Strange times.

Day 12 – 17:51 – 06/06/2010 – Vilnius, Lithuania

Today has been OK. My cold is leaving, slowly, but it seems to be escaping via Laura who seems to be feeling like I was 2 days ago. We are back in the hotel room and she is resting as I’m writing my blog! We got up reasonably late today as we were knackered from yesterday.

We hadn’t seen much of town yesterday, just the bit between our hotel and the restaurant we went to, which was one that sponsored the city map provided by the hotel. I had a very juicy steak with potato wedges and salad for around £6 – prices are very similar to Poland! I splashed out on a steak which was probably the most expensive thing on the menu as I felt I needed some much needed iron! From what we saw though it looked nice.

Today we got up at about quarter to 10, which is late for us, but breakfast was until 11. I don’t know if it’s just at the hotel we are staying at or it’s a Lithuanian thing but breakfast was horrible, and that’s being kind. You had two choices of bread… sour and… even more sour. You also had rice cakes. Then you had cereal with beige coloured milk, also used for the tea/coffee although to its credit the milk wasn’t that bad.

Anyway, we headed out after breakfast. Once again there are lots of old churches/synagogues to see. We even saw our first Orthodox church today, which will be the first of many I’m sure. We do feel a little churched out in fairness, but the buildings are very nice. Even though I’m not religious and cannot appreciate the meaning behind it all, I think that anything that can invoke such a creation through architecture must be a good thing.

After we’d seen a lot of old down we sat in the town square and had some lunch that we’d prepared earlier. We then went up to the castle (walking not the funicular!) and up the reconstructed tower for a nice panorama of the city.

We slowly made our way back through other streets in old town, admiring all the amber shops and musicians on the street. My camera cap for the battery broke earlier in the day and so we went back via the 24 hour supermarket that is a 5 minute walk away to get some superglue, as well as some washing power for the laundry service back at the hotel. Although we had fun trying to get change for the machines, which people in Lithuania (as well as Poland) don’t like giving their precious change away, which is the complete opposite in the UK – everyone wants the notes!!

The hotel here is weird. It’s very clean, neat, and up to date and the room is nice. I think they have some deal with students of the local University though as there are messages to students everywhere and there are communal kitchens and dining rooms on each floor. Bizarre. But it’s nice enough and we’re making use of the washing machines at the moment! Did I mention the breakfast is weird too? Oh yes, I did!

On the move again

Day 11 – 11:05 – 05/06/2010 – In Transit, Poland

I’m writing this from our cabin on the train. We are cruising along with the window open, just me and Laura in a cabin for six, with the window open and the fresh air circulating the cabin. It’s wonderfully relaxing. We’ve had the occasional extra person in for 1 or 2 stops, but the train is mainly empty (this carriage goes into Lithuania, whereas the other half of the train terminates at the last city before the border)

Yesterday was a bit rubbish for me, I felt awful in the morning, with a terrible sore throat – we got up later than usual and didn’t really leave the hotel until 11am and even that was via a stop at the pharmacy which was open – yay!

We got the bus to the town centre and from there walked into old town which is about 1.3km away (according to the signs!) We had a big meal because we knew we were going to go to bed early yesterday. I had soup (to try and make me feel better) and then you’ve guessed it – perogi! I felt a little better after lunch and we headed to the castle to look around (neither of us were particularly feeling energetic and enthusiastic about walking much more than we have been doing!)

During the castle tour I really came down with the shakes and a temperature. We had to leave prematurely (we still saw everything, just not in as much detail) and walked back slowly to the bus stop. We also desperately needed supplies for today and yesterday evening so we reluctantly dragged ourselves around a supermarket on the way back to the hotel.

We got back at about 5:30pm, I slept until 7pm. We went to bed properly at around 10pm for a 05:30 start, which surprisingly, wasn’t as painful as expecting. I don’t have the shakes anymore, just a full blown cold which I am solely blaming on the Canadian girl from the Prague-Krakow train.

I will report thoroughly from Vilnius tomorrow night, when I’ve had chance to see the place, we will be moving 2 hours ahead of the UK this afternoon!

A change in feelings (and health!)

03/06/2010 – 22:45 - Day 9 – Warsaw, Poland

Well I’ve changed my mind about Warsaw a little bit. It’s OK but it’s certainly not as special as Krakow in my opinion.

For starters everything was destroyed in the Second World War. Therefore, the old town is not old town, it’s in fact pretty recent town. Don’t get me wrong, old town is nice, but it’s not as special as Prague and Krakow in my opinion. The reconstruction of it all Is great, just does not feel ‘real’.

Secondly, for a capital city, the place is a ghost town. Hardly anyone can be seen around our hotel, few people at all. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was Corpus Christi today and therefore a national holiday so everyone was at home/church, I can only confirm tomorrow.

Today we just walked around, via a walk which wasn’t very inspiring to old town. We walked around old town which was nice then headed to the north end of the city to catch an underground to where we could get a bus home.

Maybe it was the fact I wasn’t feeling very well (I’ve got a very bad sore throat) and couldn’t get any lozenges (everything shut!) but today wasn’t that fun for me.

I did however, enjoy walking around old town and enjoyed the evening where we went to a “Perogiria” (if you can imagine such a thing)! The weather during the day itself was also fine – around 27 degrees Celsius and sunny!

Hopefully I will feel in a more excitable and interested mood tomorrow, but Warsaw is not as impressive as my first impression thought.

Pictures

Me in the Perogiria with oven baked perogi and a nice beer

Laura with a bell in old town - the bell never rang as it was designed incorrectly but is said to contain mystical powers (wooooo)
Castle (rebuilt of course)
A war monument near to our hotel