TravelStream™ news feed for member hannah_and_greg on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/hannah_and_greg en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 04 Sep 2005 14:24:20 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1125162840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1125162840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1125162840/tpod.html Sun, 04 Sep 2005 14:24:20 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Stary Folwark - Augustów, Poland

We arrived in the town of Stary Folwark Tuesday afternoon after one of the most irritating bus rides ever. The bus driver wouldn't stow our backpacks under the bus, so we had to keep them in the seats. Then a couple of teenagers sat behind us and kept repeating the sentence: "Now, in English please. Why are you calling?" and thought it was hysterical. A really annoying couple came on the bus in one of the villages, sat two seats ahead of us, took seats opposite from each other and then made out in the aisle for half the trip. The landscape was beautiful though. Lots of small lakes, and tons of storks with their ginormous nests.

We thought we'd gone to the wrong place when the bus dropped us off on the side of the highway. We walked down the long street towards our pension and, expecting a somewhat touristy place where it would be easy to get information on how to rent kayaks, were disappointed that there wasn't even an information centre in town. We arrived at our pension, which we'd chosen because their website claims, in English, that they help organize canoe trips, only to discover that no one spoke English and that they didn't rent boats. They did have a Polish book about the river however...
It turned out to be a good place to stay though, since they had a kitchen and let us use their barbecue in the back, where we roasted sausages and vegetables for one of our best meals this summer.

We found our way to the PTTK waterside hostel to see if they had information. PTTK, as far as we can tell, is some sort of Polish tourist office that mainly has campsites and these waterside hostels (basically campsites with cabins). We started talking to the guy at the parking gate, which was a stroke of luck. He had exceptional English, and as soon as he found out we wanted to rent a boat he was like "ok, no problem" and made some phone calls to various people he knew that rented boats. He hooked us up with a guy named Marek who has his own kayak rental company near the PTTK. The rental fees were a lot lower than we'd expected, but the bulk of the cost was in the transport fee since we'd be doing a one way trip down the river and had no way to get it back to him ourselves. His transport fee was slightly higher than the PTTK's, but he was so helpful and we had a really good feeling about him. He and Pawel (the parking guy) gave us all sorts of information on exactly where to stay each night, where to get food, and other helpful advice.

Day 1: Lucky coincidences

We got up relatively late, but early for us, and after a big breakfast of scrambled eggs got to the PTTK to pick up the kayak (Marek convinced us not to get a canoe). We surprised ourselves by fitting all our gear into the expedition kayak's watertight compartments, since we had way too much stuff for a simple 4 day trip (because we'd been travelling beforehand).

To get to the river we had to cross a small section of Lake Wigry. It was a beautiful morning and it was awesome to be out on the quiet lake. Lake Wigry is part of the 'silent zone,' so it's not very touristy except for people going on trips or looking for a quiet vacation. The only people on the lake were us and a couple fishermen. We saw the first of many families of swans with their ugly ducklings (which are actually quite cute). Not used to the scale of the map, we overshot the hidden mouth of the river by a kilometre or so, so we got to see a bit more of the lake and got chased by our first swan family. Those mothers sure are protective, not to mention intimidating.

The river was totally different than we expected. It was really calm with a shallow muddy bottom and tons of seaweed. At times it felt like we were kayaking in a grassy field. It was fairly narrow for the most part because of the huge amounts of reeds growing along the sides. There were lots of twists and turns, and when the river widened the reeds formed natural mazes that we had to navigate.

At first we were almost all alone on the river. There was a couple up ahead who occasionally popped into view for a few bends and then disappeared again. Then suddenly we could hear shouts up ahead, and realized we were approaching a group of kayakers. They turned out to be a family of 4 kayaks who were mainly trying to tip each other, it seemed. As soon as we started trying to pass them, however, they all seemed to get more motivated, and it was difficult to shake them. Finally we got ahead, only to make a wrong turn and end up behind again.

All along the river we saw little cleared areas with picnic tables and signs saying "Pole Namiodowe." Being in a national park, we assumed these were free rest areas or camp sites. After paddling for a long while without seeing one, we stopped at the first one we found to eat our lunch. We were halfway through eating when a little old farmer approached us. We couldn't understand what he said, but the first word out of his mouth was "Nie" (No). Never a good sign. We were pretty confused, and asked if we should go. He said no, and we eventually figured out that he was asking if we were going to sleep there. We told him we were just eating. He seemed to say that was ok and disappeared. Satisfied that we'd settled things, we kept eating. Then two young people came out, obviously sent out to talk to us because they could speak English. It turned out to be the guy from the bus who'd been making out in the aisle, and presumably, his sister. They clarified that we were not planning on sleeping there, and I said we were just eating. I asked if that was ok, and her response was "It's not up to us, it depends on other members of our family." There was a strange silence, where they were just looking at us, and we were expecting her to explain what she meant and what they wanted from us. I asked whether a Pole Namiodowe was a rest stop or just a camp site, and she said "both, kind of." We never did find out what exactly they wanted from us, but when we told them we were planning on leaving in five minutes they said it was ok and left, and we decided to get the hell out of there.

We got to our destination, PTTK Wysoki Most, earlier than expected, disappointed to see the family of kayakers there. We'd been enjoying the solitude of earlier that day, and this meant that they'd be with us on the river again the next day. They turned out to be our saviours though. I went up to the office to check if they had available cabins only to find that the place seemed to be closed. We didn't have a tent, and these PTTK's were the only place we could stay. It was already 3 pm and we didn't know how long it would take to get to the next one, our next day's destination. Confused, we asked the family what the deal was with this hostel. Apparently it was closed down for the season, but they weren't staying there. They had rented kayaks for the day from a man who had a private waterside hostel on a nearby lake. He was picking them up there and driving them to his place. He showed up a few minutes later and told us we could stay at his hostel and he could bring us back in the morning for an extra 10 zl, which he later waived anyway.

He turned out to be a really nice guy, and the hostel was definitely the best we stayed at. It was the only hostel we stayed at that was on a lake, so the swimming was nice. He had a sauna that the family invited us to use, and Greg spent the afternoon jumping from the sauna to the lake. There was a big fire pit with lots of wood for us to use to roast the sausages we bought in a not-so-nearby town we walked to along the highway. (One of those towns you see in movies, where strangers never manage to escape in time. The only store also served as the only bar, outside of which were a handful of drunks punching each other.)

We were so lucky that day. That family was at the PTTK for probably 10 minutes total. If we hadn't overshot the river, or been kicked out of the Pole Namiodowe, we would've missed them. We would never have found the place otherwise, because it was on a lake that wasn't connected to the river, about a 2 km drive away, and it wasn't on the map.

Day Two: Ah, sweet solitude

We got on the river at about 9:45 for our lightest day of the trip - 13 km. Our arms didn't hurt nearly as much as we'd expected and although we'd decided to keep it easy if we wanted to, we paddled fairly steadily. It was probably a good thing to have had that hard day of paddling in Mikolajki the week before - we got used to the kayak, and the river was so easy compared to the lakes.

All along the river that morning there were women selling food. We passed a woman in a rowboat, pushing herself along with a pole, and when we passed she stopped and held up a sign advertising fresh buns and other food. A little farther on there were women kneeling on small docks selling produce and baked goods. We got ripped off by one of them who was irritated that we weren't buying her apple pies, but ended up with amazingly fresh carrots and tomatoes.
The stretch of river after Wysoki Most was probably the most beautiful. Instead of farmers' fields on either side of the river it was surrounded by the Augustow Forest.

The route was more confusing that day but we'd gotten better at navigating and knew in advance where to turn. There were lakes entirely filled with reeds so that they looked like insane river mazes. These mazes were obviously not on the map, but we thankfully found our way.
We got to PTTK Fracki really early, glad to have most of the day free. Each riverside hostel has its own character, and this one was pretty cute. It was high on a hill overlooking the river, with an area cleared of weeds for swimming. It was really hot, and the air and the grass completely dry, so we were glad to have somewhere to swim. The river was absolutely frigid though, making a quick dip the only option. But amazingly refreshing.

We were sitting by the fire pit contemplating starting a fire to roast our kielbasa (we were determined to eat it every day, after all, when will be the next time we can roast sausage on an open fire?) when we saw a group of kayakers start pulling their boats up the hill. At first there were four, then six, and Greg was sure it wouldn't be more than eight because that's the most a trailer can transport. Then there were 8, then 12, 15, and still more coming. We lost count at about 18 kayaks when we were distracted by the hordes of teenagers overtaking the site. Our cabin was completely surrounded by boats and teenagers, and the fire pit was slowly being taken over too. It must have been a group of campers, and there were nearly enough to fill every cabin on the site. We decided to get cooking dinner before it was too late, so we escaped to the forest to gather wood. By the time we got back, we could see the teenagers flocking away from the site with their bags and one of the supervisors was stacking the kayaks and piling life jackets into a car. Relieved that we wouldn't have to fight through 18 kayaks on the river the next morning, we cooked our sausage in peace.

Day Three: Getting into the swing of things

We woke up the next morning to light rain, so we hit snooze and had a late start to the day. We got ready slowly, hoping the clouds would disappear and the sun come out. We were just about ready when there was a series of loud thumps outside our cabin. I opened the door to the sight of a million teenagers re-entering the campsite, a bunch of whom had plopped themselves and their stuff on our small porch to shelter themselves from the rain, completely blocking our door. I heard a few "oops!" as they started moving their stuff away, but when we came out a minute later to pay for our cabin, the door was blocked even more. After paying, the crowd was so thick we could hardly get to our door, but they moved their stuff when we asked them to. We decided to get out of there as soon as possible to avoid navigating through them on the narrow river, and managed to find ourselves a free launching spot for our kayak that had gone unnoticed. One of the camp supervisors, a crotchety old man, noticed our kayak alone by the river and decided he should have that spot, so he ran down with his kayak and actually set his on top of ours, shoved us out of the way and then blocked us in. When we started moving our kayak into the water he pulled it so it wouldn't be in his way by the shore, and almost pulled me in with it. He was rushing his kayak-mate, a poor young girl, so much that she fell down the hill and almost fell in with all her stuff. We got in the river just in time to make it out of there before they got going. I heard the old guy tell some other man that there were 28 kayaks altogether! It was easy to get past the group because they all had their kayaks sitting along the bank around the bend, and only about four of them had actually started paddling.

Getting away from the group provided great motivation for us and we made incredible time for the first hour of the day. We were working really well together by that point and felt really comfortable in the kayak. That was probably our best day of paddling on the trip, and the most fun too. The river was really twisty, more so than other days, and we were getting good at taking the turns without losing speed. Halfway through the day the river became less well-kept and we had to slow down considerably. There were fallen trees at every twist and turn that we had to watch out for, but it was actually pretty fun. We've decided that paddling on a river is way more fun than on a lake. Our arms and backs still got sore, but the turns required our constant attention and distracted us from the pain. Also, seeing the reeds so close beside us made us feel like we were making great progress, unlike on a lake when you can feel like you're not getting anywhere.

Early in the day a little blue hummingbird appeared on our path and then disappeared up ahead. He became our little river-guide for a bit, flying ahead and then reappearing around the next bend. We also saw some hawks or eagles circling overhead, which were less helpful as guides because while watching them we almost ended up in the reeds.

It rained off and on throughout the day, which wasn't really a problem until it started absolutely pouring in the early afternoon. We weren't sure where we were. We thought we knew where we were on the map, but figured we must be wrong because we didn't think we could possibly have made such good time. However, within about five minutes of the downpour, we saw our hostel, PTTK Jalowy Róg. We probably could have continued, but we didn't have time to sit and talk about it in the rain. Anyway, we were glad to get into a clean room and dry clothes.

That night we decided the sausage-fest had to come to an end. We couldn't roast our own, but the stuff we bought from the PTTK was pretty heavy, and the thought of eating any more made us feel ill. We managed to get to sleep by about 8:30, deciding to try and get all the way to the city of Augustow the next day, instead of stopping for one more night.

Day Four: Kanal Augustowski

We got up an hour early to buy ourselves more time since we wanted to go about 38 km that day. We had a back-up plan to stay at PTTK Swoboda about 25 km away if we couldn't make it. We didn't know what to expect, since we'd be paddling on the canal, with 7 locks to go through, and several lakes. We'd been averaging about 1 km in ten minutes, and we hoped that being off the river wouldn't slow us down too much.

We made it to the first lock in half an hour. It was deserted. I walked around and tried to find someone, but there was absolutely nobody there. We sat in the kayak wondering what to do when after a few minutes a man showed up. He let us into the lock and when the water level was at its highest, lay down on his stomach and stretched out his hand to collect the 3 zl fee. We wondered if this was standard practice, but obviously it wasn't.

The canal and the locks were built in the 1820's. They are either brick or concrete, with wooden gates that are opened manually by the lock operators. It was really a strange experience being in the lock in the kayak. The water just rushed at us while we held on to a chain to avoid flying around inside the lock. The water was disgusting and foamy, and threatened to spill into our boat and onto all our stuff. Most locks took us up, but the last one went down and it was much more pleasant. When we got to a lock we had to run up to the booth and pay the fee, and then they'd let us in. They were often not in their booth, but they could be found in their houses, beside the locks. Most of them were very friendly, and usually it only took about 20 minutes to get through, which still added a lot of time to our trip. One of the men was a total jerk though, and it was an hour before we could go through, since he was talking on the phone, showing rooms in his house to potential guests, and generally taking his time so he wouldn't have to operate the lock as frequently. We figured that the locks alone added 3 hours to our trip.

The canal was nice, but not as nice as the river. The sides were lined with wooden posts, nicer than the concrete you often see at home. Unfortunately for us, once we turned onto the canal we were paddling against the current. It was also a windy day, so the water on the lakes was pretty choppy. We still made good time, and would've made it to Augustow if we hadn't had to wait for the locks. We were confident that we could reach PTTK Swoboda, but all day I had a strange feeling that something was going to go wrong. I was sure it was going to be full or closed. We stopped at PTTK Plaska for lunch, and I considered asking the girl there to phone and see if there was room, but unfortunately, did not.

We made it to PTTK Swoboda by 5 pm, exactly when we expected, and my fears were confirmed. The place was closed for the season. It was the last PTTK on the map before Augustow, 12 km away (and across two more lakes, one small one, and one 8 km long). The wind was picking up and the sun was going down. There was a family camping in tents there but they couldn't offer any advice, and neither could anyone at the bar next door. I had resigned to sleeping outside, but Greg was more intelligent and called Marek. He agreed to pick us up at the next lock. I hadn't been willing to get back in the kayak at that point, we'd been in it since 8:30 that morning and I could hardly stand my back was hurting so much - I had a lump the size of a golfball on my spine from the hard back of my seat. But common sense prevailed and we started across the lake. Marek and his girlfriend, Marta, showed up just as we were getting the last of our stuff packed up.

We were thankful that we'd rented our boat from Marek. He was so nice to come on a Saturday night while his girlfriend was visiting from Warsaw and pick us up, and then drive us into Augustów. We told them about our misadventure and they were really sympathetic. They made some phone calls and found us somewhere to stay in Augustow, took us there and even came in to make sure it was ok. We'd been on the water for 9 hours in the crazy bright sun, we had sunstroke so bad we could hardly think and we were exhausted. I don't know what we would've done without them. We had unbelievably good luck the whole trip, and despite a few setbacks, had an awesome time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124816460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124816460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124816460/tpod.html Sun, 04 Sep 2005 14:10:00 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Gierloz, Poland

After Mikolajki we headed up to the town of Gizycko (Gee-jitsko, with a hard 'g' and soft 'j') a small place on the lakes somewhat near the town of Gierloz. This name may not mean anything to most people, but the German name Gorlitz might - the location of the Wolf's Lair (Wolfsschanze), Hitler's headquarters during WWII.

We arrived in Gizycko early in the morning and after dropping our stuff at our pension, headed to Gierloz by bus. We were pretty surprised at the total lack of tourists on the local bus to Gierloz, despite the fact that tourists rarely seem to use local transportation, but the parking lot was packed with cars and there was even a camp ground and RV site for all the tourists. One of the buildings, the old officers' hotel, is now a hotel for tourists and a restaurant. There were tons of tourists, we figured about two thirds of them were German and the rest Polish.

So, some history. Chosen because of the landscape's natural boundaries, the fortifications and line of defence across Prussia, and its location on the railway line, Wolfsschanze began to be constructed in Gierloz the autumn of 1940 under the guise of building a chemical plant. Construction was continuous until the abandonment of the site at the end of the war. Altogether there were over 200 buildings, including several huge bunkers with walls thicker than 6 metres and roofs thicker than 8 metres. The whole complex was surrounded by double fences of barbed wire, between which was a minefield a hundred metres wide and ten kilometres long, containing 54 000 mines. It took Polish soldiers ten years to de-mine the area after the war.

Hitler came for the first time in the summer of '41 and spent most of his time there until the winter of 1945, when the Germans abandoned the site, blowing everything up as they left. Three days later the Red Army reached the area and destroyed what was left as well as the nearby town of Ketrzyn.
This was also the site of the attempted assassination of Hitler by the German von Stauffenberg.
Hitler's house / bunker was by far the biggest on the site, and the most impressive ruins. His living quarters were left largely intact, surely a result of the massive amount of concrete used in its construction, but his kitchen was completely destroyed. We walked through one of his hallways and it was pretty creepy, knowing we were in the place where he lived, worked and slept. The hall was very narrow, and completely black. His living area seemed really small compared to the size of the building from the outside.

At times it was pretty creepy walking around in the Wolf's Lair. Thinking of all the top officials that spent so much of their time there, all the evil men that made their plans there, made us slightly uncomfortable. It wasn't nearly like visiting Auschwitz or Majdanek though. There wasn't at all the same solemn atmosphere found at a concentration camp, but it was the same in that it is one of those places that are totally incomprehensible. You think you'll feel a certain way when you go, but it's impossible to really get your head around. Maybe more so than if you're reading about it at home, or looking at pictures. You think that going will make it feel more real, but instead it just makes you realize you can never comprehend that it happened at all.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124729460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124729460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124729460/tpod.html Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:59:54 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Mikolajki, Poland

After two nights in Olsztyn we took a train to Mikolajki (Meek-oh-why-key), a small town on the Great Mazurian Lakes and the summer capital of Mazury. We stayed in the nicest place yet, next door to the pension we had booked. We arrived at our pension and couldn't figure out how to get in, and the babcia (grandmother) next door motioned us over to her place where her son offered us a better deal. Our room was a newly renovated room on the third floor with a private bathroom and big skylights. The babcia, who didn't speak any English but was the sweetest woman, sat outside the pension every afternoon in her little chair. We had lots of little animated conversations in Polish, and she was really good at putting lots of gestures into her speech so we could figure out what she was saying (for example, demonstrating the difference between paddling a canoe and a kayak). Somehow even when you can't understand someone you can still laugh at their jokes.

The next day, excited to be on the water, we rented a kayak for the afternoon. Our guidebook described Mikolajki as a popular destination for watersports enthusiasts, but I think we can safely say that means sailboaters. We've never seen so many sailboats on one lake. Very picturesque, but it made kayaking a little difficult. There wasn't much wind, so they weren't really going anywhere, they just formed a bit of an obstacle course for us.

Our intention was to float around on the water, take some pictures and relax, but somehow we ended up 3 hours away from home and exhausted. We had a hellish time getting across the big lakes in the waves created by larger boats, and we discovered later that we'd paddled almost 25 km in total. A lot for a day when we were supposed to relax. We decided after that that this should be our vacation. So we spent most of the rest of the week relaxing on the beach, which was a five minute walk from our pension. It was a pretty small beach where the sunbathers were packed in like sardines and the little children ran around naked.

Near Mikolajki is Lake Luknajno, a UNESCO world biosphere reserve for wild swans. We thought we'd be able to get a little closer to the lake, but unfortunately the only places to see the lake from were observation towers, and the lake was a lot bigger than we'd expected with large areas of reeds around the shore. Of course when we were there the swans were all on the other side of the lake, so our pictures just have many small white dots.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124296740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124296740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124296740/tpod.html Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:51:14 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Olsztyn, Poland

We arrived in Olsztyn at night and, to avoid the experience of getting lost in the bus system, took a cab to our pension. It was located at the extreme edge of town in a cute little suburb. Kasia, the woman who owned the house, didn't speak any English. It's becoming more and more frequent to meet people who have far less English than we have Polish, and we're quite pleased to be able to communicate the essentials in Polish. We're now getting laughed at when we ask in Polish if someone speaks English, they respond "No, but you speak Polish!" (which really isn't true).

The next day we met our neighbour at the pension "Pan Grzegorz" (Mister Gregory), a translator from Warsaw with excellent English. He gave us a ride into the centre of town, which was very nice of him. We're getting used to Polish drivers and aren't as easily frightened on the road as before, but this was a new extreme. I was fairly certain we were going to die. He drove over 120 km/h in a 70 zone, weaving among the many cars, on a stretch where there were construction crews digging up the middle of the road.

We went to Olsztyn mainly because of the gothic castle from the 14th century, where Copernicus lived and worked as the administrator of the region for several years, and where he developed his ideas on planetary bodies, but we discovered that the city itself was really nice. It isn't as big as any of the other cities we've visited so touring the old town took very little time, but there were lots of little cafes where we could've sat and just enjoyed the city. The old town is surrounded by a river (which somehow functioned as a moat centuries ago, despite being only a foot deep and a couple metres wide. I don't know, if I was an army maybe I'd turn back at the prospect of wet feet) and a park, so it was the perfect place to sit and read.

The castle, built by the Teutonic Knights before they founded the town, was nothing like Malbork. It took about an hour to see all of it, including the exhibition of regional folk art. We probably weren't up for another 3 hour tour anyway, and the castle was quite charming.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124037960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124037960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1124037960/tpod.html Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:45:28 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Kraków, Poland

After travelling we spent a week relaxing at Monika's in Debica while she was staying with her family in the nearby town of Czarna (black). It was really weird and uncomfortable to be back in Debica because almost none of our friends were there. We loved living there because all our friends are there, but the town itself sucks. So we locked ourselves in and watched more movies than ever before in our lives.

After a few days we headed to Kraków and stayed with our other friend Monika who was flat-sitting for someone while we did some apartment hunting. Luckily Greg's school helps with that sort of thing, so we didn't really have to do anything except look at flats. Most of them were absolutely horrible, but we found one without much trouble, and moved in four days later. It's a pretty big flat (52m), with two rooms (basically a living room and a study - we sleep in the living room), and it's nice and clean, with a newly renovated bathroom. Best of all is the location. It's in an area of Kraków called Debniki which is across the Vistula from the Royal Castle. We're about two minutes from the park by the river, which has really good bike and walking paths, and is a great place to sit and relax on a warm day. After moving in we spent a week settling in, and found it really difficult to motivate ourselves to continue travelling. It was so nice to have our own place in the city we've been dreaming of for so long.

While in Kraków we managed to do a few things other than looking for a place. We found some cool bars and a little cafe in Kazimierz (the old Jewish district) that sells fresh bagels with real cream cheese. They claim that the bagel originated in Poland, however these are the first we've seen. It was almost overwhelming to eat one. It reminded me so much of home, I can't even explain it. We saw a jazz concert, part of the summer jazz festival in Krakow, and saw the museum of the famous Polish artist, playwright and stained glass window designer, Stanislaw Wyspianski. We also managed to meet up with Witold while he was here and then later Matt and Meaghan, which was really awesome. There's nothing like seeing friends from home when you're abroad.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1122310680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1122310680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1122310680/tpod.html Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:36:54 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Kudowa Zdrój, Poland

We'd heard cool things about the Klodzko valley, so we headed to Kudowa Zdrój (Koodova's Drooy) a popular health resort in the valley. It's a pretty little town, but there isn't much to do in the town itself. The main attractions (other than the resorts) are the nearby Góry Stolowe ("goorih stowoveh," Table Mountains) and Chapel of Skulls.

We were disappointed that the mountains weren't visible from the town, but it was pretty easy to get to them by bus. We headed to a mountain called Szczeliniec Wielki (Great Crevice), slightly amazed at ourselves for climbing another mountain. It was much lower than Sniezka though, and had stone steps all the way up so the climb took only half an hour. It wasn't nearly as enjoyable as Sniezka on the way up, but the hike around the top was amazing. The path was called "The Labyrinth" and took us through all sorts of crazy rock formations to amazing look-out points. We had to pass through huge crevices in the rocks and under boulders that were perched precariously above our heads. There were points where we had to get down on our hands and knees and crawl through, and other places where the path led through a crack less than a foot wide in the rock. Greg wasn't scared, but I have to admit that I was - at some points it was downright terrifying. There were paths strewn with massive boulders that had clearly fallen from somewhere, and I didn't really want to be there for the next ones. The formations were amazing. Huge pillars of rock balanced in improbable places - the edges of cliffs, and on top of smaller rocks.

After climbing down we had a delicious and hearty Polish 'snack' of huge dense slices of bread spread with lard and topped with fried onions and bacon (I bet you're all drooling). Then we hitchhiked back to town with a really nice middle aged couple on their way back from Czestochowa (the "spiritual capital" of Poland and an important place of pilgrimage). We understood very little of what they said to us, but that didn't stop them from talking to us the whole way home. They were so sweet, and gave us each keychain souvenirs from Czestochowa with the Polish eagle.

Later in the day we walked to a nearby town to see the Chapel of Skulls. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's a small chapel that was built in 1774 with the bones of victims from the Thirty Years War and plagues that followed. The walls were completely covered with skulls and other bones, and skulls and crossbones were hanging from the ceiling. I think they said that altogether there were 3000 bones. It wasn't nearly as creepy as either of us expected, probably because it was so touristy. The way it works is you buy a ticket, and then mill around outside until the doors open and they bring everyone inside (about 50 people, maybe) so that there isn't even room to breathe, and then this woman talks in Polish for about 10 minutes, and then the doors open and they kick you out. We both found it difficult to absorb what we were seeing in such an atmosphere. We were also really disappointed that we weren't allowed to take pictures. We were still glad we were able to see it.

After Kudowa Zdrój we decided to head back to Debica, where Monika kindly let us to stay at her flat. We were getting pretty tired from travelling, and we needed to get ourselves a place in Kraków.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121886540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121886540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121886540/tpod.html Sun, 04 Sep 2005 12:57:56 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Wroclaw, Poland

Wroclaw (vrah-tswaf) kind of stumped us. We've been told so many things about Wroclaw that I think it was impossible for it to live up to our expectations. Everyone talks about how beautiful it is and what a cool city it is, I think we expected it to just hit us in the face when we stepped off the train. We spent a day going through the city trying to see museums and other places we'd been told about and we couldn't find any of them. We went to the history museum, and the hours were all rubbed off. We went to the tourist information centre and they told us where to find the new location. We went there, and despite the sign outside saying history museum, the lady inside told us that we had to go back to where we started. Everything was closed, moved or under construction. The city we were looking for wasn't there, and neither was anything in it.

Don't get me wrong, the market square is really beautiful. The town hall was completely different than anything we've seen before, and there were lots of interesting and unique buildings. Off the square there are lots of historic churches, but a lot of the other buildings are communist-style apartment blocks. I think it just surprised us after seeing cities like Krakow and Gdansk, where the old town is filled with historic buildings. It gives the town a certain atmosphere, and the presence of modern buildings can wreck that.

Once we got used to Wroclaw and forgot about what we'd been told, we really started enjoying ourselves. The square is huge (2nd biggest in Poland) and really impressive. Ostrow Tumski and Piasek Island, where the city of Wroclaw began 1000 years ago, was also a really nice part of the city.

Our favourite part of our visit was the Jewish cemetery. It is one of the few that weren't destroyed during the war, but it is now neglected and overgrown and falling into ruin. Many tombstones were broken or toppled over, and everything was covered in ivy. It looked like a forest, there were so many trees. Several trees had fallen over and their roots pulled tombstones up with them. It was strange being there, in this cemetery where everyone has been forgotten. I think of those people who put up elaborate monuments for their families, and now they're falling apart and the only people who see them are occasional tourists.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121885940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121885940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121885940/tpod.html Fri, 05 Aug 2005 07:38:49 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Karpacz, Poland

Monia and Adam left us in Poznan, and the three of us headed to the mountains. The first stop was the pretty little town of Jelenia Gora ("Yelenya Goora," Deer Mountain in English). It was a quiet town, and it was a nice chance to sit around, relax and eat cheap food. There was a big group of french bikers, probably on their way to the H.O.G convention in Karpacz. It was funny to see big tough looking bikers taking pictures with their tiny digital cameras in the square.

The next day we continued on to Karpacz ("car-patch"), a popular spa town at the foot of the mountains. The bus ride there was really beautiful, with lots of picturesque little towns set against the mountains. The town was unbelievably touristy, and there seemed to be an unlimited number ways to make a living off of it. Restaurants, tourist stalls, taxis and minibuses, hotels and hostels. Every house we saw had rooms available, and they weren't cheap. We stayed at a big hostel on the edge of town called "Wodomierzanka," loosely translated by Monika as "woman who reads water meters." It was filled with screaming kids on a camp trip, and had goats, chickens and turkeys wandering around the property.

The highlight of this trip was climbing Mount Sniezka (snowflake), the highest mountain in the Sudeten chain (~1600m). We bought a trail map of the region, but got directions to where we were supposed to start our hike from a woman in our hostel who had done the climb before. Unfortunately, she didn't know what she was talking about and we ended up getting lost in the forest near wolf river, adding an hour onto our day. We found our way eventually (thank God Monika speaks Polish) and started our climb. The first part of the hike was really tedious and not very rewarding. The path was basically just a long pile of jaggedy, uneven rocks strewn up the mountain, and the forest we were in was nice but nothing special. It was also swelteringly hot. We stopped and had lunch at the point where several trails joined, and the hike after that was amazing. We hiked for a while through forest and trees, again through rocky trails but the path was on the edge of the mountain so the view was fantastic. As we climbed the trees got shorter and shorter, eventually disappearing. It seemed like every time we turned around the view behind us was even more amazing. There were many others climbing that day and there was a really nice atmosphere. Everyone was friendly and said hello, and since we had to stop and rest frequently we would pass the same people over and over. That trail led us to a major rest area on a lower peak, where lots of trails joined again. The mountains were right on the border of the Czech republic, so there were trails from the Czech and from Poland, as well as chairlifts from the bottom, so suddenly there were a million people. The climb from there was only another half hour or forty five minutes, taking us to the top of Sniezka. That part wasn't as enjoyable, but we wanted to reach the top. There were so many people, and the view wasn't nearly as nice as from lower down. The path wound along the edge of the mountain, with a low wall about a foot high to stop us from falling off the edge. The wall had already crumbled away in several places, but the path was pretty wide. The upper parts of the mountain were completely covered in loose rocks, it was amazing that no one caused a major avalanche. In fact, there were signs in several places along the whole trail to beware of falling rocks and avalanches. After reaching the summit, we climbed back down to the rest stop and took a chairlift to the bottom. We had wanted to explore the top of the mountains a bit more, but I had hurt my ankle and Monika had hurt her foot, so we descended.

The next day we went to the town of Sobieszow to see Chojnik Castle (hoy-neek), at the top of a rocky escarpment about 800m high. We were freaking exhausted from the day before, but we were leaving the next day and really wanted to see it. The climb was relatively easy, maybe an hour or a bit more, and the forest around us was beautiful. The castle was really cool, although it's probably worth it to get up early and see these places before everyone else gets there.

The next day we headed to Wroclaw, where Monika caught a train home to get ready for her brother's wedding. It was sad that our travelling companions had all left, but we felt ready to continue on our own.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121539200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121539200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121539200/tpod.html Fri, 05 Aug 2005 07:27:12 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Poznan, Poland

After Gdansk the five of us went on to Poznan, the capital of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) and one of Poland's first capitals. It's a big city (half a million) and our impression of it was that everything was huge. The streets in the old part of town were lined with majestic buildings and monuments and since Poznan is a major financial centre in Poland there are also many large modern buildings. The market square wasn't very big, but it felt big because it was so crowded. The square was lined with historic houses, some of which were spared during the war and others have been rebuilt, and in the centre of the square stood four buildings. Two of these buildings are the historic town hall and fish sellers stalls, but the other two are modern buildings that are completely out of place in a historic old town. On each corner of the square was a fountain and the first night we arrived we bought some beer at the corner store, sat on the fountains steps, and took it all in. There were flamenco dancers dancing in front of a club, and there was a guy travelling around the square spinning fire, which was really cool except it smelled bad, and then there was this man going from table to table in the bars singing for people. We figured he must be an old opera singer who has gone slightly crazy because he had a really good voice, but he was singing really loudly and his singing was interwoven with loud shouts and screams. We were entertained.

The hostel we stayed in was pretty nice, except the youth discount promised on the phone was not given since we were foreigners. Also, half of it had burnt down the month before, and the backyard was full of charred bunk beds. Apparently the fire started when someone left a cigarette burning in their bed. Thankfully no one was killed, but the lack of smoke detectors made us feel slightly uncomfortable.

Near Poznan is an archaeological site (Biskupin) where the remains of an Iron Age city were found and have been partially rebuilt. We found our way there the next day, but we missed one of our busses and didn't end up with much time there. The city was built about 2500 years ago and people lived there for 150 years until the water level started rising and the site was abandoned. There were 100 houses that probably housed about 1000 people and their livestock, which was surprising because it was such a small area. It was interesting to us how many similarities there were with Native American settlements we've seen in Canada. On the way back from Biskupin Greg and I got to ride on a narrow gauge train. It looked like a kids train from a zoo, and was purely a tourist attraction but it was a lot of fun.

On our way to Biskupin we had stopped in Gniezno to catch our bus but we had an hour between connections so went to check out the town. We liked it so much that Greg, Monika and I returned afterwards to hang out there in the evening. Gniezno was the first capital of Poland, but the power was soon transferred to Poznan which has become a much more important city. We weren't expecting anything special in Gniezno, so it was a surprise that there was a nice old town with so many historic buildings. It wasn't nearly as touristy as Poznan or Gdansk, which was nice for a change.
We got yelled at by a child in Gniezno, which is always fun. While we were sitting in the square a little boy, maybe 3 or 4 years old, started playing in a fountain near us. He was trying to get the water out of the fountain and all over the square in as many ways as possible. First he tried to stop the water from draining by standing on the drain. It was just a little fountain, a face squirting water through its mouth, so he was sticking his finger in the mouth to spray the water as far as possible. When he tried using his foot to do the same thing and completely soaked himself we couldn't help laughing. So he put his hands on his hips and bent way over and yelled "What are you laughing at?" A little while later a teenaged girl walked by and did the same thing. She seemed a little too old to be playing in fountains.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121270220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121270220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hannah_and_greg/poland-2005/1121270220/tpod.html Sun, 31 Jul 2005 12:44:07 -0400 Moving to Poland

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Gdansk, Poland

We decided to stick around in Poland for the summer and travel, get to know the country we're calling home for now. Three of our friends from here are travelling with us for a bit, and Caitlin is arriving from London to travel with us for a week. The first stop on our trip is Gdansk.

The two of us arrived in Gdansk at 9pm, and found our hostel at about 11:30. There's nothing like arriving in a city in the dark and getting completely lost for 3 hours. It turned out to be a 10 minute bus ride from the train station, but nobody knew where this street was. Bus drivers would tell us they'd let us know when to get off and then look frantically at maps as they drove and finally apologize and let us off on random dark street corners. Anyway, the hostel "Villa Elena" turned out to be a total dump, but for 15zl a night ($6-7) we'll sleep anywhere, I guess.

The next day we checked out the old town before picking Caitlin up from the airport. The old town is amazing. There is one really long street that is lined with historic buildings, churches and monuments, and there's always something going on. Lots of mimes, people on stilts and other performers and one evening we got to watch a modern ballet production performed for free on the street.

Gdansk has a really interesting history. It has been Polish, Prussian and German, it was ruled by the Teutonic Knights (a German order of fighting monks, for those who don't know), and it was a free city between the wars. Gaining control of Gdansk (aka Danzig) was Hitler's excuse for starting WWII, and it was here where the first shots of the war were fired, at Westerplatte and the Polish post office. We had a chance to visit Westerplatte, but unfortunately didn't make it to the post office. Westerplatte is where Polish troops defended against a German battleship for over a week, and the old ammunition building is still there, in ruins. The old town was almost entirely destroyed in 1945, but was meticulously rebuilt in the next two decades. This was also a place of anti-government demonstrations in 1970 and 80 that led to the formation of 'Solidarity,' an independent trade union which helped bring down the communist government in Poland. (By the way, we're not experts, so correct us if we're wrong on any of this.)

It was awesome to see Caitlin, and strangely, it didn't seem strange at all that she was here. We had a really great time with her, and I'm glad she got to meet our friends and kind of see where we're living. The rest of our travelling companions arrived the next day. They are Monika, Monika and Adam. The Monikas are Polish, and Adam is American, and they were all teachers with us in Debica. The arrival of our friends caused mass confusion at our hostel. They have rooms for 2, 4 and 5, and somehow seem to have never encountered the situation where people arrive in 3 or 6. Finally they decided to move us to the basement, where there were 4 rooms, including a kitchen, and about 9 beds total. They hadn't been able to put me and Greg there the first night because it was occupied by a disgruntled alcoholic, but they managed to get him out for the group. It did take some work to get his disgusting soup, dishes, and general filth out of there, but it was done. At least in the kitchen... they didn't clean the bathroom until we'd been there a few days.

We stayed at the Villa for over a week, using it as a base for day trips around the area. The first trip was to Sopot, a popular resort town very nearby. It's a nice city with a small town feel, and one long tourist street that leads to the beach. Greg, Adam and Monia lay on the beach, while Caitlin, Monika and I explored the town. I didn't really need to sit and watch old men in speedos all afternoon, but I guess they did. There was a Salvador Dali exhibit at a local gallery so later that day we checked it out. He's one freaky weirdo and the Monikas were not impressed, but we really enjoyed it.
The one major downfall of travelling in a group is finding a place to eat. That evening I swear it took an hour to find a restaurant that was suitable to all of us. We found one place that looked really promising, except they hardly had anything on their menu. We discovered that they'd just opened the restaurant the day before, but somehow hadn't figured out that they should have bought their food first... so we moved on. By the end of the week we dreaded mealtime, but I guess if that's the biggest problem we encountered we did pretty well.

The next day we went to Hel. We had been excited about this for quite some time, and many, many jokes were made. We were maybe too excited about purchasing one way tickets to Hel, but in our opinion, the jokes never got old. Hel is a town at the end of a peninsula, also called Hel. The train ride took about 2 hours, but it was really beautiful. You could see the Baltic sea from both sides of the train. Monia and Adam headed home early while the rest of us explored the town. We climbed a lighthouse and got a great view of the sea and peninsula, and then walked along the beach. Beaches during the day are so hot and crowded, but most of the tourists had left to get dinner and the sun was lower in the sky. It was really nice. The beach had ads all over it, so we walked until the ads and the people were behind us. This was one of the nights we really wished we had a tent, and could just pitch it and stay there. We didn't even have our bathing suits... But it was fun all the same. The unusual thing about the beach was that the sand squeaked under our feet as we walked... it took a few minutes for us to realize we weren't nuts.

The next day Adam and Monia went to Sopot to lie on the beach, while we went with Monika and Caitlin to Malbork. Malbork is a huge castle that was founded by the Teutonic Knights, and later became the headquarters for the Grand-master of the order. We were pissed off to find out we couldn't go in on our own, we had to pay lots of money to go with a guide. We managed to catch up to an English speaking guide and we were glad in the end. Our guide was awesome. He was a well dressed guy in his late 20's or early 30's, with a short ponytail. He knew so much about the castle, which was good because we learned some pretty random interesting things, but it was a bit of an information overload. Other groups kept passing ours, and by the end I don't think we were even listening. The castle was amazing. It had been destroyed a couple times, the most recent being WWII when the Germans were defending it against Polish and Soviet troops. It has been almost totally rebuilt, and was still being rebuilt while we were there. Across the river from the castle there was a heavy metal concert, so every second person we passed outside the castle was wearing black. We saw one guy walking with his girlfriend wearing nothing but worn out black briefs and big black boots. As they passed us Monika said the girl was saying "please put your clothes back on." As we were leaving the castle complex we saw our guide again. I did a double take, and no one else even recognized him since he was dressed entirely in black with a 'vader' shirt on (a polish metal band). It made our day.

On the train from Krakow to Gdansk at the beginning of our trip we met a high-school student from Gdynia named Chris who offered to show us around his city. We called him from Gdansk and he agreed to meet up with us. Gdynia is a port near Gdansk that was built during the inter-war period because Poland had lost access to the sea since Gdansk was then a free city. People don't talk much about Gdynia as a tourist destination, since it's entirely modern, but our trip to Gdansk was one of our favourite days, thanks to Chris. He knew all the secret spots to go. The beach there was really nice, exactly the kind of beach we were looking for, right under forested cliffs. It wasn't very busy either, since most of the tourists were in Sopot. The forests behind the beach hid bunkers and guns from WWII. It was slightly surreal, but really interesting. Monika and Chris went through a door underneath one of the big guns and were feeling their way through the darkness. Monika lit her lighter just in time to see a big hole in the floor in front of her, thankfully. We saw one bunker that had fallen down a cliff, from being bombed during the war, or else from erosion afterwards.

Later he took us up to a hill to climb a condemned view tower (first and last time, I promise, mom). Many steps were missing because people had carried them off for firewood, and the floor at the top had huge gaps in it. We climbed it and stayed long enough to get a good view of the port, and then climbed down. It was an amazing view though. Gdynia is a really nice city. From the tower it looked like a city had just grown up through the forest, there were so many trees. It was nice to have a day where someone else was making all the decisions. Chris was a taskmaster though. We barely finished one thing and he already had another place in mind. We were completely exhausted at the end of the day from walking all over the city, but I think those are the best days.

Caitlin left the next day, which was sad. It felt like she'd been here forever, but also like she'd just arrived. The day after that we headed out again too.
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