I left Cologne on an overnight sleeper. Not the most comfortable trip I have ever endured. I was in a 6 berth sleeper. I started off on my own and was joined by a german student about half an hour later. She spoke english really well so I had some company on the train. She convinced me to go straight to Krakow which I duly did but more on that later. First, a better understanding of my train trip. A married german couple joined us about 2 hours later and then an older Polish man who snored terribly. Border crossing into Poland was at 3:30am and we were woken up by the german border control and ten minutes later Polish border control came around. I assume that they don't get many foreigners on the train as my passport elicited the response "Ah, Great Britain". After the Moscow compartments had been separated from the train, we were back on our way, but with the conductor making regular wake up calls for passengers getting off at different stops.
Anyway, Claudia, the german student had said that Krakow is far nicer than Warsaw, I agree with her now after seeing both cities.
I went straight to an internet cafe and booked a hostel for Krakow and then a train ticket. By this time I hadn't had breakfast or a shower and was feeling quite yucky (really looking forward to the 3 days non stop train trip in Russia). I jumped straight back onto a train for a 3 hour trip to Krakow. The countryside is very pretty, I did see a fair amount of cabbage being grown and cabbage seems to be a standard accompaniment to any meal here.
I went straight to my hostel, booked a trip to Auschwitz and the salt mines. I tried for the 4pm walking tour of the city but I don't think that they run it any more and the people in the hostel were obliging with maps so I managed on my own. Krakow is one of the loveliest cities I have ever seen. The building are all very pretty. I will load some photos when I can but I am not going to go into too much detail now.
I went to Auschwitz the next morning. The coach tour started with a 45min movie on the war and camp conditions. Needless to say, it was a very somber group of people making their way through Auschwitz Camp 1. It is difficult to comprehend the horror that Jews who were sent there endured but the exhibits are very informative and our guide was great. I did wonder how he was able to work there without it affecting him but when we got the the washrooms at Birkenau camp, he was really quite emotional. While we were wondering around, we met a lady on another tour who had been at Auschwitz when she was 14 and she was very grateful to be alive. The exhibitions included photos taken by the Nazi photographic club, different possessions collected, enormous piles of glasses, suitcases with names on them, artificial limbs and two tonnes of human hair (for which I think there was a collective gasp). It certainly made the whole experience real for us. Auschwitz 1 camp also had a gas chamber and crematorium and it was quite an emotional experience going through it all. I am pleased I went though.
I cheered up in the afternoon with an afternoon trip to the salt mines about 45mins out of Krakow. 836 steps later, we were 135m underground, having seen some amazing sculptures out of grey solid salt, chapels and salt lakes. Salt was mined there for about 700 years and stopped in 1996 when fresh water was leaking into the mine and it wasn't economically viable to mine the solid salt. Again a very interesting tour, particularly of the display showing where the horses that worked in the mines lived.
Don't ask how the ankle is.....
I then raced back to catch the train to Warsaw, which got back to Warsaw at about 11pm. I managed to get off at the wrong station, all announcements were in Polish. Finding a taxi was a mission, eventually a young pole took pity on me and walked me to the taxis. It was late, under a subway and the signs to taxis took you to a highway. A taxi ride later, I was dropped off near the hostel, having to find my own way. The hostel is not on the street that is on the confirmation. Anyway, I found it after some panic and finally met up with Lauren.
I spent the day around Warsaw. Not as impressive as Krakow, but Lauren is going to update the Warsaw portion. Briefly though, we spent the morning at the Castle, I then wondered down through Old Town and New Town. Old Town is very pretty, but again, so many churches I stopped taking photos.
We leave tonight for St. Petersburg. A 28 hour train trip.
PS - Gareth - Polish food, I had doughballs with meat (turned out to be tuna meat though), also pork knuckle, and Lauren had beef with mead bread and something that looked like buckwheat. All served with cabbage.
