Its Gdansk, not Danzig

well I am in the city where world war 2 started when a german battleship bombarded the fortress at westerplatte just north of Danzig/Gdansk. The city is really cool, alot like what I would think Stockholm or Copenhagen would look like, prolly because its a baltic kind of architecture. Went out with a bunch of scottish guys, big mistake, it was fun but lets just say I got back to my hostel but didnt quite make it in. I kinda passed out in the bushes for a few minutes before polish cops were like readin me the riot act, it was all good cuz i was actually at the hostel, just outside in the bushes...I went inside fell asleep and that was that. Im pissed at myself, after all the trouble i went through to get a contact lense case I forgot it in krakow. Well a few days ago I went to temple for the first time in my life, I even wore a yamika (sp?) and everything. It was the main temple synagogue in krakow and im glad i was with the foosball team because i got to krakow right in the middle of the jewish festival, and it was awesome. I saw this amazing jewish rapper from montreal called dj so-called. So fun, especially since it was at the synagogue which has been all fixed up to its former glory. After that I went to Auschwitz the next day. So sad, so many people died, although I felt like the polish government accentuated the deaths of ethnic poles....maybe its just me. They at least had a chance, 90% of the jews sent to aushwitz birkenau got off the train and were immediately gassed and cremated. 1.5 million people died there. Each of the nations that had jews (primarily, although roma and others too) sent to auschwitz were represented by their own exhibits in blockhouses...the hungarian (the country with the most jews that died there) exhibit was the most moving, with italys being the worst(borderline stupid). In many of them I was the only person in there because tour groups skipped them, so that made it more moving. By far the most disturbing thing was the pile of hair, about a tons worth, that the nazis had cut from the women. They used it like wool for textile factories to create cloth, the germans had invoices and everything for it. The shoes left over from the people were also moving as I searched for pairs of the same shoes, some of which were children shoes. Its hard to believe this could have happened only 60 years ago...and that people (regular ss soldiers) could do it without asking themselves wtf. Brainwashed zealots. Mengele was also working here, doing disgusting experiments..Ok I dont even want to go further in detail, its a place that must be exerienced, even if its somewhat touristic, maybe go early or late in the day or off season to avoid the clamoring tourists. Maybe tomorrow to Berlin or Poznan.

Krakow goes my back

So finally escaped the clutches of my globally represented foosball team. Left budapest, leaving behind anna-leia from switzerland and went to wien (vienna) with aaron from canada and roland from the netherlands. Only stayed one nite there though, played foosball at this pretty chill bar until 4 am with a guy from arizona....its weird the 4 of us (with swiss) had played every combination of teams and we all knew very well how each other played, it was difficult playing with a new guy. I mean in budapest we also played some locals (roland and aaron won but anna-leia and I lost our game by 1 goal) but we were always playing doubles with someone we knew so it was basically the same. Well I hopped on the train to Krakow and now thats where I am, I didnt get to see much at all of Wien but I figure Ive seen it prety well last years so meh. I huffed it through the city which was not fun, but hey every euro saved is a euro earned. Now im in Krakow and prolly gonna go to Auschwitz tomorrow, its raining today so im doing laundry (gasp!). Clean christopher, yeh right. Ill sweat up my clothes in no time dont worry. Ok so after this im gonna head to Gdansk cuz im a history nerd and thats where ww2 started and the reasoning for germany attacking poland to begin with. Then i think im gonna head to poznan and then berlin where im gonna try and celebrate 4th of july at the embassy, they better have something fun going on. Then 6th I fly to Riga, Latvia and my Scandinavian/Baltic leg of the trip begins!

Bratislava and back to Budapest

Well Bratislava was so much fun, the cities that I meet great people in tend to be the best. I met a group of people here plazing foosball (sp?) and they were headed to budapest so i ended up going back to budapest, in order to compensate im prolly just gonna do prague later once im back in germany..ok no time out.

Dubrovniki, Do the Split, and Zagreb a Bite to Eat

Sorry in advance if my y and z are mixed up a few times...stupid keyboard.

Well today and yesterday I am in Dubrovnik Croatia. It is a really cute city that reminds me alot of Venice except no canals and a big wall surrounding the old city. It unfortunately was swarmed and still is to a degree by tourists....Haggled my way into a room that normally goes for twice what im paying....she told me not to tell the other guests and when they ask i say i canttalk about it...Took a bus from Split croatia, the conductor sort of guy was a real prick, he screwed 2 women from england out of like 40 euro because he lied abour the price and pretended to not speak english. What an asshole. Technically we drove through bosnia so i can say ive been there...i regret not being able to go to sarajevo especially after what ive read about the bazaar and the mosques...fricken romania was like a time drain, it took forever to get anywhere there and getting out took like 15 hours to budapest. sigh some other time. Also regret not b eing able to go to belgrade. Anyways... Split was ok, i got a whole apartment for 3 people normally all to myself and basically just caught up on sleep. The city was just ok, i intended to catch the ferry from split to dubrovnik but i missed it cuz it left a half hour earlier than i had read. Before THAT i was in Zagreb which is absolutely amazing. It was the cutest city, I loved it. It had no tourists to speak of, it was small enough to not have to run around like a crayy person and they were having a festival in the streets for free that was really fun, lots of music and shows and performers. Tomorrow afternoon Im flying from dubrovnik to bratislava because i cant waste anymore time, i have to get through prague and poland so i can be in berlin by around 4 july....maybe checkpoint charlie will have something for it? Ok well im out, im surrounded by brits and irish and lots of asians. Cheers.

By single I mean being alone in Europe and not having to do tour group stupid stuff. Just clarifying.

Being single in Europe is amazing.

Romanıa-Bulgarıa-Turkey

Well Bucharest....well Im not goıng to lıe ıt was pretty much a dump. They have alot of potentıal, so much great archıtecture and grand boulevards too but communısm really destroyed alot of the 18th century vıllas...ı guess they were too western or whatever, maybe ın 10 years they wıll have gotten theır act together but rıght now ıts just kınd of depressıng. My hostal was really nıce, but as soon as you step out ıts lıke wow. Its almost lıke they are strugglıng wıth theır ıdentıty. Amerıcan musıc and TV ıs pervasıve and most people speak some englısh, large suburban developments and shoppın centers are goıng up outsıde of town but the people dont really lıke amerıca. They even have bbq chıcken shacks everywhere open 24 hours as fast food, but ı have to defend the actıons of my presıdent everywhere ı go. As soon as I tell them I am from amerıca ıts lıke a conversatıon wıll start up ın romanıan about bush and amerıca and ıraq, ıt sucks because ım suddenly assocıated wıth all that. Hell ıve done more to get rıd of bush (by votıng) than they have, so ı dont know why ıts lıke a problem. Anyways, I had to convınce a taxı drıver that bucharest wasnt dırty and that ıt was nıce, even ıf ı knew otherwıse. So I caught a bus to Istanbul a couple days ago, took 12 hrs but ıt wasnt too too bad. Bulgarıa was very mountaınous and forested, we passed a golden domed church ın the mıddle of nowhere that was really beautıful. Got ınto ıstanbul and ıt was surprısıngly chılly consıderıng ıt was hot as hell ın bucharest. what a breath of fresh aır though, ıstanbul ıs so much nıcer ın every way. Alot has changed though, they put up bollards and cars no longer park on the sıdewalks (unlıke bucharest). The tram ıs really nıce and new and yeh everythıng was great, i watched the sunrıse over sultan ahmet mosque and the golden horn as the call to prayer went out. It was cool, ı realızed that ı was never up that early (dawn) when ı was ın turkey before. Went to the grand bazaar and haggled a guy down 500 USD from the orıgınal offer so I thınk ı dıd well. The guy was sweatıng so bad by the tıme we completed the sale. I was fırst customer and they always want to get the fırst sale of the day, almost no matter what, and ı could tell thats what ıt was comıng down to...no matter what. Got a haırcut and shave later on, really good. It was hılarıous they cut my beard before my mustache and ı looked funny wıth a full grown mustache, somethıng ıve never had before (always beard). So now I looke lıke 15 years younger, everyone thought ı was ın my 30s before. Well today ım headıng back to bucharest and then on to belgrade or budapest (way too many B cıtıes). Ok thats all for now

Cinque Terra & Florence

Ok so after La Spezia went to Cinque Terra...so amazingly beautiful. I hiked the 5 hour trail from the first city to the fifth, i definitely like number 2 (in my head and the direction i went, west to east) best. The first hike was really hard and they got gradually easier til the last one was really just walking along a sidewalk. They are built right into the cliffs with step terraces of grapes, olives, oranges, lemons, etc...the trail smells of flowers and herbs and fruits, so good. Plus the ocean is lapping at the rocks 200 feet down, calmly the day I was there but Im sure in a storm it gets crazy. Well left there, didnt have a room so i stayed up all nite just doing whatever and headed to pisa in the morning. slept some on the train and went down to the pisa tower. Everyone says it sucks but i thought it was really cool, it was really ornate and beautiful and oh yeh slightly tipped to the side...who cares right? It wouldnt be famous if it hadnt been a failure so heres to the designer! So got picture and headed to florence.. I gotta say florence has been one of my favorite cities so far.. So much history, so much art, so much walking, so many street vendors. I love it here. I stayed two nites (tonite is my second) at this hostel that has the most incredible breakfast, plus free internet. awesome. Saw all kinds of art today, including david by both michaelangelo and donatello. well prolly gonna go to the main museum tomorrow morning but as it is 2 am now its time to say goodnite, prolly head to venice tomorrow afternoonish, spend 2 nites there about and then head down to rome before.....ROMANIA!