Poland is not on a lot of people’s must see list. It kind of why I wanted to go. I did have pretty low expectations given that it had been under the Russian thumb since the end of World War II and has only been freed up since 1990. I didn’t think there would be much to see but I…
I decided early on that I wouldn’t plan anything more than a couple of days ahead. It has been working out pretty well. I stay in a place until I don’t. It works here in Europe because there isn’t much of a last minute decision fee on tickets and fare. Or at least not much of one. That has worked…
I had to fly to Kiev from Vilnius. I would liked to have bused in via Minsk in Belarus but they side with Moscow. Visa requirements for me would have made it expensive, complicated and take a long time to process. It was just a little over an hour flight and when I landed it was sunny and in the…
I bet that title brings back some memories. I am in Kiev now. I think there is some sort of city wide free music fest going on. There seems to be a lot of stages put up all over town. I came across this show tonight. Very coincidental considering my blog post this morning. Sorry for the quality. You tube…
Just in case you didn’t know, the Baltic States are (north to south) Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They are sandwiched in between the Baltic Sea and Russia. In fact, except for World War II when the Nazi’s took over, They have been under Russia’s thumb for a good chunk of the 20th Century. They only became sovereign countries since the…
I have been in the Scandinavian Countries for the past couple of weeks. This afternoon, I am happy to be watching the coast of Finland fade into the distance from a ferry cruising across the Baltic Sea. Its not that they are particularly bad places, In fact they are quite nice, if bland and orderly is your thing. I was…
So far it has been all April Showers bring May flowers over here in Norway. It hasn’t helped that I have been battling a cold since I landed in Oslo. It hasn’t been all foggy and soggy though. I took the 7 hour train from Oslo to Bergen on the West coast of Norway. Rail Europe says that it…
My original plan after Amsterdam was to go to Denmark by Bus or train. After some research and some curious looks when I revealed that route to others, I learned that the scenery along the route is far from spectacular and a direct flight was way cheaper. So saving time, money and mind numbing boredom. And for the sake of…
I started off my Europe trip here in Amsterdam because I have some long lost friends here and wanted to catch up. They have two nearly grown sons since I first met them on a Zanzibar beach a long time ago. I always promised that whenever I was in the neighborhood, I would drop in. Let’s face it, whenever you’re…
I had a few days freed up from the lake house so I thought it was time for some exploring. This time, I headed to Alabama, Birmingham in particular. It took longer to get there than I expected. Mostly because it took forever to get through Atlanta traffic. I finally arrived in mid afternoon. I didn’t know what to expect…