Kimgowski's take Europe...

I'm going to go ahead and warn you - this blog post is a doozy! It is REALLY REALLY REALLY long. I have SO much to write about and so many pictures to share! So don't feel pressured to read the whole thing! Or maybe, when you're bored, make a cup of tea, curl up on the couch and join me for a trip through Europe! I'm going to post about each country separately so the pictures make a little more sense.  :)

Prague, Czech Republic

It has been a dream of mine to visit Prague since as far back as I can remember.  And I can honestly say it did NOT disappoint!  I met Bart in Prague (he was already in Czech for a swoop comp where he placed 10th out of 75 competitors! AWESOME!) and we immediately got things going! We checked into our hotel which was just a tad out of the city but only a 5 minute train ride away, which made it very convenient for us to go back and forth.  The first night we just walked around and took it all in.  We had both been traveling and it was already the evening, so we just wanted to relax a bit.  We ate dinner at a restaurant over looking the cobble stone streets, city lights, and local passerby's going about their evening. It was truly a magical setting - and some delicious Czech food!  We walked along the streets and stopped on the famous Charles Bridge to take in the view.  The city views in Prague are just BREATHTAKING.  You've all probably by now seen several pictures of the same view that I've posted many times on Facebook. :) I could NOT get enough of this view! I have been to 12 different countries and many more states and I can without hesitation say this is my most favorite sight to date.  When you step off of Charles Bridge and curve around the corner, you're treated to the most jaw dropping vision of the bridge, the river, the castle and the city.  At night especially, this view transcends any cityscape I could imagine even in my dreams.  Over the next few days, a lot of time was spent simply staring at that view.

Our second day, we decided to tour the Prague Castle. A MUST see if you ever go to Prague.  (read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Castle) The architecture and the history surrounding the Prague Castle provides enough entertainment to keep you busy for several days. We spent 5 hours or so just walking around absorbing it all.  I LOVE museums so I insisted we pay the admission fee to go inside the certain parts only open to paying customers.  I also insisted we pay the $6 to watch the "movie".  I always like watching the movies at museums and exhibitions - they usually provide you with the history you miss by walking yourself around.  Well, I was wrong.  The "movie" consisted of an old school TV set just 6 inches or so above the floor in a corner room in the castle, with no place to sit but the metal grates on the ground. The movie itself was basically a manic series of snapshots of the castle which we could just walk outside to see in person, and a narration that had no flow or storyline.  It was weird, to say the least. After about 10 minutes and $40 wasted in admission/movie fees, we decided to go back to self touring. :) That day, I calculated that we spent 10 hours just walking.  All over the place! We walked up to the castle, we walked around the castle, we walked back from the castle, and then we walked to the other side of the city to have dinner.  We ate dinner at a place about 100 feet from the Astronomical Clock.  A BEAUTIFUL clock loaded with history. (read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Astronomical_Clock) And every hour (well, it seems some hours get left out), the clock puts on a little show where the animated figures representing greed, envy, and death, come out and do a little dance! (see video below) While we had a little problem with our service at that restaurant (restaurant service in ALL of Europe is generally TERRIBLE - as tipping is not a normal practice), over all we enjoyed ourselves because, really, how often can you say you had dinner next to the Astronomical Clock? :)

On Wednesday, our last day in Prague, we decided to explore the city on the opposite side of the bridge (the same side as the clock) and see a little more of the town.  We stumbled across the Sex Machines Museum. I know, I know.  This might get a little awkward.  But we decided to go in.  It was actually really interesting. A lot of it was modern stuff that is just......weird.....and funny.  But what I really loved was seeing all of the outfits and "machines" used back in the early 1900s and even earlier.  It was strange to see what was considered "sexual" back then.  And how different it is now.  From a historical stand point, it really was fascinating.  Plus, we just couldn't help but laugh our way through it. The couple that visits sex machines museums together, stays together? Or something like that. A particularly hilarious moment was when we went into the theatre room where they had a porno movie from the 1920s playing on the screen.  It was a silent, black and white film consisting of really fat women and really skinny men doing pretty much anything NOT sexual (removing each others coats, talking, etc.) and then seemingly out of nowhere, one of the really fat chicks would whip out a boob and shove it in the skinny mans face.  It was so bizarre and an absolute riot! Again, amazing how far time has taken us. 

After the museum, we walked around some more, admiring more of the architecture and the general vibe of the city.  (Did I mention I LOVE this city?) We ate some amazing food.  Bart made sure to have beef tartar anywhere he could find it!  And that night, our last night, we spent getting lost in the city streets, drinking wine, vodka and diet coke. In Prague, you can just walk around the streets with alochol.  So we made sure to take advantage of that! ;) We started at "my spot" - so I could breathe in one last look at the most gorgeous sight on earth.  And as we sat on a bench with our bottle of wine, reminiscing over our short but incredible 2.5 days in Prague, a random fireworks show started over Charles Bridge.  WHHHHAAAATTTT??? I could not BELIEVE it! To our knowledge, there was no event going on.  Just some random, Wednesday night fireworks in the most gorgeous place in the world! If I had been alone and not worried about Bart thinking I'm a total weirdo, I would have cried. It was truly an emotional experience for me, and I can say with confidence, one of the coolest moments of my life.  To share it with Bart was something I will never, ever, ever, forget.

That's when we switched from wine to vodka, and began roaming the streets again. We got a little lost trying to make our way back to the main street where the train is, but as most international travelers know, getting lost is when you see the most fun stuff!  And we did.  But by about 2am our feet were pretty much toast! We eventually made our way back, got into bed by around 3am only to wake up at 5am to catch our flight to Poland! Before I move on to Poland, check out some photos from Prague!

 Dinner on our first night.

 Enjoying brunch before making our way to the castle.

 Of course, Bart had to make sure and find a Starbucks nearly everywhere we went!

 Beginning the walk up the steep, narrow road to the Castle.

 View from the top.

 "The view" during the day.  You can see the Castle off in the distance.  We had walked all the way up

there and all the way back down!

 "Prostitute Stilts". Yes, that's right. PROSTITUTE STILTS!

 Not your normal nightgown!

Sorry Mom and Dad.

 Heeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

 The Astronomical Clock

 This was our view from dinner Tuesday night.  The clock is off to the left and this view was on the other side.  Not bad, eh? I kept wondering when Maleficent would show up...

Enjoying some beef tartar. Yuck!

 We thought this was funny...

Drinkin' in the streets of Prague in the middle of the night.

 "The view" at night! Of course the pictures never do anything justice...

FIREWORKS!

Here is some video of the fireworks show :)

The Astronomical Clock doin' its thing! About half way through
listen how the Czech guy starts talking Bart's ear off and finally Bart
just has to cut him off!

Krakow, Warsaw, and Dabrowa Tarnowska, Poland

We left Prague extremely early in the morning after only 2 hours of sleep. So needless to say, Kimmy was NOT happy! Poor Bart had to deal with my pretty rough condition the next day. :) We flew into Warsaw, rented a car, and began the 4 hour drive to Krakow to spend the day.  It's only about 150 miles, but the roads in Poland are SO bad, making the traffic terrible, causing driving ANYWHERE to take FOREVER! But the drive was beautiful as we got to see a lot of the countryside and a lot of the small little villages along the way.  And of course we stopped for Pierogies and blood soup (borsch) -  2 servings each!  We got to Krakow around 5pm on Thursday and immediately stopped in somewhere for a couple beers.  After checking into our hotel, we walked around the city center for a little while.  It was SO beautiful!  I had no idea Poland had such amazing architechture.  And the city center was like a little market.  Bart had to buy some of his favorite "squeaky cheese", or sheep cheese. It's pretty fantastic cheese albeit extremely intense flavored.  I couldn't eat too much of it, but it does make a loud squeaky noise against your teeth when you eat it - hence Bart's nickname "squeaky cheese." :) After strolling the town, we stopped in for some dinner and had even more Pierogies and blood soup!  I was determined to get my fix! We were pretty tired from the day of traveling so we called it a night fairly early and woke up the next morning to go tour the castle.  It was yet another stunning structure that we got to thorougly explore.  We even climbed up into the bell tower which was almost like a big tree house!  No real doors or anything, you just had to meneuver your body under and through the slits and holes in the wood that supported the tower. It was pretty cool. Bart also showed me the fire breathing dragon.  Funny story - this dragon is a statue below the castle that breathes actual fire every 4 minutes.  As a child, Bart was TERRIFIED of it.  It was so huge and scary! And parents told their kids that the dragon ate children who misbehaved.  Well, of course, the dragon is really not all that big and scary. :) But I got such a kick out of it.  We also took some pictures with Parachutist magazine.  There is a section in Parachutist every month showing people holding the magazine in various fun situations and locations.  So Bart brought along the issue with him on the cover, and we took pictures with it in a few different scenarios - including the dragon.

We had to speed tour the castle as we needed to get back on the road for the 4 hour drive back up to Warsaw.  On the way to Warsaw, Bart took me to Dabrowa Tarnowska - the small town he grew up in.  This was definitely a highlight for me on the entire trip, and I think Bart too.  It was such a trip to see this little town where Bartosz spent his childhood.  I could just see his little Polish boy body, speaking in his little Polish voice, walking down the street, going to school, and playing in the parks. I felt like I got to know him even better that day - seeing such an important part of his history.  I know it was a real head trip for him too.  He was not interested in seeing any of the remaining family he has there, so we only stayed for an hour and a half or so, had some lunch, and resumed our drive.  

We stayed with some of Bart's friends in Warsaw and let me say, they were some of the nicest, most fun people!  The part that made it a bit difficult for me is, they don't speak English! And my recently acquired Polish skills aren't exactly in tip top shape. But surprisingly, communicating came fairly easy. Between my minimal Polish, sign language and alcohol, we managed to understand each other just fine. :) They also have a 17 year old daughter, Paulina, who speaks 4 languages, and her English is pretty much perfect.  She was a BIG help to me as well and I enjoyed her company very much. They were so hospitable to us the entire weekend.  They started off by getting us completely hammered Friday night with "mad dogs" - which are shots of raspberry syrup, vodka and Tabasco, and they made sure to keep us drunk for 2 days straight.  Drinking until 5am and waking us up, literally waking us up with more beer.  It was crazy! They also made us traditional Polish food including Pierogies, blood soup, fried meat patties, and this INCREDIBLE egg pizza for breakfast. (see picture below) They also took us to a WW2 museum that was a really educational experience for me.  Before coming on this trip, my WW2 knowledge was pretty limited to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Jews in the Holocaust.  I really had no idea the extent of the fight between Russia and Germany over Poland, or the extensive role of the Polish people in the concentration camps. And NO idea that Bart's own grandfather was a concentration camp survivor.  Needless to say, the museum was quite an emotional experience for Bart, bringing him to tears and confusing the heck out of me as so much of it was (sadly) completely new information. And of course, I insisted we watch "the movie", because it was in 3D! I mean, who wouldn't want to see a 3D WW2 movie? Yeeeaaaa. Once again. BIG mistake. I gave up on the movies after that.

After the museum, we of course went to a bar to drink more and then spent some time in downtown Warsaw.  Our hosts and their friends all took us around town and to dinner, and then to a fountain show in the park! It was so beautiful! I can't even really describe the setting.  Tons of people sitting on a grassy hill, looking down at this lit up fountain, with people setting off those fire lanterns into the sky.  The setting really cannot be put into words so I won't even try.  And of course the camera didn't really capture it. That experience is one that will live on solely in my mind.

On Sunday, our last day in Warsaw, we were all pretty beat! The drinking and lack of sleep had taken its toll on all of us.  So, we went to the park.  Ya know, to drink in a more relaxed setting. :) Hanging out on blankets, speaking Polish, drinking beer and just enjoying the company.  It was a really nice time.  We were very sad to say goodbye on Monday morning.  After spending the weekend there, they felt like family!  And I know Makej, our host, views Bart as a brother, and Bart feels the same.  And they don't get to see each other often.  So this was a special time for them and I was so glad to get to meet him, his wife and daughter and their friends and truly get immersed into the Polish culture for a few days! It was totally worth the liver transplant that I will likely need before I'm 30.

We boarded the train Monday morning for Berlin - but before I get into that, check out some pictures from Poland!

 People in Europe smoke.  A LOT.  So much so that they had this glass box in the Warsaw airport that people could go in to smoke! You have to want to smoke pretty badly to do it crammed in a glass box!

 Having a much needed beer after our long drive to Krakow.

 Beautiful city center in Krakow.

 Yet another fix of beef tartar.

....and yet another fix of Pierogies and blood soup. :)

 Squeaky cheese and wine!

We found the cutest little hotel in Krakow. Super cheap and had a cool historical look to it.  And we were the only room that had a balcony!

   

 Krakow Castle

 We went into the tombs in the castle and saw the tomb of Frederick Chopin!

 Inside the bell tower.

 The HUGE dragon! :) You can kind of see that he's breathing fire, but it didn't come through too well on camera.

 Bart in front of the hospital where he was born!

 This was his elementary school.

 This is the church he grew up in.  We all know Bart doesn't have strong spiritual ties - and it's largely due to how he felt growing up in this church. I find it unfortunate, especially because it's such a beautiful place! But it was interesting for me to see where his current feelings came from. He even
showed me the building off to the side where they tried to "brainwash" him. (Confirmation classes) :)

 This staircase would get covered in snow in the winter time and he and his friends would slide down it with sleds and toboggans!

 This is one of the two houses that Bart grew up in. Currently his mothers brother and wife live there.  He does not have a good relationship with that Uncle, so he made sure to hide behind me as we walked by. :)

 This is the city hall, where his grandfather worked.  Bart was very close to his grandfather so this was a special place for him.

 The exact water pump Bart and his family would use to go collect water in buckets when the city water system was down.  It still works!

 Sitting on the bench where his grandfather used to sit and have his "business meetings".  His grandfather was very instrumental in helping the people fight communism. (The stories of his grandfather are really interesting but I'm afraid to share too much because I'll probably get it all wrong. But ask him about it some time because it's quite fascinating.)

 We visited the town cemetary which was CRAZY.  Polish people REALLY honor their dead.  There were at least a couple thousand graves in this place and it wasn't even that large a piece of property.  But we were hoping to find either of his grandfathers and we couldn't.  I did, however, stumble across his Uncle Les!

 Night 1.  Mad dogs.

 That's right.  Morning beer.  They served me "Polish Gatorade" which is beer with a little juice in it!
That is supposedly a hangover cure. They have many "cures" for hangovers. Ironically, they all
contain vodka or beer. Does it count as "hair of the dog" if you just never allow yourself to get
sober in the first place?

 A plane at the WW2 musuem.

 Out on the town Saturday night.

Downtown Warsaw

 I LOVE all of the buildings in Warsaw!

 Bart and Paulina.  Such a nice and unbelievably smart girl that I hope to get to spend more time with at some point.  She hopes to come to the US for college.

 Out to dinner!

 The fountain show.

 It's hard to see but you can kind of see the beautiful fire lanterns taking off into the sky. It was so beautiful!

 Ahh yes. Not even out of bed yet but beer in hand!

 Ok this was seriously one of the yummiest breakfasts I've ever had! It's a thick Polish ham of sorts with sunny side up eggs on top, green onion and spices! DELICIOUS! I plan to make a lighter version at some point with some turkey, fewer yolks and more egg white. :) Give it a try!

 Sunday in the park. :)

I think Bart was a really happy camper that weekend. :)

Squeaky cheese!

Makej got a real kick out of Dad's name. AAAAALLLLLLLLL.

He decided to do a "serious" video for Dad. Unfortunately it's kind of hard 

to hear him, but you can get the idea. I was DYING of laughter! 

Big, scary fire breathing dragon!

Berlin, Germany

We arrived in Germany by train! Didn't see much on the train ride as we spent most of the 5 hours catching up on sleep. And pretty much from the time we arrived, things just went downhill! It started with showing up to our "hotel" only to find that it was not just a hostel (there are actually some really nice hostels nowadays), but a TERRIBLE one. Our "room" looked more like a prison cell. And it was $50 a night! There wasn't even enough room in there for us and our luggage. On top of that, the internet didn't work (even though we paid $4 for it) and for us, that's just not acceptable being that we have to run our businesses even while we're away. AND, it was quite a long distance away from the center of town. I was pretty discouraged, seeing as how I planned most of the trip and had done a pretty good job up until this point. I felt pretty annoyed about it all. So we immediately got a refund, schlepped our bags up the street and caught a cab to Starbucks to get some internet and sort out or situation. Things only got more difficult as we found out a convention in town had most of the hotels completely booked.  We ended up finding a hotel on the other side of town for $140 a night which is WAY more than we like to pay, but it was really our only option. Then the hits just kept on comin' when we realized that in Germany, $140 gets you spotty internet, a shower that freezes and scalds you, a 15 minute bus ride into the city, and a double charged credit card. (sigh) But we knew our stay in Berlin was only for 1.5 days, so we decided to shake it off and have some fun! The first night we pretty much just ate dinner and went to bed as we were pretty tired from the days travels and annoyances. Oh, there was also our one and only fight on the entire trip, but we won't talk about that. :) But on Tuesday, we headed for Tiergarten to see some sights. We first went to see Reichstag. The big glass dome building that serves as the current Parliament building. However, we learned that in order to go inside you have to apply for security clearance at least 3 days in advance. :( So that was a bummer. But we moved on to Brandenburg Gate. The infamous location of Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" speech, as well as many other historical events.  That was a pretty spectacular sight to see although, there was something going on in the square so the mass of people was a little overwhelming. Plus, I was a little disappointed with the lack of information posted for people to read. I was really wanting to LEARN! If you are too you can read more here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate

After Brandenburg, we went to the Holocaust monument and museum. (read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe) Now THAT was an experience. The monument itself is a unique design unlike any other monument I have ever seen. It is comprised of 2,711 cement blocks, or stelae, all of different heights, set on an uneven ground.  There are small hills built into the entire area and the beautifully crafted topography really adds to the effect of the whole meaning behind it.  Underneath the monument is a museum. The museum itself was not only incredibly educational and emotional, but the way they displayed everything was just gorgeous. We all know I love museums, but this was like none other I had been to. Bart had his melt down at the WW2 museum, I had mine here.  I purchased the audio companion that talks to you as you make your way through the four rooms, providing voice overs of the letters written by children, men, and women to their families as they were being carted off to die. They had images, gruesome images, of the mass graves, the Nazi's with their guns aimed at naked women, and all with captions describing exactly what was going on. I have to say, I learned about this stuff in school, but the true horror of it all was never made so clear to me. I knew it was bad. I knew it was mass murder. But I just didn't know the gravity of the situation or all of the horrible details. It had never felt so personal to me. Listening to the audio of a little girl reading a letter of her final words to her father, as I stared at the actual letter on a glass display on the floor...that was my breaking point. I found myself with snot dripping out of my nose as I sobbed virtually uncontrollably. My own ancestry has absolutely nothing to do with the Holocaust. I didn't have family there. And yet, being so exposed to the cruelty of what happened during that time; seeing the EVIL that human beings (if you want to call them that) are capable of....it was just too much for me. I was close to walking out but forced myself to continue through the museum. I reminded myself that this is a part of history. An IMPORTANT part of history. And I would only be doing myself a disservice to not finish the walk through - so I did. And by the time we exited we both felt pretty exhausted. But I'm glad we went. And the visit there and to the WW2 museum has sparked my interest in the subject. I'm hoping to take a class at one of the local colleges on history. I have always loved history. But now I'm older and more appreciative of it, and it interests me more. And knowing Bart's family history with all of it makes it all the more personal to me. 

Whew.

After the museum, we had enough energy left for some food and a visit to the Berlin Motorcycle Museum. For me, this was fun mostly because I knew Bart was excited about it. He got to see all of these old bikes and the primitive motors they used to use. He got a real kick out of it. And it really was a cool place. It reminded me a lot of my Dads place, Dalcorp, in the way that it was set up. There was a lot of care and attention to detail, and every little thing from motorcycles to old stop lights to helmets and gas pumps had their perfect little place. I know Dad would have LOVED it.

By the time we finished at the museum we were pretty wrecked! It was the last day of our trip, our feet hurt, we were tired and our livers were aching. So we made our way back to the hotel for our last dinner.

The next morning, Bart left for Sacramento at 5am, and I hung around until 11am and then made my way back to the airport. The travel on this trip was ROUGH so we were both glad when that was over and we were back on American soil!

Getting some rest on the train!

Leave it to Bart to find Turkish food in Germany!

 Not sure what this building is, but we were pretty impressed by it.

 The popular TV tower in Berlin.

 Brandenburg Gate

 AMERICA! F*** YEA!

 Holocaust Monument

 Yeeeeaaaaaa......

 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'VVVVVVVVEEEE got no strings, to hold me down...

 Yeeessss....

 Everything's bigger in.....Berlin

 Motorcycle Museum

 Old school suspension!

Overall, it was a fantastic trip. Prague and Poland were definitely the highlights. I think the highlight for me was seeing Dabrowa Tarnowska, although I can't speak for Bart on what the highlight was for him. We both agreed that Berlin was a little much. While there is SO much history and so many amazing things to see, the tourism and the mass of people sort of eclipse it all. Perhaps if we had started there we would have felt differently, but more seemed to go wrong than right while we were there. So who knows if we'll ever go back. But I think I can speak for Bart when I say it was some of the best travel times of our lives. Aside from the obvious awesome parts of the trip, it was also great to just BE with each other. Not in a work environment or in our normal daily lives. But in a different setting, with different experiences every day. We got to know each other better and just generally had FUN together. It will forever be a GREAT memory in our minds and hopefully we'll get to make all new ones when we return next year!

If you're interested in seeing many more pictures, I'll be posting ALL of them on Facebook :) I'll also be making a compilation of all of the video footage I took. There's some great stuff from the first drunken night in Poland! If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and being a part of our adventure!