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| Western Europe 2004In August 2004, on my first ever visit to Europe, I arrived in Cologne Germany where I was picked up by my Dad's cousin Edmund for a two week stay in and around Geilenkirchen, about 60Km west as the crow flies from Cologne. Geilenkirchen is less than 10Km east of the Dutch border and less than 30Km north of the Belgian border, so on this two week visit I got to visit three countries, sometimes even on the same day, including the "Dreilandenpunkt" or "Three lands point" of Germany, Holland and Belgium. Then in early September 2004, I arrived in Poland on the Berlin-Warsaw Express Train, for a ten month stint teaching English in the country of my ancestors. A wonderful experience from which I made friends for life. |
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| Poland 2004-2005This is where I spent the bulk of my stay in Europe in 2004/2005. To live and work in the country of my ancestors was a most wonderful and rewarding experience. I spent time equally with other foreign teachers as well as Polish people which enriched my experience no end, and has left me with wonderful and indelible memories. While my home base of Radom, just 90Km south of Warsaw, seemed at times to have an image problem, I can never really denigrate the town. I had an amazing social life there, and despite the 30% unemployment, the fact that I was a native English speaker, meant that in this town of 300 000, with its 36 language schools, I never had trouble finding work, unlike in Australia. The great irony is that while my grandparents left Poland in September 1924 for Germany, due to lack of work in Poland, almost eighty years to the day, on the Berlin-Warsaw Express I crossed the same border in the opposite direction due to my inability to find MEANINGFUL FULL-TIME PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT in Australia. |
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| Polish Holiday 2008This is the Polish leg of our Holiday 2008, from mid May to just before mid June 2008. A wonderful re-visit of my Polish roots. Starting with Gdansk, in Poland's north on the Baltic Sea, we gradually covered Poland to its southern extremity at the beautiful mountain town of Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains on the Slovakian border. |
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23_holiday_2008_Taipei_Frankfurt_Gdynia_18th_Mon_19th_May_2008
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Photos from our exhausting trip which started in Kaohsiung with the bus trip to Taipei Airport, and ended at the railway station in Gdynia, near Gdansk in Poland. It took 40 hours. We traveled by bus from Kaohsiung to Taipei, then flew from Taipei to Frankfurt in Germany, then caught a high speed train from Frankfurt to Berlin, a regional train from Berlin to Angermunde near the Polish border, (which we only caught with 2 minutes to spare), then another German regional train from Angermunde to Szczecin, just inside Poland, then finally a four hour trip on a Polish train from Szczecin to Gdynia, near Gdansk. Our China Airlines flight flew over Northern Siberia inside the Arctic Circle, so you will see photos of Northern Siberia still covered in snow despite it being late Spring. Also, even though we left Taipei at 11:45pm, just before midnight, three hours later the sun was rising over Eastern Siberia, and from that point we only saw darkness again about 24 hours later, just before we got to Gdynia.
150 files, last one added on Jul 05, 2008
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25_holiday_2008_Gdansk_Centrum_view_Mariacka_21st_May_2008
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Our first visit to the beautiful town centre or "centrum" of Gdansk. The city where the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe was spawned with the creation of the Solidarity Trade Union by Lech Walesa, the shipyard electrician, and the first shots of World War II were fired. This album features the Mariacka or St Mary's Cathedral, with it's magnificent views from it's baszta or tower. When it was first built in 1493, after construction was started in 1343, it was a Catholic church, but then from 1529 to 1945 it was Protestant. After being destroyed in World War II, like 90% of Gdansk's Centrum, it was rebuilt and reverted back to being a Catholic church after more than 4 centuries. Furthermore, the whole of Gdansk's Centrum was reconstructed after the War exactly as it was before.
122 files, last one added on Jul 05, 2008
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27_holiday_2008_Gdansk_Centrum_St_Bridgette_Post_Office_Friday_23rd_May_2008
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Our second day at the Gdansk Centrum. We first visited St Bridgette Church, which was the church of worship and sanctuary for the members of the Solidarity Trade Union. Inside is a monument to Father Jerzy Popieluszko , who was murdered by Polish Secret Police in 1984. Next we visited the Post Office Museum, which was the scene for some of the most dramatic events of the first days WW II. For 15 hours the postal workers resisted the Nazi onslaught on the 1st September 1945, before being overwhelmed. The museum commemorates their heroism. However, photos were hard to take, with various KGB minders telling us at first we can't take photos, then saying we could, then saying we can't. Personally, I could not see the problems with taking photos, as most of the museums allowed you to photograph, albeit sometimes minus the flash
114 files, last one added on Jul 08, 2008
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31_holiday_2008_Hel_Monday_26th_May_2008
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Our train trip to Hel, yes Hel, but with only one 'L'. Hel township is at the point of the Hel peninsula, north of Gdansk, and north east of Gdynia. From Gdynia it is only 15 minutes by water taxi, but that will set you back 600 zloty or $300 Aussie. So we opted for the two and a half hour train trip from Gdansk, which was free for us on our Poland/Germany Eurail Pass. There is very reasonably priced Catamaran service to Sopot, Gdynia and Gdansk, but it only operates on weekends, so that option was not available to us, as we visited it on a Monday. As for the town, it is one of Poland's premier tourist destinations, but for us, having such incredibly beautiful beaches in Australia, it did not impress us that much, although it still had it's charm. The tall lighthouse inside the National Park was an impressive site and gave you a good view of the peninsula's surrounds and the town centre was rather quaint. In the end, we could say that we've been to Hel and back, although, Hel, in Polish does not mean anything in particular, but since many people in Gdansk said that "You have to go to Hel", who were we not to comply?
138 files, last one added on Jul 11, 2008
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32_holiday_2008_Gdansk_Centrum_Tourist_day_Tuesday_27th_May_2008
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Tuesday is Tourist Day in Gdansk, meaning that many museums have free admission. This was the day to go and see some of Gdansk's famous museums. The first of which was Arthur's Court or Dwor Artusa, which was a meeting place for the wealthy burghers of Gdansk, who were inspired by the chivalrous traditions of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It was absolutely brilliant, especially with some of the magnificent huge paintings echoing centuries of history. Next was the Old Town Hall, which was almost as impressive, with the glorious view of the town centre from the baszta or tower. One interesting historical artifact was some old German currency, with notes valued as high as five million marks!!!! Yes, five million marks, which I imagine date back to Germany's chronic inflation in the early 1920s, brought about by the forced reparations it was forced to pay after World War I. Later, we visited Uphagen House, acquired by Johann Uphagen, a town councillor in 1775. Of Belgian/Flemisch descent, he had it demolished and a new residence put in it's place, which, after the destruction of World War II, like much of the Centrum, was beautifully recreated.
205 files, last one added on Jul 11, 2008
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