Cuzco, Peru

Cuzco takes your breath away, literally.  11,000ft elevation gave me a very slight headache, and leaden legs when climbing stairs.

You'll see many Inca walls in a trip to Peru, but none more perfectly sculpted than those in the ancient capitol of Cuzco.  Today banks and houses are built on top of the original fifteenth century walls.

Everywhere in Peru we see four foot tall old ladies carrying massive loads slung on their backs.  We never saw a single Peruvian man carrying anything.

This family brought a llama and an alpaca to the edge of town so tourists could pet them, take pictures and give a "propina" or tip.

These bizarre ski masks are sold all over and I had to have one.

The giant doors of the Cathedral on the Cuzco Plaza de Armas

These ladies had a baby llama for picture-taking followed by a propina, which, no matter how much you gave them was not enough.

Peruvians consider "Cuy" or guinea pigs a delicacy.

Lima, Peru

 

Peru is country #62.  We arrived in Lima late at night, exhausted from 24 hours of travel, and finding Lindsey's bag did not make the journey with us, nor did our pre-arranged driver show.  On arrival at our hotel the lovely Hostal El Patio in Miraflores, we were pleasantly surprised.

In the morning we took a cab to the Plaza Armas.  Nice place, decent for walking around.  I had heard nothing good about the huge eight million person city of Lima, but we enjoyed this part of town as well as Miraflores.

The national drink of Peru is the Pisco Sour, so why not try one at the origin of the drink, the Hotel Bolivar?  I thought it was tart and awful, but Lindsey liked em.  I stuck with Cuzquena beer the rest of the trip, particularly the malty Cuzquena Negra whenever available.

We sampled the nightlife of the Miraflores area near Parque Kennedy, and had a great time. We became friends with these folks in a hole-in-the-wall bar near our hotel.

Munich, Germany

The king of Oktoberfest. This giant from Westchester, NY stood up and chugged 7 mugs of beer over the course of a few hours in the Hofbrauhaus tent. That's 19.6 12oz. beers in American measuring. Unreal. (See the video at the bottom of the post)
The security at Oktoberfest was pretty tight. I saw no fights. No one wanted to mess with this dude. The security guys were pretty calm though; they threw out "The King" after he chugged his seventh liter, but they guided him gently toward the door, and allowed him to stop for applause, autographs and pictures on the way out.
That's AM on the watch. First beer of the day, 9:43am. The tent was full by 9:25am and they closed the doors. Go early, or go home.
The Hofbrauhaus tent holds up to 6,896 drunk people at any given moment.
Aaron's friends Dave, Rob, and Jake have unusual travel habits. The actually took a taxi from Prague to meet us in Munich. The fare was only $500. This caused them to miss day 1. This picture is from Day 2. They showed up late, after door-closing time on the morning of day 3, so they missed that day too. Rob snuck in somehow, despite being abandoned at an ATM, and left penniless by Dave and Jake.
Hofbrau is the "foreigners tent" It's also the rowdiest tent, and the tent where English is the common language.
Dirndls and lederhosen
For day 2, Aaron and I bought these traditional Bavarian checkered shirts. A majority of people at Oktoberfest wear lederhosen and dirndls, and we felt a bit left out, so for 20 euro we at least had the right shirts.
Our hotel was very close by the Weisn, only a fifteen minute walk away. It was located in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. So every night we saw the strange mixture of hundreds of hammered people walking down our street past hundreds of disapproving Muslim men. Great place to get a kabob at midnight. The guy on the left did NOT want to be in our picture, but he couldn't back away quick enough.


This is the king, standing up on a table to chug his 4th and 5th liters of beer of the day.

Auschwitz, Poland

ARBEIT MACHT FREI "Work sets you free" is the sign you cross under when you enter Auschwitz death camp. It was a cruel joke by the Nazis as no one went free from here.
The original electric fence surrounding the camp.

I did a day tour from Krakow to Auschwitz and nearby Birkenau, the largest concentration camp ever created. 1.1 Million people, mostly Jews, were murdered here between 1942 and 1945. I was told that this tour was a "must see" when visiting Krakow. I had visited the killing fields of Cambodia before, so I was hesitant to go. I wish I hadn't gone, and this will be my last visit to such a place. I stopped taking pictures in the first 5 minutes. Auschwitz is such a horrifying place, that I was physically drained and ill afterwards. I went back to my hostel and slept 12 hours. I agree that it is crucially important that people remember what happened here, in order to make sure it doesn't happen again. (Though it has; in Cambodia in 1975, in Bosnia in 1995, in Rwanda in 1994, in Darfur in 2003.) But I know history very well, and I don't wish to visit these places anymore.

Krakow, Poland

Some fitting grafitti on a cool wall mural in Kazmierz, Krakow
This is the square in the former Jewish Ghetto of Krakow where the Nazis lined up the last remaining Jews and murdered them all in 1944 before their retreat. After killing them and removing the bodies, they searched all their houses and threw all the chairs out the windows into the square. The Jews were known to hide money and jewels inside furniture, so the Nazis smashed all the chairs into the square to see what they could find.
I did two fantastic walking tours with http://freewalkingtour.com/ I strongly recommend doing their tours. You just enjoy and then tip as you see fit at the end. Great tour guides. I did both the Kazmierz tour and the Old Town Krakow tour.
A look down to the Rynek Glowny
They do have some funny cars in Eastern Europe.
The bridge of love. You carve your loves name on the lock and lock it to the bridge.
A guy dressed as a beer with a sign that reads "Free Beer!" I think I like this town.
St. Mary's church in the Rynek Glowny.


A view of the central square, the largest in Europe.

Krakow is one of my very favorite cities in the world thus far. Beautiful 17th century architecture, clean, parks to run in, cheap, and great bars.
I had a great time staying at Greg and Tom's Junior Hostel. A bed was about $18, and with it came FREE DINNER every night. Amazing. Not only that, but in conjunction with Krakow City Tours, they had a nightly pub crawl, which for a grand total of $9 (30 zloty), you were led to a pub and served 4 or 5 shots of different Polish vodkas, then walked to a bar where you got pretty much all the beer you could drink, then staggered over to a club where your entry was paid. I went three different nights. Krakow provides more fun per dollar than any city in Europe Ive visited.

Warsaw, Poland

Warsaw is a modern, attractive city of 1.7 million. It has a very pleasant, and not obviously fake old town. You see, Warsaw was completely obliterated by the Nazis in 1944 after the Warsaw uprising. Hardly a single building was left standing. It was the most destroyed city in all of Europe. So in the 1950's the Poles decided to rebuild the old town center exactly as it had looked pre-WWII. They did a wonderful job, and it looks great.
Market Square
The Barbican
cobblestone back streets
leaving from the trainstation with the Palace of Science and Culture visible in the distance.
Market Square

I only had a day and a half in Warsaw. I enjoyed the old town, and staying at OkiDoki Hostel, which was a fantastic hostel with a bar serving one dollar beers onsite! Met some guys from Canada, and had a blast wandering around Warsaw.

Vatican City

Vatican City is the smallest sovereign nation in the world with a population of 829. It's also certainly the richest nation per capita, but the Vatican does not release it financial information, so no one knows for sure. What is sure is that the Catholic Church has amassed an obscene amount of priceless works of art, likely the most valuable art collection on Earth. For a fee they'll let you look at it. We spent a couple hours touring the Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel. There are entirely too many people in all the tourist spots of Italy, and the Sistine Chapel is no exception. We stood on the edge of the chapel while uniformed guards continually shouted at people to be quiet. The din of conversation echoed off the five hundred year old frescoes. Every inch of floor space was occupied by chattering tourists. We didn't stay long. We passed through the endless galleries with our audio guides pressed to our ears. We gained an appreciation for Raphael and Botticelli. I liked Caravaggio. I hope when I'm old I gain an appreciation for the great works of art, but for now as I trudge through art museums I feel like I'm on a mandatory class trip with a quiz at the end.

St Peters Basilica St Peter's square (which is actually round).Inside St. Peters. One big church. You don't really need to see any other churches after you've seen this one. St. Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world. The inside of the dome is 136 feet high.

St Peter's looking up.

Swiss guard. Recruits to the guards must be Catholic, single males with Swiss citizenship who have completed basic training with the Swiss military and can obtain certificates of good conduct. Recruits must have a professional degree or high school diploma and must be between 19 and 30 years of age and at least 174 cm (5 ft 9 in) tall. Must also be willing to wear a silly outfit for hours at a time.

Rome, Italy

Rome, the Eternal City. A pretty amazing place if you ask me. Too many people here, just like in Florence. But so many sights.

Our hotel was just down the street from the Forum and Colosseum. Each night when we walked back we could just sit next to the forum and look at the 2000 year old columns.



Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon is my new favorite building ever. This was built in 126 AD and is in near perfect condition. Standing inside, it seems inconceivable that the dome was constructed 1900 years ago and is still intact. It wasn't until 1300+ years later with the completion of Brunelleschi's Duomo in Florence that man was able to match the architectural skill of the ancient Romans. Amazing.

The Spanish Steps are one big old staircase. Nice place to sit and people watch. The most interesting thing we saw here was the Carabinieri's attempts to catch this Roma (gypsy) flower seller who had apparently stolen something. He jogged around the Steps for several minutes with increasing anxiety trying to outmaneuver the blue uniformed Carabinieri who were patiently walking (not running) after him. The whole crowd on the steps watched this slow motion drama unfold and some (including us) pointed out his whereabouts to the police as he kept ducking behind objects and people. They never did catch him.
The interesting thing about travelling is the things you don't expect to find. Everyone knows that Italy has the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower, but unless you've been there you wouldn't know that every single Piazza in Italy has Roma men selling flowers, and Senegalese immigrants selling knockoff Louis Vuitton purses and fake Rolex watches.