New Blog Address

Kim and Camille's blog has changed URL's! What was once www.kimberkley.blogspot.com is now www.kimandcamille.blogspot.com and the original URL now will be Kim's art blog. Sorry for the confusion but as boring and uncreative as I am I could not think of a better name for my personal blog, which this URL was supposed to be for originally, so I thought I'd just make a transfer. Besides I always felt Camille's name should be in the title, I just wasn't sure how to change it before :)

Though this is pretty much an inactive blog at the moment because neither me or Camille are traveling anymore (though the bumming part is debatable), I do still want it to exist as a log of the great journey once had and to leave it open for future travels to come. While we are both settled now for the time being, those backpacks haven't been buried too far back in our closets just yet, and one day after we have finished embarking on this save-money-while-chill-out-for-awhile journey we are now on and our feet start to get itchy once again, hopefully we will return to the road and in turn this blog. We've talked about a reunion tour but the deal is still in the works.

Until then, farewell, take care and thanks for your support.

-Kim

Kim's Travel Update!!

So I finally bought a ticket home. The afternoon of May 12th I will be arriving back in Seattle. I know you are all waiting with anticipation but you can relax now because the end is near. The end of my one outfit, couch sleeping, trampin days and back to civilized livin. I may be a totally different person beyond recognition but I will be there in the flesh none-the-less. Back home.

This will be temporary I believe though. My ticket is a return ticket with a flight back to Helsinki scheduled for the 15th of September. I just don't feel like I'm done in Europe and since it's cheaper to book a return flight than a one way I thought I would leave my options open. Looking for English teaching jobs now. Most likely in France because I'm really set on becoming fluent in the language. Other options are on the table though. I'm just so excited to learn and grow and experience new things. I'm in love with newness these days. And don't feel it's time to give that up.

But I'm also excited to see all the people I love from home. Home definatly has new meaning now and more worth. I look forward to familiarity as well. For awhile at least. Have several weddings to see this summer now, not just the one I'll be a bridesmaid in but another as well that I just found out about. So new things waiting for me at home as well that I look forward to. Changes all around.

Will expand on this later but just to catch up, after Krakow I travelled to Prague in the Czech Republic for 4 days, meeting up with Camille and Cory again before taking a bus to Berlin where I stayed for 5 days. I LOVE BERLIN!! It felt a lot like Seattle with the youth culture but with a mind blowing history and lasting revolutionary spirit to boot. Had such a wonderful time there staying with my friend Marie that I met in Paris. Then April 28th I took a bus to Rostock, Germany where I got on a ferry to Helsinki, Finland. Am here now visiting my friend James from NCA and having a great time. It's odd to me that this will be my last destination, but a relief a bit as well. It's always odd to wrap things up but I will be here for two weeks so have a bit of time to spend still. Plan to make the most of it.

See you soon America(ns)!

-Kim

Adventures Into the Land of Poles

Boarding the train from Budapest to Krakow, at 7pm the evening of the 22nd, I had very low expectations of the night to come. I spent the last of my Florints on snacks (except for a few coins to sell on ebay when I'm 50 after Hungary changes to the Euro) to make the journey slightly more comforting, and I boarded my train car expecting rows of way too cozy seats. To my surprise what I found instead was a small room with 6 beds hanging from the walls. I almost squealled with delight. Now to most the idea of spending the next 8 hours in a tiny room with 5 other strangers on mattresses hanging on the wall by seatbelt straps with barely room to sit up, would not be appealing, but I was at the point where just the idea of being allowed to be horizontal while sleeping was considered luxury. After spending the next few hours chatting with my friendly train car roommates, 2 American and 2 Spanish students, I fell asleep and didn't wake till the train man said to do so at 6:45 am. It was beautiful. 

There to greet me at the station were my super star Couch Surfing hosts who actually woke up at that insane time to walk me back to their place. Barb and Cody are a Canadian couple (explaining the kindness) who live not far from the city center in a clean, beautifully furnished apartment with their brillaint and adorable dog Copernicus. He's a Polish breed, who looks like a Greyhound with Rottweiller coloring, and is one of the oddest things I've ever seen that I still consider cute. It was so great to be living with a dog again if only for a few days. Me and Cop got pretty tight. I miss that little, well actually very big, guy. Cody and Barb were equally as great, supplying me with maps and advice first thing so I could start my touring right away. 

First thing first I walked through the main city square called Rynek Glowny where I saw this crazy statue:

Have no idea what the deal with that is, but behind it is the main market where all the tourist goods are found. Hence the I heart Krakow tourists. From there I headed down Grodska, one of the main streets, to have lunch at a place Barb reccomended called Bar Mleczny, an authentic Polish cafeteria. Her family is Polish so she speaks fluently while Cody is just in Krakow for Med school. There I had to point at a list Barb made me of menu items to order since only Polish was spoken and this is a language I can't grasp for the life of me. Their pronounciation is a whole new world for my tongue to comprehend. I had placki ziemnakane z sausem grybovym or potatoe pancakes with mushroom gravy and compot, a fruit drink made from cooked berries. It was not much to look at but delicious all the same and less than 2 U.S dollars all together. See pic below:

Across the street I stumbled upon a church called ________ which was beautiful inside and out. Take a look for yourself at the pics:

The Polish are VERY Catholic, more so than any other culture I've seen in Europe, so they take their churches seriously. This is also why they are very proud of this lovely man in white you see here waving from the window:

Ol' JP here is everywhere. You see him marbelized in several statues, commermorated on postcards and grafted onto souvenirs. May you never forget that Pope John Paul was Polish, they people of Krakow won't let you.

Then I found this weird sculpture in one of the University building courtyards: 

I've concluded the Poles have a bizarre fascination with broken heads.

At the end of the street, not far from the center of town, just overloking the Wisla, or river that splits the city (as I've come to learn almost every major city has), is the Krakow Castle, a hodge podge of ecclectic architecture continually added onto over the centuries. 

(The Castle fortress and view from below)

(Main palace inside the gates)

(Courtyard gardens)

(View from the Castle gates)

I wandered up into the gates looking for the ticket booth, but not finding it just entered the nearest door. Apparently this was the exit however, which I found out after having toured 80% of the state rooms already, which put Scotland to shame in their oppulence. All the walls were velvet wallpapered, or draped with intricate tapestries while the furniture was gilded, handcrafted and exactly what you would think of when imagining a grand Medival castle. I wanted to see the living quarters but when I finally found out the cost of the tickets I oppted out for chilling in the gardens, visiting the free Cathedral and exiting through the Dragon's lair. The Cathedral was the best part of it all. Every square inch was packed with ornamentation such as baroque paintings, impressive statues, black marble carvings and commerative plaques. Pictures were not allowed to prove this so you'll have to take my word that this was not just another Cathedral. It was a mother of Cathedrals for serious worship. People were praying everywhere and I even saw a nun on a tour. There nuns everywhere in Krakow it seems. The whole place was very moving.

The Dragon's Lair was in a tower on the fortress wall where you decended down stairs forever until the air felt wet and cold. The rumor is a dragon named Smog lived under the castle terrorizing Krakow until a brave hero slayed it, freeing the town. You know, the usual. However unheroically this was done by feeding the dragon a poisoned piece of meat.  Like a crazy neighbor would do to hated neighborhood pets. Such a anti-climactic story. The cave however had a very mystic atmosphere, made even more intense by the presence of a dragon breathing fire  at the exit. A bronze dragon that is, who looks more like a tall lizard than anything actually scary or threatening. 

(Me with Smog over my shoulder)

From there I headed to the Jewish quarter called Kazimierz where I toured around and ate at a restaurant that claimed to have the best Pierogi's in the world.  They were alright. I realized I had been tourist trapped shortly after I got there and heard only English spoken after a whole day of only hearing Polish. The area of town was beautiful though and it was very cool to be in one of the oldest Jewish settlements in the world. And one with a very rich yet sad history. See Schindler's List for details, which was set in the Krakow ghetto.

(Buildings along the main square in Kazimierz)

(A piece of the old ghetto)

(Buildings I like)

The next day I just went touring around town to see the sights. Barb and Cody took me back to Kazimierz to the maket square where I flipped out over super cheap unique old pins and jewelry. Then I toured around myself to various shops and sights around town.

(The Beautiful Canadians in the one moment they were without thier best bud Copernicus)

(The Market)

(A crazy pizza-on-a-baguette snack the Polish sell at street booths. So yummy! That red stuff is hot sauce by the way. It was intense)

(A church and a bird)

(Sexy Jesus doing his YMCA performance)

(A nun actually feeding pigeons. I almost pinched myself it was so cliche. Then she got on a bus where I'm assuming she got off at the orphanage and delivered penicilin)

(A beautiful fairy tale building. What's inside I have no clue but this green and rose color seem to be Eatesrn Europe's favorite building colors)

(The enormous mall by the train station called Galleria Krakowska. It was so overlwhelming I gave up looking for what I needed and booked it out minutes after entering. It is the size of 5 Krakow city blocks and having been out of the states for awhile now I was not used to the feeling of excessivly sized commercial buildings. It was probably the coolest looking mall I've seen though)

(Polish shoe market in an underground tunnel. Notice the crazy fur ones. They looked so comfy I would have bought them in a heartbeat if I actually had spending money)

(Horse drawn carraiges are all over the city. I Even saw one that had a Cinderella carraige)

(Bazylika Mariacka in the main square)

(The town square clock tower and a stage set up for the city's modern film festival happening at the time. They projected films onto a huge wall at night which looked really stunning)

(People dressed as knights, swordfighting in the square. One of the many street performers I saw that day along with a one man band, a break dancing crew and a capoeira/drumming team)

It was a day of market shopping, snapshotting and generally experiencing the town which was lovely. I concluded the night with dinner and a movie with my CS hosts. We saw the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" to prepare me for tomorows sightseeing, which I needed the preparation for. 

I hopped on a tour bus to Auschewitz Berkaneau Concentration Camp that next afternoon. This was not something I had intended to do when coming to Poland, but once the opportunity was presented, was something I felt I had to do. And I'm glad I did. It was not as intense as I expected in many ways and more so in other ways. The buildings themselves are not much to see. The Auschewitz buildings are part of an old military barracks so they are plain, fairly nice brick buildings. Nothing unlivable looking and even almost pretty with the green Spring grass. But the double layered electric, barbed wire fence with the death strip between and the sign translating to "Work is Freedom" over the enterance is a harsh reminder. As is the shooting wall. Inside the buildings there is a museum mostly showing whole rooms full of items stolen from prisoners. A room each for shoes, shaving supplies, brushes, bags, the worst of which being the room of hair which had been taken from the victims to make burlap cloth. And then there were the pictures. And the ovens. 

Birkaneau was worse. Here was the extention to the camp where hundreds of wood buildings used to stand but only 4 now remain as examples of the conditions prisoners lived in. Auschewitz-Birkaneau was different however than the other concentration camps that were work camps. This was a extermination camp. This is why the end of the train tracks here was particularly sad. Fortunatly the gas chambers were destroyed in part by the Allied Forces, in part by the Nazi's themselves to cover their tracks. It's not something anyone really wants to see. Really here, it is the absence of things that seems the most meaningful because the goal of this place was to erase. To strip everything and everyone of meaning and to take something or someone and make it nothing. Therefore there is nothing really left but a feeling of emptyness. A feeling that you just want to leave.

Our tourguide told us a story of a German man who came to visit the museum and ended up recoginizing his father in a photo. He was a Nazi soldier sorting the men between the camps and the gas chamber. The German tourist was not aware his father had any involvement with the Nazi's. I think sometimes for the living, things were worse.

(The Polish Countryside on the way to the camp. Some beautiful, beautiful scenery here)

On a brighter note I will conclude this saying Krakow ended up being a much nicer city than I ever imagined. I had this idea in my head that it was much more 2nd world country, but here they have every convenience imaginable and more. It was clean, modern at parts and well preserved historically at other parts. Just like any other big Western European city. There was a green strip around the whole city and hip bars and cafes galore. The university there is stunning and has produced many famous names and discoveries that I don't know enough about to list, but can imagine by the buildings. They are immaculate and very impressive. Here's me in front of one of the buildings on my way back to the apartment:

That night I went out with Barb, Cody and some of their friends to explore the night scene. I tried beer with flavoured syrup in it, a Polish favorite, which was delicious. There was raspberry and ginger, but the ginger was my favorite because it made the beer taste like apple cider. More so than cider beer. The friends were from Cody's med school, one Polish, 2 Candian, and everyone was really nice and fun to hang out with. It was an excellent conclusion to my stay. 

The next day I woke up early to catch a morning train to Prague, I was tired of not seeing the scenery and not getting sleep so I opted for the day train this time. All goodbyes were said, I bid farewell to a city and people I had come to truely enjoy, and I was on the road again. 

Until next time...

-Kim

Feeling Hungary In the Best of Ways

I arrived in Budapest, Hungary the 12th of April swearing I would never take another night train again. Stepping onto the Budapest platform I felt like I had taken some form of sedative and didn't know where to start. I got on the train in Florence around 7pm and got into Budapest at around 10am having not slept for the majority of the journey. This is not because I have problems sleeping normally, most who know me well will testify to some story proving the fact that I can sleep through anything. Or most anything. Apparently not in a fully lighted train compartment with upright seats and no leg room with passport and ticket checkers coming every hour to bug you again and again. Needless to say it wasn't the most pleasant train ride I had experienced, but it was an experience. Finally having got off the train I was just praying this city would be worth it.

What I have experienced in the next few days made it beyond worth it. Budapest is luxury.

From the train station I took an easy bus over to my hostel, called the Baroque Hostel, that I was pleased with immediately. Just like the one in Florence there was a really great, helpful host, a laptop with free internet, a lounge area, a stocked kitchen and nice clean rooms. Unlike the other one however there was actually a TV in the lounge with cable and it was very well decorated. Very clean line modern with a few quirky baroque elements here and there. Basically it felt like a really nice apartment and as a result you could see all the guests lounging around the pad just hanging out and enjoying themselves. Instantly I met several kind and friendly travellers who became like roommates to me.

All I had energy for that day was to get some dinner in town after experiencing a chill afternoon so I headed towards the hostel staff's reccomended restaurant Menza and on the way soaked in the views of the beautiful and ecclectic embassy buildings along the main street. The weather was gorgeous and Spring had just started the blossoming process. The architecture was like nothing I had seen so far. A lot of art nouveau influenced buildings with intricate, unique details and bizarrely interwoven statuary. Menza was a really nice restaurant so I was surprised to see that the meals only cost around $8 US. I had an wonderful and luxurious meal consisting of a famous pumpkin soup with pistachios and Hungarian egg noodles with hot apple tea, then

went back to the hotel to cash after a loooooong day.

The next day I joined up with a kid named Pete I met at the hostel to wander around the town. We walked down to the Danube river, or Duna as they call it, seperating the old towns of Buda and Pest. These towns were combined by a Hapsburg initiative in 1873. Buda is the old part while Pest is newer. From there we checked out the famous chain bridge and climed uphill to the Buda palace which unfortunatly was closed for tours since it was Easter Maonday but was beautiful all the same.

(Chain Bridge and view of the river)


(Lift going up to the palace)


(Palace entrance)

Then I took a wander around the ancient Matius church which has a rich history. When the Turks invaded in 1541 it was conveted into a mosque, then turned back into a church and revamped 145 years later when the Austrian Hapsburgs took over. Then during the communist era much of it was destroyed so yet again it had to be redone. The church doesn't seem to show much of his however because it is rich with Turkish patterning, elaborate paintings and old statuary. I really loved it. See pics below:

Then we wandered around the Fisherman's Basion, a castle-esque overlook of the city and headed down to catch sight of another pretty church we saw from above with more Turkish patterning.

From there we crossed over another bridge and toured around the Margit-Szige island in the center of the river. Realizing we were hungary and tired we wandered back to the hostel stopping for dinner at some hole in the wall restaurant along the way. Here I had one of the best meals I've ever had, consisting of roast park (which the menu refered to as ironed pork) a berry sauce and a potatoe/onion concoction with a beer. The whole this was brought to us on silver domed platters and a delicious gourmet appetizer was served as part o the meal as well. All together I paid the equivalent of about $12 with tip which was 2,500 Hungarian florints (yes the bills are initially very scary). I felt like a queen.

By the end of the night however I wasn't feeling so hot . Only because I had been coughing like crazy all day. In Florence I came down with a head cold and what's leftover from that created a cough. I thought that was a sign of the end, but even today a more than a week later, I have a persistent annoying cough, although no other cold symptoms. I now feel your pain mom, literally. By the end of the day my lungs ache and my inner stomach muscles hurt from all the effort it takes to cough. If anyone out there has any advise about managing this thing, let me know because my drink-tea-whenever-possible philosophy isn't really working.

I crashed early and slept well so the next morning I was off and running. Found out Cmille was coming in that afternoon so I was super excited. Thought I would tour the Parliment that morning, but when I got there the police weren't allowing anyone in and here were people all around with Hungarian flags. I asked around and found out it was a protest of the new governement that the people aren't happy with. That's as far as they could explain in English. I thought I'd sit back and enjoy this new show unfolding but it turned out to be a peaceful protest, meaning a boring one with people just standing and listening to Hungarian speeches over loud speakers, so I kept on going wandering through side streets.

(Parliment from across the water)

Soon I stumbled upon a church called St. Stephen's Basilica and it looked cool so I thought I'd poke my head in. Sure enough it was one of the most stunning things I've ever seen, with a huge dome and more interesting style of decoration than I've seen yet in Europe. The patterning is fabulous, the statues very human and relatable, the paintings were all incredible. I just feel like the churches in Eastern Europe are warmer than those in the West. And they make the Western churches look practically agnostic in comparison. This church felt like ascending to heaven. The power of it all just smacks you in the face. And an interesting thing I found was that they refered to Hungary's conversion to Christainity as coming under the reign of Mother Mary. She is far more revered here than her usually more popular son. Altough I've seen the most moving Jesus statues here. I saw my first relic as well, which was very cool but creepy. The church had in a gold case the preserved hand of Saint Jobb Capolna. I couldn't really see it in te box but the picures were pretty gnarly (I mean that in the both good and bad sense).

Then I wandered through the downtown shops before arriving at the Jewish quarter where I checked out the synagogue. It was really stunning and moving because ther were so many remembrance plaques. This is a city that was drastically affected by the Holocaust and WW2, having experienced one of the first waves of Nazi takeover. Most of the city's Jews were collected for the concentration camps. They were largely sent to Auschwitz. More on that in the Krakow blog..

(Communist era building)

Then I wandered up the other main north-south street called Rakoczi to meet Camlle at the train station, moving very slowly feeling the need to take photos of every cool building I saw, of which there were many. The reunion was wonderful, I didn't realize how much I missed her till I saw her again. I also had the pleasure of meeting her new train friend Corey who soon became our new travel companion accompanying us to dinner and a night at the Szechenyi bathouse in the city park that night. All ended up being fabulous (including Corey). The meal, which was traditional Hungarian, was once again fit for kings and inexpensive and the bathouse was just beyond words incredible. There were three pools, one warm, one hot and one regular colder temp for swimming, and in the pools were fountains and currents to float along on with steam rising all around, all while srrounded by beautiful baroque buildings. It was like living in a dream and was my favorite experience I think so far. I came out so relaxed I could barely stand and I slept so well it was dreamless.

(Heroes Square in the City Park)

The next day we met Corey back at the city park to see the Mucha Exhibit at the Fine Art Museum. Me and Camille were so excited because we both LOVE Alphonse Mucha, who if you are not aware is the king of art nouveau, and you should google him to experience pure unfiltered beauty. Oddly enough we thought we were going to see this same exhibit in Montpellier untl we realized it wasn't coming til May. Probably because it was in Budapest, it was fate! I could have lived in that exhibit I loved it so much. The rest of the art wasn't so great, but we were so high on Mucha we didn't care. From there me and Camille wandered down to the downtown to check out some shops and parks while Corey experiened the cool but pricey Spy Museum. Then we all met up for an elaborate ice cream sundae before attempting to head over to the Roman Citadel. Instead we got distracted by a sweet vintage shop where we shopped until I ran out of time and had to get back to catch my train that left at 8pm to Krakow.

(Traditional Hungarian rafts store)

(Camille and Corey chowin down)

It was so sad to leave behind my freinds and all their cool plans for the next couple days (I would have spent the rest of the time exploring bathhouses really), but I was excited to reach my next destination in the country I've been wanting to see the most in Eastern Europe. The homeland of the Kashmark/Kaczmarek name. I was so excited to see Poland I actually ventured to get another night train out to have an extra day there.

So I exit this blog doing exactly what I said I would not do in the entrance preparing for another interesting experience. Stay tuned for next time to hear that story...

(Train Station with Metro construction in front)

-Kim