Poland – Krakow
No Comments »7th August, 2005; Category: General
We arrived in Krakow at about 7.30 pm, and found our guesthouse not far from the train station, and right on the edge of the Old Town, which was nice. After a quick wander through the square and a kebab we were ready for a good night’s sleep. This would have been possible if it were not for the fact that every drunk man in Krakow seemed to find the footpath beneath our room’s window the best possible spot for singing lustily! Ah well!
Our room is in a separate building from the main guesthouse, and we needed to walk back there for breakfast every morning. We arrived there at about 9 am to discover a bit of a commotion. The girls who ran the place were trying to shoo some men away from the dining room. It turned out that there was a group of men on a bucks weekend staying there also, and had just returned from a night’s carousing. Still a little… merry, shall we say, the girls thought it would be bad form if the other guests had to put up with them. In actual fact, they stayed (beer in hand) and actually had some useful advice, such as where to visit in Warsaw (where they were from) and that we should avoid them if at all possible that evening as they were likely to be quite drunk! They tried to assure us that not all Poles drank beer and vodka for breakfast! A very entertaining way to start the day.
We spent Saturday wandering the town, ‘doing’ the town square quite thoroughly, and treating ouselves to some amber jewellery, available in abundance in this part of the world. We visited the former Jewish quarter, including a museum in a former synagogue. Eventually we made it to Wawel, the location of the castle and Cathedral, where we lost count of the number of weddings being pushed, production-line style, through the chapel in the centre of the Cathedral. It was a stunningly beautiful setting for a wedding, but I am not sure I would like several hundred tourists looking on!
We spent the evening enjoying several buskers performing in the streets. The piano accordian players are particularly good, and I have heard a couple of brilliant versions of Toccato and Fugue (sp?). After dinner we returned for a last wander around the square, and found several hundred people waiting expectantly at the foot of the church. Every so often a bugler plays from the top of the tower, and we had heard him several times. However this time everyone was waiting almost in silence. As he began to play, the crowd hushed completely, the horses and carriages stopped, and the bugler had everyone’s undivided attention. At the end of his short performance, the crowd applauded. It was a really special moment and a lovely way to finish the evening.
Czech Republic – Prague
We arrived in Prague a little tired and grumpy – two and a half days travelling takes its toll! We didn’t like having to skim through so much country without a break, but it was the price we had to pay for having taken the side trip to Croatia. We hadn’t booked accommodation in Prague, deciding to make use of the tourist accommodation services instead. As it turned out, we didn’t get that far. We were met off the train by a number of people ‘encouraging’ visitors to stay at their hotel/hostel. After speaking to a couple, we decided on a hotel right on the edge of the old town, a little more expensive than we had planned, but an excellent location, and the breakfasts… oh, the breakfasts – they kept us going all day – you have never seen so much food!
After checking in we decided to get our bearings and go for a stroll through the old town. The first port of call, as always, was somewhere selling a map. Prague was crowded with tourists – like every other place we have been so far, the price for travelling in the summer peak period. However the winding streets and beautiful architecture were still interesting. We found a lovely restaurant for tea, and collapsed in our room at about 10.30pm.
We decided to get a relatively early start and try to see something of the old town before the crowds decended at about 10am (which appears to be the magic time for tourists, particularly day trippers on coaches). At 11 am we joined a walking tour we decided to do. We found the brochure in our hotel, and the walks sounded really interesting. We chose a 3 hour walk that took in the main features of the old town. They advertised that they took only small groups, and we were pleased to discover that this was accurate. Our group had only 8 people in it: ourselves, plus two other Australians (Shaun from Sydney, and a Perth girl who had been working in Melbourne, managing a chain of Witchery stores), and four English tourists (three students and an elderly woman ‘addicted to travel’). Our guide, George, was really interesting and a lot of fun. It turned out that his English teacher had been an Australian man, who was also a musician and had played in a band which was a side project of Rob Hirst, a member of Midnight Oil. As a result, George had become a huge Midnight Oil fan, and had attended their last ever concert! We got along really well together, and most of us ended up having a very late lunch together.
When Jan and I left the group, we made our way to the train station to book our tickets to Krakow in Poland. This done, we did some last minute shopping (I allowed myself a wooden marionnette puppet of a bird) then had tea (I had a lovely grilled whole trout – and managed to remember how to eat it without getting any bones, thanks to my training at Lucindale Area School, which has an aquaculture department!).
On our last morning, I rose early to try to get some photos of the Charles Bridge and the old town without any tourists in it. Of course, at least another 30 tourists had the same idea, and I didn’t quite manage as many photos as I would have liked. Our train didn’t leave until 11am so we had a leisurely breakfast (did I mention how good those breakfasts were?) then stopped at the post ffice on the way to try to send a package of things I had bought to my mum and dad. Unfortunately their computer system was having problems, so I still have the parcel with me – will try to send it tomorrow from Krakow!
Croatia – Dubrovnik
1 Comment »1st August, 2005; Category: General
Jan and I got up at a nicely civilised hour and made our way down to the bus station. We already had our bus tickets and arrived in plenty of time to catch the bus. The bus, however, had completely different ideas! It arrived just 5 minutes before it was due to leave, and then found that they couldn’t fit all the luggage of the passengers on the bus. We, of course, were the last ones in the line (inexplicably… we were near the front originally) so were kicked off the bus, in spite of having reserved seats! Fortunately we were able to exchange the tickets for a bus that was leaving just half an hour later. It turned out to be a much nicer, quicker bus, so that worked out nicely.
The trip was a long, hot one, but the views were lovely. The bus followed the coast for much of the trip, and the mountains here are pretty specatular. There seems to be little soil on the mountains. They are all slivery-grey stone with green shrubs clinging to the slopes. We stopped at two police checks where the police came on board to check our passports (all without incident) and we arrived in Dubrovnick after 3 pm.
Christian had agreed to meet us and help us to find somewhere to stay, and bless his cotton socks, he came through with the goods! He secured a room with the same people he and the girls were staying with. Unfortunately he didn’t make it clear in his limited Croatian that we needed two beds, so Jan and I had to share the very, very large double bed – all good – we had plenty of room! In addition, the son of our hosts came with his car to pick us up, which saved us a long hot walk up a hill. Our accomodation was about a half hour’s walk from the Old Town, which was a bit of a pity. However it is tricky and expensive to find anything closer, and we could have been alot further away, so we were very pleased with Christian’s efforts.
Christian gave us time to clean up, then we walked with him to spend the evening with him and the girls at the Old Town. Its a lovely town. One can see why Lord Byron called it ‘the pearl of the Adriatic’! Apparently Agatha Christie spent her second honeymoon here, and we drank cocktails at a bar called Hemingway’s bar…
We met the girls at a fountain outside the main gate to the city, then made our way to Hemingways, which became a favourite late-afternoon haunt! After a drink we had dinner at a lovely seafood restaurant (Jan and I had shrimp grilled in garlic, which was lovely) then back to Hemingways for another drink – I can recommend the Strawberry Caipiroska (sp?). We enjoyed wandering the streets, and returned to our rooms at about 10.30 pm.
We decided to get up early the next morning to walk the walls of the Old Town before it got too hot! The walk was well worth it, with lovely views from every corner of the town. The walk took a couple of hours and we were glad we had started so early. After lunch, we spent some time on the internet trying to work out the next leg of the journey, then had a quick tour of the palace. Jan and I finished the afternoon with a refreshing swim in a little rocky cove. I can highly recommend the crystal clear waters of the Adriatic!
I dined on seafood again, this time ‘Fried Little Fish’ which I think were like whitebait. We sat after dinner on a bench overlooking the sea as the sun set, then headed home for an early night.
This morning Jan and I let ourselves sleep in a little, then walked down the hill to the bus station to catch a bus back to Split (which is where I am now, typing this entry!). We are catching the 10.30pm overnight ferry to Ancona, then trains to Bologna, Venice and Vienna, where we will stay overnight. Won’t be able to see anything unfortunately as we need to catch another train to Prague the next morning. We will spend a day and a half in Prague, so that is when you will be most likely to hear from me again!
A thousand apologies for any spelling mistakes etc. Just don’t have time for much proofreading! That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!