Poland - Warsaw-Krakow 17-23 March 2010

So Kieran had 4 days of leave to use or she would loose them for good. The thing about the UK is that you cannot accrue your holidays nor get paid out for them. If you don’t use them you loose them. This was the basis for our trip to Poland. It was on our list as a country to visit, we just had to plan it a bit quicker was all. After a few weeks of searching for flights, what to see and do, and which hostels to stay we were on our way. This is our trip to Poland (in some detail).

Wednesday

Making the most of the time we had spare and to get even cheaper flights we flew out on Wednesday night from London Luton to Warsaw Poland. Being only a 2hr30min trip it was a short one. Arriving late in the night we missed the last local bus from the airport (which stopped at the front of our hostel) so we opted for the taxi option instead. Like in all major tourist cities I had read about the taxis and how they will try to rip you off. I remembered all the reputable names I had read from the internet and settled on one with and old driver who spoke some English and new our address. Now I am not sure if we were ripped off or not but getting the taxi all the way to the door of our hostel and for only 42zloty (£10) felt like a bargain to me.

Walking up the 4 very large flights of stairs we came to our hostel. After checking in and being shown to our beds we got settled, lucky for us no one else was in our room this meant we did not have to be quiet when sorting our bed out. Well we thought we were alone until someone else checked in and was in the 4 bed dorm next door (it was classified as a 4 bed dorm but you had to go through our 6 bed dorm to get there and it still didn’t have a door, it was essentially a 10 bed dorm with a wall). We continued to unpack and sort ourselves out and were just getting into bed when we smelt this bad smell! It was a mix of wet dog mixed with something else ….death we think. With Kieran and I both going “ohhhh can you smell that gross smell?” To which point the guy in the next room starts spaying deodorant all over himself and his clothes as we watch his half naked stinky self do this. It was such a bad smell I slept for the first few hours under my covers just to escape. He smelt like a homeless dude but only when he took his clothes off…now that is gross.

Thursday

Waking up before stinky guy could get out of his covers. We walked around the local area in our search for a shop to buy some milk for our breakfast. We had bought cereal with us as the hostel did not include breakfast. Finding our milk and finishing our breakfast we worked out what we would do for the day and that was to go visit the Old town and find the information centre. Little did we know that Poland does not have an official tourist information centre but just tourist shops which have some brochures and some more information. Walking around and finally finding something which looked like the information centre we found a few things to look at in Warsaw.

Before walking on any further we headed for a some lunch as it was nearing 1pm lunch consisting of polish specialities meat and cabbage and a beer the whole lot only cost us 40Zloty (£10). Not finding any walking tours well none for free and all car tour options were very expensive (over 100 euro each) We found a hop on hop off option which we decided to take as it was a reasonable £16 each which is about what it is in other cities we have visited and it last for 24hrs, we could use it the following day. We decided to do a full loop of the city and then decide where to get off for the next day of sightseeing. Starting the tour which was meant to take 2hrs took 1hr. The driver missed a stop on the route when he finished at 5pm instead of 6pm. His reason was that there is no point going past that tourist attraction as it closes at 5. We were thinking too bad if the people at that stop wanted to use the service to come back into town. Asking the driver what sights he would recommend seeing and noting them down to look at the following day. We left the bus at the end (where we were told to get off) and decided to do some shopping to buy some dinner and get more milk and breads for lunches, yes were doing this trip in style with our packed lunches.

Friday

Having that night in our dorm room all to ourselves (yes both 4 and 6 rooms) we awoke to our cereal and made lunches for the day ahead. It was our last full day in Warsaw so had to fit a lot of sight seeing in. Having our ticket for the tourist bus the day before we decided to use this service to go back and see the museum we missed the day before as it would be a good place to start and get some history. Deciding to get the bus as it was easier than walking and we did pay for it. We went to stop 9 and waited for the bus, we arrived there at around 10:45am, double checking many times we were at the correct stop we waited and waited and waited. In the end we waited for over an hour for the bus to turn up (Why did we wait there so long you ask well we had waited so long anyway we thought we would give it a bit more time that then turned into the hour. Also the moment we walked away and were out of running reach of the bus it would arrive). So after over an hr of waiting we gave up and walked on to the museum. While on our way we see the bus pull up to stop 1 not quiet running but a very quick walk we made our way quickly over we ask him where stop 9 is (to make sure we were at the right place) and then why was he not there as he started at 10. His reply was that he started at 12 today! Finding out the other reasons for the things he missed and that the museum was open till 8pm the night before and not 5 as he said. His only retort to the faults was that we had an old brochure; they were the brochures he had given us. Arguing some more he said we could call the number on the brochure to complain (ohhh we will buddy we will). Leaving without victory we walked to the museum.

After Note: We complained to the companies(local and head office) and they spoke to the driver who had said he did miss that stop and told us the wrong information so he was reprimanded and we were giving replacement tickets to use on any hop on hop off service in the world.

The map of Warsaw is a bit deceptive as they are pretty large distance between things. 30mins later we finally arrive at the “Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego” and pay our £4 entry fee and settle in for a long day of reading. The museum was really interesting and had loads of things to read about and also look at when Warsaw was at war with Germany and Russia. We would both totally recommend visiting this museum but do it before you do anything else in the city to make you see it under a new light. Although there is nothing much left of the old Warsaw. This was a really interesting place to visit.

Finishing at the museum we decided to go and have a look around some more of the city. This time we would tackle it on the trams. Leaving the museum we walked to a tram station and got on a tram (without a ticket as you could not buy from the driver), after much deliberation as to which was the correct one, we chose a tram which we thought was the right. Turns out it wasn’t and we were going in the wrong direction. Getting off and this time buying a ticket from the kiosk with a struggle of language we got our tickets and hopped on the tram going in the correct direction. Growing up without trams means we don’t really know how they work. Or it could have been the Polish trams. Either way trams don’t go on the same route like a train(there and back) instead have an almost circle like pattern sticking to the one loop and completing that. Finally we arrived where we wanted to go THE CHOCOLATE factory shop! (Wedel) The night before in the grocery store Kieran found the local chocolate that she had read about in a free tourist book. We polished off that block super quick it was so deliciously the best chocolate ever. Having sampled its delights we needed more so why not go to where they make it.

By the time we got there all that was left open was the shop, that will do us fine! Buying a few bars and having a hot chocolate we left to find a tram back to the hostel. Passing by a wall that that the bus driver had mentioned as a great piece of art of the city. It is a wall which people graffiti/paint with new pieces of work. Its in the guide books, honest. Upon seeing it we were disappointed and left with a very much of “Oohhh that’s it…..that’s it L”. We were told how wonderful it was and were happy it was party of our trip to the shop other wise it would have been a waste of time. We should have known not to visit it when the dodgy bus driver liked it.

Saturday

Waking up early (8ish) and having our breakfast and making our lunch for the day on the trains we left Warsaw. We had a train to get to Krakow; yes we are trying all forms of transport here. Doing my research the night before and knowing which was the quickest and cheapest option to get us there. I went to the ticket counter and showed the lady my piece of paper as they spoke no English. We got the tickets with relative ease and were happy we were going to a common destination and I was prepared. Although next time I will know to draw and x and stick people for 2 tickets as that was a struggle and I thought I almost got a return!

Tickets in hand we toddled off to our communistic platform to wait for our train. Knowing we were in cattle class (40 Zloty each £10) but not sure where that part of the train would pull up. We just stood in a rough spot where we could get anywhere. When the train was minuets away from the station a voice came over the loud speaker rattled off its words, what we presumed were “this train comprises of 6 cars so cram together people” as everyone started to move near us and it felt like peak hour on cityrail. Holding our ground not wanting to be separated and a seat together. We had the added skills of me with the biggest backpack in the world (to block people) and Kieran nimble and light on her feet to nab a seat. We made it!...we had seats and a spot for our bag, even a bin. I was surprised by the quality of the car we were travelling in. I was expecting something more run down like how the train looked from the outside. Inside it was warm and with room to sit comfortably, even enough room to put my pack on the rack above us.

The 2.5hr journey did not feel that long, it could have been our packed lunch meal in the middle and yummy chocolate which helped us cope and the books (not much to look at so happy to read). We made it into Krakow on time (13:40). Leaving the train station we got our bearings and headed for the hostel in the centre of town. The walk was not too bad although it was a lot hotter here that in Warsaw. We checked into the hostel and were shown to our room. Dumping our stuff in the lockers and making the beds we headed out into the town to see the sights and of course visit the tourist information centre and buy souvenirs.

That night we went out for dinner at a polish restaurant having a beetroot soup starter and a plate each of dumplings finished off with dessert and 2 shots of cherry vodka (1 sweet, 1 Dry) and numerous drinks each all for 128 Zloty (£32). After our gorging feast we headed out on the town along the way we found a Jazz club. There was a moment of lost in translation when we were handed flyer for a discount at the bar and told there was free entry. Yes it was free to enter but if you want to stay and watch the band it was £5 each. Still that club and the 5 drinks each only came to £30 for the both of us which is a pretty good price and much cheaper than a jazz club in London. There was no singing, all we had to do was drink and listen.

Returning back to the hostel that night to find we had no company in the hostel dorm we thought it was great. This wonderful feeling was shattered just moments later when the reception lady came in and asked us if we could move in the morning as we had been put in the wrong room. We had agreed and changed to our pyjamas. Not 5 min latter when the lady returns and asks us to move now (bear in mind this is now 12:30am). Reluctantly we move having to put all our stuff back in the bags and letting her know how unhappy we were about it and why we couldn’t just do it in the morning as first mentioned. Anyways we moved into our new room which had 1 guy in there which she had to wake up as she couldn’t use a key to open the lock. We found our beds and unpacked our stuff, made the beds and finally got settled. What a night!

Sunday

We had a slight sleep in after having to move rooms late last night. After breakfast (provided by the hostel) we headed out to meet our tour of the Salt Mines. We travelled for about 30 min to get to the mine in a small tour bus, here were only 12 of us.

I (Glen) found the mine really interesting. It looked amazing as the lights had been positioned well and really bounced off the salt walls. We saw some old parts and massive caverns which they had hollowed out to get at the salt. It was truly an amazing place to see, they even had horses down there working (not any more) back in the day to help turn machines and get the salt out. After our tour had ended we were taken to the restaurant which was over 100m under ground. Kieran and I ate our packed lunch and bought some hot chips as you do in a mine. There was even phone reception at that depth which was amazing when they can’t give you radio or phone reception on the airport tunnel train line on cityrail. As the tour was now ended we got the miners cart up to the surface. They packed 9 of us into this tiny cage and up we went at some ridiculous speed. Once on the surface we went to a stall and bought some cooking salt.

After the tour and back in Krakow we went to the local ice cream café. Looking around for a while to get a table in a better location but failing we settled on the one near the kitchen. Kieran had an ice cream known as a margarita! Yes they had all their ice cream dishes named after main meals or pizzas you could even get a spaghetti which was chocolate ice cream in stringy noodle state with berries over the top it looked good. I just had a coffee.

After the ice cream and coffee we went back to the hostel for a bit of a nana nap. Upon arrival we found that we had new guests, guest we had not see yet but knew by their bags and the open windows we had other people in our room. Nana nap over we headed out for dinner. That night we went out for Chinese that we had seen down a side street previously the day before on our walk to find a supermarket. The long walk later had us sitting in the restaurant ordering our polish Chinese. When in foreign countries we find that there is always so much of the same type of food that you can eat until you need to change. That change is usually something so far from what they serve. Tonight that was our Chinese. We were happy to find another table of diners in there with us. It was just Kieran and I for most of our meal alone in the restaurant. The food was good and hit the spot. Returning back to the hostel we find out the windows in our room are all open again after we had closed them due to the cold and possible rain coming. That night we found the person who had been opening the windows to be a Crazy guy with beady eyes. He wanted to keep opening the windows saying it was hot.

While getting ready for bed he decided to appear and try to open the window near our bed and by moving belongings. We confronted him and he was saying it was so hot. We said fine but just don’t move our things. So he opened the windows on the other side of the room. Going to sleep we found it was very noisy with the windows open and not that hot in the room really. Our other roommate a local lady (old) got up and closed the windows muttering in polish. 3 hrs later beady eyed mate returns and tries to open the windows again. Polish lady goes off her head at him, he doesn’t understand so Kieran had to interpret for her. He finally understood not to open the windows and not to open any window as its noisy and will rain soon. Fair call 5mins later it starts raining and beady eyes is asleep. At 3am the rest of us can go to bed now.

Monday

Waking early (6:40am) to get ready and meet our transport/tour (8am) to take us to Auschwitz. On the way there we watched a documentary on it which lasted the whole ride there.

What can you really say about what was done there? It is a place I can recommend on visiting not by its sombre nature but to see the scale of the place and what really went on there to get a sense of what happened during that time. I had read about it before in books and saw on TV but it was not until visiting the place that you realise the scale and how over 1 million people were murdered there. Going there made the numbers of what happened appear more real and alive than reading about it in a book while in Australia over 15,695 km away.

Eating our lunch on the bus on the way back to the city we had a bit of a sleep. Returning back to the hostel and dumping our stuff to get ready for the last night in the town we found out that our 2 previous guests of beady eye man and polish lady had left. Rather they were replaced by fat weird guy. Sitting on my bed and packing my bag ready for leaving the next day fat guy walks in an immediately says “is that your bed” point to Glen umm ok weird question, no I like to sit on other peoples made beds and go through their stuff after using the key to get into the room. I reply with “yes its mine, why?” to which his reply was long silence and then a “just checking”. Ok that was weird was he trying to single me out and know where my bed was to get me?? He then left the room, super strange and what a fun night we would have with fat guy who would soon be nicknamed might night nommer.

Having packed most of our bags and the strange encounter with the huge man. We went out for a walk around the town yet again. That night we had our last polish meal in a nice little dinner, a classic meal with our meat and salad finished and washed down with some local brew. It was good for the last dinner in Poland. After dinner we were feeling pretty tried and because we are becoming old we thought lets just go back to the hostel and watch a movie “the boy in the striped pyjamas” on Kieran’s MP3 player. We rigged it up to the top bunk slats and laid below with our headphones on. We watched the whole thing without interruption.

Going to bed after the movie, we were just starting to fall asleep and then in comes nom nom guy. What does he start doing? he noisly opens his locker and proceeds to rummage though his bag for some chips in the nosiest bag ever, then sticks a couple of handfuls of them into his mouth. Putting the bag back into his locker and leaves. He does this 2 more times through out the night until the last time at 3.30 am he comes back gets out his chips and sits outside our room nomming down the rest of the bag. We were almost at the point of asking if we could have one as they must have been awesome freaking chips to keep coming back and waking us up to eat some. Why the hell this guy needed to come back every hour to eat them I have no idea and I guess that’s why he was so freaking huge eating a bag of chips at 3am is good for no one. Finally after his early morning meal he goes to bed and we can all finally sleep.

Tuesday

Getting up early with our last day in Poland we make no point of trying to be quiet and at some points even saying “nom nom chips yum” out loud for nom nom guy to hear. We make our selves ready noticing all the chip crumbs on the floor around the lockers and outside our room. So happy to not be sleeping in the same room with him ever again.

Today we had to leave the country. Before doing so we found some time to squeeze an hr of a walking tour into the morning. It would have been wonderful to have done the full 3hr walking tour but we had to get to the airport and check in. The problem we could not do this any sooner was that during the winter months they only ran the free tours once a day and we were always busy at that time until the last day. The tour was really good and we definitely recommend it to anyone, it starts outside the main church and is a free city walking tour.

After the tour we made our way from the main square to the train station to get a train to the airport and having to legg it from the ticket hall to the train and making it with 1 min to spare (never sure how on time trains are in other countries). We always need to have an amazing race moment at least once when we travel. Getting the train which leaves every 30mins to the airport, we then had to change to a bus and got to the airport with more than enough time. In an annoying way it meant we could have spent more time on the walking tour. We had some lunch after we checked in which took up the rest of our zloty. Waited for our time and our rush to the plane, as the seats are not reserved on RyanAir flights and a lot of the budget airlines in Europe. It is a scramble for seats together and/ or a place to put your bag near you. This time we were ready getting there early we sat near the front of the gate so we could stand as soon as the queue was forming. This worked so well in fact we ended up getting an exit seat for the both of us! This is truly amazing on these flights! It was with this joy and walking straight through immigration on the other end which made our holidays come to a good end without any stress and cramped life in a queue.

All in all we had a really good time in Poland sure we slept in the dorms with some freaks but in the end this is the price you pay for hostel living. It didn’t detract from the country at all and we would highly recommend going to Poland. You will surly get your fill of WW II information and in a good way I think it will make the younger generation understand what happened in the world of the past. Thanks Poland for a wonderful holiday!