Day Sixteen - Im Selling Up...

And moving to Prague. Thats right, we have arrived in Prague and I can I just say ... I am in love. It is the prettiest, most lovely city I have ever seen. Today we just walked the streets because our room wasn't ready. We wandered down to Charles Bridge, had lunch in a lovely local restaurant where my Stroganof was to die for and then wandered through a local food market before finally going back to the hotel and crashing. I slept for 4 hours which I never do which should tell you just how tired I was. All the late  hours and early starts finally caught up with me. 

I woke at six and after getting dragged out of bed by hubby we got dressed and walked into town. Its rather easy to find any town centre in the part of the world, its usually called Town Square or Old Town Square. It was freezing but I was actually fine dressed in my lovely warm coat, beanie, scarf and gloves. We followed the masses of crowds through small cobble stoned streets which again were so perfect I wanted to cry. Finally hitting the square it was packed ... then we realised it was Saturday night. We found a cute place for dinner where  again I lucked out on my choice, risotto was heaven and then while waiting for our ghost tour to start something amazing happened. 

They have this astrological clock which has been around since the 14th century but on a Saturday night they put on a lights show to act out the history of the clock. You may thing ... yeah yeah just how good can one lights show get but wait until you see the video (I cant get it working yet but give me a day and I will make sure to add it for you). It is on every half an hour from 6 to 10 and we watched it twice. Again just watching it really blows m mind. To me this is one of the best bits of my trip so far and could even be my Breathless over History moment. (Im not quite clever enough to add my own video yet but this one I found on youtube is actually 100 times better - no shaky footage here and you still get the idea on just how cool this is)

Oh and as for the ghost tour ... unfortunately it was a bit of a flop, nothing scary or interesting about it, we just spent the entire time running after the guide who must be training for the power walking games but still ... the clock more than makes up for it in my mind.

Tomorrow I will give you a more thorough view of Prague but today just a few pics to whet your appetite.

Day Fifteen - Krakow and Auschwitz

Today we went to Krakow and that meant an early start, a really early start and another train trip. I hate to say but im a little bit over train trips. Everyone runs for the doors, fights for seats and its only 5 in the morning, imagine the craziness of peak hour.

Before I go on about Krakow let me just say, yesterday the weather was lovely, 23 degrees, sunshine and just beautiful. Today its 11degrees and raining and although we don't mind the rain in the least I will say that I had expected it to slowly drop in temperature not such a sudden movement so bear in mind when you read this its rather cold and wet.

Anyways in the rain with a guide we walked around the Jewish Quarter which was rather dark and dismal partly due to the weather. We then went into old town and here the architecture took my breath away. Their walls are actually sloaped out which is just so interesting to walk around, the colours are bright and the centre square is huge. There are lots of little pizza and sandwich shops with lovely big fires and seeing as my husband is always hungry we took refuge in quite a few of these over the period of the morning. Overall I quite liked Krakow and this is a place I would definately return to.

We then met up with a driver who took us out to Auschwitz. Im not going to say too much about the place except that even though going can be upsetting and sometimes unpleasant I dont think we can ignore our past, even the really bad stuff. We went and looked at the camps, we went through this exhibit about the people who were brought to Auschwitz and we even walked through a gas chamber and crematorium but the moment that really got to me was to see a room full floor to ceiling with human hair. A huge amount of bad happened at Auschwitz but when we walked through the long stretched of barracks and living quarters it was almost peaceful, the grass was green and the air still and quiet, even with a huge amount of tourists. I am hoping that all those people who endured what they did are finally at peace.

Finally a very late train brought us back to Warsaw just after midnight... fine we think, we will just sleep in the next day.... you can almost the bell signing Baa Boowww. Tomorrow morning we have a 6.30am pick up for Prague. Yay ... 4 hours sleep. Just what I always wanted.

Day Fourteen - Under the Surface

So today we ventured away from the hotel. I’m going to be honest in my impressions so please bare in mind these are just my thoughts. Warsaw is ugly and beautiful all in one. Now that I have gotten the word ugly out of my system let me explain. It’s odd because no matter where you go you get the old basic almost grim looking apartment blocks. We went and saw the Old Town Square (major tourist attraction), which looked like something out of a Disney movie. The buildings we picturesque, there were pidgins fluttering around, tourists taking pictures and lovely little outdoor cafes were you can sit and relax and just watch the world go by.

We also visited the Warsaw Castle and while by no means as over the top as Buckingham Palace it was still mindblowingly excessive and well worth a visit.

That is the good … now for the ugly, its actually a really dark city, not so much as in weather because the weather has been better than perfect but it feels dark, I suppose that the feeling is compounded because I rarely see any of the locals smile. As Australians we natural say hello and smile as we go into any shop, restaurant or market but here no one smiles and as I was walking down the street laughing at something Ben said I actually got some really bad looks. I think we stood out as tourists not because of the way we dress but the fact that we walked with smile on our faces.

Ok enough dark and ugly thoughts, I will say one thing. Polish woman know how to dress and dress well, heels, boots, scarves and hats are all the norm and I just cant get enough of it. I have to literally hold myself back from going crazy in their shops… Think about the weight limit on planes, you do not need another pair of gloves or scarf!

Day Thirteen - Travel Woes and First Impressions

This morning was our first train trip of the holiday. I was slightly nervous when I woke up because give me an airport and I have it sussed … however as you have read, trains I am not so confident on. I think its because ultimately on a plane, if it’s the wrong one they wont let you on but with a train there is so much more room for error.

We got to the station early because I really like being early, it makes be breath slightly easier only to find they only put the platform number up on the screen 20 minutes prior to the train leaving. That’s fine, we asked a lovely girl to assist us and she told us the train would be arriving on platform 2. Sitting on platform 2 waiting patiently for our train we noticed the “Warsaw Express” sitting at platform 8 … hmm is it really possible that there are two express trains leaving at the same time… I think not. After sending hubby off to check it out he came screaming back at top speed yelling that it was our train and it was about to leave. No waiting patiently for the lift for me … no I was stuck dragging my 25kg suitcase (Yes it has gotten heavier but lets ignore that for now) up and then down a rather fast escalator. Imagine if you will my crazy husband running at top speed with a super large suitcase yelling the top of his voice “Run snuggle bunny Run”. Our of respect for myself I am not going to comment on his nickname for me but suffice to say, it would have been hilarious if it was not for the fact we actually were panicking about missing our train. We did make the train, just and with the help of everyone in our compartment we even got off at the right stop. However we then managed to get severely lost in the Warsaw train station taking 45 minutes of running around trying to figure out where we were to start with so we could get out.

So now my first impressions on Warsaw.  It’s a rather interesting city so far and please bare in mind that I have only had a few hours so far to base my opinions. We are situated in an area that seems to have quite a few large shopping centres and also the major tourist bureau. The new building are so modern and architectural it almost makes my head hurt however in juxtaposition it seems that right next door are extremely old and rundown sometimes derelict apartment buildings you expect to only see in the more dodgy areas of the city.

So they are my thoughts however to be honest, even though they are rather run down or derelict they are almost beautiful in their neglect … weird I know so I have put together a couple of pictures for you so you can see what I mean.

We have not yet visited the old town or the market square which seem to have a few more historical buildings so please understand that these thoughts are really only my first impressions.

Day Twelve - Behind The Wall

Do you ever have one of those “oh my god” moment where it all just comes together. Yesterday we wandered around and got a half assed view of how things were when the wall was still standing. Today we did one of the best tours I have ever come across which not only gave me a complete view of how it was but also answered all the where what’s and why's as well.

The guide was actually present during the war, first as a member of the English army but then as a British Liason Officer who’s main job was to gain intelligence in a covert fashion. He told the most amazing stories about how he would go behind the wall for days at a time gathering information and just how difficult it was to assimilate with the Eastern Germans. He told us stories about escapes from the wall and all the while we walked the length of the wall and saw first hand how things had changed before and after the wall had gone up and also now that we wall has been torn down.

There are still sections of the wall throughout the city and its amazing because they even run through major office buildings. Both sides of the wall hated it and the graffiti and damage to the wall was almost insane.

Did you know there were ghost railway stations? Did you know that the Soviets were so clever they put the wall (barbed wire to start with) up between midnight at six in the morning… 127km’s of barrier done in a matter of hours. Did you know that days before the wall went up one fifth of the East German population defected … one fifth … far out.

It was a 4 hour tour that overran to six hours. It was so interesting the day flew by and I was so impressed not only with the information given but the manor the information was presented I cant begin to tell you how much you have to do this tour if you ever happen to be in Berlin.

So now my feet are tired yet again, my head is full and I'm going to go and try and pack to make tomorrow easier.

Oh yes and my favorite saying for today is “All German’s have a little policeman trying to get out”