Being stationary is GREAT

Hey everybody! (a tribute to my soon to be sister-in-law, Dr Nic)

Phew. To say the last three weeks have been busy is a bit of an understatement. To my memory, this last dash granted me the most severe dose of travel fatigue that I've had to date - and it just gradually creeped up on me.

Interlaken was amazing - I know I've talked about this already, but I met just such great people, the place is extraordinarily beautiful, and there's just lots of fun outdoorsy things to do - very me. Fresh on the road, I felt fairly good and full of energy.

My first time in Munich was brilliant - I thought it would be just the Oktoberfest drunken party destination, but the city is gorgeous and fascinating. In a limited time, I crammed in some tours, checked out some hotels for work and managed to then duck down to the last hour of 'Spring Fest' on Friday night and grab myself a beer. I started to be a little tired from this point though.

Kyiv was big and beautiful, and although a little tired on arrival, I went straight out to Independence Square for May day celebrations - although the atmosphere wasn't electric, there was a nice excited buzz amongst the Ukrainian population who came out in mass. Over the next couple of days, I squeezed into the Lavra, added somewhat to my Munich sun-burn, lined up for a long time for the caves, checked out the massive 'Mother Motherland' statue and tanks, rocket and guns at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, went to the Pyrohovo Open-Air museum... and then flew to Lviv.

By Lviv I was quite sluggish. The Pharmacy Museum immediately perked me up - fascinating displays and rooms. The guided tour was super enlightening and although in a slightly zombie-like-state, the city through its inherent European beauty managed to continually boost my energy levels. The airport was hilarious by the way - runway of pot-holes, it was one of the scariest and roughest landings from Kyiv (and then you lift your own suitcase out of the wooden wagon) and the check-in counter at the terminal on exiting - it's basically at the gate. I dragged my checked bag to the steps up to the plane until they took it from me. Lviv has great coffee and pastries, a beautiful old town and is a charming walking-city. Well worth a look!

It was my second time in Warsaw as I'd flown there from St Petersburg last year. Compared to Moscow and St Petersburg, Warsaw does not have nearly the same level of amazement, awe and sophistication - but the underground sub-culture is a nice shining light. I saw an amazing documentary on the history of Warsaw - before the war and then the massive obliteration, and then the almost unbelievable clean-up. The devastation would've just been heartbreaking, and it is to the people's credit that they worked so hard and rebuilt a city that no longer existed. The Royal Castle was charming, Chopin's museum, sadly was sold-out (it had recently opened during this year, his 200th birthday), the palace gardens were gorgeous, the university roof-top garden was uber cool...the weather was PERFECT. I can't remember more perfect weather, in-fact, so a waffle in the park was just bliss. The tribute to the recent plane crash and deaths of the president and associated executive was very sad, sobering, noble and important to recognize. I connected via Skype for staff-training in Philadelphia for those two days also...so it was a super hectic weekend, and then I flew to Gdansk.

Gdask, in northern Poland on the Baltic Sea, is the old-city tourist town of a tricity area including Gdynia and Sopot. I researched the area at tourist agents, scoped some hotels, loved exploring the old-city, caught a bus to Sobieszewo Island and walked the half hour forest path to the Baltic Sea. I was exhausted, but the simple joy of spending thirty minutes hunting for amber amongst the shells and driftwood washed up on shore - it was just super fun and energizing again. The search for the small handful of amber that I collected was the fun and rewarding part. I'll aim to hold onto the amber til i see mum again, and then I'll give it to her.

Probably the last day of touring was the most hard work! A train to Gdynia, then eventually I worked out (through hand gestures and rudimentary communication) the correct train to catch to Wieżyca, from where I would walk 3 miles to my destination of Symbark. Well, the tourism staff member got it a little wrong - the sign posts were not clear and my 3 mile walk turned into probably about 5 miles or more and I eventually arrived. The tour of the educational site (the highlight being a house built upside down to represent life under communism) was good...and then I rushed back in thirty minutes to make the last train for the next two hours.

So now I'm in Sevenoaks, Kent, and very, very much enjoying a weekend-off being in the one place. In fact, I'm quickly feeling refreshed...and will probably be ready and excited to travel again next weekend! Although I'm not going to travel...except maybe just to London.