A spring break montage

No, I'm not dead. Just really lazy.

I made it back to Paris on Monday, and have sort of been dragging myself around since then. It turns out that a spring break spent visiting seven countries in two weeks is kind of draining. Who'da thunk?

But due to repeated inquiries (ok, dad asked once) as to the lack of updates on the blog, I have finally uploaded the approximately 37 million photos from spring break and will now share the choicest selection with you, fair readers. I'm going to do it in installments, though, because I have way too many pictures for a single post. We will begin with

Krakow, POLAND

On my first night in Krakow, my couchsurfer host Robert took me to this obscure sidewalk stand in the Jewish quarter that is famous for these pizza-type open-face sandwiches. The one I'm holding has cheese, mushrooms, chives, and ketchup. "Polish people really love ketchup," Robert had said. "I don't know why."

This is the main square in Krakow. The central building is the Cloth Hall, so named because they used to sell cloth there. Now it's full of a bunch of booths selling jewelry and handmade wooden stuff to tourists.

Amber jewelry was available for sale all over the Baltic States. I didn't buy any because it was expensive and I don't like orange.

You will notice that the two towers on this church in Krakow are oddly asymmetrical. The story associated with the construction is that there were two brothers, each of whom was responsible for building one tower. The left-hand tower brother finished first, but then got scared that the right-hand tower brother was going to build his half taller and embarrass him. So, like any normal person, he decides the best course of action is to kill his brother before the second tower can be completed-- hence the difference in the heights. Unfortunately, though, he later goes mad with grief over what he's done and hurls himself off the belfry. C'est la vie.

This cave is found under the Wawel Castle in Krakow. According to legend it is the former home of a ferocious dragon who lived in Krakow many centuries ago and became something of a menace after it devoured most of the villagers and livestock. Finally one surviving villager had the grand idea of feeding the dragon a giant chunk of salt, and when it went running down to the river to drink some water it exploded. Dragon problem solved, and now you can visit the cave for like 50 cents.

That's a pretzel thing I bought from a sidewalk stand. To the right is a famous statue of some Polish poet, and according to Robert it's also some sort of military mecca. When soldiers get released from duty, they come to this statue and do push-ups on the ground in front of the poet. No one knows why.

This is where Pope John Paul II used to live. They've put a poster of him up in the window because whenever he was in town, large crowds of people used to flock to his window in front of his house and he would open it and stand there to pray and talk to them all night.

Warsaw, POLAND

This is the Old Town of Warsaw, which is not very old at all because it's been totally reconstructed following the damages of WWII.

Me in front of the Royal Palace.

In Warsaw I saw some pretty sweet breakdancing.

This was a little bit hilarious.

My Warsaw couchsurfers made me borsch! The pink stuff floating in it is sour cream.

Hey I'm going down to Flugger Farby, do you need anything?

Vilnius, LITHUANIA

This tower is mostly all that remains of the 13th-century hilltop castle that once stood atop Vilnius. You can ride a funicular up there and see some lovely views of the city.

Like this one.

In Vilnius there's this artistic, bohemian, neo-hippie kind of community whose symbol is a hand. My couchsurfer Eva took me through the part of the city that this community lays claim to.

I really liked this tradition. Eva told me that in Lithuania, when a couple wants to declare their love, they attach a pair of locks to the bars of a bridge and throw the key into the river. If no one can find the key to unlock the locks, their love will never be undone. There are tons of these locks all over the bridges that we walked by, some of them very rusty and old-fashioned. Much more poetic than carving your names into a tree!

Last stop in Vilnius was the Genocide Museum, which recalls Lithuania's tragic years of oppression during WWII and under the rule of the Soviet Union. Genocide victims' names are engraved on the blocks that make up the outside of the museum.

In the basement of the museum you can visit the KGB prison that was a part of the building until the 1990s. Many unfortunate people were prisoners here, with many people sharing cells as small as this one.

Me in one of the prison cells. It is no laughing matter.

Eeeee scary straightjacket room! Note the padded walls.

Apart from retaining its Soviet charm, the bathroom also seemed to have kept its original odor.

And on that happy note, we will end. More to come when my energy returns.