P P P Poland!

  Pozdrowienia z Warszawy!  Greetings from Warsaw!  I hope that all of you have had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I know that I did!  Just yesterday I departed from Vilnius, Lithuania to continue on my trip around the world.  I had been staying with Emilija and Kevin for the last two weeks, and the opportunity to stay with good friends, celebrate my FAVORITE holiday, and just relax was great.  I really enjoyed meeting lots of Emilija's friends, and especially meeting her grandparents who cooked up some great traditional Lithuanian meals.  Let me tell you, I'll be searching for the ingredients to poppy seed milk when I get home.  Sooooo good, I can't even do it justice by describing it.  Also, her grandfather is possibly the most hilarious man I've met in a while.  It could have been the broken Lithuanian-Russian we were using to communicate but he is quite a character and, loves Napoleon to the point that there are multiple busts of him scattered around their apartment.  And enough books about Napoleon that he could start his own Library.  Also, it has been decided that once we all take over the world together, (Myself, Emilija and her grandfather), he'll be the general in charge, Emilija will be the ruler of the west, and I get the east.  Kevin unfortunately was deemed a problem, since he's an intellectual - and everyone knows that they always cause the problems in dictatorships - will be locked in jail.  Hahaha!  Such were the discussions at our Christmas dinner.

  Vilnius itself is a very interesting and calm city.  The Old Town, where Emilija lives, is an intricate pattern of winding cobblestone streets with churches dotting almost every corner.  There isn't a very large city center, but I found myself occupied with things to do the entire time that I was there.  One of my favorite places is the, "hippie" part of town that has tons funky sculptures everywhere, and even it's own constitution!  The picture below is of our reflection in the constitution; see if you can read some of the lines!  

Another reason I really liked that part of the city was because of the bridge that you crossed when entering.  Apparently it is a tradition in Lithuania after you get married to place a lock on the side of the bridge.  I had never seen that before, and the bridge was absolutely covered in locks.  Most just had the names of the couple and a date but I even found one that had the couples' face etched on it!  It was a beautiful sight to see, and it just made me smile.

  Today I've been taking in the sights of Warsaw and loving it.  I walked around Old Town, went to the Castle and walked down the Royal Way.  My host Agnieszka, (say that three times fast) is a really sweet girl who is studying Spanish and Portuguese.  Tonight we're going to head to a concert, and then hit the town!  Warsaw has a great vibe to it, so I can't wait to experience the nightlife.  She's also given me so many great details about Dublin, and Ireland in general, (she lived there for four months), so get ready Christine - I'm building our list of things to do!!  I'm already wishing that I had more time in Poland, and I can't wait for my day trip to the mountains from Krakow!  So many things to do, so little time!  After that I'm off to Amsterdam to meet Ditte and see a John Mayer concert.  Hope all is well where ever you may be, and that you're all enjoying the 2010 as much as I am.