Yep, got a bus to Krynica in the Polish countryside. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have time to enjoy the spa or the skiing since I was only spending one night. My 3 hour bus got in pretty much on time - give or take 15 minutes :) I met Kasia, my host for the night and did a quick night tour of the town since as it turns out, she didn't live in Krynica but in the next town over. Krynica reminded me of Tahoe in the winter. It's touristy but not overly so and stunning with its blanket of [View Full Entry]

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Gorlice is near Jaslo. I drove through many towns on the bus heading towards the Ukraine, and one town was Jaslo. The choices of towns on this blog site is limited. Gorlice is situated near Slovakian border, in the high hills of southern Poland. I spent two days here and learned alot about displaced Ukrainians after the uprising in 1949. The Ukrainians wanted their own state, and when their uprising was over, they were sent to northern Poland. Many of their Greek Orthodox churches were converted to Roman Catholic. Eventually some Ukranians came back, and now live peacefully with Polish p [View Full Entry]

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Komańcza So we topped the summit and were in Poland. On the way down Roman stopped off for us to have a look at a new Uniate church (Greek Catholic) shrine that had been built close to a spring that never freezes, even when the outside temperature drops to minus 25C. We were staying at Roman’s again and decided that we would have a little amble around the rest of the day. That turned out to be a fine little walk along the Komańcza village trail which goes into the wooded hills. There's lots of information boards along the way [View Full Entry]

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13 May Conference on Bieszczady Narrow Gauge We did our presentation during the morning, and there were also presentation by the Bieszczady Narrow Gauge Foundation and the Pioneer’s Railway from Košice, Slovakia. We heard from the Director of Slovak Railways that they were somewhat miffed about the cessation of services along the line from Poland via Łupków 14 May We had a special train arranged on the Bieszczady Narrow Gauge line from Cisna to Wola Michowa. We got a lift to Cisna from our hotel in Bystre, and after a quick tour around the s [View Full Entry]

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The Bieszczady Mountains are at the far south east corner of Poland bordering Slovakia and Ukraine. Home to rich wildlife suchas wolves and bears, the Bieszczady National Park has been declared a UNESCO bisophere reserve. It's also the kind of place where people drop out: Komańcza's parish (for want of a better description) has one the highest number of PhDs in the country! Travelling to the Bieszczady Mountains - off Season - that is a challenge because public transport is seen as out of fashion in provincial Poland. Nobody wants to fund it. Even German Railway’s onli [View Full Entry]

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