A bonus day in Copenhagen

Several months ago Mike, Patty and I decided on a 12 day trip to Croatia.  I originally booked my flight on the now bankrupt Malev airlines. Obviously after the flight was cancelled, I had to re-book my ticket. As I searched through the re-booking options on Bravofly.com (where I originally booked it, and had to use the credit), all of the other options were really expensive and had strange layovers from Warsaw. So I decided to go with the flow. Rather than avoid the long layovers, I picked a layover in a city I'd never been to.  Lucky for me one of the tickets was half the price of the others. Even though it was in the completely wrong direction (flying north to fly south), that's how I came to spend 20 hours in Copenhagen.

Since I was only there for a short time, I needed to be efficient in how I saw the city. I emailed several people on Couch Surfing and asked friends about their recommendations and must-sees. Patty lived in Copenhagen for a few months so I asked her some of her thoughts. She likes food too, so I thought she'd be able to tell me some good stuff to eat (which you know is my top priority when traveling).

I also noticed that Copenhagen has Sandeman's free city tours. I did this one in Berlin and it was a great way to see the city, learn a bit of history, ask questions about what I'm looking at, and to possibly make friends along the way (but usually instead of making friends, you just have awkward conversations like "Where are you from? Oh I've never been there but I hear it's nice. I'm from the US.  Yes, originally from the US.  Yes, really, I'm American.  No, I'm not from China.  Anyway, will you take a picture of me?"). Since I had no other guide in Copenhagen, I thought it would be a good idea. Plus it was free and I love everything free. The tour was at 1pm and I landed at 11:30 so I had to hurry.

Copenhagen at dusk

Nyhavn

After landing, I rushed on the Metro towards the hostel. It was hard to figure out if I was buying a Metro ticket or a train ticket, since you buy them at the same machine and the platforms are next to each other. I still don't know if I did the right thing, but anyway, nobody checked. From the minute I left the airport to the minute I walked into the Danhostel Downtown it only took about 40 minutes (10 minutes trying to figure out the ticket machine, 15 on the Metro, 15 walking). I was able to get to the tour meeting spot just 70 minutes after LANDING, 20 minutes before the tour started.

On a side note, on the way back to the airport the next day, I didn't have enough local cash for the full distance to the airport (you pay by the number of zones you travel), so I only paid for part of the distance (I just put all my leftover coins in and got whatever it could buy). I figured nobody would be checking on the weekend and it was only a 15 minute ride.  Then, after just 2 stops, I saw him...the dreaded ticket checker man.  Everyone in Warsaw knows what he looks like.  Scary, usually a bit on the thick side, carrying a funny contraption that looks like a cross between a credit card machine and a phaser from Star Trek. He boarded the wagon very casually, trying not to be noticed (but he was in a uniform, with a walkie talkie and a ticket scanner, so it was quite obvious). When I saw start asking people for tickets, I actually thought about grabbing all my stuff and running off the train before the doors closed. But then I thought he might notice that I noticed him, and he might chase me, so I hesitated. I felt like a (really bad) secret spy from a James Bond movie trying to figure out how to keep my cover...should I make a run for it, or play it cool? Anyway, I was too slow to react and the doors closed before I could move (I guess I'm not spy material). He slowly made his way down towards me, and I started planning what excuses to make when he got to me and noticed my ticket didn't have enough fare on it. I thought about speaking Polish or Japanese to him, and pretending I didn't speak English. Surely he'd just let me go (if only I could actually speak Polish or Japanese...). When he finally got to me, I still didn't know what to do (but really, what was the worst that could happen?). He asked for the ticket, and I decided to just give it to him and see if he noticed.  But I couldn't find it! I searched all 12 of my pockets (darn cargo shorts) and in my backpack, but it wasn't there. This was even worse than saying "oh I didn't know how much fare to put on the ticket because your ticket machines are so confusing". By this time everyone on the train was looking at me, shaking their heads at the guy who they thought tried to ride the Metro without buying a ticket at all. "Shame on that guy". But I did buy a ticket, honest! Finally I found it (it's always in the last place you look), and handed it over.  The guy looked at it for exactly 0.003 seconds and continued to the next passenger!  So basically I could have shown him a used gum wrapper and it would have been fine. All that fuss was for nothing. And to think I almost blew my cover as a secret agent spy.

When I finally got to the city, I was hungry. I wandered around looking for one of these funny hot dogs Patty (and others) suggested I try. They call them "French" hot dogs for some reason. Maybe because they're weird, like the French (kidding). The wiener is shoved inside a hollowed out baguette, into which they also pour ketchup, mustard or other sauce. Yep, that's right...wiener + hole + sauce. Other countries also have these, but they seemed to be more popular in Copenhagen than other places.  Plus, you can get it bacon wrapped!

Say yes to bacon-wrapped!

The walking tour started from the Town Hall (every day at 11am and 1pm). Our guide was Rosie, an English girl who moved to CPH (that's how cool people write Copenhagen) to be with her Danish boyfriend. She was very informative and had a funny, dry sense of humor...you know, the English kind that most other people don't understand (yet somehow the English still think they're so funny). She made a lot of jokes that nobody laughed at, but knowing a bit about the English sense of humour (see how I spelled 'humor' there?), I was able to appreciate her jokes. I guess it pays off to have friends from the UK sometimes. Sometimes.

Speaking of Brits, there was a guy from Wales on the tour. He was alone so I thought I'd start an awkward conversation with him (you know, developing international relations). He was wearing a New York Yankees baseball hat (if you don't know who the Yankee ares, they are baseball's evil empire, and you should HATE them). I asked him "You like the Yankees?" Actually it was more of an accusation than a question. He looked back at me, very confused, like I had insulted him. "What do you mean? Do I like Americans?". Uhhh, no. You're wearing a Yankees hat. "Oh, is that what it is? I didn't know what this stood for and I don't know where I got it. I've never even been to New York". I'm glad he wasn't a Yankee fan, but it's crazy how the Yankee influence got all the way to a Welsh guy who doesn't even know what baseball is. That's why they can buy championships (the Yankees, not the Welsh). They have financial "supporters" who don't even know they exist. I really hate them (the Yankees, not the Welsh).

Ok, so back to Copenhagen. A few things about the city. Tivoli is an amusement park, built in 1843 (the second oldest in the world), located smack in the middle of the city.  It had a very significant influence on Walt Disney's ideas for Disneyland for a happy and relaxed environment (relaxed for the kids at least, I don't know how parents can be relaxed in there), where imagination runs wild. I didn't go in, but the one thing that confused me is that Tivoli is pronounced "tee-oooh-lee" (according to our English Rosie). How does that happen? And speaking of the Danish language, how do you pronounce this word: smørrebrød. It's a open faced sandwich that is very Danish as well (and very tasty), but really, how do you pronounce those funny symbols? In elementary school, I was taught that circles with diagonal slashes through them are zeroes (to differentiate them from "O"). How do you say a word when there are 2 zeroes in it? Are the zeroes silent? Do they soften the other letters?

Smørrebrød: I can't say it, but I can eat it!

And another thing about Danish food I didn't figure out. We call Danish pastries "danishes" in the US. But I wonder what they call them in Denmark. Just "pastry"? And when you ask for a Danish, do they bring you a person? When I thought about that the first time, it had been after a few beers, and it was funny. Now, it's not really that funny.

The tour took us around most of the city, on the harbor, and into Nyhavn, one of the most picturesque places I've seen. Two girls from the tour were sitting in a great spot for a picture so I offered to take one of them, hoping they'd offer to take one for me afterwards. Instead, they looked at the picture, said "Wow it's like a postcard" then ran away from me. As my tour group was leaving me behind, I looked for someone else to take a picture of me...but another random couple asked me to take a picture of them too. It sucks being a Japanese tourist with so many great camera skills.

Finally got someone to take a picture of me

One attraction the tour missed was the Copehnagen mermaid, so I took a water taxi to visit her by myself (she says hello, by the way). I also walked down to Christiania, a hippy squatter town that used to be a military barracks. After it was abandoned by the military, people moved into the buildings in the early 70s, and now its a little "self governed" community. Everything is very "free" and they have a Green Light District, where the streets are lined with "souvenir stands" that openly sell marijuana. Instead of picking a magnet or key chain, you pick the type of pot you want, from a very wide selection (apparently). It was honestly a bit strange (and unfortunately pictures were not allowed).

They say that when you enter Christiania, you leave the EU

Something you might not know about Denmark is Hans Christian Andersen. Well, maybe you know that he's a Danish (a person not a pastry), but maybe you didn't know he wrote the original story about "The Little Mermaid". And did you know that the mermaid statue in Copenhagen is based on the story? And did you know that Ariel is my favorite Disney princess of all time (duh)?  And check out how the Copenhagen and Warsaw mermaids are linked.

The little Danish mermaid

I got back to the hostel for a little rest and met one of my roommates from Vancouver BC. Nice to run into people from my home region...I also met a couple guys from Seattle in Rome (who didn't know each other either), which was nice...I'm always reminded how small the world is. Another roommate, a woman in her 50s, was probably staying in a hostel for the first time. She saw a guy's stuff on her lower bunk when she arrived, thought he was going to sleep there, and when she saw that the bed was also her bed number, she freaked out. She ran to the front desk to tell them that she just wasn't comforable sharing a bed with a male stranger. Lucky for her, hostels don't work like that. Funny lady.

The hostel was hosting a "Carnivale" party with a little home made beach on the sidewalk, blow up palm trees, people in leis, and a happy hour.  I'm not sure how it was Carnivale in May, but it was pretty packed, even with locals. Everyone was super young (even younger than me, if you can believe it), and the happy hour was about $4.50 for 2 beers. That was a great deal considering most other places we went to sold beers for $5 or $6 for one.  After dinner with some Canadians I decided to call it an early night because of the early flight to Croatia the next morning. I just played a few games of Scramble on my iPad and went to bed. Even the 50 year old woman stayed out later than me (probably because she was worried about what she'd come back to in her bunk).

A couple things I noticed:
- This is a very expensive place (like other Scandanavian countries). The hostel was really nice, but was about $60 per night (for a hostel!), the Metro ride to the airport was (or should be if you pay the correct fare) $8 (for a Metro ride!), and we had a hard time finding dinner for less than $25/plate for something casual (for something casual!)
- Even though it's so expensive (and they have high taxes), Denmark is apparently one of the happiest countries in the world. It was quite apparent as most people were friendly and all the shop workers smiled and made pleasantries. That's how I judge how friendly countries are - if the people who work at 7-11 smile at you.
- Carlsberg beer used to have swastikas on the bottle before the Nazis started using the symbol. I forget that the symbol wasn't invented by the Nazis, they just created the bad image for it. Don't you feel bad for the swastika? It used to be a nice symbol, until some jerkfaces started associating with it, ruining its reputation. Poor thing.
- When Queen Margaret II's flag is down, she's not home. We stopped by and she wasn't home.
- Copenhagen has the world's best restaurant - Noma (besides El Burrito Mexicano in Chicago)
- Everyone rides bikes! Similar to Amsterdam, you have to pay attention because they are flying past you from every angle.

How are you supposed to find your bike in there?

- You can get your Metro tickets on your phone and just show your phone when the checker asks - I didn't figure it out, but some old people did it, so it can't be too hard (reminds me of how Easy Bus doesn't know how to do that, which ruined a trip to London for me)
- "Hi" means bye? When I left a shop or the plane, they said "Hi" to me. I didn't know how to react other than say "uhhhh ok". Maybe it was "Opposite Day".
- Every time I meet a Polish person outside of Poland I try to chat to them in Polish. It happened again at dinner with a Polish hostess. She said a few things to me in Polish, was surprised that I could speak a little back to her, then I never saw her again. I guess my mastery of the language scared her away.
- Copenhagen is a really nice city and I would definitely consider going back to spend more time. However, I think I did pretty good for being here only 20 hours.

At the airport on my way to Croatia, a guy in front of me at the cafe ordered 2 wines, a beer and 3 jager shots.  At 7:30am. Yikes. My first thought: I wouldn't want to sit next to them on the plane.  Then of course I ended up sitting next to them on the plane.  It was the most rowdy bunch of passengers on a 9am flight since Vegas. They were speaking a different language but I'm pretty sure they were slurring their words. At one point they were taking turns saying "Nescafe" as if it was the funniest word in the world. It seemed like one of them was saying "ok, say it like this: 'Nescafe'" and the other would say immediately "Nescafe!". The first would repeat, even louder "Nescafe!"  And the other would say it again. Good times. Either they were really drunk, or they had stopped by Christiania earlier to pick up some "souvenirs".

A perfect 10 in Budapest

"Sto lat, sto lat, niech żyje, żyje nam. Sto lat, sto lat, niech żyje, żyje nam. Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz, niech żyje, żyje nam. Niech żyje nam!"

Those are the words to the Polish equivalent of "Happy birthday". It basically wishes the recipient of the song to live 100 years of a great life. It took me about a year to learn the words, and most of the time I would just mumble everything except "sto lat" because that's what it sounded like everyone else was doing (one question I've always had about the song is until what age do you sing it to someone? What if they are 98 years old? It's a bit sad if you sing to them to live only 2 more years).

This song became the theme of the weekend in Budapest for Chamea's fifth 26th birthday. We sang it so many times that in the end, Lindi knew the words, or at least something that more closely resembled the words than my early versions. We sang it at least 10 times in various bars, restaurants, apartments, and alleys. Because of our (not so beautiful) singing voices, I guess one way you could describe us on this trip is "entertaining". Maybe others would consider it "annoying". But actually probably everyone loved it because we were so awesome.

Beautiful weekend in Budapest

Antoine teaching Lindi the words

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Chamea promised to visit me the day I decided to move to Poland, and finally she made it happen, coming along with her extremely boring and anti-social friend Lindi (today is "opposite day"). They live in Portland, and I live in Poland, and since the names are so close, they had to visit (it's only one "r" difference, but over 5000 miles difference).

Lindi is so boring, she does cartwheels around Europe

They spent a few days in Warsaw, meeting my friends here, becoming better friends with my friends than I am, showing off their vodka drinking skills, tree climbing skills, and basically finding ways of "figuring it out", as Lindi liked to say (even when there is no possible way to actually figure it out). They even came to watch our swim training video session (presumably to look at guys wearing small Speedos), and to Cristina's party with me straight from the airport. This was even though they had taken a friday afternoon flight from Portland, then spent the entire Saturday in Amsterdam, before arriving in Warsaw at 11pm. They basically hadn't slept at all and totally reeked from not showering in 2 days, but were still ready to make a good impression.  You know the saying: "When in Warsaw...".

They also visited Krakow, Berlin, Prague and Budapest on their Mid-life Spring Break, and since they planned to be in Budapest during Chamea's actual birthday, I decided to go with them (flights were about $55 on Wizz Air so it was hard to say no). And I decided to bring 7 friends with me.

In addition to the 3 of us in Budapest, the rest of the crew of 10 was Mark and Julia (known as "Mulia", who you know from the Riga and Lviv trips), Ola and Antoine (Antoine is French, but I still like him), Basia (also from the Riga trip), and Jeff and Jen (Jen was my intern in Seattle, and we have been to Oktoberfest and skiing in the Alps together, when I got a concussion).

Group picture.  I hate when people wear sunglasses inside.  At night. 

8 of us stayed in a giant apartment in the center of the city, while Jeff and Jen stayed in a hotel down the street. I think they were scared of the bad influences in our crowd (not naming any names). The owner of the apartment, Attila, was very friendly and accommodating (some could even be heard whispering that he had a crush on a certain Asian guy in the group, but we won't talk about that). The location was great, the rooms were huge, and it was easy to walk everywhere. There were 4 rooms and 4 bathrooms so we could get ready pretty efficiently, but you know how it's always a bit slow with 8 people with different sleeping/getting ready habits (i.e. 5 girls, or in the case of Mark, someone who doesn't need sleep - or sobriety - at all).

The Szechenyi thermal baths were definitely the highlight for me. If you didn't know, Budapest has several amazing thermal baths. The water in all the pools comes from hot springs, and you can spend the day moving from one type of pool, to a sauna, to a another type of pool, and so on. They even have therapy stuff like massages, aerobics, and other treatments.  When we got there in the evening they said that most of the special treatments were closed, but we could go to the outdoor pools til 10pm. That was fine for us actually, because it was very warm and we were looking forward to it all day (and it only costs about $15). The water was great, it was extremely relaxing, and I even did a few laps to keep up with my triathlon training. At the end of the evening (after 4 hours), we found another pool with a small circular pool in the middle of it, where they turn on some jets to create a current. The current actually pushes you in a circle around the inner pool! It was amazing and we were giggling like school children when we went in.  Our moms had to bribe us with ice cream and video games to get us to leave the pool.

Hanging out in the thermal baths

Enjoying the whirlpool, like 8 year old kids

Please watch this video of us in the pool!

Of course a trip to Budapest means goulash soup. It was so great to have it again, but there was some other really good food as well, like steak tartar and veal stew with Strapachka (potato dumplings with sheep cheese). We ate on Liszt Ferenc (a square with several restaurants with outdoor seating), and my favorite place there was Menza.  After dinners we did a bit of bar hopping, my favorite being Szimpla Kert. It's an old "ruin pub", a pub in a building that was supposed to be destroyed, furnished with old/used tables, couches and chairs...all very retro. Lonely planet even voted it the 3rd best bar in the world! I had been here my first time in Budapest but forgot all about it. In fact, I realized that I forgot a lot about what I had done in the city the last couple times I was there. Old age I guess (please don't agree with me).

I get Hungary just thinking about goulash soup (ha, get it!?)

Chamea and her veal stew with little dumpling things



Lindi doing cartwheels in the 3rd best bar in the world

We also walked along the river, around the castle (on the Buda side), the parliament (the Pest side), and a few other nice places. Budapest is a really nice city, but somehow it feels a bit grimey to me. I can't really explain it, but if it got cleaned up a bit, it could be on the same level as Prague as far as attractiveness and tourism. So someone please start dusting, as it's definitely worth a visit.

View of Pest from the Buda side

The nights were actually pretty "calm" compared to our other group trips, but we had a really fun time. Having Chamea and Lindi here was a lot of fun. They got along famously with all my Warsaw friends, and it felt like they were "moving away" when they left. I hope they'll come back soon, and I hope anyone else who hasn't visited will make a trip. My wonderful friends in Warsaw will make sure you'll have the best time.  And I guess I'll also try a little bit.  :)

I can't tell which is the real statue

Livin' Lviv a Loca

A successful trip to Lviv, Ukraine consists of the following:
1. A vodka pub crawl to a bunch of Soviet bars
2. Outstanding service at our hostel to make up for the terrible restaurant service
3. Hitch hiking across the border (see previous post)
4. Having whip marks still on your back for a week after the trip.  That's right, whip marks.

Shots in the color of the Ukrainian flag

After our adventure in just getting to Ukraine, the weekend finally started.  We were all very eager to make the most of it, since it started out so ominously.  After going to sleep with unsatisfied stomachs on the first night, we woke up and had a really big breakfast.  This was a good start to the day.  We headed out on a free walking tour around Lviv's Old Town.  It's a very interesting Old Town, and nice city in general.  It has been under Polish rule in the past, so it definitely feels more Polish than Kiev did, for example, which is the other Ukrainian city I have visited.  Lviv could use some updating, because everything is a bit worn down, but it's definitely a cool place to visit.

Nice sites around the walking tour

The Soviet Home Hostel was the top rated hostel that we could find, and was conveniently located in the middle of the Old Town.  The service and staff were outstanding.  They were originally completely booked, but then they emailed me to tell me we could get a private 2 room apartment, with our own kitchen and bathroom, for about the same price as the other rooms.  It was perfect for all of us! And of course, we still got to sleep on bunk beds, which is the best part of hostels.  Cristina decided to join us later, so she got her own room for 2 of the 3 nights...on the adventure across the border, she was on a plane back from Hong Kong, just in time to get on another plane to meet us in Ukraine (yea, she's crazy).

The Soviet Home Hostel has lots of Soviet memorabilia

View of the city from the main square 

After the free walking tour, we took a tour underneath the Jesuit church of St. Peter and St. Paul, to learn some of the history of the city that used to exist under the church. The tour guide was an older gentleman, who seemed very bored until we arrived.  The scheduled tour was another 30 minutes after our arrival, but since there was nobody else in the museum, he made a special tour for us.  He was so passionate and lively, I think he was very happy to see us.  He was probably the most friendly and chatty old guy I've ever seen in the service business (at least in this part of the world).  I think some of the guys wanted him to talk less and more quietly, but I thought he was great.  He spoke Polish, Ukrainian and Russian, but no English, so that was one downside of the tour.  Igors, Julia and Irina took turns translating for me and Mark. They could have made up everything, so I don't know if I really learned anything.

Besides our group, there was one other person on the tour; a Russian girl who seemed to want to be friendly towards us. She made friendly comments (I think in Russian), but we were all in our own world and nobody really responded to her (or didn't hear her).  Luckily she didn't hold a grudge, because on the last night, we ran into her on the street while looking for something to eat. All the restaurants were closed and we desperately needed something. She was with a friend and together they took us to eat at one of the few restaurants that were open at that time (otherwise we would have starved!).  It was a reminder to be friendly to people, especially the solo travelers who seem to be making an effort to meet people.  I am often the solo traveler, so it's a good lesson to remember.

The last time I was in Ukraine, I really enjoyed the food.  The little dumplings (vareniki and pelmeni - I still don't know the difference), borscht, and a lot of foods that are similar to Polish or Russian foods were all very nice. The problem in Lviv was that most of the restaurants did not have English menus.  Irina, Igors and Julia spent the first few minutes of every meal reading off the menu, taking our orders, then telling the waiters.  Strange to think that at the moment Lviv is hosting matches for the Euro 2012 soccer championships, which means foreigners from all over Europe will be there...how are they all supposed to be able to get around with everything so difficult for non Russian/Ukrainian speakers?

What we learned over the weekend was that even if we could read the menu, most times we couldn't get the food we wanted anyway.  Every restaurant we went to (literally every restaurant) denied at least one of us what we ordered.  Either they ran out of it, or never had it in the first place.  The most common phrases we heard were "we don't have that" and "we don't have that either". Maybe it would be nice of them to tell us ahead of time what they don't have, rather than wait for us to look at the menu, get our hopes up about a certain dish, only to be denied our hopes and dreams.  Once Mark and I had to fight over who was going to get the last of the dish that we both wanted.  There was only one left in the restaurant!  And the waiters or staff were never apologetic about it.  They were very matter-of-fact, as if it's a privilege to be eating in their restaurants in the first place, and we shouldn't think we could actually eat what we wanted to eat.  This is another reason why I wonder if they are ready for Euro 2012.  Surely the city officials can train the restaurants on how not to leave bad impressions in the customers' mouths (or no taste at all in their mouths, in some cases)?  I understand that it's not the waiter's fault if they run out of food, but at least treat the customer nicely and manage their expectations a little.

In the end, we mostly just laughed about it, since it happened everywhere. Their defense is that it was a holiday weekend and there were lots of tourists.  Well, spoiler alert, there will be a lot of tourists during the soccer tournament as well.

With all of the things we couldn't order, it made me think about this Seinfeld "No soup for you" bit.

Not everything service-related was bad.  The guys at our hostel were actually fantastic. We asked the hostel to organize a vodka pub crawl for us, and Artem and Ivanka were happy to take us around.  They called the crawl the "Stolichnaya vodka tour", but in fact, there was no Stoli served at all.  In fact, I was told that they don't carry the Stoli brand at all in Lviv (or maybe in all of Ukraine).  Apparently they don't worry about false advertising there.  I kindly explained this to the owner of the hostel, and he humored me by saying "We did it because we know everyone knows the name 'Stoli', but I never thought about that it might mis-lead people. Maybe we'll change it."  I hope they do.  That's like advertising a Jay-Z concert, selling out the tickets, then Justin Bieber shows up on stage because Jay-Z couldn't get a visa.  In the end, it was a lot of fun, and nobody cared about the lack of Stoli, but it just shows a difference in mindset.

Dinner during the pub crawl...we give Artem thumbs up!

We stopped at several pubs, each with a different character, but each with many shots.  We had home made honey vodka with pickles in honey in one bar, clear vodka and a tomato juice chaser in a Soviet cafe with no chairs (so you hurry up at leave after your shot), pepper vodka with bread and pig fat, and vodka in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.  We followed that up with a bar (inspired by Masoch himself) in which the waitresses whip your bare back (while smiling).  I can't go into too much detail, but let's just say it left its "Mark" (and we went back twice).  The waitresses seemed to enjoy it.  And so did some other people apparently.

Cheers to tomato juice!

Getting ready to whip someone

Another interesting bar was called Dim Legend.  It is something of a fairy tale bar, with several strange themed floors, little people serving big beers (Mark secretly took pictures), and a car parked on the roof.  It's right across the street from a restaurant called Roza.  It's a Jewish restaurant and there are no prices on the menu.  When the bill comes, they'll tell you something outrageously expensive and you negotiate the price down.  If you can't come to an agreement, then they'll bring out the normal "bill" with the standard prices.  It's not a cheap place, but it's not too expensive either.  However, I do have a problem with their negotiating techniques.  Just like the other restaurants, this place ran out of food on the menu.  But here it was a bit extreme...4 of us couldn't get what we wanted (out of 7). Of course they didn't tell us before we looked at the menu, instead they told us right after we tried to order it. This is also the place where Mark and I had to arm wrestle for the last casserole (or whatever it was). Of course I let him win (since he's way older than me). The service was extremely slow, and generally they weren't very nice at all.  So when it came time to negotiate the price, we had a lot of reasons for why it should be cheap. We even proposed that the meal be free because the service was so terrible.  But of course, they had no concept of how customer service should be related to what a customer pays.  In their mind, the two are not related.  You pay for what you receive, not for what you didn't receive (and wanted), and definitely not for the service that you didn't get. Again I ask, how is this place going to be ready for Euro?

If you look closely, you can see the car parked on the roof

I can't say that everything in Ukraine is like this, because my experience in Kiev was generally positive.  However, it was absolutely baffling the type of restaurant service we got here, and not once did anyone apologize for the service, the lack of food, or anything in between.

Even though the restaurant experience wasn't so great, the trip overall was a lot of fun. If you ever visit Lviv, just set low expectations for the service you're likely to receive.  Except from Soviet Home Hostel.

We even hired one of the owners of the hostel to drive us to the border (since Alan's car was still in Poland).  This time, it was my turn (with Alan) to have a try at hitch hiking across the border. We packed as much as we could into Igor's car (5 people and all the suitcases).  There was baggage stacked on top of everyone so they could barely see out. We wanted to make hitch hiking as easy as possible. At first, it seemed like it wouldn't be an "adventure" at all. Alan spotted a bus full of Polish priests (if there is ever a safe group to hitch hike with, that's it), but after initially saying yes, they said no (I knew it was too good to be true).  They said something about their manifest already listing every passenger and there wasn't room to add more.  We found another truck driver in the gas station parking lot, but he said he was not going to cross for another 4 hours, after the border guard shift changed (that sounded really sketchy, so I won't speculate as to the reason).  He was our absolute back-up because he said he'd  be happy to smugg...errr...take us across.

So Alan and I started walking along the road to the border, trying to flag a car down. We passed several 18-wheelers parked on the side of the road.  I think they were waiting for the next day to cross the border, possibly for some shipping rules.  Guys were sleeping, eating, stretching, washing their windows, etc.  Anything to keep from getting too bored there.  We asked for a ride from the first truck driver in line, but when we looked closer, he had already a bunch of people in the cabin he was smugg...errr...taking across.

After about an hour of walking, waving and asking, we started getting a bit discouraged. We tried changing the way we stood, the size of our smiles (too happy looks suspicious, but too sad looks scary), facing the cars, turning away from them, looking tired, holding water (to look more like tourists rather than murderers), not holding water when that didn't work, waving a hand, waving both arms, or just holding out a thumb.  Nothing seemed to work. Most people just ignored us, keeping both eyes on the road.  But some cars honked, shook their heads at us, or signaled that they were not actually crossing the border, so at least we weren't getting ignored by everyone.

Finally, a car that was zipping by like a lightning bolt, slammed on the brakes when she saw us. Alan explained our situation to the nice Ukrainian lady (Luba), and she gladly waved us into the car.  She was super friendly and chatty with Alan, like they had known each other for a long time. She wasn't super chatty with me, because she didn't speak English.  I didn't understand most of what she said...but she APPEARED to be super friendly.  She spoke a mix of Polish and Ukrainian that Alan understood a bit of, and I would guess that she could only understand some of what Alan said to her in Polish.

Luba and Alan chatting in line at the border

When we approached the line of cars waiting for the border check, there looked to be a long line.  I expected to be waiting for another couple hours.  But to our shock, the lady drove right around it.  When Alan asked "isn't this the line?" (actually he said "queue" because he's English), the lady basically said "yep, but I don't wait in lines!".  She giggled (literally), shrugged her shoulders, then said something like "we'll see what happens!" as she passed dozens of cars.  I loved this lady immediately.  She kept driving forward, looking for a gap to pull into.  As we got very near the front, there was an opening.  A car was stopped  in the line with space for about 2 cars in front of it. It was packed with people, with luggage up to their eye balls.  Someone was even rolling a suitcase along the road out of the window as they inched along because there was no room inside the car.  I felt sorry for those packed sardines.  That's when we realized...yep, it was Igor's car.  The lady pulled into the line right in front of our friends.  It couldn't have worked better if we had planned it that way.

Luba seemed to know everyone at the border, and she wasn't afraid to cut in line as often as she could (and pay a few dollars to do so).  In the end, it helped us cross 30 minutes before Igor's car, even though they had a 90 minute head start on us.  She crosses the border so often that said that she thinks she knows the cop Alan rode with into Ukraine, they guy who was transporting tires across a few days earlier!  In the end, she basically saved our lives.  I wish my hitch hiking story had been less pleasant and easy, and more dramatic and scary...or actually, maybe I don't.

Once we all finally got to the other side, we picked up Alan's car and headed on our way.  On the way home, we stopped in another nice Polish town called Zamość.  We walked around the city, ate some pizzas on the main square, and re-discovered how nice Polish service could be compared to what we experienced in Lviv (seriously!).  I never thought I would look forward to Polish customer service!  After the weekend in Ukraine (even though it was a lot of fun), it was good to be home.

Zamość main square

The sun setting on another great trip!

How we almost didn't get to Ukraine

The night before we drove to Ukraine, Irina got back from a trip to Croatia.  She expected her insurance card and documents to have arrived by courier, so we could take the car out of the country.  She had confirmation from them about delivery of the documents to her apartment, but later that evening I received a phone call from her.  And she didn't have a happy voice.   The documents never came. So we spent the evening thinking of options (actually I spent the evening watching Hunger Games, while she made frantic phone calls)...we needed documents for her car, otherwise we couldn't go into Ukraine. We checked online for options, calling friends, calling the leasing company, and she even knocked on her neighbors' doors asking if they accidentally received her documents in the mail.  All nope.  So we decided to take Igors' car instead, since he has all of his documents (kind of...he has kind of a sketchy driver's license, but that's a different story).  There were 7 of us going, so we needed 2 cars. Alan's car was set; he had his insurance card and was told he didn't need an authorization letter to take the care out of the country.  So off we went.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The internationl crew on the road trip to Lviv, Ukraine was Irina, Igors (both from Latvia), Mark (Scottish), Julia (Russian), Alan (English), Cristina (Romanian), and me (American, yo).  The drive to Lviv is about 8 hours, depending on the border traffic, but we took the opportunity to make a few stops along the way.

The first stop was Lublin, a town in Poland a couple hours away from Warsaw, with a very nice Old Town, where a few of my Polish friends are from, or studied.  We took about an hour to wander around, take a few pictures, and then head off again.  The temperature was in the 80s, with perfect blue skies.  Of course, that makes sightseeing even better.  It was Constitution Day in Poland, so there were parades and celebrations all over the city.  But I have no idea what it even means.

Castle in Lublin

Lublin Old Town

We continued on to a lake in between Lublin and Zamość for a picnic lunch and a swim.  We found a nice grassy spot, close to a dock, where several locals sat around, swimming, drinking beer, and just relaxing.  They stared at the foreigners for a few minutes as we arrived...I don't think they get too many of us around these parts.  The picnic was nice, and we held our very first (unofficial) Warsaw International Triathlon Club open water swim.  And by that I mean we swam about 30 meters, just so we could tell Ken we did it, then took a bunch of pictures of ourselves jumping into the water.

Picnic along a lake we found on the map

Warsaw International Triathlon Club swim training

And jumping picture training (where's Alan going?)

The roads on the way to Lviv were a mix of smooth and bumpy.  Some roads were a feast of pot holes (that's not a good thing).  No wonder it can take so long to drive long distances in Poland.  The weather changed and we also had some big thunder and lightning storms.  The roads also have poor drainage so we encountered many large puddles in the middle of the road.  Too bad we already had our WITC swim training!

We finally got to the border, which was surprisingly not busy (only a few cars in front of us).  Strangely, a few of the cars turned around at the border and went back the other way.  It made the line go faster, but also worried me a bit.  Igors' car went first (with me and Irina).  Irina had to drive because she has an international license, and like I mentioned, Igors has a sketchy license that looks like he made it with art supplies in his bedroom when he was 14.  We got thru the first check point (the Polish side) within 15 minutes.

When we got to the Ukrainian checkpoint, the lady saw my passport and said to her colleague "hurry up there are Americans here!" (but not in English - Irina told me what they said). I guess we have lots of clout around here.  Then they saw Igors and Irina's Latvian passports, and I could see them relax as if to say "ohhh, there's only 1 American", after which they lost their sense of urgency.  But all in all, it only took 5 minutes. Nobody even asked for the insurance card, so all that worry earlier was really for nothing.

Since Alan's car was behind us, we pulled over to the side to wait.  As we were waiting one of the guards came up to us and decided to check our documents again, since we were just sitting there.  I don't really understand why, but they did.  Like so many other things I don't understand, that's just the way it is.  That's when we all noticed several missed calls from Mark, who was in Alan's car.  Missed calls from someone who is going through a border check to Ukraine can't be a good thing. Well, it's not the worst thing, because at least he was able to make calls....but we started to worry. At first we all told each other "I have a missed call from Mark, ho hum, la dee da".  Then we thought, oh, maybe we should try to contact him back.  Good idea.  I checked my text messages, and saw this from Mark.  It had 3 words: "We are F#@%'d" (instead "#@%" was actually different letters).

Uh oh.

Apparently Alan has his necessary documents, except his car registration was expired! In Poland, when you buy a car, they give you a temporary 1-week registration, which you have to renew right away (that's just the way it is, I guess).  Alan didn't know that, so he's been driving around for the last year and a half with an expired registration.  So anyway, they're stuck back at the Polish check point and Mark explains to us that "the police are coming, they might confiscate the car, we'll let you know if anyone gets arrested".

Uh, what?

It turned out that the police didn't harass them about it, but there was no way they were going to be able to bring the car into Ukraine.  So, we had to think of options.  3 of us, with a car, are on the Ukraine side, while the others are on the Polish side, and we were still 65 km away from Lviv.  We considered them taking a bus, train, or renting a car to get through.  Except it was around 8pm and it was probably too late.  The backup plan was for them to spend the night in Poland then come over in the morning.  But we had to think of something else.  The border guards wouldn't even let them walk across the border.  So they came up with another brilliant plan.

Hitch hike across.  The Ukrainian border.  Brilliant!

The border guards actually suggested this.  They won't let you walk across, but they don't mind if you jump in the back seat of some stranger's car and ride across.  Even if this works, we still have a problem of driving them all to Lviv.  So Igors, Irina and I start driving, to drop our stuff off at the hostel (and one of us will get out of the car)...then we'd come back and get them.

After all the worry about Irina's car, then Igors' license, in the end, it was Alan's that was the problem.  And nobody even cared about the insurance card!

On our way to Lviv, within the first few kilometers, we came upon a road that was so absolutely crappy, that we maxed out at 30 kmph and averaged about 10 kmph, for about 3 or 4 km,  We dodged pot holes, had to swerve constantly, it was getting dark, and it was hard to see.  In other words, it would take us 3 years to get to Lviv at this rate...and then we'd have to come back for the other guys??? We were thinking that this is how horror movies start. And secretly I was thinking "let them sleep at the border" (just kidding guys!).

It turns out we had made a wrong turn, and that a major highway was just down the road.  We crossed at Rava Ruska...so if you ever do that, don't follow the signs straight to Lviv...the road should turn to the left...otherwise you'll be on the worst road in the world!  Seriously, it's the worst.  In the end, it only took slightly more than an hour from the border.  We checked into our hostel (Soviet Home Hostel), got our private apartment (4 beds in one room, 2 in the other, with a kitchen), then Igors and I went back to border to pick up the others. On the way, there was a huge lightning storm.  This is also how horror movies start, so we think. By the way this trip has started, we were expecting the worst.

I was getting constant updates from Mark on the hitch hiking status.  First Alan went, being picked up by a cop who, in his off time, helps transport tires across the border in his car (I guess it's normal??), then Julia went in the second car that stopped (not every car was willing, so this was over the course of an hour or so).  The only problem with leaving Mark (the gentleman) to be the last to cross is that he is the only one that doesn't speak Polish.  Or Russian.  Or any language that people going through the border there speak.  So, Mark had a nice little adventure.  He was picked up by 2 nice gentleman, who didn't speak a word of English.  So, Mark just pointed towards Ukraine, towards his passport, then back towards Ukraine.  International sign language for "get me across the border, I'm clearly a legitimate tourist and not a terrorist or murderer".   They seemed to get the message, so they let him in.  Little did Mark know that he was in the middle of a smuggling operation. When he threw his bag in the trunk, he noticed that it was on top of an industrial size freezer.  Why did these guys have an industrial size freezer?

Sitting quietly in the car, trying to decide if he made a good decision (thinking "well, not many cars stop for hitchhikers, so I gotta take advantage of my opportunities"), Mark calmly watched the drivers hand money to each of the guards at the border, wads of cash which they pulled from behind the glove compartment.  Why do they have wads of cash behind the glove compartment? Maybe they were paying the guards just to get the hitch hiker across?  Doubt it!  So again, why did these guys have an industrial sized freezer?  Drugs, kidneys, dead bodies...could be anything.  Could be for Scottish tourists!  Mark was not only worried about getting across the border to meet us, but now he was worried about getting arrested for being part of  a smuggling operation, or even worse, making a one-way trip to the inside of the freezer!  If you ever have a chance, ask him to tell you the story...it's quite entertaining.  Actually, nobody was with him while this was happening, so he could have made all of it up.  We like to tease him that it didn't really happen this way...instead, the 2 guys were really nice and took him to a strip club (that's they they had wads of cash).  He just didn't want Julia to know.

In the end, they all got across safe and sound, and we finally picked them up and drove them back to the hostel. Mark was a bit shaken, but ok (at least he could walk straight).  After we got to the hostel we went for food, to the only place we could find still serving past midnight.  We sat down, ordered, and they came back and said there was no souvlaki, which is what we all ordered. But, there's salad. Ok, no problem.  So we ordered salad.  They came back and said there was no salad. So we ordered just some bread and cold meat (the only thing that they really had).

Igors, Alan and Irina...happy to be there!

The only food we could get...at least it was really good!

By this time it was 1:30am and we were starving.  But we were too tired to do anything else.  We had just arrived, so nobody had cash, and I noticed a sign on the wall that said they accept credit cards.  So when the bill came, I handed over my card. The two waitresses standing there just laughed and shook their heads at me. Of course, they didn't take credit cards at that time. I mean, why would they when everything else was already going wrong?

This was just a preview of what was to come on the weekend, when everything seemed to go against us.

Afterall, we were in Ukraine.

Waffles and chocolates and beers (oh fries!)

Mussels, fries, waffles, and chocolate.  Those are the things I think about when I think of Belgium.  Oh, and beer.  Very strong beer. And mayonnaise on the fries, but we will not discuss that one, because it's nasty.  I had the opportunity to visit Brussels on a weekend in between my US trip and going to Ukraine, so, I thought why not...who really needs any time at home anyway (as I write this, I am anticipating another 2 weeks away from home in Croatia!).

Kamila moved to Brussels a few months ago to work for the EU, and since she'll only be there for a few months, and I had never been to Belgium, it was a perfect chance to check out another country.  Someone once told me that Brussels was the "most boring capital city in Europe" (which can't be true, after experiencing it myself), so I didn't have high expectations.  Actually, I didn't know what to expect except the 5 things listed above.  But that was good enough for me.

The flight on Wizz Air was cheap, as usual, and since I had my new iPad, the flight literally flew by (haha, get it?).  I noticed that everyone around me was speaking a funny language that sounded like they had peanut butter stuck on the roofs of their mouths.  In other words, they were speaking French.  Of course, Belgium has not only French speakers, but also Dutch (in Flanders they speak Flemish...it makes me giggle just saying those words).  I feel like eating peanut butter right now for some reason.

While it was nearly 30C degrees in Warsaw (high 80s), it was 12C (low 50s) in Belgium.  To everyone who thinks Poland is always cold, there's a little nugget for you.

Belgium has a really nice combination of French and Dutch architecture.  Up until the early 1800's, Belgium was part of the Netherlands, so there is obviously the Dutch influence.  However, over time, the French have influenced it greatly, in both culture and language.  The city is very ethnically diverse, and honestly it was a bit of a shock because lately I have been travelling around Central/Eastern Europe, which are not very diverse at all.  It felt like I was back in NYC.  And I felt like saying hi to every Asian person I saw.

 

The Town Hall square at night

By the end of the first day I was already 80% through my food checklist...fries with curry ketchup from a street cart, waffles from various places, loads of chocolates, and of course, plenty of beer.  I even had Flemish goulash!  There is an area called Delirium village, a small street filled with bars, one of which serves at least 300,000 beers on draught (at least it seemed like it).  I tried a few different ones, including some that were 10 or 11% alcohol content.  These tasted very good, but were very dangerous.  That's about double the content of a normal Polish beer, and about 3 times the content of light beers in the US.  A few of the beers I tried were Chimay, Leffe, Delirium, and Malheur.

The best waffle I had came from Aux Gaufres de Bruxelles (I think that means Waffles of Brussels, creative name).  It was fresh and warm, soft and dense on the inside with some sugar crystals for an extra texture and kick, and a bit crunchy on the outside.  With strawberries and/or nutella and whipped cream, I don't know what can be better.  My mouth is watering thinking about it.

These are actually different waffles, but they were also good

We also did some sightseeing, including around the Town Hall square, many side streets, and of course Mannequin pis.

The architect of the Town Hall committed suicide in the 14th century because he ran out of space the building is not symmetrical

Mannequin pis, who gets dressed up for various occasions throughout the year.  I love the 'stache.  

The secret to Belgian beer

Eating mussels in Brussels...and they were amazing

My post-meal art work

Another nice treat was a little Polish shop.  Inside it looked exactly like the little shops in Warsaw's Old Town (same foods, but triple toe prices!).  All of the customers were Polish, and when we went in, I even said "dzień dobry" to the shop lady.  Unlike the shop ladies in Poland, this one actually said hello, smiled, and was chatting with her customers.  Not that I said a lot to her, but it must have been confusing for her to hear a Japanese guy speak (broken) Polish in a shop in Belgium.  Kamila said that Polish people get friendlier when they leave Poland, maybe just because they like to see some of their countrymen, as it reminds them of home.

This wallpaper made me giggle every time I saw someone sitting at the bus stop

In addition to eating and drinking our way around Brussels (and falling asleep on park benches), we also went to Bruges.  The only thing I knew about Bruges was that Colin Farrell had a movie about it.  But I never even saw the movie.  Bruges is close to 1000 years old (that's pretty old), and the Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Canal in Bruges

Main square in Bruges

I knew that I was in a richer country than Poland once the train started moving.  Unlike the trains in Poland, this train was quiet, smooth, and I could hardly tell we were moving.  And I could hear myself think.  The city of Bruges was very nice.  Quaint, with beautiful architecture, good food, and nice for just wandering around, the city was easy to navigate in a day.  Besides the architecture, the canals, and the "cuteness" of the city, the thing that stood out to me the most was the millions of chocolate shops everywhere...if there were fewer than 3 on any given block, it was a surprise.  There were so many choices of shops, then so many choices of chocolates within the shops, that my head started spinning.  I just bought whatever was in front of me because after 20 minutes of thinking, Kamila was getting mad at me.

Chocolate everywhere

I love chocolate, but I'm not sure what this next story says about me...I distinctly remember seeing all these amazing chocolate shops, then noticing an amazing, delicious smell coming from around the corner.  I followed the smell, and found....Subway!  No joke, I love the smell of their bread.  But not sure why I was drawn to it being surrounded by millions of chocolates.

Overall, it was a very good trip, and I found Belgium to be much more than just good food.  But obviously, I'd go back for the waffles alone.