Unknown Super Powers

I didn't know it myself, but it turns out that I can speak more then one language. Italian and German to be precise. This is rather impressive as my Italian education comes from menu's and one hour a week for 3 months when I was in year 2. The German comes from self taught Cd Lessons along with war books and films.

Unfortunately this new found super power only occurs while shopping for shoes with Thora. The colour of leather, babies, immigration, cashier's grandchildren, you name it, I've conversed about it.

We will need a new house to store Thora's shoes if this trend continues.

The Industrious Wonders

We have just finished our time with family in Katowice. This was a great time for them and for Thora and me. We went on a trip with them to nearby Krakow, 80km away and about a 16hour train trip (divide that exaggeration by 8). We even showed them a thing or two there. We also spent two days in the mountains where I got to catch up with my Great Uncle George and I got to get a bit of snowboarding in.

It was nice to slow things down a bit from our hectic traveling. Katowice might not be high or even low for that matter on any list of tourist places to visit, but we certainly enjoyed our time there.

Some Rather Shocking News.

What is happening to Thora?

Firstly she looks longingly at Burger King in Istanbul before greedily scoffing down her burger and fries.

Secondly we get to Turin, a city famous for its fashion and culture and we see Thora Marsh head to McDonalds for a cheeseburger!

The third occurance of Thora doing something she would normally frown upon back home happened in Gdansk. Thora waited out the front of a shopping Center before opening, eagerly desiring to enter.

She has knocked over chop sticks in a Berlin restaurant and has a desire for Sprite.

She has also taken to watching sport at night with the Winter Olympic being on and has been spotted going to football games.

I don't know what it is, you be the Judge.

bookends

ON a cloudy grey morning we boarded the bus to Dresden. Squished in our seats, with baggage piled around us I gazed out the window. And saw a strange sight.

A man dressed in a blazer and reddish silk crevat running towards us. He had a large white case on his back that bobbed up and down and would have looked even more incongruos, except for the fact that is was a hard cello case. Well, thats highbrow enough for a crevat right?

Anyway, he boarded our bus to Dresden with the cello in tow. It bruised it's way up the aisle until he deposited it on a seat near us. Whereupon it promptly slid to the floor - we seemed to evince more concern than crevat man did! He conversed with a pretty lady briefly, then sat down. We all dozed our way along the autobahn.

Arriving in Dresden, I was curious to see where he would go...but alas, crevat man escaped quickly. We went on our way to our hostel, and once divested of our goods, we went out for an adventure. Happening upon a church we decided to look in (this is what one does in Europe after all!)

We saw a notice for a Sunday afternoon concert in the church, and decided to attend. Such freedom on holidays :) There followed a comic routine of enquiring about the concert and trying to buy a ticket. All hampered by the fact that I was asking in German for a ticket for the concert that started at "drei uhr" and the attendant was giving me strange looks. In Germany, they do 24 hour time....oops. "funfzehn hur"...

We then began to notice all the grey heads around us. D began to be afraid - what on earth were we getting ourselves into? Something run by a sort of Ladies Auxiliary? Anyway, tickets purchased, we surveyed the sign once more and I noticed that we would be treated to a cello and piano rectial. hmmmm.

Taking our seats amongst the grey heads, we discussed whether crevat man could have come from Berlin to play in the concert. He had. And his name was Konstantin. It was a bit strange seeing him on stage. The cello was none the worse for it's bumps. The concert was relaxing. Oh, and the pianist was the pretty lady from the bus!

They had such distinctive styles these two. Crevat man had curly bouncy hair that flew about as he played with vim and vigour. Pretty lady had a severe bob cut, with sleek shiny hair. She played with force and concentrated on the music with intensity. She did not move very much...her fingers just ran up and down the keys. Crevat man jerked about like one of those dashboard cats. But the music was lovely, and overcame my wanderings about this strange classical pairing.

There is more though. Leaving the concert, we thought our encounters with crevat man were over. After exploring the old town for a few hours we headed back to the groovy new town of Dresden for dinner...and crossing the road in front of us was a familiar bobbing shape. A hard white cello case!

Seeing the World Through Orange Coloured Glasses

It turns the green of pine trees into this amazing colour which contrasts with the bleak grey of the bare leafless trees. It also brings sunset forward by a few hours, with the sky turning a hazy orange.

I only know because my snowboarding goggles are this colour.

Dean

Being Together

How great it is to have a companion.

Dean and I have spent 5 weeks holidaying together. Time has been fluid, sometimes flowing slowly and other times speeding along. But all the time on this holiday has been companionable. What a joy, what a blessing from our God.

We have not needed to have long intense conversations. Neither have we needed to look awkwardly in another direction as we faced each other on a long train trip. Somtimes we have had long intense conversations. At other times we have opted for doing seperate activities. We have learnt more about one another, for sure. (in irritation and in happiness) We have also been confirmed in what we knew. What we knew 3 years ago when we were married, and have known for 3 years of marriage. And what we hope to continue in!

It is good to have a companion. And we make good companions.

Here Comes the Sun

As I look out the window, I see the sun shining on the freshly painted communist era apartment blocks. Today our plans are to cook a lunch for my Polish family. Thora is also making a Pavlova without kiwi fruit and a few other exotic antipodian ingredients. While we look forward to this day, the suns emergence makes me ask the question: where were you yesterday? Yesterday we were in Krakow which is one of the worlds most beautiful cities. It was grey, a little misty and the weather switched between rain and micro hail. It was a nice day though as we went with some of my family. We walked around and checked out a cool English bookstore/Cafe that we visited on our last journey, had lunch in a cool under ground Ukranian resteraunt, not to mention the main sites of the Wawel castle and old town square (scaffolding again).

It's definately warming up a bit and you often see a waterfall of ice and snow come crashing down to the ground after being dislodged from a roof. Shhhhh BOOUggrrhhhhh!

We hear Deutsch Bahn is coming to Poland. This is good news as our PKP Krakow to Katowice Express train service averaged a whopping 40km an hour over the 80km distance, taking about 2 hours. You should witness their luxury toilets.

We go to the Mountains tomorrow. Hopefully it buckets down with snow there tonight and the sun follows us there tomorrow.

Dean.

Questions

1. If DaVinci was such a genius, why did he choose to work with materials that started to crumble within weeks of the completion of his masterpiece?

2. If Germans are so efficent, why can't I buy T-mobile Austria phone credit at the T-mobile store in Berlin?

3. How many steps does it take to order a meal in Italy?

4. Why do Europeans opt for square pillows?

5. Why do former Socialist states charge you to use the toilet? Is this an expression of capitalist freedom?

6. What do Polish rail conductors think when they look at our Polish eurail passes? (They always look a bit lost)

7. How does a 10m x 20m painting go missing for over a hundred years?

8. Why does Baby M kick at meal times?

9. What is it that makes us look like we are looking for a toilet?

10. Why would you have signs only in Italian in an "American Bookstore" only selling English books?

11. Why does a command in German translate to a polite request in French and an option in English?

12. Where did Augustus the Strong get all his money from?

13. Why would you translate into English information about Egyptian artefacts but not those of your own national story which you might want to tell?

14. Why are things closed on the day we go to visit and why is it always a one off random day?

15. Why is part time Polish resident Nigel Kennedy touring Australia right now!?

16. Why do I have to go back to work?

17. Why are all my clothes olive green or navy blue?

18. Will anyone write back with answers?

The Leprosy of Unreality

I read this line recently, in a book I enjoyed so much. The language was dense...but there were gems!

Who wrote the line which included these words? Anyone know?

I think it's fabulous, it captures so much the sense of ridiculousness that people shroud themselves in.

more preserves

Listening to Szymon haltingly explain the LOTR game to Dean, and wanting to tell him everything - just like D does when he explains a game!

Watching and listening to 4 Italian ladies in white coats discussing sorbolene, and whether or not they had a similar product, as they proffered tubs and tubes of various creams to test.

Feeling the pull of news from home and realising once more that even from across the seas the relationships you are in define and mould you.

Discovering a gnome in the market square, stopping to take a photo and having a smiley little old man lead us to where there were 3 more.

Thinking about where home is, and who/what defines home, as I lie in an uncomfortable hostel bed while some Africans are having a conversation in french, english and deutsch outside the door

A little voice

Today we arrived in Katowice, the town where Dean's Polish relatives live. Piotr and Szymon (14) picked us up from the station, and we drove home to see Gabrysia and Pawel (6). Later we will see Basia, Macek and Macius, and next week George and Hilda.

We've been eating delicious food all day, and looking at photos. So nice to have a slow day, in friendly company.

At one point, in the midst of our slide show (which our friends endured with love :) a little voice piped up. A little voice that had been mostly silent, for he knows little english. Although basketball words are in high rotation on his vocabulary, for he loves NBA. Anyway, I digress, the little voice pipes up and says

"Dean, do you like ACDC?"

hehehe!

Gnome Hunting

Wrocław is a city I simultaneously know everything and nothing about. I've read a large book on the city yet couldn't point out any great landmarks except for the fact I know that the city is on the Odra with some islands and churches. One suprising aspect was the inclusion of small bronze gnomes all over the city. There are a variety of gnomes in different postures and with different occupations. There is even one sitting down playing a poker machine. We have tonnes of pictures of the little natives and it was enjoyable spotting them along the way.

One of the highlights was a panoramic painting (15m high by 114m long) of the battle of Racławice where a Polish force, including a peasant army, defeated the Russians (before being completely crushed 3 years later). Kosciuszko led the forces in his spare time after a busy schedule of having Australian mountains named after him. It was a really cool painting and put you in the middle of the action as it was 360 degrees and viewed from the centre.

Tomorrow we leave to witness (as the Lonely Planet describes) "Industrious wonders of Katowice." Well, my family as well, who I look forward to seeing.

How do you pronounce Wrocław?

Answer: Vrotz-wev

We can now add "that one" (sounds like ten) to our extensive all encompassing Polish vocabulary. Dobry!

Where Could We Be?

We went to a Greek restaurant with no lamb anywhere to be seen and the option of Pork Knuckle. Most sides included white cabbage salad. mmmm

Feeling at home in Germany

In one sense, my brain has been in overload. In any one day my consciousness is sifting through all the bits and pieces of language that I know, in a manner something like this

...ok, just ask if they speak english, i think thats parlais vous englisch, oh, no thats french, i don't even know french. alamak (malaysian exclamation!)...She doesn't speak english, whats the word for pen? I can remember auf dem tisch is on the table, pen, pen...make a writing gesture instead...aaaargh!

In another sense, I felt very comfortable in Germany. Although my grasp of the language is piecemeal, when I heard it I felt like I could understand if I thought harder or heard it a bit slower.

I loved walking along the street and incidently saying "entschuldigung" and knowing that people thought I was German.

I loved lots of the food (although if I ever get or see anything like Dean's squishy pate like sausages from last night I will be extremely grossed out).

The towns felt open to me, like I could figure out where to go and what to do with ease.

I loved German shoes. And the kids wooden toys are awesome (yes we got some for Baby M)

I've been wondering about why this is. Is it that I learnt a bit of German at school, and that I heard lots about my Grandmas German cousin Rika, and about my Dad's childhood days in Germany...do I just feel at home due to a certain level of familiarity with the culture?

Or is it that Australia in general is more similar to Germany than somewhere like Italy or even Poland? (less Latin/Slavic, more Germanic?)

Pondering....

At last - a Snowman!

Well, a small snow creature.

Dean and I climbed to the top of the hill in Meissen today, to view the view. We had an enormous dom (german word for church) behind us, and a medieval town in front of us, on the river Elb.

And so we built snow creatures on the ledge. Before now it's been too cold!
Mine had stick hair and arms, his had a snout and looked a bit cheeky. Fun.

In other news, I managed to hold of from buying a fine porcelain set of Meissen ware. A tea set cost just 299 euro, the basic one that is! Meissen is the home of Europes oldest porcelain manufacterer, set up by none other than Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony and King of Poland.

Apparently these days, the Russians look for golden guilt edging, the English buy pug dog figurines, the Americans pieces featuring the ming dragon, the Polish like the swan motif (Dean has been taking a lot of swan photos I note) and the Italians like to buy tureens. What is it that creates a national proclivity for certain images or shapes?

Language

Travelling in Saxony, it seems if the person you ask a question of can't speak any English, they answer you in German anyway and you somehow get the gist of what you actually wanted to know.

Missed Out.

We arrived in Dresden on the 14th of Feburary. One day after the anniversary of the bombing of the city at the end of WWII. This meant historical revisionists demonstrating about a holocaust against Germany and a counter demonstration of people linking hands not wanting their city to turn into a symbol for extremists.

Dresden is pretty cool. It`s run down in parts and been reconstructed in others. It has a pretty laid back atmosphere. The recently renovated Aldtstatd has many overly ornate churches and palaces. Augustus the Strong essentially built Dresden up. Amoung other things such as pregnating women, he was Elector of Saxony and King of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. He seems to have spent his other free time commissioning ornate buildings and purchasing over the top art works. I now know where all the Elephant tusks went after visiting his treasures in a Museum. This collection was way over the top with an Ivory room, a room of Bronzes, Porceline, Silver works and so on. This assault on the senses hurt my head after a while. The Irony was, it was the minimalist version as much had gone missing over the centuries and the bombings didn`t help either.

Dean

Let It Be

An album full of great songs by a great band. Somehow, this produced an average album. A bit like today really. A great city: Berlin. Did a tour of a WWII bunker, saw a football match and went to a wander-classical concert where you walked around greenhouses listening to various performers. Somehow, an average day.

Probably due to a bit of travel weariness and the fact I traveled to the other side of the world to see my team draw. Come on Hertha!

As a side note, the bunker we visited only worked because it was 200m away from 8 big flak guns that allied bombers were smart enough to keep clear of.

Feeling Old

All these younguns hanging out in our hostel making noise. What is the world coming to?

Preserving Memories

There are so many moments in any one day of travel that are precious. That you want to hold onto, whether they are of breathtaking beauty, wry comments, banality, funny stupid things you do, bad English, joyful reconnections...

Here are a few from the last week or so.

Ordering "additives" with our meal at the Ukrainian restaurant.

Standing in the gray snow, stamping our feet and watching our breath float away. Deciding to see if we could blow smoke rings.

Seeing Ellie's familiar face as she pulled up in her car.

Discovering that the boat we could see in the canal was frozen in place.

Clasping the bar of the chairlift in fright (with frozen fingers) when it jolted to a stop. Calming down enough to gaze over the alps and breathe the fresh air.

Staring up...at building facades, at unfamiliar clouds, at different wildlife.

Looking at the lily pads in the river and realising they were ice pads floating along.

Being told twice in the same day how to find the toilet by very friendly people. Was it the look on our faces? We weren't searching for toilets at the time!!

Reading the gospels afresh..Mark atm. Be alert...

Giggling with D about possible baby names...and testing them out via the 'shout method' in a restaurant...where it's v difficult to shout.

and more....but thats enough for now :)

crepe paper. gray.

Nope, not doing any craft.

After some thought, I realised that gray crepe paper was EXACTLY like what they have provided in this hostel for toilet paper.

hmmmm.

Indignation Is...

Sitting down to rest your feet, in a carefully chosen groovy little cafe. Having digested your mocha, and strawberry cream tart, you choose to head to the depths. A warm, non public public (eg railway station) toilet.

And find...

a squat toilet...

In Italy!

Horror!

Only In Poland

Restaraunt: Sphinx (think Chilli's or Lonestar type chain)
Style: Egyptian/Oriental/Eastern European Fusion.
Meal: Pork Schwarma served with french fries and cabbage sides.
Also available: The Sultans Feast featuring a pork cutlet... and cabbage.

They didn't serve this in Istanbul!

Danzig On Ice

According to the BBC weather report, it's supposed to be -15 to -20 in Gdansk. I must say I'm rather disappointed. I thought it would feel much colder. The city looks amazing with the old towers, spires and Burgher mansions. Part of the canal is frozen over which allows for a nice short cut to the other peninsular passing the ice fishermen and frozen boats.

We went to Westerplatte yesterday where the opening shots of World War II were fired. Today we went to the Solidarity museum and the gates of the Ship yards where the famous strikes occurred in 1980. Two pivotal moments in history. We also went to an Amber museum so Thora could see pretty things. I have to start saving for an Amber table.

Tomorrow we travel to Malbork to see Europes largest gothic castle which housed the Crusading order, the Teutonic Knights.

Dean

P.S Danzig was the old German name for Gdansk.

Declared

It has taken me a long time to conclude what has probably been known all along. Some of my prejudices started back in the 80's when I was rather young. There were certain things that I saw that were detestable. One was the whole glam rock thing which is why I'm shocked and disgusted by some of todays fashions. I was 7 and could tell it was in bad taste. Another item of disgust was the red Liverpool football club jerseys people would wear with Candy emblasoned across the chest. Other images that always irked me were that of the Italian national football teams or club powerhouses AC Milan and Juventus. You would see them in the Italian butcher, I mean Barber shops in Fairfield.

When I was 12, I discovered the wonderful game of football, that is Soccer for the uneducated. I came to support Manchester United who at that stage hadn't won the competition for 20 odd years. Being slightly obsessive, this meant I would have to support teams in the various other Leagues around Europe. Livingston in Scotland because it was my Nanna's maiden name, Marseilles (because of Cantona) in France, Athletico Bilbao in Spain because they were Basques, etc... When it came to Italy, I would never admit it but I kind of liked Inter Milan. Partly because they were't AC Milan or Juve' and also they had the same shirt manufacturer as Manchester United.

To cut a long story Short, I went to the San Siro twice to watch them play and even bought a scarf. Forza Inter!

The Cloud of Turin

"hurry, hurry, hurry. We'll miss the train"

"I can't hurry, i don't want to...maybe we can just stay in milan today..."

"the train's still there, do you want to get on?"

"ok, ok..what about a ticket though?"

"we'll ask that guard"

(stilted conversation in italian english follows. upshot - we can buy our ticket on board for 5 euros extra. we catch the train)

Arriving in turin, I was still wondering why we'd decided to travel for 1.5 hours another day, when heavy snow was forecast and travellers fatigue had set in.

Then we stepped of the train. And walked into the station and saw one of the coolest shops I have ever seen in a railway station. Wallets and briefcases etc, arranged by colour, in a brightlit, warm looking glass cubicle. So...it might not be so bad after all.

We visited the tourist info spot, where the attendant actually spoke English. Bonus in Italy! We got a free map (another bonus for this country) detailing different walks we could take around the town. It was peppered with things we would "be able to say" after we'd completed a walk.

(walk # 1 history culture and coffee) "Haven't you ever been to turin? It has some marvellous buildings" A fine example of something we might slip into conversation upon our return!

We proceeded to walk around Turin, in the snow, but mercifully undercover for the most part because of the porticoes. (look up on google). The city was charming, sophisticated...despite clouds obscuring the distant views of mountains, despite the cold and slip factor, it worked it's magic.

The biggest Egyptian Museum outside Cairo, standing at a bar to have an espresso and chocolate, eating hot foccacia on a bar stool, gazing at a snow covered Augustus and standing deep in snow in a Roman ampitheatre. Cloudy. Bustling amongst the crowds, staring in shop windows, browsing the outdoor bookshops, stopping for cake, seeing bohemian italians with bongo drums. Still cloudy. Missing the train home but still having things to look at. Buying a pair of (bordeaux vino coloured) boots.

"are you glad we came to turin?"

"yeh it was a good day"

(topped of with waiting dinner - risotto milanese...yum!)

Driving around Milano

It hurts my head!

5 Cities, 4 Cafès, 3 Trains, 2 Buses, 1 Ferry

It doesn't sound like much of a day but it was actually quite enjoyable.

We started the day by waking up to realise the bus was leaving Ljubljana in 5 minutes. This meant a quick re-appraisal of the situation and I decided on catching a train to Sezàna near the Slovenian Italian border. This was despite not having any information about how to get between Sezàna and Trieste. In Sezàna, we met an Italian guy essentially doing the same journey as us who said there was a bus leaving in 45 minutes to Trieste. We had a coffee together in a cafè in city number 2.

In Trieste we walked around the city for a hour or two, had our lunch before deciding that since it was a nice sunny day, we should stop via Venice which we had visited 3 years earlier on a very gloomy day.

In Venice we caught a ferry around to San Marco square which took in the sights of the canals, bridges and beautiful old buildings, bathed in the late afternoon sun. We strolled around heading slowly back towards the railway station through what could also be described as the Worlds most expensive shopping mall. It was really picturesque but quite maze like. We ended up following equally lost German tourists and followed an older Italian Woman who spoke no English.

We then caught the train to Milan. In Milan, Mussolini built the railway station to impress which it did. Unfortunately, it was not designed for Australian travelers to be found by their Italian friends. After one hour of walking around with no phone credit and finding faulty pay phones, I finally made contact with our friend. I had to borrow a phone from a "City Angel" (a voulantary vigilanti security force)! We got there in the end and while it sounds like a contiki tour less the drunk 20 somethings, we actually had a fun day.

Slip Tally

4. Yes, 4 slips in 2 weeks. Let's hope the tally slows down.

#1 Gallipoli Museum - T slides on the icy hill on the way back to the bus. People came running. Babys first war wound...

#2 Turkish dance floor - D slips over as he is forced to caper by the turkish dancer in one of those tacky tourist shows. He received a gasp from the crowd.

#3 Goreme rock camel - D runs enthusiasticly down a muddy hill and slides. He does not count this as he managed to stop himself from falling completely. But there was mud on his hands!

#4 Tivoli Park snowy path - T watches a kid sledding, loses concentration and finds herself lying in the snow, laughing.

An Addition to the list of Worlds Best Places

As you would be well aware, the three greatest locations in the world are universally regarded as: Kogarah Oval, Krakow's old town market square and Berlin's Olympic Stadion. Well I can tell you that I have found another place worthy of being added to that list. It's name is Pamukkale.

The place is a hill top strewn with the ruins of the ancient city Hierapolis (a city mentioned at the end of Colossians). These ruins are actually proper ruins unlike some rebuilds. There are just stones and bricks thrown about haphazardly while some of the larger buildings remain, like the awe inspiring Roman Ampitheater which sits perched high on the hill. By the way, this hill is a mountain by Australian standards.

When we visited (all to briefly), it was a sunny day with a slightly crisp breeze. The grass was green and we bathed in the warm winter sun. We even finished the day with ice blocks. We were fortunate enough to get in early as in a very Turkish style, the shop keeper strangely stopped selling the cheap ones a few minutes later as a few others on our tour found out. Hmmm?

While I was facinated by the ruins, the natural wonder of the white sedimentry terraces with their thermal waters made this place worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Kogarah Oval. The place just looked surreal. We walked along some of the Terraces between the pools of water with our winter woolies and bare feet. We got to feel the cool waters and sediment between our toes. I'd seen pictures of this place before on the walls of Kebab shops, but to actually experience it in the flesh surpassed the realms of my imagination.

If you want to see what I'm talking about: book a trip, wait for us to show you the photos, make a trip to the Kebab shop on Beecroft Road Epping or for the tech savy, google it.

Not so Great is Artemis of the Ephesians

What used to be one of the wonders of the world, is now a field with a few stones lying around and a gaggle of geese. We got to walk down the streets where the Apostle Paul walked and help kick start a riot. Awesome.

A Lesson for Would Be Turkish Drivers

Rule 1: The marker lines on the road indicate where your vehicle should be, a bit like a railway line.

Rule 2: Drive on the righthand side of the road, or the lefthand side for that matter. It's your choice.

Rule 3: You can park anywhere. Tight one lane roads, the side of the freeway, intersections, just as long as you can get your car there.

Rule 4: Go means Go and Stop means Go

Rule 5: Honk at anyone doing the above.