Panama

This is from Polly, a glass blower and musician (www.pollylorienmusic.com and/or www.lorienglass.com)
who lives in my neighborhood. Her mother has been sailing for over a year with lots of my magnets. I have yet to compile that information due to lack of photos but do have Polly's report as follows:

"We spent nearly two weeks visiting my mother on her sailboat in Panama. It's not a huge boat, but it's cozy: a place for everything and everything in its place. One night we sailed from Bocas Town to Isla Bastimentos, a small, nearby island that has no roads. We left our dinghy at the little, rickety dock of a restaurant called Roots. The folks there pointed us down the road to a path across the island leading to Wizard Beach. The Wiki page may say that "No interior trails or roads exist on the island," but having walked up the muddy hill and back down the other side to a lovely beach, I can report that Wiki is misinformed. We spent a delightful afternoon between the hot sand and delicious waves on a perfect beach. After returning to Bastimentos town, we sat down at Roots for a light meal. The staff were helpful and kind, and the patacones (smashed, fried plantains) were the best we had on our whole visit! We wanted to give more than a tip to show our appreciation (not only for the meal, but also for letting us leave our dinghy at their safe dock), so we left them one of Nanci's beautiful magnets. The owner/waitress was delighted! "We have just the place for this," she said in her lilting accent."

Mom and Hubby on the sailboat

This is where the magnet lives.

 

A couple years earlier, Polly took a magnet with her when she went to visit her father and his wife in Bonair, One the Antilles Islands that she calls 'the ABC Islands'.

Norway

One of my neighbors has a cousin who lives in Denmark and was kind enough to send along one of my magnets with her daughter who was going to visit. This is her comment:

Hello!

I received this magnet for Christmas from my cousin, Carol, daughter of Jane Goldthwait.
I live in Norway, and Carol and her husband visited us for a few weeks.
We love it!

Karen

Kristiansand, Norway

Brussels and Denmark

A magnet went to the family who hosted my son in Denmark. Soren was an intern at the Arthur Morgan School in the mountains of North Carolina when he got to know Adam.

The last arop in Adam's journey was at the Belgium where Adam caught a homeward flight in Brussels. The last magnet went to the girl behind the information counter.

Montenegro and Croatia

Adam's comments about Montenegro:

"Montenegro was absolutely beautiful.  The trip started out in the extremely interesting town of Ulcinj. Ulcinj is just across the border from Albania and actually used to be part of Albania so it had all the same characteristics of an Albanian town but on a beautiful beach and with lotsof tourists.  The beach was amazing and swimming in the Adriatic is really refreshing.  The water is a beautiful color and beats out the Bahamas any day.  From Ulcinj, I traveled to Bar, Budva, Centinje, Kotor, and Hercig Novi"

A woman at a bakery in the town of Bar agreed to keep the backpack for the time it took to reach the castle. " It was only 4 km (about 2.5 miles) from the bus stop but the climb was so steep that it took me 1 1/2 hrs to walk there. The castle there was incredibly complex but almost completely destroyed
after the 1979 earthquake that shook Montenegro." 

Clock tower in the old castle, Bar, Montenegro

Because of problems with his ATM card, Adam had to skip to Croatia before he ran out of cash. In Dubrovnik, he met a young lady who worked at a cafe/art gallery. He gave her a magnet because he was so glad to finally hear someone speak English. Then he talked her into having a cup of coffee with him. They sat on the castle wall and ate hamburgers. The next evening she took him to a local jazz club.

Albania

My son continued his journey to Albania. This is not a place many Americans go. He met one person proficient in English while he was there. Getting around was a bit of a challenge. Yet people were not unfriendly to him. I have an email he sent about his journey and want to pass along a couple quotes from it:

"I loved all the towns I visited other than the capital, Tirana.  I only tooa grand total of 3 pictures there.  The architecture was extremely bland andlooked like a concrete company got the contract to design it.  I was disgusted but don't tell an Albanian, they think its amazing.

An interesting thing about Albania that I don't think the western media
picks up on at all is that it is very tolerant toward religions...there seems to be a pretty even mix between Muslims and Christians. Often Mosques and Catholic Churches are right next to each other.  Nobody seems to care what religion people are and everybody seems to get along.  Its a very nice thing to see, maybe the rest of the world should take note."

He didn't find hostels to stay in but rented rooms in pensions or people's homes. He left a magnet with a woman who served him breakfast, making certain that he was being well attended.

Castle above Shkodra

Italy and Greece

My son continued his European tour by joining a college buddy's family and continuing with them.  I flew home, they went to Italy. In Venice, he gave a magnet to a glassblower. I'm sure they had an art talk since his childhood pal's father and stepmother are both glassblowers.

A blown glass sculpture on Murano Island.

 Next stop Greece. After Italy it was hard to be impressed. This was his comment on Athens: "Anyways, Athens was a huge disappointment to me.  After coming from Rome were everything seemed beautiful, Athens felt like I was in just another big city...and then boom!!! There are ancient ruins staring you in the face." Adam went to the Acropolis and hung out in the park area. It was a very hot day and he noticed that one woman, a vendor, looked miserable in the heat. He went to her and handed her a magnet thinking that a small gift might brighten her day just a bit. Later in the day, she came to him while he was lounging in the shade of a tree and gave him a bottle of water.

Czech Republic

Another bus trip, another city, this time Prague. Everyone I know who has been to Prague sighs at the mention of it but all I wanted to do was go back to Budapest. I got over that soon enough.

Prague is such a gem. Never have I seen such architecture! I am told that when Hitler marched in, they just surrendered and saved their city in doing so. It didn't get bombed to smithereens like so many others though many other terrible things happened. Such is war. I walked for days marvelling at the baroque, nouveau, gothic and baroque buildings. Each day we crossed the bridge and passed a different configuration of musicians, complete with a washboard, playing Satchmo's "Wonderful World".

We took a bus to Kutna Hora, an old mining town, to see an ossuary. There was a time, centuries ago, that people were buried in churches. When it went out of mode, or maybe got too crowded, there was the problem of what to do with all those bones. One cathedral cemented them into the walls and the other made nifty but gory arrangements and charge tourists to see them.

There was a little cafe where the local workmen were going for their lunch so we joined them. It was very small and the food was on display, cafeteria style. We each pointed to our choice. When Adam pointed, the lady behind the counter stepped back, frowned, shook her head and sort of rubbed her stomach. It seemed she was telling us it was tripe and he likely wouldn't like it. He took the hint and chose another dish. When we left, I reached over the counter as she was busy writing out a ticket, and plunked down a magnet. She looked up and smiled and we left.

Dem bone, dem bones...

Ah, Budapest!

The girl behind the information window at the Budapest train station could easily have been the girl in Krakow, same long black hair, same smiling face. So I slipped her a magnet the same way I did at the station in Krakow. She seemed really pleased, too.

It was late and we had some difficulty finding the metro because of construction. Once there, I was struck by all the homeless people bedded down there...and what a perfect place to be homeless! A metro ride and bus stop found us in front of a fancy hotel with iron sculptures of devils holding torches lighting its facade. We found out hostel nearby in an old building with huge wooden doors, wide staircases of marble with walkways around the courtyard on each floor.

The next day we explored the market, went to the underground church and climbed to the lookout above before continuing to the castle. On the way was a man playing the classic shell game using plastic bottle caps instead of walnut shells. The bet was 100 Euros and, boy, did he have the takers! Huff and pant up to the lookout above took us to statues and an ice cream cart as well as wonderful views of the Danube and the Parlaiment building--and what a palace!-- on the other side.

I was loathe to leave Budapest but, alas...! The man who stored luggage at the bus station had such a hard time with my son's super heavy pack that Adam hopped over the divider and took it from him. He later passed us as he was leaving work, wished us a good journey, and Adam chased him down to give him a magnet.

The Hungarian Parliament

 

Entry to the underground church

Slovakia

Our train from Krakow to Budapest made one stop in Slovakia. We sat at the station for a while before it occurred to me that I was missing a big opportunity to plant a magnet in yet another country. I fished one out of my pack and hurried to the open door of the train. The platform was almost empty already and I was afraid to go outside the train. I leaned out and saw a woman walking my way with her babushka and shopping bag, obviously local. I motioned her to come my way and she did. I asked if she spoke English and she shook her head so I put my hand out, palm up and pointed to hers. She put hers out, I put the magnet in it, turned and ran back to my seat. My son asked if I'd given her a magnet. He said he saw her look at it in a puzzled way then drop it into her bag.

I don't know where Poland ended and Slovakia began other than the stop at the border. We passed through mountainous land and wide green valleys much like the eastern part of the United States. There were fields with lots of orange poppies and some purple flowers that added a nice touch of colors. There were lots of large gardens along the tracks that were being worked manually by mostly older people.

Poland

On to Krakow where we were hoping to catch a bus to Kiev. The office at the bus station did not open until 10 am and the person who opened it didn't arrive for another half hour. He didn't care enough to be helpful so we threw a dart at the map, so to speak, and hit on Budapest instead of Kiev. We spent one night in a hostel and did some exploring. Not much help here, not many smiles.

There was a festival going on in the big square. One booth had a whole pig turning on a spit. Some musicians were playing traditional Polish music, a nice change since every other tune I've heard the whole trip came right out of the US oldies rock scene. We also explored a big cemetery full of extravagant monuments and statues. They treat their dead well here. The Catholic church situated in the midst of all those dead called a service and everyone stopped to take part even though they didn't go inside.

Inside Krakow's castle walls

Auschwitz. Nobody can go to Krakow without viewing that grim reminder of mankind at its worst. There were many barracks set up with wall-sized displays, one of nothing but shoes, another of human braids shorn from the victims, another of eyeglasses...you get the picture. Then there is the heavily pockmarked wall where some prisoners met with the firing squad, complete with a little makeshift shrine of pebbles, pictures and flowers strewn about. Then the oven and the track where they laid the body and shoved it in. Once again, someone laid a flower in tribute. Grim. Grim. Grim.

The ovens. No flash, no tripod but you get the idea.

 

Finally, at the train station we met a friendly, smiling ticket agent. She was young and very pretty, long black hair and all that. When Adam pushed the money through the window, I slipped a magnet in with it. Her smile turned up in a funny little way and she ducked her head, made up the ticket and passed it back, still with that funny little turn to the corner of her mouth. It was almost as though she felt really special. I suspect she thought it was a gift from him.