Poland 2007

Poland was a few years in the making… or rather, convincing my husband to give Poland a try took a looong time.  We are not adventurous travellers, but for me that means: I am not interesting in white water rafting, mountain climbing or sky diving on vacation. I’m an indoor plumbing kind of girl and I like the creature comforts of home even on vacation.

For my husband, it means sticking to Western Europe.

So, finally, in 2007, I don’t know how I did it – but I sold him on the idea and we took a week-long Cosmos bus tour of Poland. (pictures)

I have to say that this was typical of a bus tour where you just zoom through everything so fast that none of it really has a chance to sink in, and therefore you don’t really remember any of it properly. Too bad.

Thank God for pictures!!! That helps me put the scrambled pieces of memories back together in my mind.

So what do I remember? Well:

• Unlike other bus tours, for the most part the people in this group were not first time travels. I think first-time-to-Europe travellers go to Italy, not Poland… and it made for an extra organized group since everyone had the Coach Tour drill down already.
• Most of the travellers on the tour had a Polish background and were interested in seeing “the land of their parents”
• I was not blown away by the food. I LOVE pierogies, but that’s about it!
• The Vodka seems extra strong!
• We whipped through the cities so fast, that the 4 main squares of Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw are totally interchangeable in my memory.
• The mosquitos were bad! (this is the trip that made me add Bug Spray to my list of pharmacy items)
• We were not assaulted with JPII things everywhere we turned. I would have though that since he has just recently died and since they are so proud of him, we’d have seen his image everywhere!!  but no, it was not over the top at all. Just the “normal” amount.

A few things that do stand out in my memory, where I don’t need to rely on pictures to help me remember:

• Auschwitz. How can you not be moved?
• The Wieliczka Salt Mines
• Getting the shit scared out of me!!!
• St Mary’s in Krakow. GORGEOUS no pictures allowed- so don’t tell on me! we snuck one anyway. It’s just beautiful!!!  Jaw dropingly so…

Would I go back? I would go back to Krakow and spend more time there – a day or two tops. Just enough time to top–up what I’ve seen already.

We did that with Warsaw, we added an extra day onto the trip at the end and spend it on our own, sightseeing at our own pace. It was so worth it. Get a hint of what to see on the tour, then go back and explore it in detail on your own.

I want to take my time in Krakow and walk around, explore the churches (like the one bellow we didn’t visit) visit the main squares properly, not running behind a guide and then stopping for long lazy loungy lunch.  Perfect!

Stockholm 2009

Just like Denmark, saying that I have seen Sweden is somewhat of a misnomer. I’ve only seen Stockholm. (pictures)

We spent 4 days there, which I think is the prefect amount of time for a city that is not the size of Paris, London, Rome etc.

We flew overnight from Dublin, via Riga and we thought we were being so clever – saving a night in a hotel.

I loved it though, so picturesque with all the bridges and islands… especially the old town – Gamla Stan.

Again like with most place, I can’t pin down one specific reason over any other that made me love Stockholm… It’s just so beautiful, how could you not get sucked it!

Maybe part of it was knowing I was in Abba country! LOL I might be showing my age here, but I am a huge fan!

I read on the internet about the future construction of the Abba Museum, and wanted to go and take a picture of where the building would eventually be! HA HA what a loser! Turns out we walked by it 100 times never really realizing we were right next to it and never got a picture!!!!

We don’t spend much time in Museums when it’s nice out, but I am happy we made time to visit the Vasa Museum. It was outstanding!

As far as our most memorable moment in Sweden goes, you can read about that here. Enjoy!

Greece 2005

We spent 2 weeks in Greece in 2005. I liked it / my husband STILL talks about how much he hated it. Go figure.

It was a Cosmos tour that covered land for a week and the islands for a week. Thinking of it now, remembering it and flipping through my pictures, I remember it even more fondly now then I did then (won’t be mentioning this to my husband).

We covered a helluva lot of territory over the 2 weeks!

And yet, somehow, I don’t remember feeling rushed. Maybe time has erased that memory, it’s been 6 years after all!!  Yet, I still remember feeling rushed in Italy and underwhelmed in Spain… and I don’t recall feeling that way in Greece.

In hindsight, I just remember liking it…  well, most of it anyway!

I remember that the food was fantastic. Best vacation food ever! Even better then Italy or France which are my favourites ‘cuisines’ (followed closely by German / Swiss / Austrian).  Everything was good all the time – that’s why I say it’s the best.  I don’t recall EVER having a bad meal, while I can remember PLENTY of them in Italy. Even in the Plaka in Athens, touristy restaurant central, the food was good.

The only bad memory I have is of an English man who tore a strip off of me, telling me that I was being so loud that I was “quite obnoxious really”.  While seething inside, I simply replied: thanks for letting me know.  Not worth perpetuating the argument. My husband wanted to murder the guy, I was just being dismissive yet polite. Over and over: Thanks, for letting me know. Until he left.

I was embarrassed – gotta admit.  It is off-putting when you are being scolded by a stranger in a public restaurant!!!!!! True, I am a bit loud sometimes… but we were outside in a lively place… Ah whatever!  The food was great!

Look at this AMAZING place where we had diner in Santorini (minus the stupid look on my face. My husband took the picture while I was talking) … AH! so BEAUTIFUL! high on a hill, a nice outdoor dinner, view over the water and a picture perfect sunset. Fantastic!  Gorgeous! Amazing!  Sigh…  wish I was there now!!!

The most amazing stop on the tour (non food related amazing stop) was Meteora. I’ve blogged about before, so I am going to be a little lazy here, and refer you to that post to fill you in on the details!

Here I am in Mikonos, being dragged into the action by a Zorba Dancer… UGH can you tell I have NO CLUE WHAT THE HELL I AM DOING???  LOL ah well, what the heck - it’s good for a laugh!  But seriously, isn't this a quintessential touristy cliché?:

The LEAST interesting stop, was not really a stop – but a  stretch that covered Delphi, Mycenae and Olympia over 3 consecutive days. By the end of day 3, I was ready to shoot myself in the head.  It went something like this:

• Day one: Rocks on the floor. More rocks on the floor…  over there some rocks on the floor, and over on the other side, some rocks on the floor.
• Day two: Rocks on the floor. The site of an old temple, now just rocks on the floor.
• Day three: What was once a great city, now just rocks on the floor.

ARGH! that, plus, I gotta say: I am DONE with broken clay pots for life.  That’s not rhetoric, I am serious. To this day when in a museum, anywhere in the world,  and we enter the broken clay pots section, my eyes glaze over and I keep moving.

The tour was a ‘two-weeker” but we decided to spend an extra night at the end of the tour on our own in Athens. It was less then an extra hundred bucks and the clincher was that on the next day, we could catch a return flight directly from Athens to Montreal! No brainer!!

That extra day in Athens was one of the best days we had because as much as we like tours, it’s always more fun to be on our own, setting our own pace and following our own schedule.  And while Athens was a nice place to see, one extra day was plenty – it was so polluted, I remember feeling it in my lungs. I don’t think I would have appreciated more days.

I can’t really see myself going back…  because my husband hated it so much. And because I don’t want to travel with anyone else but him – I can’t imagine how it could happen!!!

Maybe one day on a Big Boat Cruise… I don’t really see any other way!

Copenhagen 2008

I suppose it’s not really accurate to say I have been to Denmark because really, we only spent time in one place. Copenhagen. (pictures)

Maybe if I’d visited even just one more city, I could claim to have “seen Denmark”

 

Planning for the trip, I studied the Google Earth Map a lot (like I do with any destination) and I loved the Eagle-Eye view of Copenhagen – isn't it nice? 

Look at the Citadel, and the scallopy canal near the bottom…  so neat!  I was excited to get exploring.

We stayed four full days, and it was enough. SO EXPENSIVE!  About 5$ to take the metro, 20$ for a glass of wine …. compared to other European Capitals, it was MUCH pricier. They say Moscow, London and Zurich are the priciest… well, I have seen all those places and I disagree. Copenhagen wins.

Accommodations were pricey too!!!  We ended up in what was essentially their version of the Red Light District and paid a ransom for a simple room with an AWFUL shower.

The metro was cool mind you! No driver! We sat right up front, it was such a weird sensation!! Check it out (starts moving about 12 seconds in):

What’s tops on the list when visiting Copenhagen? The Little Mermaid Statue of course! … Which was shockingly small. I was expecting something much bigger.

I love watching the tourists get their shots in. I should take more of these kinds of pictures, I find them funny!

Lots of beautiful things to see, but we were especially drawn to the Vor Frelsers Kirke, which we nick-named “The Cork Screw Church” because of it’s original tower that you can climb. How cool is this!

Sadly, it was closed for renovations when we were there – but there are plenty of You Tube Videos of the interesting climb, her is just one of many:

It’ll be the first place we head if ever we are back in Copenhagen one day! So would I go back? Yes, but it would surprise me. It’s not really on the way to anywhere, and I am not big on revising places when there are NEW places to visit near by!

I would recommend it as a destination, but 4 days is plenty.