Irish Come-Hither

Beautiful Prague

15 minutes after arriving to Dublin, a random girl gave me a kiss and asked me to take her home. I heard the Irish were friendly, but evidently the extent to which was vastly understated! More on this tale to follow ...

My path in Europe has been, Iceland -> Belgium -> Czech Republic -> Poland -> Ireland -> Germany -> Austria (upcoming)

I've just landed in Munich, and it is my first time to Germany. Ryan joins me tomorrow and we are going to zoom down the autobahn to Austria for a week of hiking the Austrian Alps. Given our history, this will degrade into lounging next to nice views, but we hope to get some miles in before the torpor takes complete hold :)

After Iceland (previous post), I went to Belgium and was able to see Jill (a New Zealand camping friend). Jill only had a few minutes to visit because she was in between dates on a reality Belgium dating show. She had just finished date 2 of 4, and we met for drinks and she told tales of the filming earlier that day. Jill could have been making it all up to avoid traveling with me, but if so, hats off to her creativity :)

In Belgium, I went to Antwerp, Ghent, and Brugge. Most people know of Brugge's charm, which is justified, but I like Ghent a bit more since it was not an exclusively tourist town, and, for better or worse, you could go dancing until the break of dawn there.

Hiking Ireland's Cliffs of Moher

In Brugge I met two rugby players from the New Zealand Navy and we had some pints together. Thankfully, I'm old enough not to try and keep up with guys that fly at their altitude, and I went to sleep when they charged out into the darkness for a 'night-cap'. The next time I saw them they looked like road-kill. Both of them had no memories of the evening after our departure. One woke up in the bushes near our hotel at 10am and told me when he made it inside that "I'm pretty sure I was stabbed last night, I think I need to go to the hospital." The other kiwi helped clean up his wounds and they both survived ... good times :)

Prague's Beer Museum

Next, I flew to Prague. The hotel I had a reservation at was a dud, they had no reception to let me in, and after sitting on the curb for a few hours I checked into nearby hostel (hoping not to sleep in the bushes like a kiwi :) I met some wonderful young peeps at the hostel and it was fun reminiscing what it was like to travel at their age and to get the perspective of the next generation.

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities on the planet. I walked around it for days soaking in its countless charms. Consider putting it at the top of your next city to visit. As an added bonus, they invented the modern beer in Pilsn (where we get the term pilsner), and every place serves amazingly crisp and delicious beers on tap. Furthermore, you are encouraged to take a roadie with you at all times, so you don't have to face the horror of being beer-less on your commute. In addition, the Czechs are serious dog lovers. As I enjoyed a beer in the subway, I loved that every third person had a dog with them (dogs travel toll free on the transit system). This is what I consider a highly civilized culture!

Krakow Engagement Party

Next I took a train and bus to Krakow, Poland. The AC did not work on the train, in the middle of a heatwave noless, and I damn near melted on the trip. Krakow is the former capital of Poland, and strolling around the medieval fort felt like you were a player in a real life mario brothers game set in an ancient castle. From Krakow, I visited Auschwitz (which I discussed in a previous post).

I had planned on going to Hungary next, but it was difficult/expensive to plan the trip punching over the Slovakian mountains, so I jumped on a $50 flight to Ireland I saw as a last second Ryanair special.

Clifden Countryside B&B

Part of the reason the flight from Poland to Dublin was soooo cheap is that it landed at 12:30am. After dropping my bag at my hotel, I walked over around 10 people passed out in the streets to a pub on the adjacent corner. The first pub I first tried to go in was called Whelans which was featured in a movie called P.S. I Love You (that I have never seen). It was packed full of very young partiers, so I opted for the sleepy-old-man-pub next door.

And here is where the story rejoins with the first paragraph of this post ... Seconds after walking into my first irish pub, a tiny woman in her early 30s was jumping up and down trying to get someones attention. I figured it could not have been me, but as she continued waving and staggering forward, evidently i found i was her intended target after all. She said to me "are you American?", i said "yes". She told me i had to walk back with her, meet her friends, and settle a beer bet. After meeting the friendly lot, the girl told her friend, that i was an american, because "only an idiot would wear shorts and camping boots out at night." It was at this time that i realized that i did not "freshen up" after my red eye, and i looked very out of place. The girl then sat on my lap, gave me a kiss, and asked me to take her home. Seconds later she nearly passed out mid sentence and her friend helped her to her apartment. 15 minutes into the country and the Irish were now my favorite people, they can't pronounce an "h" if their lives depended on it, but they can make a stranger feel at home like no other people can :)

Killarney B&B Breakfast

In ireland i visited dublin, galway, clifden, doolin, moher, and killarney. The weather was rotten, but spirits were high. I did some walking, running, and cycling. My favorite outdoor activity was hiking the cliffs of moher during gale force winds (fun fact, this was the same weather that closed down the british open on the next island over). At one point my glasses were blown off my face and shot up 30 feet in the air, i dropped to all fours to try an avoid joining my 5 dollar glasses to their icy doom - however, luck was on my side and a guy grabbed my glasses some 50 feet down the path as they teetered over the lofty ledge .... it was a festivus miracle!

Some towns in Ireland are quaint beyond reason. For instance, in the town of Clifden, when I went to rent a bike, I was told that I had to return after 3, because the cycle store owner was also the town undertaker, and he would not be back until the funeral was done. I have never heard that at an REI before :)

I want to thank you all for the warm wishes I received on my birthday. I was on a pub crawl in dublin then, wishing you could all be there in person, but happy that you joined me in spirit.

Looking forward to seeing you soon, Tony

PS, all details in this post are 100% true, even though the Irish repeatedly told me "to never let the truth get in the way of a good story" :)

Auschwitz, 2015

This post is about my recent visit to the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp. Reader discretion is advised.

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I'm writing from Krakow, Poland. I went here to see the historic former capital and to pay my respects at Auschwitz (which is around 45 miles from Krakow).

Auschwitz is a place that we all know of through movies, but seeing it in person was still shocking. The concentration camp was preserved essentially unchanged since it became a museum in 1947 - two years after the Red Army recaptured Poland from Nazi Germany. Some buildings that were formerly used for administration are now filled with photos, artifacts, and displays. The other buildings, and the endless electrical fences that surround each building, were left in their original condition.

I had no idea how large the facility was. The grounds are approximately 15 square miles and imprisoned more than 100,000 slave laborers at any given time. In total, approximately 1.5 million people were slaughtered at this facility alone.

You can only enter the concentration camp facilities as part of a guided tour. The tour begins in a room that is filled from floor to ceiling with footwear, primarily children's shoes, that were pulled from people who were murdered at the facility. You could not hear a single person, other than the guide, speak at the camp. Most people stared blankly or cried from this moment forward.

Walking through the gas chambers and adjacent crematoriums, that were run non-stop throughout the genocide, was heartbreaking. Subsequent aspects of the tour were no easier to manage.

It is estimated that the holocaust resulted in the extermination of over 11 million people, and the death of 2 of every 3 European Jews, within a 5 year period. Further estimates suggest that over 100,000 to 500,000 were direct participants in the planning and execution of the Holocaust.

Neither the tour guides nor the plaques editorialized or contextualized. Special efforts were taken to only refer to the perpetrators as Nazis and not by country of origin. You were led around the facility and told what happened as cold, but extremely unpleasant, facts.

North American atrocities, such as the near-eradication of native peoples and slavery, were before the advent of cameras, but actions in Auschwitz are captured by photo and film. Note that much of the film you have seen shot indoors at newly liberated concentration camps was staged several months later by former prisoners. It turns out that initial camera crews did not have the ability to film indoors because there was not enough light. Actual human conditions at the time of liberation were (unbelievably) far worse.

The only picture I'm posting from this trip is a plaque near the gas chambers pleading humanity for vigilance to avoid repeating the horrors that occurred here.

I have no profound distillation of the experience to share. Walking through such a place just left me dumbstruck and crushed.

I can not comprehend how the region and peoples moved forward after this gruesome chapter of humanity. However, at the conclusion of this trip, while wandering the ghetto near Schindler's Krakow factory, I happened across a tiny alley where a scene from the movie that bears his name was filmed. Instead of a child running for her life at the hands of a Nazi youth she knew from school, I saw a young couple deeply in love and posing for wedding photos. People around the couple were cheering, families were laughing, and a place of former horror was once again a neighborhood full of potential and love.