Poland

11 September 2008
Warsaw, Poland
                The border into Poland was just as easy as it was to get into Lithuania.  It appeared as if we would not really be doing any border checkpoints until we started to use airplanes. 
                The bus arrived into Warsaw right on schedule at 6:00am.  We walked into the bus terminal hoping to find a map of the city or an information desk.   Neither of which were around.  Doug went to the ATM to make sure we had some local currency.  At one point an Aussie came up to us asking if we knew where we were going, and we didn’t.  His name was Craig.  Well we walked outside; Anna eventually asked someone how to get into the city.  We just had to take one of two buses. 
                Doug and Craig bought bus tickets, and the three of us hoped on the next bus arriving with the right number.  We rode the bus into town, and walked to the hostel Craig said he had made a reservation at.  Arriving at the hostel Doug went to ask to see if the receptionist could mark on the map where we had made a reservation at.  Well it turned out the place we reserved wasn’t even on the map, it was that far outside of town.  Doug went to ask Anna what to do.  She said she didn’t really care, but if the place was that far out of town it wasn’t worth going to.  We had only paid a small deposit of a few dollars and if staying at this place was cheaper (if we stayed in a dorm room), it would be saving us that money anyway.  It was still really early.  We decided to stay at this hostel, the Oki Doki hostel.
                The girl said we could not check into our room until after 3:00pm, it was now 7:30am.  We put our bags into storage and left to see the town.  A girl on couch surfing wanted to meet us for lunch at 12:30 to chat about SE Asia, so we had a lot of time to kill.  Old town was not too far away so this is where we headed. 
                Arriving in the old town section Anna wanted a coffee so we began looking for a café.  We walked around for almost an hour to find a café that was open.  This was ridiculous, finally we came across an ice cream parlor that was open.   Anna got her coffee, and pastry.  Doug got a pastry, and Craig got a coffee and pastry.  We took our breakfast back to the main square, and sat in some chairs for a restaurant that was not open yet. 
                After an hour or so we began walking around.  It then had begun sprinkling and then raining.  Well we decided a beer would taste really good about now.  None of us had really slept the night before on the bus, and even though it was only 11:00 in the morning it was time for a drink.  We hung out at a bar drinking each a .5 liter of beer.  At 12:15 we wandered over to the restaurant where we would meet Magda. 
                Arriving at the restaurant she was there waiting for us with her friend.  We all introduced ourselves and began chatting.  Everyone soon ordered lunch, and chatted some more.  She was going to SE Asia in January and latter to Australia.  She wanted to meet us and get any advice we could give her.  We all enjoyed different conversations for about an hour and a half.  Eventually she had to go back to work and had to say goodbye, but we exchanged our personal information. 
                Well it was still raining outside, so the three of us decided to stay and have another beer.  Anna ordered some bread to soak up some of the alcohol.  Around 3:15 we left and went back to the hostel to clean up.  After showering we went back out to go to the train station.  A lot of people we met on the way to Poland said to skip Warsaw, and head straight to Krakow.  Well by now we had see old town, and new town was not very exciting so we wanted to get train tickets to Krakow.
                Arriving at the train station we went to the information booth, the guy there directed us around the corner to the English speaking ticket area.  We took a number and waited for our turn.  After 30 minutes our number came up, and we bought 3 tickets to Warsaw.  Craig decided to change his plans not staying in Warsaw two nights, and come with us.
                We then went back to this hostel and had the front desk order us a pizza.  Apparently we would get 40% off of this place if we ordered through the hostel.  The hostel had a bar, it was 3 minutes to happy hour, this was a good place to wait for our pizza.  At 7:00 Doug went to the bar, and ordered 4 beers.  For happy hour it was 2 for 1.  The pizza arrived 40 minutes later, the night was going well.  Right before 8:00, Craig ordered 4 more beers. 
                It had been a long day.  Anna left the party around 9:30 to go to bed.  Doug and Craig eventually found their way to bed as well.

12 September 2008
Warsaw/Krakow, Poland
                Our train to Krakow was the slow train (6 hours long).  We decided to get some food before we got on.  Craig was having a KFC craving and there just happened to be one in a mall next to the train station.  We decided we would also get some Subway sandwiches for dinner a late lunch on the train.  Doug and Craig walked up to KFC only to discover that they couldn’t cook because they didn’t have fuel.  So we tried Burger King next door…they also didn’t have fuel to cook.  So we went to Subway, but they didn’t have mustard (something Anna & Doug tried in New Zealand with disastrous results).  Anna found a few restaurants on the back side of the eatery, Doug  went there and found a Mexican place that made a decent taco/burrito thing.
                We found our train but couldn’t find enough seats for the three of us.  All the seats were broken in groups of four.  In every group was one person taking up all four seats.  Anna finally picked one and started to settle down.  The lady that was there was a bit upset and said we should sit somewhere else.  Anna pointed out that every group of seats had someone in it.  The lady was starting to get upset and asked why we were coming here.  Doug spoke up and said, “Because you looked the nicest.”  That got a smile and she moved her stuff to join her friend right across the aisle who was taking up three seats of her own.
                In Krakow we found a place called the Giraffe Hostel.  Doug had found a write up on the internet for it that was hilarious.  The write up said the Hostel claimed to be the worst party hostel in Krakow.  It went on further to say that the staff was inept; the food awful, the activities boring and that you got a beer on check in because if you were drunk the hostel would seem nicer.  Not surprisingly the approval rating was extremely high.  When we arrived we got our free beer and were pleased to discover that we also would get free internet (not uncommon in Europe) but also would get free laundry (a very nice surprise).
                While we were at the bar, we were pleasantly surprised to run into Stacy from our trip to Trakai.  She said there was a good place to eat out in town.  The four of us headed out to the restaurant only to discover they had put away most of their food.  We decided to stop in at a kebob/pizza place instead.  After eating we went back to the hostel for some more drinks before heading off to sleep.

13 September 2008
Krakow, Poland
                The day was nice so we decided to head out into the town and take some photos with blue sky in them for once.  The main square was quite beautiful with cathedrals in and around the area.  Eventually we made our way to the Wawel castle.  The grounds were quite impressive with some fantastic looking steeples.  On our way out we ran into Craig.  He joined us as we set off for the Jewish quarter.  After a quick look around we found a bar called “Propaganda” to stop and have a drink.  They had a lot of old posters and communist era technology mounted on the walls and ceiling.
                Soon we were in and around the main square and eventually made it back to the hostel.  Leaving Craig behind, we headed off to a Carefour store by the train station.  The store was fully stocked with fajita ingredients and we loaded up.  Back at the hostel Anna whipped together some great fajitas.  We even had some extra that Stacy was able to take care of.  The rest of the night was spent drinking wine and talking with other travelers in the kitchen (since the bar was a smoking area, we stayed in the smoke free kitchen). 

14 September 2008
Krakow, Poland
                We were up early and out the door for Auschwitz today.  Over at the bus station we found a mini-bus that offered round trip service for a decent price.  After an hour long bus ride we arrived to the scene of quite possibly one of the darkest chapters in human history.
                Auschwitz has always been a place we have known about, but to actually be confronted with ground zero of the holocaust was quite overwhelming.  The grounds would be eerily silent if weren’t for the hundreds of tourists that make their way through every day.  The buildings that housed the condemned still stand, however they are now filled with documentation and stories of the atrocities that took place around 70 years ago.  All around the camp are sections of barbed wire fence and watch towers.  Inside the buildings are recreations of living conditions, museum presentations or memorials.  In the past, seeing the photos and video footage of the people trapped in the concentration camp was the closest we could come to understanding the hell they went through.  However to touch the standing cells, see the gallows and to walk through the gas chamber puts a new light on what these people lived through and died with. 
                Back in Krakow we went to the grocery store and got some pasta for dinner.  Then we decided to a head to a club with Stacy.  We finally settled on a place that was supposed to have live jazz and not a lot of smoke.  There was no live music, a bit of smoke and high drink prices.  After one round we decided to head back to the hostel.  We settled back in the kitchen area (once again to avoid all the smoke in the bar).  We ended up doing a run to the 24hr convenience store for another bottle of wine and spent the evening drinking wine and talking with the other travelers.

15 September 2008
Krakow, Poland
                The morning was spent looking for a bus ticket out of Poland.  Since the day before was Sunday, and the offices closed early we could not plan ahead (or didn’t).  The Eurolines office had some options, but none that would leave today.  The lady at the desk recommended another company.  We went across the street to the other company, no luck.  So we went back to the Eurolines desk, and booked a bus for the next day to Bratislava.  Now we had to go back to the hostel, and book another night.
                Booking another night was easy, being it was also Monday.  Doug paid for the night stay.  We met Craig in the hallway; he was leaving that night for Prague.  The three of us headed out to check out the city for the last day.  It didn’t take long to find a café to fill Anna’s coffee addiction.  After coffee we walked around town for a couple hours, when it began to rain.  Walking around some more, we ran into a McDonalds for a little lunch.  Doug ordered a BigMac meal to share with Anna.  Craig got a chicken sandwich meal.  Once lunch was over we decided to go back to the hostel, it was still raining, and Anna was starting to complain she was cold.
                At the hostel Craig went to the bar, and met a girl he had previous evening engagements with.  While we met up with Stacy, and went into our room to watch Sex and the City.  She, just like us had been on the road when it came out, and really wanted to see it.  So we watched it in our room.  After the movie, we went out to the kitchen to cook our frozen pizzas, and drink the wine we had bought earlier in the day.  After dinner, along with two bottles of wine a guy from Canada had joined us, and he began teaching us a card game.  The four of us played cards until the two other girls in our room joined us and then there were six of us playing cards.  Soon another American, Steve McQueen (a very outspoken African American comedian) joined us.  We were having a good time.  At one point Anna thought we needed another bottle of wine, and dragged Doug to the convenience store down the street to quench her alcohol thirst.
                Eventually around 12:00 or so, we went to bed while everyone else stayed up chatting about different things.

16 September 2008
Krakow, Poland
                Today we were leaving Poland, more importantly the Giraffe hostel.  We had a good time, but staying at a “party” hostel does not allow one to get a lot of sleep.  The bus didn’t leave until 12:00.  We got up, checked email; Doug made Stacy, and Anna breakfast.  The goodbyes were said to Stacy.  The bags were soon packed, and we checked out of the hostel. 
                The first stop on the way to the bus station was the post office.  We had purchased two postcards three days ago, and still had not mailed them.  Next Anna wanted to get some snacks for the 8 hour bus ride.  While Doug waited outside the Carefour Anna went inside to get some juice, cheese, bread, biscuits, and bananas for some bus ride food.  Then we went to the bus station. 
                Arriving at the bus station Doug found the shuttle we would take to meet another bus, which would take us to Bratislava, Slovakia.  The shuttle left on time, and met the bus a couple hours later.  The bus was big and comfortable stopping occasionally along the way for short breaks.  At some point we crossed over into Slovakia.

Slovakia Journal

Back to Europe Journal