Planes, Trains and Automobiles

On Saturday afternoon we took an adventure of a lifetime to Poland via multiple subways, train and a bus. Our destination was Kraków, Poland where we would then take another local bus for a 1.5 hour ride to the Auschwitz Concentration/Death Camp. Super Nel and I love history. And we especially enjoy learning about World War II. We tried to visit Auschwitz last time we came to Europe but it just didn't happen. We were really looking forward to this part of our honeymoon. We had help planning this part of our trip thanks to our friend Stela. She gave us tips and info about how to get to there because it's a process. 

There was a chance that we weren't going to make it to Auschwitz. When I went to purchase the train tickets every train I looked into was over €80 (euro) for a one way ticket to Szczecin, Polan. We still had to pay for a round trip ticket to Kraków, Poland. I didn't think it would be worth it to make the trek out there for so much money and such little time. Then I found out that the first part of the trip could be done on a local German train. And the cost for that ticket was €12.5 per person-much better price. Below I list the steps we took in order to get to Auschwitz. 

Step 1: load up all our belongings and take the U (subway) to the main train station. Then figure out which train platform our train was leaving from. This was no easy task because everyone we asked only spoke German. Once we learned the platform, we had enough time to find some food for lunch/snacks and water.

Using the elevator to go down to platform 5 for our train to Szczecin. 

10 people with 1 backpack and one person with an additional roll luggage in one tiny elevator? No problem. 

There's plenty of rooooom. 

This first train would take us to Angermunde, Germany. 

Darius gets comfortable and takes a little nap. 

After the train ride we would catch a bus that would take us to Szczecin. We had a 2 hour wait for our bus so once we knew where we would catch the bus we went into a little convenience store to eat some snacks and buy a beer...or two. 

Mel and Rhianna finish their beverages before boarding the bus. 

Where's the bus? Ala, Miss Delia, Dana, and Darius. It was pretty cold outside. 

Amazing street art in Szczecin. 

Once we arrived in Szczecin we had the task of buying our train tickets to Kraków. This was an Amazing Race kinda adventure. No one in our group speaks any Polish and even our Español wasn't going to help us. What did help us was charades (acting out what we need) and a trick a learned from Rick Steve's-draw pictures of what you need. I used both these techniques. I asked for 2 tickets to Kraków on the evening train with a couchette (a bed). I was able to convey this information pretty easily with charades and drawings but then the last was asking me something and I had no idea what it was. I tried my best to guess ("2 beds? Beds that lay flat?")-no luck. Then she took my idea and acted out blankets. She wanted to know if I wanted sheets and blankets. We did. We brought a sleep sack to keep anything from touching our skin but it's nice to have some extra layers so we said yes to the blankets and sheets. Then we had to purchase a return ticket-again more charades and drawing. Then when I was done (succes!) 8 other people had to do the same. 

Once everyone had tickets we had to set off and look for food for dinner and possibly breakfast and lunch for the following day. After we arrive in Kraków we will have to race to the hotel, drop off our luggage and get on a bus to Auschwitz. 

There was a steep hill we had to climb in order to find any markets or food. 

Freddy hauls his luggage up the hill. 

Dana climbing up to the top of the hill. 

Rhianna is all smiles climbing the hill in hopes of finding a warm place to eat. 

Poor Super Nel and Miss Delia. They are both sick and Super Nel was in horrible condition-but they are troopers. 

After finding a small market where we bought fruit and water we found a small restaurant that had cold beer (for 5 zlotys!!) and ginormous pizzas. The employees were so kind to let us stay in their warm restaurant while we waited for the train. 

Group shot before we catch the night train (can you spot the little superheroes)? 

We found our train platform and when the train started to pull up people started to run towards the front of the train. We realized we would only have a matter of seconds before the train would take off again whether or not you're on the train. So we started running too!! Imagine 10 people with a big backpack on their back and a purse or small bag filled with water and food racing down a platform while one of us is also wheeling a luggage? We must have looked like a bunch of wild wildabeasts stampeding! 

Luckily, we all made it on board and we were in the same wagon. However, when we saw the size of our cabin we were a little nervous. There were 6 beds in one teeny tiny cabin!!! It was impossible to move around in the room let alone get situated with all our bags. There was a lot of laughing and choice words that were yelled out as 6 of us (Super Nel, Darius, Freddy, Dana, Bree and I tried to get onto our beds. The rest of our group-Miss Delia, Rhianna, Mel and Ala were in the cabin next door. They luckily only had 4 people in their room. 

All six of us in our bunks. It wasn't easy but we made it work. 

We all thought it was a pretty fun experience and we're glad that if we had to do it, at least we were doing it together. We boarded the train at 8pm and would arrive in Kraków at 07:30am. It would really be 06:30 but it happened to be Daylighy Savings time and everything was moving forward an hour. 

The majority of us fell asleep pretty fast and stayed that way until morning. I woke up around 4am and did some blog work then fell back to sleep. The next time I woke up it was because the conductor was waking us up and saying our stop was in 30 minutes. 

If you think getting 10 people on a train and ready for bed in teeny tiny rooms is hard, imagine getting everything packed and ready to disembark in less than 30 minutes when everyone is still asleep! It was pure pandemonium with rushing and yelling and everyone trying to brush their teeth at the same time or shouts of "where are my shoes?!" At one point the train was slowing down and I thought we were almost there and Rhianna was still in the bathroom. We were shouting at her to hurry up and grab her bag. She was still in flip flops and pjs. She did end up having another 10 minutes to put shoes on. 

When we arrived in Kraków (a miracle in itself) we set off to find our hotel. 

Amazing street art in Kraków at the train station. 

Really liked this one 

We have no idea what this street art says but it looks like art about people with a special need. I really like the one with the dog holding the eye seeing assistance stick. 

Read the next blog entry to find out our impressions of Auschwitz. 

Final Day in Berlin

On our last day in Berlin we really only had 1/2 a day before our adventure to Kraków, Poland would begin. Our friends Dana and Bree had arrived the evening before and they were hoping to do a little exploring before setting off to Poland. 

So we woke up early and went to explore the Bradenburg Gate. I really wanted to see this at night all lit up but the timing just didn't work out. It was still pretty marvelous in the morning. 

Poor Super Nel woke up very sick with a cold and missed out on today's adventure. Both he and Miss Delia are fighting illness. We had to find them some German medication at the pharmacy. 

Next we set off to make our appointment at the Deutscher Bundestag. This is the German Parliment Building. You have to make a reservation months in advance and provide the government with names, birthdays and other identification. It's a bit of a process but worth it because the views from atop of the clear dome are amazing. 

Outside the Deutscher Building. 

You have to go through security and show them your passport. Once inside you take an elevator up to the beginning entrance of the dome. You're given a free audioguide and pamphlet. Then you walk around a spiral ramp and listen to the info provided. It was a really great way to see the city. 

Inside the dome-the mirrors reflect light down to where the Parliament members do their job. 

Looking up at the clear dome. 

When it rains the water is redirected so that no one inside gets wet. 

The view is amazing up here. You can see a huge hospital that is known for research that first discovered the cause of TB. 

Darius thought it was so funny to ask each of us "wasn't that emotional?" It wasn't but for some reason he thought this was hilarious. 

After our tour ended we raced back to check out of our hotel and get ready to depart on an overnight adventure to Poland. Read all about it in my next blog post. 

Berlin Day 2

We chose to try to get out of town on our second day in Berlin. When Super Nel and I decided to come back to Germany it was because we fell in love with this country the last time we visited. The thing we loved most was the beauty of nature Germany represents. However, when we arrived in Berlin that's not what we found. Some people in our group compared it to Gotham City. I think it's very similar to New York City and I love that city-it's just not what I was expecting. This was the reason for wanting to do a day trip out to the country. Some of our group says that Berlin is colder than Amsterdam. I personally don't think that's possible. Amsterdam was freezing cold so to me Berlin felt the same temperature-or slightly warmer. 

Our day trip took us to Pfauneninsel also known as Peacock Island. It's home to a nature preserve. This quiet little island was about a 20 minute train ride away from our hotel. One of the main subway stops, Alexanderplatz was 2 stops away from our hotel and since there's a ton of food places nearby we decided to grab some breakfast there. The day before, we had purchased a group day pass for all the trains. Our hotel front desk staff had told us that this is the best deal for transportation and a great option for groups. The receptionist had also told us to make sure we stamped the ticket after purchase and that it's good until 24 hours from the time stamp. So on our second day we decided to purchase a new pass after breakfast when we arrived at Alexanderplatz since our ticket from the day before still had 30 minutes left. You can imagine our surprise when on the way to Alexanderplatz a subway official informed us our tickets were already expired. The officials are dressed in everyday clothes and they pull out a hand held scanner and announce in German that they want to see everyone's ticket. The officials asked us to get off the subway. They they informed us that the all day pass always expires at 0300 the following day. I tried to explain to the official that we were tourists visiting from out of town and were unaware of this rule. I also told them we were told the tickets work for 24 hours. Unfortunately, the official still gave us each a ticket with a fine of 40 euros. The fine wasn't the worst thing in the world. At the beginning of the conversation with the official, I thought we were going to get arrested. Lesson learned: In Berlin, if it's after 3am-just buy a new ticket. 

After this small setback, we were on our way to Peacock Island. When we arrived at our train stop we had to wait for a local bus. In the meantime, we stopped in a small cafe. The owner only spoke German. Since our last visit  out to Germany I've been learning small words and phrases. Also, my brother-in-law recommended an app called mango to help learn new languages. Super Nel uses it to learn Español. I felt really proud of myself because I was able to communicate to the owner of the shop that I wanted a small coffee, to eat in the cafe and understand the total cost. Oh and I asked for the bathroom key. 

Pedro and Josef on the bus. 

The bus ride was very short and it takes you deep into a wooden area until, it dead ends. That's where we found a beir garden and the ferry that takes you to Peacock Island. We boarded the ferry and fully expected a 5-10 minute ride to the island acros the way. Since it was cold, and there was no covered area most of our group started adding extra layers. By the time they had zipped up their jackets the ferry was at the destination. It lasted a total of 45 seconds. We found this to be very hilarious. Shortest ferry ride of our lives. 

The view from the ferry. 

Thankfully the sun came out while on the island and for once I felt warm.

The sun came out!!

We split up to go exploring and made a bet that the last one to find a peacock bought the first round of beers at the beir garden. 

There was a real live castle on the island. 

I saw what looked like hawks up in the sky. 

There was so much wildlife on this island. 

Peacocks everywhere!!!

Just roaming at their own pace. 

Peacock selfie!

Super Nel captures a photo with the peacocks feathers open. 

The boys also found a white peacock! So beautiful!!

After exploring the island awhile, it began to rain so we popped into the Beir garden for some grub. Then we retraced our steps to go towards home. 

Ala and Rhianna on the U (subway) 

Pedro photobombs Super Nel's photo on the U. 

We found another amazing Beir garden at the Grundenwold forest-the food was authentic German-so delicious!!!

Me and a stein. 

Tonight the last two members of our group arrive: Dana and Bree!!! 

Berlin, Germany

We spent our first day in Berlin exploring some of the major sights. We started off at the East Side Gallery. This is a portion of the Berlin Wall that has been decorated with different artwork to represent freedom. The artwork was impressive however, I think we would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't so cold. The night before when we arrived in Berlin we were so excited to learn that the weather wasn't as cold as Amsterdam. It felt like a cool night in San Diego. So when I left the hotel the following morning I only brought a light jacket and my scarf. That was a mistake. When we got off the U (subway) at the East Side Gallery it was not only cold but raining! So after a good half hour of exploring the artwork we were very wet and cold. 

Hard to imagine that the this wall was used to seperate people and keep them oppressed. 

I loved this artwork from the Berlin Wall. 

Super Nel poses with the art. 

I liked this one. Reminds me of the hyroglyphicis during the Egyptian era. 

Life imitates art. 

Busting out the selfie stick! 

We left in search of another adventure. We ended up going to Checkpoint Charlie. On the way we stopped at a decorative building and joined a walking tour. The tour guide was giving valuable information about the building. It turns out this building was used as a detention center during World War II and now it is used as a tax/financial center. This building had no happy history. 

Financial Building 

We made it to Check Point Charlie. This is the last active checkpoint fr the Cold War. This checkpoint would check for the proper documentation to ensure only the proper people passed the checkpoint. 

Check Point Charlie-where you needed proper documentation to cross. 

Rihanna sneaks in a photo at check point Charlie without paying the fee. 

After Checkpoint Charlie we went to Teigsrden park. There's some bier gardens there and we were very excited at the thought of warming up from the cold with German Beir!

This amazing view from one of the Beir gardens

Group shot! The beers in Germany are big and tasty and strong!!

Most of us went back to take a nap after all that beer. The rest of the group had some amzing Thai food for dinner. I slept through the night for some much needed sleep. The hotel bed was like sleeping on clouds. 

I can't wait until tomorrow.  The last few people of our group: Dana and Bree wi be arriving.