Jul 2007

we spent about 10 days in poland and in that time had about 17 meals of polish sausage... we stayed with some family friends who are starting a church and also have an english language training outreach in opole in the south of poland. we met a ton of people all over the community who invited us into their homes for meals and shared their experiences and lives with us, we also taught the youth sunday school sermon and led conversation classes in the evenings at the english school where we met some great people. we really enjoyed hearing about their experiences during 'the communism' and didnt enjoy as much the fact that they all beat us at english scattergories... guess our vocab isnt up to snuff...

we then visited krakow, a beautiful, and not too touristy city (yet), full of horse drawn carriages, beautiful squares, great restaurants and more churches per acre than anywhere outside rome. in the photo above we trying to fit in in the 'dragons lair,' a network of tunnels under the wavel castle in central krakow...

from krakow we took a daytrip to auschwitz, which was an extremely moving and sad experience. throughout eastern europe, we have visited many similiar museums and memorials depicting the holocaust as well as the following communist dictatorship and oppression faced by poland and its neighbors. the horrors and tragedies the people in this part of the world have faced over the last century are mind-boggling and indescribable.

a week of paddling on the med was a welcome break from our fast pace of seeing sights around portugal, italy, and ireland. the water was incredibly clear, blue and glassy -- the swimming and paddling were fantastic. we broke in our new waterproof, shockproof, ninjaproof camera and visited caves, secluded beaches, and awesome restaurants around the dalmation coast near dubrovnik.

we also took a trip by scooter to the bay of kotor in montenegro... kirks scooter handling at 30 mph while being passed by semi trucks and buses going 60 on a narrow two lane road on cliffs overlooking the ocean was flawless.

we had an awesome weekend visiting our buddies keith and katie from vandenberg in vicenza, italy. it was great to catch up with them and hear all about their adventures living in italy and reminisce about the good times at 4425. we hiked in the julian alps and stayed in a refugio for a night with keith and katie and some friends of theirs. hiking in the alps is way different from hiking in the US, in that they dont really believe in switchbacks, so the traditional 'trail' we think of in the US is usally non-existent. you are generally always climbing straight up the mountain, often with just a series of cables and clips you are supposed to hang onto as you dangle from the cliffs... it was a fantastic challenge and the scenery was amazing.

we conveniently missed our connection through vienna to croatia and austrian air put us up in a sweet 4star hotel in downtown vienna for the night and gave us a 75 dollar meal voucher for dinner. our favorite part was the room service breakfast delivery... not a bad deal for a ticket that was free to begin with!

hit the palio, an annual horse race run in the piazza of sienna for the last 1000 years or so, with adam and travis -- a fantastic festival in a beautiful city. after almost 4 hours of waiting in the square, and 2 minutes of excitement, the fierce and mighty... goose... neighborhood won. too bad we dont have many pictures since this is the night our camera decided to run away forever with a sienna taxi...