Poland

Jelena Gora - Wroclaw - Krakow - Witzlicka Salt Mines - Ausztwitz - Birkenau - Zakopane...

Czecz!

I'm actually in Kosice, Slovakia, recovering from a night of partying and no sleep in a famous nightclub in Zavolen with Jana and friends. But this email is about Poland.

My entrance in Poland was rather unexpected. I was trying to decide whether I should go to Wroclaw (Poland) or spend longer in Czech Rep via Ostrava and then straight to Krakow. So I asked the guy next to me at the internet cafe what he thought. He told me that he was actually working in Poland and as the border was 15km away, asked me if I needed a lift there as he was going there in 20 minutes. So I said "sure why not?"

Crossing the border was scary as I hadn't fully researched whether Aussies can go to
Poland without a visa after the joined the EU in May. Even the guards weren't sure but
after a 5-minute wait while they made phone calls they gave me the thumbs up. I was in!

Alec (the guy who picked me up) is a Slovakian linen factory owner (owns 2) in Poland.
Anyway, he basically paid for everything for me that day - he ended up taking me to lunch, then we went swimming in a posh hotel pool in the Sudeden mountains, and then he brought a couple of friends with us for dinner and lots of drinks around the outskirts of Jelena Gora.
I even met the Commander of the Polish forces in the Iraq war (nice guy)!
There I also had my first taste of Polish vodka! And second. And third. And...

Woke up the next day in his spare bedroom in one of his factories, after more vodka and conversation early in the morning. He dropped me off as close as he could to Wroclaw while he went to a meeting. He also offered me some work when I come back to spend proper time in Poland next year.

Wroclaw is a beautiful city, with nice river islands, churches and a pretty Flemish like town square with all manner of buskers and street performers, some amazing, others terribly embarrassing to watch!

Went to Krakow next, which is more beautiful and bigger than Wroclaw, with a huge town square and a wild nightlife which left me sleep deprived constantly (I always got home around 6:30am when the clubs closed).

One night I ended up climbing up a rope left dangling in a nightclub onto the top balcony to the sounds of Polish clapping and cheering. Why I did it I don't know, but apparently I was the first to do it. Possibly the last too.

Polish girls also have a thing for fake solarium suntans which look awful in my opinion!

Seems like 80's music has only just reached eastern Europe by the sounds of it playing everywhere, on the radio, buses, nightclubs, bars etc...

I am getting some good cultural experiences, seeing Polish folk dance performances, one evening was watching an outdoor orchestra, ballet and 5 brilliant tenors singing in the main square in Krakow.

Went to the Wiezlicka salt mines which apparently are a big tourist attraction, attracting 7000 people a day to the underground salt mines where everything (floor, walls, ceiling, sculptures) are all carved out of the solid rock salt, and 131 metres underground there is a beautiful chapel that took 3 miners 63 years to carve out (they could have just hired some more people!!).

Also went to see the concentration camps at Austzwitz and Birkenau, where you can see evidence of the huge extermination factories (gas chambers and crematoriums), and possessions of all the murdered people such as combs, shoes, glasses etc in warehouses. They even had huge bags of female human hair which was used to make fabrics during the war. Human nature at its worst.
It's not surprising to discover Polish people are very bitter against the Germans.

My last night in Poland was also quite unusual, as instead of going to Zakopane, I spent the day looking after an English friend (Paul) who was ill from food poisoning, at the hostel, with his Polish girlfriend (Vicky). Ended up leaving the hostel and staying with her and Paul in one of her friend’s flats (who wasn't there) in the middle of a ghetto in the Jewish quarter of Krakow, sharing a room with two pet pythons and a turtle! Cooking toast by holding bread with forks over a gas stove was an funny experience...

Vicky got me to try some Pierogi (polish dumplings filled with cheese and potatoes). Yum.

Other foods I got to try are Bigos (stew with sauerkraut, different meats and anything else they feel like throwing in), Golacbki (cabbage stuffed with rice and meat), zurek (sour soup), and barszsz (beetroot soup). Yum Yum.

Next day I went to Poprad, Slovakia via Zakopane and the high Tatra mountains, a beautiful huge mountain range of rugged mountain tops, forests, lakes, etc that I wish I had time to explore.

Anyway I’ll write about Slovakia (and Budapest) soon.

James needs sleep now. Sorry if this email is all over the place...

Do widezia!
James