I don't know if anyone is still checking out my blog, but if so, here are the pictures I promised from Holland.

Perfect Dutch Picture...

My German Roomates. They couldn't understand that I didn't like beer. It just didn't make scense to them.

Home Again

My flight home went off without a hitch. I'm home safe and sound. I spent one last night on the airport floor to save myself the expense of a room and early morning taxi. Being home isn’t as bad as I was dreading it to be. It’s great to see my mom and dad and grandma again, and nice to not have to pay for a place to sleep every night.

Because I changed my ticket to make my trip longer I only had three full days in Port Angeles before I move in at Seattle University. (One of which was spent mostly in Seattle seeing the Flaming Lips with my dad.) I’ve been too busy packing and visiting people to really miss traveling just yet. I’m guessing, however, it’ll only take about half a week into the school year before I’m desperate to be on the road again.

I’ve had some experience traveling now, and with that comes the experience of coming home, sometimes just as exciting as the trip itself…for a few days anyway. Upon getting back from other trips I’ve found that people tend to ask the same questions. I’ll be answering those typical questions below. Enjoy!

How was your trip? Great, amazing, fulfilling, fun, exiting, relaxing, educational, disorganized, enjoyable, addictive, adventurous, probably the best summer I’ve ever had.

What was your favorite place? Poland was my favorite country. My favorite city is a toss up between Krakow and Prague, and my favorite place to stay was Back Packer Guest House in Budapest.

Did you meet any cute boys? Yes. Lots.

What was the coolest thing you saw? The cathedral made of human bones in Kunta Hora, and Sziget music festival.

Most beautiful places? Zakopane area in southern Poland and the Adriatic coast.

Did anything really scary ever happen? Not really, I felt pretty safe the whole trip. I think people were watching out for me/felt sorry for me a little because I’m a young girl traveling by myself. Although whenever I fell asleep on a train I was always worried I wouldn’t wake up in time for the right stop.

How did you afford it? I’ve been working two jobs the last year and three at the beginning of the summer. I stayed on budget by camping whenever I could, buying food from grocery stores, and self-guided tours with the help of my guide book instead of paying for a guide.

What was the most difficult thing you had to do? Come home.

What did you miss the most? Sleeping with my cat on my pillow…except for nights I was camping, those nights I just missed a pillow. I missed breakfast cereal, the ability to communicate, easy access to a gym, and customer service people who at least pretend to like their job.

Now that you’re home, what do you miss from traveling? I miss inexpensive shopping, European drinking ages, old buildings, good public transport, beautiful European men. I miss being able to blow off embarassing situations with “They all know I’m a tourist and I’ll never see any of them again…” I miss sleeping in, relaxing in parks or on beaches, doing what ever I want and lack of routine and responsibility.

Lucy’s next big adventure? COLLEGE!


I have some nice pictures from Holland and homecoming that I want to share with everyone. It’ll have to wait until later though, because the computer I’m on at the moment won't upload them.

Also, I don’t plan on closing down this web-log any time soon. I think it’s been an easy and successful way to stay in touch with anyone who wants to follow my trip. As some of you know, Madeline, my sister, is living in Bolivia as an exchange student for this school year. If you’ve enjoyed following me on this trip and reading my blog, I’d be so happy for some help traveling! If you want to get me an early Christmas or birthday present then I’d really really, really appretiate any amount of money so I can afford to go see Maddy for Christmas break. I’ll post journal entries here as I’ve been doing for the last seven weeks. If it works out it’ll be a great trip and so nice to see my sister!

I had a really wonderful time. I’m so glad I could share my trip. Thanks for checking in, and make sure to give it another look in a few days for the last of my pictures. Thank you all for traveling with me!!
Love Lucy

Winding Down

My trip is winding down. All I've got left is today in Amsterdam, one more night on the airport floor, then a 20 hour airport hopping trip home...:( I know I should be motivating myself, getting pumped up to do well in school and setting goals and so on, but I can't. I don't want to go back to real life, routine and responsibility. Traveling has been so freeing, so satisfying.

To review:
The 5th was my last full day in Croatia. I took an overnight bus from Dubrovnik (in the south) to Rejka (in the north.) The whole ride was along the coast. Even though it was dark out, I could see the lights of the coastal villages reflecting off the water throughout the whole drive. It was hot, cramped, and windy, but the views made it beautiful and well worth it.

I flew from Rijek and was met at the Berlin airport by Sven. We drove back to charming little Ottern where I spent two very lazy days reading, relaxing, and enjoying a real bed and a real shower. On Saturday Silky and Soren took me into Weimar to get my dreads turned back into real hair. I had actually managed to brush through some of them so I had high hopes. It would have taken several very painful hours of yanking and pulling to get them out altogether so I just opted for a very short hair cut...still getting use to it.

On the 10th I took the train from Weimar to Rotterdam. This Dutch portion of my trip is very different than the rest of my trip so far. In part because it is in a very modern western country instead of Eastern Europe, also in part because I don't have a guidebook for Holland so I don't know all the details of what the tourist is meant to do. Also, and primarily, in part because I came here to visit friends, friends I met earlier in my trip. So although I've seen a few museums and famous sights most of my time here has been spent visiting and relaxing and dreading going home.

Yesterday I rented a bike to ride around Amsterdam. As I peddled over all the canals I remembered riding through Warsaw with Edwardo and Bernard. Feels like that happened so long ago. It made me realize how long seven weeks really is, how extensive my trip has been, all the places I've seen. I'm so glad I took this summer to travel around Europe and can't wait to start planning my next trip.

Thanks for traveling with me.

See you all soon!!

Images of Croatia

This is a picture I took in the Synagogue in Budapest. It's a small memorial to the Hungarian Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. Notice all the little rocks decorating the memorial. Traditionally people didn't find flowers appropriate so rocks and pebbles are used to show respect.

An Overdue Entry

This Journal entry is a bit overdue, but I recently noticed, I never got around to writing about my visit to Auschwitz. That was a day trip I did from Krakow, back in Poland, it seems like so long ago now. You might ask, “Why spend vacation time at a death camp?” I didn't want to go at first. I can hardly sit through holocaust movies and certainly not without going to sleep sobbing and distraught. I'm an emotional girl. The more I thought about it, however, the more it made since. Admission to the camp is free, it's not a money grubbing tourist trap that benefits from peoples’ suffering. Auschwitz is actually a museum. Survivors and family of survivors made it into a museum because they wanted people to go there and understand what they went through. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed disrespectful not to go.

So I did. I don't have any pictures to share; I didn't think it was appropriate to take my camera. In fact, it really got on my nerves to see other tourist taking pictures of themselves in front of the gas chambers or barbed wire fences, really not a get in the photo type of place.

You all know what it looks like anyway. If you haven't seen pictures in history books you've seen it in movies, Shindler’s List and The Pianist and so on. I won't go into detail about the displays, everyone knows what went on there, the endless mountains of belongings, rooms full of human hair, and hall after hall plastered floor to ceiling with mug shots of the prisoners. Before the Nazis realized the efficiency of tattooing everyone they took photos. These pictures are now on display along with the prisoner’s name, country of origin, arrival date in the camp, and death date. From the dates I saw I'd say those who weren't killed upon arrival lasted an average of three months.

I don't know if this is a selfish way to look at things, but I found myself putting my family and me in the situation. I imagined I was born in 1930. We're a happy Catholic family living in Poland. We're invaded in 1939, I'm in 4th grade, Jays in 5th, Maddy is a 2nd grader. We don't flee the country because we're a family with three small kids, it would have been very difficult. I think being Catholic, not Jewish, we could have held out a few years but eventually would have been brought to Auschwitz to be exterminated, I imagined in about 1942. Upon arrival to the camp we’d go through the separation process. Mom and Dad, both healthy and in their mid forties, would have been kept alive and used for slave labor. Maddy, only 10 might have been kept alive temporarily to be used for medical experiments. If she was very, very lucky her blond hair and blue eyes might have won her a place in a specialized Germinization school where she'd be brain washed and brought up with a good German family. (This is possible but highly unlikely.) Jay and I would have been killed upon arrival. This is a best-case scenario. Some days trains full of people would come in and the SS men couldn't be bothered to have a separation that day. Everyone would be shaved, stripped and gassed within hours of arriving to the camp. Personally, I think if I hadn't been gassed immediately I’d have tried to commit suicide as fast as possible. Why live through Hell while Salvation is waiting?

My other thought was, “What would the world be like if the Nazis had won the war?” There would be no Jews left, no one would know what Judaism was, and today no one would know about any of the killing and camps. There would be statues and monuments of Hitler everywhere and we would all be speaking German.

What bothered me the most about the camp wasn't the heaps of baby clothes or the room full of wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs, but the fact that genocide is still very real in today’s world. With museums like Auschwitz that people crowd to day in and day out year round, how can things like this still go on in so many poor places of the world. Maybe it's been made public because the U.S. eventually got involved and the U.S. likes to make its actions public. Hard to say. I wish there was something I could do to ensure it would never happen, but clearly it would take more then one person. Maybe big protests to say, “HEY U.N.!! GET WITH IT!!”

My visit to Auschwitz was a very moving, very sad day.

Split, Croatia

It's so strange to go from the noise and life of a hostel to the solitude of camping. Parts of my tent are still caked with mud from the Sziget Music Festival and there’s still the slightest scent of vomit lingering. It's nice here; I love my camp sight. I'm right on the beach. I enjoy going to the end of the dock and letting my feet hang into the water while I read or write in my journal. It's so exotic and relaxed.

It wasn't always like this. Miran, a local boy about my age told me stories about life during the war. “All these palm trees, the park...it's all been planted in the last 10 years. This road, it was just a dirt path in the war, we had no money.” He said the campsite I'm staying in now was a refugee camp full of homeless Bosnians. I look around at the turquoise bay and the mountains and wonder if before some palm trees were planted, could people here recognize the natural beauty of this place? Maybe the circumstances didn't lend themselves to it, but I think it's gorgeous here.

I can't figure out Croatian food. I don't think there is a special Croatian meal; it's all Italian food - pizzerias and gelato places, as well as European food and Middle Eastern food, east meets west, baklava and goulash on the same menu.

Split has been lovely: busy markets, Roman ruins, the beach. I'll be saying good-bye tonight and taking a boat to Krocula. My days in Croatia are numbered. I better get organized if I want to see more of the country and still catch my flight from Rijeka on time. I wish this trip didn't have to end!

Thanks for checking in, Lucy

Goodbye Budapest, onto Croatia...

.

Dinner was followed by a toga party. This doesn't happen every night, only every 3rd or 4th night.

Measuring the rice with my homemade funnel. About 4 cups in a liter, right? And I think my water bottle was half a liter...it all worked

out in the end.

I gave him this haircut.

Relaxing on the deck which overlooks the backyard jungle.

Hostel Bathroom

Hostel kitchen

Jamie with his two-liter bottle. The wine tasted like vinegar, but we drank a lot of it anyway, cultural experience, right? On the way back someone thought it would be funny to blow out our lanterns. It took us ages to get out.

After wandering around the labyrinth for about an hour we finally found the fountain in the middle. It's a wine fountain. We stayed there for quite a while.

Going underground to the labyrinth. This was the only lighted part.

There was a traditional Jewish orchestra playing in the synagogue I visited. It surprised me how cathedral like the synagogue was.

The Roman baths were actually very good. I spent a full day soaking. You go from one pool to the next, each one hotter than the last, until you work your way up to the steam room. It's impossible to breath in the steam room; I couldn't stay in for more than a minute. After rushing out of the steam room you jump in the shocking cold pool. Very refreshing!

View of Parliament from the China Bridge. Budapest used to be two cities separated by the river. One was called Buda, the other, Pest. A few hundred years ago they merged into one super city, Budapest.

Friends from the hostel. We had a common interest in very large sunnys.

If only life could stay this way...

Charming Polish cottage














Polish man selling snacks on hiking trail

From Budapest to Split, Croatia

Budapest was addictive. I was planning to stay for about three days, but time went on and there was always more and more to do. I ended up staying 8 days. My favorite attractions weren’t castles, cathedrals, the parliament building nor synagogues, not the caves nor rivers nor underground labyrinth; my favorite attraction was the hostel.

Back Pack Hostel was by far the best place I’ve stayed on this trip, maybe the best place I’ve stayed anywhere. It was brightly painted and smelled of incense. Like my hostel in Warsaw, every room had a theme: the fish room, the Bob Morley room, the Ganisha room, the love shake and so on. However, I actually slept in a hammock in the garden. Jungle is a more appropriate word for the back yard than garden. More than one day was spent just at the hostel, waking up late, making breakfast with food from the communal left over cupboard, lazing around in my hammock reading and getting to know the other backpackers. We all became good friends; it was hard to leave.

On my last night I made a massive pot of carrot soup and grilled cheese sandwiches to share with my backpacker friends. It went over very well.

Last night I took an overnight train from Budapest to Split, Croatia. I shared a compartment with a Croatian nun. She was in Budapest to visit the Ecuadorian embassy. She’ll be going on a mission to Ecuador starting next week.

Croatia is by far the most exotic place I’ve been in so far. Beaches, palm trees, rich Italians sun bathing and spraying champagne at each other. It’s an expensive place. In another few years I don’t think I will be able to afford it. Tourism is starting to really boom. My camp sight, 3 miles out of town, is more expensive than my hammock in the heart of Budapest. I’ll make it work though. My main ambition for the next few days will be self-guided walking tours and lying on the beach.

I’ll leave for Dubrovnik in the next few days. Should be good.

Love, Lucy

Bratislava, Slovakia

Day 21, three weeks on the road.

I took a bus/train combo to Bratislava from Zakopane last night. I've discovered that if I ride the train at night I save a lot of money by not having to pay for a hostel. I can sightsee and wander during the day, then sleep on the train as I travel. The only problems with this are that sometimes it's hard to sleep and there are no showers on the train. I don't think I'll use this method for more then 2 or 3 nights in a row.

Bratislava seems nice. Its name is Slavic of course, and translates to "City of Brotherly Love." It's small for a capital city, easy to walk all over town. The castle is lovely and the town square is fun. It would be charming if it wasn't raining so hard. I checked my backpack in at the train station; I'll pick it up tonight when I leave for Budapest. Unfortunately, it has my camera buried deep inside. Guess I'll have to buy some post cards.

I changed the date of my return ticket home to give myself a little more time on vacation. I'm having such an adventure; don't really want to go back to the real world. I'll come home on the 18th, giving me almost another week. With the extra time I might visit Bosnia and I definitely want to have a few days in Holland to visit some friends I've met on this trip. My flight home includes a few hours stopover in Minneapolis...if any family wants to come see me in the airport that would be awesome!!

Thanks for checking in, hope all is well at home!
Love, Lucy

Zakopane, Poland

These are all pictures from hikes I did Zakpane, which is where I am now. If I didn't have to go back to school I would get a job at my hostel and stay here for a few more months. I've enjoyed the cities but I LOVE out-doors. The mountains of Zakapane remind me of the Cascades and Olympics from home. It's so beautiful here and so laid back. I wake up late, hike all day, go to sleep and repeat the process.

Krakow, Poland

Kat and I. She's from Australia. We shared a dorm room in Krakow and got on really well. it's easy to meet people when you travel, but the sad thing is that you never get to travel with them for very long. No matter how well you get on everyone had different schedules and itineraries and pre-booked flights to catch.

Krakow, Poland

Warwal Castle. There are extensive tombs underneath that have the bodies of the Polish Kings dating back hundreds and hundreds of years.

Krakow, Poland

St. Mary's Church in Krakow. Only one of the spiers is part of the church. The other is a lookout tower.

Warsaw, Poland

Chopin Memorial Park

Warsaw, Poland

Stalin's last monument to socialism.

Warsaw, Poland

My communist room in Warsaw

Zsiget Music Festivel, Budapest, Hungary

I didn't want to risk my camera getting destroyed at Zsiget so I'm afraid the only pictures I have is from the inside of my little tent.

I think if I were to do an exchange year again I would come here to Poland. It's my favorite country thus far. There's seems to be a more vivid history and a richer sense of nationalism among Poles than there has been in the other places I've been. It's interesting.

I feel sorry for Poland; this country has been devastated by wars and invasions for centuries. At one point in the 1400's Poland was divvied up among three of its neighbors making it technically non-existent. From a thousand years ago up until the Nazis and Communists of not too many years past Poland has been a struggling nation. Throughout Warsaw there are little monuments and displays showing "Warsaw before the war" when all its beautiful historical buildings were in tact. Yet they're moving forward, westernizing. In addition to its rebuilt historical buildings Warsaw is also gleaming with new banks and sky scrappers and yuppies in nice suits. Poles are very proud to be Polish, and the young generation, despite it's sad history is positive and looks forward to progress.


The old generation is a bit different. Although they share the same nationalistic outlook, they're very traditional and don't like foreigners. Customer service in Poland REALLY leaves something to be desired. For example, the other day at a hot dog stand I asked a woman about 50 years old where a Banko (ATM) was. She just said "No." I asked if she spoke English and without making eye contact she gave another firm "No" and became very busy wiping the counter in front of me. This has been my experience a lot. Anyone over the age of 40 seems to have no desire to help foreigners. Maybe those who remember the communist life, or possibly the Nazis see tourists as another invasion. It's times like those I miss traveling with my family, a bond people worldwide recognize and
appreciate.

My guidebook said Warsaw could be a day trip or just a stop between two more interesting places. I found this incorrect and easily filled up day 12 and 13 here. I arrived in town at 11 a.m. after five unhygienic days at Sziget and one sour night on the airport floor. It was such a treat to have a hot shower and to sleep in a real bed! Every room in the Okie Dokie hostel is painted in a different theme by local artist, for example there is jungle room and a rainbow room. Mine was the communist room. Everything, including bedspreads, lamps, pipes and ceiling fan were red. There was a picture of Stalin painted on one wall surrounded by dreary black and white pictures displaying Polish life under communism. After meeting my French roommate and settling into the Communist room we took ourselves on a little walking tour around or Warsaw, (i.e. got totally lost but were lucky to actually find some places of interest.) We found a huge clock tour Stalin had built as a symbol of socialism. We went to the Fredric Chopin Museum and the
Up-Rising Museum showing how Poles eventually overthrew communism in their
country.

Poles give a lot of credit to the late John Paul II for overcoming communism. I guess he could push communist to limits and just avoid breaking points. 80% of Poland is practicing Roman Catholic. There are churches EVERYWHERE. I was surprised there weren't more shrines or monuments for the late pope. He was kind of a hero to Poles.

Day thirteen was relaxed. I met Bernard and Edwardo from Spain over breakfast. The three of us rented bikes and rode out to non-tourist Warsaw. We toured a local art gallery with an interesting display of posters by semi-local artists. On the ride back we stopped in the Chopin Memorial Park and played basketball with Anita and Martin, a local brother and sister. The Spanish boys and I prepared a feast for dinner that night. We combined our groceries. I contributed instant mushroom soup for three. Bernard made an omelet with smashed potato-chip shards in it, (surprisingly good.) Edwardo supplied bread and a variety of French cheeses. We tried to go out clubbing after the feast but the party scene in Warsaw is pretty dismal.


Off to Krakow next via train. Thanks for checking in and being patient between blog entries.


Hope all is well at home!

Hey all!
Im at the Sziget music festival in Hungary. You might not hear from me untill next week in Poland (where I get free internet.)
The festival is amazing, the music is great and every one is so peaceful. The only not so cool part is the lack of showers. My feet look like they belong to a homeless girl.
(Gogol Bordello starts in 3 hours!!!)
love Lucy

Charming houses with charming gardens

View of Oettern from Sörens house

beer garden in Dresden before driving on the Autobahn

Charming German Kitty-Puss

View froms Sörens drinking hill