Some Other Thoughts About the Trip to Europe

Okay, so downloading the pictures is taking quite a bit longer then I thought. I will start to post reviews and reflections on my recent trip to Europe, but I really wanted to wait for the accompaniment of pictures. That said, I think that some of the earlier parts of the trip (Berlin, the Berlin Wall, and the Wawel) are just about set, and I would now simply need to arrange them and write some of what I had planned to write about them. For me, it is a way of extending the trip, in a way. The memories are still very fresh, and writing about these places and experiences allows me to relive them for a bit longer, and hopefully, to remember, and perhaps at times reminisce, about one of the most pleasant vacations that I have ever taken.

So, let me talk a little bit at random about some of my general impressions about Europe, for the first trip that I took there in over thirteen years. Most of this will be relatively lighthearted and not overly focused. Just random thoughts about some things in general.

Here is one, although it was not completely expected: there were reminders of World War II and the Cold War everywhere. This was not as much the case with other European countries that I have been to, but it is not particularly surprising when the countries in question are Germany and Poland. Sometimes, though, the reminders came at unexpected times, such as this framed newspaper clipping that I found at a bookstore in Krakow. It is, I think, an advertisement for a book store (although I am not sure). Take a look at the name of the place in the address box down at the bottom:

Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

The reminders were not always so obvious or in your face. I will not include the obvious reminders, such as the Berlin Wall, or Auschwitz, both of which I will write reviews focusing exclusively on them. It was just telling to actually see the remnants of history, rather than merely read about them and look at pictures. The picture of the newspaper clipping showing "Adolf Hitler Platz" was one surprising reminder I ran into, not expecting. But it was not the only one. I saw some tanks and other weaponry from the Soviet era in Poland, now on display publicly in towns, although mostly, we drove by these, and I did not have the time to take pictures, or anything.

Now, here was something else, this time a reminder of the Cold War. In quite a few places in Basia's hometown, it was not uncommon that two homes could be seen on properties: one newer, larger, more impressive home, and another far smaller and, frankly, more impoverished home. These older homes dated from the Communist era, while the newer ones are more recent, in the post-Communist era. By and large, the residents themselves built them, to my understanding (although surely with some help). Here are some examples:

Here is another example, Basia's familiy home. The strucure on the left, which now exclusively houses the animals and a wood shop that her father, a skilled worker with wood, has at the end. To the right, you see the newer, obviously more impressive home:

That picture included the ducks and the army of chicks that followed the two mothers around religiously (they were both female, yes - the father had been served for dinner my first night there, unbeknownst to me). That might not have come up too clearly, so here are some better angles, to appreciate each from, including the size and detail. 

Here's what used to be the older home, where Basia's grandparents lived. It is much smaller and far less modern. The bathroom was more or less an outhouse, right on the edge of the house. Every room was smaller, darker, less hospitable:

Now, these were some real reminders of the reality of the Cold War. It is one thing to study the history in a book, or see some old newspaper clippings or articles. But when you see the shells of former homes that now are exclusively for animals or workshops, the reality of how these people lived really hits home!

Here are some things that I was a bit disappointed with:

 - If there is one thing that I will absolutely not miss in Europe, it is the toilets there. Perhaps it had been so long since I had been there, that I had actually forgotten how different the toilets are in Europe. If there is one area that I will admit the United States (and Canada, as well) have it better, this is it. The toilets really did not seem to flush all that well, and in some cases, hardly flushed at all.

 - In Poland, as well as in one particular bathroom at Berlin's Tegel Airport, you had to pay for the privilege of going to the bathroom. This, I could not agree with. It is a little like the news floating around about how the head of Nestle, Paul Bulcke, claiming that the belief that all people should have access to water is an "extreme" position (by the way, I will try and boycott Nestle products as a result of this). The bathrooms, by and large, were put in place many, many decades ago, in most cases. I am talking about public toilets, museums, restaurants, and other places, all charging money to use the facilities. It irked me, and especially in places where you already paid a fairly substantial sum for tickets to gain entry into landmark or historical places. This was the case at the Wawel, the Salt Mines, and Auschwitz. It was also the case at some restaurants (yes, even when you were a paying customer. The amounts were usually not ridiculously steep - usually it was 1 or 2 zloty (about thirty to fifty American cents). Still, the very thought of it bothered me quite a bit. It may cost them some money at times, to be sure, but so be it. I think, honestly, that this was perhaps an attempt at job creation. If so, it is a rather obnoxious attempt. I can't imagine how degrading and, frankly, disgusting it must be to work at such places, and I wonder if there is not some other area of potential job creation that would not be so unpleasant for all parties involved? None of the people that I saw collecting money with such jobs seemed particularly happy to be there. In fact, they all wore miserable faces. But in any case, this really, really bothered me, and as much as I could, I avoided these pay toilet services, finding it rather obnoxious, frankly. Bathrooms are something that we all have to use, and sometimes quite urgently.

 - The showers. No real problems with the showers in general, but since I tend to have relatively frequent back aches, I often rely on jumping in the shower and putting the water as hot as I can take it, then focusing that water on the part of my back that hurts (usually my lower back). The first shower that I took here in the States once I got back was heavenly, and my back felt better than it had in a long, long time.

 - The traffic lights were a bit different. Not sure if this is worth mentioning or not, or if people will think I'm a little weird for even noticing. But before the lights would turn green in Poland, the orange light would turn on simultaneously with the red, very briefly, before turning green outright. Just thought it was interesting, because I had never seen that before.

-They have some idiots in Europe, as well. Take a look at this plate on a vehicle I saw in Krakow that belongs to some asshole. it was the biggest vehicle (other than trucks and vans) that I saw in the entire trip.

Look at the heartwarming message on the license plate, showing that this is a guy who feels a genuine connection with the rest of humanity, and with life in general on this planet. Man, if everyone was like this asshole, we would have ran out of oil, and other precious natural resources, already!

Unfortunately, he was not the only asshole we encountered in Poland on this trip. There was a group of young idiots on a trolley car behind the taxi we had taken to get to the Kościuszko Mound. We had literally just stepped out of the car, and these guys began to honk their horns and yell and insult the taxi driver relentlessly. They were partying, and did not want the old driver to impede their fun, even for the two seconds that they were bothered by his presence.

But the worst that we experienced in Krakow was a pack of drunken frat boys on Saturday night. Krakow was teeming with life at all hours throughout our stay there, but on Saturday night to Sunday morning, it reached ridiculous levels! I mean, I saw people hanging out from the night before at 7:00am, literally! And the loudest, by far, were these stupid frat boys. There were about ten to twelve of them, and they walked the street as if they owned it. People had to get out of their way. And the most charming one among them was screaming at the top of his lungs (no, I'm not exaggerating, unfortunately) from 3:30am until about 4:00am. It sounded like he was right outside our window and, indeed, for whatever the reasons, they stayed within the vicinity for an annoyingly long time. Basia said she felt like going down there and kicking his ass, and I was seriously considering taking a wet t-shirt and throwing it at the moron (we were on the second floor, by the way)! I saw absolutely no difference between the mindless idiocy of immature frat boys in America, and some of the drunken, loud, obnoxious morons that we saw quite frequently in Krakow. I suspected that they were, in fact, Americans, but Basia heard them speaking Polish, so there went that theory. It seems, they are just imitating some of the worst elements of youth culture of the United States.

After the relentless chaos within the city, we were looking forward to some peace and quiet in the countryside, in Basia's hometown. But there is one neighbor who seemed like a real pain in the ass. He could not speak without yelling, and according to Basia, that is the only tone of voice that he knows. Also, every other word out of his mouth is a swear word. Okay, well, that's not that bad, right? I mean, he might be short on the old charm, but that's not a crime in and of itself. He was just annoying, after all, but that's about it, right? Wrong. He disappeared for quite a few days (which in and of itself was not so bad), but he left his dog tied up outside. Basia's father actually had to go out and feed it and give it some water. Apparently, the dog did not have any food or water and, according to her father, he did ot so much as eat the food as inhale it. And this neighbor said nothing. We might not even have known he was gone, if the dog had not relentlessly howled at night, and sometimes during the day. Can't blame the dog. After all, how would any of us react to being abandoned and tied up like that, without food or water, and without the guy having informed anyone of his departure, let alone made any arrangements for anybody to actually feed and take care of the dog. So, in my eyes, he went from being simply an annoying, but more or less tolerable neighbor, to being an irresponsible jackass who never should be trusted with a pet (and everyone in town had animals, believe me).

I don't know what I was expecting, and I have known enough Europeans to know that there are, indeed, idiots among them. But the sheer number of them, and the extent of their obnoxiousness on display this time around, was more than a little shocking, and extremely disappointing. I could not help but wonder if this was part of the modernization, or Westernization, that everyone was raving about so much.



Here's something that came as a pleasant surprise, right around the end of our trip:

I kept hearing that there were a lot of peacocks around in that part of Poland (as well as brown bears that were related to the Grizzly family, and wolves), but I had seen nothing like that. 

Okay, well, these were some relatively random thoughts and reactions form some of the less obvious experiences during the Europe trip. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will complete my first review on a specific place! See you then!