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Published: September 15th 2009
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From Prague I got an overnight bus to Warsaw, which took an hour and a half longer than expected, due to a large number of stops and some mysterious bus problems which required us to change buses at 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm pretty sure the second bus had bigger problems that the first. All very interesting when you can't speak a word of Polish! I have since picked up a few words, but it hasn't helped it much. Polish people seem very unhelpful, to the point of being quite rude if you don't speak any Polish. Except for people my age-ish, who mostly all speak English and are more than happy to practice it on you. Anyway, had a nice time in Warsaw wandering around the Old Town, particularly the Old Square, which was destroyed during WWII but has since been rebuilt. The only downside was the weather - it rained most of the time I was there.
After a couple of days in Warsaw I got a train to Krakow. Nearly didn't make it, thanks again to the very unhelpful staff who first told me the wrong time and then the wrong platform. I was saved by
some homeless man who seemed intent on having a 20 minute conversation with me despite the fact that neither of us could understand a word the other was saying. The only thing I understood (or at least I think I understood) was that if he had the money, he would like to smoke 25 cigarettes a day...very interesting, pretty weird, conversation! Luckily, he overheard an announcement about one minute before my train was due to depart and managed to tell me I was on the wrong platform.
On my first day in Krakow I did a trip to the concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau, which was a fairly depressing day! It was horrible seeing the conditions which people were forced to live in and walking through the crematoriums/gas chambers and seeing ovens right in the middle of them. At Auschwitz, amongst the exhibitions, they had huge collections of peoples' belongings - massive piles of glasses, suitcases with names on them, masses of human hair and 80,000 pairs of shoes.
All my photos show Birkenau covered in bright green grass, which makes the place seem much prettier than it deserves to be. Apparently during the war it used to
Pegasy
Warsaw art be knee-deep mud. Probably the most depressing thing was the train track which led to Birkenau and the end of the line was directly in front of four gas chambers. 75 per cent of the people who were brought to Birkenau were murdered in these chambers. Despite how unpleasant a day it was, it was well worthwhile.
The rest of the time in Krakow I spent doing some general sightseeing - in yet another 'Old Town,' although much of the main square was under scaffolding. Very rude to be doing repairs while I'm there! Went to Wawel Castle, as well as doing a tour through Kazimierz, which is the main Jewish area, although there are apparently only 160 Jews living there now. Still plenty of synagogues, which somehow survived the war. Also saw some of the sights where Schindler's List was filmed, as well as the building that housed Oskar Schindler's factory. Got to walk down Ulica Klupa which means 'Shit Street' in Polish, but unsurprisingly means something completely different in Hebrew.
From Krakow I got the bus down to Zakopane which is a town just near the Slovakian border at the foot of the Tatry mountains. Fortunately,
everyone here has been much friendlier and more laid back. There seem to be some amusing fashions here. My two favourites have been:
- wearing complete army camouflage get up - jacket, pants, bag, hat, etc. Not sure what people are trying to camouflage with??
- every second person using trekking poles, if only to walk down the (flat) main street. Apparently it's a good work out for your arms.
I've been here for four days and am just about to cross to the Slovakian side of the mountains. Of course, the weather has been pretty average the whole time I've been here, but has just cleared up today now that I'm leaving! Have had a fantastic time here, even extending my stay by a couple of days. Just been doing some walks in the Tatry mountains, which is a really well set up National Park with plenty of walking tracks and lakes and huts. I did three days of walking, with two days providing the highlights. One, a walk to the lake - Morskie Oko - which is a beautiful area, although a pretty tough walk! And the second, a 3-hour hike up Kasprowy mountain (we were too
stupid to take the easy option of getting the cable car up there!) where at the top you can stand half in Poland and half in Slovakia. The rest of the time has been spent eating Polish food and catching up on all the movies I've missed out on in the last five months...been a really tough few days!
Ok that's it from me, next report from Slovakia most likely.
B xo
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anonymous
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that picture with the ducks is awesome, very creative lobo