September 30, 2016

Stolperstein: a Subtle, Beautiful, Poignant Memorial

September 30, 2016/ Meghan Oaks

If you've been to just about any major city in central Europe, you've probably seen them. They are small, inconspicuous little brass plates placed in the sidewalks. You can easily walk over them and never have any idea what they are. We did it for months. I imagine that many of them in more well-walked parts of cities are no longer legible. Sometimes it's just one replacing an older cobble stone. Sometimes there are more. So what are these Stolperstein and why devote an entire post to them?

July 05, 2016

Communism Tour of Prague

July 05, 2016/ Meghan Oaks

In an effort to find unique things to do when we travel, I am often reduced to googling, "unique things to do in _" or "offbeat things to experience in _". Not very original, I know. Sometimes, my searching is a bust, other times, it turns up hidden gems. This tour was one of them. Guys, we got to visit a BUNKER in Prague! And yes, it was just as cool, both literally and figuratively, as it sounds.

May 27, 2016

Walking Tours and the Best Pizzeria in Rome

May 27, 2016/ Meghan Oaks

Not sure if you knew this or not, but Rome is huge. Like, mind-boggling huge. And it has an absolute plethora of things to see and do in the city. The city itself is best described as an open air museum. It is one of the few, if not only, cities in the world to be inhabitant for 3000 years, you can bet there is something exciting around ever corner. The problem is, unless you are an expert in Roman history, or really into Italy, a lot of the sites have little meaning without context. And this is where a handy free walking tour (or 3) comes in.

May 24, 2016

Visiting The Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums

May 24, 2016/ Meghan Oaks

Ask anyone what to see in Rome, and the Sistine Chapel will most definitely be on every list. In a city that is practically an open air museum and beautiful art is found in even the smallest of churches, the Sistine Chapel may seem to be just another historic piece of art. And it is, but there is also a reason it's on every single "Things to See in Rome" list - it's breathtaking. To see the place where popes are made, and avoid the hoards of tourists, we opted to pay for the Pristine Sistine tour offered by Walks of Italy. It granted us access an hour before it opened to the general public and it was totally worth it.

November 04, 2015

8 Things to do in Krakow

November 04, 2015/ Meghan Oaks

Krakow is amazing. Like, I want to go back now, amazing. The food is delicious, the beer is tasty (or so I'm told), the people are some of the friendliest we've met, and the town is positively oozing with old world charm. After a long weekend there, we realized that there is a lot more to this city than we expected, and really, you could spend a week with Krakow as your base exploring stuff nearby. Thanks to the abundance of tour companies operating there, you can do it all with minimal planning on your part, unless you enjoying figuring out the local systems (which, in reality, aren't all that hard). So, here is a list of 8 things to do in (and near) Krakow!

October 23, 2015

Auschwitz and Birkenau

October 23, 2015/ Meghan Oaks

Death camp.

The words flowed easily, as if the guide had said them many times before. And indeed he had, and would continue to do so throughout the day. Despite the manner in which they were said, and how many times they were said, the emotion behind them never left. For it was here that hundreds of thousands came to die. At first it was Polish political prisoners, those who disagreed with and resisted Nazi ideals, or simply were found to be listening to foreign radio, reading illegal pamphlets. Then, came those unlucky enough to have been born into the wrong racial or ethnic groups - the Jewish, the Slavic, the Romani and others.

October 13, 2015

The Tower of London

October 13, 2015/ Meghan Oaks

Sunday morning, we headed to the Tower of London, one of the most famous sites in all of London. It was here that many were famously imprisoned and then loss their lives. It was first built by William the Conqueror as an actual palace in 1066. Over the next 500 years, more buildings were added on to the structure. It sits right on the banks of the Thames and, today, looks out on Tower Bridge. Although historically used as a prison for treasonous individuals, it is more tourist attraction today, but it also houses and guards the most coveted collection of jewelry around - the Crown Jewels. Sunday was a beautiful fall day - slightly windy, but sunny and in the low 60s - to tour the tower.