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Published: August 11th 2008
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The Last of Lofoten
Older photos from my last couple hikes in Lofoten, Norway, that I haven't been able to post yet. I think I need to go hiking. I haven't seen a mountain in almost a week!
Currently in Krakow, Poland. I've been doing a lot of traveling and city-seeing the last few days! First was Helsinki on Thursday, which I described last time (but have photos for this time!). Thursday night I took a high speed ferry south to Tallinn, capital of Estonia, where I stayed Thursday night. Both in Tallinn and to an even greater extent here in Poland, there have been very helpful teams of people at the train stations or info centres who will not only gladly find you a hostel for the night, but also give you a free ride to wherever you're staying as well as a local's opinion of the best places in the city to see. Makes for pleasant arrivals to the cities!
Friday morning I spent exploring Tallinn. Definitely one of the more interesting cities I've seen so far! The Old City, still surrounded by city walls, is packed full of beautiful old multi-storey buildings. There are all sorts of narrow streets and passageways between them, and cafes and resturants tucked away in every nook and cranny. Sometimes you wander down
Lofoten
Yeah, I really liked this place. an old alleyway, pass under an arch into a green courtyard, and find a handful of great cafes built into the walls around you. There are also a plethora of churches, including one with a tower you can climb - 286 tight, narrow, winding stairs to the top! I got dizzy on my way up, since the spiral staircase completes one full circle every 11ish steps! Amazing view from the top over the whole city though, and straight down onto the red rooftops and narrow streets below.
Friday afternoon, 2pm, I took a bus out of Tallinn. Rail connections from Estonia to Poland aren't as fast or direct as the bus, which is far from fast itself. 17.5 hours is quite enough for me, thanks! By 6:30pm I was in Riga, capital of Latvia; by 10:30 in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania; and after an uncomfortable night of not much sleep, in Warsaw, capital of Poland, by 7:30 (6:30 local time). Waaaaaaaaay too much sitting around! Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are about as flat as pancakes, and northeastern Poland isn't much different. There were a few forests and a lot of farms, and that was about it.
Saturday was
my day to sleepily explore Warsaw. First I had the task of getting to the city centre / train station, which is a decent distance from the bus deopt. Unfortunately, the bus depot didn't have a great info desk, and I ended up asking random people if they spoke english, and then if they did which bus to take for the city centre. I eventually managed to find about 5 different people who could communicate in english, and of course got 5 different answers about which bus to take. Luckily I ended up at the right place in the end! Once at the train station a helpful gang of Hostel Info people saw me wandering around looking confused and hooked me up with a good hostel for the night as well as a ride to the place.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the city. First was a huge rooftop garden on the university library, which was pretty in itself and also afforded some views of the city. It was very inviting and I was tempted to doze off on one of the benches! Next was the old town area, together with more beautiful buildings, churches,
Sweden
One of the very few shots I took in Sweden. The train ride was largely viewless forest; this was in Lulea. castles, and town walls. Also lots of statues around - like the one of the Mermaid who in legend protects the town! After that I walked to the Warsaw Uprising museum, a massive and somewhat confusing place detailing the ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the residents of Warsaw to take the city back from the Germans in 1944. I was pretty tired after that and it was getting late, so I wandered back to the hostel and called it a night.
Sunday was a slower day - slept in, got up and had a lazy breakfast or two (and then elevensies) at the hostel, then started making my way to the train station to catch a train to Krakow. On the way I stumbled across a chocolate factory / shop / cafe, so of course I stopped and bought way too much chocolate. Oops. They also have a menu larger than almost any I've ever seen before, and it consists entirely of dessert items. The chocolate icecream item I ordered was huge enough and chocolate-y enough to keep me going for days! They also had all sorts of really yummy sounding things like fruit dishes with chocolate, yogurt with fruit
Finland
Two - er, three? - headed eagle statue in Helsinki. and chocolate, cakes with chocolate, and chocolate drinks. Needless to say, it was very hard to restrain myself!
The train ride from Warsaw to Krakow is 6 hours on the cheap train (vs. 3.5 on the high-speed million-bucks train). By the time I hit Krakow I was hungry again, so I started looking for a good place to eat as I walked to the hostel I had reserved. Sure enough, I soon found one: you take a massive plate, load it up with whatever you want and as much as you want (and it was all yummy Polish stuff, too!), and pay for the weight of the food. Bonus: 1/2 price after 9pm until they run out of food. I arrived at 8:57. I honestly don't think I'll ever eat that much food for $7 ever again! I was stuffed and then some! Compared to what I've been paying the last month and a half in Scandinavia, food here is unbelieveably cheap!
Today I explored Krakow. It's yet again got an interesting and lovely old city: castle, dragon (yes, dragon), buildings, huge park surrounding the area, and more churches than you can count. And more places to eat
Helsinki Cathedral
I don't have my notes with me at the moment, and after seeing a bajillion churches in the past week I simply can't remember the actual name of this one. It's definitely the one in Helsinki though. than there are churches! I ended up spending a decent amount of time just lounging in the shade in the park or walking around under the trees - it's hot here today! I think I'm also getting a bit worn out from all this city seeing, and definitely need a mountain or two soon.
Until next time!
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Alessandro
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Polska!
Jak dBugo bdziesz w Polsce? :3 I had to look up how to spell that and I'm not sure I got it right. Probably not. Love the Trogdor reference.