I purchased my train ticket to Poland at the main station in Budapest. From my dealings with ticket agents, I’m starting to get the feeling that being a ticket agent in Europe must be the most fun job in the world. As far as I can tell, you can be a complete dick to any and everyone who comes to your window and acting as if you give a shit about anything is completely optional. After negotiating a nonrefundable path to Krakow with the agent, I took my ticket and noted that they spell Krakow as Katowice. This didn’t strike me as odd because in Hungary and Poland, Warsaw is known as Warszawa, Krakow could very well be called Katowice.
For future reference, Krakow is Krakow or something that looks like that in almost every language on this planet. Katowice is English, Hungarian and Polish for a medium size industrial town about 80 km from Krakow… Travel tip #187: don’t be too shy to double check any suspicions with the ticket agents once you get your ticket, no matter how unfriendly they are. This is a good skill to learn and practice. Failure to do so can leave one with an unsettling disoriented feeling as you step onto the train platform in the wrong city at 4AM. In hindsight, I was really lucky that Katowice is so near to Krakow. After touring the train station and watching a few polish cops rough up a drunk (who, by his singing, didn’t seem to mind the attention), I was able to purchase a 6AM commuter train ticket to Krakow. Instead of getting to the hostel at 4AM, I arrived at the reasonable time of 8AM having seen a good bit of the Southern Poland countryside.
Krakow is billed as the next Prague. I’d say it’s more along the lines of Prague Lite. There’s gorgeous architecture and impressive religious buildings but most of the beauty is confined to the old town in the central portion of the city. Once you leave this area, Krakow is still an interesting eastern European city but not much more. The old town is small enough that, by the end of my first day, I felt as if I’d seen most of the sights and had a good feeling for the area.
Having seen the a lot of the city, I decided to plop down a bit of cash to do the Polish tourist thing: Wielicza Salt Mine. The mine and associated tour (required in order to visit) has been described as kitschy and a bit silly. After visiting, I can confirm these reports. It’s essentially a Disneylandesque salt mine tour tied together by the salt carvings and statues made by the miners. Probably the highlight of the trip was taking a minibus through the Polish countryside. Seeing traditional houses with long, skinny farming plots stretching out behind them and into the rolling hills was well worth the 60Pl price of the tour. Then again, when it comes to touring salt mines , it would be difficult to beat my previous experience.
When I was 5 or 7, my family toured the salt mines of Salzburg Austria. I still remember a lot of that tour. Not only did we get outfitted in awesome white miner jumpsuits but the method for getting from one level of the mine to the next was The Slide. Yep! If my memory serves me right, a wide banister shaped slide connected each level of the mine. These banisters were over 50 yards long and, to get to the next level you would straddle it and zip down to the next level. If I ever own a house with a cave I’m definitely getting one of those installed.
Here are a few notes from my stay:
Polish Food: Heavy, heavy heavy! One evening, I had an entire meal of fried perogi. I’ve never eaten such a greesy meal. It’s like the long lost relative of The Best Breakfast Ever.
I’m pretty sure my sweat consisted of 5% vegetable oil for the next week.
The hostel staff at Tom and Greg’s hostel are fantastic. They even took us out drinking with them when their shift ended. I had a good time talking about American movies ("I love Big Lebowski!") and cheering on the Montenegro football (soccer) team with them. As the newest country in the world, Montenegro is an easy team to root for when your favorite team isn’t playing. They’re young, spirited and complete underdogs. When they tied the game at 1-1 the bar went nuts. Unfortunately they lost 3-1. Maybe next year guys...
When the conversation turned to politics I was treated to a real surprise. Many of the Polish people are actually strong McCain supporters. Here’s why: The Polish people really don't like Russia. They're pissed off about the Russian aggression in Georgia and they’re very nervous about Russia exerting it’s power in the region again. They want a very strong US leader who will stand up to Russia. They view Obama as a thinker, not a fighter but they view McCain as a soldier who would have no problem telling Russia to “cut that shit out”. Interesting. When asked about American domestic issues I was told that they really don’t care.
Romania got a lot of plugs from other travelers. Cheap food, nice people and not a ton of tourists. I’ll try to get there.
2 comments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn
Above link is one of many reasons Polish people feel so "strong" about Russians.
Look into it :)
Brendan-
Do some research on the Katyn Massacre of 1940. The movie "Katyn" by Wajda will really send the point home. After that, follow up with some light reading of the "Western Betrayal". A general understanding of how Poland was invaded by two super powers on two borders within two weeks goes a long way to understanding the Polish Zeitgeist.
Many Americans don't know that France and England broke a commitment to Poland when Germany invaded in 1939. Instead of coming to Poland's aid, the European leaders were "afraid of a fight" and allowed the Germans to move undeterred. You'll note that Poland is where the most notorious concentration camps were situated as the Poles were, at that point, powerless to resist the Nazis.
Many Americans dismiss Russia's recent invasion of Georgia as a simple border skirmish between testy neighbors, but the Poles know better. Their 'entry' into Poland in 1939 was justified as protection against the advancing Germans. As you'll note, they never left Poland and, in fact, pushed into part of Germany. If it weren't for the Americans standing ground, they likely wouldn't have stopped there, either.
Knowing all this, it isn't surprising to hear that the Poles are behind a man with a history of fighting Communism, and it certainly isn't surprising to hear that they DON'T back a man gives every appearance of being a pacifist.
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