6:53am train. With me limping along, we make it just in time, six minutes before the train departs. It's a seven-hour ride to Prague (Praha). Random note: The laundry actually dried from midday yesterday to early this morning. (The hostel only had a washer, no dryer.) So despite the rain, it is still quite dry in Krakow. Or maybe it was because they kept the fan going in the bathroom (where the laundry hanging thing was)?
I eat my fruit pierogis on the train. K had heated them up for me before we left. The first one tasted pretty good, but I think I agree with K about fruit and pierogis not being the best combo. I didn't like the cheesy sauce they put on them either. It was 'ok'. I'd like to eventually re-visit Poland. There's more food I'd like to eat ^-^ But also, I liked Krakow. And, it's one of the cheaper cities in Europe (it gets cheaper as you move east ^-^).
Prague. The train station has the clearest English announcements we've heard anywhere! Aside from the ultra-clear announcements, we were also surprisingly greeted by slot machines and by ads playing X-Files and Inspector Gadget theme songs.
We're staying at a little family-owned guesthouse a few metro stops out of the Old Town. It's residential area, right in the midst of Czech suburban/city sprawl. It's nice to get the contrast between where Czechs actually live and the touristy center.
Since the day's already gone, we don't really do much, except explore the surrounding area's mini groceries and go to a nearby restaurant recommended by our host. K gets a salmon, and me, traditional Czech fare... smoked pork, cabbage, potato dumplings, and bread dumplings. RS comments on Czech food as being "heavy, hearty, and tasty" with "lots of meat, potatoes, and cabbage". You could pretty much say that for traditional Irish or German food! I liked the dish I ordered; the potato dumplings were tastier than the potato dumplings in Munich, and the bread 'dumplings' were especially good. I think it was a steamed yeast bread of some sort. RS also comments that "most Czechs no longer go to 'traditional' eateries, preferring the cosmopolitan taste of the world to the mundane flavor of sauerkraut". But isn't "comfort" food whatever you've grown up with? His latter comment was true for the place we went to; more than half the selections were not traditional 'Czech'.
Showing posts with label Poland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poland. Show all posts
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Day 50: Krakow
It's rare that we have an *entire* day of rest, but that's what we're doing today. No salt mine tour. After yesterday's shock, it feels good to just do nothing. Breakfast, laundry, some reading.
We head out for a late 3pm lunch that ends up happening in three parts. Part 1, pierogis at this place that only sells pierogis and nothing else. We order a mix of three -- meat, sauerkraut and meat, and cottage cheese and potatoes. Actually, my aim was for fruit pierogis but they didn't have them. Part 2, unexpected stop in a bakery where we get szarlotka, a Polish apple cake/pie/tart. It's apple filling (with actual apple pieces) sandwiched between thin cake layers.
Part 3, this cool place tucked in the middle of this building. Our intention was go there for golabek/golabki, and we did. But we also saw they had pierogis with fruit filling, so we got that to go ^-^
During our stroll, we noticed they had closed off a couple of the roads. It's some world 10k speed-walking race. I heard walkers announced from Norway, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and other countries. Whenever I encounter speed-walking, it reminds me of that hilarious Japanese clip (Would the World Speedwalking Champion walk or run when chased by ninjas? Or was it samurai?).
Since use of the washer is free here, I washed my jacket of its six weeks of travel ickiness and some blood (not ours but other people's) from yesterday.
We head out for a late 3pm lunch that ends up happening in three parts. Part 1, pierogis at this place that only sells pierogis and nothing else. We order a mix of three -- meat, sauerkraut and meat, and cottage cheese and potatoes. Actually, my aim was for fruit pierogis but they didn't have them. Part 2, unexpected stop in a bakery where we get szarlotka, a Polish apple cake/pie/tart. It's apple filling (with actual apple pieces) sandwiched between thin cake layers. Part 3, this cool place tucked in the middle of this building. Our intention was go there for golabek/golabki, and we did. But we also saw they had pierogis with fruit filling, so we got that to go ^-^
During our stroll, we noticed they had closed off a couple of the roads. It's some world 10k speed-walking race. I heard walkers announced from Norway, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and other countries. Whenever I encounter speed-walking, it reminds me of that hilarious Japanese clip (Would the World Speedwalking Champion walk or run when chased by ninjas? Or was it samurai?).
Since use of the washer is free here, I washed my jacket of its six weeks of travel ickiness and some blood (not ours but other people's) from yesterday.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Day 49: Krakow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, bus accident
Auschwitz is about 75 minutes from Krakow. We just miss the 11:25 bus, but supposedly it was really full and there were people standing, at least according to a few girls who opted to not get on the bus and wait for the next one instead. When the bus comes, there's no line, just a mass. A little pushy, but we're happy it's not China. They should at least try to impose order... like line starts here and goes this way sort of thing. Despite not being to hold our second position in line, we end up with seats, so that's good.
With the RS 'tour' and the many info boards all over the camp, walking around without a tour guide is perfect. We have time to linger and reflect when we want. Later in the day was better; the feelings midday are a bit destroyed by all the tour groups and schoolkids. It's good that people are visiting the camp and not forgetting history though.
It's incredible to see just the scale of the two Auschwitz camps. This was a *huge* operation. Most of the barracks in Birkenau were destroyed, leaving the remnants of their chimneys.
Also, seeing Auschwitz under grey clouds and then rain feels appropriate. (Since I do most of the picture-taking during our trips, K inevitably ends up in more pictures. It's not that great a shot but I really liked catching him off-guard in this one. It's also the only photo where I managed to capture the grey sky.)
The camp is divided into Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. Birkenau is where they built much larger crematoriums a little later. They were all destroyed though, so you only see the ruins, but it's still unbelievable to see it.
A lot of things are spooky about the Holocaust, but after seeing it again and again in different forms, I've become somewhat inured to it. The 'material evidence' exhibit was not quite old. I'd already seen piles and piles of shoes at the Holocaust museum in DC, but this was even a bigger pile as well as *real* shoes taken (not sure if the ones in DC are). They also showed piles and piles of other objects taken from prisoners. The hair was new for me. Apparently the Nazis cut and collected women's hair and used it to make textiles. Some of this hair was cut from the women after being gassed; they've found traces of Zyklon B in the hair. After the war, they found bags and bags of hair. One of exhibits was just a bunch of this hair, piled up. It was absolutely gross.
Dachau, the camp we visited near Munich, was the first and a model for future concentration camps. Auschwitz was notorious and very much used. They give you a different feel, so I'm happy we also visited Dachau.
Between Auschwitz I and Birkenau runs a shuttle bus. We had just missed the 5pm shuttle bus back, so rather than waiting for the last 6pm shuttle we ask another two people if they want to share a taxi. The taxi is only 15 zlotys (~$5). Actually, when K paid with a fifty, he discovered the taxi driver short him, only giving him 25 back. It's good K remembered to count his change before leaving the taxi.
5:56pm bus back to Krakow.
Shakes and jerks. Aaah. I'm pitched into the aisle. I look back. K's in the aisle, too, sandwiched between other people. K, are you ok?! My leg hurts, but someone's telling us we have to get out of the bus *right now*. I try to carefully make my way out and somehow manage to grab my bag, scarf, and dropped mini mp3 player. It's wet out but thankfully not currently raining much. I sit down on a patch of grass/dirt, next to this girl. She's bleeding somewhere on her head. I look over at K coming out of the bus. Ok, he seems ok. No blood at least. Someone's saying we should move away from the bus. I get up and walk over to the pavement, but my head starts spinning, so I sit back down on the pavement.
After some time, I ask K to help me up. My leg still hurts and K says his shoulder really hurts. Upon examining his shoulder, I see it's just a skin wound (his shirt & jacket rubbing against it was making it extra painful) and probably a bruise. I have a 2.5-in x 2-in (or so) wound on my right shin and my knee hurts, but I can still limp and it feels bendable. I've heard enough about knees from D to feel that maybe it'll be ok. I'm happy I always carry around some first aid in our daypack. I clean up our shoulder and shin wounds with some antiseptic wipes, dot on some first aid cream, and bandage it up. We have a few other scrapes here and there, but even more minor, so I just leave them.
Looking at some of the other passengers, we feel very grateful that the minor wounds and some pain is all we walked away with. The paramedics and police arrive quickly and start tending to the more heavily injured. There's two cars on the opposite side of the road, also part of the accident, and apparently there's still a guy stuck in one of the cars, so they work on getting him out.
With our well-being cleared away, we start thinking on other matters. First, K goes back to retrieve my umbrella from the bus as it's raining again now. And, how are we going to get back to Krakow? Someone says we're about halfway between Auschwitz and Krakow. We discuss with a couple of other non-heavily-injured people. It seems we're the only non-Polish-speaking ones though. Some people will return to Auschwitz. After some discussion, we decide hitchhiking is the way to go. Just as we're about to go with another couple to find a car that will take us, this guy walks over and asks if we're hurt in any way. He tells us we have to follow him. We *must* go with the paramedics, he says. They try to only take me, but we manage to persuade them to take K, too. So, we both end up in an ambulance carrying this other person on a stretcher. In retrospect, we think maybe the guy was helping us out. He wasn't with the paramedics; he was another passenger from the bus who happened to be a paramedic as well. I think it was the same guy who yelled that we had to get out of the bus at first.
Anyways, the ambulance took us to Krakow hospital. That's why in retrospect we think that guy was helping us out. He knew we wanted to get to Krakow and that we spoke no Polish, right? Even if that wasn't his intention, we're glad he insisted we go with the paramedics; we didn't have to act on the 'how to get back to Krakow' question.
The hospital. I really think I'll be ok (the more 'heavily injured' of the two of us), so I think we'll just leave the hospital and if it doesn't get better, then we'll visit another hospital later. We wait for a while for them to have me sign a paper that says I decline medical assistance. But the doctors/nurses involved don't want me to leave. They insist on me being checked out and say they'll do it for free. Hmmm. One of the doctors moves my leg around and touches my knee for a while. After some discussion with the two other doctors/nurses, they insist on me getting x-rays (and also says it'll be free. Hmmm.). Anyways, in the end, no broken bones, just a contusion, aka bruise, but contusion is the only word the doctor knows it by. They wrap it up (compression) and tell me to ice it and keep it elevated. And of course, rest it. RICE, just like it would be in the States. We're leaving for Prague in two days and we do lots of walking! Hmmm.
In total, three hours in the hospital. Me: bruised and swollen knee, medium-size wound on shin, some other minor cuts, pain in mostly right side of body (bruised shoulder & wrist?) and a little bump near my left temple. K: small-size wound on shoulder, pain in right knee, thigh, and back. We count ourselves lucky.
While at the hospital, we meet another passenger from the bus who says she saw part of what happened. According to her, a car on the other side of the road was passing another car by coming into our lane. But it turns out there's wasn't enough time to pass and the car ended up swerving to avoid our oncoming bus, bumping our bus and hitting the other car. Our bus after being hit and also from the brakes and swerving ended up off the road, hitting a tree. The slippery-wet road certainly didn't help.
Finally got back to the hostel a little past 11pm. I'm starving. We only really ate a yogurt+muesli breakfast, two bars, and bananas all day. K also tried buying some snacks from a vending machine at the hospital, nothing really filling though -- pretzels, a wafer bar, a small choco bread thing. My hunger seems beyond repair for tonight. Instant noodle soup is yummier than ever, but my stomach's still giving me pain. So, I just go to bed with a stomachache; I'm sure it'll be gone when I wake up.
With the RS 'tour' and the many info boards all over the camp, walking around without a tour guide is perfect. We have time to linger and reflect when we want. Later in the day was better; the feelings midday are a bit destroyed by all the tour groups and schoolkids. It's good that people are visiting the camp and not forgetting history though.
It's incredible to see just the scale of the two Auschwitz camps. This was a *huge* operation. Most of the barracks in Birkenau were destroyed, leaving the remnants of their chimneys.
Also, seeing Auschwitz under grey clouds and then rain feels appropriate. (Since I do most of the picture-taking during our trips, K inevitably ends up in more pictures. It's not that great a shot but I really liked catching him off-guard in this one. It's also the only photo where I managed to capture the grey sky.)
The camp is divided into Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. Birkenau is where they built much larger crematoriums a little later. They were all destroyed though, so you only see the ruins, but it's still unbelievable to see it.
A lot of things are spooky about the Holocaust, but after seeing it again and again in different forms, I've become somewhat inured to it. The 'material evidence' exhibit was not quite old. I'd already seen piles and piles of shoes at the Holocaust museum in DC, but this was even a bigger pile as well as *real* shoes taken (not sure if the ones in DC are). They also showed piles and piles of other objects taken from prisoners. The hair was new for me. Apparently the Nazis cut and collected women's hair and used it to make textiles. Some of this hair was cut from the women after being gassed; they've found traces of Zyklon B in the hair. After the war, they found bags and bags of hair. One of exhibits was just a bunch of this hair, piled up. It was absolutely gross.
Dachau, the camp we visited near Munich, was the first and a model for future concentration camps. Auschwitz was notorious and very much used. They give you a different feel, so I'm happy we also visited Dachau.
Between Auschwitz I and Birkenau runs a shuttle bus. We had just missed the 5pm shuttle bus back, so rather than waiting for the last 6pm shuttle we ask another two people if they want to share a taxi. The taxi is only 15 zlotys (~$5). Actually, when K paid with a fifty, he discovered the taxi driver short him, only giving him 25 back. It's good K remembered to count his change before leaving the taxi.
5:56pm bus back to Krakow.
Shakes and jerks. Aaah. I'm pitched into the aisle. I look back. K's in the aisle, too, sandwiched between other people. K, are you ok?! My leg hurts, but someone's telling us we have to get out of the bus *right now*. I try to carefully make my way out and somehow manage to grab my bag, scarf, and dropped mini mp3 player. It's wet out but thankfully not currently raining much. I sit down on a patch of grass/dirt, next to this girl. She's bleeding somewhere on her head. I look over at K coming out of the bus. Ok, he seems ok. No blood at least. Someone's saying we should move away from the bus. I get up and walk over to the pavement, but my head starts spinning, so I sit back down on the pavement.
After some time, I ask K to help me up. My leg still hurts and K says his shoulder really hurts. Upon examining his shoulder, I see it's just a skin wound (his shirt & jacket rubbing against it was making it extra painful) and probably a bruise. I have a 2.5-in x 2-in (or so) wound on my right shin and my knee hurts, but I can still limp and it feels bendable. I've heard enough about knees from D to feel that maybe it'll be ok. I'm happy I always carry around some first aid in our daypack. I clean up our shoulder and shin wounds with some antiseptic wipes, dot on some first aid cream, and bandage it up. We have a few other scrapes here and there, but even more minor, so I just leave them.
Looking at some of the other passengers, we feel very grateful that the minor wounds and some pain is all we walked away with. The paramedics and police arrive quickly and start tending to the more heavily injured. There's two cars on the opposite side of the road, also part of the accident, and apparently there's still a guy stuck in one of the cars, so they work on getting him out.
With our well-being cleared away, we start thinking on other matters. First, K goes back to retrieve my umbrella from the bus as it's raining again now. And, how are we going to get back to Krakow? Someone says we're about halfway between Auschwitz and Krakow. We discuss with a couple of other non-heavily-injured people. It seems we're the only non-Polish-speaking ones though. Some people will return to Auschwitz. After some discussion, we decide hitchhiking is the way to go. Just as we're about to go with another couple to find a car that will take us, this guy walks over and asks if we're hurt in any way. He tells us we have to follow him. We *must* go with the paramedics, he says. They try to only take me, but we manage to persuade them to take K, too. So, we both end up in an ambulance carrying this other person on a stretcher. In retrospect, we think maybe the guy was helping us out. He wasn't with the paramedics; he was another passenger from the bus who happened to be a paramedic as well. I think it was the same guy who yelled that we had to get out of the bus at first. Anyways, the ambulance took us to Krakow hospital. That's why in retrospect we think that guy was helping us out. He knew we wanted to get to Krakow and that we spoke no Polish, right? Even if that wasn't his intention, we're glad he insisted we go with the paramedics; we didn't have to act on the 'how to get back to Krakow' question.
The hospital. I really think I'll be ok (the more 'heavily injured' of the two of us), so I think we'll just leave the hospital and if it doesn't get better, then we'll visit another hospital later. We wait for a while for them to have me sign a paper that says I decline medical assistance. But the doctors/nurses involved don't want me to leave. They insist on me being checked out and say they'll do it for free. Hmmm. One of the doctors moves my leg around and touches my knee for a while. After some discussion with the two other doctors/nurses, they insist on me getting x-rays (and also says it'll be free. Hmmm.). Anyways, in the end, no broken bones, just a contusion, aka bruise, but contusion is the only word the doctor knows it by. They wrap it up (compression) and tell me to ice it and keep it elevated. And of course, rest it. RICE, just like it would be in the States. We're leaving for Prague in two days and we do lots of walking! Hmmm.
In total, three hours in the hospital. Me: bruised and swollen knee, medium-size wound on shin, some other minor cuts, pain in mostly right side of body (bruised shoulder & wrist?) and a little bump near my left temple. K: small-size wound on shoulder, pain in right knee, thigh, and back. We count ourselves lucky.
While at the hospital, we meet another passenger from the bus who says she saw part of what happened. According to her, a car on the other side of the road was passing another car by coming into our lane. But it turns out there's wasn't enough time to pass and the car ended up swerving to avoid our oncoming bus, bumping our bus and hitting the other car. Our bus after being hit and also from the brakes and swerving ended up off the road, hitting a tree. The slippery-wet road certainly didn't help.
Finally got back to the hostel a little past 11pm. I'm starving. We only really ate a yogurt+muesli breakfast, two bars, and bananas all day. K also tried buying some snacks from a vending machine at the hospital, nothing really filling though -- pretzels, a wafer bar, a small choco bread thing. My hunger seems beyond repair for tonight. Instant noodle soup is yummier than ever, but my stomach's still giving me pain. So, I just go to bed with a stomachache; I'm sure it'll be gone when I wake up.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Day 48: Krakow
Walk through the Old Town and Wawel Castle area. Took us basically the whole day. The weather reports said rain, rain, rain for all of our days here, but we had a sunny day for the most part today. It started raining right as we were returning back to our hostel ^-^
The Wawel Castle area had lots of schoolkids on field trips. The Old Town did, too, in the late late afternoon. Towards the end of our touring of the castle grounds is when I noticed that the kids seemed to be giving us curious looks. Right. We've only seen maybe a handful of Asian tourists today, and absolutely no Asian tour groups. In fact, I'm not sure we saw any non-Polish non-school-kid tour groups. Some say Krakow is the next Prague. I think it's somewhere I'd come back to, and hopefully, it's still relatively undiscovered by then. The kids were cute; definitely shy when compared to the kids we met in Turkey. At one point, K and I were setting up to take a tripod picture together when I realized there was this girl standing to my left having her friend take a cellphone picture of her with me in the same picture. When I turned to her, she let go of her shyness a bit and indicated she wanted a picture with me. K says maybe my small celebrity status is due to them having seen even fewer *young* Asian tourists. After all, I still look eighteen to some.
Bought a new bag of cereal. Bag, not box. All the cereal comes in just a plastic bag without a box, but the plastic is sturdier plastic than you'd find in a cereal box. I love it! A half empty box of cereal takes up too much space and the extra box is just excess weight.
I've been getting used to the 'paying for your grocery bag' thing. My 20-swiss-franc-cent grocery bag I paid for in Zurich has held up amazingly well. The grocery bags here are only 7 zloty cents (~$0.02). It's the lowest price we've seen. Is it enough of a negative incentive to make people re-use their grocery bags? The comparatively lower price does come at a trade-off though -- the quality of the bags are lower than the ones we've encountered in other countries.
The Wawel Castle area had lots of schoolkids on field trips. The Old Town did, too, in the late late afternoon. Towards the end of our touring of the castle grounds is when I noticed that the kids seemed to be giving us curious looks. Right. We've only seen maybe a handful of Asian tourists today, and absolutely no Asian tour groups. In fact, I'm not sure we saw any non-Polish non-school-kid tour groups. Some say Krakow is the next Prague. I think it's somewhere I'd come back to, and hopefully, it's still relatively undiscovered by then. The kids were cute; definitely shy when compared to the kids we met in Turkey. At one point, K and I were setting up to take a tripod picture together when I realized there was this girl standing to my left having her friend take a cellphone picture of her with me in the same picture. When I turned to her, she let go of her shyness a bit and indicated she wanted a picture with me. K says maybe my small celebrity status is due to them having seen even fewer *young* Asian tourists. After all, I still look eighteen to some.
Bought a new bag of cereal. Bag, not box. All the cereal comes in just a plastic bag without a box, but the plastic is sturdier plastic than you'd find in a cereal box. I love it! A half empty box of cereal takes up too much space and the extra box is just excess weight.
I've been getting used to the 'paying for your grocery bag' thing. My 20-swiss-franc-cent grocery bag I paid for in Zurich has held up amazingly well. The grocery bags here are only 7 zloty cents (~$0.02). It's the lowest price we've seen. Is it enough of a negative incentive to make people re-use their grocery bags? The comparatively lower price does come at a trade-off though -- the quality of the bags are lower than the ones we've encountered in other countries.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Day 47: Athens => Warsaw => Krakow
We were originally going to fly from Athens to Krakow, but there were no direct flights. The best flight would connect in Warsaw, stopping there for 2.5 hours. So instead, we decided to fly to Warsaw, then take the 3-hr train from Warsaw to Krakow. Cost-wise it was better -- including train tickets, we saved over $100 per person by flying to Warsaw.
The only downside was that I was exploring Warsaw in a bit of a daze. It was a good stop though. It gave a nice intro feel to Poland. Some say Warsaw is the next Berlin. It's not Berlin -- there's a 'Central European vibe' -- but it does have lower prices like Berlin. K's liking Poland already. The non-Western-European feel is evidenced in the underground portion of the train station -- all the shops look slightly less 'sophisticated' than what one might see in a Western European country. There's no English either.
The ultra-modern buildings are just starting to be built in Warsaw. But there's also still an 'old town' portion. Some of the architecture in the 'old town' reminds me of Munich in some ways.
We were both totally out during our train ride from Warsaw to Krakow. Being really tired with a cold is not a good combination. But I made it through the day somehow. Dinner from a Vietnamese-Chinese restaurant. All the Chinese eateries we've passed have been Vietnamese-Chinese. Strange. Also, the cooks might be Asian but it seems the waiters/waitresses/hosts/hostesses are all Polish. The dishes all came with cabbage! Chicken Saigon, with a side of cabbage and scoop of white rice. Fried rice, with a side of cabbage. Fried appetizer, with a size of cabbage. And you could substitute the white rice with fries, which we saw some tables in the restaurant doing. Cost for this meal of two mains, an appetizer, and two soups was 42 zlotys (~$13)!
The only downside was that I was exploring Warsaw in a bit of a daze. It was a good stop though. It gave a nice intro feel to Poland. Some say Warsaw is the next Berlin. It's not Berlin -- there's a 'Central European vibe' -- but it does have lower prices like Berlin. K's liking Poland already. The non-Western-European feel is evidenced in the underground portion of the train station -- all the shops look slightly less 'sophisticated' than what one might see in a Western European country. There's no English either.
The ultra-modern buildings are just starting to be built in Warsaw. But there's also still an 'old town' portion. Some of the architecture in the 'old town' reminds me of Munich in some ways.
We were both totally out during our train ride from Warsaw to Krakow. Being really tired with a cold is not a good combination. But I made it through the day somehow. Dinner from a Vietnamese-Chinese restaurant. All the Chinese eateries we've passed have been Vietnamese-Chinese. Strange. Also, the cooks might be Asian but it seems the waiters/waitresses/hosts/hostesses are all Polish. The dishes all came with cabbage! Chicken Saigon, with a side of cabbage and scoop of white rice. Fried rice, with a side of cabbage. Fried appetizer, with a size of cabbage. And you could substitute the white rice with fries, which we saw some tables in the restaurant doing. Cost for this meal of two mains, an appetizer, and two soups was 42 zlotys (~$13)!
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