Poland in Winter

 

KRAKOW

**Anyone following this blog will know that yes, we are back to reality now, after arriving home in Newcastle over the weekend. It's less than a week until I return to finish off my Law degree, so writing this blog will be my bit of procrastination from all of that over the coming weeks....**

Three days filled with snow, dark history, small dumplings and our first taste of the backpacker-friendly East, our visit to Poland was something I'm definitely glad we did. When we first told people we were going to Krakow (confusingly pronounced 'Krak-ov') in the middle of winter they thought we were crazy. "It's like -15 degrees there in winter!". Lucky for us we managed to miss the most of the cold, with temperatures just below zero and some light snow that made the city look picture perfect.

We arrived on a late flight from London and spent three nights in the city, which was just enough time to see the main sights of town, take a daytrip to Auschwitz- Birkenau concentration camp, and also to sample some of the infamous nightlife that sees backpackers flocking to Krakow each year. The city centre itself is quite compact, which made it easy to see all of the sights in one day.

The main square by night

We joined a free walking tour (with an actual native Polish guide) through the Jewish quarter of Krakow, telling stories of how Poles from this area were persecuted during World War 2. We visited a square right on the edge of the Jewish ghetto that was used by the Nazis as an assembly point for the Jews, where they would routinely gather them before they took them to the nearby concentration camps. As the camps started to become full, selections were made in that very square and the weak, elderly or children were killed then and there on the spot. Today the square is marked as a memorial, and 68 different sized chairs are placed around the square to represent the 68,000 polish Jews killed from Krakow.

The chair memorial

On the tour we also visited the sight of Schindler 's Factory - made famous because of the movie Schindler's List. Now I haven't actually seen that movie, but our guide did a good job of explaining how the character of Schindler had been 'Hollywood-ised' in the movie. In the movie, Schindler is supposed to be this hero who 'saves the Jews' by hiding them in his factory, and then when they are taken to Auschwitz at the end he dramatically goes to the camp and demands for them to be released. In reality, our guide told us a story that made it seem like Schindler was a little more concerned with his self-preservation and the productivity of his factory than any great heroic gesture. Guess we'll have to watch the movie now just to see how much they changed the truth.

Our time in Krakow was a bit of a historical tour, especially since one of the main sights we were there to visit was Auschwitz. We joined a day bus tour that took us to visit both Auschwitz and the nearby Birkenau death camps, with a local guide taking us through all the old blocks and telling us what they were used for. The time in the concentration camp was such an unusual experience that it's really quite difficult to describe what it felt like when you were there. The sheer scale of people who were sent to those camps- Jews, poles, gypsies and homosexuals- was so hard to comprehend, especially when we knew that most of them never made it out.

The entrance to Auschwitz and the infamous words 'work makes you free'

But as if a number on the wall wasn't enough to represent all the lives that were lost, a big part of the Auschwitz exhibition are rooms full of things taken from the prisoners when they arrived. There's a display of all the suitcases that were taken from the people as soon as they stepped off the trains, a window of spectacles, and an entire display of shoes that were stripped off the prisoners and taken to 'Canada' (the name for the area where all of the stolen belongings from the prisoners were kept, since Canada was a prosperous place at the time).

But worst of all was a glass cabinet, about the length of a room, filled with human hair. The prisoners were all forced to shave their heads on arrival to the camps, a way to slowly strip any sense of identity these people once had. The Nazis then kept all of that hair- some was used to weave blankets and uniforms to sell in Germany, and the rest remains as a macabre reminder of just how many people were there. But as well as these rooms of personal objects, one of the most vivid parts of our visit was seeing for ourselves the remains of one of the gas chambers in Auschwitz. We walked down into this bunker-like room, cold with concrete walls. As soon as we walked in I noticed there were scratch marks from fingertips of people still on the walls. This part was definitely the most difficult sight to see as we stood in the very spot where thousands of people were murdered.

It's strange to describe how we felt after visiting Auschwitz. The day we went was pouring snow and our feet were frozen from walking in the cold, yet it felt wrong to complain about such a small inconvenience when you were surrounded by such a place as Auschwitz. Halfway in the visit we had a break where we snacked on a little bun thing, and even eating felt strange when so many people died in that place because of starvation. But despite being left with this strange feeling, the trip to Auschwitz was definitely worth it- as our guide said, people need to remember what happened there, what one man did to another, so that it does not happen again.

Despite spending some time confronting the heavier parts of history that took place in Poland, our time in the city wasn't all just doom and gloom. We managed to experience some of the best of the local food and entertainment places, thanks to some handy recommendations from the hostel we stayed at called Greg & Tom's. The hostel itself was great, set up over a couple of floors in an apartment building near the train station. For about €13 a night we got our own room in a little separate apartment shared with two other rooms, plus free breakfast and free dinner each night, and some super friendly staff members who had some good recommendations for food.

Polish food in general is nothing too exciting and is definitely food made for cold climates, with lots of warming carb-heavy meals and very little vegetables to be seen on the menus. We tried traditional Polish dumplings called Pierogi, which have a springy outer potato layer and are filled with either cheese, meat, spinach or mushrooms and sauerkraut. We also managed to find a good (and cheap) restaurant in the budget-friendly Jewish quarter called Marchewka z Groszkiem where we had lunch to thaw out from the cold. Proving just how carb-heavy the meals in Poland are, I had battered potato pancakes covered in a garlic and mushroom sauce- basically a chicken scnhitty without any chicken! But it sure did the job, as I wasn't cold after that feed.

Along with the food, we also got to check out some of the local nightlife spots which were awesome, so I could only imagine what it would be like in the summer time. We went to this one place I'm the Jewish quarter called Alchemia that is probably the best atmosphere I've ever seen in a place: when you first entered the room it was just a small, dimly lot room with candles flickering on each of the little tables. But then you walked through wardrobe doors to create this Narnia-like feeling and you would end up in another room altogether... Super cool.

Poland was somewhere that really surprised us- our main reason for visiting was something quite grim, and yet we managed to find a city that was worth a visit in its own right. From here, we moved West towards Prague, so more on that when my boredom kicks in.

"Haggis is like..."- First Impressions of Scotland

GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH

'But WHY would you want to travel Europe for six months?'. The question came from an Irish guy when we were out at a pub in Edinburgh. We were on a pub crawl with our hostel on the first night we arrived in the city and I somehow ended up in this conversation with this guy who had lived on a farm all his life. Needless to say, his idea of world travel was making the trip all the way to Edinburgh, and so he couldn't comprehend that we could find it so interesting to travel for so long. When I tried telling him the very things that make travel- the sights, the people we have met, the culture and language that we don't have in Australia and most importantly the foods that we have tasted along the way, he responded proudly by saying 'if I could go anywhere, it'd be Texas'. While we could agree to disagree on what makes a good travel destination, talking to him made me realise just exactly what we have seen so far.

We have well and truly passed the halfway mark now- it is coming up to 4 months since we left home. When we realised that we had passed the halfway point, Mike and I were talking about whether it feels like we've been away for that long. The answer is yes and no: when I look back at all the places we have been so far (or scroll back a couple of pages on this blog) I realised we have already packed so much in over the last few months. We have learnt how to live in a new city every few days, well and truly live out of our backpacks, push the limit of how long we can go without having to do a load of laundry (don't worry, I still hand wash things in the shower- classy), and budget our way through so that we can manage to experience the best of the places we visit without going overboard. Now at this point in the trip we are looking to settle down a little bit. The end of our trip still feels like its far away- which is good considering we still have so much more we want to see- and so instead we have decided to make a bit of a temporary home in Scotland, recharge a little, and most importantly save some money by helpx-ing again. On our way over to the West coast of Scotland to the little town of Oban where we are working now, we did our last bit of traveling for a week in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

GLASGOW
We caught the ferry to Glasgow from Belfast and all I can say was what a great surprise that was. For £27 for the bus/ferry combo ticket, we were expecting one of the small ferries that roam around Sydney Harbour. Instead it was a massive ship, almost like a cruise liner. There was a duty free shop on board, bars and cafes, a little mini hotel upstairs (for a 2 hour journey I don't see the point in that one), a spa and massage lounge, and the best part we found- a FREE cinema where we watched the film Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp. Best transit we have had yet.

We spent 3 nights in Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland and the third-latest city in the UK. As far as cities go, Glasgow is an interesting one: a trendy/stylish/ student-filled place, known for its music and nightlife scene. The city centre itself feels like a grimier place that's just turning the corner from an industrial capital to a more livable place, with a huge shopping district called the Style Mile running through the middle.

On our first day we just wandered around the centre of town, checking out the shops, visiting the cathedral and the huge big graveyard on the hill called the Necropolis that has views of the city:

And we visited the St Mungos religious museum, which made an exhibition about all the religions of the world and how they celebrate things like birth, death, sex and afterlife in a way that was really interesting. Plus they had this cool thing on display as well:

On lunch that day we had the moment where we realised 'yeah, we are in Scotland'- two guys walked into the pub where we having lunch, wearing kilts. That's about as Scottish as you can get in my books.

That night in Glasgow we got to sample the city's infamous music scene. Passion Pit were playing at the Queen Margaret Union, and so we went along with our friend Claire from back home (she is studying in the Scottish town of Dundee for a semester, and so she came to Glasgow to catch up). There was support by a Glaswegian band called Chvches as well, and together it was a really fun night, especially hearing Claire's stories of how it is actually living in Scotland (and how hard it is to understand their accents!).

Mike, Claire and some Passion Pit tickets

On our second day in Glasgow and the weather was about as Scottish as you could get- very, very wet. We decided to check out the city's West End, which has the reputation of being the 'real' Glasgow: where all the universities and student life are, with streets full of quirky shops and cool little cafes. We took the city's subway (so small it only has two lines, called the Inner and Outer lines) over to Hillhead station to see what we could find. The main street had a few little cafes, but it was the little laneways off this street where the real magic happened. There were about three little lanes filled with vintage shops in these cool arcades across the city.. they really had such a nice feel to them that we spent all day between them.

After exploring all the little vintage stalls in the arcades, we had a bit of lunch and then found The Grosvenor, an independent cinema with a vinyl bar attached to it playing some old music. We saw the new James Bond movie Skyfall (awesome movie, especially because it had scenes of London and we could look at the places and be like 'we've been there'). The cinema was a quirky little place, and you could bring in bottles of wine and beers from the bar next door and sit on lounges up the back- for £6, it was a very cool place to see the movie.

By the time we came out it was dark enough that we could check out the bars and nightlife. Since it was a student area the bars all had good deals on cocktails, and so for £3 a drink we got to have the best value cocktails ever (something we never get that cheap in Newcastle). We even got 'boozy hot chocolates' with Kahlua and a toasted marshmallow on top. It was right about then that I realised that although it's getting colder and the days are getting shorter, there's definitely a lot to love about this time of year in Europe.

Ashton Lane, Glasgow

EDINBURGH

After travelling for a little while, you soon work out that certain cities have a feel about them: Seville in Spain had culture bursting out of it, Florence in Italy had this Tuscan allure to it that really can't be put into words, Paris is just Paris and was ridiculously exciting to be in, and London is full of so many different pockets of the city that each have something about them (and I will eventually get to writing about why I have fallen in love with that place). Edinburgh has a feel and it is one of those places that reels you in. From the moment you get into the city you can see Edinburgh castle looming on top of a hill, and no matter where you walk it is an impressive sight sitting perched on some rocks. The Royal Mile (the old town of Edinburgh) is full of beautiful old architecture and little cobbled closes off the main street that feel like little secret hideaways. A big open parkland separates the old town from the new side of town, and so right down the middle of the city is lots of green space. And on weekends, the sounds of bagpipes from the buskers on the streets actually carry pretty much anywhere in the city. Yep, this is Scotland. And as far as capital cities go, Edinburgh has nothing but charm.

We spent 5 days in the city and in that time we were never short of things to do. On our first night we sampled the local nightlife on a pub crawl with our hostel. Edinburgh has something like 750 bars in the city, and although we only visited about 5 places it was a good night. It was Movember themed as well, and I think I make a pretty impressive moustachioed man:

We also tried the infamous Scottish drink IRN BRU (iron brew) on our pub crawl. This is like their version of an energy drink, packed with so much sugar that it makes coke look healthy. Apparently the level of caffeine is so potent that IRN BRU is a controlled substance in the US... And the scary part is it tastes just like creaming soda.

On our first full day we got to know the city by taking one of the 'free' New Europe walking tours with Sandemans. We learnt some interesting stories about famous landmarks in the city: we saw the Heart of Midlothian that is on the royal mile and learnt to not step anywhere near it. Don't be fooled- while it looks like a romantic feature to make the city look pretty it actually is a place where the locals spit as they make their way past. Apparently it started as a tradition because this is where the tax office once was, and to this day you can see presents left behind by passer-bys. Beautiful.

That's not chewing gum on the heart..

The Royal Mile

Edinburgh version of the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, feat. J.K Rowling

We passed the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter novels (this is now becoming our ''Harry Potter tour of Europe'):

We visited the graveyard and heard stories of body snatchers back in the day who would rob the bodies from graves and sell them to the medical school for testings, and heard stories of murderers in the town who would kill people purely so they could sell the bodies on the medical school. The problem became so bad that when people were buried they would have to put these metal cages over the top of their graves, just to deter any would-be snatchers:

And my favourite story- we saw a statue of a dog named Bobby who was a little Scottish terrier. His master was a policeman and Bobby was supposed to be a dog to help in the line of duty. But it wasn't because he was an amazing guard dog that Bobby has his own statue. The reason why the dog is famous is because after his master died on duty, they took his body to the graveyard and every day Bobby would sit at the grave, waiting for his master to return. He did this for 14 years. In that time he became a bit of a local hero, as the town people started bringing him food and looking after him at the grave. Eventually Bobby died, and the towns people wanted him to be buried alongside his master in the grave. The church who controlled the graveyard wouldn't let that happen (seeing as the dog wasn't a catholic??), and so instead the people erected a gravestone in his honour and put a statue of him outside. For a statue of a dog it's still pretty cute:

That day we tried a couple of the local Scottish specialities as well: deep fried mars bars and of course haggis. We had heard the Scots like to batter and deep fry things and in the little takeaway shops there are just rows of battered things sitting on the shelves. They even deep fry pizza- don't know how the arteries would be after that one. We instead chose the 'healthier' option of a deep fried Mars bar. We shared one between us to ease the guilt of our impending obesity, and I'm pretty glad we did. Here's what it looked like:

As for the haggis, that was an experience reserved only for Mike. Luckily we didn't look up exactly what was in it until afterwards, but this is what we found on Wiki:

"Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach."

A comedy show we saw while we were in Edinburgh described haggis as being like a 'Bangkok prostitute', because you feel ashamed at yourself afterwards once you realise what you just had. With that beautiful image in mind, this is what Mike had to say about his haggis experience: 'it was interesting... And chewy'. I'm not the biggest fan of meat at the best of times, so I only sampled the 'neeps and tatties' (in Scot speak, to us it's served with turnips and potatoes) which came with a creamy whiskey sauce which was definitely something I liked. Mike can officially tick that one off the list, but I don't think he will be going back for another serving anytime soon.

That night we cultured ourselves up a bit and went to an art gallery opening. Don't worry, months of travelling haven't made us pretentious arty types. Our friend Claire who we met up with in Glasgow invited us to the event because she was going to be in Edinburgh that night with all of her friends from Dundee to support someone they knew who was exhibiting her works. It was more of an 'open studios' sort of thing where local artists opened up tolet the public in to see their works and their spaces. It was fun meeting Claire's mixed bag of friends from around the world she has met on exchange, plus there was an open bar at the event which was a pleasant surprise. I even got to screen print my own little piece of art that night, and now I have a nice tote bag for putting my things in when I shower (instead of using the classy Tesco bags I have been stockpiling when we buy groceries).

 

The next day the sun was shining and we decided to climb Arthur's Seat- a big hill/rock thing in Holyrood park that looks over the city. It's a long climb up (and was even a bit wet on the way when the weather turned), but the views from the top were absolutely worth it. We had fun playing on all the grass hills, and by the end of our walk it felt like we have made up all the exercise we have neglected in the past three months.

Afterwards we walked down the other side of the mountain towards a little village called Duddingston, where we had lunch in the oldest pub in Scotland:

That night we did something a little different and checked out a comedy show. We went to a place called the a Beehive Comedy Club and unlucky for us we arrived a little late, meaning we got the seats right up the front. It also meant we became targets for the compere's jokes throughout the night. When he realised that Mike is an Australian, with dreadlocks, who studied environmental science, he thought all his Christmases had come at once. Another comedian of the night had fun talking about how it must be to pass through customs with Mike, and that they'd get the rubber gloves ready as soon as they saw him coming. It was all in good fun, and luckily we weren't getting the most attention because a girl arrived late who had a very proper English accent, and so she became the butt of posh jokes for the rest of the night. We finished off our night by visiting a cool little bar called the Brass Monkey and having some mulled wine- delicious.

Our final day in Edinburgh and the sun was shining- again! We took advantage of the clear sky by visiting the Camera Obscura building of Edinburgh. At the top of this building near the castle is a octagonal dome with a hole in it that reflects light onto a mirror. The light passes through three lenses and it gives an image of the city. It's kind of like a giant spying platform and the camera obscura was used for exactly for that purpose back in the day. We went into a dark room and got the tour of Edinburgh through the camera Obscura which was a really different way to see the place.

The other cool bit about the building was that it was also full of optical illusion exhibitions which made for some fun photos:

A Mike & Shelby mash up, isn't it pretty?

For lunch we hunted down our first Sunday Roast since we have been in the UK, and what a treat that was. For £6 it came with the biggest Yorkshire pudding I have ever seen (think mum should try and make them this big when we get back-hint hint ;)

We finished off our time in Edinburgh by going to watch some live music that night at a place called Sneaky Pete's. It was a special lineup of up and coming artists put together by Ben Lovett (of Mumford & Sons fame) and had some good acoustic and folk acts. We spent the rest of the night in the record room at our hostel- a place called Castle Rock- listening our way through their massive old record collection until we were almost falling asleep.

In five short days we both developed a big soft spot for Edinburgh, and for Scotland in general, and I'm looking forward to what's to come during our time here.