My Trip to Berlin - Part 4 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

Monday was a nice clear day, and not too cold. So I decided to head west, toward the Pariser Platz.  At the west end of Pariser Platz is the Brandenburg Gate, with the US Embassy on the south side, and The Kennedy's Museum and Starbucks (the other home of American's abroad) on the north side (among other things).

The Brandenburg Gate

Click the link below to see the rest of the images.  And click and image to see a larger version of it.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 3 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

Sunday dawned with mostly clear skies, if a bit cold.  So this was first real chance to try and do some "official" (in my mind) sight-seeing.  So I headed East from my hotel, starting with the Gendarmenmarkt, right across the street, which is the site of Der Französische Dom (The French Dome), Der Deutsche Dom, and the Konzerthaus Berlin.

See the rest of the pictures by clicking the link below, and don't forget to click on a picture if you want to see a bigger version.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 2 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

I arrived in Berlin late on Friday afternoon and it was overcast, rainy, and cold.  So after arriving at my hotel, I did a bit of wandering around in the immediate vicinity, looking for food and coffee (of course) and generally scouting the neighborhood around my hotel.  Saturday was also wet (as you can see from the picture below).  But since it was one of the days that shops were open, I did a lot of wandering into shopping complexes and such.

This is what the weather was like most of Friday and Saturday.

More pictures after the break, so click the link to see more and don't forget to click the actual picture if you want to see a bigger version.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 1 (7 pics)

Having maxed out the amount of vacation I could accrue (again), I decided to take Good Friday and the Tuesday after Easter Monday off as vacation days and take a trip to Berlin for the first time.  And after a bit of research, I also decided to take my first train trip ever (at least that I could remember) and skip dealing with hassles of the airport.  There is a regularly scheduled train that runs from Warsaw to Berlin, through Poznań, that would deposit me at the Berlin Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) slightly more than 2.5 hours after I left.  Poznań Głowny (the main train station here) is about a 35 minute walk from my apartment, or if I catch the tram, less than a 10 minute ride.

Knowing that much of the city would be closed down 3 of the 4.5 days I was there (Good Friday, Easter, and Easter Monday are all holidays in Berlin), and that the weather forecast was for rain and cold, I decided to at least get a nice hotel in case the weather was so horrible that walking around didn't make much.  Thanks to Google Maps and some research, I settled on the Sofitel Berlin.  If you are going to Berlin, I have to recommend it.  It's in walking distance to many of the major attractions, has comfortable beds by American standards (not the hard and thin mattresses you get in most European hotels), and it's on a relatively quiet street (Charlottenstrasse) so it's not too noisy.

I ended up with over 350 pictures taken during this trip with my smaller travel camera (due to the weather predictions I left the Nikon behind) and will post a few of the decent ones here in case you are interested.  First up, pictures mostly taken from the train (so excuse the reflections and dirt from the window) on both the way there and back.

First up is this picture of the Hauptbahnhoff taken the day I left (which was nice).

Click the link below to see more pictures.  And don't forget to click on the pictures to the see the larger sized versions.

Enjoy!

The Parish Church of the City of Poznań - Part 3 (3 pics)

Here are the final few images from my first visit to  "The Sanctuary of the Mother of God of Perpetual Succour".  I definitely intend to go back and try to get more, and better, pictures.  I decided to leave this batch on a "darker" note, but I actually really like the feel of these images.


As always, make sure you click the link to see the rest of the pictures below.  And don't forget, click the pictures to see the larger-sized images.

Enjoy!

The Parish Church of the City of Poznań - Part 2 (5 pics)

Here are the second part of the pictures from my visit  "The Sanctuary of the Mother of God of Perpetual Succour".  These are mostly images of some of the artistic details.  Unfortunately, due to the dim light and the fact that I didn't want try and bring a tripod in, many of my other shots weren't usable.

As always, make sure you click the link to see the rest of the pictures below.  And don't forget, click the pictures to see the larger-sized images.

Enjoy!

The Parish Church of the City of Poznań - Part 1 (5 pics)

I took this Friday (today) off and since it was such a nice day I decided to grab my Nikon and pay a visit to the Parish Church of the City of Poznań.  Officially known as "The Sanctuary of the Mother of God of Perpetual Succour", it is a "post-Jesuit" (don't know what that means) church dedicated to St. Stanisław, and it was built from 1651-1705.

It really is a staggeringly beautiful place, and my pictures don't even remotely do it justice.  It is in continual use, and on days like today is not lit up inside, so my pictures could have been better.  But out of respect for the worshipers who are coming in an out all day I didn't want to try and use a tripod or flash.

I did have the incredible luck that as I was there a children's choir came in and sang several songs (hymn's?) in what sounded like Latin.  The acoustics are incredible (as you would expect) and they were very talented.  It was an almost surreal experience, but I feel very lucky to have been there at just the right time.  I saw them elsewhere later and they seemed to be part of student group that was visiting Poznań, not regulars.

Anyway, I think I'll spread the pictures out over 3 days or so.  So make sure you click the link to see the rest of the pictures below and then check back tomorrow and Sunday.

Don't forget, click the pictures to see the larger-sized images.

Enjoy!

Polish Lessons: #1

I decided that since I'm struggling to learn Polish, you might as well struggle with me.  :)

Actually, I thought I'd post some of the interesting words or other things that get my attention as I try to learn even a bit of this language while I'm here.  So here is the first.
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Something that sisters throughout the English-speaking world will find highly appropriate is the fact that the Polish word for "brother" is "Brat".  :)

Beware the Bunnies!!! (3 pics)

Apparently the Easter Bunnies here in Poland are a particularly militaristic bunch.  Look at how they like to line up into such regimented groups!

And given that they show a marked preference for purple and white, the colors of the local "futball" club, they may also be a particularly dangerous type of futball "hooligan".  With some of the Euro 2012 matches coming soon to Poznań, the authorities may need to look into this group with some care.  ;)

A few pictures from Saturday's wander.... (7 pictures)

So the weather this Saturday was fairly nice.  The high was around 9C (~48F), it was sunny, and like a lot of other people I saw around Poznań I decided to go for a long walk (and explore more the city in my case).  I knew there was supposed to be a gym and a large park to the south of my apartment, in the Wilda district, so I headed that direction.

For once I am actually going to list street names so that if you want to pull up a Google map, you can sort of follow along.  And here's a very high-level overview as well.

To see the pictures and more info, click the link.

Almost 6 months now....

Wow, has time flown by.  I only realized late last week that I have been in Poland for almost 6 months now (March 15 will be 6 months exactly).  And things have gone largely as I thought they might.  My goal for the first 6 months was mostly just to settle in, feel comfortable with daily life, try and learn some Polish, and generally feel confident enough in my new environment to branch out more and try even more new things.

I haven't learned as much Polish as I hoped.  I'm just now getting to point where a few phrases and words are coming naturally.  And my vocabulary is not even close to what I hoped.  But I'm at least starting to feel like I'm making a bit of progress and not just drowning in a sea of new sounds and concepts.

I've slowly explored more the city than just the area between work and where I live, and am looking forward to  Spring and Summer when I should be able to get on my bike and explore even more of Poznań.  And as the weather warms up, I hope to finally begin travelling more in Europe.  There is still a lot to try and experience in Poznań, but I feel like I have a better idea of things that will appeal to me and where things are.  And again, to not be so overwhelmed with the differences and total lack of knowledge.

In general, the Poles that I met have been very nice and welcoming.  My co-workers are great.  And the few other expats I've bumped into have been nice to chat to.  I'm doing a bit more socializing, but my normal working hours (usually 11am or Noon to 7-8pm) do mean that I really don't do much during the week.

Among the few downsides so far:

• My winter allergies seem significantly worse here than they are in California.
• The selection of fruits and vegetables is a lot less than what you get in California.  It does make you realize how spoiled we are there with nearly year-round access to almost any fruit or vegetable you like.
• I have not been able to find a chiropractor anywhere near me that speaks English, so I haven't been to a chiropractor since I left.  The only chiropractor I have located is about 45-60 minutes away (by a combo of tram and bus) and when I called, no one spoke English.
• Living in an apartment has all the downsides I expected and remembered.  :)
• I haven't found a decent massage therapist yet either.

But honestly, all of those are relatively minor taken in the greater scheme of things.  So I can't really complain.  I just hope the rest of my stay continues to get even better.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Snow, snow, snow......

Well, it has warmed up (-1C today!!), some moisture arrived, and we have had snow for the last few days.  This afternoon we had a particularly heavy batch come through and I snapped this picture out my balcony door.

This was about 2pm, so it normally still be pretty bright out.  And that's not fog, that snow.  Lots and lots of big, flaky, soft snow.  If it persists tomorrow, I'm sure the kids will out with their sleds.

As always, you can click on the picture to see a larger version of it.  Have a great day!

A Nice Sunday Winter Walk (6 pictures)

So after last nights frustration over the neighbor's party (which did go to 2am), when I woke up this morning and realized that it had warmed up outside (it was only -7C, instead of the recent -17C, and it's amazing how big of a difference that really is), I decided it would be a great day to go for a walk.

I had heard about a large swimming pool complex that opened up back in October out near Malta lake and decided to go find that place and look into whether I would want to go swimming there sometime.  So I hopped onto jakdojade (http://poznan.jakdojade.pl/, it's a great web site) and figured out that if I hopped onto the #6 tram, I could ride it all the way out to the far end of the lake and then walk back home.

It was a nice walk and I grabbed a few pictures along the way.

Apparently, apartments can suck anywhere...

I had hoped that with more people (I'm guessing) living in apartments here in Poland, that maybe people would be a little more sensitive to issues such as noise and generally try to not be a major pain to the other people in their building.  But either was I completely wrong I just happened to be unlucky.

Ever since my new neighbors moved in just before Christmas (they own the apartment right across the hall from the one I am renting) I have had the unfortunate luck of having to listen to music blasting until after midnight on many weekends, and a party every other weekend or so where the music goes on until 2am usually.

It's basically everything I hated about apartments growing up.  Except that now I have no idea what the cultural norm is (for all I know, on Saturday's your expected to be able to be loud until 2am) and even if I was inclined to go complain, I don't speak enough Polish to communicate with either them or the folks at the security desk to see if their are rules about that sort of thing.

Maybe I should just buy a stereo system and every time I think they are getting too loud I could point the speakers at their wall can crank Metallica, Megadeath, W.A.S.P, and other heavy metal to hopefully get my point across.  It would certainly be different than the Adele and other pop and dance music I am otherwise bombarded with.

And yes, I know this whole rant makes me sound REAL old.  What can I say.  I'm turning into the crabby old man who lives next store to Beavis and Butthead.  =D

May your weekend be quieter, and more enjoyable, than mine.

Looking for my inner MacGyver

It's been a bit cold here in Poland (and Eastern Europe in general) lately, and I've been having an issue where my bedroom for some reason is much colder than the rest of my apartment.  So much so that I've had to start wearing socks to bed because even under my double-layer of blankets, my feet would freeze during the night.

So after a bit of investigation I came up with three possible factors.

First, there is an air vent in my bedroom closet that was letting a bunch of cold air in (no AC here, just natural ventilation via vents), so I shoved a plastic pillow-case bag up against it and used a box to hold it up.  I hoped that would block most of the cold air.  That helped a bit, but not nearly enough.

Second, the heating radiator in my bedroom is directly under the window (as I believe they should be).  Unfortunately, the window has a large stone lintel that runs completely under the window and sticks out several inches beyond the top of the radiator.  I noticed that the lintel was actually warm for the part above the radiator, but very cold just a few inches in, and guessed that the stone was absorbing a lot of the heat from the radiator.  So I went out to Praktiker (the hardware store) today on my day off looking for some reflective film my co-workers said I could find that people put against the wall behind their radiators to help reflect the heat back into the living space.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find that, and I couldn't find anyone who spoke English at the store.  So I dug out my inner MacGyver and came up with this:

If you can't tell, that is a car windscreen sun reflector that is wrapped around the stone lintel and down slightly behind the radiator.  And because I wasn't sure that would reflect the heat fully, or hold up to the heat of the radiator, I then added a long sheet of aluminum foil along the bottom of the lintel as well.

I have to hope it works, because the last option is that the radiator in my bedroom is not putting out as much heat as it should be which will mean calling my landlord to arrange to get a maintenance person out to see if it has air trapped in it (which reduces the hot water flow, which reduces the heat).  And if that doesn't work, the last option is to buy some painters tape and some clear plastic and just tape off the whole window, hoping to prevent any cold air from infiltrating.

But in the meantime, I also bought a small electric heater to help tide me over.  =)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!