Cruising the world

The next day was a driving day and we farewelled Germany and crossed into Poland, staying at Pozrzadlo, a rural town 40km’s over the border itself. The campground was at the back of someone’s property (a really friendly chef who spoke minimal English) and it was just us there for the first few hours-really strange since it was high season. Their family all lived on site and we couldn’t help but notice that their teenage boy was very interested in driving by every 20 minutes and starring at us. Funny to be a foreigner!

The next day we drove to Swiebodzin, where a local Priest and some followers constructed the world’s largest statue of Jesus Christ in 2012, even larger than the one in Rio. It was criticised by journalists for its poor foundations (and you could see up close that it was hollow on the inside and saw some exposing beams), but it was a tourist draw card all the same with at least 30 people there during our visit. It was an interesting drive to Poznan, where we spotted several young ladies standing on the side of the road-prostitutes who work the main truck line would you believe? There were also night clubs advertised (which really looked like brothels) so I have to say the Truckies are well catered for! We stopped in a parking bay for lunch and as I was making lunch a Slovakian man got James to open his window and started showing him his video camera, speaking in Slovak/Polish-not really sure. All the same it was dodgy and we had to say no with him eventually getting the message. We weren’t too interested in purchasing potentially stolen goods! The campground in Poznan was full so we had to drive 20km outside the city to a rural campground, where we settled in for the night. The campground came with its own wigwam, rather strange as it looked like it was used for large gatherings and had wooden swords and axes in there. It was the smallest campground yet (with 8 campers there) and we were perched on a hill in the countryside…which lead to a cold night with the wind gusting in through Dusty’s doors. Our coldest night yet.

Wok Camping in Warsaw was a welcome find too. We arrived late afternoon to find the BEST bathroom facilities yet. We have pretty much become connoisseurs of bathrooms now, so having a couple of hooks, a bench in the shower, hot water that isn’t on a timer and sparkling clean facilities are like hen’s teeth. Not only that, the campground supplied us with a map and the most detailed instructions on how to get into the city. We took advantage and headed into the Old Town for dinner. Warsaw was hit hard in WW2 so the buildings were rebuilt to exact replica-quite impressive. The Old Town was pretty with pastel colours on the buildings and lots of wrought iron balcony’s. We decided to eat somewhere that had English menu’s for our first sample of Polish food and enjoyed pierogi’s-hand made dumplings filled with meat, Potato Pancake with meat sauce and vegetable broth. Tasty, hearty and very filling food with not much vegetables in site.

An early rise lead us to the Palace of Culture and Science, a 231 metre building that was a gift from the Soviet Union to the Polish nation when under communist rule. It’s considered to be a bit of an eye saw to the Polish, we have to agree so only took a quick photo before walking through the old Jewish Ghetto marked out by the Nazi’s. We saw the demarcations on where the 3 metre wall had been to segregate the Jews from the rest of the city, an entrance to the Ghetto and a couple of the old residential buildings that remained. We then headed back to the Old Town to a milk bar for lunch. It’s basically a basic cafeteria that sells traditional Polish meals for a cheap price, which was very popular in communist times. The whole menu was in Polish and the kitchen ladies spoke very little English, so we pointed to a couple of people’s meals and waited at the kitchen with receipt in hand to see what we had purchased. Turns out we ordered two pancakes with sauerkraut in them and some blueberry dumplings with a soured milk. Not bad for our first attempt and the whole meal cost us 4 pounds, including a drink. I loved peering into the kitchen to see stoves filled with pots of soup and pancakes and chops being cooked, it looked very dated. After lunch we watched a film on the history of Warsaw and then onto the Warsaw Rising Museum which explained the revolt against the Nazi’s, who were trying to take over the city. Brave people at such an oppressive time, it really highlighted the Polish spirit and showed their strong sense of national identity. Hard to believe that Poland has been at war with so many (and at times fully taken over)that the country did not exist at one point in the 19^th century. Poland only became independent in 1918 in fact. The museum was huge and also showed lots of weapons used in the war, a really interesting afternoon spent here. We ended the day with dinner in town, sampling a hot white borsch soup (which has a hard boiled egg and Polish sausage in it) and pork knuckle. It was a great day in Warsaw. That night I happened to run into a lady from NZ in the campground. They had spotted Dusty and confirmed it was true after she heard me speak. Our first sighting of New Zealanders! They too were doing a road trip (her and her husband), for a whole year and had been on the road for 6 weeks. They would have been in their mid 50’s. I later spoke with the husband and the next morning we had a bigger chat about our travel plans. They were from Napier. They left us their card and shared travel tips before wishing them well on their trip. You never know, we may catch them again.

Driving to Krakow was probably the stretch of road that James and I would really like to forget. 100km of roadwork’s we drove through! 100km! At 70km an hour! And after that the road was so full of potholes and indentations from all the heavy traffic that James had to really concentrate not to steer Dusty right off the road! We had read about the Polish being a very friendly population although curious to foreigners, which we soon learnt to be true. People were driving past us, staring back at us, like they got eyes for Christmas. James kept saying we must have long chins or something! We made the most of it by staring back at them smiling or waving which made it more fun.

It was raining when we pulled into the campground in Krakow and this was the first time we were parked far away from the toilets. Great when it was raining and muddy! We spent the afternoon planning our time in Krakow.

Week 8

We headed straight to the Schindler’s Museum. The museum highlighted the impact on Krakow and was held on the grounds of Oskar Schindler’s old enamel factory. It also told the story from some of his previous worker’s perspectives on how great he was at keeping them protected from the Nazi’s during this time. It is thought he saved 1000 Jewish people’s lives in his efforts. Krakow itself was not destroyed badly during WW2 and it did show, with the buildings looking a lot older and at on occasion, in a poor condition. It certainly added to the character. We walked through the old Jewish quarters and James stumbled across a hairdressers. He took the plunge and got his hair cut, a safe number four for the price of 6 Euro- Bargin. What wasn’t a bargin was when I took a photo and noticed the lens on the camera did not retract and a message came up on the screen saying system error. We ended up finding an internet café and discovered this was a common problem and that could be fixed, but around 90 pounds in cost. Lucky the camera is still under warranty. But with the fact that we are travelling, sorting this problem with no fixed abode was too difficult. We begrudgingly ended up purchasing a new camera…the same one. We strolled the streets looking at the beautiful cathedrals which were filled with dark wooden alters and stained glass windows. It actually made the interiors very dark but this was unique to Polish cathedrals and added to the atmosphere. We also spent time in the Old Town, watching street dancers and a trumpeter play a tune on the hour from the top of the bell tower. The trumpeter actually stops playing mid tune which is in respect for the trumpeter sounding the alarm on the Tartars attack in 1300s, who was speared in the throat. We ate good, cheap food in Krakow, discovering another milk bar and choosing chicken kiev and some meat and vegetable soup, thankfully their menu was in English.

It had been recommended by many to go to the Salt mine 15km out of Krakow and on arrival it was evident it was a huge attraction. We queued for an hour before having a guided tour of around 3km of underground tunnels. The tour started with 360 steps down into the shaft of the tunnel and then through various rooms adorned with statues made out of salt. In fact the walls and ceilings were all salt, held up only by wooden beams in places. Amazing as you could literally lick the walls. And there were many growths that looked like cauliflowers and stalactites. The rooms included 5 churches which were stunning-they even had a statue of John Paul 2^nd (who was originally from Poland and even worked in a mine before he became a Priest). We then drove out to a secure 24 hours parking beside Auschwitz concentration camp where we stayed the night alongside many other campervans.

We managed to get on the first tour around Auschwitz which also included a tour of neighbouring Birkenau, solely built for extermination. It was a grim experience but an essential one in our eyes as we were able to piece WW2 together in more detail, given our time at similar sites across Germany. There were a group of Israeli Jewish teenagers holding a candle lit prayer there too which was nice to see.

That afternoon we drove to Kosowice and checked into our campground before driving to the airport to pick up David, who was over to stay for a week. It was great to see a familiar face and really strange to turn up at a foreign airport to collect someone and not be going anywhere! We took David to a neighbouring restaurant after failing to get groceries (would you believe everything was shut as it was a public holiday!).

We took David out to see the Birkenau memorial before driving on to Zakopane, on the boarder of Poland and Slovakia. The drive was so interesting as it was a beautiful alpine landscape filled with ski slopes and chair lifts including people selling local goods on the side of the road; mushrooms, cranberries, sheep’s cheese and woollen socks, jerseys, sheep skins and slippers. The Garmin took us on a bit of a wild goose chase, taking us 1100metres above our campsite. The upside of this was that we ended up with the best view of Zakopane so we took the opportunity for a few photos before checking into the campsite and spending the evening in town having a few drinks. I made an essential purchase of smoked sheep’s cheese, which was a real winner but passed on the woollen slippers foolishly thinking I would see them again. Unfortunately I did not.

David saw his first boarder crossing early in the day and saw that it was a blink and you miss it experience. I am attempting to get a photo of every EU country sign, which is hard - I have already missed a couple (and some haven’t even had a sign as far as I could see!). This was the first time we had to purchase a vignette to drive on the roads (road toll) so was quite nervous when we came across a Police check over the boarder before we came across a Petrol station where you purchase these. The Policeman were fine, very helpful and just wanted to confirm ownership papers before sending us 2km down the road where we purchased one. We drove to the Dobsinska Ice Cave and joined a Dutch tour around the caves. We were guttered there were no tours in English! So I cannot tell you anything else about this!

We drove onto Spis Castle, a huge castle which is the most photographed in Slovakia. Despite it largely being ruins, it was so impressive. James got to fire a canon which made our ears ring for the afternoon! Other highlights were the medieval amour on display and the amazing views. We then turned around and headed west towards Bratislava 380km away, hoping to check into a campground approximately 180km away. The campground did not exist and with limited information on Slovakian campgrounds we were forced to drive on into the night, finally stopping at a campsite at 9pm. We were all fairly tired and hungry on arrival! The next morning when we went to pay and checkout we discovered that reception was unattended. We decided to call the number left and reached the receptionist who said she would be there in one hour. Fairly annoying as we were ready to leave and she did not arrive until 1 hour and a half later, after a second call. Based on that, I would say that was our worst campsite to date-zero customer service. When we drove down the road we noticed Dusty started coughing and spluttering and running a little rough and just as we were about to pull over, he came right so we drove onto Bratislava. This campsite was wicked-it backed onto a lake and given it were so sunny and hot, loads of people sunbathing. On the water there was a pulley system for towing people on wakeboards and even something that was hooked up to a jet ski motor that propelled people out of the water by firing water from both feet and both arms so to balance themselves, as though they were walking on water (see picture!). We rested up by the lake, sunbathing and swimming  with David checking out the talent (many topless ladies). We tried a tasty lunch of goulash soup and pork stuffed with aubergine and sheep’s cheese at the restaurant near the campground which was delicious. David ordered a peasants platter which we all thought was ribs but turned out to be sausages, beans and potatoes. As with Poland, Slovakia was pretty cheap to eat and drink (a meal costing 4-5 pounds and a beer 1 pound for a pint), so we took full advantage of eating out.

That evening we did an organised pub crawl, going to four different pubs. It was a bit average, but we made the most of it, James and I arriving home at 3.30am and David 9am. Ha ha.

It was a really slow start to the next day.  We hung out by the lake, and the boys checked out the wakeboarding before joining a free walking tour in town. It was really interesting to learn about Slovakia’s relationship with Hungary and the Czech Republic and WW2. The boundaries of all of these countries has certainly changed over its long history. Our tour guide was enthusiastic and showed us the sights of the Old Town, Danube river, Bratislava castle and even talked about culture and tradition. One being, on Easter Monday it is tradition for boys to visit all the girls they know, friends and family, dowse them with ice cold water and tap their bottoms gently with tree branches. It is meant to bring good luck and the girls are then meant to repay the favour and give the boys alcohol. It made me feel quite pleased to not to have grown up in Slovakia!

We stayed in the Old Town for dinner and enjoyed garlic soup, schnitzels and pork covered in potato dough. All delicious and not light on calories!

The last full day in Bratislava was spent lake side, with the boys hiring wakeboards and trying out the wakelake pulley system. Both David and James got up first time (no surprises though as they both can wakeboard) but they did find it difficult to turn the corners because the pulley system would slacken off at the corners and launch them straight afterwards. James fell off at the furthest part of the lake and had to walk back and David fell at the next corner. After this they did a couple more laps with no problems apart from sore shoulders from being pulled. James did a couple of laps on a single ski soon after, having made an impressive beach start (and lucky recovery!). We ended the day sunburnt and enjoyed a few cheap beers and another nice dinner at the local restaurant.

Dusty started to cough and splutter on our departure from Bratislava but we decided to drive on in hope it would improve. It took longer for it to improve and then it started to happen intermittently across the journey into Budapest. The highlight of the trip was the boarder crossing which was still semi functioning for vignettes (which we had purchased online already). After four stops looking for a cash machine to get Hungarian forint, we finally made it to Budapest which looked fantastic, but Dusty was in bad shape as we bunny hopped our way through the centre of Budapest. Dusty was in need of  urgent repairs.