Aimee’s World Tour

Here in London you have the pound and the pence.  The pound is KILLING me.  Somehow I’ve managed to spend an inordiate amount of money just getting here and paying for several entry passes to places like Kensington Palace and the Tower of London. 

I had a mini-panic.  Where the hell did my money go??!!  I wasn’t much of a fan of the Euro since it was worth more than the dollar.  I really really am not a fan of the pound because it beats out the Euro.  I miss Asian currency…

My first two nights in London were spent in a different fashion than anticipated: dancing at gay clubs.  Dancing, or even more enjoyable, people watching.  The friend I am staying with enjoys upbeat tunes and some dance moves. 

I’ve only been here one day and that was spent at my friend’s house.  He’s actually French and showed me a ton of clips on youtube of things in French and I got to practice a bit with him.  He is constantly trying to improve his English and learn to speak more American than British. 

I was so sleepy tonight that I took the key, road the bus back and am keeping the house phone next to me so that i know when my friend gets back so I can let him in.  It’s his birthday tomorrow so he is going to cook a birthday lunch and then I’m off to finally begin my exploration of London.  Yay!

I had a brilliant trip planned.

This week I was to head to France to meet up with my South African friend Natasha who is staying in Cavalaire Sur Mer.

Afterwards I was going to see Mt. Everest Laura in Wales and  plunder about Londontown.

Then it was due north to Ireland and Scotland and from there journey over to Sweden. 

Using a Eurobus pass I’d be saving a lot of money on travel expenses.  With new friends I’d have several free places to stay.   It was perfect.

But this traveler is weary.  Biting off a bit more than she can chew at the moment.

I spend my free time sleeping.  I am constantly yearning to be productive.  

I can blog crappy blogs but I don’t want to do that.  That’s not gonna make me a travel writer I can assure you.  I need to catch up, rewrite and rework for quality.    If I had been up to speed I would be eager to journey further. 

Alas Sweden, Ireland, Scotland and France are candidates for the chopping block.

Thailand, however, remains steadfast.   Bangkok will prepare me physically and mentally for my ACE exam and for a healthy body. 

Maybe after I accomplish this goal I will have the peace of mind to travel again.  Heave over to the UK… visit Scotland and Ireland.    Then swing over to Sweden and Denmark.  For me travel is not a once in a lifetime opportunity.  It is a way of life.  It keeps me going.

I had approximately 28 hours in Berlin.  After das Happy dance and a little anticipation blogging, I set out for The Pegasus Hostel which I had booked online the night before.  A whopping 17 Euros to share a room with 5 of my favorite strangers.

The staff was going through a shift change when I arrived so I was asked to wait about 10 minutes to check in.  I decided to take a look at my map of Berlin and noticed an ad for the same free tour I’d taken in Paris.  The guides at this company are excellent, upbeat and full of fun facts.  Contrary to my 2008 edition of Lonely Planet, there was still a chance to catch a late tour at 4 pm.  As I asked  for instructions I noticed someone peering over my shoulder.  Turns out this slender Argentinian girl, and her slender Argentinian friend, also wanted in on the action so we set out together for the meeting point – The Brandenburger Tor Starbucks.  We had just 30 minutes.  A 7 minute walk back to the Ostbahnhof (train station) and just several stops away.  Shouldn’t take long. 

And it shouldn’t have.  Only the S/U bhan train system of Berlin is much like a math problem you can’t figure out.  No matter how long you’ve worked at it, it is obviously a stupid problem.  It’s only when the teacher explains the obvious that you realize you’re the idiot.

I can’t really express HOW the Berlin metro system is difficult your first time.  It just is.  Platforms on different floors.  U’s and S’s.  Numbers.  All kinds of nonsense.  We spent probably a good 30 or 40 minutes just trying to get one station over.  And still we managed to get out off course.  Half an hour late would have been ok but really an hour?  The tour would have to wait till the morrow. 

Whz isnät this grammaticallz correct_  Because Iäm in Berlin on a German kezboard!!!  Itäs like iäm writing with an accent. haha.

(This blog has editied z’s to y’s due to reader frustration.)

I had forgotten another major reason that I travel – the happy dance! 

While you can learn so much from the people and the places, thereäs nothing like the thrill of holy crap – Iäm in ____!!  Id like to buy a vowel please.  And a bratwurst!! 

Sadly you can actually get to the point when you just transition to another country or city without much acknowledgement.  Sure I always  had my camera but I feel that I had become a little numb.  That I was almost taking traveling for granted.  Even before I left for France I wasnät like… FRANCE!!!! YAY! I think that month in China had sucked the life outta me.  It was amazing but exhausting. 

But Iäm back now baby!!  Sitting in an internet spot between pizza hut and burger king in the Berlin Train Station. 

On the train over here I scouwered the maps as I always do in my Lonely Planet, circling where I want to go and where Iäm staying, etc.  (To be honest I normallz color code everzthing but no one needs to know….)  I like to read about the places I will bisit so that I can go in somewhat prepared, even if itäs only a paragraph or two. 

I spent the three hours over here trying to orient mzself around Berlin.  What to see and in what order.  I wanted to be as efficient as possible since I only have approx. 28 hours in the capital.  All that went out the window right before we arrived. 

The only other passenger in my train compartment dropped her magayzne and I kindly retrieved it for her and politely asked where she was from.  Turns out sheäs this super friendly chick Aga, same name as my dear cousin, also from Poznan.  Her English is amazing and she also speaks French though I canät actually saz what her accent sounds like. 

Aga mentioned that she had just recently been to Scotland and inquired if I had ever tried couch surfing.  For those of you who arenät familiar (MOM AND DAD LISTEN UP) couchsurfing.com is a website where you can literally find people who are willing to open up their homes… well couches… to travelers.  I’ve heard great things about it but honestly Iäd be reallz hesitant to ever try that in the US.

Apparentlz Aga had THE BEST experience and her excitement was contagious.  I listened as she told me how she had fallen in love with the people and places of Scotland.  Through couch surfing she told me that she was able to experience Scotland on a deeper level.  When zou mix with the locals zou leave some of the touristz crap behind and reallz get into the heart of the people.  Zou leave the stage and get behind the scenes. 

One place she had stazed, the girl offered Aga a ride in her fatheräs boat.  Another place she stazed up all night with amaying conversation and new friends. 

All zou need to do is show up with a house warming gift and poof – free accomodation!  More monez to travel!  Aga would she either bring alcohol or offered to cook as a thank zou.  Show me to das bier please.  Unless of course zou meet some shadz serial killer sex addict and well so much for zour luckz charms.  Thatäs alwazs been a turn-off for me. 

Aga kept me from getting off a station too earlz and I made sure we didnät staz one too long.  Worked out well.  She had to catch a train to …. some place with an L but said sheäd love to crab coffee once she bought her ticket.  I had noticed a Starbucks when we first came in. (I make it a point to alwazs stop in to saz hi no matter what part of the world iäm frequenting.  I also enjoz comparing prices.) 

I found mzself talking about one of mz best friends (Hi Hondo) and how I HAVE to buz her the overpriced mini German Starbucks mugs.  We#d studied German together back in the daz and if nothing else we trz to at least meet up at Starbucks when I#m in the area.   It wouldnät be fair to mention Hondo and not Jurgen since we all in the same Deutch class for 4 zears and joke about it even now.  Our teacher, Frau, was prettz much the most enteratining woman on earth, though Iäm sure sheäd put a pistol to her head if she heard me trz to speak.  Wait .- i canät actuallz remember anzthing.  Scheißen. 

So whz am I spending mz first moments at the computer?!  There is so much to do and see and not much time.  I can#t help it. Iäm onlz in the train station  zet mz ezes are shining!!  I need to be able to share this moment!!   Itäs not the same when zou write about it after the fact. (And I can onlz take so manz pictures of the 80 cent bathroom turnstile without looking like a crayz person.)

To other people Iäm just smiling like an idiot but inside Iäm screaming!!  ICH BIN IM DEUTCHLAND.  Actuallz its more like Iäm in frickin Germanz.  Wow – look at all the German people.  Look at the German signs.  Das is sehr toll.   Itäs pathetic, but itäs the best part – the happz dance. 

Itäs time I took this jig down Unter den Linden to Alexanderplatz or up Straße des 17 Juni to Siegessäule.  Mz hostel (bz far the cheapest thing I could find) is not far from the East Side Gallerz, the oldest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall. 

Später!

Aimschen

Sometimes I have to ask myself Aimee, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?  All this travel when you could be doing other things.  When you could be doing what everyone else is doing.  The norm.  Building credit.  Saving for retirement.  Paying off a house.  Popping out babies. 

And then I find myself walking past a random Asian giftshop in France.  A little figurine sits in the window.  For anyone else, that little guy might look nice on a shelf in the living room.  But for me it’s a symbol of success and satisfaction.  Of accomplishment.   Because I know he is much more than a form of decor.

This minature statue has been created in the likeness of a warrior from the tomb of the first emperor of China discovered in Xi’an in 1974.  Instead of one small souvenir, in reality,  he represents 7000 carved life-sized men and horses found in the pits of Xi’an.

I’ve been to Xi’an.  I’ve seen the Terracotta Warriors.  And while a lot is still under excavation, it is something unreal.  That such an elaborate display was created in preparation for the death of one man shows the power he had.

The facts come rushing back into my mind as I look in the window.  And suddenly all I want to do is call Justine because she too can see past the commercialization of this trinket.  It was actually Justine’s idea that we make the trek to Xi’an in the first place and so I have her to thank for this moment of triumph.   

It’s something small, something silly but something that made me realize why traveling is valuable.  Why it isn’t a waste of time but an investment.  Why we don’t understand the places we’ve not been.  And thus the world never really fully understands itself. 

No one likes a houseguest who stays too long. 

I’ve just come back from visiting my Babcia in Warsaw.

So far I have not been intrusive. 

I was with my aunt’s family for just several days before I left to see my Babcia.  I stayed with Babcia just over a week.  I’m now back here in Poznan with my aunt for up to two weeks.  But is two weeks too much?

Come end of July/beginning of August I have plans to see my friend Laura in Wales.  The tricky part is also catching up with a S. African friend who will be in London and then France starting on the 19th of July through early August.

I realize of course that the options for travel I have are amazing. 

Part of me, however, feels that it’s time to get serious. 

Once finished in Europe, I am to go to Thailand to attend a workout camp in Bagnkok.  I need to get in shape and stay in shape, not via exercise alone but also a healthy diet. 

I plan to stay approx. 2 months or longer if necessary.  The sessions are in the mornings and evenings so I will have plenty of time during the day when I can study for my American Council on Exercise Exam that will allow me to work in the field of exercise as an instructor. 

I like helping people and have decided this is the way I want to do it.  And if it works out, I’d love to be a travel writer. 

You can probably hand pick the few blogs I’ve actually reworked because a lot of these are rushed and anything but eloquent.  You could say that for the most part they suck. 

For me travel isn’t just for my enjoyment.  I should be writing about it to share with those who cannot be where I’ve been or experience what I’ve experienced. 

Through travel I have learned so much and I can share that knowledge. 

I feel that I’m far behind on my writing and this burdens me. Laives, Tournus, Lyon, Paris, Poznan, Warsaw, Krakow, Auschwitz.   And then there’s China but luckily most of that had been hand written and just waiting to be typed up. 

Hopefully I will have time to catch up here in Poznan during the day when my family is at work.

Thanks for listening.

Auschwitz is one place post cards just don’t apply.

“Hey guys, Having a great time!  Wish you were Here.”

You want to share the fact that you’ve been there.  That you’ve seen it. 

That people were literally slaughtered.  That you saw their glasses, their shoes, their suitcases and their hair. 

That you’ve seen the creamatorium ovens. 

But it’s one of those things that you just don’t throw out there in conversation.

Everyone knows the story.  But you think, do they really know? 

And then you realize it’s not something that can be told. 

Not in the traditional sense.  Not in the ways we’ve already heard.

Text books can only go so far. 

Yesterday I stepped off the page and onto the grounds. 

Auschwitz isn’t just another museum or memorial.  It’s a complex story- a story of history – a story of truth and a story of pain.  A story of beginnings and endings so vast you could never hear the half of them.  Yet they all come together so that none are forgotten.

This particular story begins with a bright-eyed little girl who lived with her mother, father and younger brother in Warsaw, the capital of Poland.  At the tender age of 7, Hanna loved to wear big bows in her blonde hair.  She still has the pictures. Unfortunately Hanna’s bright eyes would lose their sparkle all too soon.

Hanna’s father was a “threat” to the Nazi regime according to Hitler’s ideology.  As an intellectual, an engineer specifically, he was placed on a list prior to the war in 1939.  After having gone into hiding in a village outside Warsaw with Hanna’s grandparents, he came back to Warsaw and hid just a few streets away from his dear family. 

Hanna’s father was working on getting a new identity: a new name, a new occupation, a new life.  One morning when he was returning from a secret meeting to discuss his papers, the Nazis seized him right there in the street and brought him to Auschwitz.  He was among the first deportation of Poles from Warsaw – the 12th deportation total to Auschwitz from all locations at that time during the war. 

The iron fist of Hitler’s regime had no mercy. 

Hanna’s father was just one of millions yet to this day he stands as a reminder.  He may never have seen Hanna grow up but his great grandchildren know his story well. 

Like my brother last summer, tomorrow I too will go to see the graveyard of my family.  My visit is not merely rememberance but emersement, so that I may begin to comprehend the words of my Babcia Hanna.

July 9, 2010

I got into Krakow today and will be here for the weekend.  Exploring the square and whatnot today and then heading to Auschwitz tomorrow followed by a visit to Wawel Castle on Sunday before taking the 5 pm train back to Warsaw.  Word.

Explored for 6 or 7 hours… good stuff.  Especially enjoyed a punch and judy type of show done by two guys in a box.  It was frickin hilarious. 

Must get some sleep…

Where my mama grew up.