To escape the urban world, we went as far east as we could to the Belarussian border and beyond convenient commuter time. Jałówka tells a different story, EU cash has been spent on doing up the roads and pavements, and the village green. The green had been a market place in more prosperous times. The shops look like they have had some money spent on them too and the church was sporting a spanking new roof, glinting gold in the spring sunshine. We strolled along a track northwards, which brought us to the Świsłocz valley, which forms the border with Belarus. [View Full Entry]

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En daar was een huisje zonder elektriciteit, gas of stromend water. We vertrokken met 25 erasmussers en 6 Poolse begeleidende studenten vrijdagavond met de trein in Warschau. Vervolgens dropte een busje ons aan de rand van een bos rond middernacht. Kregen we allen een kompas en kaart toegestopt en in twee groepen hebben we nog een tweetal uren door dat bos gewandeld. Nogal scoutsig. Wanneer we tegen 2u aankwamen hebben we boterhammen gegeten en thee gedronken rond het haardvuur. Zaterdag begon de dag met ontbijten en hout hakken voor die avond, wat best grappig was want 4 stoere kere [View Full Entry]

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Wanneer Adam vrijdag om 5 uur thuiskwam zijn we - Lisa, Adam, Jannie, Katrine en ik - samen inkopen gaan doen voor ons tripje. Om 6 uur zijn we vertrokken met Adams auto en het heeft ons een uur gekost om uit Warschau te geraken, om tenslotte om half 11 in Białowieża aan te komen. Een groot deel van de reis leidde ons over de grote baan naar Moskou. Als we deze voor 1800 km zouden volgen waren we in Moskou, aldus Adam, om maar aan te tonen dat dit een belangrijke verbindingsweg is. De weg was echter niet breder dan [View Full Entry]

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For the first time in over a week we get rain. And, of course, it has to happen in the middle of the night. Quickly get out of the tent, pull the rain cover over the tent, and retreat back into the dry inside. Fortunately, the rain doesn't last and is gone by the time we get up in the morning. A coffee and some bread later, we're back on the road towards Lithuania. If everything goes according to plan, today should be our last day in Poland, we'll cross the border tomorrow. Just when I'm starting to get used to [View Full Entry]

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3 June Supraśl We decided to visit the Folk and Food Fair being held in Supraśl, a pleasant little town in the Knyszyn Forest near Białystok. Seeing as it was a nice day, we got the bus as far as Orgródnicki and walked the rest of the way to Supraśl. Ogródnicki is changing, many new large houses have been built their recently. We passed a small lake and sunned ourselves there before navigating our way to a nature trail. The trail was so badly marked we needed the compass to find our way along it! As we circled Supraśl on [View Full Entry]

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Augustów Augustow is on the eastern side of the Lake District, about 60 miles north of Białystok. Close to the vast Augustów forest, the lakes and rivers are all connected - you could even paddle to Belarus in theory! Actually, a tour organisation called PTTK in Augustów do organise trips in Belarus, but I guess it is up to you to get the visas sorted. Large injections of EU cash have smarted up the riverfront, but off-season there is still a dejected air about the town. It's a decent enough centre though and there are places to eat, and hire [View Full Entry]

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26 May Białystok Today we got drenched as went along the main shopping street, Lipowa. Within about 10 minutes the downpour had soaked us to the skin, and we abandoned our search for music shops in Białystok. The music scene is pretty good in Poland incidentally. I came back with plenty of CDs to keep me occupied. Just don’t expect a vast range of CDs on offer in the shops, it is likely that if you want a particular album, you may have to order it. We got my CDs within two days, which was pretty good: the owner knew [View Full Entry]

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Poland May 2006 Warsaw Back in Poland then, though less of a tour and more of a family visit. Taking advantage of lower fares, we flew from Liverpool to Warsaw. The flight is 2.5 hours, and it is a jolt when you arrive - suddenly everything is in Polish, the weather's warmer, and the street environment is very different to Britain. Cleaner, for a start. Because our flight landed with only an hour before the evening Białystok train left, we decided to stay overnight at Radek's in Warsaw. We got the latest on Polish current affairs. The new government has finally [View Full Entry]

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We met our friends Radek and Dorota at Białystok station, and caught the next local train up to Czarna Białostocka 25 minutes away. We walked around Czarna in search of the narrow gauge line, reportedly to be opening but there was no evidence of operation. There was aslight disadvantage that the line into the Knyszyn Forest was severed by a major road. We followed the yellow trail along forest tracks into the forest towards Supraśl. The wood anemones were in full bloom and the leaves gave a shimmer of green. With our portable sun god, Lucky (pictured), the weather held and [View Full Entry]

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Rajsk - one of the least famous places in Poland, not in your Rough Guides, and therefore worthy of my blog. For some time we had wanted to go to Rajsk, to visit where the family on Kasia's Dad used to live. Rajsk's recent history (as happens in Eastern Poland) is pretty stark. We took the train to Rajsk on the surviving line to Bielsk Podlaski and Czeremcha. The train travels at a sedate 30km/h due to the condition of the track, the big SU45 locomtive somewhat under utilised. The story behind this is *huge* under investment into the railways [View Full Entry]

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