Back from vacation

So, I am back officially now. Back from the Old World, which I got newly acquainted with again. Back to the New World, which I have to get reacquainted with.

None too happy about it, either. In fact, I'm admittedly a bit depressed, frankly. And soooo tired....

It was one of the longest days of my life....literally. Leaving Europe for the United States, there is the six hour time difference. So, for one day only, we had a thirty hour day.

It started at 1:00am, Polish time, in the little village of Średnia Wieś. Our first of three flights was slated to leave Krakow for Berlin at 6:25, and we needed to get there early. No one (except me) thought that it would be a good idea to spend the night before in Krakow, so we left the little village, Basia's hometown, in the middle of the night. They said a tearful goodbye, and it was a very sad moment, trust me. Couple that with the depressing thought that the vacation was over, and that a very fun trip on many levels was now just about history, and obviously, the departure was not strictly happy, although I felt (and still feel) very fortunate to have gotten the chance to enjoy such a trip.

We left during a thunderstorm. It had died down by that point, but just an hour or two earlier, the storm seemed right overhead, and was the most intense such storm I had experienced in years, perhaps adding to that sense of foreboding.

The drive was long, and it had a depressing feel to it, of course. It was dark, the weather was bad, and the trip was long. We passed many charming little villages, with church steeples dominating, and narrow streets presenting wonderful views of the normally illuminated churches,

It gets light out early in Poland. I had quite a few nights where I would wake up in the middle of the night, and not be able to sleep again for hours, so I had noticed this already. But during this drive (which was sleepless not only for the driver, but for Basia and me as well), I wanted to see just how early it did get to be daylight.

There were traces of daylight before 3:00 in the morning, and by 3:15, it was that strange shade of gray just before the break of day. By 3:30, the light was strong enough that you could read by it, if you were so inclined. The sun actually rose sometime after 4:00am, although I cannot say for sure when this was, because it was extremely foggy. By the time we reached Krakow, the weather improved, and the sun was out. But on a sleepless night earlier, some point last week, I saw the sun rise, and it was shortly after four in the morning.

Anyway, most Polish highways are definitely not like American highways. They are not nearly so big, so the going is slower. That said, the scenery is much more prevalent, making the drives more interesting and enjoyable. You actually get to see things.

That lasted until we actually got close to Krakow, when there actually were highways that could not be mistaken for anything else. From that point until we got just outside of Krakow, there was not much more to see, because noise barriers blocked our views of surrounding villages.

We took a break shortly after four in the morning, when we were closing in fast on Krakow. There was little to no traffic to speak of for much of the trip, and none that actually slowed the drive down any, so we were good on that count. By maybe a quarter to five, we were at the airport.

The first flight was sad. Basia's eyes were tearful when we lifted off of Polish soil. Another reminder of what we were leaving behind.

But we were not leaving Europe just yet. We had to go to Berlin, and get a connecting flight then to Dusseldorf, before finally taking a flight to New York's JFK Airport.

Before too long, the clouds obstructed my view of Poland, and not much was visible until we lowered altitude over Germany. The landing in Berlin was less than smooth, and it sounded almost like we hit something. It was the least stable landing to a commercial airlines flight that I have ever experienced.

Flying over Germany earlier today, there was actually a surprising amount to see, particularly on the flight from Berlin to Dusseldorf. The weather was more or less accommodating, which was really cool. Upon takeoff, we got a really great aerial view of Berlin. I was able to spot the Unten den Linden, the Tiergarten, and the Brandenburg Gate one last time. Obviously, we could see the Alexanderplatz TV Tower, which is easily the tallest structure in the vicinity, and still one of the tallest manmade structures in Europe, I believe. then, a pleasant surprise: a glimpse of the Olympic Stadium of Berlin, which played host to the Olympic Games of 1936, which was famous for showcasing Hitler's Nazi regime, as well as Jesse Owens record breaking performances. It was used as headquarters for the British following the war. They have since added a partial glass roof, which made it easy to identify from the air. Although we missed the stadium in our earlier tour of the city (I'll get to this trip to Berlin in a later post), I was very pleased to see it this time around, if only from the air! True, I did not get to see it from the outside, but I'm thankful for having seen as much as I did, nonetheless!

We flew over Germany to Dusseldorf, and the landscape was spotted wind power mills all over the place. I had heard that these were a huge success in Germany, and indeed, they could be seen all over! They were among the most easily identifiable things in the landscape. Otherwise, though, I caught some glimpses of some formal gardens here and there, and even a major city or two, although I cannot be sure which ones. Then, we got to Dusseldorf, and this provided us with a view of the Rheinturm, with the Rhine river itself looping in the middle of the city. It was about as much as we could see, because the connecting flight boarding was less than twenty minutes after arrival at the airport.

As it turned out, we could have waited, because the wait was a longer one than expected. We did not see much on the flight out of Dusseldorf to JFK, because we did not have window seats, which might have helped to make the flight more interesting, and passed the time a little bit more easily and agreeably.

Still, they offered movies. On the way there, I had seen The Life of Pi, which was pretty good. But I saw a movie that I knew I would want to see on the flight back, if given the opportunity. It was available, so I finally saw it: Cloud Atlas. A strange and very unorthodox movie, and I will likely write movie reviews on both over the next few weeks.

Finally, we landed at JFK Airport, right in the beginning of the rush hour. My brother picked us up, and we drove out of the city. It was a long and tedious drive that was infested with thick, agonizingly slow traffic at several points.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat, and then headed to pick up the car. It would have been so much more convenient if the apartment complex at Hillsborough had not chosen that time to repave, and warn all vehicles not to park during that time, which was right smack in the middle of our trip. As I write this, we still have to pick up Basia's car (and dog) in the morning at her friend's house. We were just too damn tired, and she was feeling sick, to do it today.

A bit of sleep, and then it was time to go to work. Yes, to work, where I write this from now. Luckily, a quiet night so far, but let's just hope it stays that way. Plenty more on the trip to come,l including pictures. But for now, the trip is officially over....

One interesting side note that I remembered just now. While we were in Berlin today, President Obama was actually in town, giving a speech at the Brandenburg Gate. I doubt it will be remembered as well as the speeches by President Kennedy or President Reagan, but it was interesting to think about the chance occurrence, nevertheless. It almost felt like a precursor to our arrival back in the States.

Yankee, go home! LOL!