Mike Wittie's Blog

2009-07-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

The trip to Rome and Warsaw was phenomenal. No offense to Italian espresso or Polish tea, but it was good to get a cup of Joe from DD on my layover in Chicago.

Check out the rest of the pictures here.

Stary Kleparz

2007-07-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

   Back to Kraków for a moment. On our last day there I got this idea into my head that I would buy an old voluntary Socialist militia motorcycle helmet. I saw two pizza delivery guys ride in them. The helmet kinda reminds of the old Italian style dome helmets and thought it would be a perfect Sunday drive retro gear. In front of the hotel was an Army surplus store, which to spite me was opening late that day.
   While waiting for the store I decided to walk around a bit and ended up finding something much more interesting than the helmet a few blocks aways. Located in the area of town known as the Old Kleparz (after a village that used to be there back, back in the day and has been incorporated into city proper) was an outdoor market with all kinds of local products. Some of the stands were in more permanent buildings, or something we would call trailers in the States, but the middle of the market was dominated by wares displayed on tables under more or less roofed walkways. The stands were more or less organized into areas according to the kind of merchandise they were offering. It wasn't unusual then to find a number of stands next to each other selling exactly the same thing at exactly the same price. This applied to merchandise such as vegetables of course, but even to slippers or kitchen wares.
   Here's an example of four tables selling cheese. I was surprised to see that nearly all of the customers had an allegiance to a particular vendor, beelined straight for them - some even had rather personal conversations throughout the transaction. I asked the cheese ladies if I could take a picture of them and while they all agreed, one of them tried to hide under the table - she's the second one from the left, only the top of her head is visible left of a lamp post.
   A stand that surprised me offered sleeping gowns to women. I couldn't think of a less sexy way to display these articles and the color scheme has reminded me "it's a boy" "it's a girl" "it's a (we don't know, let's get a yellow one)" baby clothes.

   Finally on the way out I finally hit the jackpot - old man vests. Phil this one is for you. Now we know where they come from.

Berlin

2007-07-25T04:13:00.000-07:00

After giving the final grant presentation in Kraków, I decided to spend the rest of my stint discovering Western Europe. The original plan in its most ambitious form called for travel to Berlin, Terborg, Amsterdam, and Paris, however, due to monetary and time constraints it had to be scaled back to - Berlin with an extra day.
Staying in a friends empty room, at her sister's apartment in a somewhat of a bar area in East Berlin turned out to be a great operations base. Not only was I close to all kinds of public transportation, great Thai and Indian food, and an awesome internet cafe, but also only three short blocks away from the one of the show promenades of the Communist East Berlin. The buildings there were huge in a way that can be exacted only by the Soviets. This picture was taken from across the street (including two very wide walkways, two lanes of trees and grass, two parking lanes, four lanes of traffic, and a two lane divider) and still I couldn't get the whole building in one shot. In fact this particular example of Soviet housing development had two wings sticking out the side, rendering it in practive about twice as long than one could gauge from the picture. A number of similar buildings lines this particular street. I heard a story that one of the inspections by the Party came on the projected date of the East Berlin having build one thousand apartments. Since of course the building development did not exactly stick to schedule, the one thousandth apartment was finished ahead of the other ones and a family was paid to stand at the window framed by flags and wave to the party leaders and camera crews in the streets.
Another icon of the East Berlin is the TV Tower, which can be seen in nearly all postcards in one form of another. Even if the shot is of a landmark in West Berlin, it has to include the tower in some distant perspective. I must say that I found the tower quite pleasant looking and really useful in always knowing which was was my apartment. On top of the tower (I'm assuming in the ball part) is a revolving restaurant. The one thing I keep thinking about is whether the kitchen revolved with the dining room, or whether the waiter always comes out in a different part of the restaurant.

Guarding the people from crossing over to West Berlin across the river Spree is East Side gallery - a section of the Berlin wall made famous after the fall by the artists who painted it. The artists have been asked to redo their work after it had been vandalized or suffered erosion, but unfortunately much of it has been graffitied over since.

The area between the wall and the river has been unused for years, until some developers came up with the idea of importing sand and setting up beach bars on the riverbank. It was interesting to see these imitations with more or less fake palm trees and Berlin signature electronica playing rather than calipso/reggae/California music. Oddly enough though sitting at a river bank, with my feet resting on a tied up boat, looking over at the industrial buildings across the river the slow electronica kinda worked.
One of the ways to get to West Berlin was through the famed and celebrated Checkpoint Charlie. The checkpoint hut itself is a replica of a replica of a replica, with the Russian and America guards charging 1€ per picture. Surrounding the checkpoint are souvenir stands, peddling anything from old East and West Germany flags, through Russian military caps, to American t-shirts.

Today's more common gateway between the unified parts of the city is the awesomely great Berlin subway. With the precision known only to German engineers digital displays above tracks count down the time to train arrival. The subway cars themselves are joined together like a one long articulated bus, offering the riders tv news and connection information in addition to nausea if anyone looks too far down the train during a turn.

A little past the Brandenburg gate is the Berline Dome - a fine example of a Protestant cathedral. While the Catholic churches offer their inside splendor for view free of charge, the spartan interior of the Dome demands and offering. Having only two hours for walking around, and running low on Euros after many a round, I decided to keep moving.
A little further down I was impressed by the effort a construction company has put into not turning their project into an eye sore. As the facade of the building is constructed, the covering of the building frame painted like the facade itself is removed.

However, not all of Berlin's aesthetic shortcomings can be covered up with tarp. A few steps down Unter der Linden I saw this old Turkish woman begging for money as the modern face of German society turns away its beautiful gaze. While Germans seemed very tolerant of alternative lifestyles (including Polish politics), there seemed to be a deep divide between the Germans and the Turkish immigrants. In fact, it seems to take more than two generations for a person to be considered German. Interestingly Germany today doesn't seem to have a strong national identity or patriotism. German's pride of who they are is driven by regional allegiances to culture, foor, and beer - rather than a national or ratial identity. My understanding is that the varying levels of intolerance against the Turks comes from their inability to assimilate to these local German culture, rather than a German culture as a whole.

The Bundestag is pretty much the only place in all of Berlin where one might see a German flag being flown. After years of suppression of national patriotism, Germans are only now becoming to say they are proud to be German, and as I'm told, this has much to do with the Soccer World Cup. The Bundestag was heavily bombed and burned during WW2 and rebuilt since with a brand new glass dome as a vantage point on the city. You can see the line of tourists lined up on the stairs to get in.
One of places I've found most interesting in Berlin was the monument to the murdered Jews of Europe. When you walk up to it, it looks like a bunch of rectangular blocks laid out on a large square - large, but not terribly impressive. As you walk into it, however, you realize there is much more to it than that. The ground sinks gently as the blocks become taller, rising all around you. You realize that what you saw from the outside was just the surface and that the only way to see the monument's enormity is from within. Another feature making the experience of being inside the monument even more interesting is that the blocks that look the same from the outside, are in fact very different from each other. Some of them lean on an angle or become slightly narrower near the top. In fact you realize that probably no two blocks are exactly the same. Looking through the alleys between the blocks, you can see the rest of Berlin, reminding you that even though one is inside this monument, one is also inside Berlin.

In spite of all the serious history tied to the city, Berlin is also a party town. I think the description is "sexy and poor," as the stage for one of the World's largest electronica party scenes, as well as rampant post-unification unemployment.

I ended up briefly checking out this club in Mitte, one of the cheaper and more hip areas of the city. The artists played a mix of electronica music supported by an accoustic guitar, spoken words, and videos projected onto them and a white screen behind. The dance area had room for about thirty people, who added a surprising amount of atmosphere and energy in spite of their small numbers.

After the club I ended up at a house warming party. Hours later, this is what was left of the balcony, which was prolly the cleanest place in the house at that point.

Finishing the night was Till spinning some electornica...

... and making fun of the past. After talking with him the next day, I was glad to discover that young Germans very much look forward to the future and see a unified multinational Europe, built when the older generations, those from the war, those from the Soviet era, and those from the Soviet era opposition finally leave politics.

After staying up the whole night, the next day I went with the people from the party to an electronica festival out in the fields about an hour outside Berlin. I was pretty excited as the drive in the second gen twinkie van took us on the autobahn through beautiful countryside. However, as we were getting close to the place, we kept driving around corn fields on unpaved roads, making me slightly concerned we might get stuck and have to walk back at night to the nearest town. When we finally got there and the guys deployed the VW with an efficiency equal only to the speed with which they've lost their shirts. The area was a huge field surrounded by forest and bordering a small beach and a lake. Before the music started we were hanging around on the beach drinking beers and catching some rays. To my surprise many of the people there were naked. However seeing nude as the law of the land and not having a bathing suit, I followed suit and jumped in the water. :)

Finally on the train pack to Poland I got a shot of these storks, a Polish symbol of homecoming after a long, exhausting journey.

Kraków

2007-07-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

The final IIE CESRI debriefing was located in the beautiful ancient city of Krakow. Wawel castle and its church are some of the oldest buildings in the city. At the entrance to the church hang the bones of slain dragon, in reality whale ribs. As the legend goes the city will stand as long as the bones remain chained to the church.

Wawel Cathedral also houses the Zygmunt bell - largest in Poland, and famed throughout Europe for it's clear tone. As the legend goes the tone comes from a silver string donated to the bronze collection for the creation of the bell. The bell is truly massive as can be seen from the giant timbers supporting it. It takes eight men to ring it, which is only done on special occasions and only major religious holidays.

In the main city square is the Cloth Hall, or Sukiennice. Usually in the cities founded under the Magdeburg law, as Krakow was exactly 750 years ago, the center of the city is taken by the city hall. However, because trade was so important to the city, the merchant cloth hall was given that central position. As you can see the square is not completely filled with tourists, as is the case in Prague. The word on the street though is that in the coming years Krakow will be equally as overrun. Indeed much of the old city is dedicated to tourist traps with many of the storefronts being taken over by designer clothing stores.

One of the original attractions was an oscypki stand. Oscypki are smoked ewe's milk cheeses, traditionally made by highlanders in the Tatra mountains. Recently oscypki have been included on the protected regional food list of the EU, meaning that they can be produced only in a specific region. At this stand one could buy a small oscypek from the grill with some cranberry jam for a buck. The smoked skin remained relatively intact, while the inside of the cheese was slighlty melted. Together with the cranberry jam this is one of the best snacks I've ever had.

Jagiellonian University founded in 1346 is the oldest university in Poland. Initially it was set up as a monastery, with professors sleeping in small cells above the lecture halls. They would come down the spiral staircase for meals eaten in silence in the dining hall in the picture.

Girl with a halo

2007-07-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

I saw the coolest thing the other day! I know its a little hard to see (I had to pull the camera out in time and shoot from the hip, through a window of moving tram), but there in the distance, across the street is a girl walking with a guy behind her. The guy is holding a logo of a company on a poll above the girl's head. At first tho, you don't see the poll, just the logo bobbing above the girl's head! What a brilliant idea for a promotion!

Ikarus

2007-07-07T00:22:00.001-07:00

Some of my fondest memories of Warsaw as a kid, was riding on the public transport system with my grandmother. She taught me how to appreciate the different people that were on the bus (in those days practically everyone since few people had cars), they were they looked, or their conversation. You could really encounter anyone, from all strata of society often making the experience very educational - sort of like traveling to different countries. My favorite is still this guy I once say with a comb over. The trick was that instead of combing over the hair left to right, or right to left, he had it wound in a spiral. And not just a little bit, he must have had at least foot and a half of hair up there. Picture a hair turban. Anyway, I've been trying to get a picture of a one of the buses that used to run back in the day, but most of the buses on the streets are new, and many of the old ones, make Ikarus, have been modernized. I finally got lucky the other day and got a picture of one of the old ones, still with a manual gearbox. I remember being fascinated by this gearbox as a kid. The layout of the gears is completely different, second gear for example is up, and third seems to be, to the right. Apparently, I wasn't the only one that tried to break this gearbox code. Szymon, my flat mate, also spent many a ride as a kid hopelessly trying to discern the method of this shifting madness.

Trzepak

2007-07-06T05:55:00.001-07:00

I finally got lucky and was able to get a shot of local kids playing on one of those installations used for cleaning carpets. Although it is not quite the shot I wanted of ten kids hanging off of one, playing valley ball is almost as good.

Plucha

2007-07-04T23:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday (and today actually) it's been raining all day. While Warsaw is beautiful in sunlight, personally, I prefer it in the rain - or at least a good overcast. It's not hot, the car fumes have been washed out out of the air, and there are plenty of cafes to step into for a warming cup of tea and biscuits.

One of the places was this giant bookstore built in a pre-war "kamienica," or tenement. I bought three modern Polish books. Previously relying on libraries or friends to supply me with reading materials I had no idea how expensive books are! No wonder all these literary types are always poor!

Another place encountered along the way was this small cafe called Zakątek. Apparently Krakow has many such places built into the cellars. This particular place was filled to the brim with cigarette smoke. I guess people didn't feel like smoking outside in the rain.

Walking back I couldn't help myself from taking another shot of the the Palace of Culture - it looked really neat in the almost sunset.

Wesele

2007-07-02T02:57:00.000-07:00

I have often heard that few people party as long or drink as hard as the Polish at their weddings. To ascertain this claim, I have hoped to have the opportunity to check out such a celebration. This past weekend one of my roommate's friends was going to a wedding in a Southern town Kielce and graciously agreed to take me along.
Of course I've forgotten to bring my camera to the wedding ceremony, but no one else was taking pictures either, so I figured it just as well. Pretty much all the weddings in Poland are a Catholic affair and very traditional. This one was no exception, taking place in a little wooden church, traditionally in the bride's parish. After the ceremony, buses, as old as the Communist roads they drove on, took us to the wedding hall for two days of eating and drinking. Unlike American weddings I've been to, guests in Poland are, as much as the room allows, seated at long tables. While often that leads to place trading and fights for seating closer to the bride and groom, in my opinion it is the key to a more inclusive celebration.
The wedding party begins with food immediately after everyone enters the wedding hall. Soup, a second course and deserts are placed in quick succession. Another set of waiters places an ice cold bottle of vodka is between each four people. The vodka is tapped at regular intervals throughout the night, measuring the long hours with many, many toasts of long life and prosperity to the newlyweds. As the dinner dishes are cleared from the tables what remains are ever more numerous empty vodka bottles, chasers and mixers, and finger food of fish and cold cuts. Of to the side was a "village" table covered with hams, sausages, mushrooms, beacon, pickles, and bread, frequented mostly by men. For the brave there was also a table with "bimber," or 150 proof home made vodka. I would just like to say that after trying that stuff, regular vodka went down like apple juice - and yes, you could even taste some sweetness.
As the party went on and the participation in the numerous toasts began to wane, the band came into the dining room and began singing traditional Polish wedding songs. The young and the old alike joined hands and sang together about the bright future of the newlyweds and, curiously, about lost love. I have observed that many Polish songs, both in the popular culture and the wedding repertoire, are about the good old days long gone and unrequited love.
The party went on alternating between dancing to not to be heard anywhere else Polish wedding songs, games along the lines of musical chairs, and regular breaks announced by the band for either more vodka, or more food. Apparently there is something of a wedding timekeeping system punctuated by different foods. One of the breaks was hot potato noodles with gravy at about midnight and at about 2AM red barszcz, announcing the end of official celebration. After the barszcz it was apparently ok to leave, though the party went on for many more hours, finally ending with the band kicking everyone out at about 6AM.
The next morning, well at about 2PM, started poprawiny, or the second day of partying loosely translated as corrections. More meats, sausages, bigos, soups in bread bowls, deserts, and definitely more vodka, welcomed by everyone's hangovers. While the party started a little more slowly than the night before, it picked up quickly and lasted well into the night. While the young people mostly sat around the tables and talked, a group of 6 couples, I guess in their forties, were living it up. They had a guitar with then and sang many traditional campfire songs, drank more bimber, brought outside specially for them. I bowed out at about 8PM to catch a grimy train full of smokers back to Warsaw, but at that point I was just happy to sit somewhere quietly without someone offering another toast every fifteen minutes.

Zamek Królewski

2007-06-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took a little trip to the Royal Castle. I wanted to see an exposition of Polish and Saracen arms and armor, but (can you believe it) not enough people frequented the show, so its open hours had to be reduced. Of course no one bothered to post the change on the website! Not being interested in their permanent expositions (sorry, the rooms and furnishings of the Polish government in exile after WW2 seemed even lower on the general interest scale than arms and armor) I decided to check out the Castle another time. Nevertheless, I got this pretty cool shot of the Castle and Columna Zygmunta (King Zygmund's Column) in front. I've overheard a tour guide saying that should the King lower his saber the city will fall. I don't really know, but I would place that story's credibility right up there with the architect of the Sechenyi bridge purported suicide over lion tongues.
Instead of the Castle, I checked out this pretty cool cafe in the old town recommended by one of Olga's friends. The place is called Same Fusy, which refers to old tea leaves as well as a slang name for rejects. The cafe is a door front that quickly descends into the cellars, where the tables are located. The atmosphere there was amazing. I tried to capture the feeling of the place. A cool thing that you may be able to see is that the tables are made of some translucent stone and are lit from below.

Bar Mleczny

2007-06-26T01:12:00.000-07:00

Grandpa and I went on another one of our walks through Warsaw. This time in to the Southern Centrum and Northern Mokotów. While we were talking about cars and fast women, we passed a number of cool buildings and streets. The first picture is of a very important circular church, which's name I forget. The cool thing about it, besides the circular layout, is that it extends underground to about where the picture was taken from.
A picture of a typical pre WW2 Warsaw street (or its rendition after the post war reconstruction).

A pretty cool restaurant front. The restaurant is called "Under The Giants."

We've also found one of the relics of the Socialist era - a milk bar. In these places you can buy for next to nothing all kinds of dairy based dishes, like pirogies, crepe pancakes with cheese, all kinds of noodles, and creme soups. Students and poor people used to attend these regularly before the dollar menu lowered the bar with grade F meat.
A unique thing is the way one orders. You chose your dishes from the menu and pay at the register, they give you a ticket, which then you carry to the kitchen window. A woman there rudely grabs it and disappears without a word. Some minutes later she appears with a plate of something and yells out the name of the dish. Now, since everyone is waiting for similar things people have to discuss who ordered first, though if you're quick you can simply swipe the dish before other people claim it.

Rybka

2007-06-24T01:54:00.002-07:00

Last Wednesday we took a little trip into the country to get some fried fish for lunch. Driving on some of the 10miles of highways in Poland, we got a pretty nice view of the old town from the river Vistula.

A little further North, we crossed the river to get an equally unobstructed view of one of the largest water heating plants in Poland. The Żerań plant used to heat all of Warsaw at one point, though I think now there are more plants. The smoke stack is so high, I used to be able to see it from my old house on the other end of the city.

Way out of Warsaw there is this really cool looking restaurant build in an architectural style reminiscent of Polish buildings from the golden age of the Commonwealth. We haven't been there, but I've heard that the food is spectacular.

Driving back we saw some pretty great views of the countryside. I like seeing the contrast between the old fields and the "new" power grid installations.

And finally back in Warsaw. A view of the grand Socialist architecture. I must admit there is something pleasing and peaceful about these buildings to me. The sort of look like a formation of starships moving through space.

Łazienki

2007-06-22T05:21:00.001-07:00

The Royal Gardens behind the presidential residence. Apparently the park these days is mainly frequented by tourists. I used to live just outside the park until I was four, so I'm not gonna count myself in their ranks. The clay paths you see become riddled with puddles after rains. Apparently when Mom would take me on walks in the park back in the day, my favorite thing to do much to her dismay, was to plop face down in these puddles and then have Mom carry me home dripping with mud.

The Royal Parks are also known for their peacocks. They are practically everywhere. We couldn't get any of them to open their fan, but got to listen to their calls which sound like something between a crying baby and a stepped on cat.

And of course, I couldn't leave the parks without taking a picture of the famous Chopin statue.

Across the street from the park are the offices of the Premier. For the past three days Polish nurses are camped out in front in a national strike. The strike is all over the Polish news, as the Premier is refusing to meet with them. On the other hand the nurses' delegation is refusing to leave the Premier's offices until he meets with them.

And just in case the nurses rowdy...

Szermierka

2007-06-19T03:09:00.001-07:00

I was invited to a fencing practice and I finally made it out there yesterday. The practice conditions were a lot better than at kickboxing, though that prolly has to with the private nature of the institution. I did get to fence a little bit, though it was kinda frustrating - my body wouldn't do things exactly as I wanted. I took these pictures at the end of practice when everyone was warming down playing hockey with this little white woofleball. I remember playing this at my old elementary school, so I guess it's fairly common - yet very funny to watch.

Praha

2007-06-18T00:35:00.002-07:00

Just got back from a weekend excursion to Prague - the beautiful city of old buildings, old buildings with tourists, and old buildings with, oh wait, more tourists. Not that I'm really in a position to complain (by now I'm quicker with the shutter button than a Japanese tourist), but really, I think I've heard more Polish, German, and English this entire weekend than Czech! Nevertheless, Prague is truly beautiful. Not having been bombed in WW2 like most European cities, many of the old buildings not only still exist, but are not riddled by old bullet holes. Here's a shot of Praha Castle as seen from the Charles Bridge. The Cathedral of St. Vitus is inside the castle itself.

Here's one of the pictures taken from the top of the Cathedral of St. Vitus bell tower. To get to the top one must climb up a continuous, narrow, winding staircase of 287 steps. The staircase is very dimly lit and in some places one has to climb up in total darkness, bumping into people climbing down. One quickly loses count of the steps and after a while has no idea how far off is the top - its a real relief to finally get there. On the way down, a few turns from the top, I found perverse pleasure in telling some Polish tourists they were only a third of the way up :)

Prague has many churches, especially in the old town. From the main square one can see this one. I'm not sure which Saint it honors, but it doesn't detract from it's Gothic beauty in my eyes. I made night shot of it as well, but here I love the contrast between the dark multi-towers and the bright summer sky.

As part of our sight-seeing we've wondered into the Museum of Communism. It was interestingly set up starting with the dream of Communism, the next sections showing the reality, then the nightmare of an authoritarian state, and finally the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia. One of the stories was that of Jan Palach, a student who burned himself alive on the steps of the National Museum to protest the Communist government. He was followed sometime later by Jan Zajic. The monument of a molten cross spanning two mounds was placed in their memory in front of the museum.

On our way to see the Bodies exhibit, where you can see human bodies dissected in the strangest way to show the anatomy of the human body, I saw this really cool sculpture. I guess after seeing about 50 sculptures of kings, knights, and saints, one yearns for a little humor.

On one of our crossings of the Charles Bridge, we've been caught by an incoming summer storm. Here's an awesome picture of the approaching weather. It doesn't really give justice to the howling winds, but you can get some idea by looking at the water.

Finally my favorite picture of a giant metronome! In the Communist era the Czechoslovakian government has spent astronomical sums of money on a giant head of Stalin overlooking the city. After the fall of Communism, the head has been detonated with explosive and in its place erected a giant metronome. We've climbed up a million stairs to the top of the hill to check it out. The place has an amazing view of Prague across the river and is the Czech equivalent of "lookout point" for couples.

Do Białego Rana

2007-06-14T11:20:00.001-07:00

Last night was a big Wednesday night out. We started at Jadłodalnia, which is one of three clubs converted from an old garage complex. The places sell beer and cigarettes, but contrary to the name - no food. That has been provided by an entrepreneur serving gilled sausages by the half.
After a few hours there, these two guys joined us. One of them was Sebuś, the other's name I don't remember (but I'll gladly change this entry should the name come to light). Sebuś (the guy on the left) was truly an interesting character. Besides his jovial and easy going manner, he held the most superb command of Polish I've ever heard. Everything he said came out in a phrase or an unusual juxtaposition of words.
As the night went on, we tried engaging in a sort of party game where people take turns saying really mean (but funny of course) things to each other. I think at that point in the night we were all a little too tired to think of anything clever.
Finally, around 3:30AM it started getting light. As we were leaving by 5AM it was almost full on day light. Pesky Sun, why does it have to come up earlier in the North? We decided some breakfast would be nice, so started talking down Krakowskie Przedmieście (on of the streets leading to old town). Usually swarming with tourists and college students from the nearby Warsaw University, it was very surreal to see the street empty.
Finally we got to our break fast place - a bar called Bistro open 24 hours. Besides crazy mirrors, the place also has other attractions. For example, the menu is painted on the wall, the clients at that time of day are either looking for breakfast or that last 20th drink, and the bar tender/cook is a riot. Besides divulging many dirty secrets of the food industry, he was telling us that the record time anyone has ever stayed at that bar was 36 hours. Apparently the guy walked in, had a glass of wine, then would pass out an hour, wake up an order another one. After 36 hours of this he finally ran out of money and simply left.
On the way home we walked through Saski park with this giant fountain. After a little cajoling from our side (and some active encouragement for a passerby), Sebuś scaled it's parapets for this one of a kind picture. To top the night off, I couldn't help myself from taking another picture of the Palace of Culture in the morning haze.

Tęcza

2007-06-13T01:39:00.002-07:00

The weather here has been refreshingly varied, at least as compared to Cali. We've been getting heavy summer storms about every other day, intermingled with 85F heat. Before one of the storms I was lucky enough to make it inside and as I was watching the storm from my balcony I saw the biggest rainbow ever - I couldn't even take a photo of the whole thing in one shot!

Pałac Kultury i Nauki

2007-06-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pictures of, in my opinion, the most beautiful building in the world - the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. It was given to Poland by the Soviet Union and while there are other palaces similar to this one, the Polish one is the tallest and most elegant with its single dominating spire.
The story goes that the Russians gave us a choice of whether we would like a subway or the palace. I think we made the right choice, we've built the Metro on our own, but a palace like this one and in this style will never be built again. My favorite thing about the building, besides the layout and general structure, which is so much more interesting than the American sky scraper, is the attention to detail. Every part of the building, inside and out, is adorned in some way. Not richly, but simply and geometrically. I think the Russians had a real ideological problem on how to make something beautiful, but not opulent in the times of reaction against the bourgeois. There is no gold in the ornaments, but a lot of gray and dark gray marble and dark wood inside laid out in geometric designs. Another cool thing about the palace is this little cafe called "Kulturalna," or the cultured one. The inside has kept its original styling with a dark wood bar made to look "modern" in the 50's. You can take your drinks outside and hang out on a balcony looking out on the night lights of Warsaw.

2007-06-12T02:08:00.000-07:00

2007-06-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided to take a trip to my old 'hood. I have heard that much there has changed, but I thought that I still may be able to take a few nice shots where I grew up. Exhibit A is my old apartment building. Our place was the first from top (as can be seen through the perspective of this shot). When we lived there this was pretty much the edge of Warsaw and looking out out balcony you could see miles and miles of forests. The second shot is of the entrance to the apartment building. Above the entrance you can see three rods for flags. During the socialists era, Polish flags would be stuck at every building in threes.
Walking to my old school I took a panorama shot of the neighborhood. While the buldings by themselves are not particularly attractive to most people, the layout of the blocks, shops, parking areas and schools is quite spacious - something the new developments don't pay as much attention to.
The next picture is of my old school. I must say that for the nice graffiti and new athletic fields, not much has changed. Looking through the front door you can see cages on the lower level. Each class (a group of people you move with from one classroom to another for 8 years!) has its own lockable coat room. Next is a picture of a hallway with a ridiculously polished floor. I remember sliding across this floor for good 20 or 30 feet given a good start.
Next to the school is my old kindergarten. The second shot is of crazy playground structure built to resemble a ship. That ship has proven to be my nemesis at age four. In a battle lost I fell from it on my face, breaking my nose!

2007-06-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

Since using my T-Mobile account in Poland is prohibitively expensive, I got a pay as you go simcard from a local provider called Play. Their logo is this crazy white and purple blob and they have the craziest adds with it all over Warsaw. Other adds feature the blob as a burger paddy or a cape - it's really nondescript. So I payed 30 PLN and got my card. Of course not knowing how little I actually paid, I was surprised to find my phone out of funds after a week. Theoretically you can replenish your account online, but not having a national ID card (and a credit card or a bank associated with it) that avenue of recourse is closed to me. So, I take a walk to the closes Play store to let cash do the talking. The store is in this super modern mall with a crazy organic room it took them two years to build (or something like that). Even on the way to the bathroom one has to walk down a provocative corridor. I would be pretty impressed, if it wasn't the 50th mall I've been in...
On the way back I found a contrasting example of the old with the new. The metal frame is used for beating dust out of carpets (and gossiping by the maids during the insuing noise). In the old days all the neighborhood kids would hang on these - sometimes even 10 or 15 at a time. No kids today, but now that I know where it is...

2007-06-02T04:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a BBQ organized at one of the Technical University dorms. Now before you accuse me of hanging out with undergrads, know that every student here graduates with a Masters (being essentially a grad student) :) Anyway, my friend Olga and her man knew some people there and when I heard that there was free food to be had, I just couldn't say no.
The free food was a sad little BBQ, of which I started making fun, until I smelled the many delicious kinds of Polish sausage sizzling on it. You can see the regular sausages, as well as this awesome blood sausage wrapped with onion in tin foil. I haven't eaten food like that in years!
I also took a shot of the people standing around just to give you the idea of the place. In the background you can see the dorms. The nice things about Polish dorms (as if the soviet era architecture wasn't enough) is that there are no restrictions on alcohol. Everyone showed up to the BBQ with a few bottles or cans of beer (curiously not sold in six packs) and some of the students brought out home made vodka they've been distilling in their rooms. That last was actually pretty good at the time, though I had second thoughts about it this morning :) By the end of the evening everyone was sitting around in a circle on the grass telling jokes and making fun of Polish politicians -the butt of local Polish jokes. Finally we've left and stopped at a club. The place was incredibly stuffy which got about 10 times worse when we went to the basement where the dance floor was. The music was pretty good, though an oddly European mix - lots of Grease and Micheal Jackson. Lots of people dancing together something than can be described as a mix of hip hop and swing. The guys were spinning the girls around left, right and around, which in the low oxygen content made me dizzy from just watching them :)

2007-06-01T01:51:00.000-07:00

By popular request I'm posting a page about Politechnika Warszawska. The first picture is of the main building finished in 1801. In front of it is a little square named after the school (as is a tram stop and a metro station), really I think the school is the easiest place to find in Warsaw, especially considering the crazy street names. The inside of the building is an huge atrium. The school uses it to boost its budget by hosting all kinds of commercial events. They even hosted a launch of some Toyota model in Poland. How they got the car up and down those steps I'll never know. The top of the atrium is covered by a cool glass roof.
Unfortunately, I don't work in that building but in a communist era behemoth across the street. I took a quick picture of the hallway, which smells very, very clean, to give you an idea of the welcoming aspect of communist architecture. Next is a picture of one of my professors and her office, which I must say are much larger than in the states. I think this is a reflection of the much higher status of professors with respect to the students than is the case in the States. Across the hall is our lab. Each research group is lead by a full professor, who directs a small number of adjunct professors, and a number of PhD students. Each group like that has its own secretary, who in our case sits in a little room on the way to the lab. And finally a picture of the lab itself. The lab has just been remodeled and I'm told its a huge improvement. On the far left you can see my desk and beyond that a tiny wireless test bed. I must say that it is amazing they can produce world class research with as few resources as they have. As far as the students go, they are incredibly bright and motivated. I was showing them some of the simulation tools I've brought with me, and was really impressed with their knowledge of networking protocols and their details. Another thing that suprised me is their work schedule. Students here work about 12 hours a day, which includes an hour and a half lunch, and generally don't work on weekends. I can't even remember last time I haven't done work on Sunday (when I was in the States that is :).

2007-05-30T10:03:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures of my trip to kick boxing practice. The top picture is a view of concrete soccer field that are all over Warsaw. I tried to take a photo of the local kids. As I got there they were hanging out competing in how far they can throw a stick you can see one of them carrying. The school (facing the field) has two flags of the National Teachers Union (on strike). Inside you can see a mini basketball/volleyball/soccer field. The place is really small and smells of dust, sweat and solvent. On the walls you can see ladders used for everything from hanging pull up bars and punching bags, to situps, pushups and a number of communist era exercises. These ladders are virtually in every elementary school in Poland. In this somewhat meagre conditions you can see some members of the Polish national kick boxing team going to world cups in Italy next week. Finally, on my way home I thought I'd take a picture of the tram. Oddly, they remind me of school buses from the 50's you can still see in California. They are very oval in every way on the outside and very rail car diner on the inside (minus the chrome). To give Warsaw justice I should add that today I took a very modern tram, which didn't feel like it fell off the rails.

2007-05-30T09:48:00.001-07:00

Going through my Budapest photos I thought I'd post a number of pictures of interiors. From the top, a picture of church interior (I forgot which one, but it was really quite nice inside). The second picture is an interior of an old fabric store (still has really long tables that were used for rolling out the wares) that has been turned into a modern fashion store. The interior and the exterior of the store are covered with original wood from the 1800's. Finally, the last picture is of an iron ceiling lamp. They look really cool and old world and are all over Budapest (and Warsaw).

2007-05-29T03:31:00.000-07:00

And the Hungarian Academy of Science itself. We went on a tour of the building, which unfortunately turned out to be only a tour of its huge art gallery. That might have been fine, except that apparently the Hungarians would order portraits of every important scientist or contributor to the Academy, so for an hour we were led for a portrait of one bearded man to another.

2007-05-29T03:29:00.001-07:00

A pretty sweet statue in front of the Hungarian Academy of Science. I hear it was created as part of an effort to popularize science with the younger generation...

2007-05-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Finally in Budapest. Our brilliant group at the first of many great dinners.

2007-05-28T10:02:00.001-07:00

Tatra mountains on the flight to Budapest. You can't really see the fields in the background, but basically the mountains just come up out of a plain.

2007-05-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

A plane we almost crashed into while landing in San Fran. :)

Going to Europe

2007-05-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, great this seems to be working. As you see, I am ready to go to Europe!