Destination: Mini Vacation

Hello all. Just wanted to let you know we would be away from internet for a while. We will be taking a vacation away from the city and spending some time camping in Tansylvania. Thus, we will be unable to read our blog or return any emails. We will be returning to civilization around November 4th. See you then!

Now some random pictures:







This is a picture for Rick. We saw a whole thing about printing. This is how they did it old school.



Warsaw Poland. All the buildings here are new. 80% of the city is new rebuilt from WWII.



Cathedral in Krakow.



Us before the trip to Auschwitz.



Fawnda and Derek before Auschwitz.



There is no after pictures. We didnt feel up the the task....

The picture above was taken in the Dragon's Den at Wawel Castle in Krakow. You walk down a spiral staircase about 10,000 steps. Then you are in a whole cave system. This is me in my glory. I'm just missing my sword!!

Destination: Hallucination

Definition: Absinthe (from the French) is a high-alcohol liqueur derived from herbs including the flowers and leaves of the medicinal plant Artemisia absinthium, also called wormwood. (See Artemisia (plant) for its relationship to the Book of Revelation, Chernobyl and other associations in human culture.)

Nicknamed "La Fée Verte" ("The Green Fairy") after its pale-green color, it tastes much like an anise-flavored liqueur but with a more subtle flavor, due to the many herbs used, and light bitter undertones.

So there you have the definition. Derek, Fawnda, Amanda and I all had a couple shots of the "Green Fairy"... Nothing much happened. Amanda got tired...and Derek, Fawnda, and I all just were a little melow. It has similar properties to the THC in marijuana so it has similar effects.

Enjoy the show:

Destination: Appreciation

Mandy here once more for updates. I am waiting for dinner from Seth right now, so I thought I'd write a blog. Once we left Lithuania we took an overnight bus to Warsaw Poland. We knew we'd only stay there a day or so since people tell us it's not such a great city...pretty much just skyscrapers and large businesses. But, by the time we got off the bus I was pretty sick (I'm sure I caught a bug form all the germ infested places we've been). We went to the hostel, but couldn't check in for five hours. So what does one do when they're tired, sick, and wasting time? Sleep in McDonald's. Yep, it was the only place open at that hour of the morning, so we slept for a few hours in the fast food conglomerate, then went to the hostel where I slept for a few more hours.

The next day I was feeling a bit better, so we took the train to Warsaw to Krakow. I was very excited about this trip because it was something I had been waiting for for a long time now. Once we got here we met up with our good old friends Derek and Fawnda (see Vilnius blog). Yesterday, we all took a day trip to Auschwitz. I knew when we were planning this trip that this was one place I really had to visit. I think it's important to visit the fun stuff as well as the somber stuff. So we went to Auschwitz and then Birkenau. Both were really amazing places to visit. Seth took some pictures, but we mostly just wanted to remember that experience in our head, so we could recall the feeling that we got when we were there. Birkenau is a truly gigantic place. This was the supplementary camp to Auschwitz because they needed to hold more prisoners. At the entrance gate, you can't even see the other side it's so big. Another thing that struck me as the worst part of these camps was the deceptions behind all of it. They made the people pack their bags as if they were really starting a new life. And the entrance gate at Auschwitz says "Arbeit Macht Frei" which means "work makes you free". The tour guide told us this statement was meant to trick the prisoners into thinking that they were actually going to a work camp, when it was actually just a death camp. We learned a lot, but I don't think I want to tell you everything; it's definitely a place everyone should visit in person.

So we were going to spend some more time in Krakow, but decided to take the overnight bus with Derek and Fawnda to Budapest, Hungary. We leave tonight at 8:00 pm and arrive at 6:00am. Wish us luck.

Pictures:

Destination: Dedication

Well we have moved on from lovely Vilnius Lithuania. We stayed there for about a week and it was time to continue our adventures. So we decided that we wanted to go see one last thing in Lithuania which was the hill of crosses. We had heard from a group of Korean students that you could take a train to Siauliai and then a taxi from Siauliai to the hill, but we knew that we had to take a overnight bus from Kaunas so we took a bus to Kanus in the morning hoped on a bus to Siauliai. On our 2.5 hour train ride from Kaunas we met a local student to we befriended and in the end offered to take us to the hill and back for about $10. We got the full treatment he showed us the city and where he went to school and gave us a little history of the hill and took pictures for us etc. It was a great trip. First a little background in to our mission and the title for this blog. At our hostel in Vilnius we met and befriended a nice American, Lisa who's family is Lithuanian. She had ran out of time and wanted to leave a cross for her grandfather in dedication. We had time and wanted to go ourselves so we offered to carry out the quest on her behalf. So we made it to the hill got a great tour and made it back to Kaunas for our overnight bus to Warsaw Poland. It was quite a day and quite an adventure. See pictures below. Lisa if you read this I will be emailing you full resolution versions of the pictures. We stayed in Warsaw for a day and half and now are in Krakow... Stay tuned...

Pictures:

Main overview:



His cross is somewhere around here:



Give up?..... there it is:



Close up:



A close up of his name (Roland our guide said it was very traditional):



Roland our great tour guide:



Oh my that's a lot of crosses:

Destination: Photojournalization

Instead of writing a long winded tale. I thought this time I would just post a lot of pictures.... Maybe I'll put a caption or two.

Let the photos begin!!

Inside Art:





This is one is dedicated to Spencer.





Outside Art:









Our Friends:

Derrick, Fawnda and Amanda:





Matt a 6'7" Australian:



Pat, Matt's partner in crime.



Some more friends from Canada. (left to right) Agatha, Martha and Joanne





After a couple drinks... Pondering to leave a present for Escata.



Sights of the city:











The district of Uzupis: (They have created their own constitution and posted it on the walls. Including everyone has the right to love the cat.... A favorite of Amanda's)





Our three year anniversary dinner:











More of us:

A little too much to drink:









We leave you with a scone with almond cream filling. It was great: