Jocelyn's Blog

Here are some pictures, they range from Riga, Latvia all the way to Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains in Poland. I'm going to be really nice and label them for you!!

The Old Town in Riga, Latvia

Statue in Riga

A really sweet blue house in the Old Town, one of my favourite Riga pictures

Different angle... wait was it a blue house?? Cool sky too!

A typical street in the Old Town, I love how narrow the streets are and how high the buildings are.

Me on a seesaw in Ventspils on the West coast of Latvia - one of Eric's favourite pictures of me.

Our camping spot in Ventspils.

The travelling cow in Ventspils - apparently he's been all over the world, I don't believe it.

I can't remember who this guy was, I guess I liked him at the time.

A random cobblestone street in Ventspils

A crazy Soviet statue in Riga (we went back here after Ventspils, so they are in order)

A church across from our hostel in Siauliai, Lithuania.

The graveyard behind the church.

Hill of crosses up close.

Hill of crosses from further away.

Beach in Klaipeda, Lithuania, on the Western coast.

Sunbathing at the beach with a cool aussie and a French Canadian.

Me and a stork.

Eric and a stork.

Crazy wooden statues in Juodkrante, Lithuania.

Another statue.

Church in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Frank Zappa statue in Vilnius... don't really know why, but it was in Lonely Planet so we went to find it. Cool graffiti behind it though.

The best parts of Vilnius!! I loved this old part near our hostel.

Eric liked taking pictures of it too.

An awesome statue in the same neighborhood. It was the Uzupis Republic area, self proclaimed country within the city for the hippies and artists and drunks.

LENIN!!!

STALIN!!!

Stylized Lenin

Stalin

Lenin. Seriously, this guy was HUGE, like 18 feet high!

Lenin, looking a bit friendlier.

Another church in Vilnius.

And another.

Castle in Trakai, Lithuania.

Eric, about to lose his head, but looking pretty happy about it.

Inside the castle.

More castle.

And more.

Action shot of me feeding a swan. He ignored it though.

Me, posing on a boat, like a princess!

Me actually working.

Another church in Vilnius.

Old town of Warsaw.

More old town.

Statue in Warsaw... not sure why the horse is killing someone.

Me posing like a movie star.

Palace of Culture and Science. No joke. This was Stalin's gift to Warsaw.

Ja Chce Pierogi!

Eric Chce Pierogi!

Wawel hill in Krakow, Poland.

Virgin Mary in the Wawel HIll cathedral. One of many.

Gate to the old town of Krakow.

Church in the old town of Krakow.

The dragon that breathes fire, if you text message it!

Me going down into the Salt Mine.

Chapel in the Salt Mine.

More chapel, it was cool, all carved by miners out of salt.

Lody (icecream)

More Lody!

Old town in Krakow.

Papa Smurf, in Zakopane, Poland.

Peak through trees. In the Tatra Mountains.

Me hiking in Tatra mountains.

Pretty lakes.

View from the top of our crazy hike.

Eric striking a pose... lunging from the top. Macho man that he is.

Me on the top, looking slightly nervous.

Another pose.

Us at the top.

Eric being all artsy fartsy.

The resthouse we stayed at for two nights, it was sweet!

Cool stream, again, Eric trying to capture something with the water moving.. i dunno.

Eric soaking wet.

Me climbing.

Cool ridge.

Artsy fartsy number two.

Hello,

So now we're down in Krakow, a five hour train ride south of Warsaw - a train that never went faster than about 20 km/h I might add. When we arrived, we hiked from the train station a few km to where we thought we'd be staying, but instead found a sign on the door with my name on it directing us to a bar. We went and got some drinks while waiting for the owner to show up and drive us to the place. The evil place. I'll explain later.

The next day we took a bus to Auschwitz. We took a guided tour and were herded around with mass amounts of tourists. Nonetheless it was a good experience, I'm glad it's over, but very glad we did it. I think it was more important to Eric to see it, but I really learnt a lot.

The day after, we went to see the main sight in Krakow, Wawel hill, which has a castle and a cathedral on it. It was really cool, we picked the perfect time of day to go see it because a huge thunderstorm came crashing down on us as soon as we got to the top. The storm must have been right above us, I don't think I've been frightened by lightning before! Anyways, after this we walked around the old town, which was really cool, but not as great as we'd been led to believe. We both agreed that the fact that all the old buildings had huge chain stores in them took away from the 'medieval' feel of the place, and instead we felt more like we were in a mall. A really nice mall. Anyways, I think perhaps we're being spoiled with old towns and now we're being more choosy. In my mind Riga is still the best, but maybe that's because it was the first one I saw and now they're all blending together. But maybe it really was better!

The next day was a non-day. We tried to go to the salt mine outside of Krakow, but got stopped right at the door. We were locked in our apt by the other guests who hadn't realized that if you double lock the door you can't open it from the inside. This was fine we thought, a little annoying, but not the end of the world. We were, afterall, checking out that day so we just had to wait for housekeeping. Unfortunately, housekeeping never showed up, as the room apparently wasn't booked for that night. We didn't have any luck shouting down to the street for help either because everyone spoke Polish... and we honestly didn't try to hard because we kept thinking someone would show up. Around 12 at night the other guests finally came back and we charged downtown for some much needed kebabs and icecream. Luckily we hadn't starved all day because there was some brown rice in the cupboard that we cooked in the kettle. We've decided, to keep our spirits up, that this day never actually existed, and will therefore hopefully never speak of it again.

Today we went to the salt mine, which I must say was worth the wait. It was really interesting, and (thankgod) cold! I think we've only had one day under 30 degrees since we arrived in Europe. We had an awesome tour and our guide gave us some salt crystals (illegally, shhhh she could lose her job). Afterwards we went to our favourite perogi restaurant and then ate icecream from Poland's best icecream place. We assume it was anyways, for some reason this place had the hugest line up of locals despite the fact that there were many other icecream places around. Eric likened it to the soup nazi episode of Seinfeld and since I haven't seen this episode I'll take his word for it. Except that the people inside were really nice even thought they were so rushed. I don't get the logic, but fair enough.

Anyways, I'm sure your eyes are sore now....
I'll let you all return to your lives in Canada, and I'll be sure to write again soon and let you know what's going on... We're heading to the mountains and then to Slovakia, then Czech Republic... we think.

Miss everyone lots,

Joce

So we've left Lithuania now and have arrived in Poland. We took the overnight bus, during which I eavesdropped on a conversation between another Canadian guy and a girl from London. Turns out, the guy is in the third year of my program at Ottawa U. Crazy, small world.

Right away Eric and I liked Warsaw. Right from the moment we were standing in line to buy bus tickets into the centre of the city and a man asked us if we were in line. Very courteous. This may seem quite normal to everyone back in Canada, but it's very different from the Baltics. I was getting a little tired of having to breath down the neck of the person in front of me in order to keep my place in line. However, I think this must have something to do with communism, and having to wait for hours in line to get even basic things. Anyways, for some reason this doesn't seem to be as much the case in Poland. It's great!

We're staying with a local couple right downtown, and they are amazingly nice. We met them through a website called Hospitality Club, which is basically a network of people willing to put travellers up for free and often show them around their cities/towns. They work so hard here, sometimes up to 15 hour days in order to keep up with city living, but they still seem to be incredibly cheerful and helpful. I can't imgagine myself putting up a couple of travellers if I had as little spare time as they do. I feel incredibly greatful. They've also been giving us lots of advice for less touristy places to see in Poland, and as we hadn't really thought of visiting anything other than the main sights - Krakow and Auschwitz and possibly some mountains in the south, it will probably change our plans quite a lot.

Tonight, when Monica (our host) comes back from work, we'll probably go out to a restaurant for great Perogies. Oh - I have given up being a vegitarian for the time being. My excuse is that a. it's really hard here because everything has meat and i can't read menus to know what does and doesn't, and b. the food is such a huge part of experiening the culture that I don't want to miss out on it. Ok, and c. I was starting to get a bit envious of the meat Eric was eating - it looked really good!

I hope everyone is doing well back home, I love and miss you all!!!!

Take care,
Joce

Hi!!
So I've just set this up in Klaipeda, Lithuania, so I won't try to explain all the things I've done up until now. (Ok, well basically it was just London and then a week in Latvia and it has been soo great!)

Eric and I have been staying in a hostel here for the past three days and have had great fun. It's the first time I've been in a dorm style hostel and I was actually pretty thrilled by it. People are typically super nice and friendly and even if you don't catch everyone's name, you feel pretty instantly connected. There's the aussie girl, the aussie couple, the crazy Irish guy who says 'fook' a lot, the sweet older kiwi couple, the cute Quebec girl with the insatiable curiosity, etc etc.

Today Eric and I headed to the Lithuanium Aquarium Museum and saw Baltic seals and Sea Lions being fed, saw Dolphins, and tons of colourful fish (which I'm fairly certain aren't from around here) as well as some not so colourful ones. I really enjoyed it!

We then headed south down the Curonian Spit to a little village which had this really cool little trail through the woods. It was full of spooky wooden sculptures - witches and goblins and such. I think many of them probably had some sort of story or legend attatched, but of course I had no idea about any of them. Still it was pretty cool to see. Afterwards, dying from heat, we bought some cool beer and found a bench in the shade and relaxed for a while before heading back to our hostel.

Our plan is - one more night here, then tomorrow we head to Vilnius. We have a hostel booked in this weird little part of town that has been "claimed" as an independent nation - full of hippies and drunks, or so we're told. It should be worth a visit, I wonder how well we'll fit in....

Hope all's well at home, and that the summer is as hot as ours is here!

Lots of love,
Joce xoxooxox