Poland
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Krakow,
Poland
Friday, July 27, 2007
Hi everyone we are all well van ok but clutch a bit rough and a rattle from under van is a bit of a worry which wasn't helped by the worst road i have ever been on. After the great roads of germany we crossed the border to poland and words cant describe the state of their motorway!
After spending the night just out of Opole, by a man made lake which was filled with tiny green floaty bits that stuck to you as you got out, we got up early
and drove to Auchwitz concentration camp. Paid for an English
tour of 3 1/2 hours. The tour guide took us to Birkenau
camp which was the biggest camp and had 4 cremotoriams compared to the
1 that Auchwitz had. Saw the living conditions of the prisoners
and heard terrible stories of how they were treated, a very sombering
experience, we all felt quite sick when we came out, something that
everyone must experience though.
Drove onto Krakow and found a camping ground that was close to the city
and very reasonable, no laundry facilities though so back to hand
washing again......
Almost out of gas (amazing how long its lasted) to cook with so drove around a few
supermarkets to see they had any....no luck, frustrating when massive
tescos and carrefours that sell just about everything you can imagine
from food to tv's do not even have camping gas. Opted for a
cooked chicken, potato salad and rolls.
Me (Cy) and Hayden went for a drive in the morning and found a LPG
station that would fill their UK gas bottle but not ours (diferent fitting). Spent the morning attending to chores like washing and internet then caught a tram into the centre for a look
around.
While meandering around the beautiful cobblestone streets with horses
and carriages and lots of tourists we found a sign that interested us
'BOOZE CRUISE'. Well that sounded a bit like us, it was Saturday
night afterall. Went back to campsite and changed then came back
to the meeting point for the booze cruise. Around 35 euros a
couple got you free booze and food for 3 hours along the river,
bargin!! Well it was until Ants and Kim tried the wine, it was
barely drinkable, had to mix with some sprite. BBQ was great
though and reminded us of back home. Was a great night, met some
Irish, Poms and even some Egyptians. After the cruise they took
us to a local club for a free drink, didnt stay to long as Mads and I had taken too much advantage of the free booz thus hit the wall so had to get some maccas and a
taxi back to camp ground. Was a long way out of the dog box ..........
Next day was slow, Ants and Kim were rearing to go shopping, found a huge
shopping plaza on the map with 130 shops, dragged us boys along on a spending spree and Ants continued her european tour of KFC's. That afternoon we met up with Hamish and Katie at the camping ground and took them out in town to a traditional Polish restaurant where we had a sour wheat soup and sausages, sounds terrible but is bloody good.
Woke the next morning to pouring rain so slept in.
Once the rain cleared Ants talked me into climbing under the van to find out what was rattling and a good thing too as the muffler bolts had come loose so i replaced them with some new lock nuts i had and we hit the road to the old salt mines where we hit our first major tourist trap.........very expensive and commercialised not a pleasent or amazing experience!!!! We left feeling very robbed and headed to zakopane one the border of poland and slovakia. The weather packed it in so we pulled into a road works soil dumping area and parked in the mud for the night. Early start and got to our second tourist trap in as many days a tram up a hill into tantras mountains but it was short with very limited view and nothing to do except buy tacky tourist crap.........but mads and i did find 4 euro bb guns so had to indulge (they both broke in a week).
Feeling a bit rotten about Poland their tourist traps and terrible roads we crossed into Slovakia where we dropped off Mads and Kim for pre wedding duties in Banska (by Ivana's village) then sprinted to Hungary and Budapest!
The vans clutch is not working well now and causing a worry will have to do some thing but worried it might cost too much .... not sure if its the clutch or gear box.
Keep you posted hope you all well
Cy and Ants
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