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Published: September 10th 2007
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Gdansk
An Old Crane on the Canal. Well, as last noted we travelled from Berlin to Gdansk in Poland and it took over six hours.
The roads are very small in Poland and alot are being worked on. The traffic is also very crazy. They don't have many overtaking lanes so you just go for it and the on coming traffic moves over to the side of the road as does the car beeing overtaken!
Once in Gdank, which is a habour town on the Baltic sea. We tried some of the the local polish food, Pierogy (as recommended by Lukasz) was the best of the lot in my book. It is dumplings filled with meats, cheeses, pototoes or spinach, very nice. Bigos was a little more interesting, a polish stew consisting mainly of cabbage and meat such as kielbasa sausage, you can clear a room after that one. Poland also has some very nice beers too, Zywiec was my pick there.
We checked out the local beach near Gdansk and dipped the toes in the Baltic, not warm enough for a swim though. Some girls thought it was and from their screams we were right.
Once we looked at all there was in Gdansk
Gdanks
Me at the beach in Sipot it was time to move on to Warsaw. Another good solid drive at that too.
Warsaw has some great buildings and most noted would be the fact that in Poland, unlike most other countries, use alot of bricks. This is due to the fact that it is a lot cheaper than stone and most of Poland was rebuilt after the war. None the less there were some fantastic castles and churches.
Krakow was the next port of call and brought the most excitment. On Saturday we were due to go to Auschwitz, but, instead we spent the morning at the police station as our car got broken in to.
Poor Penny had the lock massacred and the front window smashed. They took a pair of sunnies, mobile phone and Warney, the beloved cooler bag. Along with some chocolates to which we found the empty tins in a lane after with some of our LP books and maps.
Organising the car insurance was a nightmare as no one really spoke english asnd we had to call back and forwards to France. Because we had no mobile phone they couldn't reach us so we had to call around alot to
Warsaw
A castle in Warsaw. find out what was happening.
They took Penny for a week to fix the window but would have needed her for 2 weeks to replace the lock, lucky it still works!
We got given a hire car for the week, a little blue Ford Focus.
We finally got to Auschwitz on Sunday and it was a very interesting experience. The history is very sickening and when you walk into certain areas where some horrific crimes took place you get a very strange, empty feeling. A lot of the Birkenau camp was destroyed by the germans before the camp was liberated but the ruins of the gas chambers remain. Looking through the old barracks and seeing what the living conditions were like was moving and certainly puts a lump in your throat. In all it was an excellent experience and well worth going to to pay respects to the victims.
Once Krakow was bid farewell we headed to Zakopane in the mountians near the Slovakian border for a few days of relaxation.
It is now one of my favourite places in the world. It is a beautiful little town and I didn't want to leave, even though the weather
Warsaw
A statue of a child soldier. was terrible.
Finno and I took a hike up one of the mountains to a peak called Giewolt, it is 1894 metres high. Once we reached a certain level the rain stopped and was replaced by snow. Needless to say we went nuts. Snowballs were being launched left, right and centre. We built a little snow man and just acted like we were 5. The hike was tough (I struggled a bit, but Finno cruised up like a mountin goat) When reaching the summit you have to use chains to pull yourself uo as it is very steep and slippery. I'm sure the views were amazing but it was so cloudy you could only see a few metres in front. In all the walk to 5 hours and by the end we were drenched, cold a bloody tired. (not to mention hungry!)
The following day saw more snow fights up a hill with a bloke from NZ called Ben. We also made a big snow man and caught the chair lift down. Zakopane was awesome but ti was time to get to Krakow to pick up Penny and head to Prague for Finno's birthday.
But that's another
Krakow
Poor Penny nursing her injuries.
R.I.P Warney 2003-2007 story!
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Mark Jones
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R.I.P Warney
Warney... He was a friend, a champion but most of all he kept beer cold. He will be missed.