In front of the Reichstag

The two of us ended up taking the train from Warsaw to Berlin.  At about 5.5 hours, it’s kind of a long ride, but if you’re prepared with something good to read and a snack or two, it’s not bad at all.

This was the first time in Berlin for all three of us, so over breakfast on Saturday, we discussed and decided on taking an official tour.  Segways were our first choice, but those tours aren’t offered until March, so we went with our other option – our own two feet.  Within minutes of deciding to take the all-day walking tour, we were walking down the street with our group.

I typically avoid tours because they seem to either move too fast or too slow, and have too many people.  That and I usually prefer to just wander around on my own.  I enjoyed this tour though.  Our group was small enough to have it feel personal, but large enough that I could hang back for a few pictures without anyone noticing I was missing.  And our guide, a fellow American named Preston, was funny and interesting.

The weather this weekend has been dreary, with temperatures hovering right around freezing and intermittent rain/sleet/snow.  The guys did not last long in these conditions, but I was enjoying the tour too much to leave.  We ended up walking around for about 6.5 hours, and saw just about every main point of interest in the city.

colorful cars inside the Berlin Museum

Supreme Parish & Collegiate Church - the fanciest Lutheran church in all of the lands.

the Neue Wache Memorial

After the tour, I headed back to the hotel to repose for a bit.  Reposing turned into napping, and soon it was time for our 2100 dinner reservations.

We enjoyed an interesting meal together, and by 2345, we were headed back to our hotels after abandoning plans of going out in favor of sleep.

Our cousin had an early flight, so The Husband and I spent Sunday morning and afternoon wandering around the city.  We hit Berlin’s version of souk el Hdd where we even had some mint tea and I met a French-Moroccan man selling tagines, and later hunted down the perfect brunch place.  We rounded out our pre-train afternoon by speeding walking through the Tiergarten.

Walking through the Sunday morning flea market.

Mein Frühstück: Bio-Spiegeleier mit Toast und Salat.

Berlin's Victory Column

We were back home in Warsaw by 2100, and best of all, I didn’t have to set foot on a plane.  I definitely enjoyed the weekend, and I’d like to go back to Berlin.

graffiti on the streets of Warsaw

For as long as I can remember, I have been blessed with vivid, frequently occurring dreams.  I almost always wake up with a dream fresh in my memory, and quite often, I will tell/email individuals who have been appearing in my dreams just to let them know I’ve been thinking about them, in a way.

Although not all of my dreams feature language, the great majority that do have verbal communication occur in English, my native language.  I can also recall a number of dreams that either included Spanish, or where everything was in Spanish.  And while I was living in Morocco, I definitely had at least a few dreams featuring the use of Moroccan Arabic.

To date, I have had no dreams (that I remember, anyway) including the use of the Polish language.  And while I’m typically not one to sit and analyze my dreams, I do have to wonder if this is because learning Polish is so difficult.

What about you?  What languages do you dream in?

our neighbor's door: + k + m + b 2011

It caught my eye because on it, someone had chalked some letters and numbers, and until yesterday, I had not realized what they meant.  I have seen writing on doors before, most notably in pictures of post-Katrina New Orleans, but did not think the markings would have some sort of religious meaning.

According to my good friends at Wikipedia, the letters stand for the first initials of the names of the three wise men (in Polish, of course), and some Christians will write this on their door, with chalk that has been blessed, as a way of blessing their home for the year.  The holiday is celebrated because, for Christians, it marks the day that either the three wise men visited Bethlehem, or the day Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan, and it also kicks off the beginning of the Carnival period that falls before Lent.

As of last year, Three Kings Day is a public holiday in Poland (and had been before it was canceled under Communist rule), which meant that neither The Husband nor I had to go to work today.  Rather than spending the day watching the parade, wearing paper crowns, or eating special cake with a coin baked inside, we went for a long walk and happened upon an Israeli café, where we had coffee and shared a plate of hummus.

In addition to making sure that our life would fit into four 23kg footlockers, we also had to make sure our cats had all of the necessary paperwork completed so they could come along on our yearlong adventure in Poland.

We’re lucky in that our veterinary office in Chicago is experienced in preparing animals for international travel.  Prior to making appointments for Mook and Ninja, I emailed them to see if they had any extra information for me.  I had done my research too, making sure that our airline, Lot, allowed cats to travel in the passenger cabin, and finding out what forms needed to be endorsed by the USDA veterinary office in Des Plaines, Illinois.  Requirements in Poland are a little more strict than in Morocco, and although I worried about this before we traveled, everything played out smoothly.. I don’t even remember the cats squawking much on the flight over.

Each cat required rabies vaccinations (which they were due for anyway) as well as a physical exam to make sure they were healthy enough for travel/entrance to Poland ($134 total).   Lot Polish Airlines also requires the bilingual English/Polish EU998 form, which we had our vet sign as well.  We then had to take the signed forms from our vet and bring them to our nearest USDA vet office, which is in Des Plaines, IL, and have them endorse the forms ($74 total).

And lastly, because Lot is more organized than Royal Air Maroc, we could make reservations for our cats’ tickets ahead of time.  We still had to pay on our day of travel due to the airlines needing to look over paperwork before allowing the cats on board.. and again, unlike Royal Air Maroc, they did actually read the paperwork and made copies of it for their own records.  The cost for each cat to fly from Chicago to Warsaw was $150.

We were among the first to check in for our flight that afternoon, and because the women working the check-in desk were kind and thoughtful, they assigned The Husband and I to two aisle seats in the middle section of the plane, leaving an empty seat in between for the purposes of snuggling with our cats mid-flight.

At some point, likely before we left US airspace, we decided to take our cats out of their carriers (they were wearing collars and leashes) and tuck them into the blanket that I always travel with.  They promptly fell asleep and stayed this way for much of the flight.  While flight attendants and passengers alike noticed our cats, the only reactions we got this time were stares.  Some people looked curious, and some looked displeased.. but at least our cats were quiet and not kicking anyone’s seat, which is more than I can say for some of the other passengers on the flight.

On our transatlantic flight, we were fed twice.  We requested vegetarian meals and were served sandwiches of wheat bread, butter, cucumber and tomato for both dinner and breakfast, and each sandwich came with a candy bar.  The cats sadly were not served anything, but we always travel with water, some kibble and a few treats for them.

Upon landing, our “over-sized” foot lockers were unloaded to a separate space.. one that we did not know existed until after we asked about our luggage.  We stood at the regular baggage carousel for 45 minutes or so, wondering how they managed to lose each of our four bags.  Once we found our bags, we made our way to the customs desk.. only to find that they were already gone for the day.  Because the customs booth was empty, we did not interact with anyone in customs, and as a result, I cannot say whether or not customs on the Polish side had any questions or concerns regarding our cats.

Getting a taxi was easy, and 25 minutes later, we were moving into the apartment that we now call home.

Mook and Ninja are excellent at adapting to new environments and were settled into the new digs before their humans were.

A number of people have cautioned us about the severity of the winters here, and yet, a full eleven days into the official winter, I’m not completely understanding why.

Back in November, the fact that the sun was setting at 1530 bothered me a little, but I got used to it.  I rarely see the sun shining at all, but that is not too terribly different from winters in Chicago.  So far, the weather here has seemed more mild than that of the winters I have experienced back home.

Regularly, The Husband and I will be walking somewhere outside, and one of us will remark about how nice the day is or comment on the lack of wind.

I like lots of things about Poland, but I’ll save those for another post.  And I guess I’ll hold off on forming any real judgments until we get our first real snow.

Earlier in the week while on the tram, I had seen a parking lot being taken over by a large band shell, and I was excited to go check this out and see how NYE was celebrated in Poland.

At 2300, we hit the streets and walked the few blocks to the Plaza.  Our first two attempts to gain access to the Plaza were met with chainlink fences and members of the policja.

Encountering these roadblocks reminded me of New Year’s Eve 2009.  On 30 December, 2009, The Husband and I decided to throw the cats in the car and drive, from Chicago, to Manhattan, so we could experience New Year’s Eve in Times Square, and also surprise some friends of ours who happened to be visiting New York at the same time.  We found a great deal on a hotel room, and ended up having a lovely mini-vacation in the heart of Manhattan.  On New Year’s Eve, we wanted to check out the action at Times Square, but did not want to head out in the morning, secure a spot in the Square, and then wait there.. all.. day.. long.  So instead, we decided to try and get as close to the actual Square as possible without leaving the hotel before 2200 or so.  We criss-crossed the area a few times, and while we were able to catch glimpses of the giant ball being held in the air, we never made it to the actual Square.  At the stroke of midnight, we had given up and were riding back to our hotel on a bicycle rickshaw.  Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” seemed to be playing from everywhere, and as we made our way back, we were able to see a much wider swath of celebration; I’m glad we failed to take the Square.  Whenever I hear that song, I’m reminded of our NYE in Manhattan.

Maybe I underestimated the craziness that was Times Square on New Year’s Eve, but we did alright with Plac Konstytucji.    After two failed attempts at gaining access, the third street we walked down led us to gates with security personnel who gave a quick pat-down and then allowed us to join the crowds waiting for midnight.

I expected fireworks and freely-flowing alcohol, but I wasn’t expecting the group singalong or the number of families joyfully celebrating the arrival of 2012.  The extra cool part?  One of the panels provided song lyrics for the crowd to sing along with.  The song playing as the New Year began was something else I had not expected – Queen’s “We Are The Champions.”

Here’s to wishing you fame and fortune and everything that goes with it in 2012!

On Monday morning, my mom, The Husband, & I took the train from Warsaw to Kraków and settled in at the apartment we rented for three nights.  For a little less than $45 USD a night, we enjoyed a cute studio space with separate sleeping loft and a convenient location – a five-minute walk to the Main Square in Old Town and a ten-minute walk to the train station.  I would stay here again if I return to Kraków, and would recommend it to others seeking comfortable, yet inexpensive lodging close to the heart of Poland’s second largest city.  The owners were friendly and welcoming, even if there was a slight language barrier, and we were easily able to get checked in and then set off to have lunch and explore the city.

We spent a good deal of time walking around the Old Town area, including an entire afternoon spent in and around Wawel Castle.  Because it is winter, a number of exhibits were closed, but at least we got to see parts of it.  My favorite thing about visiting Wawel Castle was the fire-breathing dragon sculpture at the base of the Castle, near the Wisła River.

NB: a fragment of the Wawel Castle (as well as fragments from many other famous buildings) was placed in the exterior wall of Chicago’s Tribune Tower.

Here they are, listed in the order in which they were read:

1 – The Stand (Stephen King)

2 – John Barleycorn (Jack London)

3 – The Silence of Trees (Valya Dudycz Lupescu)

4 – Witness: Voices from the Holocaust (Joshua M. Greene & Shiva Kumar)

5 – Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer)

6 – Monster (Walter Dean Myers)

7 – Within Reach: My Everest Story (Mark Pfetzer & Jack Galvin)

8 – The Firm (John Grisham)

9 – The Last American Man (Elizabeth Gilbert)

10 – O Pioneers! (Willa Cather)

11 – Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)

12 – The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)

13 – The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire (Deepak Chopra)

14 – Julie of the Wolves (Jean Craighead George)

15 – Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (Art Spiegelman)

16 – Island of Blue Dolphins (Scott O’Dell)

17 – Homer’s Odyssey (Gwen Cooper)

18 – Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers (Filip Müller)

19 – Dewey: The Small-town Library Cat Who Touched the World (Vicki Myron)

20 – We Share Walls: Language, Land and Gender in Berber Morocco (Katherine Hoffman)

21 – The Zookeeper’s Wife (Diane Ackerman)

22 – The Rabbi’s Cat (Joann Sfar)

23 – Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)

24 – Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

25 – Thunderstruck (Erik Larson)

26 – The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

27 – Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)

28 – Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)

The majority of the books on this list came from the box of books I shipped to Morocco as part of my Embassy pouch mailing, and then donated them to my host university’s library.  A few others were lent to me by my friend CC, and a few others were sent to me by my mom.  The last three were read on my newest love, my Kindle Keyboard 3G.

I love reading, and I really enjoy the experience of holding a book in my hand and being able to feel and smell the variety that comes with paper books.  For someone who travels quite a bit though, and doesn’t always have access to a wide range of English books in person, having an e-reader is too convenient not to make the jump.

Today, we spent the afternoon walking around Warsaw’s Stare Miasto, or Old Town, checking out the Christmas market, enjoying a snack, and taking in the beautiful lights.

And tomorrow, we’re headed to Kraków for a few days!

We spent the bulk of our time in the capital city of Dhaka, and much of our time there was spent sitting in traffic.  Dhaka’s traffic is the absolute worst I have ever seen; I don’t know how people there deal with it on a daily basis.  To travel about 5 miles, it would take us an hour at least.  And the entire time, the drivers are honking their horns to tell you to go, to remind you they are there, or to communicate that they want to pass you.

Horrendous traffic aside, I enjoyed the act of getting around in Bangladesh.  Driving here is chaotic because no one seems to obey traffic rules, and the lanes on the road seem to be mere suggestions rather than anything drivers stay within.  Amazingly enough, I only saw two accidents during our eight days here, and each accident was no more than a bump, and involved only rickshaws (no motorized vehicles).