Poland - the start

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2 February - Monday

Made it to the train station (via taxi) to get the 6:30am train to Warsaw. Managed to sleep most of the way despite a family with two kids being in the same compartment. Scenery (what I saw of it) was quite spectacular though - sweeping hills, open fields, all covered in white too which made it even nicer.

I arrived into Warsaw, Poland at around 1pm or so. From there, the hostel was a short stroll away. I was staying at a place called Oki Doki which I think has a really cool name. Despite the several flights of stairs, the place seemed very nice and chilled out. I was staying in a six bed dorm called the 'Rainbow Room.' Essentially each of the dorms has been designed/ painted by a different local artist - the rainbow room was painted with all the colours of the rainbows in stripes. Kind of disconcerting really!!

After checking in and freshening up I headed to grab some lunch and to see what Warsaw has to offer. I decided to stick relatively close to the hostel so headed to the Cultural and Science Museum/ clock tower where I went up to the viewing tower for some great (if not freezing) views over Warsaw. Had a wander around that whole area, through Saxon Park and then basically back to the hostel where we had a bit of a 'room party' before I had an early night.

3 February - Tuesday

This morning I got up early and checked out of the hostel, leaving my luggage in storage. Despite the fact that I didn't leave until nearly 9am everyone else appeared to be asleep still. From the hostel I walked into the old town and had a look. There are an amazing number of churches within the old town walls - surprising for an old town of its size - I think there are about six churches? Strolled through a few of the plaza areas and into a few of the churches before eventually making my way back to the hostel and then getting the 2pm train to Krakow.

The station, despite basically nothing being in English, was again relatively easy to navigate. Even found the correct carriage and seat without having to ask 20 people!! Unfortumately this time I was sharing a six berth cabin with 3 Polish men (all smokers) and an older Polish woman. Again, it was a nice nap and listening to some tunes and reading before arriving into Krakow a bit after 5pm.

My hostel in Krakow, Greg-Tom, was only a couple of hundred metres from the train station which was convenient. Another few flights of stairs and time to put on a load of washing before dinner. Dinner at this hostel is included each night, as is breakfast. Good deal really - bit more work and a bit extra cost for them, but their kitchen stays significantly cleaner than if you had 20-odd people cooking for themselves. So dinner was basically a polish soup (lots of meat bits), bread and cold cuts and salads. Decent enough.

After that I chilled before heading to bed.

4 February - Wednesday

Early start this morning to have a look around the old town before boarding my tour bus to Zacopane and the Tatra Mountains. At least, I thought it was going to be a bus, but turned out there were only four of us on the tour so we were just in a car with our tour guide Andre. Other three were friends from Scotland somewhere.

So two hours laters we arrived in Zacopane where our first stop was a cable car to go up one of the smaller mountains for views over the Tatras. Unfortunately it was slightly cloudy so the views weren't terrific, but with all the mountains covered with white peaks I was still impressed! After that it was onto the local church mad entirely of wood, and to the cemetary where again, a lot of the graves gave indications of what the people had done during their life.

Then it was free time for a few hours, so I grabbed some food before wandering the shops and through the more modern church and then onto the Tatra Museum before getting in the car to go back. Traffic on the way back was pretty horrific - and we found out why when we passed a lorry carrying wood on its side down an embankment and another (significantly) smaller car torn into pieces and basically crushed off the other side. No doubt there would have been either a fatality or serious injury - lots of people on scene taking photos and measurements etc.

Got back to hostel at about 6:30pm in time for dinner again (pasta this time) and a movie.

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