Krakow, Poland

at the town square. there's an awesome antique and handmade crafts market located here.

from wawel castle

the entrance to the birkenau section of auchwitz-berkanau concentration and death camp. the train of prisoners would ride into the middle of the camp where upon getting off, they go trough selection for work or death. this place is enormous - birkenau was designed to hold 200k people at a time, with plans for later expansion.

Warsaw, Poland

Warsaw is a fascinating place. this opinion is largely influenced by my american upbringing, where nazis/germans/communists were always our enemies. or at least for whatever reason, that's what stuck in my head as an impressionable youth. Warsaw, like no other place i've visited before, captures the history of the communist influence in eastern europe.

the postanie warszawskie monument. i also visited the museum by the same name which documents the polish battles against german occupation. the polish are proud of their resistance as evidenced by the many memorials around the city. they put up an admirable fight but the uprisings were eventually silenced by the nazis.

the nazis were so pissed at the continuing resistance to their occupation that they decided to destroy significant warsaw landmarks and buildings. by the end of the war, more than 80% of the city lay in ruins. 

as a testiment to the resilience of the people, the polish rebuilt, from the ground up, their entire "old town" after the war in order to preserve their heritage and culture.

in stark contrast to the colorful old town, there are communist era skyscraper buildings scattered around the rest of the city. whereas the old town has a very old european feel - narrow cobbled streets, large plazas, and colorful ornate buildings, the communist era landscape surrounding the old town is characterized by huge impersonal streets and large, dull, concrete buildings spaced far far away from each other.

the palace of culture and science -a gift from the U.S.S.R to Poland during cold war times. it very much resembles a mini empire state building.

all around the city now, new work is being done. infrastructure is being improved and fancy modern skyscrapers are going up.

lunch at the milk bar

Berlin, Deutschland

the brandenburg gate

sections from the berlin wall

Along with many other european visitor sites, the brandenburg gate has its street artists, performers and statues. The guy in the foreground has several bubble making stations setup for visitors to play with. this is a great idea because 1) kids absolutely love bubbles, 2) it's crowd interactive which means 3) he can stand there and chill while he's making money. he pretty much owns the street performance scene here. Spiderman (standing in the middle) on the other hand, is an example of what not to do. he has a super lame costume and just stands there with a net over his head. exactly like you can see. doesn't move at all. although, he may be going for "parody of spiderman" rather than spiderman, but if that's the case then its confusing and he needs a sign to clarify the fact. farther back you can see the green clown and the monk statue who are so busy they are talking amongst themselves.

interior of some super-couture mall

friday night fun at the photoautomat

pork knuckle! if you have any left over you can take it home and have yourself a knuckle sandwich.

bunnies from the hostel courtyard. no CO2 emissions when cutting the grass here.

Munchen, Deutschland

the legendary hofbrauhaus.

biergarten at the hofbrauhaus. this place is poppin every night. even when its raining.

1 liter beers are standard fare in munchen. they're so heavy, girls (being the weaker sex) have to use two hands

paulaner weissbier, drank (drunk? drinken?) at the source

the munich residenz, home to past bavarian kings and royalty. although less known than versailles, i'd say its definitely on par in terms of interior decorating.

check out the details! you know you've made it when you have custom engraved door hinges. 

every great painting deserves a good frame



okay, change of castle. this is schloss nymphenburg. doesn't look like much of a castle, right?

ceiling of the entertaining room in schloss nymphenburg

a poster detailing dachau prisoner uniform patches. from left to right, the colors indicate: political, professional criminal, immigrant, jehova's witness, homosexual, lazy germans who don't work, lazy non-germans who don't work

the dachau crematorium. you can't imagine how creepy and depressing it is to walk through this place.

the flower thief



along a lovely drive through the german countryside towards neuschwanstein castle

brezel stache!

how much?