Hiking in the Hills .... Adrsprach Teplice Rocks

In the country - decided to mix it up and have some nature days rather than just focus on medieval cities. So headed from Prague northeast about 3 hours to a place called Adrspach Teplices Rock National Preservation area. I had come across in my voluminous reading = sounded interesting, with a bunch of sandstone rock formations and hiking trails snaking through them. Here is a pic from the little 2 car train that I took after a bus ride from Prague to give you a feel for the Czech countryside. It was a nice busride up = a few images to leave with you.... people gardening in their swimsuits (its been hot), a river running rust (must be volcanic soil like Kauia), a dozen people test driving shiny new red rider-mowers (that was a bit odd on a Friday afternoon !).

Here's a shot of the train that I rode = it rattles its way through town about 10 times a day. Also a pic of two cute kids on the train = the girl on the right was reading out loud to herself the whole trip. You can see how pretty the countryside it behind them. APOLOGIES for any weird letters - these Czech keyboards have letters moved around so sometimes I just plain don' t realize I picked the wrong key. What, me proofread?































Ah = scored some Goldens. This is the first evening I landed in town and ran into not one but TWO Goldens. You can see I just dropped all my stuff to love them up. Despite accusations that I qualify only as a dog aunt since what kind of dog mother would leave her baby for 4 months (you know who you are !!!) , I really miss my little man Atty , especially for morning cuddling in bed. Caroline, please give him an extra smooch today, okay?

I came without a hotel reservation but was able to do a walkup room at Hotel Skaly (Rock). For only 220 kc, which is about 11 US dollars (can't figure out how to get the dollar sign to work on this keyboard = arghhhhh). And now I know why..... its clean enough, just enough, and a small very spartan room. But the weird thing is even though there is a bar and restaurant on the first floor, they were closed last night, Saturday night. And so when I got back from dinner at 9:30 = the whole dang building was locked up. I think that there was one other guest there and we are locking and unlocking the front door like it was all ours. Bizarre. But the price was 1/6 what I paid in Prague so I am a happy camper.

Did a very long hike yesterday through the park. Its amazing - I will let the pictures speak for themselves for the most part. It was raining just as I was going in so some pics have a gray sky - things cleared up later in the day. That rain gave me a chance to sit under an umbrella and have a few cups of coffee = its really hard to score an American type of coffee here - they tend to be Turkish style like espresso or like cappacino.



George liked the view from the "Castle" - you had to hike up 300 stairs (the Czechs always tell you how many stairs there are ) to a place that had a real building on it 700 years ago. The pic on the right shows the rocks that I dubbed "Flapjacks".





Stopped for lunch halfway through the day. I'm getting more confident and comfortable navigating - so was able to go to a small grocer in the village and mimed my way to a salami and cheese sandwich. I had to laugh - the name of the salami was something like "tourista" and I am guessing because its the one that looks the safest and most recognizable to tourists. Nice view for lunch, eh? Until the lousy loud Germans came - I swear if its a group yelling at each other - either on a peaceful trail or in the Jewish cemetary - its either Germans or Italians.



Lots of climbers in the park especially as the weather went from rain to sun throughout the afternoon. Mark, I could so see you scoping out climbs here.

The pic below shows some of the MANY stairs and ladders that you have to crawl on to get between the two major areas of the parks. Most people come in light gym shoes or sandals and push baby strollers . If you want to traverse from one section of rocks (Teplice) to Adrsprach you have to cross through the Wolf's Valley = mostly flat but with some white knuckle steps and bridges and ladders and stairs = many with gnarly nails sticking up and missing boards. No Pain, no gain, or in this case, no stairs, no stunning views on the other side. Not many hikers here. This SO would not fly in a US park !!

The sideways pic (sorry, can't figure out how to rotate since the PCs don't have English PC descriptions) is of an area called Siberia since its a long narrow canyon that is cold all the time. Beautiful !!








The last picture below was at a point that I suspected I was lost = but wasn't. So I took a picture of the blue arrow since that was supposed to give me the confidence to know I was on the right trail. I had run into a group of Czech hikers and they were all turned around and didn't think they were on the part of the map that I kept pointing to. Hope that they made it out alive.

Making this an easy day = catching up on email and the blog , lunch and maybe a much shorter hike later today. Its light till 9 here so lots of time. I met a guy from the UK (Kevin) here who has just started a 6 month motorcycle tour of eastern europe, including all those places I am too intimidated to go to like Bulgaria and Macedonia. As far as we can tell, we are the only native English speakers here = so we have glommed on to each other and will have dinner later - mostly to jabber away in English. I suspect (do confirm) that my written English is deteriorating since I don't proofread much and I am not speaking English that much. Funny.

I've decided to skip the spa town in the CZ, Karlovy Vary, since it seems too touristy, albeit German and Russian tourists. Will head to Vienna tomorrow, Monday, May 28 and hope I can get a room !! After that, on to Budapest, with a potential stop in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Its supposedly a town caught between the old Communist ways and the new modern Western ways... its smack dab between the Vienna and Budapest so might drop by.

I Spy.... another person reading Rick Steves !!

Hello from Prague!


Arrived on a night train from Krakow early Monday morning. Had a sleeper room all to myself. It was a gas. Here's a pic of me looking out my room onto the station platform. When I got to the station, they were already boarding. Turns out two groovy women from San Francisco and Burlingame were on the same car - so we stood in the hallway and drank Czech beer for an hour. They were working their way up from Croatia and Budapest - so I got a few tips from them.

Had a minor heart attack on the train. We had a border crossing passport check from Poland to the Czech Republic at 1am. I got up at 2am to use the bathroom and realized I didn't have my purse - #^$&$^ !!! Got dressed and was running up and down the train car thinking to myself "whats the damage - lost my license but have my passport, lost my cash but have my ATM card and credit card". Was relieved to see that both ends of the sleeper car were chained for security so noone from the cheap seats could get into our car to use the WC. I figured I had left my purse there and when I knocked on the purser's door he had it - yippeeee! What a relief - made my start to Prague less than optimal but I rebounded quickly since its such a magical city.

Walked around the city Monday - avoiding the seriously touristy spots in favor of just getting the lay of the land. I had to laugh when I walked through the Old Square - I saw two people standing and reading the same Rick Steves Eastern Europe that I had in my backpack. Renee, I am afraid your copy is coming back as a threadbare version of itself. A few days later, I was sitting having a beer on the Old Town square with Joe Cantor (who I met at Auschwitz) and a family sat next to us. The man asked to look at my Rick Steve's book and then CLAIMED to live near him in Seattle. So, Rick, if you are reading this, please confirm John is a good neighbor - picture attached.

Went to the Little Quarter below the Castle and took the funiculator up to the top of Petrin Hill. There is a knockoff Eiffel Tower up there (as tall as the Eiffel Tower but has a head start by being on Petrin hill) that you can walk up. So 600 steps later I got some incredible views of the city. See the Charles bridge above - and all the tourist ants on it. This is a 700 year old bridge topped by statues. Its touristy but earns the praise - just beautiful and great views of both banks of the city. Here's a small band playing on the bridge with Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral in the background.

In the basement of the tower there was a museum dedicated to the memory of Jara Cimrman, the man voted most significant and inspirational by his countrymen. Too bad he never existed. He was the invention of some satirists in the 60s and has quite a following. Here are some highlights from the museum.

1. He trained his tortoise "Swift-footed" the tango

2. He was a nomadic dentist, frequenting train stations

3. Was present with his friend Zeppelin at the first flight of his airship - was heard to have said to his friend, "It won't turn out well".

Look him him up on the web if you want to laugh outloud - I did!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jara_Cimrman

Tuesday May 22 - Took the tram up to the Prague Castle area.

I think its the biggest castle in Europe. First stop was the cathedral. It only took 700 years to finish - wasn't done till the 1920s. Very beautiful modern stained glass windows, including one lovely one by modern artist and local boy made good, Alfons Mucha. King Wenseslas is buried here - he actually existed and helped to modernize the Czechs around 920 AD. I love the tombs in these Eastern European churches - they have an eastern (Byzantine? Cyrillic?) Russian influence - lots of gawdy gold and red to tart everything up. Here's a pic of the stained glass designed by Mucha - gorgeous. He was the leading Czech artist around 1900 - and was a major player in the Art Nouveau movement. He spent time being trained in Vienna and Munich before going to Paris and the US. I just went to his museum - very charming. There was a pic of Paul Gaugin in Mucha's studio playing the piano with no pants~! Mucha was most known for his posters of beautiful women and nature - you would recognize them - and can see them in the window below. He spent the latter half of his life devoted to Czech and Slav art after earning money in the first half of his career designing things like posters for Sarah Bernhardt plays in Paris around 1895, and ads for Moet. When the Czechoslovakia gained its independence from the Austro-Hungarian empire after WWI, he designed the new country's stamps and currency. In 1939, he was one of the first to be questioned by the Nazis and died shortly afterwards. Fascinating man.

The palace part is pretty limited but they did have an awfully big room in it - they actually had jousts inside. There is a room on the second floor that was being used by two Catholic agents of the Austrian Hapsburgs to run Protestant Czech republic. At one point, the Czechs got frustrated and threw these two out the window - they didn't die because they landed in a pigsty. It would be a funnier story if this incident hadn't started the 30 Years War.

Walked from the Castle area back over the Charles bridge - love that bridge. Its 700 years old and holding well. I think that they recently cleaned it up. Its jammed with tourists but amazingly charming, with music, artists, and all those statues lining it.

One word about Prague - feet. I have had more conversations about my feet with people, or have seen tourists sit down and talk about their feet, ad nauseum. WHY? These cobblestoned streets sound pretty and all - but when you walk on them all day its like you are hiking. This place has nothing on the Inca Trail that I did last year. In fact, I switched from walking sandals to light hiking shoes that I wore in Peru since I couldn't stand it anymore. Here are my sore and blistered feet next to a lovely continental breakfast prepared by my guest house hostess. I've seen three places that do Thai massage and foot massage and am seriously considering that today!

Meant to go on the tour of the jewish quarter today with Joe Cantor but the guide never showed up - so we made do by sitting in the hot square and drinking yummy cold Pilser Urquel. Will try again tomorrow. I did manage to do my laundry at a laundrymat for the first time in 2 weeks - yikes! It was a spendy option to doing handwash in the sink but I will treat myself every few weeks. This laundrymat claims to be the first to have internet connectivity - so I made good use of it.

This shot to the needs a quick explanation. We were sitting on the old square when this woman walked by. Had high heels on - crazy to walk on cobblestones with them. And was wearing a super short skirt that looked like someone had gone after it with a pair of scissors. And she was pushing a baby carriage. A group of us looked at each other as if to say, "you see that?" - and I got a quick pic.

Went on a tour of the Jewish Quarter today. This is one of the oldest jewish areas in Europe since Prague was at a crossroads for trading about 1200 - and the Czech king invited the Jews here to act as intermediaries who could handle money. When the Nazis invaded in 1939, they left the quarter intact = but for despicable reasons. Hitler planned a museum dedicated to the extinct Jewish race, to be located in Prague = so he let the Jewish community in Prague and Czechoslovakia alone to collect and document Jewish history = as other Jewish communities were being wiped out. Eventually the Nazis cleared out Pragues 70,000 Jews to extermination camps like Auschwitz. Only 12,000 survived the war.

On the tour, had a flashback to the book "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ". The story features two young men who partner on a comic book venture. One of the men escapes the Germans in Prague by hiding in a casket leaving Prague with a Golem in it. All very mystical. The origin of the golem myth is that a Rabbi Leon had special powers = and in fact, he started the Kaballa sect (to which I am sure Madonna is still grateful). He created a man made out of clay (note the tie to the book title) to help the Jews in their chores. Unfortunately, the Golem got out of control and to be destroyed = and was caught by the rabbi on the roof of the OldNew synagogue, the oldest one in Europe.

One last word about the history of Prague. On the surface, its easy to think that Prague with its 600 spires and castle and bridges and those damned cobblestoned streets is cute and endearing. However, the Czech Republic has been at the center of so many events in Europe, being centrally located. I stayed on Wenseslas square, which is a 4 block long boulevard in the "New Quarter " = around 1500. This square was the scene of riots in the spring of 1969 as the Czechs tried to push out the Communists that had ruled since 1948. Two college age students named Jan set themselves on fire in protest steps from my pension door, and died. There are two monuments to them here. In 1989, this square had 200,000 people again pushing back on the Communists. The theory is that Michael Gorbechev could have sent in Eastern Bloc troops and tanks, as in 1969 , to crush the rebellion = but Tiannemann Square had just happened and he feared a repeat of backlash against Russia. The playwrite Vlaclav Havel was part of the group addressing the crowd = and he became the Czech Republics first President.

I leave Prague tomorrow and will attempt ( and I do not use that phase lightly ) to get to a place called Adrspach Teplice = a national preservation area with unusual rock formations. The pics looks like the hoodoos of Zion National Park = and I hope to get some hiking in.

Zamosc Poland

Zamosc is a town of 65,000 people in Southeast Poland. My Grandmother Sophia Bartnik Ferenc was born there about 1898 and immigrated to Canada just after WWI. It took me a 7 hour bus ride to get there which was pretty funny since I got on the bus not knowing when were supposed to arrive in Zamosc. And with no map outside of a Poland level map in Lonely Planet. I was tracking the sunset to make sure I wasn't heading the wrong way.

Thought I would go out on a limb and show up without a hotel reservation - living on the edge. Unfortunately, the edge was sharp and the Lonely Planet was off in both pricing and availability on weekends. Thank goodness a very kind taxi driver who spoke not a word of English hung in there and got me into a cheesy motel 2 km from the town square. It was kinda fun -forced me to walk to the town square the next day so I got to getup close to the real everyday Poland rather than just the.... MAGNIFICENT TOWN SQUARE. The Polish Chancellor, Jan Zamosky, founded Zamosc in 1580 as a last defense from against them there Tartars. He engaged an Italian civic architect from Padua - and the results are amazing - Italianate Renassaince architecture in eastern Poland.

Here are some pics of the square. The little girls were adorable - they kept talking on the lip of a garden set in the square - and spontaneously hugged at one point.The guy in the first picture was wearing a Chicago Bears Shirt - but was Polish, not American. Must have relatives off Milkwaukee Ave.

Had dinner at a nice restaurant on the square when I saw that a concert was going to happen - thought it would be an classical orchestra so grabbed a table. Heard Mozart Mozart etc in the intro - but no Mozart! But a lovely Polish couple joined me at the table and I ended up chatting up the wife. Actually, she ended up chatting with me with quite good English. For my part, there was alot of miming in Polish - Jean K would be proud of me. When I asked to take a pic and whipped out George,she started laughing and saying Hospital Hospital. Not sure if that was a reference to ER or that George left her weak in the knees.

This trip reminded me that every city is a small town. Here are some observations:

1. Full employment - cities or states think of creative ways to make jobs. In Oregon, you can't pump your own gas. In Poland, you have to pay a sometimes cranky polish man or woman who sits in or outside the toilet (who wouldn't be cranky!) 30 cents to use the facilities.

2. Young lovers love parks - especially in towns with cramped parental apartments. Lots of young couples in the park (the Planty) that surrounds the old town.

3. Chicago sports team have world mindshare! Besides seeing this gent in Zamosc with a Bears shirt, I have seen a kid in Tanzania with a Bulls hat (remember Monique, Scott and Dad?

Sorry for the hack job tonight - gotta run to catch a night train to Prague. I reserved a sleeper car - which means I might share with 2 other women. I have no idea what I am getting into - can I keep my rolling bag with me? Is there a bathroom in the car or a shared one with the whole car (yuck!). Do I sleep in jammies? Does the door lock? All I know is I am sleeping with my money belt on!

Later gators!

Fancy Schmancy Pierogis

Today, I had to gear up for what I thought would be quite an emotional day - visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau about 50 miles west of Krakow. On the way there in a mini-bus (7 zloties, $2 ) I listened to Barber's Adagio on my iPod. My sister Karla gave me the CD years ago and described it as sad music - so I think of it as Sad Music now. You would recognize it as the music playing in Platoon when Willem Defoe is left behind as the helicopter takes off without him and the Vietkong are closing in. The ride there was beautiful countryside - lots of little towns. Some of the older houses (almost log cabins) had blue stripes painted on them. This is an old custom that when girls became of age to marry, the dads painted the houses with blue stripes and the single boys would flock! (Note to myself: Paint blue stripes on the house when I get back)

The first part of Auschwitz was an existing Polish army barracks converted to a concentration camp. I don't want to go into detail of the camp except to say its been preserved in a way that is amazing and harsh and real and hopefully a stark lesson for us all. The picture to the right is from Birkenau - showing one of the crematorium that the Nazi's destroyed as the Russians approached. If you zoom in, you can see the hundreds of chimneys from individual wooden shacks that were taken apart for the wood after the war. Other impressions - I get the feeling the Steven Spielberg spent alot of time here - there is a wallcase full of shoes that are very muted in color except for the faded red shoes - it really reminded me of the scenes with the little girl in the reddish/pink coat standing out in the black and white film Schindler's List (filmed in Krakow at the actual sites). Also, hearthbreaking was a case full of hundreds of prosectic limbs, and of course, baby clothes and toys. On the bus ride home, I listened to Django Reinhart, a French Gypsy guitairst from the 40s that Atticus is named after (as well as Mr. Cole Django Evers), in honor of the Gypsies killed at the camp.

I was lucky enough to befriend two kind gentlemen on the tour and we spent the rest of the day together. It was nice indeed to have company walking around Krakow and having dinner with them after seeing the camps that day. Their names were Joe (Washington DC) and Sylwester (Dansk). See Joe showing off the receipt for the pierogi dinner for the 3 of us that he spotted - 32 zloties, or about $10 - for the 3 of us. Joe's a big spender!!! Sylwester latched onto my Fancy Nancy blog name since he really loves the phrase fancy schmancy - so we over-used the phrase as often as possible - especially about the pierogis (though none of them had the image of the Virgin Mary, Jean, like the one that sold on eBay recently - Dang!). Pls pardon Joe being on his side - the day wore him out. Joe likes to say that he will always remember running out of Auschwitz with me... in fact, we were running to catch the bus back to Krakow = but it also felt right to get the hell out of there. A bit of trivia on Joe = he just retired from working at the Library of Congress - and in the late 90s, he had occasion to hang up on Vice President Gore not once, but twice.

I finished the day by going to a Chopin piano recital in an old hall with 12 foot wood-beamed ceilings off the main square. It took me awhile to stop thinking about how I was having trouble finding a room in Prague next Monday..... but I eventually got into the music. His music evokes the image of a Jane Austen heroine sitting at a window on a rainy English day, waiting for her proud but elusive man to show up. I am reading Austen's Persuasion this week so its very much on my mind. One song especially made me cry - its a famous , schmaltzy dramatic number (I think Liberace used to play it) that I remember we had on vinyl and yet again, I found myself crying over my Mom and her love of all things unsubtle and Polish (Mom died in January of 2006).

Travels with George

When I decided to do this extended trip, I felt like I needed a theme to hang my adventures together. I was out to dinner with Kirsten Smith talking about my dilemma - when it hit us! Are you familiar with the concept of a Flat Stanley? Its a cartoon drawing of a man named Stanley that gradeschool kids sent to farflung relatives and friends - with the expectation that these folks will have many adventures with Stanley and then send pictures, postcards, etc back to the kids so that they can all share their Stanleys' stories - and learn about geography.

Well, I have a flat friend, too, but his name ain't Stanley. Meet George. George Clooney. Man of the world that he is, George is accompanying me on this journey - and will be my in for a connection and laugh around the world.

I test drove George in Washington DC 2 weeks ago - and he was a hit. George loves politicians. So see George and I with Representative Jerry McNearney, our House rep from the Fighting California 11th district. Jerry was kind enough to pose with us as we crossed from the Canon building to the Capital to watch a debate on adding gay/transgender categories to the Federal Hate Crimes Bill.

Here is George with my friend Karin and her niece, Sophie - we had just had a great pub meal near Karin's house in Marlow, UK, the night before I flew to Poland. I love Sophie's look - coquetish!

Why do these people all look like family?

I've been in Krakow for a few days now. Its a lovely city - was previously the capital of Poland and acts that way spiritually still. Its the hometown of John Paul II and , boy , do they like the guy.

Had a nervous flight in on Ryanair. It's a cheaper intra-European airline - but at the expense of convenience. I had to bus it to Stansted airport south of London to save $200 on a one -way to Krakow. That was great until I was re-reading Rick Steve's Eastern Europe for the gazillionth time on the plane and he mentions that companies like Ryanair sometimes fly into an airport 50 miles west of Krakow. %@(*#$#@(^&. I was sweating bullets until I saw John Paul II Airport in neon on the tarmac - we were only 10 miles outside of Krakow - whew!

Here is the main square in Krakow - one of the largest in Europe. And those are nuns walking by - don't see them everyday!

Have spent the last few days wondering the royal castle grounds and the many many Catholic churches (Poland is 97% Catholic). The churches are quite beautiful . At St Francis, the home church of JP2 in Krakow, the stained glass windows are modern - designed in the mid 1800's after the Austrians (I think, poor Poland has been run over by everybody within spitting distance) destroyed the originals. So the images are a whirl of colors and look like "The Kiss" (Klink?). The alter of St Mary's on the main square is a 20 foot by 30 foot 3D carved wooden image of Mary and the apostles - its quite moving. It was very cute up on Wawel Hill,site of the castle and cathedral - there were TONS of school-age kids in groups running around. It so reminded me of being in DC a few weeks ago and seeing the same type of groups on the mall. I love similarities like that - makes me feel like the world isn't all that big. Here's a shot of George and I in front of the national cathedral on Wawel Hill.

I am really struck by a few things. I see family and friends in so many people here - the round faces, intense eyes. My mother's parents both came from Poland so its been a treat to walk around knowing that I'm close (but not yet at) their birthplaces. I lit a candle for my mom, aunt and grandma at St Francis - my mom and her sister never got to see their mother's country. I've also been reminded of how Polish spoken by women sounds like Cantonese, or silverware dropping. Was trying to nap the other day with my window open to the McDonald's courtyard below and it felt like this woman was talking into my ear. But then I remembered the albums that my Mom would play at Christmas of Polish carols, and men and women talking and singing - and it sounded just as harsh then, but made my mother cry with memories of her father, especially.

This town reminds me of New Orleans - old buildings (though Krakow's got about 1000 years on NO), lots of tourists around. My first night I was at a guest house right on the main drag - and since it was really hot I kept my window open. Didn't sleep till 4am since people were talking and walking below my windows. Then the garbage men started cleaning up and the noise reminded me of an experience in Kenya that I had with my friends , the Evers. A small mammal named the Rock Hyrax, was cute as a button, but loud at night, we were warned. It turns out this petite relation to the elephant made a noise that Scott described as not unlike "women in prison " movie soundtrack, especially the sound of a metal cup being dragged back and forth on the bars. That hyrax and those garbagemen were just about as noisy at 4am.

Wandered the Jewish district a bit yesterday. Talk about surreal moments.... I was in the National Folk Museum looking at models of traditional Polish homes and realized that I recognized the music playing in the background. No kidding - it was "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting".

Here is a pic of what's called a Milk Bar. They are cafeteria style restaurants where you can get food reallllly cheap - a typical meal with a starter, main and drink is $5. I loved this place - it was decorated with Dutch still life prints - a contrast to the classic stark industrial milk bars from the communist area.