EUROTRIP 2016

For a long time I have been wanting to essentially “backpack” across Europe. I have been fortunate enough to visit a lot of Europe when I was younger but never to truly explore it. About a year ago I began to discuss a trip with my mom, who still lives back in Michigan, about visiting some family as well as exploring other countries. My mom is originally from Poland, and my father is from Germany. That being said we made the trip happen and I was super glad that my mom was able to come a long as we don’t get to spend a whole lot of time together these days. Due to the current state of a lot of Europe I was a bit nervous this time around. Especially because we were eventually going to be hopping from city to city, hotel to hotel and just traveling a bit on the fly. That on top of bringing a camera was a bit nerve racking. DSLR’s aren’t the most compact cameras out there.

THE GEAR.

I decided to keep it as simple as possible for this trip. I brought ONE camera body (Canon 5d MrkIII), my current favorite lens( Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art), 4 64gb CF cards, and my Iphone 6s. All of this thrown into my ONA Union Street camera bag. It is the best bag I’ve owned. I literally took it to Hel( see below) and back… But at the end of the day I wanted to travel light. No laptop, No hard drives, no extra lenses, and definitely no other cameras.

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First Stop: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

I am originally from Mississauga, Ontario which is only about 15-20 minutes from Toronto. I have a lot of family in Toronto and it also happens to be one of my favorite cities. Unfortunately I was only there for a couple days.

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Toronto, Canada to Janów Lubelski, Poland.

The family (uncle and grandmother) that I do have in Poland lives in this tiny town called Janów Lubelski. The city is small but full of character. Many of my morning runs would consist of running around the whole city and being back in an hour. It was awesome. The culture, the people, and just the overall way of life is fascinating. Its quiet, its simple and has some hidden gems in the city. Not to mention it was incredible to see where my mother grew up. ALSO, to my surprise there is an INCREDIBLE camera museum about the local photo studio. All of the cameras were collected by one gentleman that has an overwhelming, and contagious, passion for photography. Think of any camera and he has it. Quite literally. He owns everything from pre-war Leica’s all the way to your modern Canon 5dIII or Nikon D810.

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Janów Lubelski to Rome, Italy.

Italy was not planned at all. It has been a life long dream of my grandmothers to go to Vatican City and see the Vatican. My mom being the insanely generous person she is decided one morning that we would take her there. I was definitely not against it. When you think of Rome you think of this incredibly romantic place where everyone is eating spaghetti and drinking the best wine. This wasn’t the case. It was VERY expensive and pretty dirty. Rome is definitely a place to see at some point in your life just limit your trip to a day or two and move on to other cities in Italy. I did enjoy it but with that on top of how “touristy” it is, I felt that 4 days was a little too long to be there.

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Vatican City

Vatican City was absolutely breathtaking. I spent most of my time in Italy there. Photographing people, learning and observing the culture and avoiding the hundreds of people trying to sell me selfie sticks. I have always wanted to go so it was nice to check that off of my bucket list. Not to mention being able to spend the time there with my family.

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Rome, Italy to Warsaw, Poland.

Warsaw is incredible and was pretty much the “home base” for the trip. There were many times we would travel to another city and end up back in warsaw to go on to the next city. It’s full of life while still keeping its older charm. Not to mention it’s a little more English friendly for those of us who speak very little Polish. The university there helps a lot, haha.

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Warsaw, Poland to Gdànsk, Poland.

EASILY one of the most breath taking parts of the trip was Gdànsk. Its one of the most northern parts of Poland that is right on the Baltic Sea. Streets are flooded with street performers, small shops, restaurants and amber is EVERYWHERE. It has that smaller European Downtown vibe without over saturating it. Coffee shops were great, people were incredibly friendly, and the city was beautiful. One of my favorite cities. Just a ferry ride away was the Hel peninsula. It was used back in the cold war as a military base and most of it still remains in tact. Very cool.

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Gdánsk, Poland to Wrocłow, Poland.

One part of the trip was to meet up with a youth group from Toronto. After one of the most sketchy train rides ( 10 hour over night train) I arrived to meet the group. It didn’t work out too well. It was super unorganized and I felt as if I would have wasted at least two days of city exploring if I were to stay with them. That being said, Wrocłow was awesome as well.

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Gdànsk, Poland to Krakòw, Poland.

Krakòw is hands down my favorite city in the world. I have a been a couple of times but now that I’m older I was able to appreciate it more. It was a little crazy due to World Youth Day but it was still great. For those of you who know me, I have very particular religious views but the sense of community that you felt while there during the event was super comforting. Groups from all over the world were there having fun, exploring, worshiping and just enjoying life and its opportunities.

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The 2 photos above are from the Wieliczka Salt Mine. The photo above is a chapel CARVED out of salt. Incredible.

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Krakòw, Poland to Zakopane, Poland.

This was the best part of the trip by far. We staying in an incredible hotel( My Mom is the best at booking) and the city was unreal. Zakopane is the southern most part of Poland, in the Tatras mountains, bordering the Czech Republic. We ate so well, hiked a lot( most trails to the views you will see below were 10k hikes), and explored much of the city. Couldn’t have been happier there.

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Poland to Paris, France.

I was a bit nervous going to Paris due to everything that has been happening over there. We arrived and immediately got on a train to downtown. The subway system there is confusing and super dirty. I interacted with some of the rudest people I have ever met and also a couple of the nicest people. It was a short trip( long layover) but the Eiffel tower was really cool to see. I wish I could have explored the old part of town as well as spent a whole day at La Louvre.

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From Paris we flew back to Toronto and then drove to Detroit. From Detroit is where I boarded a plane to take me back to Atlanta. If you made it through this whole blog, you are a champ.