Into Poland.

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Monday 13 July:



After breakfast Heather and Zachary Skyped with Zeetra, Natasha, Erika, Alex, and Abi in Tokoroa. There were some issues getting the video link from their end going but it was good to be able to talk to them. After that we packed and had a bit of quiet time before dropping our luggage in the storage room and heading into town. I went to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. This was quite good. It is a small museum that documents the occupation of Latvia by the Soviets, the Nazis, and then the Soviets again. There wasn’t much on the latter part though. Latvia certainly had a trying time on the 20^th century and they really had a bad time of it in WW2.



Heather and Zachary meantime went to a local park which was very good. There was a bouncy castle and trampoline so Zachary got to do plenty of bouncing and jumping.



We met back at the hotel and got a taxi to the airport. Despite the queue only being short at check-in it took rather a long time. They certainly weren’t moving at any great pace. However, security was super-fast and we went to the gate and hopped on a bus as the plane was rather a long way away. They are doing quite major works at the airport, although overall I thought it one of the nicer ones I have seen.



The flight was on a smaller Embraer 175. There was a large group of Irish dancers from the USA and the plane was nearly full. Heather again had 2 seats to herself – she really needs to start showering more often …



The flight was only an hour and it was a bit of a bumpy landing at Chopin airport in Warsaw, Poland. There was a lot of water on the ground although the weather looked to be clearing. Our bags arrived in world record time and we were ready to go. As usual, I had done my research and I knew the official exchange rate was 4.13 zloty to the euro. In the arrival hall they were offering about 3.5 and in the main hall about 3.3 so I decided to use the ATM and get enough for today, including our accommodation. I got 400 zloty, which ended up costing me €100 with the 7%!t(MISSING)ransaction fee – much more sensible.



We decided to taxi to the hostel as it was already about 3:30 and we didn’t fancy trying to use the bus. So we got to the hostel in fairly good time. We went up to the 3^rd floor to find our room and saw all the doors were painted in different colours. Zachary was excited to see that ours was pink!



We headed out to find an exchange office with a better rate as I had withdrawn euros to change before we left. We also thought we’d have a quick look at the area as well as get dinner and a couple of things from the supermarket. The large road we walked down which headed to the Old Town is very nice. It has very wide footpaths and everything looks very clean. A very positive impression of the city. I spotted an exchange office and they were offering 3.1 to the euro – even worse than the airport! I’m not sure how they justify taking such a massive margin. Unless I find one with a sensible rate tomorrow we’ll just use the ATM – we are only in Poland for a few days so it won’t matter too much. We had KFC for dinner – we haven’t seen many KFCs in Europe so this was nice. The chicken here is quite spicy though and Zachary didn’t like it which was fair enough. I got a very good burger combo, Heather a crispy strips and hot wings box, and Zachary crispy strips and chips – all for 43 zloty or about €11 or $NZ18. At the supermarket a 2L bottle of drink was 2.30 zloty (about $NZ1). So, it looks like this is going to be a cheap destination!



The hostel is pretty good. We are only paying about €55 for the room and breakfast was an additional €3 for all of us. It also has a washing machine and dryer free to use so we thought we might as well take advantage of that. The lady on reception was very nice but I don’t think she should apply for the job of Tourism Minister. When she saw we were from NZ she said “You are from New Zealand! Heaven on Earth. And you came HERE???”



Tomorrow we would like to see some of the Old City. We go to Krakow at 1:30 so we don’t have a massive amount of time but we’ll see what we can squeeze in.



Tuesday 14 July:



A poor night’s sleep thanks to very noisy people. There was a group sitting outside in the garden area and they were talking drunkenly / loudly until all hours. Then people were noisy coming up the stairs and going into their rooms.



Zachary woke up at about 5:30 and wouldn’t go back to sleep so overall a rather tired bunch today! We headed down for breakfast just after 7. It was fairly minimal but then again it was cheap. Just as we got there cleaner was mopping. There was water on the floor at one end of the kitchen and for some reason this necessitated mopping the entire kitchen floor. As we had to cross over the floor to get cups, bowls etc we had to stand in the mopped area. She immediately then mopped the footprints. At one stage she yelled at Heather (in Polish) and Heather asked her how we were supposed to get our things for breakfast. She went and complained to the receptionist who came and asked us not to walk on the kitchen floor. WTF? Apparently they were concerned we might slip. Heather declined the request and I noted that not long after this, others, who had probably been too scared to go into the kitchen, started going in!



After packing we decided we would bus to the railway station to store our luggage and then bus to the Old Town. On the way to the bus stop another old cow yelled at us – this time for crossing the road when the light was red (there were no cars in sight). What is it about old Polish ladies??? First we went into the Tourist Info office which is housed in a rather grand building along with a museum. The lady there was very helpful and also pointed us in the direction of a currency exchange office which exchanged euro for zloty at the correct rate of 4.1.



This is a very small section of Warsaw but there were still a few interesting things to see. There was an exhibition on the perimeter wall detailing the occupation of Warsaw in WW2 and the Uprising which was quite good. We also bought Zachary a cute little music box which he spotted.



We had some lunch and then decided we would head back to the station on foot so we could see more of the area we saw briefly yesterday. Warsaw certainly is a very nice looking city – right up there with Dubai, Dresden and Antwerp I think in terms of looking clean, safe, and inviting.



While we were waiting for our InterCity (IC) train another couple of IC trains came to our platform. They are very modern looking with great storage for luggage and seats with ample legroom. We were looking forward to getting one of these, so were a bit let down when ours arrived. It was much older and had 6 seat compartments. Ours was fully occupied and you just don’t feel you can move at all in them. However, the ride was very smooth and they served complimentary refreshments twice on the trip which was great – the first time we have come across this. We arrived 5 minutes ahead of schedule in Krakow. The main station has a large mall attached to it and is very nice. Our instructions were to catch underground tram line 50. However, we soon discovered underground trams were not running so we headed outside as we could catch 3 or 52 instead. We found the tram stop for line 3 easily enough, it was also not running. We could have tried to find line 52 but figured all the trams were out of service so caught a taxi instead. As we didn’t know the geography of the city the one we caught had to take a rather circuitous route as he was starting by pointing the opposite direction on a ring road. Add to that some congestion and it was a rather long, and relatively expensive (40 zloty, 10 euro) trip. However, we got there safe and sane which was the main thing. We did discover en route that most trams were indeed running.



The hostel looks very unattractive from the outside and some work is in progress. Inside seems okay though. We have to use shared bathrooms but all the facilities are clean and working. We’ll see how the sleep goes!!!



We headed back into town on the 52. First job was to suss out the bus time for Auschwitz and get tickets. That was done no problem. It takes about 90 minutes to get there so we have both booked the 8:40 bus on our respective days. We also established that there are plenty of lockers and that Krakow station is a perfectly nice place to sit / rest on Thursday night while we wait for our overnight service which leaves at 10pm.



We then had a wander through the mall to get dinner. We decided on a pizza place. Zachary promised he would eat a slice of pizza and in return we would have ice-cream for dessert.



We sat down and were promptly given menus. These were Polish so I went and asked for English ones which they had. We made our decision and after about 15 minutes no-one had taken our order, despite it not being at all busy. I managed to make eye contact with a waitress and I thought she was heading our way but then didn’t. After some waving from Heather (who was facing the right way) someone finally came over. We ordered drinks and then our pizza. At this point she said food would take about 35 minutes. Another WTF? We told her exactly what we thought of this and headed off for Chinese.



This proved to be much more successful. We ordered 3 dishes to share plus 2 bottles of soft drink for a grand total of about $NZ17. It was delicious! I also managed to pick up a few groceries – again super cheap - and then we headed back.



Tomorrow is Heather’s day to visit Auschwitz. Zachary and I will do probably not much exciting. We’ll go back to the mall after breakfast for morning tea and there is a small play area there. Then we’ll look for a park and probably just ride a few trams round the city.



We have been impressed with what we have seen of Poland’s two main cities. They are certainly shaking off their troubled past and look to be moving forward quickly. It seems to be a modern, progressive state.

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