Beautiful Krakow to the Baltic Sea

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October 15 2008

I had always heard how beautiful Krakow was so the next morning my goal was to go there. My host explained how to get to the bus stop and that I should get on a bus that said "Poosta" something or other. I got to the bus stop, no problem, and there was probably a bus every minute or two but none that had "Poosta" as their destination. Eventually I found some high school kids that spoke enough English to explain that the "Poosta" bus wasn't running because the road it would go on would was closed for repair. They got me onto another bus that got me near enough to the castle area of Krakow that I wanted to get to. I must say that 'bus' is really an exaggeration in this case. There were hundreds of these little white vans that were designed to hold maybe eight or ten people. The passenger seat next to the driver was removed and if you wanted in, you simply opened the passenger door and closed it behind you. Then you went and grabbed a seat in back. I forget the cost but I am thinking one or two dollars.

Downtown Krakow was wonderful but I found myself more interested in all the people than I was the architecture and history of the town. Among my favorite things there were all these people selling things in the walking tunnels that went under many of the intersections. Flowers, socks and all kinds of food seemed to be the most common items. I stopped for a tasty looking donut. I took a big ol' bite only to find it was some kind of nasty salty bread. A scowl and into the trash for that roll. I did find an internet cafe which allowed me to emailand I ate some real tasty pierogies on a park bench after ordering them from an outside vendor. This is probably the first time I realized how common English was in Poland, or at least in the cities. While I was waiting for my food a couple of high school girls went to the stand to order. It took awhile for the vendor to understand what these girls were trying to order. One of the girls then said something like "I'm sorry, I am from France and my English isn't very good." She didn't apologize for her lack of Polish but for her lack of English. Odd, I thought.

I had memorized the place where the bus let me off so eventually I wandered back there but by this time it was rush hour. I asked the drivers if they were going to Wieliczska and got on one of these mini bus thingees when I got a yes. I'll bet there were thirty people or more crammed into this little bus but it was great to watch the people and listen to their conversations even though I couldn't understand more than one in fifty words. We stopped maybe ten times without the driver saying a word. Eventually we stopped and he yelled out something unintelligible. He yelled it again and eventually yelled "Wieliczska Salt Mines" in English. It took another minute or so to push through the mass of people. I will always be grateful to the driver for yelling in English. Otherwise I don't know where I would have ended up. Somehow the stop where I got off the bus (and I use the term 'bus' generously) was not near where I had gotten on earlier and I was lost yet again. So, I set out on yet another long walk until eventually I found the original bus stop and my car.

The next evening I had a commitment to meet my first Couchsurfing family of my trip. They lived in a small town around 250 miles away so I decided to start out that evening. I drove awhile, stopping for gas and a hot dog at a truck stop. There just aren't fast food places along the road or even traditional restaurants like there are in the US. After dark I stopped at another truck stop and tried to sleep. It was colder than the last night I tried this and I wasn't as tired so I ended up getting going again at about 3:00 in the morning. I was mostly on a highway but at one point there was a detour and I found myself lost on some side roads out in the country. I was amazed to find many, many bikes on these narrow roads and many more people at bus stops, all in the dark and before 5:00am. Again, it made me appreciate my relatively cushy life in the US a little more. Finally I took another nap at a gas station. When I woke up I was surprised to see a Russian jet fighter about 50 feet away. It was on display in front of this gas station and I hadn't noticed it in the dark when I pulled in.

October 16

Since I had made good progress the night before I decided on the luxury of a detour. It wasn't far to the Baltic Sea and to this tiny strip of land that went along the sea to Kaliningrad (a part of Russia). The drive was mostly on small back roads which I truly loved but they take a little more concentration than the major roads. On the map this strip of land was as thin as the road, with the Baltic Sea on one side and a bay on the other. But in reality the strip was wider than that and I drove and drove always looking off to the left for a glimpse of the Baltic. Since I had to meet my couchsurfing family at 5:00 I was running out of time but I was determined to see the Baltic before I left. So I stopped the car a few times and walked toward the sea. On one of these little excursions I came across this huge extremely ugly dacha that must have been built by the Russians for their offials to vacation or something like that. It looked really out of place because it was surrounded by lots of tiny cottages. Finally I found a road where I could walk to the beach. After all that it was rather anticlimactic, just a beach and a waveless sea.

I figured I still had plenty of time to make my appointment so I started back toward Orneta, the town where the family Iwas meeting lived. I stopped near the town of Elblag to buy gas. This is remarkable only because it was the only place I bought gas on the entire trip that there was a language problem. Then it on to Orneta, a small town way out in the country. Between my trusty map and my GPS I had a my route all planned out. But when I got about ten miles away I noticed that the road was full of fallen leaves, like not many had traveled on it. I soon found that a bridge was closed so I would have to backtrack. By this time I was fairly apprehensive about meeting these people on time. I saw some older ladies walking their dogs and stopped to ask about a detour. They knew no English but I had learned a little Polish so that helped me get on the right track for awhile. But eventually I became confused again. This time I stopped to ask a bus driver who was washing his bus in front of his house for directions. Although we had the language problem, he was so kind and patient that I eventually found out how to get where I was going. I was so relieved I gave him a hug. I did notice while I was backtracking that where the road signs said Orneta, there was a strip of masking tape diagonally across the name, I think that was the only way to know that the bridge was out. I was very relieved to make it to Orneta about fifteen minutes early. I shaved in the car, something I was going to skip if I had run out of time. We had agreed to meet at the bus stop there. I said I would wear a black jacket and carry a bright yellow book (my English/Polish dictionary). I went to a small shop and had to ask two employees and maybe three customers until I found someone who spoke English enough to help me. They told me to go out the door, turn left and go until I got to the bus stop. I did this and was walking and looking in the distance for a bus terminal or something when this kind lady from the store yelled and stopped me. I had already passed the bus stop, it was just one small bench alongside the road. After maybe 400 miles and a few drawbacks I was late by about three minutes.

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Photos

One of the many rooms in the salt mines
I didn't take this photo. My cheap camera didn't take good pictures in there.

Another beautiful castle
There were wonderful buildings in almost every town