A wedding in the near future…

While I was away in Poland, it seems a little bit of important news was created at home. My little brother, Timothy, proposed to his girlfriend, Lacy, and she accepted. That’s right…there will now be two of us…two Lacey/Lacy Nunnallys! It is something I always made fun of BP about because her name is Elizabeth and her brother married an Elizabeth making them both have the same name….I guess it is now her turn to make fun of me! The funniest bit of all this is that we were in the same graduating class from high school so our reunions are going to be really confusing!!

They are pondering over potential dates and April has surfaced as a month they are potentially interested in…However, I just learned that the date will be June 14^th so I will be home again quite soon! I’ll keep you updated….in any case, I will be home for it so I’ll see you all again soon!!

Ciaoness,

LuLu

A Visit to Warszawa- the Polish Capital

Warsaw Poland is not exactly a luxurious and exclusive tourist destination. Megan and I decided to visit there mostly because the cost of the flight was cheap. Money basically rules every trip we take from here because of our travel budgets. Warsaw was surprising for me. Everyone said, why Warsaw?...why aren’t you going to Krakow??...Krakow is the best city in Poland. And while that may be true, I really enjoyed Warsaw as well!

We arrived after dark, which always throws me off. I need at least a few hours to get my bearings in a city and it’s nearly impossible for me to do after dark. We got on the bus into the city and right away we had problems. The Polish use a currency called Zloty. We are used to traveling within countries using the Euro so conversion is easy to do in our heads but conversion from the zloty to the franc was new for us. We were unable to communicate with the bus driver and I’m mostly positive that we paid 3-4 times too much for our tickets because we didn’t know how much to give or what he was saying…oooppps! Then after that ride was a short trip on the metro. We got there and didn’t have the change to buy a ticket and couldn’t find a change machine. I harassed people in the underground until finally I found someone who understood what I needed and was able to give me some change for the ride-how embarrassing!!

We made our way to our hostel, finding it by locating our favorite landmark- McDonald’s!!! When we arrived and went inside we climbed the seemingly endless flights of stairs to one of the best places I’ve ever stayed. It was called the Oki Doki Hostel. We had so much fun there and made a lot of new friends. When we arrived we found out straight away that there was a group of Irish men staying there having a stag weekend (what we’d call a bachelor weekend) before one of their buddies got married. Usually this means trouble, lots of it, and this was no exception to that theory. Right away we were warned about the types of people around and later that evening we even saw one guy get mad enough to throw a trashcan over another man’s head (his head was in the can!)

We tried our best to steer clear of these yahoos and I think we succeeded, for the most part. We met several Australians (of course!) and a few other randoms that we spent most of our time with. We didn’t see much in the way of sights; though, I did go into the best museum I’ve been in to date. It was the Warsaw Uprising Museum which is dedicated entirely to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, an attempt to liberate Poland from German Nazi occupation.

We also visited the palace, which was interesting and beautiful- as most palaces are! We went shopping A LOT, as is the case when Megan and I go anywhere. Another goal was to search for a place to get our hair cut. It is quite expensive in Switzerland to get your hair cut so we’d decided to do it on a trip…and that’s just what I did. On our last night in Warsaw we decided on a place that looked nice and I met a girl who spoke very little English and I then entrusted her to take care in making my long locks into a beautiful short style, she did a lovely job!

Other than that, the sights in Warsaw were not that spectacular. It is apparent this city is doing everything it can to modernize and make itself a key player in Polish tourism but it just isn’t there yet. A lot of construction makes the city difficult to maneuver and unfriendly for getting around. However, I would say give them 3-5 years and this city will be better equipped for mass tourism.

Overall though, my first experience in Poland was a very pleasant one. The people were very kind and it wasn’t very expensive there, which I really liked a lot! It was a really relaxing holiday! I hope to return to Poland soon.

Until next time…

LuLu

The Wait is Over…Carnivale 2008-Venice, Italy

Not even a week after arriving back in Switzerland, just enough time to shake off any jet lag, Megan and I set out for Venice and the one thing I vowed to see when I moved here…CARNIVALE! We’d missed our opportunity to see it in 2007 because we waited too late to buy the airline tickets. Tickets to Venice for this event can become quite costly, but we were able to secure them early for this year. Even more amazing, we were able to fly there from Zurich for a reasonable cost, which is rare for us as extreme budget travelers. We usually need to fly from another airport because of the cost of tickets flying in and out of Zurich!

In the week before we left we were watching the weather very closely. I’m sad to say it rained the entire time we were there…and it was really cold! Not complete downpour weather; rather, the light/moderate rain that is annoying and over time soaks you entirely. We were wet non-stop for 3 days; it took another 2 after I got home for my shoes to dry out! But, that was the ONLY bad thing during our time in Venice.

Venice is such a lovely city which conjures up thoughts of Renaissance balls and galas in my mind. I have now been twice to this city and, as of yet, it never ceases to capture my heart and imagination. It is safe to say that it is still my favorite city in Europe, even after all my travels of the past 18 months, and I think I’d rather be in Venice than anywhere else in the world!

But, back to the issue at hand…CARNIVALE!!! It was spectacular. People everywhere…though not as many dressed in costume as I’d imagined. When we first arrived we went immediately to our hostel to drop off our things. We chose a really good place to stay, I think. It was quite close to the train station and yet located such that getting to and from the main area, St. Mark’s Square, wasn’t hard either. After dropping our things off and getting our bearings we decided immediately to get our faces painted. It seems each year that college students are allowed to paint faces on the street to earn extra money during Carnivale. I was so pleased with my facial art and Megan’s as well. We walked around the city all day and people pointed and stared (though maybe they just thought we were funny looking…) but a few even asked us where we got our faces painted.

We walked A LOT during the few days we spent in Venice. Public transportation, the water buses, is quite expensive so it’s nice not to use them whenever possible! We were able to explore the alleyways of Venice and it’s surrounding islands and experience the city in a whole new way.

As far as Carnivale festivities, we saw a fashion show involving people in traditional costume. We also were able to see a concert of sorts, though it looked like to us a version of Italian Idol! There were people dressed up in various parts of the city, but wherever they were there was also a huge crowd of people taking photos of them so I mostly avoided those people traps.

Between the times I booked my flight and Megan booked her’s (only a few minutes apart), the price went up on return flight to Zurich. Because of this, Megan left to return to Zurich in the morning and I came back in the evening. So I had 8 hours more or less to spend on my own in Venice. Luckily we’d meet a really nice American girl in our hostel and I spent most of my time with her…walking around the city and I even got to go into the famed St. Mark’s Basilica, which I’d missed seeing on my previous visit to the city. The art and architecture in that basilica are just as beautiful as I’d imagined they would be. But, if you want to visit yourself make sure to get there early, the line grows really quickly!

Overall Carnivale was more subdued than I thought it would be…add in the weather and it wasn’t the spectacular trip I imagined. Though, we did see some new things (we even saw a glass blowing demonstration!) and we did lots of shopping (though it was more like window browsing!) and we spent hours walking and chatting…I would definitely want to go back again to see if the event is more lively in better weather and just enjoy this city again.

I’ve added some pics to complete this post. Hope you enjoy them!

Ciao for now…

LuLu