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Published: September 24th 2009
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Krakow, Poland
Church in town center. Driving in Poland is one of the most terrifying experiences I have ever had, scratch that. Driving in Europe is one of the most terrifying experiences I have ever had, though Poland was much worse than the more western areas. To pass in this country all one has to do is pull over the middle line and the rule is both the oncoming traffic and the car you are overtaking are to pull over on to the side of the road in essence creating a third lane for the car who feels it necessary to overtake. The first time Della decided she was going to pass a car in front of us came at the exact moment that we were head on with a semi. Mind you, the unspoken rule held up, but being in the seat closest to the oncoming semi I had my eyes closed and didn't see the parting of the cars in front of us, and so was not 100% positive I had made it through the social experiment alive until the accelaration of the car brought me back to my senses.
After leaving Warsaw, we decided to head south to Krakow, which we had been
told was a city not to miss in Poland. Krakow was the original capital of Poland, but the title was taken away from Krakow and bestowed upon Warsaw some thousand years before. When we arrived in Krakow we didn't have a proper map for the city, which turned out to be on a spiral system with no road making any sense whatsoever, and no gas stations to be seen. We drove in circles attempting to follow single roads towards the outskirts of the city only to be looped back in by the marvelous road construction of Lesser Poland. Eventually we were able to find a gas station that sold maps and ham flavored chips and once again my headache of attempting to navigate in a country that doesn't believe in roadsigns began. We were on a mission to find a hostel with openings at 11 o'clock at night and ended up having to once again dare the spiral roadways with our eyes craning to see a sign that read hostel on a door that wasn't black. We eventually ended up at a hostel in downtown Krakow called Mama's Hostel, which luckily had two opening in a six bed dorm only
Krakow, Poland
Originally called the Boner Palace until modern times changed the meaning. to realize that we weren't allowed to park in the town center of Krakow we would have to drive our car back out into the nonsense to locate a public parking area, which ended up costing as much as the hostel itself.
After a dinner of subway sandwiches and odd flavored crisps, the only option we had, and a night laced with the snores and incessant rattling of bunks in a room full of strangers, we woke up to the beautiful and shit smelling city of Krakow. (The public toilets were underneath the park closest to us with vents leading up to the street where we walked.) We decided to take a free tour of the city with a tour company advertised in our hostel, which took us around to various different sites within the city. See pictures for details. Our tour guides was a charismatic Polish gentleman who spoke excellent english with a flair for the theatre. He made all of us say where we were from, and I was the only person from America. There were many English and many Australians and one Canadian woman who scoffed at Della and my travel techniques telling us she couldn't
Krakow, Poland
Our lovely Polish tour guide. possibly see how we could only spend one day in Kracow, for she was there for at least a week and was terrified she didn't have enough time to see everything. I smiled at her and said... well my intention is to see nothing. During the tour we had lunch a traditional Polish fastfood restaurant in the middle of an area of town where it seems bars were the number one commodity. To my amazement, as most of my experience of traditional Polish food had led to agony beyond compare, what our tour guide was introducing us to was an open faced sandwich with veggies, cheese and sauce, meat if you wanted. Something I understood, and beautifully simplistic. After our tour of Kracow, we decided it would be best to drive closer to our destination for the morning rather than spending the exorbitant prices of city life.
We drove south to the city of Wieliczka famous for its underground salt mine, which we wanted to tour the following day and were able to find a cheap enough motel but no food, and so once again had sweet corn and paprika flavored chips from our nearest tescos. It ended up
Krakow, Poland
Park in central Krakow. The bricks are the remains of an ancient building. being a wonderful night though, the first night where we had decided not to stress about setting an alarm, or being too rushed. Another wonderful day on our roadtrip through Europe.
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Maggie Blue
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woof,woof
Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof,(Hi! mom, I miss you)Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof(i love catfood on the table)woof, woof, woof woof, woof, woof, woof?(Grandpa asks:Are you done visiting Germany?)Woof, woof, woof, woof(terrorists have threats there)woof, woof(More later)woof, woof(Love us)woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof,woof, woof, woof, woof,woof, woof(grandma thinks it's off that I sleep with my tongue sticking out.)