Poland Weekend Notebook

The Notebook excerpt from Krakow:

3-27-2009 Friday Morning
5:40 AM - Oh crap I woke up late. Oh no, why didn't my alarm go off, oh man, they're about to leave...oh wait, phone, "Olli, have you left? No? give me 15 minutes. OK" RUNNNNN!!!!

6:20 AM On the bus, made it only ten minutes late. Whew!

16:00 Arrival in Krakow, The Castle and River right in front of us. Finally here after the salt mine tour and the loong bus ride. Snow and Rough roads for most of the journey, beautiful snow covered pines shrouded in fog in Slovakian Mountains. The salt mine proved the Polish have distant dwarf relatives. It was HUGE considering most of the mining was done over 100 years ago and started over 400 years ago. Salt carvings of everything, even a gigantic underground Cathedral completely carved out of salt. Statues and carvings covering everything. Who would have thought it'd be so cool?
In the evening we had a pretty delicious "Traditional" Polish dinner, good soup, a sauerkraut like dish, wholesome bread and a piece of cheesecake for desert. (hey, cheese cake isn't polish). I fell asleep when we arrived back at the hostel and was woken at 11 pm to "go out". When in Poland...

3-28-2009 Saturday
8:30 AM Wake. Quietly slip through the hostel and downstairs in search of an Americano. Takeshi joins me and we wander for a bit for early morning snapshots in the still wet streets from the previous night's rain. It looks like the sky has cleared up though and the sun is already going strong.

10:00 AM The hive has begun to buzz. Hostelers, us and others, have awoken and are hungry, descending on the hostel kitchen for the free cereal and toast. Glad I woke early to beat the crowd. I switch on the radio in the common room and "I shall be free" starts playing.

13:30 Krakow is an amusement park for grown-ups and a fulfillment of fairyland towns; castle, river, gardens, old cobblestone, horse drawn carriages, jesters, mimes, street performers, flower stalls and people generally enjoying themselves. You barely notice the tourist, or the tourist become villagers too.

14:00 Pizza, Calzones! Spinach, onion, black olives, cheese! The Brazilians are flirting with the Polish waitress

14:35 More Mimes

15:30 Sunshine and Tyskie Beer in the city square at a patio table.

17:30 Sunset beside the river after a stroll around the ring park. Polish beer! Olli and Francisco are hanging out too. I'm writing postcards, I have my shoes off and am enjoying the breeze on my feet and grass beneath. The Castle towers over my left shoulder.

Lizard King in the evening for some live music.

3-29-2009 Move your watches forward. I've never had to worry about daylight savings time before. There was some confusion and panic at the hostel in the morning...Gabriel had been though to be lost, very drunk, possibly missing, but after some searching we realized he had just been sleeping in an empty room of the hostel on the top bunk in a hidden corner. Funny in retrospect. Ah, the joys of traveling with a big group. We're now on the drive to Auschwitz, on a toll road through the Polish countryside: Villages with chimneys bellowing white smoke, castle ruins on distant hilltops, swamps, a bizarre bunch of dome buildings connected by glass hallways, like a sci-fi moon habitat, wonder what that was...

Haze and rain at the exit of the highway...fitting mood for the destination

16:30 Standing at the gates of Birkenau. Cold, Muddy, Dreary, Solemn. Almost unbelievable and overwhelming.

long ride home...arrive back in Budapest at 1 AM!

The Hills of Buda

Today greeted us with more nice weather, light snow and sun. Bizarre. Will and I headed on over across the chain bridge and into hilly Buda to explore the castle district. A hike to the top of castle hill is the best vantage point of the town. To the east, Pest lays flat, the skyline spiked by the spires of churches and government buildings.
To the west sits Buda below the castle walls, brightly colored apartments against green vegetation, hills rising to the horizon, illuminated by the cloudy sky above.

The Castle Labyrinth stretches beneath the hill, dark and damp. Inside the castle walls themselves were shops, cafes, old churches and ruins of anchient times. This city is filled with so much to see, each day I find something new without even having to look. And for those who are concerned, the falcon man was there.

Robs and Würzburg!

So, how does one place get to be so awesome? I mean seriously, this town is nestled in hillside rising beside gently flowing Main River. Atop the main hill sits Marienberg fortress, built in ancient times, expanded and improved by various inhabitants, surveying the red-tile roofed town below. Upon surrounding hillsides are plotted perfectly strait rows of grape vine trellis broken only by the roads ascending the hills. Despite the loss of many prominent landmarks by the destruction of WWII, the town has rebuilt and modernized (seems to be a German trend), while still maintaining it's Bavarian charm.
Hoping off the ICE 728 at 9 am, Robert greets me at the train station. I'm in Germany, so what do I do first? Eat something German, obviously. A local bakery provides the delicious meal to start the day: pastries and coffee. Refreshed and refueled, we set about to see the sights of the city. A stroll down the main boulevard encompasses the rebuilt churches with salvaged artifacts, the quaint storefronts, and everyone upon bicycles. Awesome. We tour the Residence, a palace and early political center of the town. Magnificent gardens surround the palace. The fountains have frozen into pure white ice sculpture. A fellow admirer, a jovial old German gentleman lets us know this is a sight that doesn't happen every year. We stop at another bakery to buy bread and a market across the street for cheese and tomatoes, our eventual lunch. Crossing the Main and passing by the guardian statues brings us to the bottom of fortress hill.

We climb the hill like were were the Swedes who first invaded and celebrated our conquer at the top by feasting on our bröt, cheese and tomato. The view of the town below is splendid. We continue the siege inside the castle walls, happy as two mammoth giraffes at the wine watering hole (sorry, no explanation on that one). We continue the adventures throughout the day, finishing with beer chilling in the snow and dinner at a friends apartment. We are now off for more fun and excitment!