Crazy as a Balloon

On Saturday I took my first balloon ride! Granted, it’s a tethered balloon, but it goes very high and provides great views. The balloon is full of helium and ascends up to around 500 feet (150m). It was overcast that morning, but sunny clear days are not common around here this time of year, and […]

Crack Cow

After finishing up with Wrocław, I took another FlixBus ride, this time to Krakow, also in Poland. I was here once before, with my brother in 2005. The past 17 years have been kind to the tourist scene, and while I really like Wrocław, it clearly isn’t on the tourist radar yet like Krakow is. […]

Polski Stuff

Under license from Fiat, Polish versions of this car brand were manufactured or assembled in Poland, called Polski Fiat. These cars were popular during Communist times due to their simplicity and relative affordability. Here’s a legacy one I found in town: Polish restrooms are often marked with symbols to indicate the intended sex. It’s not […]

Nature, Festivities, a Battle vs Russians, and Language Struggles

The river Oder passes through the middle of Wrocław, and along its banks are many nice parks. Additionally, there are several other parks around the city, including a couple of very large ones. While Wrocław itself is mostly pretty and not industrial or gritty, it’s still refreshing to get out into green spaces with loads […]

Konspira

There’s a fantastic Polish restaurant in old town Wrocław that strongly represents its freedom and peace movement connection with a thick menu highlighting historic information and backgrounds of the various traditional Polish dishes on offer. They’ve also added some recent signage protesting Putin’s war in Ukraine. Bonus side note: So far I have managed to […]

Miscellaneous Prague

While wandering Prague’s streets, you begin to learn some Czech words due to their repetition and context, such as “pozor” (caution) and “zákaz” (prohibited), as you’re often told what not to do (just like anywhere else). There is a lot of prominent Jewish history in Prague, and the historic Jewish quarter Josefov remains intact today, […]

Cold War Bunker

Once per month, the municipal district of Prague 2 (our favorite neighborhood) opens an underground shelter built in the late 1950s and early 1960s for civil protection. It could house up to 1,300 people for 72 hours in case of aerial bombardment, and it includes toilets, showers, a first aid room, a power generator, multiple […]

Heydrich Assassination

The most senior Nazi official assassinated during World War II was Reinhard Heydrich, killed in Prague by Czechoslovak resistance operatives under orders from the government in exile in London. Heydrich was particularly nasty, even for a Nazi, and he had been in charge of the Nazi-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. His assassination led to […]