Blogs from Wroclaw, Lower Silesian, Poland, Europe
Wroclaw - Let's Go to Plan B
Published: February 22nd 2012Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw » Katy Wroclawskie
February 22nd 2012
Continuing my quest to visit every place worth going to within a 500 kilometre radius of my temporary hometown of Prague, I went to the lively, university town of Wroclaw (Vrot-slaf) in South Western Poland at the weekend. This fairly small city is renowned for it nice architecture and student vibe. Compared to many cities in Central Europe, Wroclaw should be pretty close to Prague but it isn’t when you get the longest local bus in existence. A 250 kilometre journey took us over five-hours thanks to a bus that stopped at every town, village and tree to pick up old ladies with their shopping, families with dogs and escaped convicts to then deposit them in the next hamlet two-miles down the road. On a nearly empty bus my friend and I suffered repeatedly from those ... read more
August 2nd 2011
Some days just turn out well and this was one of them. We took the tram into the old town part of Wroclaw and the sun came out! Not only did the weather look up, but the old town was spectacular. We found our way into the large town square lined with freshly painted and highly decorated buildings. The effect was magic. This square led to another and another, as well as having several archways that took us into small narrow streets, which we wandered through quite happily until lunchtime. Polish food for lunch was our decision and we didn’t regret it. Not wanting a large meal we settled for two kinds of Polish soup and a non-Polish cappuccino. The waiter made recommendations and we accepted. One soup was a traditional chicken consommé with dumplings and ... read more
August 1st 2011
Oh dear how boring this is getting. It was raining again this morning. We have had rain for at least part of the day for the last 12 days. So we headed off from Katowice without seeing much of the city as it’s too wet to explore what might be on offer. Driving through the city we see a mix of the shiny new buildings with their glass walls rising skywards and the old buildings looking as though they have seen better days. Opening the car window to take a quick photo we were enveloped in the smell of coal smoke. Coal is in abundant supply in the area as we have seen many working mine pitheads. The roads through the city have been some of the best we have encountered. It didn’t take long before ... read more
Dream Catcher - Poland - Wroclaw - Czeszow (Deutsch Hammer)
Published: July 15th 2011Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw
June 5th 2011
It’s not every day we get to fulfil a dream. This one is going to be short, from the heart and I hope not to offend, as this is Michelle’s story and I’m not sure if I’ll able to give it full justice. Following WWII Germany was, basically, dissected with Russia integrating 200 + km of territory (known as Lower Silesia) into Poland. So villages such as Deutsch – Hammer were to be lost to all, but for memory. Now known as Czeszow, Deutsch – Hammer is where Michelle’s father was born and raised until the spoils of war were divvied up and the might of the Soviet army moved in, packed up the remaining German citizens of the area and shipped them out. Michelle’s father died at a young age, leaving a wife and three ... read more
March 19th 2011
So I arrived in Wroclaw after nightfall, after one of the crazier drivers I've had using mitfahrgelegenheit managed to get us there intact, somehow. I think it was probably largely due to the other drivers skills and value for life, but anyhow moving on. I went to my friends house where I managed to stand on her latest Sony Vacio laptop screen - twat. If you ever see a lap top on the floor don't stand on it, especially not the screen and if for some reason your tempted to, make sure its not the latest edition Sony Vacio. On googling what damages I was in for the cheapest I found was 500 USD and it went up to 1500USD. Mind that step. Anyway aside from that India trip budget crippling incident, I also got to ... read more
February 6th 2011
I think I have mentioned it before, but i love Wroclaw. Me and Omar went back for one last weekend of partying and to catch up with some friends made on a previous trip. It was another great weekend, where aside from contributing to my decreasing number of brain cells and increasing my waist girth, I got a bit of sightseeing and iceskating in. It was a good way to say hasta la proxima to a good friend made while in Leipzig. Hopefully, I will be back in Wroclaw again at somepoint in the future. ... read more
December 15th 2010
Wroclaw is an awesome place. So awesome in fact that I went back there two weekends running despite the 4-7 hour commute and all the hassle that goes along with it. Why is it awesome, well it is a well organized city with good infrastructure. It has an awesome market square. It has a very nice Christmas market. It has a very youthful population with something like one in 4 people being students. The population is relatively new there (due to it having been a German city before the end of World War 2), which seems to make for overall a more open minded and welcoming population. The food and beer are cheap and of high quality. Oh and I forgot to mention one thing, the women there are absolutely stunning. Having been back to Poland ... read more
I can't even begin to explain yesterday...
Published: October 14th 2010Europe » Poland » Lower Silesian » Wroclaw
October 14th 2010
Well to start off, today is a holiday from school in Poland for "Teacher's Day," basically a celebration of education and teachers. So no school today, and we're leaving for Italy in a few hours!!!!!!!!!!! So since we have no school today, the students celebrated yesterday. They bring teachers candy and flowers and other gifts. Both Des and I got roses yesterday from our classes which was super nice. Yesterday starts off normal, get to the bus stop to wait around 8:35 since the bus is supposed to leave at 8:45. The bus didn't get there until 9:15. Verrrry late. Luckily we made it to school just in time to find out that we were supposed to be there to teach an earlier class that nobody told us about. So we missed our 2nd period class. ... read more
October 9th 2010
Another week down. Teaching was ok. Friday we had a meeting with all the other teachers in this program that we're a part of in another city. All day listening to people speak in Polish and not having a clue what they were saying. When we got to the school where the meeting was I tripped on a step and fell in front of probably 50 people in the outdoor courtyard and twisted my ankle so its still swollen up like a baseball and hurts but I can walk on it so I'll be fine eventually. Today we decided to stay home and prop my foot up so tomorrow we'll go into Wroclaw, the "big" city, and buy our winter coats. Only 3 days teaching next week before we go to ITALY!!!!!!!!!! Both Des and I ... read more
September 30th 2010
So for the last 2 days, the school has surprised us with extra lessons. Earlier extra lessons. Instead of starting at 9:50 like planned, they wanted us to teach the 8:50 lesson also. The problem with that is our normal bus leaves at 8:50. The next earliest bus leaves at 6:55!!! So we get up at 5, shower and get ready, eat breakfast and pack our lunch, walk to the bus stop, take a 30 minute bus ride to school, wait an hour and a half in the teacher lounge, then start teaching at 8:50. To say it is inconvenient would be an understatement. We started our extra lessons yesterday at the private school also. Nobody showed up to any of our 6 lessons yesterday and today. Sooo the other teachers gave up 15 minutes from ... read more
