Miami 2011

August 7, 2011

Miami

Chomper

After a grueling but awesome trip to Tampa and Orlando, we arrived back in Miami.  Over the next few days, Dagmara and I met up with some of my friends from my days at Bubba Gump.  It was good to see them again.  The night we hung out with my friend Pino, Dagmara spotted a scrappy looking kitty wandering the streets.  We tried to lure it out of its hiding place, but to no avail, so I bought some bbq chicken wings to coax him out.  It did the trick immediately.  The little sucker was voracious.  Dagmara held him while we drove home.  While feeding him delicious chicken wings, he kept biting Dagmara's bbq sauce-flavored fingers, prompting his name, Chomper.  It was a sad day when we had to give Chomper to an animal shelter before we left.  I might have shed a few tears if it weren't for the fact that he peed on our bed. 

We also had the chance to party with Nestor's family Venezuelan style at the house.  This included loud music, karaoke (mostly Nestor singing), dancing, lots of food, and Mariachis (which are Mexican, but it was still awesome).  I must admit, Nestor cooked the best South American food that I've ever had the pleasure of eating.  Fun fact: every night we partied in the house with karaoke and mariachis, the police showed up, so one night we invited them in and had the mariachis sing a love song for them and plenty of pictures were taken (unfortunately not by me).  So we could get around by ourselves, Beata rented Dagmara and I a red Ford Mustang convertible for the 2 weeks we were back in Miami.  It was awesome and made me realize that I definitely need to save up money and buy a convertible one day.  One day…

the Stang

Already these 2 are far superior dancers than I

Dagmara and Grandma

On the 19^th, my mom flew down for the week.  It was a lot of fun having her.  She got to party with Nestor's family as well.  My mom, Dagmara, and I took a few road trips to the beach, and went down the Florida Keys to Islamorada one day.  It was hot.  I got sunburned just in the car.  The beach was even hotter.  And so we went into the water to cool off.  And the water provided no relief.  The views were pretty nice though, and it was so shallow that we could wade out like 100 meters from the shore.  We probably could have gone even farther, but I-err, everyone else was afraid of sharks.

After a few more days flew past, before I knew it, my golden birthday had arrived.  Unfortunately my mom had to leave that evening (the 26^th), but we still enjoyed it.  We started the day off at the beach, then came back to the house for some ice cream cake and some of the finest scotch money can buy.  As an afterthought, ice cream cake and scotch don't go together nearly as well as beer and normal cake (which I enjoyed later that evening.  Thanks Jake!).  After a few pieces of cake, I brought my mom to the airport and we said our goodbyes.  That evening Dagmara and I went out to Mike's, a hidden gem of an Irish bar.  We met my friends there for some drinks and games of pool.  Fittingly for the birthday boy, I was on fire and only lost a few games to Dagmara ;)   We got back pretty late, but it was one of my more memorable birthdays.  It was really good to see all of my best friends from the MIA. 

Me, Dagusia, Pino

Jake, Dagmara, me, Dee

Coincidentally, the 27^th was Nestor's birthday, so we gathered ourselves up for one more party.  The party was at a Venezuelan bar near the house.  There was a ton of food, free drinks, a crazy elaborate cake, loud music, a piñata, a latin band, some strange clown on stilts that blew that canned party foam stuff all over the cake so it had to be cleaned and finally, Mariachis.  Oh yeah, and a 300 pound belligerent idiot that had to be thrown out and picked up by the cops.  It was excellent entertainment all around.

And just like that, the trip was over.  Dagmara and I went to say goodbye to my friends on our last night, then started packing.  The trip home went smoothly enough.  We even had a laugh at the smoker's glass cage in the Frankfurt airport.  Finally we all made it safe and sound to home sweet Poland.  Thanks for an amazing time to Dagmara and her family, and thanks to my mom for coming down to see me in Miami!!  And of course, thank you to my friends who took time out of their busy schedules to see me!

Next stop: Ibiza, Spain.  Party capital of the world.  Plane leaves on Tuesday!

Orlando and Tampa

August 3, 2011

Orlando and Tampa

The Backyard

On July 9, I got to return to the motherland and visit the city of Miami for 3 weeks, probably the longest vacation that I've actually labeled "vacation" since I graduated from college.  It was quite awesome.  Dagmara, Babcia (her grandma) and I met her mom (Beata), Oscar, and Nestor (Beata's boyfriend) at the airport and rode on to Dagmara's mom's 2nd house in the burbs of Miami.  The house is awesome, complete with a pool, bbq pavilion of sorts, and an imported backyard jungle.  Honestly, I probably would have been satisfied if we never even left the house.  But we did.  And it was legend…wait for it…dary!

After a few days of relaxation and changing my pale body to a light beige, we took off for Orlando.  You might hate me for saying this, but the trip was actually quite tiring and…Disneyland just isn’t the same as it was when I was a child.  Actually, it might have been had it not been for the 10 parades that halted all foot traffic, singing about some sort of celebration that we were all supposed to be having in the 95 degree heat and 100% humidity, using only slightly different rhythms and lyrics each time.  I'm very curious to know how many college students and foreigners from 3^rd world countries working for Disney that die each summer from heat exhaustion wearing those excessively warm costumes…sarcasm aside, it was a fun experience, but I do recommend that young adults with no kids go to Universal instead of Disney, especially if you like thrill rides and don't have a lot of money.

The poor guy that had to wear that beast
costume obviously had no idea what he
was signing up for

Mickey and Minnie

We stayed in Orlando/Tampa for 5 days, so we did it all.  Universal was up after Disney, and I was super excited.  The rides at Universal are incredible.  Not only do you get an adrenaline rush from the rides, but the visual details are very simply amazing.  I do have to admit that in my ripe old age, I discovered that I had contracted the tendency to get motion sickness.  Alas, I didn't bring any Dramamine (a mistake I would not make twice!) and by the end of the day, I was feeling a little sick.  A quick list of my favorites: the Hulk roller coaster, Spiderman (incredible visuals!), Harry Potter (feels like you're flying!), almost threw up on the Simpsons, the Mummy was good, and the Rock and Roller coaster (something like that) was great.  For those planning a trip to Universal, FYI, buy a fastpass, definitely worth it.

Classic

Hogwarts Castle

Village from Harry Potter.  I was quite disappointed
that the snow wasn't real :(

The next day, everyone was exhausted, 2 full days walking and standing in line in the heat and humidity wears on you.  So we drove to Tampa/Clearwater to the beach and cooled off in the ocean…which actually wasn't even remotely lukecold.  Cool enough I guess, it just felt nice not to be on my feet.

Our last theme park day was arguably the best.  At least for me.  We went to Busch Gardens in Tampa.  No, the visuals aren't as impressive as Disney and Universal, but the thrills are better.  They also have a plethora of exotic wildlife.  The roller coasters were awesome.  My favorite was the Cheetah—it was easily the smoothest, thrillgiving coaster I've been on.  You seem to glide through the air so easily, yet still get plenty of butterflies.  Dagmara's favorite was also good…I think I blacked out on it a few times.  Something called the Mummy or Egypt coaster, I can't quite remember, my mind was a bit foggy.  Thankfully I had loaded my bloodstream with Dramamine before the park and I only threw up a little bit after the 25^th coaster ride.  By the time the day was over we were all ready to go home, happy but ready to just lay down in one place and not move for a very long time.  Awesome trip, thank you Beata, Nestor, and Dagmara.

 

the blackout ride

(belated) June 25

June 25

Warsaw

The day spent in Warsaw was amazing.  For a quick background on the city, it is the capital of Poland, the largest city in Poland, and the most modern that I've seen so far.  The Nazis destroyed 85 percent of the city during WWII, so many amazing things were lost, but they've done an incredible job rebuilding and restoring it to its pre-war state.  I'm not sure what the names are of a lot of things I saw, but I'll do my best.

We started the day at Lazienki Park, a park created a few hundred years ago by the then king of Poland.  There's a beautiful palace situated between two ponds that we got to tour.  They make you put "slippers" over your shoes so as not to damage/mark up the floor.  At the end of the tour, I almost killed myself going down the stairs when my feet slipped out from under me.  Other than a bruise to my ego, I was unharmed.  Next up was the city center built inside the remains of a castle.  The center was beautiful with unique architecture, statues, churches, and tons of people.  A statue of a mermaid warrior is supposed to have special significance for Warsaw.  We spent hours looking for it, and we're still convinced we hadn't found it until after we got home and looked for photos of it on the internet.  What we had thought was much too small to be the mermaid statue about 5 feet tall), was in fact the mermaid statue.  The city of Warsaw was very impressive, especially considering it was almost completely destroyed.  I like Krakow more, but Warsaw is definitely worth visiting.  The architecture is very impressive and the area is definitely tourist friendly.

The worst part of the trip was the drive to and from Warsaw.  Somehow, the best/only direct route to Warsaw from Lodz, two very large cities about 70ish miles apart, is a two lane highway/road passing through small villages.  Kind of pretty but very slow going, lots of construction, and very stupid planning.  The civil engineers in Poland either lacked funding or foresight (probably the former), but that is what happens when your country is ran by communists for decades.  Stupid Russia…

Lazienki Palace

Stupid shoe covers that made me slip...

Lazienki Palace

Part of the castle that wasn't destroyed

Mermaid Warrior statue

Tallest building in Poland: The Palace of Culture...
built by the stupid Russians