Hello Warsaw!

03/06/2010 – 00:41 - Day 8 – Warsaw, Poland

First impressions of Warsaw: very nice. We arrived at just after three, about 20 minutes late into the station. We then bought our onward tickets to Vilnius for Saturday, saving money yet again – they were around £21 instead of the £32 first anticipated. This advance preparation is really paying off!

The weather was hot and sunny, and we headed for the hotel. However, as we got closer to the hotel the skies became dark. Within 5 minutes of arriving at the hotel, thunderstorms broke out. We sat in the hotel for a bit, just relaxing and unpacking before heading out at about 7pm for something to eat – when the weather had stopped chucking it down. We aren’t as far out from the centre as we were in Krakow, but it still takes 2 buses to get to old town (which to be fair, isn’t really in the centre anyway, it’s the other side).

We got one bus to just outside old town and walked in. It was beautiful but once again you could see the skies were getting black. We managed to find somewhere suitably cheap to stay, about 30 seconds before the skies opened even more violently than previously in the day. The lightning was fierce and we were glad to be inside.

By the time we had had a meal and a couple of drinks the rain had calmed down but had not stopped, luckily we packed our rain coats! We then got the buses back to the hotel and here we are now.

I really like Warsaw so far, I look forward to exploring it more tomorrow!

A long day out

01/06/2010 – 22:10 - Day 7 – Krakow, Poland

Well, that was eventful just then. As I was beginning to write my blog in the lobby of the Etap, a man on crutches came in and his left crutch slipped on the wet (from the rain) floor and he fell over. It looked bloody painful but luckily he was OK.

Today began nice and early, we were outside the Novotel opposite our hotel for 8:30am. Our bus was a bit late (due at 8:50am, about 9:05am it came). But eventually, we set off on the hour long journey to Auschwitz. It was a really enlightening, yet harrowing trip. Some of the things we saw really showed how many people passed through the cynical and evil gates of the German saying “Work sets you free” The trip, in my opinion was well organised by our tour operator. The only downsides were the amount of people there (although on the other hand you could see that as a good thing and it was only really at Auschwitz 1 and not Auschwitz 2 - Birkenau). The other thing that I was disappointed about was the fact we were on limited time and it was only a 4 hour trip to Auschwitz and the Birekenau complexes. I would like to return again to explore myself, but that can be done in time.

We got back to Krakow at about 3:40pm, 25 minutes before our trip to the Salt mines just outside of the city began. We grabbed a quick coffee across the road from the bus stop with a guy from Wembley in England who seemed nice enough.

The salt mines trip was also good, although I think myself and Laura were a little too tired to appreciate it all. We met an Irish couple about our age that were on the Salt mines tour, who were travelling around Europe. They were nice too, and we gave them some advice on Krakow as it was their first full day here. The tours particular highlights were the main chapel which was absolutely beautiful (all made with salt structures) and the lift back up to the surface, which went at an alarming speed of 4 metres a second, 9 people crammed into a little cage. I can only imagine what a battery chicken being thrown into the air in its cage felt like at that moment - minus the steroids, obviously!

We got back to Krakow for the night at about 8pm, headed to a restaurant and had a nice filling plate of perogi each. We then walked to the bus stop in the pissing rain, and here I am now.

This is our last night in Krakow tonight. Warsaw awaits tomorrow, our train leaves at 12:15 and hopefully better weather will await because its cold and wet in Poland at the moment!

Pictures

Laura under the lighting in the Salt Mines

Salt carving of the last supper
The main chapel in the Salt mines
Me getting very excited about 300 steps down into the mine
Salt mine front
Auschwitz 2-Birkenau outskirts with watchtowers
Entrance to Auschwitz 1

Our Second Day In Krakow (Pictures)

31/05/2010 – 21:57 - Day 6 – Krakow, Poland

Unsurprisingly, today we had a bit of a lie in. For me usually, 9:00am isn’t much of a lie in but it was today! We took our time getting ready and made it out the hotel for 10:15. We headed straight for Wawel Hill – the castle and various other sights as it was the last major thing to see in Krakow city.

When we got there we were impressed with the architecture of it all, but very disappointed at their admission policy to certain places. We went to the ticket office and saw that the Armoury and the Lost Wawel exhibit were both open till 12:00 on Monday, but were free so we quickly made our way over to the Armoury as it was 11:15. We needed a ticket. Back to the other side of the castle, to the ticket office we went. “Sorry, all tickets are sold out!” That is what the ticket woman said. We were very pissed off that the ticketing system for ALL barring 1 exhibit (which had no limit to tickets) that this particular ticket office catered for were “sold out” that is, they give a limited number of tickets out, for set hours and times during the day. Had we known this (our guide book failed to point it out) we would have gone much earlier. We sat for a while in the ticket office, quite annoyed.

We eventually decided to buy the ticket for the exhibit – called Dragons Den – and as we knew it exited the hill, went to have a look around the cathedral before going into the Dragons Den. Before entering the cathedral we saw another ticket office, this time for cathedral based activities. These weren’t limited and we were quite pleased to find that we could buy tickets for the bell tower, the royal tombs and the cathedral museum. The Wawel cathedral was beautiful inside, much like that of the Vatican, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. The bell tower was good fun, albeit a very narrow and compact route through the tower! The royal tomb was good, very interesting to see all the kings of Poland there as well as Generals of the army in the Second World War Even more interesting, and somewhat harrowing, was the tomb of the recently deceased President and his wife, who died in a plane crash, along with many other Polish officials. There were a lot of people in the cathedral, and it did annoy me quite a bit as many of them were school children, but to see many Poles crying and touching the tomb of their recently deceased leader and his wife in a tragic accident was very sad.

Before we left Wawel via Dragons Den, we decided to have lunch at the café in Wawel. We both had Perogi and a drink for less that £6 –something that would never happen in the UK (that is a meal at a tourist attraction for such a low price). Dragons Den was a underground cavern beneath the cathedral/castle, where a dragon was once fabled to have lived… it wasn’t great and left me disappointed with Wawels ticketing system. I was really looking forward to some of the other exhibits that we never got round to seeing, and now won’t have time to on this trip.

So, we had finished lunch by half 2, and with nothing to see in Wawel, we decided to go on another Lonely Planet tour walks, this time of the district Podgórze. The walk took us to some weird but wonderful places – over fields, past churches and along roads. It ended with a visit up Krakus Mound (an unknown sourced manmade hill) and then a walk downhill to the ruins of Podgórze concentration camp. A harrowing experience in its own right, seeing remains of tombstones of the Jewish cemetery that previously occupied the land and abandoned SS Officers houses left me with strong thoughts and feelings of sadness.

Auschwitz and the Salt Mines tomorrow, an early start and long day with mixed emotions awaits.

Pictures

The abandoned house on a residential street in Podgórze of a former SS Officer

Me and Laura on top of Krakus Mound - very windy!

Me on top of Krakus Mound

Laura in Dragons Den
Me squeezing through a gap in the bell tower
Wawel Cathedral
St Marys Basilica at 7am yesterday morning (30/5/10)