How about the zoo?

So my last full day in Płock, Meagan, Kathy, Ellen and I went to the zoo.  It costs 6 PLN to get in - so like $2 and I didn't have high expectations.  I was pleasantly surprised!  There were all sorts of animals - even 4 giraffes.    We believe the elephant may have passed.  There was a place for it, but on the sign there was a date.  If I would've learned more Polish while I was there it may have been useful... Oh well.

I told Kathy she should try to climb into the kangaroo they had at the playground - and of course she did.  She may or may not have had a tough time getting out of the kangaroo... Oops...

And when you go to see the penguins there was this cute Madagascar thing - so Meagan and I insisted that Kathy and Ellen go for pictures.

Our favorite stop was the red-butt monkeys.  We stopped to watch them play for a little while, or at least long enough to watch people feed them cheetos.  Then security finally made their way over and stopped the people from feeding the monkeys.  The cheetos caused quite a stir in the monkey cage - they were a few fights.

This blog would not be complete without a callout to the donkey who loves Boris.  When Boris and Atif went to the zoo, the donkey sprinted while "hee-hawing" over to Boris.  So we had to stop and meet the donkey who really liked Boris.  He was, by far, the loudest animal in the zoo.  You could hear him anywhere.

Single and Traveling

For those of you who might be wondering what it's like to be single and traveling all of the time, I have my answer for you.  No one has prompted me to answer this question, but I thought I'd share my answer after I read this article about reasons to appreciate being single.  


DISCLAIMER: These are my opinions, and in no way am I discriminating against those who travel and are not single.


First of all, I haven't dated anyone in a while because at the time it seemed pointless, and to be honest it still seems pointless to me.  I know it could be worthwhile to try different types of people on. But I detest small talk and I don't want to waste my time getting to know someone when I have to leave the country the next week for a few months at a time.  Why start to like someone and kind of get attached to them so I can miss them while I'm in India or Thailand or Malaysia for the next 3-6 months?  That, and I hate rejection.  But really, who likes being rejected??


This experience of traveling "by myself" (I'm not really by myself, I have other crew members) has allowed me to really get to know myself.  I have been able to push myself out of my comfort zone and discover parts of me that I didn't really know existed.  For instance, if I arrived in Spain one day for an assignment and someone handed me keys and said "get to the refinery".  I wouldn't hesitate.  I am now comfortable driving by myself in another country where I don't speak the language.


I could keep going, but eventually I'd just end up repeating myself.  That always happens when I rant and rave.  I'm finally learning to stop myself before it happens... :-)  (Example B of me learning something new about myself)

Charlie Came to Visit

So this week, my little brother Charlie was in Europe to visit me.  He had a great time with his flights, and when I say great I really mean terrible.  His first flight was cancelled out of St. Louis.  He had a connecting flight in Chicago to Germany and barely made it.  And then his flight from Germany to Warsaw was delayed in landing because of bad thunderstorms we were having here.  So he circled Warsaw for a couple of hours.  But he finally made it, a little tired, but he made it.

We went to Auschwitz so that Charlie could say he'd been there.  When we were at Birkenau, which is the last 1/3 of the tour, it started to pour!  Unfortunately we didn't get to finish the tour.  But Charlie did get to see the bunks, just not the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoriums.  On our way to Krakow, we got caught in a hail storm.  The hail and rain were so dense I had to pull over for a while because I couldn't see.

The hail on the hood of the car

When we got to Krakow it was raining, so we hung out in the hotel for a little while and used our free hour of internet.  Then we braved the rain and went to Market Square.  Had dinner, watched a bike race as we ate dinner, and then saw a rainbow over the cathedral in Market Square.  I showed Charlie the Wawel Castle and we did a little shopping for my grandmother.

The next morning we had to wake up early again to get back to Warsaw.  We had a flight to catch to Rome!  We got to Rome, figured out how to buy a train ticket to get from the airport to the city.  After we checked in, we went to find somewhere to eat dinner.  We had the best bruschetta ever!!  The olive oil and tomatoes were so fresh.  The pizza was ok, Charlie had better pizza the next day for dinner.  We saw Ancient Rome the first night - it was surreal.  To see the Colosseo and the Roman Forum ruins, it was incredible.

The next day we took one of the bus tours all over the city.  We saw a lot of the city.  Walked around, did some shopping.  It was really nice to enjoy a new place with someone else.  On Tuesday we went to the Vatican Museums - I highly recommend buying your tickets online before you go!  We only had to wait in line for about 10 minutes and we got to go in before the general public.  The art in the museum was incredible!  The Sistine Chapel was really cool. And to know that Pope's are chosen in that room... It was really cool.  Definitely make the time to go to the Vatican Museums if you ever go.  After Rome, we came back to Poland - I had to work and Charlie just hung out.  Saw Plock.  I think Charlie liked his first trip to Europe.  :-)

The Hard Part

One of the hardest parts of my job is being away from my family.  I'm a family person.  I always have been and I always will be.  They all really mean a lot to me.

Lucky for me, my brother is coming to visit me tomorrow.  He's staying for a week!  It'll be really nice to have family with me.  I'll probably get depressed when he leaves, it's like getting a shot of a drug and then going through withdrawal.  But some is better than none.

I spend some of my time worrying about my family.  I am dreading the day I get a call from a family member telling me that something terrible has happened.  And then I have nightmares about not being able to leave my assignment.  I don't know why I worry myself with these things, but I do.

This is what I get to look forward to this week...

Quick Trip to Germany

Sprechen sie deutsch?  I sure don't.  I hardly know any German, but lucky for me most people in Berlin spoke English.

Berlin was a neat city, it was a mixture of old and new.  Some of Berlin survived WWII, but over 70% did not.  There were 6 of us that went to Berlin.  It was a lot of fun to go with everyone.  We jumped on a bus on Saturday and drove all over the city.  I'm pretty sure we saw every major tourist spot there was to see.

The Parliament building - Reichstag

Me at Berlin Wall

We tried Mexican food for dinner - it is definitely the best I've had since I've been in Europe, but it definitely isn't the same.  When I get back to the US I'm getting Mexican and BBQ.  I could go for some of my dad's barbecued chicken breasts, sweet corn, potato salad, and a big glass of ICED sweet tea.  ICED being the key word there.

Anyways, the Berlin trip was great.  I liked driving on the Autobahn - it was like driving in the US!  Finally good roads!!  Our car didn't get any tickets - the other car was not as lucky.  They got one there and back.  All I'm going to say was that my car was all girls, and their car was not...  Take what you want from that comment.