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.  :-)

Road Trip to Prague

Because it was possibly Salley's last weekend in Poland, we decided it would be a fantastic idea to see Prague.  The trip, according to maps.google.com, was only supposed to take about 9 hours from Plock.  However, if you decide to listen to your GPS you may end up going in circles...

Our trip started well.  We got to take one of the toll roads, so the condition was great and the speed was really nice.  On the smaller country roads it is difficult to go faster than 100 km/hr because the conditions of most roads is not the greatest.  Sadly the trip got progressively worse.  It started to rain - no big deal.  Then it got foggy.  And when it got foggy we were off of the highways and onto the small country roads.  From that point on we ended up going in circles several times.  Sometimes the GPS thought there was a road, but there was not.

Eventually we made it - we got there around 1am.  The next day was packed with all sorts of tourist action.  I found a guide to Prague from the Marriot hotel we were staying at and decided to bring it along - best idea ever!!!  It had a map - thank goodness!!  And it gave good restaurant tips!

We saw all sorts of things.  We walked through Old Town Square, across the river, up to the castle, waited in three lines to get the audio tour information we wanted and headed out for our tour of the castle.  St. Vitus Cathedral was absolutely amazing!  Below are a few pictures I took while I was there.

Stairs in the King's Apartment

Small Chapel in St. Peter's Basillica

St. Vitus Cathedral

After the tour of the castle we wandered back to Old Town Square and had a lovely lunch outside on the square.  Drank some Pilsner and enjoyed the wonderful weather.  After that we did a little shopping.  I got a few things for myself and for my sisters.  We saw Wenceslas Square and then stopped at Starbucks (so excited there was one!!) for a break.  Salley and I even figured out the metro - go us!  We used it to get to this Japanese restaurant.  The sushi was pretty good - it was a nice change of pace.

Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square

Prague Metro