Ok, so I'm busy travelling

As you know, i haven't been keeping this up to date. Instead i have been keeping busy having a wonderful time traveling Europe (Richard don't know how you kept your blog reasonably up to date). After leaving Lithuania i went to Latvia on Estonia. Caught a plane to Rome and met up with mum and dad. Also in Rome i met up with three other GAPpers. after Rome i headed to the mafia town and birthplace of pizza - Naples. Amazing scenery and rubbish on the streets everywhere. Saw Pompei. Then off to Florence. Went to the Uffizi museum but didn't get to see David, well the real one anyway. Continued on to Lucca which is a lovely town of Puccini fame and is surrounded by its old walls. Saw Pisa quickly, it only really has the tower and what you see walking there from the train station. Caught a train to Milan which traveled along through the cinque terre along the coastline - about three metres from - and was the most picturesque train ride i have been on. Milan was nice. You could tell it was a fashion capital - there were men wearing red pants everywhere. Did a day trip to Verona. Next stop was Venice. Not a cheap place unless you drink wine out of a box. Met alot of people while i was here. Then on to Slovenia. While catching an international mini bus - it was a quick bus across a border between stations - i met some English blokes who i stayed with for three nights. In SLovenia we went to Bled. Tried to swim to the island which was over 1.5km away (further than the longest olympic distance) didn't make but spent about 50 minutes swimming (much longer than any time recorded for olympic swimming). Amazing here. A lake, with an island with a church and there is a castle perched on a cliff above the lake. Went on to Ljubljana. Small for a capital city, not much to do but enough for a night. After that to Zagreb where i slept at the airport to catch a 5:55 plane to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik city still has its walls and is right on the Adriatic. Beautiful place and great to spend some time on the coast. Was here with two other GAPpers. Swam in the Adriatic which is really salty and full of urchins. Flew back to Zagreb, checked it out a bit more then headed onto Budapest. Went in the thermal baths before making my way to Bratislava where I am now. So, that is an extremely brief overview of what I have been doing. If i were to go into detail, it would leave me with less details to write about. I'm writing some stuff down while on trains so i'll have plenty of stories when i get back.

The Baltics part 1

After leaving Poland I went with Gem, another gapper, to Vilnius, Lithuania. We were walking down a small street and saw some police blocking an area off. There was also a small crowd of people. We hung around a bit and weren't disapointed. Suddenly a motorcade drove up headed by several motorbikes, then some pretty flash cars and a few more motorbikes for good measure. Some people jumped out wearing military uniforms and some well dressed women. We didnt recognise anyone but they looked important, we thought they had something to do with a government. Turns out it was the Dutch Queen visiting. Some Dutch tourists who were there told us, they were petty excited. After Vilnius we went to a place called the Hill of Crosses. It is just that. A hill covered in millions of crosses. It isnt a very big hill so it is amazing to see all the crosses crammed onto the hill. When crossing the border to Latvia we got checked. Sofar I had already crossed many borders and not been checked so I didnt think it would even happen. My passport was therefore underneath the bus, but luckily easily accessible. At the moment im in Italy so I havent really got too much spare time but ill try to get this updated.

Last weekends

Well my placement has finished now but I have been a bit slack updating so i'll try to fill in some gaps. The last few weekends of my placement were fairly busy. The GAP group had a big farewell weekend in Zywiec. ALmost everyone attended and it was good to see some of the people i hadn't seen since o-week. The next weekend I went to Warsaw to surprise mum and dad. They thought I was going to be in Poznan. I got to see some of the GAPpers I had become good friends with and say goodbye to the ones I wouldn't be seeing again untill arriving back in Aussie. At the train station I surprised mum and dad. Mum and dad spent a couple of days in Poznan. I showed them around a bit and watched Poland get kicked out of the Euro 2008. There was also a rowing regata in Poznan and I watched the Aussie fours row to gold, they were the only aussies I saw. Later I said hi to them but they didnt look keen on having a chat. There was a last day assembly that we (Martin and I) went to. Then we said bye to the people we had become friends with. I then jumped on a train togo to Warsaw to catch up one last time with some of the other GAPpers and so say bye to Poland. On Monday I jumped on a train to Vilnius.

School Trip

At about 11 on monday night we were informed that we could go on camp with the junior kids, for free, but that they were leaving at 8 next. So we packed quickly and got some sleep. The camp was on the border of Czech in the hills, really great scenery, no snow, however snow not uncommon in that area for that time of the year. A nearby church is called snowy Maria because it snowed there in the middle of the hottest period of the year. First day we went on a walk, saw a fairytale garden, it was alright and then went and visited a waterful before trekking home. Next day we went to a gold town and into a mine, also went to check out Snowy Maria - that night had a humerous lesson in polish grammar. The teacher trying to explain to me why there were three different versions of the word snow on the map- turns out polish words have up to seven forms. Throughout the lesson the non-english speaking polish teacher was trying to add valuable (confusing) contributions. Next day we checked out a church, moving nativity scene and guided the blind music teacher Henry through a rock labrinth. i managed not to get his head hit despite having to crawl through many areas. Got to see a part of Poland i wouldn't have otherwise seen thanks to the trip, despite being a little last minute.

Berlin

Berlin is absolutely fantastic and at some point i would love to live there. It was more expensive but only proved how cheap Poland is. I arrived on Thursday, immeadiately you could tell you were in Germany because the stations were properly marked, in poland they basically only have one sign at each station so when you fall asleep its hard to tell where abouts you are. However Germanys public transport system was fanatastic, if a little pricey. checked into the hostel and waited around a bit until Ryan and Kate arrived, the other GAPpers coming. Stumbled across a parade/protest as i was just walking around, however as i was walking towards a dead end (i didnt realise when i entered the street) i was unable to get close enough to see exactly what the group of people were doing. We went and found Ryan's hostel, it had 900 beds and to qoute Ryan "was big and scary" and also ironically hard to meet people. So we spent more time at ours, plus ours was closer to the city centre. Saw plenty of people with shaved heads drinking beer in the streets and plenty of police around, didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Friday
Thought we ahd better do something today so we went on a tour of the city. Got to see Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, holocaust memorial, hitler's bunker, checkpoint charle, the wall and much more stuff. After the tour we went back to check out charlie a bit more and to read some of the stuff we couldnt while on the tour. However now it was starting to get cold and i had only a t-shirt so we decided to head back to the hostel, it was getting late-ish as well. The weather was fantastic apart from this couple hour period of showers and cold. The rest of the time it was fantastic and the sun was out in full and there were no clouds, plus i wore t-shirt and shorts for the first time. That night we went on a pub crawl, kinda like the one we went on at schoolies. met heaps of people and at leastfour oher Australians, one of whom was from Perth - this impressed kate as this was the first person she has met from her home city while over here. anyway we headed home about 3 so we could be up at 10 to go to Potsdam.

Saturday
No sign of Ryan, when we left he was still at the club. Turns out he headed home about 5 but fell asleep on his tram - he only got home at 9 so was probably asleep when we were messaging him. Potsdam was a favourite place for Prussian rulers to get away from the city life and also a current getaway for Germans who want to shed their worries and clothes. There were fantastic palaces everywhere - one of which held the Potsdam conference and we saw the room were it took place, we weren't allowed to go in though. We got to see Frederick the Greats palace and we were listening to what he had done to earn his title when i was phoned by my parents (quick note, that used up all my credit so thats why it cut out and why you probably couldn't call back), so i don't know why he was called frederick the great but it has something to do with winning the seven years war. That night we decided to have a quite one and went out to try a couple of local brews.

Sunday
Went to climb the dome in the Reichstag - got some fantastic views of the city and then went to Tiergarten which is a big park in the middle of the city. We were warned to be wary of more nudists but we were unable to find any. That night Ryan did another pub crawl while Kate and i went out with a Canadian from our hostel.During the night we ran into Ryan and his group which was a disgracful 15 down five fold from friday night. so we hung out with them for a bit, including 3 more peole from Perth, then went home.

Monday
Today i spent by myself. Firstly went to the Pergamon museum which contains a recreation of the Ishtar gates from Babylon and also alot of antiquities from ancient greece so i found that pretty awesome. Then went for a stroll around to check out more of Berlin. Went to see the exhibition Topography of terrors which is located on the previous site of the SS offices. After which i realised i should be heading back. The school had given me a heap of food so i had hardly eaten anything local so i got a currywurst and i thought it appropiate to eat a donut. Got back to the hostel and collected our bags and we headed off for our train.

Earlier blogs may have unfairly portayed the food as not being very good, however i have come to my sense and realised that the food at the school is fantastic, including amazing soups, and has been for most of my time here, the first two weeks took a bit of adapting.

Hockey

The English teacher I am working with organised for my to train with one of the local Poznan teams. Thanks to a package from mum I had shorts and a mouthguard but no stick, no proper shoes (which only resulted in one embarrasing fall), no shin pads and no idea what the quality of the hockey would be. The training session was at the Poznan institute of P.E. or something like that. Poznan is the centre of hockey in Poland, it has 3 grounds compared to Warsaws none. The team consisted mainly of students and mainly of people who have represented Poland in some way. 5 for the U21 team and 2 for the national side. The coach is the excoach of the Poland team. They train 4 times a week with gym sessions afterwards - there may be more training that is part of their Uni course, plus they play two games a weekend. I have not touched a stick in half a year. Could not keep up - my fitness bardzo mawe - very small, compared to theirs, also they were much better considering i was entirely puffed and could hardly do anything. I am going back again - hopefully with more luck.

Work

People have been asking exactly what I have been doing, so instead of answering individually i'll answer here. I'm with one teacher, Martin is with the other. We basically to go their classes and help with stuff they want us to. Sometimes it's reading a passage or writing something in English on the board. We do a bit of correction as well. Also we type up a fair bit of stuff. Some texts need to be printed in braille and we need electronic versions of them, other stuff we can photocopy. I am slowly learning how to read braille, not with my fingers because that would be impossible, just visually. Every now and then we are asked to produce a text, sometimes it's a short conversation or a text about Australia or a text with words removed. We have a fair bit of spare time on our hands because the stuff we do isn't very time consuming even though my folder is swelling with word documents.

Prague

Wednesday before easter.
We had snow! All winter it didn't snow and all of a sudden it is spring and it snows? took photos from out my window and in the street, can't see it to well. Melting as soon as it hit the ground. Got into Poznan and it had started gathering on the ground. Camera battery ran out! We got to the main square and it was covered in snow, absolutely amazing, trust me, couldn't get pictures. Stayed in Wroclaw (also covered in snow) that night with one of Martin's ex host families. Magda (the daughter) showed us some of the hidden good places to out, got home about 4am.

Thursday
Woke up about 12, had to get transport to prague so packed quickly, got some photos of snow battery now charged and went to travel agent. Found out about a bus but not trains. Went to train station. Polish travel system really easy to use except when you want to leave the country. Couldn't find any trains, couldn't find the bus station. Evantually found bus station, it was just out the back. 5 mins late for the bus, bus 30 mins late so luckily still caught it. Bus trip was about 6 hours with some amazing scenery, crossing the border was just like going from VIC to NSW. Got to prague, found my hostel, tired, fell asleep.

Friday
Spent the morning getting lost in the alleyways of Prague. Met up with Laura and her friends at Prague castle. Her friends also from Euroa and they play hockey. We saw the changing of the guards. There was one guard who looked as though it was his first time. He could sense the change coming and became really fidgetty. The other guy looked as though he was loving it, actually he didn't, he didn't look like he was feeling anything, just standing there completely motionless. Changing of guards a very popular thing, may people there, didn't get to see it all. Walked around the castle a fair bit. St. Vitus cathedral quite spectacular. Went to Prague market, really disappointing. The food in Prague is absolutely awesome and really cheap. Getting excellent dishes in restaurants cost about $6, so did that a fair bit. Didn't quite live off bread and cheese as palnned to save money, rather massive plates of meat - pork, ham, duck usually, goulash, soup. Thurs night had duck.

Saturday
Woke up early to go to Kutna Hora. Spent the morning waiting. Planned to meet Laura and her friends at 9:15 to catch a 9:45 train. (Handy hint. If ever planning on going somewhere and are meeting up with a group of teenage girls, do not expect them to be on time, make sure you have time in hand). Girls were late, by the time made it to the station and figurred out exactly where to get tickets he had missed train, had to wait two hours for the next one. Not all bad, got to watch a woman have a go at a man with a walking stick. Both people seemed quite annoyed, don't know how it started but quite interesting to watch. Got to Kutna Hora and there was a market on, that was good, better than prague market and Kutna Hora is just a small town. We went to the ossuary. Inside were the bones of 40,000 people used to make all sorts of things like a coat of arms and a chandelier. A bit creepy. Then walked to the town square, empty - presumably everyone at the market. Then we went to St. Barbara cathedral. It is said to rival St.Vitus in magnificance. At first we couldn't find it and were starting to doubt the claim. He were wrong. He walked around a corner and wow! You could hear conversations stop as peoplewalked around the cathedral. Had wild boar goulash with gingerbread dumplings for lunch. Delicious. Had to run last 100m to train station to make sure we caught our train. This time we couldn't miss it, Laura needed to got back to catch a train to Bratislava.

Sunday
Decided to just walk around the city and look at everything. Walked mainly along the river, went back to the castle, got some good views of the city. Lunch was amssive, called the farmers plate. It had smoked pork, duck and roast ham as well as potato pancakes and bread dumplings. Once settled kept me going for the rest of the day. Checked into another hostel, my other one was booked out. Met these two Americans currenly living on the Croatian coastline and said that I could stay with them whenever I felt like it if I wanted to go to Croatia, score free accomadation.

Monday
Today I went to Czeny Krumlov. Is described as a fairytale medieval town and is a fairytale medieval town. This town was absolutely brilliant. It has a castle with gardens in which you can sit in for hours, little alleyways everywhere, a river running through it and some cafes with good hot chocolate to get away from the cold. Had to stand on a bus for an hour of the journey on the way there, a bit annoying but definitely worth it. Had awesaome lunch, it was beef cooked in cream with bread dumplings, again absolutely delicious. I love czech food it is fantastic!

Tuesday
Thought that a bus was leaving at 12:30, turns out the only one to wroclaw left at 9:00. Spent the day just filling in time. It snowed so i went to the main square to get some photos. For easter the main square was full of markets, they were good for a quick bite to eat. When at the bus stop I heard an Australian accent, looked up and it turned out to be Bec and Mel, two gappers. What luck, they were catching bus to Warsaw, i knew they were in prague but couldn't contact them so i was unable to meet up with them. Made the bus trip better. Didn't want to fall asleep in case i wound up i warsaw.

Wednesday
Arrived in wroclaw at 1:30am and had to catch a train to Poznan at 2:00. First time i had a carriage to mysely on polish trains. Got some sleep but definitely didn't want to be asleep around eta because the stations aren't well marked and you could easily arrive at a station not knowing where it was, but i do know Poznan station fairly well but just in case had alarm set. Arrived Poznan about 4:20 which meant by the time walked to bus there would be one going to Owinska. On the way there I saw someone stumbling a bit with another person. All of a sudden i recognised the jacket, it was Martin. What are the chances, 4:40 in the morning and we meet up? he missed the bus at 12:30 to Owinska. He thought i was going to be in the room when he got back, i thought he was going to be in the room when i got back, turns out no one had to wake the other one up. When we got back to Owinska there was some snow on the ground so i got some photos as proof. Puddles were frozen over, however temperatures having been increasing since then. The other day i wore a t-shirt for the first time.

New Room

We had to move rooms on Monday. Our new room is about twice as big, four times as many windows - all facing outwards so no one can see into our room. We have an extra bed - will be useful if people come to visit, at the moment it is just a storage space. We now have a chess board and a permanent spot for it. We paly one game a day to keep our minds active and to fill in our extreme amount of spare time. We have a desk where the laptop is set up, three cupboards - we wanted to get rid of one but they didn't let us. Window always an option - no one will see. No longer have to live out of a bag. There is a shower closer, only about 50metres now but our private, lockable bathroom is further away but it was always quite a distance. I think the new room even coincided with the improvement of the food. Now we just need ways to keep ourselves occupied. We have been giving private lessons and they total 105 zloty a week but we share duties. Plan to spend the week off for easter in Prague.

More of Wroclaw

What i did in Wroclaw. By the way it is pronounced vrots- wav. Mainly we went gnoming - searching for gnomes, we found sixteen and have photographic evidence of all of them. While doing this saw most of the Old Town and alot of churches and palaces. Went and saw a panorama depicting a battle in about 1780 between polish and russian forces. Also went to the Wroclaw museum, i have been taking photos of all the museums of been to to prove i actually did go. Climbed a tower in a church and got a view of the city. Also visited the Uni which has some excellent buildings and this cool courtyard. A beautiful city and did saw alot of stuff there. May go back to visit people placed near by.

Wroclaw

The school internet availability is really limited so i have to use it at hostels whenever i can. Just got into Wroclaw and believe it or not it is more beautiful than Krakow. (who thought it was possible.) Just waiting for more GAPpers to get here. About 29 out of 34 are coming here. we've been keeping in touch pretty well and it is an awesome way to travel the country - visiting other GAPpers and getting them to show you the sites. Were changing room back in Owinska; will be bigger, more windows, more clothes storage and an extra bed. A bit of hassle having to move but definitely a better room. Food still horrible but being able to travel around Poland and Europe makes up for it ten fold.

Krakow

Went to Krakow wed-sun. Train trips took seveh hours each. Some GAPpers are having a competition to see who can log up the most hours. In Krakow went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Also went to the royal castle Wawel. Checked out the armory and treasurery - pretty cool stuff there. Did the cultural thing and went to a museum - had a Da Vinci so i guess i had to go. Whole time there was awesome and it is and absolutely wonderful city