Not quite the end of the road

As most of you know, we had considered staying in London in the medium-term, but for various reasons that's not going to happen. So I am officially announcing my relatively imminent arrival back in Melbourne - in late January 2010.

Instead of the end of the road, London became a 10 day stopover on the way to somewhere else. We were hosted by my lovely friends Katie and Jay (that's two separate households), which was great both financially and socially. The time went by so quicky that I didn't manage to catch up with everyone I wanted to (you know who you are, sorry about that!). Instead, I managed to get a really cheap flight to Israel and am now spending the time here I was planning to spend in London. I will meet Tim in Barcelona, from where we will travel Spain and Morocco.

My impressions of London... as a city goes, I think it's hard to beat for the sheer amount of things going on. There seem to be endless concerts, plays, musicals etc to see, activities you can do, clubs you can join, places where you can eat, cheap airlines you can fly with. But it's so all-encompassing! I think am too used to the suburban existence, where on the weekends you feel like you have escaped the city. There seems to be no escaping London. Does anyone else feel like that?

Germany

Regensburg

Visiting family in Regensburg, a cute Bavarian town for a few days. It was just like living with anxious parents – they do everything for you, won’t let you go out alone and consistently and persistently overfeed you :)



Berlin

Visiting my very cool friends Jack and Polina - who are having a baby!!! It’s also sort of like living with parents: the fridge is full, the house is clean, dinner magically appears and disappears from the table, but, you don’t get told what to do. I feel majorly spoiled. Thank you guys, and sorry for eating all your pickles!

Prague, Czech Republic

It seems like the European cities we’ve been to so far have been a build-up to Prague. Only St Petersburg compares in terms of sheer beauty (although they are very different). The only thing I didn’t like about it was the masses of tourists, surprising in the off-season. It’s the first time we’ve seen crowds since we left China. Remind me to NEVER travel in Europe in the summer.

Krakow, Poland

We are finally in the European Union!



Because we are just passing through, we are only stopping in one city in Poland. Most people would remember Krakow as the city where Schindler's List was filmed. It's also in close proximity to Auschwitz. We spent a day at Auschwitz, but I don't think I can talk about it as a tourist attraction. Suffice to day that I am glad I saw it, and I would recommend seeing it, but I don't think I can visit any other concentration camps.

The city is really amazing though:

Ukraine

Kiev

Despite being born and raised in Kiev, I found that I didn't remember much of the city (ofcourse it's also changed a lot), and that made me a little sad. The one place I did remember well was my old house and school. Nothing changed there apart from cars being parked out the front. It was such a strange feeling seeing it all again! Everything seemed so much smaller and less imposing than I remember. Even the walk between my house and the school seemed shorter, the little hill where we use to toboggan more of a bump than a hill. My school turned out to be much smaller than MacRob; I would have assured anyone that it was bigger. Here is what they look like:

House



School



What made the trip down memory lane really special as well was reconnecting with my childhood best friend. For as long as I can remember she lived one floor above me, we were in the same class at school and we had the same name. How could she not have been my best friend? :)

I almost didn't knock on her door because I thought that after 17 years there was little chance her family would still be living there. I am so glad I did though! To me it felt like the little girl I remembered hasn't changed at all, simply got a little bigger. Apparently the same could be said about me. I wish I had childhood photos here for comparison purposes.



And later dinner at her house, where her husband got Tim drunk and gifted him with a 3 litre barrel of beer. Jack & Polina be warned - the beer is coming your way! It's going to be a very well travelled beer as well, it's already crossed one country due to lack of suitable drinking companions.



And last but not least - catching up with Dennis and meeting his lovely wife. I can't believe that I didn't take more photos.



It was a very adult occasion with far less carousing than previously associated with Mr Matveev. Things have changed due to the presence of the following two factors:




Lvov

Spared Nazi destruction during WW2, Lvov was an incredibly lovely city and a very welcome stop before Poland. I really liked the complete lack of Soviet era buildings in the historic city centre. Having now had months and months of Soviet architecture, I can't believe how an architectural style could be so utterly without redeeming features (my opinion). How can anyone could build something so ugly after this kind of example?