Cinque Terre, Italy

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A few weeks ago, I told a colleague that I was going to "synch-ah tear-ah" and she said she'd never heard of it. After describing the small coastal towns connected by hiking trails, she told me it sounded a lot like "chink-qua tear-ah." Yeah, same place. So I can't pronounce anything, but really... I'm trying hard enough with the German, and now I'm expected to master Italian phonetics too?!

So, feeling very American, I joined my also-American college friend Ning Tang and her friend Josephine for a weekend on the Italian coast. They were interning together at the World Health Organization, and at the last minute a couple more of their colleagues (Lena and Andreas) decided to join us too.

We arrived late on Thursday night, and stayed in La Spezia and a cute little B&B. On both Friday and Saturday we took a small train into the villages of Cinque Terre and hiked between them - sometimes on wide flagstoned paths, sometimes on narrow ledges. We ate seafood and drank local wine. We sat by the water and did nothing in particular. We bought pasta and fresh pesto to take home.

Altogether, a fantastic weekend getaway.



















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Poland, Day 4-6 - Opole

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After touring around Warsaw and Krakow, I took the train to Opole to meet up with Kate and Mikolaj again. We all stayed at Kate's dad's house on the outskirts of the city.

Our first day there was a Sunday, and Kate's dad took us out to lunch at a restaurant with traditional Polish food. It was really good, but also not so foreign-seeming. The meat seemed like beef-stew meat, and the soup looked exactly like some original version of Cambell's chicken noodle.



After lunch, we went to a local castle - but it wasn't a very old castle, which seemed odd. It was built around the early 1900's, and had been ransacked and renovated a few decades ago. With something like 100 turrets, it was the elaborate creation of some rich guy who liked to hunt and wanted a castle. The gargoyles represented all the big game he had hunted.





That evening, our conference began with a "dinner." Actually, they called it a dinner because it was an international conference, but it was actually a "supper." This is a distinction that my family sometimes makes, probably because of our Polish background - it refers to the lighter evening meal/snack that one has in a culture where "dinner" is eaten in the early afternoon. So for a while I just thought the appetizers were really generous, and tried not to eat too much. After two hours, I realized that *was* the meal and gobbled down some little sandwiches.

The next two days were full of conference sessions, which aren't so photogenic but were a good experience nonetheless. On Tuesday afternoon we took a train back to Warsaw, and stayed overnight before our early flight back to Zurich..
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Poland, Day 3 - Tours

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I decided to stay an extra night in Krakow while my friends went on to Opole, because I couldn't decide between two compelling tours - on to the infamous concentration camps of Auschwitz and Berkinow, the other to some enormous and very old salt mines. With a full day available, I was able to do both.

First was the visit to Auschwitz, which was not "fun" but felt like something I should do if I was so close to it. As one might expect, it was moving - especially the exhibits of massive piles of personal belongings. Since this part of my day may not what you had in mind for your procrastination break at work, I'll post just one photo, of the train platform you might have seen in Schindler's List. For all other photos, see the online album.



In the afternoon, a much more relaxed tour to the salt mines, which I hadn't even known about before Kate mentioned them. Apparently, they date back to at least the 1200s, and are so enormous that our 2-hour tour covered only 1% of them. At one time, salt was more valuable pound-per-pound than silver, because it was used to preserve meat - which was especially needed for army rations. So the miners had high-paying if rather dangerous jobs.





In their spare time, the miners carved some amazing underground statues and chapels - many of them hundreds of years old. One of the largest chapels can be rented out for wedding receptions, and has chandeliers and intricate artwork made of carved salt. Today, the mine is profitable as a tourist destination, but can't compete with other mines for profitable salt extraction. It is still considered "active" but only extracts salt as a byproduct of pumping out the flooded areas.




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Poland, Day 2 - Krakow

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I really loved Krakow, it seemed like such a livable city with lots of small parks and trees, plenty of old and beautiful buildings, some busy sidewalk cafes, and just a generally fun atmosphere.

Unfortunately there was no time to try to look up relatives of my great-grandparents; all I had were a couple of names, and I didn't have that until a couple of days before I was there. But maybe that's a good excuse to go back!

Here are just a few photos, and more are online here.

1) The view from my room (of a guitar-playing hippie, a McDonald's, and a historic stone gate):



2) The textile market, which reminded me on the inside of Istanbul's spice market:



3) Poles seem to love flowers. Reminded me a bit of the Romanians. Maybe it's a post-Communist thing?




4) The castle (many more photos of it on the Kodak site):




5) My hosts, Kate and her boyfriend Mikolaj:



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Poland - Day 1, Warsaw

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Dzien dobry!

I'm in Poland with my colleague Kate (the oikos President) and her boyfriend Mikolai (who is studying in Warsaw). We're here for a conference, but it's also a nice excuse for a trip to Poland!

My first day here, I was up at 4am to take a 4:32 train to Zurich and a 7:15am flight to Warsaw. Understandably, there are no photos. Kate met me at the airport, and we toured Warsaw a bit. We went to the top of the Palace of Culture and Science for the panorama views:





After "dinner" (a main meal around 2 or 3pm) of pirogee at Mikolai's apartment, I wandered around some privately-owned gardens in the middle of the city. According to Mikolai, they were part of the too-strong trend toward privatization of everything after Communism, and they have no place in a city center... but I found them charming. :)









Oh, and I stayed at "Nathan's Villa" Hostel, and of course took a photo for Steve's friend Nathan - to add to his growing collection of Nathan Hotel memorabilia.



More photos soon on ofoto - they're uploading now. :)

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Spring is Here!!!

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Back in Boston, we always say that April showers bring May flowers - as consolation for a dark and dreary month. Here in St. Gallen, it looks like April flowers come out to meet the April sunshine instead. I've never seen such a beautiful spring!





For nearly a week it's been in the 60s or 70s and sunny, with a chorus of bird noises everywhere. Confused houseflies are waking up, cats are yowling, and the frogs! I've never seen so many frogs. The children cautiously poke them with sticks in the local pond, fascinated but too afraid to touch them.





Yesterday I spent a lazy two hours reading by that same pond, surrounded by couples flirting, hippies dancing, teenagers laughing, the tanned getting tanner - everyone basically enjoying themselves in the sun however they pleased.



For the whole album, click this link.

It might not seem like I ever work here, but I do! It just isn't nearly as photogenic as my breaks... ;)

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Steve's Visit

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Steve visited for 10 days from late March to early April. It was tough taking more time off work right after my mom's visit, but well... I sacrificed... ;)

We started out with a great local hike led by my advisor, where we took a little commuter train up into Appenzell and hiked all the way back, stopping for a very civilized meal at a local mountain restaurant along the way. Here's one photo from that day:



We also visited the mountain town of Leukerbad where we skiied and soaked in the thermal baths, visited the "Offa Festival" just behind my apartment, threw a huge Tex-Mex dinner party for friends here, and spent time with smaller groups of friends driving along the Bodensee, eating Moroccan food, eating Chinese hot-pot, drinking coffee... altogether a wonderful week.

With my favorite photographer in tow, I became pretty lazy about taking photos myself. But Steve has already posted his impressive albums online: http://stevep.smugmug.com/Travel/758598.
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