Zajazd Pod Kasztanami Lublin

... ceiling were covered with paintings and frescos. It was magnificent. I am so glad I went. It was by far the best thing we saw in Lublin.

It was raining heavily when we left so we decided against walking round the old town any more. We returned to the car and Eartha retrieved her lost postcard to Laura in Lithuania from the hostel. Onwards - and with the windscreen wipers going.

Lauder Jewish school in Warsaw We were all pretty drained after such little sleep, but the PHT program's pretty full-on so we began today by visiting the only Jewish school in Warsaw. The Lauder family (of Estee Lauder fame) sponsors Jewish schools around the world in areas where the community is too small to support itself, unfortunately it was school holidays so we could only meet the principal. The school has only ...

We really felt the need to learn more about the war, the camps and the Nazis regime so we decided to visit another camp, that was less well know. Again, this is not for everyone but we found it totally compelling, educational and emotional.

... of Jewish students need all that security. After spending a few hours at Majdanek we drove on to Krakow where we would be spending the next 2 nights. We arrived in Krakow in the afternoon and checked into the Krakow Lodge Bed & Breakfast which we had booked at home on Expedia.com. It is a bed & breakfast in name only. It is actually an adorable little efficiency apartment. It has a coffepot ...

... to have some beers in the evening. I then went to Majdanek, a concentration camp that was build there because of the high numbers of jewish of the region. The visit was quite hard, there were nobody, and the building were really frightening. The museum parts were closed (it was monday). I then came back and visit the old part and saw the castle from outside. I decided that I didn't want to stay in Lublin more than one days, but afterall I said to me that ...

... quite a lot of money, youth hostel was full). I finally found a room in the camping just in front of the youth hostel, 30 słoty, really good for this place ! I then made some sightseeing, the river allee, the castle ruins, the tower and some churchs. Just see the pictures :)

... were just on the next corner we thought we had nothing to worry about. The heat and humidity has played a part in our decision to take route B which is north from Hungary and over to Finland. Although Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey are countries we want to visit, they will have to just wait for the time being............ We past through the north east of Croatia in 24 hours to the boarder of Hungary ...

Sean & I got to the train station by 9am ish, was within walking distance of the Hostel. Sean was off to the airport, I intended to head of to Lublin, as it was about halfway on the way to Warsaw, and had good write ups in Lonely Planet & Trip Advisor. Also, I was intigues to read that the famous Lublin University had a Celtic Languages department which included a Welsh language course, I thought I might even hear my native Welsh being spoken on ...

... also giving a lugubrious feeling. Chris left me there and I walked towards the monument, taking some pictures and admiring the whole site where the camp once stood and the big mausoleum standing at the back. Then I went through the concrete block to walk in direction of the camp, following the fence till it's end. The sun was hitting through the clouds and there was plenty of black birds... basically I was completely alone in this mid-January day visiting the camp. Being there ...

Too much has been happening and we get too tired - it's impossible to keep up a journal. We have just arrived in Lublin - in a rock-bottom hotel near the station. The Lonely Planet makes Lublin sound pretty bad and notes the inconvenience of the station being two kilometres from town. But the area around the station is like a town in its own right. We walked around and bought fruits at the market, and had a good Polish dinner in one of ...