| ABOUT
THIS TRAVEL August 98, 30 days
For
more about Poland (Wroclaw, Mazuria, Zakopane, Swinuiscze) visit
also my Poland
04-05
INTRO
ABOUT POLAND
Kind of
travel: me and a sweet girl in a wholly independent travel
When: 1998
summer
How I moved:
by train
Where I
slept: in cheap hostel/hotels
Baking or freezing?: perfect temperature to spend
the summer!
Dangers:
there are no dangers here!
What
I liked: an "easy to travel in" vast country, with so different areas
(the lakes in the north east, the baltic coast, the mountains in the south) and with a lot
of nice highlights
What I disliked: Warsaw wasn't that nice
What
you do need: frankly nothing, just the enthusiasm of travelling
THE
ITINERARY
"So far
I have travelled just only through the western Europe; but what there's eastward?".
So, me and a sweet girl called Sara decided to buy an inter rail ticket and leaving from
Milan headed north-east. An inter rail ticket is a special ticket that lets you travel
throughout Europe by train for one month without any limit on the number of the travels;
for sure it's the best way to do a real (and cheap) travel in the old continent.
Frankly I had no idea about how far we could have got in one month, but I was very
attracted by the small unknown countries called the Baltic Republics, and I would have
done everything to get there.
[In
Hungary]
From Slovakia I entered Poland stopping in the cute town of Krakow. This nice small town made me
begin feeling the different and interesting atmosphere of the East, less intense in
Budapest.
The quietness of the people playing violins, violas and flutes in the streets are
my best Krakowian memory, along with the visit in the salt caves. It was freezing but
worthwhile going down through the tunnels and suddenly coming out in huge halls dug in
depth to get the salt. The last day in Krakow we got impressed by the sad but proper visit
to Oswiecim (Auschwitz), a town two hours far from Krakow whose fame doesn't need
explanation.
A bunch of hours by train there's Warsaw that with its soviet modern mixed style didn't
charm me that much, but it was funny sleeping on a floating hostel, I mean a quite
rusty boat moored on the Vistula bank. Anyway it was cheap and not too swinging.
The real part of the travel came when we reached the Lithuanian border in Suwalky,
eight hours from the polish capital: the desert train slowed down till at walking pace
when passed through a barbed wired gate opened by some armed soldiers.
[In
the Baltic Repubblic]
From Klaipeda in Lithuania we counted to reach Gdansk by boat, but with big upset (I
had been cursing for two days) we found out that there was no boat connection with Poland.
It took two days by train to reach Gdansk passing by Warsaw, but there was no other
alternative unless we passed through the Kalinigrad region.
After one of the tirest train travel of all my life being crowded for 6 hours among
drunk smelling polish guys we finally got to the picturesque Gdansk. I remember with pleasure
this town with his typical colourful spire roofs, where we
spent a bunch of nice days including a boat trip to the harbour, in particular till the
point from where the first bullet of the Second World War was shot, where a huge sign
stating "Never more" was placed.
Even more nicer was the day trip to sand dunes on the Baltic cost near Leba; I
recommend you, unless you have visited Klaipeda in Lithuania that is similar but its dunes
are definitely bigger. Leba is a very well known place among the Polish and you'll see a
lot of families spending the week end there, in fact its dunes are inside a National park
where there are several trails and a lake.
From Gdansk we travelled to Prague, our
last leg where we spent some days. With the real east still in my eyes frankly I didn't
get so impressed by the Czech capital, whose beauty is unquestioned, but I
missed the humble quiet eastern atmosphere that I felt and charmed me in the Baltic
republics; somehow it helped me to get aware I was coming back home.
Alby
|
