Poland

By Bea
Leaving the Baltic states, our original plan was to head into Belarus. Unfortunately to travel visa free in Belarus you have to enter by air not by land, that was not an option. With Belarus now out of the equation we headed slightly west to Poland. I had already visited Poland about 10 years ago but Pete hadn’t so this was still a good option. Also I had a friend, Marcin, in Warsaw so it was a good opportunity to be able to catch up.

Marcin researched and recommended Majawa campsite located close to the CBD with good public transport access.

We met him after work and he took us on a walking tour of the city. It was great to have someone who is local and passionate about their city and country show you around. You get far more interesting information and see things off the beaten tourist route. He loves walking so he made sure we saw as much as we could!

We started in the old town area that, following the Warsaw uprising in 1944, Hitler and Himmel vowed to wipe it from the face of the earth as an example to other European cities.

The Nazis destroyed 80-90% of Warsaw through bombing, burning and demolition they also stole a large part of its cultural heritage. Between 1950-1970 the city was painstakingly and lovingly rebuilt. The destruction was so severe that historical records such as 18th century landscape paintings by Italian artists were required for the reconstruction. Because of this the “old town” per se is really not that much older than the new town, but its wonderful to see this beautiful area reborn.

We strolled through the streets past sites such as the City Hall, Palace, Royal Castle, National Museum, St Annes Church, St Johns Cathedral, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where the eternal flame is under continual guard, the ever present Palace of Culture and Science (mixed feelings amongst the locals about this building as it was a ‘gift’ from the Soviet Union) and Jewish quarter.

We discussed the various architectural styles - the ugliness and harshness of the Communist and Socialist era buildings, the ornate baroque and neo-classical buildings and the new modern 21st century buildings all of which sit side by side. After a lot of walking, sightseeing and chatting, we caught a tram and headed to dinner.

Marcin took us to his local hangout, the Kraken Bar. A great set up, one of three little restaurants / bars that share the same public space allowing you to order from which ever you prefer. It was a Wednesday night and it was pumping. A few drinks later, Marcin’s partner, Jesus joined us. It was a really enjoyable night and great to catch up. They certainly looked after us. We were so lucky to have such great hosts. It really makes a visit special.

The next morning Marcin invited us up to his office where the 32nd level roof terrace has an amazing view across Warsaw. We said our final goodbyes and at Marcin’s suggestion we headed to Lazienki Krolewskie Park and Palace complex, stopping at an Asian supermarket and stocked up on supplies we hadn’t been able to find for months.

Arriving at the park we had a hard time deciding which way to tackle it - it was so big. The park was just beautiful. We strolled around the grounds where people were making the most of the lovely sunshine, sitting in deck chairs chatting, having picnics or chasing their kids! At the heart of the park is the Summer Palace. Funny to think the summer house was really only about 2km from their Winter palace. In fact this palace housed the royal baths and the word “Lazineki” literal translation means toilet (or more fondly known as baths. Baths sounds better than toilet park!).

On our way out, we stopped to admire the large monument to Chopin. Sadly we weren't there for any concerts, what a great venue it would be to have a picnic and listen to an orchestra.

Time to get back to the van and on the road again heading to Krakow.

Marcin had felt guilty not taking us to a ‘Polish restaurant’, even though hanging at a cool local bar was way better for us, so we promised him we would go to one before we left.

We arrived at Kemping Clepardia, in the early evening and headed to Restauracja Kosciusko just 10 minutes walk away, who specialised in good local Polish food. It was quite amusing, like walking back in time. The decor and atmosphere was certainly ‘old school’. It was a small restaurant attached to a hotel, with just one waitress who had to do everything, but she was friendly and certainly helpful. The food however lived up to its good reviews. Entree we shared a massive plate of Pierogis - which are traditional Polish stuffed dumplings, super tasty.

For main I ordered roasted pike perch in white wine sauce with a mushroom risotto and quail egg and Pete had veal cheeks au jus with roasted vegetables, parmesan cheese and couscous. The portions were large, the food delicious and the waddle back to our van required!

We caught the bus into Krakow city centre the next morning and spent a few hours wandering the streets having a coffee in Florianska street and visiting the Warwel Castle, Warwel Cathedral, Market Square, Barbikan Gate House, St Florian’s Gate and St Mary’s Church. Also stopping for an expensive mistake of Kielbasa (traditional Polish sausage) in the touristy food square. The price was the mistake not the sausage.

Early in the afternoon headed to Auschwitz, the famous concentration camp.
Auschwitz is actually made up of three sites: Auschwitz I the main museum site - that houses the infamous gates), Auschwitz II or Birkenau concentration and extermination camp (that has the famous railway tracks and was the site of the main gas chambers) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz) a labour camp.

Auschwitz I is the actual museum and is very well organised. They only allow a certain number of people at a time. Unfortunately, the next available time was in 2 hours, so we headed, by free shuttle bus, to Auschwitz II (Birkenau), about 2km down the road. When I was in Poland about 10 years ago, I visited Auschwitz. At the time I didn’t realise there were other concentration camps, so it was definitely worthwhile me going back.

It is mind blowing how big Bikenau is, 80% of the buildings still remain and they stretch as far as you can see. At the time each of these buildings were crammed with 400-700 people. Only a few of them were wash houses or toilets that were not built until 1944, prior to then it was buckets in the corners of each building.

After trying to take all this in, we caught the shuttle bus back to the main museum for our allotted entrance time. This place is very different to Birkenau. Initially an abandoned army barracks, the buildings here are brick and strangely look like a nice neighborhood community. However contradictory to its appearance thousands of people suffered and died here. In some of these buildings the physicians carried out medical experiments on infants, twins and dwarfs and also forced sterilisation and castrations on adults. The buildings themselves were designed to house 700 prisoners, but in fact housed over 1,200.

The buildings are now preserved and UNESCO listed and dedicated them to the memories of what took place. They follow a set path and each building has a display dedicated to a point on a time line, from the arrival of the prisoners, to the suffering, to the executions and finally to the liberation. On display are many personal effects including women's hair; combs and brushes; clothing and shoes of women, men and children; men’s shaving brushes etc. Seeing these particular items bring in a reality to it and actually quite eerie. The volume of such items were astonishing. The compound also has restored landmarks such as the gas chamber, gallows and firing wall. Quite shocking and moving to see.

Over 1.1M people died in Auschwitz, it can only be described as dark, solemn, moving and emotional. However their motto is in order to prevent future wars, we cant forget the past.

It was early evening by the time we had finished our visit so we decided to drive a little out of town and look for a place to stay.

An hour and a half later we crossed the border into Czech Republic. We had googled a campsite along our route, the reviews said ok, so good enough. The manager staggered drunkenly from his caravan, unlocked the office then refused to communicate with me. He just kept saying “no English”. Now I am not one to demand people speak English. I live in a country where English is the second language. So I am more than happy to attempt communicating with hand signals, body language and google translate. But this guy just wasn’t cooperating. Sad, it was the first time we came across someone who wasn’t friendly and helpful in the campsites. The place was full, bar one spot by the river. We soon realised that although the place was full it was pretty empty of people. 90% of the caravans were permanents. Anyway, we just wanted to cook dinner and get to bed.

The next day was a road trip, destination Croatia.

Most of you know we have no end date to our travels. So really, there is no rush. However, we do have one major time restraint hanging over our heads. Fortunately as Australians, visas aren’t required for a majority of the countries we intended to visit, most countries offer us 90 days visa free. Unfortunately the bloody Schengen visa allows 90 days in 180 day period for the entire Schengen zone. Schengen area comprises of 26 countries, how does one cover everything? And to top it off, the Schengen is growing, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria are set to join next year. Currently I can spend three months in each of these counties when they join it will be three days (if I want to see all Europe) Maybe they need to rethink such rules, an applied visa extension or something!
Early in our travels Pete had made out an excel spreadsheet with the dates going from green to orange to red. Green was our safe time, orange we had to start thinking of making our way out of Schengen and red was get out of there now. We were starting to get close to the orange area, so we were making our way down to the first of the non-Schengen countries, Croatia.

Our plan is to travel around the non-Schengen countries until our 180 days is up, then we can re-enter. From Poland to Croatia is actually not that far... just Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and the corner of Slovenia between them! (They will have to wait until our return) Sounds incredible to someone who grew up in Australia.

We arrived at the Croatia border 6 hours and 5 countries later.. passport stamped....AND.... relax!!!!