Tel Aviv!

Posted by Where in the world is Rachel... , Tuesday, July 26, 2011 5:47 AM

Okay, I realize I kind of fell off the face of the earth once I got to Israel, so here is me catching up on the end of my trip!! :)


Tel Aviv was hot and humid! But the coastline was amazing!! We spent most of our time at the beach, mainly because it was just to hot to walk around the city. Another friend from Poland, Pete, ended up coming to Israel with us! Joanna and I were extremely glad he was with us, especially for our Jordan adventure! Tel Aviv did start off a bit rocky since the person we were supposed to stay with initially was super flaky and it fell through. Luckily, Joanna's friend Dana was more than amazing and allowed us to stay with her and her family on VERY short notice...like 3 hours notice! We loved spending time with Dana and Galit and their adorable children! The baby twins were the cutest little girls in the world and Guy, he is going to be such a heart breaker one day!
While in Tel Aviv we did check out some sites like Carmel Market, Neve Tsedek, Jaffa, Rothschild Blvd., and the art museum. We also ate a lot of falafels and kebabs. Nothing to exciting happened while in Tel Aviv, other than Shabbat dinner at Dana's. We ended up watching the kids so Dana and Galit could go to Shabbat dinner downstairs, but the kids were terrified of us...I concluded that it was because we didn't speak Hebrew. Anyways, after the kids were calmed down Dana and Galit brought us some food from Shabbat dinner and it was delicious!!! We were sad to say good buy to Dana and the family, but after a few days we had to head north to Tivon to visit Gal and his family! :)

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Warsaw!

Posted by Where in the world is Rachel... , Monday, July 4, 2011 4:16 AM

I arrived in Warsaw on Thursday afternoon and was greeted by my friend Joanna! It was so good to see her again! It has been years since I saw her in Key West! Thursday was a good day meeting her friends and going to a fountain show where hundreds of people released chinese lanterns! It was really cool! I even bumped into a huge group of missionaries! A sister missionary randomly asked me to take a picture of the group of missionaries! I then told her I was a member! They all freaked out that I was a member and visiting Warsaw! It was fun running into them!

The rest of my time in Warsaw was rainy and cold! But I did get to go to the Uprising Museum, which was really cool. It was the other side of the story...the story behind the Polish people fighting against the Nazis. I hung out with Joanna and met some more of her friends at different places. I ate some perigees and drank some delicious herbal teas. Overall, it was a wonderful time in Warsaw with Joanna. Tonight we are going to this restaurant where they sing and dance traditional Polish folk music! It should be a wonderful last night in Poland! It is off to Israel tomorrow, which includes an overnight layover in Budapest and an afternoon arrival in Tel Aviv on Wednesday! I'm so excited to start the last leg of my trip in Israel, especially with a friend!!

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Krakow!

Posted by Where in the world is Rachel... , Saturday, July 2, 2011 12:28 PM

The rest of my time in Krakow was very nice. I got to visit a few sites within Krakow and then I took 2 day trips out to Auschwitz/Birkenau and also to Wieliczka Salt Mines. The Salt Mines were pretty fascinating. It's crazy how extensive the mine was. It was large enough to contain 40 chapels! There were a lot of different statues carved by the miners when the mine was still in operation. I really enjoyed visiting this part of Poland.

The day I went to Auschwitz/Birkenau was actually a bit of a dreary, cold, rainy day. I think it was suitable for my trip. Auschwitz has been turned into a large museum pretty much, but it was still a powerful experience seeing all the different exhibits and the buildings where thousands of people were forced to stay. The hardest thing to see was all the clothes for children that were found in the concentration camp. I still can't believe how many people lost their lives there. The other surreal moment of Auschwitz was walking through one of the gas chambers and crematoriums. I can only imagine the fear, anger and anguish that was felt by everyone at those camps. The visit to Birkenau was even more surreal for me. Birkenau has been pretty much preserved as a concentration camp with the barracks still present, for the most part. It was such a LARGE area with so many barracks. It was jaw-dropping to see how large it was and to think about how many people were ruthlessly and pointlessly killed there. Visiting these two locations made me realize the reality behind these concentration camps and the mass extermination of not only Jewish people but of anyone the Nazis wanted to kill. Visiting these locations I think is an experience everyone should have, it helps put everything into perspective. It helped me feel such gratitude for those who fought for those who could not defend themselves. I heard amazing stories of selfless individuals who would smuggle Jewish children to safety and would volunteer their life in place of another. Amazing experience visiting these locations.

On a lighter note, I met some nice people during my different tours in Krakow. I met this nice girl named Lala who was from Vietnam, studying in Singapore but doing a foreign exchange in Spain for a few months and was now visiting Krakow. It's been very interesting meeting a wide variety of people with such different backgrounds and stories! After a few days in Krakow, I hopped on a train and headed to Warsaw to meet up with my friend Joanna! The train ride was also interesting. A nun sat across from me and we spoke in Spanish for a long time. Apparently she is from Slovakia, but served in Peru for 8 years and is now in Poland for the next couple of years. She was very friendly and even shared her food with me! :) Poland has been a great experience so far!

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Krakow day 1

Posted by Where in the world is Rachel... , Monday, June 27, 2011 12:39 PM

well, i arrived in krakow around 6am. i was extremely tired. i went to the hostel and got some breakfast and since i couldnt checkin yet i decided to go explore krakow. i ended up going to schindler's factory. it was such a surreal experience seeing images and remnants of nezi germany's control of krakow and the mass extermination of the jews. crazy to think of how recent these things were as well.

after schindler's factory, i checked out market square in old town. i went into st. mary's church, it was very baroque inside, very ornate but pretty cool, other than the fact that they wanted to charge you extra to take pictures inside. i paid 3 zloty for admission and they wanted 5 zloty for pictures...not happening. after walking around this cool market area called cloth hall, i realized how hungry and tired i was. so i headed to a place recommended to me by my friend sean and by the receptionist,u babci maliny. it was interesting ordering but i got boiled perogies with meat and cabbage. it was delicious!! after my late lunch/early dinner i headed to the hostel to nap...i was very tired!! tomorrow i am heading to auschwitz, im a bit nervous but i'm sure it will be a good experience.

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Athens

Posted by Where in the world is Rachel... , 12:26 PM

what is there to say, athens is a sketchy place, at least in my opinion. i ended up seeing that nice family from georgia on the ferry back to athens. turns out, our hotels were 2 blocks away from each other as well! we took the metro together and i got off at oomonia square. the directions said the hotel was right in oomonia square...lies! it was a few blocks away, i had to call them. mainly because all the greek letters were really throwing me for a loop! i finally did find the hotel, and the receptionist was pretty friendly and funny. the room...smelled like smoke, gross. i washed my clothes and went to bed. it wasnt safe to be out in that part of town after dark, alone and a girl.

the next morning i walked to church which was about 20 feet from the entrance to the acropolis, pretty convenient! church was good! i was glad i had made it there. after church i went to the acropolis. i love it up there! i spent the rest of the day wandering around athens checking out monastriaki, the agora, plaka and even syntagma square...where all the protestors had camped out. it was a good sunday! i even got trated to dinner by that nice family from the ferry! it was good to see them again. a few hours later, i found myself heading to the airport to catch my 4:30am flight to krakow!

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Santorini

Posted by Where in the world is Rachel... , Friday, June 24, 2011 10:51 AM

these past few days in santorini have been much needed! i have done basically 2 things...sleep and eat! :) dont worry though, most of the sleeping has been done on the beach so i'm making good use of my time here.

i am in a hostel on perissa beach, which is the black sand beach of the island. i did get up to thira and oia to do some exploring the other day. oia is what you see in all the pictures of santorini on google, the white and blue buildings. absolutely gorgeous! it is very hot up there though, not much breeze like there is in perissa. but still, worthwhile!
today i went scuba diving around the new volcano. not much marine life but pretty cool cliffs and volcanic rocks. the seond dive we got to feed the fish so that was cool. scuba diving really takes it out of you, so the rest of the day was spent on the beach, sleeping and reading. tomorrow i head back to athens and spend 2 nights and a day there, then off to krakow, poland! :)

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Brindisi, Italy and the longest couple of days of my life!

Posted by Where in the world is Rachel... , Wednesday, June 22, 2011 10:52 AM

3on sunday, i headed to the outskirts of florence to go to church. i met a lovely peruvian lady who somehow knew right off the bat that i was peruvian. we talked for a while after church and then she introduced me to a few other visiting girls from denmark. the girls and i ended up taking the train back to florence together. we met 2 guys from utah who were at church as well, on the train. we all ended up hanging out together for a few hours until we all had to part our ways.

i headed back to my favorite part of florence, piazzale michelangelo. i walked around florence one last time and then prepared for the longest couple of days imaginable.
first, i took a train to bologna around 10pm, to catch my overnight train to brindisi at 1am. i sleep in the cabin of the sleeper train, not very comfortable and very loud. i arrive in brindisi around 10am and get a ferry ticket to patras, greece for 6:30pm. i kill time in brindisi, reading and talking to random locals who think its there duty to talk to strangers. they were very kind, but i decided against going back to the old man's house...didnt think it would be a good idea. :) i finally get on the ferry! it was pretty weird. the deck seats meant i could fight for an airpland like seat in this theater like room with lots of other people. it was a loud, smokey breed of people. i curled up in the corner and tried to sleep. luckily this nice lady from georgia ended up sitting next to me. she was traveling with her daughters. after a 15 hour ferry, we ended up in patras. this nice family and i stuck together. we got the bus to athens, another 3 hours. once in athens we had to take a local bus to piraeus, the port of athens. finally, we get a ferry ticket to santorini! the ferry left around 7pm, on what is now tuesday night and arrived a little past midnight. by the time i get to the hostel, shower and clean the clothes i'ved been wearing since sunday, it is 2am. i could've slept through anything i was so tired!
i have to say though, it was all worth it. i sat on the black sand beach of santorini and swam in the mediterranean sea today. not bad, not bad at all. :) i plan on visitn other parts of the island tomorrow and hopefully get some of those classic santorini pictures! then im booked for scuba diving on friday! :)

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