I am going to liken the former Republic of Yugoslavia to the great state of Washington.

Kim and I started our tour in Split, Croatia- or Bellingham if you will. Split is a very interesting city. The old town dates back to 293AD when retired Roman Emperor Diocletian built a palace here. The oldest part of the city is built completely within the walls for this former palace creating a juxtapose of new and old. After two days in Split, we took a ferry through the Croatian island, not unlike the Washington State ferry line from Anacortes to the San Juan Islands. Kim and I spent 2 nights in the town of Korcula (Friday Harbor for comparison). Korcula was pretty sleepy this time of year and it worked out well that the only day poor weather was while we were there. From Korcula we travelled to Dubrovnik- the Pearl of the Adriatic, as it is called. A city of such beauty could only be compared to another jewel- the Emerald City of Seattle. Like it’s Pacific Northwest comparison, Dubrovnik is set on a beautify coastline. Dubrovnik is seriously an incredible city. The old town dates back to the 7th century and, despite receiving an 8 month pounding from the armies of Serbia and Montenegro in the early 90’s, it is probably the most picturesque city I’ve ever seen.

For our last day in Dubrovnik, Kim and I decided to rent a car and do a little exploring. Our first port of call was over the mountains east of Dubrovnik and across the boarder into Bosnia Herzegovina. We stopped for lunch in the town of Trebinje which is rumoured to be one of the three most beautiful cities in Bosnia. I will compare Trebinje to the magical central Washington town of Ellensburg (note: sarcasm). Like Ellensburg, Trebinje isn’t much to look at, but I did appreciate the fact that at 11 am on a Sunday morning the entire town seemed to be out in the town center drinking (I have to assume that similar to Ellensburg there isn’t much else to do either). My first impression of Bosnia- like central Washington, it appears to be little more than a barren wasteland. After lunch we headed south to Montenegro. The coast of Montenegro was beautiful, like that of Washington, a mixture of beaches, rocky outcroppings, and river valley inlets. Kim and I found the town of Kotor to be particularly amazing, although we couldn’t quite figure out the purpose of fortifying the steep hillside above the town (not sure if you can see in the picture below, but there is a wall running all the way to the top of the hill).
Back in Dubrovnik, we had one more amazing sunset and night out in the old town…

Good things come to those who... stay out really late.

So last weekend I was walking through Dam Square in Amsterdam in the early AM hours of Saturday morning and who should I run into? Dave Matthews.

It was very random, just waking with back to the hotel and I looked over and said to Curt, "there's Dave Matthews". Dave was really cool, he talked to us for a few minutes, indulged me by listening to my drunken ramblings of a story, and even gave me a hug. It was awesome!

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but I did take this picture the next morning- just use your imagination. The weekend was capped on Saturday night by one of the the greatest shows I have ever seen- Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at the Paradiso. Truly an amazing show in an amazing venue. The Paradiso is an old church that has been converted into a nightclub. With just under 1,000 people at the show it had a really intimate feel. Dave was in rare form. It was really interesting to talk to some of the Dutch people at the show who were shocked that we would come all the way from London and Luxembourg to see this guy that they had never really heard of...

Man, Amsterdam- such a great place.

Last night in Oxford... click here for the video

(Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds)

Video 2 and Video 3 - Not mine, but really good.

I guess I should have mentioned, that sandwiched around my momentous visit to Auschwitz was an amazing weekend in Krakow. While I’m not going to say much, and I’m definitely not going to talk about the amazing Polish girls, I will say that Krakow has jump straight into my top three most favorite European cities. Completely unscathed by WWII bombs, Krakow is a gem!

Ryan and I made the most of our 2 nights in this post-Soviet paradise…

Saturday afternoon I had the chilling privilege to visit what is perhaps the most awful place on earth- the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in southwestern Poland. While I can not, in words or pictures, do justice to the horror of such a place, I would like to share my experience.

The name Auschwitz actually refers to a network of Nazi concentration camps which operated between 1940 - 1945, the most notorious of which were KL Auschwitz I just outside the town of Oswiecim and KL Auschwitz II near the village of Birkenau.
A visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial sites begins at Auschwitz I, which on first impression may appear to have an almost collegiate feel, that is until you start to notice the not so subtle barbed wire fences and guard towers. After annexing Poland, the Nazis converted this Polish army base and training facility into a political prison in June 1940 and spent the next two years expanding the camp to a full capacity of 20,000 prisoners. Any glimpse of serenity is immediately and painfully destroyed upon entering barracks 11, known as "the Death Block", where the most horrific types of medical experimentation and torture imaginable were carried out on a massive scale. The brutality in incomprehensible.

In September 1941 the Nazis began the systematic annihilation of prisoners at Auschwitz I. A moment spent standing inside the original gas chamber moves nearly every visitor to tears of sadness and frustration. When the killing and incineration efficiency of 340 bodies per day at Auschwitz I was no longer sufficient for the Nazi's intentions, construction of Auschwitz II was undertaken.

The new camp, 3 km away, would be comprised of 4 killing factories with the joined capacity to execute and cremate 20,000 people per day and an adjoining camp capable of holding of 100,000 prisoners. The layout of the camp was designed to make mass-murder as efficient as possible. In fact, the railroad tracks were extended inside the camp gates allowing the unloading platforms to be immediately adjacent to the gas chambers requiring the weakest of the doomed inmates to walk only 200 meters to their immediate execution.

The statistic that really got to me was that 80% of the men, women, and children who arrived at Auschwitz II - Birkenau were deemed unfit for labor and immediately executed within the hour of their arrival. The surviving 20% would be worked to death over then next 2-3 months (the average life span in the camp) in weather as cold as -10 degrees Celsius wearing little more than what you and I wear to bed and consuming less than 1,000 calories per day.
To say it was a hard experience is a dramatic understatement and I think every visitor deals with the overwhelming feelings in different ways- some joke, some pose for pictures, and others weep uncontrollably. I spent 4 hours in a state of indescribable shock and disbelief, truly moved beyond words. I would like to think that each visitor takes away one or two feelings that will be with them for the rest of their life. Mine- standing on the unloading platform imagining the agony that the arriving prisoners must have felt as they confronted their horrifying fate and any glimmer of hope they were holding for their promised "relocation" was ripped away as the rail car doors were finally opened after a journey of up to 2 weeks; and the feeling of stepping into the 90 cm x 90 cm (approx. 35 in) standing cell which was used to incarcerate and torture 4 prisoners at one time. As fellow inmates passed away in the complete darkness, those surviving had to hold the deceased body upright until the cell was emptied and they were released for work the next morning (often after as much as 14 hours). Standing in that spot, where so many had died, I don't know how to put in words the overwhelming feeling of loss and sadness I felt.

Perhaps you wonder why I would refer to it as a "privilege" to visit such an awful place, a place where literally millions* of innocent people were murdered- I found this message particularly appropriate.

*The total Auschwitz death toll is unknown because any records that may have been kept by the Nazis were destroyed before that camp was liberated, but even the most conservative estimates place the number over 1,500,000

So, Seattle is not the only city in the world that shuts down with a little 'severe' weather hits. In the last couple weeks, we've been 'hammered' by two killer storms. The first, about 2 weeks ago, was an 80+ mph wind storm that uprooted trees and tipped over trains. England shut down for a week. The second storm was a vicious blizzard that burred southern half of Britain in almost 3 debilitating inches of soft, powdery, white snow. Apparently enough to flood tube stations, short-out above ground power cables, and raise boiling hot magma for the depths of the earth.

Since Transport for London became NO TfL last Thursday, I had a really nice walk into the office.

Like dating at work, some lessons you have (hope) to learn twice. For the second year in a row, I learned why flights are so cheap out of London in January- in January, Europe is closed. Or should I say, chiuso. For $75 round-trip, I flew to Naples last Friday. I should have seen it coming when I boarded a bus from the airport filled with only three, clearly local, other passengers and headed to Sorrento. The last off the bus at the end of the line, I wandered into a ghost town. Lucky for me there was one flea-ridden hotel and one half-baked pizzeria open for business. With a bed and well fed, I hit-up the nightlife- which consisted of seven old men fishing in the harbour. With nothing else to do, I decided to join them and batted my hook with a bottle, or three, of Italy's finest 3 euro wine.

With a shattered head, I boarded a similarly conditioned "jet-boat" on Saturday morning and headed to Capri. Things smelled fishy on arrival when I realised that my dream of cruising the island on a rented scooter would go unrealised and that postcards would be harder to find than another tourist. Capri was closed. Public transport- closed. TI- closed. Hotels, restaurants, everything- closed, closed, closed. So I walked and I walked. Now I'm a walker, and I have to say, I did some serious walking. All the way from the port, to Capri Town, to Anticapri. I walked and walked for hours and hours. Truth be told, I was having a great time- very peaceful and very beautiful. I walked all the way to the entrance of the famous grotta azzurra, which was, you guessed it, closed. On my scan that found only one single soul was within eyesight, I spotted this sign which thwarted my plan.

Deciding not to tempt fate in the second most romantic grotto on earth (the first being Heff's of course), I walked 2 hours back to Anticapri.

Do you ever wonder how postcard photographers get those great shots of mega-tourististy places with no people in them? I did. And now I know, it's because they take them in January.

I came to the harsh realisation around 5 pm that there was absolutely no hope of finding food or accomodations on the island, so I hopped a boat to Naples- oh Naples!

What a shithole. Seriously, I think all travellers should be required to spend at least one night in Naples. With the aroma and beauty of the Port of Tacoma, a night in Naples makes one appreciate every other city in the world. Cheating death, I wandered through the armpit of Italy and picked up a new pair 5 euro Ray-Bonds before calling it a night.

Sunday morning I took a train half an hour outside of Naples into the shadow of the formidable Mount Vesuvius to the ancient ruin of Pompeii. Pompeii is simply amazing- a 2500 year old city nearly as well preserved as Naples. So well persevered is Pompeii that it is easy to envision how the ancient BC folks lived. Perhaps the best preserved building in the whole of the city is the lupanare- the home of the women nicknamed lupe, or she-wolves. A wonder inside the original lupe-house reveals five simple rooms with stone beds and pillows. The faded frescoes above the doors advertised the services offered inside...

An evening bottle of wine on the Sorrento breakfront, a daytime march across the island of Capri, and a morning wander through Pompeii- not bad for a weekend away. Maybe like dating at work, some lessons are worth learning over and over (and over)...