The best of.....

Should you have any desire to see some of the places I've been in the past 3 months, I'll sum them up.

1. Slovenia. Best overall outdoors, most scenic and naturally pure and beautiful. Safe, Friendly, Clean. The country is small, so you can get around and see a variety of things in a short amount of time. I'd recommend it for a great one week vacation, especially adventure sports.
2. Croatia. Great Seafood. Friendly locals. Beautiful coasts and cheaper than Greece.
3. Greece- Best Lifestyle. The islands were like paradise with fresh foods and herbs. If you're into the sensual pleasures of life (food, smells, flora, ocean) it can't be beat.
4. Romania. Most confusing currency, it was revalued a few years ago, so old notes and new notes are both in circulation. Once you know you are getting ripped off, you realize it is still dirt cheap. Transylvania hasn't been westernized yet, so it is a great place to feel adventurous and wild. Northern Romania allows you to visit towns that haven't evolved in 200 years.
5. Hungary- I was only in Budapest. Great architecture and a still undertouristed feel since it is so big. Great public transport. If you want to feel like you're at a strip club but still maintain the image of someone interested in the city and culture, walk the streets of Budapest.
6. Slovakia- Best overall bargain. Still not flooded with tourists, most scenic rural landscape and lifestyle. Cheap food, beer, and the Tatra mtns rival the Alps.
7. Poland- Easily the nicest architecture and cities that I've seen. Krakow, Wroclaw, and Gdansk were fun and beautiful and offered so many unique things to see. I would recommend it for couples interested in a romantic vacation.
8. Lithuania- Women.
9. Sweden- travelling in Sweden makes you feel really smart. That was a new experience for me. Beautiful fields, beaches, people and great design products. I would recommend it for intellectuals who want to see what a really efficient and civilized society looks like. Also for lovers of that active and funloving energy that takes hold in summer, espcially present with 20+ hours of sunlight per day.

There's not one place I would call favorite. I had such unique experiences everywhere with the things I did and the people I met. The memories created every day made the time feel like blissful eternity. The internal journey was especially rewarding. It was nice to just go with the flow and not think ahead, to live in the moment, to see a more simple life where the things that really matter can be achieved with as litttle effort as possible. We'll see how much further I can carry that. Alaska is just a few days away.

Things I'll miss, Things I won't

It's time to make the comparison, things that I wish I could bring back, and things that I'm glad to leave behind......

Welcome back to......
1. Fast and friendly service at restaurants. In the US, waitstaff assumes you want to leave the restaurant when you're done with your meal. In Europe, they assume you want to take up residence. While it's nice not to be pressured to leave, It is more convenient to be able to leave when you're ready.
2. Tasteful music. Somewhat trashy club music plays in clothing stores, supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, buses, churches. I miss jazz or classical music when at a restaurant.
3. Toilet seats, well designed showers, shower curtains, mounted shower heads. I can't recall how many bathroom floors were flooded after I took a shower. Even when there was a shower curtain, it really doesn't serve much purpose if there is no barrier on the floor that keeps water from escaping the shower area. Handheld showerheads save water, but if you wash your armpits, you're spraying the ceiling with water.
4. Manners. The phrases "Excuse me" and "I'm sorry for bumping into you". Gentlemanly conduct. I can't recall how many women's suitcases I had to lift up to train luggage racks and up staircases because men normally won't help out.
5. Smoking bans (sweden excluded). Everyone smokes in places such as Romania. I almost considered taking up smoking as a healthier alternative to second-hand smoke. At least I would have the benefit of the filter.
6. Breakfast. At 8AM, you can get pizza, ice cream and beer on the street, but eggs or cereal or pastry are almost impossible to find. I've seen guys in suits going to work with ice cream cones in their hands...

Things I will miss.......
1. Smaller cars. Better looking smaller cars. where is the Audi A3, 2 door hatchback http://www.car-wallpaper.net/audi/a3/images/srcAudi-A3-3-door-2003-017.jpg or the BMW 116i Sport http://www.carpages.co.uk/guide/bmw/bmw-1-series-116i-sport.asp in America? The executives who made decisions not to sell these cars in the states are the two people who bought the Pontiac Aztec and PT Cruiser.
2. The whole fish, served with skin, bone, head. It took a few tries before I could debone these really quickly, but the flavor is better. The fish doesn't dry out as much, and the natural oils remain in the meat.
3. Eastern Europe Prices. $10 for a 5 hour train ride. $2.00 for a haircut in Romania, $3.00 for a full, fresh trout dinner in Slovakia (with potatoes and veggies and salad). If you drink more than $10 of alcohol in Slovakia or Romania, you will have alcohol poisoning.
4. Towns and cities without sprawl.
5. Realistic drivers. Yes, they drive fast. Some people feel uncomfortable in these cars that zip all over the place. But when they drive, they are focused on driving, and that makes me feel much safer.
6. Gelato... the softer, creamier tasting version ice cream. They pour this into containers in the display case and the ripples and currents and waves that it forms show you just how soft and creamy this stuff is. The best I've had, Malmo, Cafe Siciliano. The flavors of Melon, hazlenut, and fig tasted just like the real foods.

I can't choose between the Turk or Vampire Dick.

An actual menu in Turda, Romania.

Bike parking lot

Just one of many bicycle parking lots near the Malmo Train station in Sweden. Over 300 bikes crammed into a spot that would fit less than 20 cars. I don't know where Swedes find the time to ride bikes and work. They must skip out on things like self-congratulatory management meetings and useful and enlightening power-point presentations that make America the world's greatest economy.

Return of the Mullet

Taken in Dubrovnik, moments after he tied his mullet up. The mullet is very popular in Eastern Europe. I almost got one in Split as my hair was cut by a barber who didn't speak English and was dancing to the beat as he cut my hair. Then club music came on and he went nuts. I actually did have a mullet until I forced him to cut the back shorter. He took offense. The guy pictured is with two very cute girls, one wearing only see-through clothing and tiny underwear. If only I had kept the mullet.

London II

Sweden has the most civilized people I've met. The people are happy, healthy, sensible and mild mannered. It was therefore a good transition for me to stop in London before going back to the states. My first night in London had me out with Michael, my friend from Scranton whom I was staying with, and some friends of his. After seeing some good local bands in the beyond-fringe neighborhood of New Cross, I was told not to talk to drunk people on the street if they talked to me. This was against my nature, so I questioned Michael. His friend Claire came and told me the same. "Talking to drunk people will get you stabbed....with a knife." As these words came out of her mouth, a fight broke out between two guys across the street. Soon, 15 people were fighting in the middle of the street, many of them not even seeming to know the original two men fighting. Someone even shouted "Arsenal" alluding to the London soccer club of that name, and adding the spirit of hooliganism I had expected. I am inclined to think that British men really like drinking and fighting. It is like a national past time. I suppose it is unfair to generalize and call English men violent. After all, as the US Supreme court handed down the decision that actions at Guantanamo Bay had to be in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, the equivalent of the British Supreme court was making a similar decision. The top 3 Superior Judges in the UK ruled that forcing suspects to serve house arrest for 18 hours a day was cruel and unusual punishment. That's a bit of perspective.

My last night in London had me meeting up with Emily, Paul, and Agneshka (sorry if I spelled your name wrong).. I met these three in Poland on a sunny, blue-sky day at Auschwitz. I also met up with Scott and Christie, whom I know from DC and just moved to England this summer. They had their friends Yves and Nathalie visiting from DC. Scott, Yves and I played football in what we called the DC Latte League. We met at Starbucks on Sunday mornings and sipped $5 drinks as we discussed world politics, efforts to preserve national parks in Madagascar, and the endangered species of monkeys in the jungles of Burma. We also played some football after a few hours.
On the way back to Michael's, I decided stopping for Ice Cream instead of one more drink would be the appropriate send-off before returning to the states. I've had my fair share of Ice-cream on this trip, primarily because it is the creamy Italian Gelatto that is poured into the display case with waves and ripples, just begging to be eaten. I will miss that, in fact, there are many things I will miss (and many I won't) so I'll prepare the list...

London Friends

Elo and Peter. Elo and I went to college together, she is from Estonia, Peter is from Hamburg. They live in London, working in my former industry. Elo structures Russian mortgage and asset backed securities for HVBBank out of Germany, and Peter is a lawyer on similar transactions for Sidley Austin.
Kylie and Jerina, photo taken when we met in Dubrovnik, Croatia. They are both from New Zealand and living in London. We were able to get together and catch up and talk about our trips.

The Scranton Debate connection

Not everyone knows I was on the debate team in high school. Scranton's schools were strong in that area. For me, it was an outlet to my smartass behavior, something my most recent job also allowed me to express. This trip in Europe has had it's share of connections to Scranton's debate teams. The day before I left for Europe, I ran into my old debate coach Pat Cusick, who I hadn't seen in 4 years. Next was the visit to Greece where I visited Paul, who had judged a few debate tournaments when I was in high school. Continue to Lithuania where I stayed with Tony who was on the debate team a few years ahead of me, and saw Dan who was also on the debate team a few years ahead of me. Now in London, I stay with Mike, who is my brother's age and was on the debate team for a rival school. I was in one of the London metro stations today and randomly bumped into Margot Douaihy, who I hadn't seen in years. She was 2 years behind me on the debate team. There's some sort of underlying theme here, either having to do with debate or with scranton. In addition to these scranton connections, I have my swedish cousins and Linsen who is now living in scranton. small small world.

London Terror Alert

When I was in Stockholm, Ida commented on my water bottle, which is an aluminum Sigg bottle that looks exactly like the canisters of gas used to fuel a camping stove. I joked that I could probably get on a plane with a canister of gas and blow the thing up, because my water bottle never raised suspicion going through the x-ray machines at the airports. Two nights later, Linsen called as I was packing for London and told me about the terror alert. My flight to London was only partly delayed and I've arrived safely, though I now face the prospect of flying back to NYC on Wednesday. I was surprised at the Malmo airport when I checked all of my luggage but it wasn't required. I'm not sure what stops someone on an arriving plane into London from handing off some small items to someone departing from the same gate (as that departing passenger has already made it through security).
British Airways cancelled some 400 flights on Thursday, so if I happen to get cancelled, my backup plan is a quick trip to Iceland. Nobody blows up Iceland Air flights.

Österlen and the Swedish countryside

These pictures were taken by Elaine at her country house where I spent a few days. My favorite nap spot was the hammock in the wooden loft. The Swedish countryside is covered with long swaths of golden wheat fields that look especially nice when the sun is around 9-10pm or 4 am. Elaine was my primary caretaker and cooked wonderful healthy meals. We visited an ecological garden and ate fresh garden food there. We also made several trips to the beach in Knabackshusen, which is some of the finest beach I've seen anywhere. Long white sand beaches that go on for several miles with purple, blue and fuschia flowers along the sand. One night walking in the neighborhood with Anja, Elaine and friends Kjell and Katerina, we were invited into another neighbors courtyard for wine. The husband was a photographer with an interest in grand prix car racing. After some wine we went indoors and listened to some cuban music, getting tango and salsa lessons from the daughter and Elaine.

My first night in the house was met with a massive invasion of earwigs. Though no threat to humans, they are still creepy looking. I had them crawling on my chest and I was up until 4 when it was light out and they retreated, managing to get my 8 hours after that. We went back to the city and researched online, where I found some solutions to the problem. We went back and rolled wet newspaper and put it around the house, hoping they would all gather there. We also filled pie tins with vegetable oil, where they would be attracted to and then drown in the oil. We also bought a tennis racket looking device that has an electrical current going through the strings. That was my favorite method of slaying, but by far the most effective solution was to close the windows. Sweden does not have a screen door industry.

A really nice day in Stockholm

Ida in the front of the kayak, Paula in the back. Paula, Ida, and Joakim at Paula's apartment.

My time in Sweden has had no shortage of wonderful people and wonderful, memorable days. Ida, one fifth of the pink bandit posse, was in Stockholm visiting her family. I hadn't been to Stockholm in about 16 years, so I came north and was greeted at the train station by Ida. We walked out and got into her friend Paula's convertible and drove as they played the song "World, Hold On" by Bob Sinclair. I laughed. This song has been the themesong of my last three months, primarily because it plays everywhere and plays nonstop. In Romania, it was actually the only song I ever heard. It was in every car, every club, every store, every cafe. It literally followed me around. I actually hadn't heard it in Sweden until now. We drove to a riverside pub and watched as the full yellow moon rose just above Stockholm's lovely skyline. Paula said she was going to bake some bread in the morning, which I assumed was a joke. How many people really bake bread? Sure enough, there was loads of fresh bread coming out of the oven in the morning, and it was delicious and soft with some full grains and raisins and lingonberries.

They asked what I wanted to do, and I mentioned that I didn't need to see sights or museums, I've seen enough cities in summer heat. I was more interested in spending time with cool people. Ida said "That's going to be a problem, we're better at showing you museums than cool people." They had no shortage of sarcastic humor. The girls took me kayaking on the river around King's Island in Stockholm, where we got to see many of the famous and beautiful buildings, swimming spots and other boaters. They hadn't kayaked much but they looked like pros and were later criticizing other kayakers we saw. We had a nice lunch with some friends of theirs, Markus and Henry, who shared my life interest of just hanging out with cool people. After lunch, Ida, Paula and I drove around and went to the driving range which overlooks a lake outside of town. We were actually hitting floating balls into the lake at floating targets, which I hope won't have a subconscious effect on my game. These two had such smooth and fluid swings that I was almost afraid to show my rusty swing in front of them.

After golf we went back to Paula's, and the two cooked a dinner of pork with a mushroom sauce and grilled vegetables. Joakim came over and mixed some drinks. It was a Tuesday night, so we decided to create a party of the 4 of us, singing karaoke with Paula's karaoke cds and dancing, and taking really strange pictures of each other's faces as we contorted them. Ida told us about the time when Joakim was in NYC this past March and danced at Amatuer night at the Apollo. He is not a dancer, but he had the chance and took it. People came up to him on the subway and said, "hey, I saw you dance at the Apollo." Paula even got us into doing some aerobics to the dance music.

Like I said, it was just one more really great day with really great people that I've been blessed to meet. As my time in Sweden comes to an end, it is sad to have to go. Everyone has been so hospitible and nice, and I've met so many people that it's not uncommon to go into town in Malmö and run into someone I know. It really is like home. I've become determined to make my home the same way for others who visit me whenever or wherever I have a home.

Eating well on the Island of Hönö

This is just the appetizer, Crab, crab claws, wine, beer and Aqvavit. I was the guest of Joachim and Cathy Dahlgren and their children Anton and Jenifer. Cathy is the sister of my good friend Margarette, who was also visiting. Joachim loves to cook, and later made catfish with a hollandiase and basil sauce, and salmon with a teriyaki sauce. Everything was cooked to perfection.

I spent a day on this island just outside of Göteborg, and it was one of the few days I've seen rain. It is a small rocky island, perfect for kids because they can bike everywhere, to school, to soccer, to visit friends.

Music and Parties in Sweden

My second night in Sweden had me at Anja's apartment with her boyfriend Mathias and my Aunt Elaine. Anja is in acting school in Sweden and has been working like mad during the summer to save money. Mathias is an MC in the popular group LoopTroop Rockers, which was performing at a reggae fest in just under two hours. What was he doing before going on stage? Sipping some tea and washing the dishes.


If you've heard me talk about Sweden, you've likely heard me talk about my cousin Jason, who is a popular and award winning hip-hop artist and manages his own record company here. When I saw him perform in NYC in December with a full band, I got an idea of how popular he was. The line to the club went down the street, which I thought was special for someone who would be singing in Swedish. At that event, everyone knew the lyrics to his songs. We were now at the reggae fest in Malmö where he was performing some songs as part of the reggae group Helt Off. Mathias's Loop Troop was on stage first, and the 3 mcs were dropping rhymes in front of an electric crowd. I couldn't manage a good picture of Mathias because he was all over the stage getting the crowd fired up. After Loop Troop came Helt Off, and I would get to see Jason perform reggae music with his friends Jens and Måns. The crowd got bigger as Helt Off performed its first few songs, and when Jason came onto stage, just a day after returning from a tour in China, the crowd erupted. Linsen and I were in the crowd and had to fight off many young girls as we moved forward. The place went nuts cheering for an encore.

What surprised me even more was seeing Jason perform a few days later at an indoor theater festival in a large barn like building in the Swedish countryside. The crowd had more white and grey hair than blonde and black, the average age of the audience was well above 45. Jason was performing with his friend Magnus on acoustic guitar and vocal accompaniment, and another friend Magnus on bongo drum, similar to an MTV unplugged set in which the arrangements of his songs were changed to be more laid back with melodic harmonies. When he played one popular song, he held the microphone out and the entire crowd, 60 and 70 year olds included, danced, clapped, and sang the lyrics on cue. They screamed and clapped for several minutes after the performance before the encore came. I had a combination of chills and on the verge of tears of joy. Jason has loved music since we were young. I remember back to the days when we couldn't have been older than 14, and I listened to a tape he sent me with a song he made by himself and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Now we can't walk 30 feet down the street without someone asking for a picture with him or an autograph. None of this comes without alot of very hard work. Over the years he was always meeting with people, picking up new ideas, reading and writing. It's so good to now see his dreams becoming realized, and at the same time, I still see him as only my cousin and friend, because he's managed to remain the same person he always was.

....................

Hanging out here has had me meeting artists, musicians, actors, writers, photographers and has allowed me to see things I would not otherwise see if I was a tourist. After a day at the beach we hung out in the big warehouse flat of one popular artist-grafitti artist, covered with books and musical instruments and artistic designs. We went to illegal after-hours clubs (which unfortunately do not have smoking bans). After one night at a club that Jason hosts and DJs at with his friends once a month, the crowd coming out of the club upon closing had gathered in the parking lot alongside the canal-river-sound. Joakim (A buddhist, Ice-T look alike who I met last time in Sweden and was visiting from Stockholm) had a camper van in one parking spot, 5 parking spots away was another car with the doors open and music blaring as Jason continued to DJ on the car stereo and the crowd danced in between the two cars, getting beer from the camper van when necessary. Many of us were pissing into the water below, and then I noticed a few people stripping naked and jumping 15-20 feet down into the water, some diving and doing backflips. I thought to myself, "What idiots are jumping and swimming into.."

"Dave. Come on in, man, the water is so nice" Jason yelled to me.

"Dude, I just pissed in there" I yelled back.

"I know, so did I" he replied. I walked over and saw a ladder that people were using to climb back out and thought "what the hell". As I took my shirt off, a few girls had warned me not to jump in, saying that it would be a stupid thing to do. But they don't know me like my cousin. We jumped off of the roof of my house together into the snow, we went pool hopping in the neighborhood as kids. This was exactly the kind of thing that was in our genes. I stripped down and did a spectacular front flip into the water. It was very refreshing. More people followed. We went to Anja's apartment and danced until 7am. I've been off of a regular schedule for so long, that it no longer matters when I wake and sleep or when I eat. I don't know if this is healthy, but hanging with my cousins and having fun like this leaves me very happy.

Taking the Ice Cream Boat to Denmark

It was sometime this past Winter when my cousin Jason, then living in NYC, met Siri, a girl from Norway. After talking for some time, they realized they both had roots in Scranton. Jason's mother and Siri's father each moved to Scandinavia after growing up in Scranton. Siri and two friends from Sweden, also living in NYC, Ida and Linsen, met up with Jason and I over President's weekend in Scranton for some skiing, a picnic at Elk mtn, dancing, and black russians with Glenn Miller in the background. The girls each had pink bandanas for us to wear, so we labeled ourselves the pink bandits. It just so happened that Linsen and Ida were each back in Sweden visiting family at the same time that I am doing the same, so it was time for me to see their homes.

Linsen and I drove to Domsten, her village just North of Helsingborg. We were taking her small boat across the sea to Denmark, which was only 20 minutes away. Her family called the boat, the 'Ice Cream' boat, because they used it to go to Denmark to buy ice cream.

It was a hot day, as just about every day in Sweden has been this summer, and we approached the sandy beaches of Denmark. Instead of docking in the marina, we wanted to anchor the boat and swim to shore, as many other boats were doing the same. Linsen dropped the anchor into the water, and I noticed alot of slack on the rope. Having experience anchoring boats in the small and calm Lake Ariel in Pennsylvania, I said "I´ll just pick up all of this slack and tie it down to the boat" essentially leaving very little slack on the anchor. We dove into the water and Linsen showed me the freestyle technique she has been working on every day in Scranton (where she has a ceramics studio for the summer). We swam a good distance to shore, walked around, and then crashed on the sand to lay out. 30 minutes later we started to swim back out to the boat.

"Bösse, I think the boat is floating away" Linsen said, using the Swedish nickname she coined for me.

"Naw, it´s just much smaller than the other boats, so it looks further away than it actually is" I assured her. We continued to swim hard for a few more minutes.

"No, Seriously, I think the boat is floating away" she said, now concerned.
I looked out at the boat. It was very far away. At least a kilometer or two.

"You know what? I think you´re right" I admitted. We discussed swimming as fast as we could to get out there, but there was no assurance that we could swim faster than the boat was floating away, and we were fighting the currents that were closer to shore. We decided we had to pull over a nearby boat and have them take us out there. We swam to the nearest boat, bearing a Swedish flag and a nude woman sunbather. The husband knew Linsen and her family and drove us out to the boat, and 'promised' not to tell Linsen´s father about this. They talked about how the boat could have possibly floated out so far, and said that the anchor wasn´t working. There wasn´t enough slack in it.

We pulled the boat into the marina and bought some ice cream and then some fresh fish for dinner. On the ride back home, one of the propellers on the engine wasn´t working properly, so the boat was tilted 35-45 degrees for the entire ride back. I was leaning over the side trying to balance the boat as lateral waves threatened to knock us over. Linsen wasn't afraid at all, and since she's a licensed pilot, I decided it was relatively harmless for us to be in a boat, as opposed to a plane, with one propeller malfunctioning. Linsen cooked up the fish with a tasty pesto sauce, boiled potatoes, and a Greek salad, and then got the call from her father asking about this strange foreign guy who helped the boat float away.

Swedish cousins

Cousin Anja and Aunt Elaine in front of a house near the beach in Knäbäckshusen. Cousin Jason and I in front of the Turning Torso building in Malmö, Anja and Jason in his apartment in Malmö.

Sweden, Home away from Home.

I have now arrived in Sweden, which is my home away from home. I've been here several times since I was a baby to see my cousins and have a few weeks of visitations lined up...

Why go to Lithuania?

Tony's Girlfriend Leana, Tony (looking angelic with the sun behind him) and Dan in the kitchen after making eggs benedict with salmon. The picture is a bit out of focus. The Frank Zappa statue in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Sculptor had previously been commissioned to do Lenin and other Soviet heads, and best anyone knows, the anti-authority message of Zappa was well received in Anti-Soviet Lithuania.

........

I chose to go to Lithuania after my time in Poland. I've known Tony Pappa and Dan Noll since the days of high school debate, though I haven't been in touch with them. Tony has lived in Vilnius, Lithuania for the past 7 years, Dan and his wife in Prague for the past 5. The last few times I've seen Tony in Scranton, he recommended that I check out Lithuania. He said the girls were beautiful and friendly, and that's all the encouragement I needed.

Tony and Dan are good friends who have a sarcastic banter between them, so Dan's comment about Tony having nothing in the fridge was met with Tony buying a bunch of food and making omelets and fresh juice in the morning. We rented a car one day and drove North to the town of Klaipeda, on the Baltic coast, for a sea festival that was going on. After checking out a Mardi Gras-worthy jazz band of teenage boys, we ended up at an outdoor seating area for some local vodka. The minute we walked in, two women at the next table grabbed me and pulled me aside as they were singing in Russian or Lithuanian, probably expecting me to sing along with them. I broke free of their grasp and joined Tony and Dan as one of the women (there were 3) engaged in discussion with us, coming to our table, despite the fact that 2 of them were with their husbands. Tony can understand Russian and speak Lithuanian, and he maintained contact as I spoke with one of the women and her husband who was the lone English speaker. The other husband in the group was quietly and creepily drifting in the background and watching us. Dan and I kept receiving sexy stares and smiles from one of the women whose husband was not there. She was obviously drunk as she had to excuse herself to vomit in the alley a few times, so the stares became less sexy as more vomit appeared on her shirt. When one of the husbands noticed brief eye contact between Dan and her, he yelled over "she is married", to which Dan responded "Me too" as he pointed to his ring. Tony was amused with the situation and wanting to be a wise ass, told Dan to say a phrase in Lithuanian to one of the men. The phrase was "How much?" as in "How much for the girls?". We wisely moved on.

We went to dance club that was playing Latin American music, which I enjoy, so I became the dance partner of a girl who was celebrating her birthday with friends. There was also a dance contest with 3 professional duos and one duo from the crowd, which happened to be both men. As the fans cheered, the two men beat out the arrogant, over-dramatic professionals in a real crowd pleaser. After a few hours sleep, we went to the beach and stood in the Baltic that had dropped 12 degrees centigrade in one night during the week, which sounds like a lie, but everybody we ran into talked about it. Tony said that he froze his balls off standing up to his ankles. It was us Americans who gave any indication that the water was cold. The locals all walk out and stand waist and chest deep, acting as calmly as they would if they were in a sauna.

It was good to connect with some friends from Scranton and meet some really cool people. As for the women though, they are not the most beautiful, friendly and happy women I've met. If you are a man, don't go to Lithuania, it is a waste of time. Stay in your home country and date the women there. I will only make several trips back because of my strange appreciation of the statue of Frank Zappa.

Where it all started to fall

This image is not distorted, you're looking at a real house, well, actually commercial building in Sopot, Poland... Paul and Emily on the beach at Sopot...Picture of Lech Walesa in the Gdansk shipyard.







Paul, Emily and I traveled from Krakow to Wroclaw to Gdansk and Sopot together, hitting the beaches and clubs and soaking in the sun. We ended up staying in the house of a Polish man in Sopot for 3 nights. We had to communicate in hand gestures and some German, but we all managed to pick up some Polish along the way.

Poland is home to the nicest cities I've seen so far on the trip, and my last days were in Gdansk, which is my favorite city as far as architecture, proximity to the sea, and history is concerned. It is shipping town with beautiful main and side streets. What I really enjoyed the most about Gdansk was learning its importance in the collapse of the Soviet Union. I think that part of my draw to Eastern Europe, apart from the cheap prices, is learning how capitalism and democracy work in post communist countries. This has always been an interest of mine, probably only having come to realization as I've been travelling. I love freedom. I have no experience living somewhere that has been oppressed, but I always love to learn about struggles for freedom. All of the places I've been to have been under communist influence in the past 50 years, so these places are now more than just a chapter in a text book. They are real, and the people who have fought for freedom are still alive.

To cut through the years of history and revolts against Soviet Rule in the Eastern Bloc, we go to 1970 in Gdansk, where a strike at the shipyard resulted in 80 workers being killed by police. In 1976, a man named Lech Walesa, who participated in the 1970 strike, was fired from the shipyard because he wanted a memorial to be built for those killed in the strike. In 1980 workers again went on strike in the shipyards, asking for several demands to be met which could improve conditions. Walesa scaled the wall of the shipyards and became the leader of the strike. After several weeks, negotiations between Walesa and the managers at the shipyard resulted in the first ever concession that the Communist Government made with anyone on strike. Over the next 9 years, similar acts of rebellion were met with resistance by the government, but also with such great support by the general population that Walesa earned the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Soviets were gradually weakened to the point of collapse. To be in the shipyard and the town where people went on strikes with such importance, to think back to the struggle, the fighting, risking their lives in the name of freedom, was all very inspiring. I felt connected to this place. Freedom is a universal ideal, and all of the sentiment that is stirred from reading about the American Revolution can just as well come from stories in Poland or the rest of the Eastern Bloc.

Wreaking havoc on the little kids

The beautiful, colorful architecture in the town square of Wroclaw, Poland. Emily and Paul in front of a Pope John Paul II statue in the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

I made my way north of Slovakia into Poland, spending a night in the mountain town of Zakopane before heading to Krakow. Poland is the birthplace of my favorite composer, Chopin, so I caught a concert of Chopin piano music on my first night there. It was advertised as being performed by a very talented pianist who has won several awards over the past 9 years in Poland. When the pianist walked out, he looked no older than 20 years old, but that didn't matter, he was amazing, I almost cried at how beautifully he played. You get a wider range of sound and emotions from hearing the music live versus through the CD or MP3 player.

After two days of wandering and sightseeing in the heat, I was hanging out with a brother and sister from England, Emily and Paul. They have a strong nautical/sailing background and both are in the British Military. Emily had mentioned there was a really nice water park in Krakow that she heard about. Since my only alternative was to sleep through the heat, I decided to go with Emily and Paul. The water park was full of little kids and families. It had huge slides, climbing walls in pools, tight ropes, water polo, basketball, and our favorite, a figure 8 current pool. This pool had strong jets all in one direction, so you didn't have to try and you were whisked around the big figure 8. Our game of choice in this pool was much like a "kill the man with the ball" game. Whomever possesed the ball, was attacked, smothered, thrown into walls, thrown into other people, tackled, and held under water by the others until someone else had the ball. We were ruthless. Both Paul and Emily know how to kill people, and I very much enjoy not being killed, so we were appropriately squared off against one another. There were several people in this pool, all of whom were only obstacles in our way of getting the ball. I know that I felt my body climbing over others while we played this game, and people knew to get out of our way, or they became a casualty.

When we got out of the pool, we looked back and saw young kids, some very young with floatation devices and their parents. "Were all of these people just in the pool with us?" I asked..

"I don't know, I wasn't paying attention." Paul said..

We didn't see any blood or crying kids, so we moved on to the tightrope. Only slightly above water and very loose, it had a rope "handrail" on each side. 10 people would be on this tightrope at once, holding on to the rails, swinging them back and forth and bouncing on the tightrope, trying to make other people lose their balance and fall off. This was our kind of place. It might seem that we tried to swing the ropes to knock off little kids. That isn't the case. We tried to knock big kids off too. It just so happens that little kids don't have the reach and strength that helps them hold on when, say, a big kid like me, pushes both railings in opposite directions with his legs and arms so that they can't possibly touch both at once. Call it cruel, I call it balance training. I wish there was one of these water parks in my hometown.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

The 700 year old 100+ meter deep salt mines at Wieliczka are not just for mining salt. Several of the miners used their artistic talents to carve many sculptures among the salt. The most impressive man-made attraction I've seen yet, is the St. Kinga's Chapel. It is all carved from salt: chandeliers, altar, pictures and other relics. Above are the view of the chapel, and a carving of the Last Supper.