Wonderful Wroclaw

Hello! I'm in Wroclaw!

My plans have changed quite a bit! But I'll get to that in a sec... I'll try to keep things in chronological order :-)

The end of the conference was really good! We went out to a nightclub (NOT a "Gentleman's Night Club" on Sat night, and it was quite good! Unfortunately the Spaniards had left by then... Thanks for leaving a message so soon David! I guess after looking at lace curtains all day, any distraction is a good distraction? haha. Seems like ppl are beginning to comment... inc cool team canada ppl, the greek guys (I'll post our photo soon!), some frenchies and KC... haha... I forgot your address, you forgot my web address, we can call it even, yeah??? :-)

Yeah polish ppl dance really well! I can't remember if I told you about the dancing before, but the guys ask for the gal's hand and then dance, spin them, zip around etc. It's really kewl! I'm not that good... grabbed Aga's (Agnieszka's) hand and had a go but I'm not good... least I didn't knock her out! ;-)

OK... so the last night at the conference was great. The last day ppl left at all different times. I stayed around till the end, and it ended up that Dom had organised me a lift with some polish ppl in a mini bus! It was great! We had a walk in a Zakopane valley for 1/2 hr or so, then continued on our way. The original plan was to go to Krakow, wake up early, catch a bus or train to Katovice (where the Czech embassy is), then get a Czech visa. But, even better, the bus ppl said it was OK to drop me straight at Katovice for the night. Now Katovice is an industrial coal? mining town, so it's not that nice. There's one youth hostel, which only cost me 16zl (about $7AUD). It took a while to find... numbering of buildings around here is *really* weird! But I don't have long enough at the net cafe to wake up grumbling.

So, I stayed in the youth hostel, and needed to get to the Czech embassy early. One attendent (the one at night) said I could catch a bus or walk to the embassy, but in the morning I asked to see a map (I hate not having a map!). The new (morning) attendent couldn't find it on the map! After negotiating and conversing in guesture-polish-english, I decided to just pay for a taxi to get me there!

Btw... this was Mon, 30th Sep.

So, I arrived at the Czech consulate at 9am (it opened at 9am) and there was a reasonably sized queue. After waiting for 3 hours, I didn't get in! (Although I ended up about 3 from the front)... and it closes at 12! So... that was annoying.

BUT... in the queue I met some Aussies... and they were talking about where to go (they have a camper-van-coachy-thing). They mentioned that Australians don't need a visa to go to Slovakia! And... Bratislava is *really* close to Vienna! So... we walked to the Slovak consulate, and double-confirmed that we didn't need visas, then I left the 4 Aussie travellers to get some food.

So... over some beef stroganoff for lunch, I realised going north first would make more sense. I messaged Kaz (the Polish guy I met in London) to say I would soon be in Wroclaw, and caught a train to Wroclaw. Arriving at 8pm-ish, I found a youth hostel, ate some good pizza and caught some good zzzzz's. (Yes I ate a lot! At Katovice I didn't eat anything for dinner, and my first meal the next day was after waiting 3hrs in line! I wasn't feeling too good after that!)

The next morning... I called Kaz to ask if we could meet that night for dinner or something... but when he asked "where are you" and I said "near the train station" he said "I'll see you there in 2 mins"... arghh! He was driving past the train station at the time! I was trying to give him at least 1/2 a days notice before we met... but it turns out there are NO laundromats in Wroclaw (or in many places in Poland...!!!!) and I needed to wash desperately! (Like... the definition of what was a clean and dirty clothe was having to be changed!).

Anyway... so I was at Kaz's house, which is really nice, doing washing, waiting while he was at work in the morning for him to pick me up for lunch and to show me his office. But, his wife walked in, and he hadn't told her about me being there! So she was really shocked... and I didn't know what to say... it was *really* strange! I felt so bad! I still haven't really seen her in a normal environment, as last night I went out to a pub with Kaz's son Peter and his girlfriend.

Today I woke up, ate brekky and was dropped into central Wroclaw. I walked around a bit, went to Orbis (travel agents) and worked out what trains I have to catch to go from Krakow to Bratislava... the direct trains all go through Czech republic, so I have to go to an obscure (prolly not for the Slovakians!) town first, then change trains. The trip to Bratislava will cost less than $100, plus the cost for the short trip to Vienna. I may stay a day or two in Bratislava... it sounds quite nice.

At 11am I met Gosha (Malgosha, with a l slash thing they have in Polish that sounds like "w"), Kaz's daughter, and her Australian friend here on Rotary exchange. So I was given a very informative guided tour. She left to attend classes again, and I went to the Panorama (an old huge circular painting thing... it looked really kewl) and to the Architectural Museum.

*phew* finally you're up to date. My plans from now!

* Visit Tomek and Jola in Opole (south on the train line from here... I'll be there at 11am tomorrow)
* Go to Krakow for a few days, including a day trip to Auchwitz... not a "good" place to visit, but interesting... part of the European experience. So much of everything here has religous, social, cultural and racial overtones....!!
* Go to Bielsko-Biala and visit Agniezska and her bf (who was always so busy at the conference I never worked out how to spell his name!)
* Then the train to Slovakia!

So I'm spending longer than I thought in Poland, but the people are really nice, the place is kewl, well Wroclaw definitely, (maybe not Katovice!) and I can save cash... or live very well!

OK I think that's all for now... as always tons of stories have been left and maybe some will appear in later entries!

Catchya!

Posted by Sam at October 01, 2002 09:13 PM