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Published: September 27th 2006
Greetings!
We made it to Krakow two days ago and have been enjoying some rest and relaxation here. Cycling across southern Poland was not particularly interesting as the roads were quite main ones and a lot of the towns very functional places.
We stopped one day by a little hilltop town and decided to camp wild nearby. We found a river and set up cosily on the banks. In the morning I was blearily cooking the porridge outside out tent in my pyjamas (very glamourous) when a gnarled old farmer came along leading two cows on chains. He looked bemused to find us there and ignored my attempted Polish greeting. He then walked past the tent and tied up the cows to graze for the day, one of them literally three meters from our tent. So this bovine beast gazed at us as we ate our porridge, washed and packed up. She seemed particularly interested when I brushed my teeth near her, I guess hygiene is a fairly alien concept to a cow. I think they were friendly creatures, though they mooed loudly at us as we walked off.
We then headed to Oswiecim, better known as Auschwitz. The holocaust, and World War Two generally, has been a theme that we have been following all across Europe. From Anne Frank's attic in Amsterdam, to the sorry tales of Jewish experiences in Germany, to the synagogues in Prague and Krakow. The town at Auschwitz is astonishingly normal considering they live next to a former death camp which exterminated a couple of million people. Having not seen a tourist for a couple of weeks it was a slight shock for us to encounter bus-loads at the museum. The place itself was obviously extremely sad, although not in the way I expected. I won't go into the history of it all here. The most shocking parts were seeing all the belongings that had been taken from those transported there: mounds of human hair, mountains of shoes (all shapes, sizes and styles) and tiny garments handmade for babies. The true nature of the genocide and the efficiency with which it had been planned was more apparent at the nearby Birkenau camp. It is a vast place designed so that people could be transported, sorted, taken to gas chambers, killed, and their remains disposed of within about an hour of arriving there. The most thought-provoking part was when our guide walked us from the railway platform to the site of the gas chamber (now ruined), along what would have been the unsuspecting final steps for so many innocent people.
From there it was about 60 km to Krakow, and we decided to stay in a hostel. This is a great place. We are sharing a room with 8 other people but everyone there is very friendly and eager to chat. After a lot of time with only each other to talk to this has been a shock to the system! They have lots of social events like pub quizzes and barbecues. Best of all, they do your laundry for you. The downside to this is that everyone's gets mixed in together and so, to get back your socks and underwear, you have to sort through a huge basket containing an international melee of boxers and odd socks. We've suddenly tapped in to a travellers culture - everyone else there is city-hopping by trains so took the night train from Budapest, came from Greece in two days, on their way to Prague/Warsaw/Munich etc etc. It's a bit of a contrast to our gradual progress - but we've seen a lot in out-of-the-way places that I wouldn't swap for anything. And we also now have extremely well-developed leg muscles!
Krakow has been a good place to stop, find new reading matter (very important) and do some sightseeing. Today we went to the castle which came complete with ancient Hindu legends about Lord Shiva and a dragon's den in an eerie cave underneath. We've spent a bit of time just looking around the squares and streets. The people are a mixture of modern attitudes and very old ones here. We get real stares from locals in the villages, and even teenagers formally shake hands when they see a friend. But attitudes are friendly and relaxed in a lot of ways. It is busy here, in a nice way, with lots of accordian players on the streets and plenty cheap places to eat out. We now head South and into Slovakia and the mountains... the leg muscles have more in the way of a workout to come.
I hope everyone is well back home. Keep in touch as it's good to hear from you.
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Ann Bryan
non-member comment
Hi there. At last I have caught up with this (to me) new bit of technology. Glad you are having a good time overall. Your journal makes interesting reading, I tend to agree that non-touristy places/areas are more rewarding than those thronging with human kind, nice as they may be individually! Hope knee (L) and arm (S) are better. All the best on your next stage and I look forward to reading about it soon.