Travel Tip: Southend Airport while technically in London, is actually really far away

The Blue Dot says it all.  Getting to the airport was longer than the flight to Italy!

A lovely weekend trip to Oxford

Fancy dinner we weren't invited to.  Hogwarts anyone?

Oxford is one of the oldest universities in continuous operation and also one of the prettiest and most unique.  Quick cool fact about Oxford University.  It's older than the Aztecs.

Beautiful building and quad - they are very protective about their quads.

One weekend in September we visited our friend Holden who does his fair share of travel and just completed his MBA at the amazing Said Business School.   He was a gracious host and showed us around the beautiful campus of Oxford, took us to some of the unique pubs and encouraged us to see the beautiful English country side.

One of the oldest public houses in Oxford, complete with low ceiling and crooked floors.

Turf Tavern - where Bill Clinton famously "did not inhale"

Another beautiful school

We also went punting!

Jeff steering the ship (it's hard) while Holden chills

Action shot of Holden

Megan glamour shot

What a day!

Venice: Book Smarts and Canal Smarts

We write from aboard a train in Northern Italy; taking us from Venice to Florence.  The lush green fields with pastel houses are an interesting contrast to the canals and concrete urban-ness of Venice.

We loved Venice.  It’s a controversial tourist destination in that visitors either love or hate it.  We were in the former category based on: our ability to get off the beaten path, our interest in history, and our trip’s timing (late October – good weather with smaller crowds).

Venice’s population of 55 thousand is small relative to the millions of tourists that visit annually.  Consequently the economy is geared to serve tourists.  Common sites included tourists restaurants, stalls hawking souvenirs, gondola drivers offering rides and tourists meandering around with cameras.  There are heaps of tourists traps but there are also just as many great exciting places to try.  We took a great tour on our first full day and were rewarded with dense history, architectural trivia and insider dining tips.  A little bit of research and one can handle the hordes and skip the traps with ease.

San Marco Square - home of the tower and Saint Mark's Basilica

Venice as an idea is really cool.  It’s a city built in a lagoon on mud hills.  It came to prominence during the middle ages when barbarian invasions forced Italians to take safety in the seas.  Venice grew in prominence from the 9^th to the 15^th century.  Venice’s growth was fueled by trade with the East and managed expertly through political and military maneuvering.  Venice’s wealth was concentrated amongst the noble families.  The noble families returned the money to the city through churches, artwork, and celebrations.   Venice today is full of gorgeous churches ornately decorated on the exterior and interiors and chuck full of beautiful artwork.  There are also many museums housing the overflow of great artwork made by Venetian artists or sponsored by wealthy Venetians. 

One of the countless beautiful churches in London

We knew Venice was famous for canals but what surprised us was that it has only canals and sidewalks.  There are no cars, Vespas or bikes allowed.   The majority of buildings are right on top of the canals so getting from one place to another can be tricky as one has to zig and zag through sidewalks and plan strategically to find the bridges.  The first day was quite difficult.  By the second day we learned to use sign posts for key landmarks to navigate through the labyrinth.  Our intrepidness was an asset as we explored the paths less taken and were open to new experiences right around the corner.  The canals make Venice a scenic romantic place with plenty of good photography options.

The mean streets of Venice

Venice provided an opportunity to indulge in Italian cuisine.  We had our fair share of Gelato pre and post dinners.  The first night we found a unique local wine dispensary which provided great wines at low prices.  We purchased bottles of Prosecco and enjoyed them in a piazza at dusk. 

We also sampled an Italian aperitif called Spritz.  It’s a mixture of bitter sweet alcohol with club soda.  It goes down very easily and cleanses the palate to increase one’s appetite.  The Spritz helped clear the way for the pizza.  We found a local place, Ae Oche, that provided great thin crust pizza with a tasty tomato and mozzarella based sauce.  The most interesting type we had was Venetian which had mussels (in the shell), clams, prawns, octopus, crawfish, and calamari.  Somehow it all worked together to provide a tasty seafood experience. 

Lastly I will leave you with a great Mitch Hedberg joke: "In Venice, Italy they don't have streets, they have canals. So in Venice, we gotta keep the kids off the canals. In Venice if you're not book smart, but you do know what's going on, you are canal smart. "I got canal smarts [man]!"

Budapest: Ruin Bars, Baths, and ... (Belated Post)

Ruin Bars, Baths, and ….

The last stop on our Central Europe adventure before school (back in August) was Budapest, the capital of Hungary.  Hungary has an incredibly interesting history that differs from most of Europe.  The original Hungarians were a nomadic group from Mongolia and were later taken over by the Turkish empire.  This explains why Hungary has a culture and language that is strikingly different than much of Europe. Because we were at the end of our trip we were looking forward to more relaxing activities: dining and Turkish baths. 

Enjoying a beer at an outdoor cafe in central Budapest    

Like in Poland and Czech Republic, we started off our trip doing a free walking tour of the city.  This helped us to get our bearings and learn some of the history of Hungary and Budapest.  Our walking tour highlighted some of the beautiful architectural buildings in Budapest namely St. Peters and Mathias’ churches.  The architecture, rolling hills, and the Danube make Budapest a beautiful city.  We were able to take it all in by doing a river cruise at night and hiking to the top of Gellert hill to take in the sweeping views.   This was one city where it’s worth it to take the hop-on-hop-off tour given the diversity and spread of so many sights. 

Parliament Building at Night.

Hop on, Hop off, Tourist shot!

Budapest used to be two cities separated by the Danube: Buda and Pest.  The Pest side is made up of rolling hills and includes the Palace and St. Mathia’s Church.  It is generally considered to be the wealthier side of Budapest.  The Buda side, which houses St. Peter’s Church is a little grittier but houses the trendy up and coming Jewish Quarter district.  The Jewish Quarter is famous for its “Ruin Bars”, which are old dilapidated buildings or courtyards that have been turned into trendy bars and clubs.  We tried out a few and our favorites were Szimpla Kert (third best bar in the world) and Instant.  These are a must see if you go to Budapest.  This area also plays host to some of Budapest’s best restaurants.  Thanks to some recommendations from our friends we were able to eat very well in Budapest!

Szimpla Bar - it's massive, this ins only a tiny area.

One of the best ways to enjoy the Turkish influence in Budapest is to visit a Turkish Bath.  Budapest sits on over mineral hot springs, which supply numerous world famous Turkish bathhouses in the city.  Each bathhouse is a little bit different and can range from opulent indoor bath spas to open air night spa clubs.  Since it was really hot in August we set our sights on Palatinus, which is all outdoor and on San Margaret island on the Danube.  What we ended up getting was a Hungarian water park, complete with a wave pool, waterslides, and hot pools with floating chess boards.  It wasn’t exactly what we were expecting, but since it was off the beaten path we were the only tourists there we got some quality people-watching.   We also sampled the Hungarian equivalent of carnival food which is langos.  Langos are a fried doughy base with cheese and toppings on top.  Like a doughnout pizza.  As you can guess they scored high on taste and low on health.

Our trip included a dive into Hungarian history.  We visited the Hungarian history museum which boasted an extensive collection of artifacts and well written exhibits.  Hungary has been through some incredibly high times (near the end of the 19^th century) and through some incredibly lows ones as well: World War II and Communism.   

Liberty Statue - one of the few remaining communist monuments

We also took a communism walking tour to learn about life under communism and the political activity in Budapest.  Our tour had a special guide who was passionate about politics.  He spent the majority of time explaining the worrying trends in Hungarian politics.  Whereas the majority of Eastern Europe is moving towards more open markets and democracy, Hungary is become more isolated and despotic.  It’s a trend that is highlighted by the Holocaust monument debacle – where the current party created an insensitive and inaccurate portrayal to spin Hungary’s involvement in WWII.  

Buda Castle

 Our total time in Budapest was about four days.  We certainly saw and experienced much of what this fascinating city has to offer.  The end of our Central Europe trip marked our transition from funemployment to full time students at London Business School.

Krakow: Return to the Motherland

After leaving Prague and Cesky Krumlov we took a nigh-train to Krakow Poland.  This was hugely important to Jeffrey as his father's side of the family is 100% Polish with his grandparents coming arriving in the US at a very young age.  Those Polish roots had manifested themselves in cultural traditions such as polish dancing (in polish costume), polish food such as Kielbsa and of course Polish jokes.  Whether it was a romanticism or a sub-conscious drive - Jeffrey did feel connected to Poland and the people there.

Night-Train Night Pain

We took the overnight train from Prague to Krakow.
The Good:

• Train stations are close to the city centers making transport easy
• Sleeping in the train overnight eliminated the cost of a hotel/guesthouse room
• Train travel is relatively authentic

The Bad:

• The tickets from Krakow to Budapest, which we had to book last minute, were expensive
• The bed mattresses were pretty firm
• There wasn't a whole lot of space at the top

Good thing we are both small.

The Ugly:

• We had noisy/obnoxious passengers in our car twice.  First it was two male UK college students who gossiped and complained like spoiled brats.  The second time was three french girls who had a picnic complete with stinky food and loud conversation while we were trying to sleep.
• Temperature control was non-existent making it very hot at the top.

It was survivable and definitely not the worst experience of the trip.  I think I might even recommend it to others if they have a decent pain tolerance and a talent for heavy sleeping.

Once we arrived in Krakow we walked from the train station to our hostel to drop our bags off.  We came across a rather unique scene; groups of folks were marching together singing and carrying banners.  Because of our lack of Polish language skills it was difficult for us to understand.  We tried to use context clues.  One being the high proportion of clergy (priests and nuns) in the procession.  Another being the continuous flow of people and rather up-beat spirit.  

I joked with Megan that in order to figure out what the parade was for, we could follow it to its termination.  Boy was that a bad idea.  We ended up learning that the procession was a pilgrimage to the shrine of Jasna Gora that just started and would last for 10 days and 120 kms.  Safe to say that would of altered our vacation plans a bit.

Instead of walking to Jasna Gora we grabbed a quick breakfast at a local cafe.  It wasn't fancy by any means but filled the void and gave us some energy ahead of our walking tour and museum plans.

No frills Polish Breakfast.

Main Market Square in Krakow

Our sightseeing began at the Main Market Square.  It's the largest medieval town square in Europe.  It's a UNESCO heritage site and the surrounding buildings still have their medieval architecture roots.  In old times the parents would bring their daughters of age into the square and past the cafes in hopes they catch the eye of a young bachelor.  Today there are still many restaurants and cafes where locals and tourists can enjoy the scenery. 

In front of the massive and beautiful Cloth Hall

One of the really cool buildings was the Cloth Hall.  It was the center of trade in Krakow which put itself on the map as a trading town and key stop-off on trade routes through Europe.  In the past exotic spices, foods, and metals were sold there, now its just mainly cheesy souvenirs.  I'm not going to complain too much as I bought both a hat and shirt (fulfilling my polish pride).

Another beautiful building on the Main square is St. Mary's Basilica with two rising towers.  Every hour a trumpeter emerges to play a tune to tell the town everything is alright.  The trumpeter abruptly ends the song mid-note to comemorate a trumpeter that was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm of invading Mongol attack.

St. May's Basilica

The Basilica is very beautiful inside as well.  We dropped in and sad a few prayers and paid respects.  On the outside of the basilica are a number of beautiful memorials including this one of Pope John Paul II (a former archbishop and student of Krakow).

The Town Hall Tower is also a cool site.  It was attached to a complete town hall building but part of it was demolished in efforts to open things up.  Now just the tower remains and it is beginning to lean as it wasn't meant to standalone.

Last picture with dopey me in it for a while.  I promise.

Nice Classical Architecture

We caught a nice walking tour around town and saw these sites as well as the Krakow campus (a very old university) and the Wawel Castle complex.  The Wawel castle was the seat of the Polish empire.  It is composed of the King's residence, many administrative buildings, and beautiful religious buildings.  The Castle towers over the town and is a great spot for views.

Back view of the Castle.

During our walk through town we saw the Opera house.  It looked especially neat at night.

Hostel & Partying

We stayed at Tom and Greg's Beer Hostel.  True story: Tom and Greg's Party Hostel was sold out so we had to settle for the Beer Hostel.  Here we experienced the best and worst of hostel life.  On the good side we met a lot of social people and had no problem making friends.  Every night the hostel hosted drinking events such as Sangria night and a Pub Crawl.  Our first night we took it easy because we were going for some heavy sightseeing the next day at Auschwitz the next day.  Our plans to get a good night sleep were thwarted by hostel shenanigans.  At 4am a drunk belligerent hotel guest pounded on our door for 30 minutes to be let in.  Eventually he realized he was at the wrong room and then passed out on the couch.  Those thirty minutes were painful and awkward.  The next evening we decided to partake in the Pub Crawl to get a heavier night's sleep.  Don't worry we were safe and sound.  The bar and club scene in Krakow is outstanding.

Now that is a Sangria night!

Polish Ethnography Museum

The Polish Ethnography Museum was a hoot.  Maybe not quite as entertaining as the KGB Museum in Prague but just as fascinating.  It's density of artifacts and facts was impeccable.  Each exhibit came with a 10 page report on the thorough history of life in Poland.  For example we spent half an hour learning about early agriculture methods including honey farming.  The museum was more anthropology and less entertainment.  Not for the faint of heart.

Hey Look a Bear - Nope it's a Beehive!

The Polish traditional costumes were particularly cool.  They had over 30 and they traced the differences based on region, class and time period.

Polish Food

I like Polish food but I understand that I'm biased being 50% Polish.  When I told my Italian friend that we enjoyed the food in Poland he said "you must be kidding me.  Even American food is better than Polish food."  (ouch)  I tried my hardest to sell Megan on Polish food and we had a few feasts.  We searched out the best in Kielbasa and Pieorgies - Polish Musts.  At Pierogi Vincent we even tried blueberry pierogis (they had over 30 varieties which you can see at their website http://pierozkiuvincenta.pl/menu).  We also tried a few different foods too.

Golabki - cabbage stuffed with ground beef - tasty sauce

Herring

Home of Pope John Paul II

One of the most famous Krakow residents was Pope John Paul II.  He was a student at the local university and he later became the Archbishop of Krakow.  There is a museum where you can visit where he lived and see some of his artifacts.  There was a variety of stuff like the kayak he owned as a young man, a set of skis, many church outfits and gifts he was given by world leaders.  It was moving and inspiring seeing pictures of him throughout his life.  It made me very proud to be Polish.

Krakow was great.  We enjoyed our short stay and would definitely recommend it to others.

Aer Lingus - Alienating customers with horrible service

UPDATE:  We finally receive our bags Thursday and fortunately everything was in them!  A big thanks to Trevor Steele - super customer service rep who cut through the bureaucratic BS and got shit done.  Trevor was the only employee to sympathize with us and to take initiative.  Thanks Trevor!

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We need your help!  Aer Lingus recently lost our luggage and they are providing horrible customer service.  We are so worried we won't get our luggage.  Help us #freeourluggage by sharing our story through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc).  Much gratitude - Jeff and Megan

SITUATION: We recently traveled back to the States for a weekend via Aer Lingus.  They lost Megan's bag and then proceeded to follow it up with horrible customer service.  I hope this story gets forward on to their management so they can make the appropriate decisions to fix this for future customers.

The reasons our experience was so bad:

1. Lost Baggage - obviously this is bad.  But to some extent it's understandable and a risk whenever flying commercial airliners.  I get that logistics don't always work 100% especially in a complex industry like the airline industry.  But things get exponentially worse with their poor response.
2. Bad policy - Aer Lingus per their policy won't reimburse a customer if it has been less than 24 hours since the bag was lost.  In our situation this was horrible because we had a wedding the next day and would not be able to officially buy stuff until after the wedding started.  I can think of many other situations (e.g. an interview or pretty much any business meeting) where a person would need to purchase stuff within 24 hours.
3. Disorganized process - the process for creating a claim is opaque and confusing for a customer.  We gave them our information but had to request things like "contact information" and our "claim #".  Had we not asked for this information we may never of had contact with Aer Lingus.  Furthermore, the lost baggage is handled by different groups at the different airports we traveled through (Chicago, Dublin and Chicago).  Those groups can not access all the same information and thus many of them are useless.  Our suitcase is currently in a black hole in Dublin (or so they think).
4. Bad decisions - during day 2 in Chicago we told the Chicago baggage claim team to leave our luggage in London since we wouldn't be able to receive it/use it before we had to return to London.  Instead Aer Lingus flew our luggage all the way to Chicago on Sunday just in time for it to arrive as we had to leave.  This is a waste and just increased the risk that they would lose it again (which they did).  How infuriating.  C'mon Aer Lingus fix your processes.
5. Reactive service - it's been four days since Aer Lingus lost our luggage and they have yet to proactively reach out to us with anything like an update.  It's up to us to constantly call them and badger them to create any progress on finding our stuff.  It's pathetic and shows how much they don't care.
6. Terrible attitude - we've now had over 7 conversations with Aer Lingus employees and they have yet to apologize for the inconvenience of losing our baggage.  If you truly care then act like it.  A little humble pie and sincerity would help alleviate our frustrations and give us confidence that things could still work out.
7. Inaccessible service numbers - their website does it's best to hide any customer service numbers.  We've had to scrap and even then we've gotten meager results.  Megan waited on hold for over 50 minutes with the Dublin HQ and never got an answer.  That's unacceptable and costly for us.

Aer Lingus - help us #freeourluggage

Reflections on our visit to Auschwitz

Note: The Holocaust is a very difficult subject yet one I believe needs to be talked about lest we forget.  I spent extra time thinking about how to write about this in the most sensitive and accurate manner.  I hope you learn a little bit from it and feel inspired to visit yourself.

While in Krakow we decided to visit Auschwitz - one of the most infamous Nazi concentration/extermination camps.   1.1M people died there, more then all the British and US losses in the second world war.  As global citizens we thought necessary to visit this dark piece of history.  It was a time for reflecting on history, morality, and humanity.  The camp is in the Polish country side, not far from Krakow.  The area would be scenic if it weren't for the knowledge of the evil done there.

Our tour was audio-guided by a highly trained expert.  She provided insightful commentary and answered our questions.  There are multiple components to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex.  The first is the older camp which now houses the museum and artifacts.  As you walk to it you see the infamous sign with the cruel lie "Work Makes You Free":

We then walked through the camp.  It was an eiry chilling experience made more ominous by the overcast skys and drizzle.  Survivors of Asuchwitz (their weren't many) say the place is almost the same as it was then except there was no grass just mud.

Barbed wire and train tracks.

Auschwitz was at the center of many railroads.  This was planned and indicative of the ruthless efficiency in which the Holocaust was conducted.  The brick buildings were former barracks that were turned into pseudo prisons.  We saw the places where thousands were tortured, experimented on, and executed.

The museum exhibits were instrumental in connecting the empty physical site with the actual human impact.  Most chilling were the leftover relics.  Their presence shows the crimes, their quantity shows the magnitude, and their categorization shows the evil calculation.

Pots and pans of the victims.  Most brought their closest possessions unaware of their future fate.

The luggage of the victims with names of real people.

Recreation of the operation of the large gas chambers.

After the exhibits we walked to the first crematorium.  It is still physically present and it provides chilling evidence to the crimes there.  As the war turned against Nazi Germany they increased the pace at which they executed their crimes.  This involved the construction of 4 large crematoriums and around 100 barracks.  The living conditions in the barracks were designed to provide a horrible experience.  We toured a recreation of one of those barracks.

As the Soviet army approached in 1944 the Nazis began destroying evidence of the camp.  They burned and destroyed records and demolished the crematoria and many of the barracks.  Below is the wreckage of one of the large crematoria.  Even so there is plenty of evidence of the evil there.

The visit to Auschwitz was extremely powerful.  Its a somber experience that creates more questions the answers.  To me it is a reminder to never lose our humanity and to appreciate the freedoms we do have.  To me it is also a reminder to fight for others and to stand up against tyranny.  We all have obligations to look after and take care of each other.  And we all have moral obligations to promote peace, understanding and diversity.

Auschwitz Memorial

If you are interested in learning more about the history of Auschwitz the wikipedia page is comprehensive and consistent with what we learned during our tour.  The BBC has also produced a solid documentary on Auschwitz which can be seen via Netflix.