WOUNDEDKITE // still. still. still.

between leaving krakow and helsinki, we haven’t really encountered many other native english speakers. we certainly haven’t stayed with many. they’ve usually been from other baltic states, or strangely in helsinki, all asian. and after two weeks, you kinda miss having the same conversation every time you meet another aussie “where are you from? oh, nice. i’m from campbelltown. yeah, it’s not that bad.”

but now we’re in venice, along with paris probably the biggest tourist destination we’ll visit. and we’re back in the company of fellow english speakers. it’s interesting how as you split the english speakers up by nationality, their reasons for being here and their travel plans vastly differ.

firstly there’s the aussies and the kiwis. like us they’re all long termers. either they’re like me and have been based out of a european city for some time working, and are travelling to break up the trip, or before going home. or they’re like rach and are on extended holidays. some people we’ve talked to have been at it for almost a year. ask any aussie why they come here for so long and they’ll give you the same answer. australia is so far from anywhere, and getting here is such a major investment in money and time, that you want to make it worth while and pack in as much as possible. also, we never know when we’ll have the opportunity to be back here, so we need to make the most of it while we can.

the brits that we’ve met are just doing one city at a time for long weekends thanks to ryanair and easyjet. they’re usually more keen on getting pissed than sightseeing.

then there’s the americans. 95 percent of the americans we’ve met are in europe on study abroad programs, and are on holidays before exams so they’ve come to check out near by cities. these study abroad programs aren’t the same as the exchange student schemes that we do. they’re not studying at a foreign university for a year, where they have to learn the language and acclimatise themselves with the native people and way of studying. rather they are programs offered and run by their university back home. so it’s exactly like they were studying in new york or california, but they’re just able to say that they’re in an exotic location like prague or madrid.

i don’t know why these people annoy me so much, but they do. i think it’s because it’s really obvious that they’re all rich kids. their parents have money which has enabled them to stay for extended periods in some of the most beautiful cities in the world, but then they do it in the most sterilised way possible, staying in the safety of their american professors and american friends. and then they get to the hostels that they stay at when they decide to take weekend trips to krakow or venice. and they probably only stay in hostels because they’re big enough to sleep everyone in the one room. and they whinge. they complain about having to rent a towel, they complain about having to make the bed, they complain about having to sleep in bunk beds. it’s so frustrating. we’re zombies after camping out in an airport all night then having our connection all fucked up, and just happy to have a soft bed with no bugs in it, and we have to put up with spoilt american teenagers whinging because there was no valet and daddy isn’t here to kill a spider.

on the flip side to all this, our eurail passes are first class. i’m currently typing this out on a train from venice to florence, and they’re about to bring around some complimentary wine. so we do get a bit of luxury every now and again.

sitting in vantaa airport in helsinki. listening to grinspoon’s first album, at quarter to three in the morning.

never thought this would happen

so, i will be back sydney side around the 3rd of march to see pavement at the enmore. i will then head down to melbourne for a couple of days to visit my peeps and catch the pavement show down there. then i’ll be home for the pixies at the horden on the 14th and my mum’s birthday, and hopefully dinner at the catho like old times on the 17th.

it’s given me a renewed sense of excitement for the next few months. i’ve had to talk myself out of not coming home with rach in december many times, but only because i am so determined to stay for a full year. but now i’m suddenly really excited about the next few months. hopefully i’ll be able to pick up some bar work and work over the holidays. and i’m 90 percent sure i’m going to leave cardiff and spend my last few months in edinburgh, but it might be easier to stay in the diff where all my stuff is. i also need to visit ireland and turkey at some stage, and a few towns i haven’t caught in england.

at the moment we’re in tallinn, which was, for reasons i can’t even explain, the one place i wanted to visit the most in europe. and now, for the first time all year, i feel like i’ve made it. i’m here. i’ve reached my goals.

and fuck, pavement are touring!

krakow was simultaneously the city i’ve had the most fun in since we’ve been on tour, and the hardest place we’ve visited.

we were there over the weekend and were lucky enough to stay in a hostel with awesome staff members and some really cool aussies, americans, brits and a saffa staying along with us. we haven’t gone out too much so far this trip. we’re usually tired after walking around all day, or needing to get up early the next morning. but i think we were at the point in our trip where we needed to let our hair down and interact with some other people. so we did a whole bunch of vodka shots in the kitchen of the hostel, then we went out and danced for hours to cheesy 80’s music and got hit on by dodgy guys on bucks weekends.

the next day we went on a walking tour with some peeps from the hostel and spent four hours exploring the city with a hilarious tour guide called pawel, who told us he had recently spent eight hours dancing to balkan beat box at a jewish festival and broken his shoes. what a champ. if you’re ever in krakow, make sure you go on this tour, and try to get pawel as the guide.

then on sunday we went to auschwitz. god, what can i say about that place? it was fascinating and heart breaking. i learnt so much about the plight of the jews and the other groups who were sent there. the museum was so well done. stark and confronting. the piles of suitcases really stood out for me. there were just all these suitcases, and people had written their names and addresses on them, because they thought they were getting them back. then at birkenau, i was just floored by how big it all was, how many people they must’ve kept there, and how little of it remains. our guide told us that after the war, the local people tore down the buildings to use the wood to rebuild their own houses. life goes on.

before we got to poland we had spent a lot of time in germany. i really love germany and the people, and i will definitely be back there. but you really notice, especially in berlin, the eggshells people seem to be walking on most of the time in relation to the halocaust. we must never forget, but how long will they have to keep paying for another generation’s mistakes?

i guess the main questions i came away from krakow with were firstly, how can one group of people do this to another group of people? and how did we let it happen? why did we not do anything to stop it. i guess we were too busy fighting our own battles.

it also made me think about australia’s history. we killed so many aboriginal people, and displaced so many others. tore them away from their families and their culture. but yet there are no memorials. no statues. no missions have been turned into museums that people flock to. all we have is an apology from our prime minister a million years too late, and some band wearing the word sorry on their clothes at the closing ceremony.

it was bound to happen sometime, given the number of hostels we’ve been staying in. and especially considering we’re travelling in central and eastern europe. but it’s still a shock when it happens.

this morning i woke up at about 4am scratching my arms. a quick check in the mirror and a google image search confirmed i’d been attacked by what backpackers fear more than a line up at the showers and early checkouts, bed bugs.

i had been sleeping on the top bunk, but when the people occupying all the bottom bunks in our room checked out, i used the opportunity to change beds and save myself an awkward dismount every morning. big mistake. the people who had those beds before us looked like they had been hiking or some other kind of outdoor activity, but they hadn’t complained of bites. curse you patient zero!

so now i’ve separated my pyjamas, and will wash as much as i can at my next destination, krakow. it’s a bit annoying though because otherwise this has been a really awesome hostel, but it will always be remembered now as the time i got bitten by bed bugs in berlin.

tonight is our last night in prague. i admit before i came here i didn’t know much about it. only that the beer was cheap, there’s heaps of bridges and everyone i’d spoken to who’s been here said it was one of the prettiest cities they had ever visited. but in the last few days i have learnt so much about the history of prague. about medieval times, the german occupation, the russian occupation, prague spring and the velvet revolution.

the people i’ve spoken to were right, it is a gorgeous city, but for me half it’s charm has come in knowing what all those buildings, and the people who made them and used them lived through and survived. and through luck, good management, or sinister ulterior motives they have survived. and finally prague is able to show itself off to the world.

our next stop is dresden. i kinda only wanted to go there because that’s where oskar’s grandmother was from in jonathan safran foer’s novel extremely loud and incredibly close. however the more i read about it, the more i want to see the old architecture and how they have rebuilt after the bombings in the second world war.

last night on the escalator leaving the metro station near our hotel, there were these pretty czech teenage girls going in the opposite direction singing. as they got closer we realised they were singing the theme song to the fresh prince of belair.

random moments like that are what traveling’s all about.

i am in prague. i can’t believe i’m in prague.

god, i haven’t even gotten around to telling you about my last trip and i’ve already started my next one.

in the last month i’ve seen so many places i never even dreamed i would visit. lakeside towns in switzerland. and in italy rome, pisa and venice. i’ve taken serenaded gondola rides in venice and stood in the rain at the vatican to see the pope.

and now i’m off for another two months full of adventure with one of my best friends in the whole world. and hopefully because she’s keeping a blog too, this one will get updated more often.

you can read rach’s probably better written and more detailed blog here.

next stop munich!