Copernicus lived here


Advertisement
Poland's flag
Europe » Poland » Kuyavian-Pomeranian » Torun
July 23rd 2010
Published: July 24th 2010
Edit Blog Post

July 22 - The snoring wasn't so bad last night. He reined it in somehow, or I slept through it better. Either way, that was good. I got up around 7am and finished packing, had some breakfast and left around 8:30 am for the train station. Fortunately one of the guys working at the hostel was really helpful and had printed me the train schedule, so I knew what to ask for and when the trains would go to Torun. I also knew I had to change trains and where to do that. If I had just gone to the train station I don't think I would have had that information as it wasn't printed on my ticket. I chose te 9:45am train over the 8:15 because it was faster and would give me more time to find the next train, and I figured I would need the time. I still felt I almost missed the second train - made it by 3 minutes - but I did make it. It was the right choice. By the way, I was melting on both trains. The first was a fast train and had compartments for eight people. The train wasn't full and we had three and then four people. But sometimes me and the old guy would go out into the corridor and sit with our heads out at the window like dogs, taking in the warm breeze. The second train was just normal seating and I had a space to myself. But it was a slow train and didn't have much of a breeze. 96 degrees and it was so hot.

Once off the train, I had directions that included getting a bus for two stops. Problem was that I couldn't find the bus. Here I was, walking around like an idiot with all of my stuff in 96 degree weather, and no obvious bus station. I walked back towards the station and asked a taxi driver, which seems counterintuitive, since he would of course want to drive me there for a higher price. But in Polish he directed me there and with the accompanying hand gestures, I found it without problems. Bought a ticket from the driver, which apparently no one does. But a woman helped me sort that out. Once we got to the right stop, it was easy to navigate to the hostel. The hostel seems rather on the dead side, which should be good for sleep anyway. I treated myself to the slightly more expensive three person dorm rather than the ten person and am glad I did. I have just one roommate and she's a Polish student working at a museum here for ten days.

After I settled in, I went in search of food. I went to another milk bar and they had an English menu. I settled for crepes filled with cottage cheese and covered with peaches, whipped cream and raspberry sauce. From there, I walked around to town hall area and the churches of course. I went into one with a tower to climb. It was $2 and the longest spiral staircase ever. Extremely narrow so I couldn't see anything about how much was left. It was good no one was behind me so I coud do it at my own speed. Just before the top there was a big open space and it contained the largest bell in Poland - 11 tons. From there there was another spiral staircase to the very top and then there were great views of the city, and the river. I didn't realize there was a river. After I got down the guy let me look into the cathedral without paying, which was nice. Then I walked to ruins of a castle of the Teutonic Order, like Marlbork. But this one was destroyed by the townees back in the day when they took the land back from the evil knights. I didn't go in, but walked around the outside. I continued to look at as much as possible before calling it an evening. Found a shop and bought another 1.5 liters of water and 1.5 liters of pepsi and some instant noodles. I have almost finished the pepsi and about 2 liters of water today. That hardly replenishes the rivers of water I have lost in sweat today. I washed and dried my clothes - drier took forever and ever - and chatted with the boy, like most nights. My roommate invited me to the movies, but though it is 10pm and still 90 degrees, I don't feel like it. The plan for tomorrow was to visit an archaelogical site, but so far no one knows how to get there. I have already seen the town, so will just spend a relaxing day, maybe visit some museums. Copernicus was born here, and there is plenty of homage made to this great scientist. The temps should be down as well, and the rain is coming.

July 23 - I say I will spend a relaxing day but really that means I will just be stressed as I'm not a good relaxer and I feel like I should be doing something while I'm in another country. I woke up early and it was gray and cloudy, but still hot, so I read for a while, and then my roommate got up and went to work. When she was gone, I got on the internet and booked a place to stay in Warsaw. It took ages, as there are so many places to stay and it took me so long to decide between them. In the end, I chose the Krocodyl Hostel. It's a bit out of town on the tram but supposed to be really nice, so I'm hoping that makes up for the inconvenience of getting back and forth. Oh, last night the zipper on my bag gave out completely and I will now have to buy another one. For me, this is stressful. I would like to invest in a new daypack but a good one and normally this would take me a long time so I could find the perfect bag for me. But here in Torun, there can only be so many choices and I will just have to take what they have. Blah. Eventually I decided it was time to get out of the hostel, hot or not, so I asked the girl who was working about sporting goods stores and she looked so up on the internet and printed it out for me. She was actually extremely helpful every time I needed anything. She even worked out te train schedule for me and printed it, along with the directions to my next hostel.

Once out of the hostel, I looked at several stores but only one had what I was looking for. The guy who helped me, Martin, was extremely knowledgeable and helped me narrow down the choices quite quickly. There were tons to choose from, and this is always bad as I'm a terrible decision maker. It was eventually a choice of three and I ended up with the bag that fit me the best though it wasn't the one with all the features I liked the best. And it's black. Boring. But it works, so that's a huge improvement over the last one. Truthfully, the last one was quite crappy anyway, so this will be a nice change. The only problem was that their credit card machine wasn't working, so I had to go back to the store several times to check on the status.

With a bag picked out, I went on the serach for umbrellas. Not easy, as the locals had no idea where to look and the girl from the hostel had to also search for that on the internet. She sent me to an expensive umbrella store, but I'm a cheap umbrella kind of girl. I tried in a big drug store and was rewarded with my very own cheap umbrella. Next I went to lunch. Late lunch, like usual. I went to the same milk bar as yesterday and this time I had a surprisingly delicious cafeteria style pasta. A woman came and sat with me but she couldn't speak English so we just ate in silence. I also checked out the information desk now that I could finally find it
TowerTowerTower

(Not the tower I climbed)
and confirmed that there was no way to get to the side trip I wanted and return the same day. Bummer.

When I got back to the hostel my roommate Daria was back from work, and then a new roommy from Sweden showed up. We chatted with him for a bit and then went out in search of gingerbread, something the town is famous for. Daria took us to find it and I bought some for the road tomorrow. We hung out with Swedish guy for a bit but he was meeting someone later, so Daria and I went back to find out when the movies started, so we could have a movie night. We ended up seeing Letters to Juliet. I had never seen a preview, but I never see previews (or movies) anymore since moving to Basel. I hardly watch tv with all the languages and the movies cost about $18, so I almost never go anyway. But this movie was perfect for me. Super cute romance. Exactly what I wanted. We even splashed out on the duet, two ridiculously large cokes and a comically large popcorn to share. I felt guilty for spending so much, but realize it was only $10 total. No so bad. It was a good night. Everyone was in the room by 9pm and I finally went to sleep at 11pm. Daria turned the lights off at 11:30pm. She will get up at 5am tomorrow for a train to Warsaw at 5:40am and invited me to join her, but I just couldn't get into it. I would take the 8:15am train and that would be ok. I am ready to leave Torun tomorrow though. Beautiful town but I feel the need to move on.



Additional photos below
Photos: 32, Displayed: 28


Advertisement



28th July 2010

Hi Jenn
Love the art work! How are those insect bites coming on? They just sprayed my town for West Nile Virus carrying mosquitos - yes Winthrop!! it is great to follow your travels!

Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 34; dbt: 0.0295s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb