Blog 14

Something to look forward to – Matt's top five European bits of stuff.

Tally Ho Stragglers, back in blighty. True to form, the second I stepped off the ferry in Dover the rain made spectacular entrance. Impressively, it was coming in from two directions at once. Some of it was coming straight down, whilst an entirely separate bunch of rain was coming in sideways. Is it possible to be raining twice at the same time? The British should be proud of this I think.

In the time since I last wrote I have been dutifully boarding the Top Deck bus every morning at a ridiculous hour and pitching my tent in the afternoon as directed. Despite the mind numbing regimentation of the whole exercise, I genuinely had a good time. In twenty-two days we at least briefly touched Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. Some, such as poor Slovakia, got less than two hours of sightseeing time although given Bratislava is the capital of commie-block architecture, perhaps this was generous.

I left you last time in Croatia, the day before visiting the most beautiful place on earth. More on that later.

The cities of Europe tend to be variations on a grand theme. Each city has experienced times of war, colonisation, domination, revival, repair and golden construction. We seem to be in a time of reconstruction and improvement at the moment with many important buildings concealed beneath scaffolding.

Whilst many of the other travellers on my trip bemoaned this, I saw it as a wonderful reminder of the time in which we live. Since 1914, Europe has not had a chance to breathe. WWI, WWII and the devastating conflicts associated with the Cold War have kept the continent on edge for the best part of a century. Even those cities untouched by the Cold War were still hit with both massive reconstruction bills and huge defence expenses. With the fall of communism and the success of the European Union, these cities are taking the rare opportunity to do a bit of monumental housework. I count myself lucky to be able to travel in such times of peace.

I shall not describe every city as we would be here for too long. I shall instead give you Matt's top five European bits of stuff... in no particular order.

5. Vienna. Yes, an entire city. Sitting in a bar with my Austrian friend Thomas I was told that the Viennese love nothing more than to complain about things. The British have nothing on a good Austrian moan. I think the Viennese should pipe down and take a good look around. Vienna is like a massive art gallery in which the buildings are the art. Where most cities have two or three great buildings, Vienna has about fifteen. Add to this a beautiful old royal parks system replete with manicured rose gardens and golden statues and you start to get some idea of this gem. I could go on... so I will. Many of these grand buildings actually do contain art, and most of the others contain the greatest musicians on earth. Walking the cobbled pavements one can almost hear the music of the great composers who once called this city home. Enough.

4. The Plitvice Lakes, Croatia. The Plitvice Lakes is a large national park in northern Croatia and is home to a vast array of waterfalls that fill the fairy-tale blue lake system. These lakes are home to endless beautiful fish that can often be found swimming just fast enough into the current caused by the waterfalls as to go nowhere, which is precisely where I would want to go if this was my home. There were certainly enough standard 'water gets to the edge of cliff and falls off' type waterfalls, but also some particularly interesting falls that seemed to emerge from between hanging vines or out of a moss covered tree. A three hour walk around this place was enough for me to declare it as close to perfection as nature dared to come around me. Go there. Got it?

3. Exploring the Cold War in Berlin. This was a divided city for thirty odd years and has now been united for twenty. The modern city is certainly dominated by capitalism but still holds a fond place in its heart for the old Eastern GDR system. The old wall still stands in some places, but is now a giant outdoor art space, decorated with tongue in cheek graffiti style art advocating freedom and tolerance. The little green and red men in the pedestrian crossing is called Appelman and is a left over from the East. You see the western half of Berlin used to use our stock-standard little walking men while the East used a little guy with a sweet hat who positively struts when walking and throws his arms out in defiance when red. Upon reunification the Western Berliners thought this so cool that Appelman was promptly installed everywhere. Drive a Trabant, ogle at old Stasi buildings and still get a kebab. Welcome to Berlin.

2. The Sarajevo Roses. Sarajevo copped a good smacking during the Balkans wars of the nineties. In fact, the city was laid siege to for almost four years, three of which without power, water or gas. This would be crap. Add a Serb Nationalist army with snipers, artillery, tanks and mean guys surrounding the city picking off targets willy-nilly and you have a really bad time to grow up. Ninety-seven percent of buildings were damaged in this time and the damage is still utterly apparent. As a memorial to this time, the mortar craters left in many parts of the city pavements have been filled with a red resin and smoothed flat. Because of the pattern made in the ground, these look a little like gunshot wounds or, as the title suggests, roses. They are hauntingly beautiful, like the scars of an injured city. As tourists come and take little bits away as souvenirs, these wounds are slowly disappearing... the city is healing.

1. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. Not fun. Not nice. Not particularly inspiring. Necessary. These places need no introduction except to say that here at least 1.1 million people were murdered on an industrial scale. This happened with the approval of many and the deafening silence of many more. Across Europe it is impossible to avoid the Holocaust. One gets the feeling that in this amazing tapestry that is Europe, someone is missing. There are memorials everywhere, valiant attempts by artists to express condolence, loss and perhaps remorse (certainly in Berlin), but these pale into the background here at Auschwitz-Birkenau. At Birkenau, where most of the murders took place, there is a horrible silence broken only by passing birds. There is an utter spiritual emptiness here. As I looked across a huge field of brick and wooden buildings with the rubble of gas chamber in the near distance, I couldn't help asking myself what I was capable of given the right circumstances.

I want to add the wonderful museums, spectacular countryside and welcoming people always ready with flawless English and a smile but I said I would limit myself to five.

This is a long blog so I shall say goodbye. On Tuesday I will once again be back on the bike. Oh crap, best learn Swahili too... Bernie?

God Bless and stay well,

Matt.