nice little group. We all hung out and chatted while it rained and then we got some traditional polish food for dinner and split up to meet closer to midnight.

When we met up again, we added a Brazilian and another pole to the mix. We went to a bar (again) and Russians and Ukrainians talk about vodka exactly as much as everyone stereotypes them for talking about vodka. That is still one of my favorite lessons from this trip.

After drinking a whole bunch, because that’s what Europeans do, as far as I can tell, we went to the main square. There was a massive concert in the main square and all the performers were women because the future is femme, hells yeah, Poland! Then midnight came and there was confetti and fireworks and bright lights. Andrew and Yura lifted Victoria and I onto their shoulders. What a way to ring in the new year—dancing to awesome polish music in krakow with a new international community. Surreal. After that we stopped by a bar (I swear we went to every cheap bar in this city) and then found a club to go to. And we danced the night away! I didn’t go to sleep until 7am..happy new year!!

Yura and Andrew had to leave that morning to get back in time for work, so we woke up early (when you go to sleep at 7, 10am is definitely early) and I walked them to the train station. I was sad to see them go, they made my time in krakow such a pleasure.

Then I just walked around the city, and went home to rest. Victoria and I met for dessert and a walk to the Jewish quarter and across the river, closer to where she was staying.

The next morning, her and I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Perhaps this needs a trigger warning, This section could be upsetting so skip it if you feel so inclined.

I don’t have much to say other than everyone should go if they get the chance. I though Birkenau was more impactful but probably because it was more free roaming, less busy, and less overwhelming. I’d recommend doing Auschwitz with a guide. The scale of the concentration camps were truly shocking. I really don’t think I grasped how large they were. I wish I had done them alone and think I’d like to return for a more personal visit one day. Auschwitz had a building devoted to each country people were taken from, and they varied widely in information and design from country to country, it was interesting to see how information was presented. We also got to walk through the “jail” area and one of the gas chambers. The vibes were real and awful in there, and you could see the markings on the walls from the victims that were murdered inside. At Birkenau you could walk through the building victims were taken through as they were processed for the camp—stripped of their clothes, reinspected, group sanitized, distributed concentration camp attire, etc. and you could see ruins of various gas chambers the Nazi’s blew up when their defeat was eminent, in an effort to hide the atrocities they performed. To be honest, I think I’ve avoided thinking about this visit too much as it’s overwhelming. The day of my visit I was disappointed because it was hard to get silence and alone space to feel and understand what you were learning. But definitely bet the days, it has gotten more impactful as I think about what I saw. (As always, mom was right about that).

After that, I took it easy. It was a lot to process and so I just rested at my hostel and went to bed early.

The next day I got up early and walked the city some more. Saw Schindler’s list alley, saw an amazing church, saw the Jewish quarter by day, went to the castle again (never enough time at the castle, I suppose), and just wander around getting as lost as I could manage. Then I went to the salt mines about 30 minutes outside of krakow.

The salt mines were in operation from the 13th century through 1996, and boy were they something! Everything around you was salt rock—walls, ceiling, floor—and you could lick it if you wanted to! (I didn’t, I was close enough to getting sick as it is.) the whole place was full of carvings done in the salt rock by generations of miners. One of Nicholas Copernicus, one of the king who created safety laws about salt mining, one for a polish pope, a whole scene about the queen who started the rock salt mine. It was a cool tour. And one amazing ting is there they carved out a cathedral in the mine! In fact, on Sundays there is still service held there! There were perspective carvings of the last supper, the patron saint, etc. truly amazing. And chandeliers decorated with purified salt crystals. Pretty unreal.

That night, Victoria and I met up to say goodbye as she was heading home to Munich that night and I was heading here, to Zakopane I’m he morning! I went on one last solo walk and got some FANCY hot chocolate and called my time in Kraków done for.

Such a lovely city, and somewhere I know I’ll return to someday!

Budapest

Budapest was a fun stop—by no means my favorite city—but I’m glad I went there. I know I owe you guys a bunch of posts, I’m sorry 🙈

My hostel in Budapest was amazing, the bottom floor was reception, kitchen, lounge, etc. and the floors above it were like little apartments, each on had a kitchen, some bathrooms and a few dorms. The dorm I was in was HUGE and decorated..which you can’t often say at hostels. I had more room in this 8 person dorm than I did in my 12 person dorm in Amsterdam. It was a great mix of relaxing and party atmosphere—not crazy like Amsterdam and not totally dull like Geneva.

My first night I decided I needed to make some friends. So I joined the hostel’s pub crawl. It was going to one normal bar, 4 ruin pubs, and a club. It was Christmas themed so we all wore Santa hats. The ruin pubs are located in the old Jewish quarter of the city. It was the mostly heavily bombed and devastated part of Budapest from WWII and stayed in relative ruin for decades. Now they’re super cool bars with an educational twist. Pretty neat to interact with history in real life! I made 3 Brazilian friends, met some Hungarian people, and overall had a great time. My night ended with being proposed to, so despite the political climate in the US, people seem like they’re still jonesing for a green card. I didn’t get home until probably 5am, people in Europe party so late it’s crazy!

The next day I walked a lot of the city—saw the biggest synagogue in Europe and the second biggest in the world, saw a stunning basilica, and went to Buda Castle.

Maybe I know nothing about history, but I was surprised to find that Budapest gets its name from the cities that used o be separated by the Danube. One is the Buda side and the other is the Pest side..when they became one city, they just slapped ‘em together and got Budapest!

That night, I was hanging out in the kitchen and met a nice American girl making soup. We ate together and hung out, and decided the next day we would go caving. BOY WAS THAT THE BEST DECISION EVER. Caving was amazing, by far one of the best things I’ve done this trip.

We went on a two hour tour of a cave system on the Buda side of the river, it was created ages ago by the water that runs to the hot springs for which Budapest is so famous. As time passed and the hills grew, the caves rose above the water table and now are dry. We went through passed called things like the wedgie and the birth canal, so there were some tight squeezes—but I’ve found that I’m not claustrophobic! While in the cave, our guide had us sit and experience total darkness and total silence. It was amazing! Apparently once a year, around Christmas, they hold a concert in the cave in a room called the theater and I wanted to come back for that one day.

After that, we just took it easy and walked around the city, got Hungarian dinner and rested.

I left the next day for Kraków!