Blogs from Torun, Kuyavian-Pomeranian, Poland, Europe
May 26th 2012
Home of Nicholas Conpernicus. We toured his house. Very lovely old town. Almost free of any devastation from WWII Not far from the villages of Great grandparents on mom's side. I'll attempt to rent a car on Saturday and make the 23 mile journey one way to the village. It is Mother's day in Poland tomorrow. See the lovely roses and how they wrap them in the thin grass. 10zl or about $2.85 cents US! Everything is so cheap here. A Pint of ale is like $1.40 US. You can order a large pizza for about $5... read more
July 23rd 2010
July 22 - The snoring wasn't so bad last night. He reined it in somehow, or I slept through it better. Either way, that was good. I got up around 7am and finished packing, had some breakfast and left around 8:30 am for the train station. Fortunately one of the guys working at the hostel was really helpful and had printed me the train schedule, so I knew what to ask for and when the trains would go to Torun. I also knew I had to change trains and where to do that. If I had just gone to the train station I don't think I would have had that information as it wasn't printed on my ticket. I chose te 9:45am train over the 8:15 because it was faster and would give me more time ... read more
My self-chosen life as a vagabond
Published: September 2nd 2009Europe » Poland » Kuyavian-Pomeranian » Torun
September 2nd 2009
Torun, 24-07-2001. Torun surely has charm, a soul reaching touch of clasic admosphere that breaches the charactre of this ancient realm of the Teutonic Knights, small cobble-stoned streets overshadowed by mighty churches which ghotic appaerance makes me feel small and insignificant... A ring of powerfull looking walls surrounding the inner city is testomony of my first visit to this ancient place. A light rain drizzling down on my head while I push my overloaded iron lady through near-empty streets, my sweaty and rained upon head trying to make an owl's turning, trying hard to take it all in. The omnimous darkness of the thunderstorm as yet awaiting me ignoring, I look for a small bar for lunch...back to tasteless Polish froth that the locals gobble down like it is a bowl of Red Wine with the ... read more
Torun - professor Filutek, dragon and pierniki
Published: April 1st 2009Europe » Poland » Kuyavian-Pomeranian » Torun
April 1st 2009
Short facts: Participants: Me Destination: Torun, Poland Length of the trip: 3 days Distance: 183 km from Warsaw to Torun Music: Queen Adreena Reading: Lonely Planet "Eastern Europe", Ryszard Kapuscinski "Podroze z Herodotem" (cannot say that I really read this, but I bought this) March 27.16:30 Sitting in the train with Lonely Planet "Eastern Europe" in my hands. It is interesting and quite amusing to read this being Eastern European myself (especially all those "and you can see the leftovers of Soviet Union there and there"). I really like Lonely Planet and generally good guides, they show the potential of you can see and where you can be. Even if you don't see it all. So I am watching outside the window to fields and plains of Poland, that remind me so much of my home ... read more
The City of Nicholas Copernicus
Published: March 10th 2008Europe » Poland » Kuyavian-Pomeranian » Torun
February 10th 2008
Torun is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. The medieval old town of ToruĊ is the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus. It was inscribed onto the World Heritage List of UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1997. Torun is one of the few Polish cities which were not destroyed in World War II. The buildings you see here are as old as they look. Everybody knows the story of the rat catcher of Hameln, where the man lured the rats from the city with his flute-music. In Torun there was a frog plague, and a fiddler. The story was never as famous as the one of Hameln, because here the man was properly paid and he left the children alone. Another, more famous inhabitant of Torun, is Copernicus. He found that the sun ... read more
July 26th 2006
Torun is a very, very gorgeous town in central Poland that is famous for three things: 1) being stunningly quaint and beautiful 2) their famous pierniki, or gingerbread, and 3) birthplace of Kopernik, or Copernicus as he was known in Latin. Unfortunately, because of my poor judgement, we missed the first train and thus had less time than I would have liked here. Torun has 200,000 people, but it wasn't damaged much in WWII and it really seemed like the most authentic and fun Old Town we had been in, the town square was full of locals, not tourists, and there was even the ruins of an old Teutonic order castle that you could practice shooting arrows for 4 zloty. I didn't, but I'm a cheapskate and the arrows looked questionable. It was located on the ... read more
