Nearly Nonsense: There and Back (and There and Back) Again

It’s not often that I take two international trips in one summer—neither I nor the environment can afford it! But when I do have to fly across the Atlantic twice in three months, I do my best to make the most of it.

A field outside of Durham

I started the summer with a family visit to England, where my sister and brother-in-law live. You know I don’t post pictures of other people without their consent, but enjoy these pictures of Durham and take my word for it that my family was there with me!

The Durham Castle keep, which is actually a modern construction built to house students. Imagine your dorm being a caste!

The Durham Castle Chapel

A super cool exhibition on the University of Durham's First Folio of Shakespeare. I'm so proud of my sister for her role in putting the exhibition together!

The cloister of Durham Cathedral

The inside of Durham Cathedral

A country walk in neighboring Kimbelsworth

We even took a jaunt up to Edinburgh, because why not?

The border between England and Scotland

Dear old Edinburgh. Everything is on a hill.

Especially the castle.

The middle of the summer was mostly spent staring at a computer screen as I prepped my fall classes. I’ll spare you the screenshots and show you my work companion instead.

Grover, the ever helpful

The end of the summer provided me my first opportunity to visit Poland. I went primarily for an academic conference held in Katowice but took the opportunity to visit Krakow and take a tour of two Eagles’ Nest castles.

The canal in Katowice

Katowice is historically an industrial and more recently a technology-centered city whose architecture ranges from quaint to space-age.

The historic city center

I'll never understand the seemingly global late 80s obsession with buildings that look like vacuum cleaner filters.

An abstract sculpture (the Silesian Insurgents Monument), a space ship (Spodek Arena), and a set of Borg cubes? (the KTW Complex)

The old town of Krakow has more of a traditional, fairy tale look.

St. Florian's Gate, at the top of the Royal Route

The Cloth Hall on Market Square

Market Square, seen from the top of the Town Hall Tower

The eclectic cathedral on the grounds of Wawel Castle

But note: another vacuum cleaner filter!

I was surprised to discover that Kazimierz, Krakow’s old Jewish Quarter, is a hub of street art (official and unofficial). It has a much grittier, more urban feel than Old Town.

Street art

Aaaand graffiti

The fence around the Old Synagogue, which is now the Krakow city museum

The two castles I got to tour could hardly have been more different from each other. Pieskowa Skała with its Disneyland feel…

…and Ogrodzieniec with its romantic ruins. You might be able to guess which I liked more!

As someone who has precisely one word of Polish (dziękuję: thank you), I found Poland a little challenging, especially Katowice where tourism is not a key industry. Street signs and train station announcements were all in Polish, foreigners were few, and many people working in service industries didn’t speak English—when I asked a taxi driver if I could pay by credit card, he thought I was asking to be driven to Krakow!

Polish sour gummy candy from Żabka, the Polish answer to 7-11

This isn’t a critique of the people of Katowice: it’s their city and they’re not obliged to accommodate random visitors like me who stumble into their backyard. But it did make me keenly aware of how much I rely on even the minimal knowledge I have of the local languages in other places I visit. I may not be able to have a conversation in French or Italian or Icelandic, but at least I can read a menu, and I can recognize the difference between the name of a town and a “pay to park” sign!

So, you can imagine that trading Poland for Iceland was a welcome change. Reykjavik always feels like home to me: the sea air and the gulls and the colorful houses by the pond. I went for a foundation board meeting, but you know I didn’t spend the whole time in a seminar room!

Bonus view of the new lava field on Reykjanes. Note the road built over the lava even before it fully cooled!

Plokkfiskur, my favorite Icelandic dish—and it was warm enough to eat it outside!

How did I never know this lovely bookstore, owned by the same family for four generations, is right in downtown?

I arrived in the middle of a huge Pride event. I've never seen so many people in Reykjavik!

Iceland: when the weather's good, life is good.

It’s lucky I ended the trip in Reykjavik, because I managed to miss my flight coming home (the first time I’ve ever done that in two decades of solo travel), and if I’d found myself stranded in Katowice Airport, I might have been a bit distressed. As it was, I was only delayed, and if you’ve got to be stuck in an airport for eight hours, Keflavik is a pretty good one to pick.