Accidentally arriving in Slovakia

Having adopted a small English PE teacher, who we'll call Gash Hunter, we head to the station in Krakow with the intention of getting on the 13:30 to Budapest. With time to spare we stand in the information queue for 30 minutes and ask for tickets to Budapest. She tells us there's a direct train to Budapest at 22:30. We again ask for tickets on the 13:30 that changes once. She tells us it doesn't exist that there's a 13:35 that changes twice. Sounds like a plan. We now have to queue in another queue to get tickets.

After 45 minutes.... and roughly an hour and a half in the station to get one ticket, we get to the woman and she shouts at us, telling us that the train was 13:30 and not 13:35. It's 13:31, so we've missed the train. we're told to go back to the information desk and decide what train we're getting. Why do we think there is a 13:35 etc.

We've now missed the train to budapest. So we go in search of the internet to inquire with Deutsche Bahn as to how we can get out of Krakow and poland today without waiting till 22:30 for a 9 hour night train to Budapest.

Our luck is in, there;'s a train to Zilina in slovakia thats 2 hours and 5 changes away, at least we can sleep in a new country tonight..... cos Poland's starting to get on my wick....

With only minutes to spare, we manage to negotiate a ticket to Zilina.

It's clear as soon as we start on this train, that we are not on a tourist backpacker train to the next capital city. It's a very quiet and run down train and it's travelling at about 20km an hour. We make our first change, and get onto a slower more rural train. .....

By our third train, we have no idea if we are in Slovakia, Poland or Czech Republic, which is quite a strange experience. To get from platform to plat form you just walk along the train track:

==Walking along the train tracks.

Eventually we arrive in Zilina. We have phoned one of the cheaper hotels in the city, because the place doesn't seem to have youth hostels. We have a tripple room booked, we just need to find the hotel.

When we walk out of the station, a man starts talking to us in Slovakian. He's really friendly, but doesn't seem to understand that we don't understand slovakian. I get the phrase book out and tell him that we are scottish and that we are scottish and don't understand slovakian, he understands so speaks to us a little slower.

We make our excuses with body language as best we can, and head towards the centre of town. It's a really nice little town:





Our hotel is just off the main square. We check in and apprehensively head to our room. I know from my hotel experience, that you can never tell the state of the room by the state of the reception. It looked nice enough.

We get in the room and it looks very nice. Clean... Comfy.... we go into the toilet and discover a heart shaped jacuzzi. We're laughing and joking about landing lucky(It's between 15 and 20 euros a night each), when one of discovers that the cupboard is not a cupboard, but an en suite sauna.



In all my traveling for meetings and conferences, I have never been in a hotel with an en suite sauna......

There's further hilarity when luke and I discover a mirror above our double bed.

We head out to try and get something to eat, it's now after 9pm, and our luck seems to be out. We settle for a couple of pints of fresh Staropramen that cost less than 0.50 euros each:



We enjoy the luxury of the hotel room, and sleep late, once we're up and showered, we head to the only lonely planet point of interest... zilina has a castle.

We walk back down to the square where Tesco is and get a view over the town:



We follow the road along the river, and eventually we can see the castle. The river is huge:





We get a photo of us crossing the train lines. It's still alien to us:





From here, there's a nice view over the city:



It's strange, there's a peaceful country feel to it, with a motorway running through the middle and a dilapidated ex communist industrialism to the whole place.

After a few wrong turns, we eventually make it to the castle:



They don't make much of it, and we seem to have more video footage than camera footage. We get a guided tour of the place in Slovakian... which is pretty bizarre, but it's quite cool knowing that there won't have been many scotsmen through here.

After the castle, we take a walk along the river. We're not long into our trip, but it's good to escape the bustle of Krakow for somewhere a little more rural:





From there, it's back to the centre for some food, beer and then sleep.

Tomorrow we are heading for Eger in Hungary as a stop off point for getting to Romania.... it;s the home of Bull's Blood. A potent red wine.

Exploring Krakow and Auschwitz.....

We decided last night that we woul spend the mornign exploring Krakow by Daylight.... because there is a tour of Auschwitz which leaves the Hostel at 13:00... We hummed and hawed all last night as to whetehr we wanted to go to Auschwitz or not... eventually we decided to go... based on the fact that it was a huge part of History, and if either of us returned to Krakow, we may not be with people that wanted/were willing to go.....

First up though is Krakow by day.... what's immediattly clear is that despite the lack of road and huge roadworks which surround the station, this is a really touristy city.... There a re seas and seas of people.... We got some photos of the main square by daylight - hopefully I can uload these shortly.... then we headed down to Wawel Castle.

Krakow used to be the Capital of Poland, so the King would be in residence here. He had a huge impressive castle which sits on a hill just south of the city and beside Kazimierz which is the Jewish District where Spielberg shot Schindlers list.

We walk up and around the castle and get a view across the Industrial south of Krakow.. which is full of High rises and the standard skylines you expect in ex-communist countries. Once we get round the the inner courtyard of the castle, it's immediattly impressive. Really huge with very ornately decorated buildings. There is a cathedral and a museuam and a view of the royal appartments. There are three queues for each of these which looks to be at least an hour long.... We opt instead to take a few photos, buy some postcards and then head back through the centre back to the Hostel for the bus....

Once back at the hostel, we start talking to the other people who are heading to Auschwitz. The tour is 100 zlotys, we could almost definately do it cheaper by public transport, but for ease of getting there the bus is good. It's also a good way to meet other travellers in the hostel and get a bit of a chinwag about where people have been, where to go next, the tricks people use to rip you off etc....

As soon as we're out of Krakow, we are on Country B-Roads.... The scenery remains un remarkable.... too flat for my liking. The conversations and laughing and joking(Bizarrely on a Bus to Auschwitz) makes the journey fly by pretty quickly.

We arrive at Auschwitz and join our tour... They don't seem to a have a toilet at the main gate, so we hop along with the tour.

Since I decided to come here, I;ve been numbing myself to what I'm going to see. The edge is take off it by the lines of tour buses that sit outside of the place and the people with Cameras and Video Cameras.... It says no photos, but the guide was even telling us to take photos... I took the odd one, of Brabed wires fences and such just to say I've been there... It's chilling when you go off on your own and you can imagine lines and lines of tired, abused broken people walking along on the same ground you are.

The tour basically involves standing in a queue of people and shuffling round little corridors as the guide tells you all the facts that you already know.... There's some really moving stuff like huge piles of dicarded shoes and stuff... You some how fel closer to the people in the camp by seeing there belonging all stacked together with little identity or individuallity... We were at the Holcoast Memorial in Berlin... Its' hundreds of Pillars of concrete of varying sizes sitting at varying degrees. We surmised that it was about individuality and human characteristics that from affar can't be seen. The shoes are kind of the same.

After about 2 hours, we grow weerie of the tour... well not so much the tour, but the shuffling. It's hot... we need a pee and my head is getting sore... all in all I feel very uncomfortable... This could be because of what I'm witnessing.... some kind of bizarre sub concious reaction...

After Auschwitz I it's Auschwitz II Birkenau. Auschwitz I was an ex army barracks. Auschwitz II is a flat land with huts and chimney's as far as the eye can see... The train goes straight through the main gate, where the prisoners were divided into fit and unfit and sent into a gas chamber or to a work barracks... There's huts for over 100,000 people... the sheer scale of this death factory is phenominal.....

We head back on the bus and everyone agrees that they didn't really know how to react. I didn't feel I gained much from my trip, but I'm glad I went. I suppose I expected to learn something new about this period of history... but it's so commonly documented that you almost feel like you've been there before, so the horro doesn't really hit you... that and the american standing behind you saying "Gee this is great - get a shot of that Hank...."

We get back to Krakow quite late, and the only things left to do are get a cold beer and some more din dins and then decide where we're going tomorrow.... after studying train timetables online for a few hours, we come to the conclusion that it's Budapest......

Good Night....

Apologies.....

My apologies... I am travelling too much and falling behind on the blog. I've still to write up the trip to scotlnad.... a trip to Italy... a Guns N Roses Concert, an Alice in Chains concert, and 2 weeks in Austria..... We've(Me and Luke SkyeTrekker) just arrived in Poland, after getting a long train from Berlin, where I spent 10 wonderful days exploring Berlin with Paprika.... from now on for the rest of August, we're hopping around eatern europe with our homes on our backs like turtles.... so the blog will be a wee bit more sporadic, while stealing the odd moment of internet time on Hostel Computers.....


Here's some photies from Berlin:

Bulgaria day 5 - The scenic route home

I wake up at 7.30 - a time that has become increasingly early in these past few days....after an essential cup of coffee and whatever breakfast we could manage... it's time.

Predictably, we step out to be met by three buses... all of which are white. People shuffle onto the buses, and then it is all teary waves goodbye and promises to see each other again. This conference has really felt like a school trip.... very strange....

We take to our bus, and set off... we are a party of ten with Italians, Canadians, Brazilians, Portuguese and Belgian....Cosmopolitan as always. Our Bulgarian driver doesn't speak any english, so we are putting a lot of trust in whoever gave him the instructions...

We reach the end of the road to the hotel and turn left.... I'm pretty sure Rila is to the right, but I keep my mouth shut for an easy life.... 10Km down the road, I realise I was right... what I didn't know is that we are heading for a trip round Bansko......I'm pretty pleased, as I didn't feel that our trip to "Club with no name" gave it it's full coverage as a town.

We hop off the bus in the centre and take a wander around. Immediately we are standing in a picture postcard pirin mountain setting:







There isn't actually that much to see in Bansko. It;s a ski resort... and given that it's 30 odd degrees at 1000 feet, there isn't much skiing in June.

We visit the Church:












It is quite nice inside... a little too dark to see many of the ikons, but a good appetizer of what's to come in Rila and Sofia. After this we take a wander around the little winding streets:



I amuse a family when I take a photo of their horse and cart....



We pass the "Club with no name":



We try to use a Cash Machine... the Italian is first told that France is unavailable and then on the second attempt he gets the following:



He;s a linux, geek, so is none too pleased with Bill keeping his card. Luckily it spits it back out when it's rebooted.

Back on the bus, we get back on the road for Rila.... It's about a 2 hour Journey through the Lush Green mountains which are now so familiar.

An hour into the trip.... we turn off the road towards Rila, and Portugal and Brazil start a sing song.... it's really sweet and reminds me of Scottish road trips.... there's something about singing on buses with strangers. Some cultures do it and some cultures don't. If you ever get the train from London to Glasgow, and you're lucky(or unlucky), you'll notice that as you leave london, various people in suits are typing away on laptops. There's the odd few people who look like they are out on an adventure to london...The special clothes bought for the occasion. Shouting at their companions in amazement at the fact that the tables fold down or whatever... all in all good quality Scottish trailer trash scum...



The ratio of suits to scum changes as you move up the country. People are less relaxed and have less inhibitions... they are more likely to talk to you. By the time you cross the Scottish border, there's a full sing song going on with most of the carriage. If you don't join in, you look like a prude....

Anyway, we are being treated to some Portuguese and Brazilian songs, and the odd bit of Italian Opera.

The road climbs steeply up the mountain as we pass through Rila village. It's very backwater and traditional....

Eventually, we come out through the tree covered roads into a clearing, and the Rila Monastery appears before us. The place is immediately impressive. A large gate surrounded by tour buses sits before us, we head through and are greated by the colourful wonder of the Rila courtyard:







The courtyard is surrounded by a hexagon of walls, which house the church and tower that sit in the centre:


















It is decorated on almost all sides by ikons and religious murals:











Inside the Church, no photography is allowed. It is a really beautiful Bulgarian church. Very dark.

The Rila Monastery has a museum with the standard 5 Lv for Foreigners and 0.5 Lv. The museum is bland and has no descriptions in anything other than Bulgarian. There's various elements of Rila's history; Ikons, Lithographs of Ikons, and (curiously) the priests' armoury of guns and knives, in case of attack.

The highlight of the Museum is Raphael's cross:






It is a cross which is intricately carved with religious scenes.

We head out the back of the courtyard and have a wander around. The heat is almost unbearable. There's various cafe's and restaurants catering for visitors.

It appears to be cherry season, cos their have been people selling them on the street all over the place:



We have a walk around the woods which surround Rila. The Rila mountain range is beautiful. Somewhere down the line Rila is derived from a word for water. It seems to be a good name. The mountains are covered in a lush greenery, and it's a pleasure to walk through the woods. A river flows down past the Monastery.















We settle down to a lunch of fresh trout from the river:



WIth the ubiquitous Shopska Salata:



A refreshing Zagorka(Even though we are well over the height of Ben Nevis, it's absolutely roasting)



Some people have the Shkembe Chorba which is a tripe soup:




I also see Banski Starek on the menus, so order some of that, cos I didn't see any in Bansko.


After lunch, it's back on the road to head for Sofia. we go in on a different road, a road that seems to travel at 10Km an hour for the whole way through road works. Eventually, we trundle into Sofia and arrive at the hotel:



It's a really lush affair, with a big swimming pool and a casino. Once we've refreshed ourselves with a very expensive(For Bulgaria) beer, it's time to go on a quick guided tour of Sofia. Our first port of call is the National Library....



...from here we walk over to the Alexander Nevski Church:













It is really beautiful and very grand, especially inside. Unfortunately you can't take any photos, and the postcards that they offer for sale aren't up to very much.

I've now seen my fair share of Orthodox churches. The Alexander Nevski is very nice, but I still prefered my own little trip to Nessebar, where it seemed that I had all the Ikons and history to myself. I'm also in a group, so I don;t have the iPod pumping out Nine Inch Nails, which really seems to improve the experience, maybe next time.

From here we walk closer to the centre, past the Ivan Vazov National Theatre....



..... and then on to the St. Nikolai Russian Church...



The style is completely different, and you can tell it is Russian from the different cross on it's spire.

We near the end of our walking tour at the Party Headquarters.....



There used to be a big red star on the spire... which they are going to replace now that Communism has been gone for long enough. Just across from here is Presidency, which has some uncovered ruins of Serdica(The roman Sofia) in the middle:



We then finish our tour at the Svetka Petka Smardjiiska Church:



From here. its very close to the shopping street. We stop for a well deserved coffee in Lavazza.

It's getting late and I have an early flight, so a large group of us go for out last Bulgarian dinner while we watch Italy draw with USA at football.

It's been a wonderful trip to Bulgaria.. and I'm sorry to be going home... there seems so much more to discover..... but there are more adventures to be had back in Amsterdam...

.................

I arrive back just after The Kiwi has arrived home from clubbing, so I have a few hours sleep before heading over to Diemen. My first meal back in Amsterdam is a Bulgarian one:



I'm home!!!