Weekend Trip to Poland

So last weekend I went to Poland. It was a fun trip (my first international travel by myself). I left on Friday morning as soon as chapel was out. So from the flat, I went to Stansted Airport. That took about an hour or so. I got to the airport and did all the typical checkin and whatnot that you do at an airport. I got to my gate. And guess what....My flight was delayed. So I chilled in the airport for like 2ish hours and then we left. I flew from London Stansted to Katowice, Poland on WizzAir. This was an accident on my part. You see, Katowice was like an hour and half away from Krakow (my final destination). So I improvised when I got there and found a shuttle to Krakow. Well, you see it was a WizzAir shuttle and I didn't have a reservation. So they let me on but I had to wait in the shuttle for like 2 hours before we ever left the parking lot. You see, WizzAir's flights were all late and people that had reservations were coming in. So we waited .... forever! Finally, we left Katowice airport and headed for Krakow. You see the driver didn't speak English but luckily one of the people on my bus spoke both Polish/English. She translated for me. When I got to Krakow, I didn't have a clue where I was. So she got me a taxi. I took the taxi to my hostel and it was all good. I checked in and relaxed for like 5 min. After dropping off my stuff, the girl at the desk gave me direction to Hard Rock Krakow and I was off. You see I love my Hard Rock Shirts. So I got one from Krakow. They don't even have a restaurant yet...but its coming soon. So I was one of the first to get a shirt from there. Afterwards, I walked around taking photos of Krakow at night. It is a very pretty town. It's super easy to get around in. The Castle was one of my favorites in the town, the market was cool, and all the little shops were neat to look at. I had ice cream that night before I went back to the hostel. When I got to the hostel, I pretty much crashed to prep for the following day. I was going to Auschwitz Concentration Camps One and Two for the day. That was so powerful. It's like you can still feel all the pain the prisoners went through when they tell you what happened in each of the buildings. I saw the death block (block 11), the death wall, the torture and experiment areas, the housing conditions, the gas chambers and furnaces, the toilets, the hair (all 180,000pounds of it), ... I saw alot that day. It was very overwhelming. I am glad I went to the camps. It is an experience I will never forget. I was pretty much exhausted after the 6 hour trip at Auschwitz. But I kept chugging along....I wasn't gonna waste time sleeping. So I went to the Gallery (the mall), heard a pop-group thing outside,walked around even more, went back to the Castle and saw it during daylight hours,and just mingled my way through the town enjoying the architecture of the buildings and the overall atmosphere of Krakow. Later on that night I went back to the hostel and took about an hour long rest. After that, I went to a Chopin-Mozart Classical Concert at Saint Giles Cathedral. That was awesome. The sound inside the domed rooms of the church was incredible. Very vibrant and rich sounds echoed through the building as the concert took place. It was very relaxing and peaceful. Following the concert, I went back to the hostel and chilled a bit more. That night a played cards with the other people staying in the hostel. They were cool. I now have 3 more Australian friends and 2 new Polish friends. It's all official because it is on facebook (lol). We were up to 1:30 that night playing games. I attempted to go to bed but people checked into the room at like 3:30 that morning. Naturally, they were not respectful of the ones trying to sleep. Somewhere around then, there was a Drunk Naked Irish man running around the place. I was in bed--but I heard all the commotion. It was funny. Finally---I was able to get some sleep. 2hrs later I got up. yeah, 5:30 in the morning. We got up. (Lizz-the australian and I). We got ready and the girl at the reception made us coffee and little sandwiches to go. She was very nice. I ran to the tram stop and, go figure, it didnt come. So I was late to the bus station and I missed my shuttle back to Katowice Airport (remember it was about an hour and half away). So I improvised. I ran around the buds terminal unitl I found someone who spoke English. She helped me. I ended taking a bus to Katowice the town. We arrived at the Katowice station and she helped me get a taxi to the airport from there. It cost me 120 zlottys (Polish Money/Currency). I only had 80 zlottys. So the cab driver and I made a deal through the girl that was helping me. You see the cab driver didn't speak Enlgish. I obviously don't speak Polish. So she did the conversing for us. I ended up paying him 80 zlottys and then topping off his gas tank at a gas station with my credit card. It was fair I thought. He drove SO, SO fast. Wow, wasn't use to that. The only thing we had in common to talk about was Michael Jackson. You see, one of Jackson's songs came on the radio there. I said Michael Jackson..."yeah". The cab driver gave a thumbs up. Then he starting jabbering in Polish again. So its all good. I got to my flight. Got back to London. Trained back to my flat. And I rested. That was the ending to my Poland Weekend Get-Away.

November 15th, 2007: Drove back to Christchurch from Queenstown

November 14th, 2007: Milford Sound Cruise

We got up bright and early that morning to get to Milford Sounds in time for the cruise. While driving there we saw the Southern Alps. They were gorgeous and covered in snow.If you want to know a funny story, just ask me or Jeniffer Mills or Brenda Breezeel about Jacob and the Swiss Alps-Southern Alps story--The cruise was only like a little over 2 hours long...but it was so worth it.

There are few words to describe the beauty that we saw on this cruise. I will allow pictures to do the talking. The bay opened up to the Tasmanian Sea. We saw two waterfalls, wild seals, and many beautiful mountains and valleys.

After the cruise, we drove back to Queenstown for night and prepared for trip back to Christchurch the following morning.

November 13th, 2007: White Water Rafting and Bungy Jumping

So that morning, a few from the HUA group decided to go white water rafting in the river nearest to Queenstown. That was so much fun. On our boat, it was full of people from HUA, our guide, and two physicists from either Scotland or Ireland. The two odd balls were very stubborn and continually failed to listen to our guide. On one of the turns, they placed us sideways in a Class 3 rapid. Not cool,we nearly flipped. That was the second white water rafting trip I've don't with Harding. The first time was in Colorado on the Arkansas River that flows through the Royal Gorge.

After that, Scott and I has a sudden impulse to go Bungy Jumping. So we did. We jumped off of the Kawara(sp) Bridge. It is the first location in the world where someone bungy jumped. That was by far the scariest thing I've ever done. I do not know if I'll ever do that again. It was a thrill-thats for sure. Its not your everyday thing to jump off a bridge. I had issues. It took me like ten minutes to jump off. It wasn't the actually fall that scared me. It was the initial move and thought of letting going of the bridge when the water was screaming death to my face. But oh well...that was an inexperience in and of itself.

My Queenstown, NZ experiences were quite extensive. After bungy jumping, Scott and I went back to the hostel and grabbed our things. We then left with the rest of the group for Milford Sound. We went about half-way that night. We stayed in a little cabin near a lake for the night. There was a little town just down the road where we got hot chocolate and what not before settling in. It was a little chilly then and we were all exhausted. We did not venture too much in that town. We went to bed and got up early the next morning to go Milford Sound.

November 12th, 2007: Lord of the Rings Jeep Tour

After the thrill of skydiving, I took part in a less energy draining activity. I took a Jeep Tour of a few of Lord of the Ring Locations. On my tour was my guide, a South African married couple, and myself. I enjoyed the tour very much, more so for the scenery. We saw the location where all the black horses, went storming down the river (from the 1st movie), we saw the rock where all the rings of the kingdoms were split up, we saw the Remarkable Mountain location where they filmed the famous scene of Gandolf on his horse. We saw a little old western town. We had afternoon tea. And I simply had a relaxing day. After the tour I retired for the night to just chill and enjoy the peacefulness of Queenstown.

November 12th, 2007: SKY DIVING TIME BABY!!

Alrighty, this is the day I was looking forward to throughout the entire semester. I lost 30lbs that fall just to do it. I went on a strict Atkins diet to do so. That was hard the last leg of the trip. The cruise had all sorts of exquisite food, but I did not have any. I stuck to my diet. I broke it 3 times, each time for a pina coloda from ship. They were so good. My desert, if I chose to have it, was a Diet Coke with Lime. Yum... Anyways, the morning of November the 12th, 2007 I went skydiving. It was amazing. I did the highest dive I possibly could. I dove from 15,000 feet. AWW! That means I free falled for a whole minute. It was worth every penny. The view from up there was spectacular. I went diving with a company called N'Zone. Their jump zone is over the Remarkable Mountain Range. If any of you are Lord of the Rings fans, that location is where Gandolf sits on his white horse with a group a snowy mountains in the background. It is in the beginning of the first movie I believe. Anyway, I would so jump again. I love it. It is so much fun. At one point during my jump I tries opening my mouth and yelling something. Haha, bad idea...my tongues instantly felt like sand paper. It took my a couple seconds to catch my breath again. The fall didn't really seem like a minute long. It went by so fast. I wish it were longer. While falling, I didn't have that feeling of my stomach turning inside out. It felt more as if I was floating. You see the forces behind you pushing you down(gravity) and the wind resistance trying to hold up. They both, slow the free fall feeling and make it feel like your floating. Now then, it felt like floating. But I still definitely felt like I was falling over 90mph toward the ground. Initially, the mountains were small when we jumped out of the plane. But as we fell, the mountains became massively huge. I enjoyed that experience immensely. At the jump site, before they put into the plane, they walk you through an about 5 minute briefing of how to fall correctly out of the plane initially. That was all the prepping we needed. The dude attached to us(me) did all the work. I was quite literally on for the ride. You are suppose to fall out of the plane like a banana. And then when he taps your back...you can start moving around. After the free fall, the parachute is deployed. You are then jolted back up in the air very fast. Then we spiraled down to the ground. I told me jumped I wanted to have fun with it, so we spun down to the ground super fast for like 5 minutes. The whole jump itself took about6 minutes once we left the plain. Probably about 15-20 minutes total from getting on the plain and getting back to the ground. While we were climbing in altitude, I could see the plain's windows lining with ice. I thought that was cool. They gave us oxygen after we passed 10,000 feet. They said by law we had to have oxygen until we jumped. In the plane with me was Inabeth Donaldson, Ashley Buford, and myself. They take jumpers up in teams of three. Each of us had our film man and our guide diver. I was the first one out of the plane. There wasn't really any time to think...It was just like ... 3, 2, ,1...down we go. the initial roll out of the plane is exhilarating. The thought of nothing below you but ground and one wicked view is awesome. I would so go diving again. You should try it sometime. If you ever want more information just let me know. I will be happy to help you or answer any more questions about my diving experience in New Zealand. Hopefully, I will be able to dive somewhere else again sometime. Whooh, Im on like an energy high just thinking about it. Have a good day everyone.

Oh yeah, one last thing. After I went sky diving. I went out to eat. And we had subway. Then a few hours later I had Pizza Hut. It was marvelous.I totally gave up the Atkins diet.

Novemeber 11th, 2007-Drive from Christchurch to Queenstown.

The drive was beautiful. We saw alot of the countryside of NZ. It was beautiful. We saw. Mt.Cook in the background-the largest Mountain in New Zealand. We stopped at a little shop for lunch and whatnot on the way. We also stopped and saw a little chapel on a hill with a lake and mountain range behind it. We got Queenstown later that night. We stayed at the Discovery Lodge in the heart of Queenstown.