"May Term 2013" Days 2-6

It's been almost 2 months since my trip to Europe and I haven't done any blogging since the first incident in the Eugene airport. Several times I have tried to sit down and write out what happened each day, what I saw, what was interesting, what was funny, and what didn't go as planned. Yet, for whatever reason it's not working. I will give a brief overview of my itinerary and share some of the highlights.
 
[April 29 - Airplanes. See previous post for the beginning of a crazy trip.]
 
April 30 - Land in Frankfurt, catch connecting flight to Vienna. Take bus (under-the-table transaction, I believe) to Budapest and meet Teagan.
 

May 1 - It's May 1. Duh, right? But that means not much is open for the EU holiday. In 8 1/2 hours of exploring on foot, I saw:   
 


Liberty Bridge

Chain Bridge, Air Show, and Országház (Parliament)

Szent Ivlán-barlang (Saint Ivan's Cave)
Now Occupied by the Pauline Order of monks.

Looking up...the path to the Citadella

Promenade along the Danube



Buda Castle from the Danube's Promenade

More air show over the Danube and Parliament

Matthias Fountain

Szabdság Szobor (Liberty Statue)

Budavári Labirintus
(Underground Labyrinth, Buda Castle)




















 



At the end of the day, I spend some time with Teagan and buy a train ticket to Dresden online.

May 2 - 4:00a.m. Taxi driver shows up to take me to the train station where I find out that the ticked I purchased online was for a train that did not exist. Ticket says, "NO REFUNDS" so I buy a new ticket and sit at the train station for 2 hours. New train crosses Slovakia and drops me off in Warsaw, Poland in the middle of the night. I dare not stray too far from the train station, but a walk around the block reveals some neat buildings.

Warsaw Central Station

Palace of Culture and Science

Short on time, I try to get a ticket from the machine to Gorzów. Machine won't take my credit card. Very nice lady at customer service desk gives me a ticket. "What time does this train leave?" Answer, "1800." My reply, "But it's 18:02." Then I get sent to a different service desk. On the way, I decide to try the ticket machine again. This time it works. Only I the ticket I buy is to somewhere that looks a lot like "Gorzów", but is indeed, not Gorzów. Should have just gone to the other desk. Eventually, I end up with a ticket to, yes, Gorzów that departs at 23:20. 
 

I think this was a mall...

May 3 - I arrive in Gorzów at 6:30a.m. and Iga meets me at the station shortly after. Uffda. Iga, her family, and I hang out, chatting and eating. Go for a walk in the woods to find a lake. I think we found it. Iga and I argue about dressage. I crash on the chair-bed at 9:00, never to notice everyone else jabbering away around me, going to bed, or getting up in the morning. Thirteen hours later everyone is sitting around jabbering just like when I went to sleep. SLEEEEEEEP. It's been a while.





Looking for the lake.

May 4 - Zoo and flower shop adventure. Iga, her mom, sister-in-law, and I look at critters of all sorts and play on the playground where I proceed to miss the swing Iga is on and sit in the dirt. Wipeout #1 of the trip.

 




How can you resist the urge to snuggle this?

 

 

Enough for tonight.
Pax.