Steffi’s Blog

well…I’m back ! Without blablaing too much now I want to get back to our holidays immediately.
The first thing we experienced on our way to Poland was the bus journey from Riga to Warsaw. That was already very adventurous for us though I did expect something even worse. Anyway, our bus set off from Riga at 10pm to arrive in Warsaw at 9am (Polish time - which is equal to German time). That meant we had loads of time on the bus. We were quite reluctant when the bus finally arrived in Riga and we got rid of our luggage in the depths of the vehicle ! Well, we got on the bus through the door at the rear and tried to find two suitable seats for us…but at some point we realised that maybe we should have entered at the front so that the driver could check our tickets and make a tick on his list - oooops. So, Felix, brave as he is, got up and brought our tickets to the driver…fortunately he was not mad at us - puh ! We were quite lucky that the journey was an over night one so we could at least try to get some sleep while crossing Eastern Europe. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t a problem for me to sleep there…I mean I had the best shoulder to lean against ! The bus was packed with many strange people…so we had also the possibility to make fun of the others !

Anyway, we arrived in Warsaw in time after two interesting border crossings (Lithuania and Poland) and the only thing we had to do now was to get to the train station. So we got off the bus…both of us saw a train passing by but…and walked out of the bus station to get a taxi. There was no lack of taxis in front of the bus station…and one of the drivers tried to get us into his car almost immediately. So, Felix in his fluent Polish (sorry ) spoke to him and asked him how much it would cost us to get to the train station. Anyway, apparently Felix thought the price to be a fair one and so we got on the taxi. We approached the station after about three minutes and had to pay 60 Zlotys ! Great start into our first Polish day…Felix was pissed off because the taxi driver ripped us off and I was tired (and maybe a bit pissed off as well?!) etc. Well, we entered the train station with our next mission ahead of us: getting tickets to Cracow. Hm, that was easier said than done. There were quite a few ticket desks but it wasn’t very easy to figure out which one we could have needed. Apparently some of them were only for IC (fast train) tickets and the others were for all or slow trains only or what?? JESUS, I didn’t - and still don’t - know! Anyway, after a while I was so pissed off that I demanded of Felix to ask anybody and I didn’t give a damn any longer whom he asked. So, brave as he is, he walked towards one of the IC desks and asked the nice, elderly woman in Polish about a ticket to Cracow. I was really very impressed…it sounded as if Felix knew absolutely well what he was doing so…and I’m sure he had the best intentions but somehow something went a bit wrong since we did get tickets but certainly not those I wanted us to get. Hm, I don’t know why but Felix didn’t want to take the earlier train at 10am but got us tickets for the 12.30pm train which meant for us…a) wait for 3 hours, b) expect a 5,5 hours train ride and c) be late for our appointment with the appartment owner…great I was in the best mood ever and somehow I think Felix didn’t feel very much better! So, ahead of us lay Poland’s capital, more or less enough time to explore a bit of it but not very much money and in a mood…well, let’s not speak of that . Fortunately, the very nice and interesting building ‘Palace of Culture and Science’ was just around the corner of the train station. So, we set off with all our luggage to have a look at that and call our landlord to tell him about our delay (cool, I hate to call unknown people but unknown people in a foreign country do make it so much better). Ja, I have to admit that I became a lot more relaxed after the guy assured us that it would still be alright if we would come to get the keys at 7pm. We sat down in a park in front of the huge building to lick our wounds ! It was really like a miracle that nothing worse happened - we were still talking to each other and were just a bit angry and tired and hungry and and and. So after a while we decided to get some coffees. The world did look a lot better again after the coffee and the text from the landlord. We finally got on our train in a much higher spirit and set off to Cracow.

There’s not much to tell about the journey on the train…it was rather long…well, at least longer than I had expected it to be but except that nothing much happened on the train except one thing: we passed our bus station - there was another train station right beside the bus station where we arrived . We arrived in the capital of culture in time and we decided to ask the tourist information immediately about our street. This time we were more than lucky, it was very close to the train station as well as the Old Town. Okay dokay, yet another walk ! And there was even more luck on its way…we arrived at ‘our’ place a bit early and it was all kind of confusing: it said on my confirmation that the appartment is No 48, in fact, there was 48, 48a, b and c and we thought (Western European as we are… ) if it says 48 that it meant 48. Some minutes past 7pm, some neighbours passed by and asked us what we were doing…it was so funny they talked to us in English and asked us after a while if both of us were English…we said no and I answered that I am German…and immediately they started to talk with me in almost natural German and although it had already happened to us with two elderly women in Warsaw I was really very surprised and happy to hear that apparently they are not at all angry any longer about Germany and the Polish-German history ! And thanks to those people we found out that we stood in front of the wrong house, it was 48c after all…

So we met with a very kind young man with an impressive knowledge of the German language as well…I did the talking - in German - while he showed as around the apartment. Every now and then he looked curiously at Felix, waiting for approval and that was certainly one of the greatest moments for me…but Felix did very well, smiling and nodding, smiling and nodding ! The apartment was really a more or less complete success, it was very nice and we even had a balcony ! Since it was already quite late we only unpacked our things and went back to the train station to get some food. When we came back to ‘our’ home we fell asleep rather happy with our lives…!

There’s not too much to write about the following two days since we ‘only’ walked through the Old Town of Cracow. This was really interesting and after the slight disappointment of Riga simply beautiful. The Old Town of Cracow is just gorgeous and very cheap as well ! So, we walked and walked and walked, saw beautiful buildings, bought loads of lody and I drank some piwu (ice cream and beer - two of the very few words I learned though certainly the most important ones ). On Tuesday we also visited Wawel Castle which was very gorgeous and impressive as well but I guess it’ll be much better if you just take a look at the pictures I took…they might give you a better impression of everything we saw in the Old Town. At the beginning we wanted (or to be precise I wanted…) to buy some edible things because we didn’t get any breakfast but after a while we decided that it is easily affordable to go out and eat - it is really ridiculously cheap. We really had one hot meal per day and some other stuff during the day. The Monday was unfortunately rather short since we so wasted it with having been pissed off with each other. However, I don’t think I should go more into that, it was really not funny at all and of no public interest… .

The Tuesday, on the other hand, was one of our best days in Poland…We took a bus to Auschwitz/Birkenau and visited the concentration camps there. I guess this would be impressive for anybody but for me it was really very moving. The bus connection between Cracow and Auschwitz is quite good and not very expensive (we had to pay 7 Zl one way for the 70km ride). We arrived there at around noon though unfortunately with about one million other visitors… ! The museum is free and you can either go alone or join a guided group (which was free as well). We decided for the first option, we didn’t want to be a part of a big pack of tourists and we wanted to decide ourselves what to see and for how long! It would really burst this entry if I would write about every little detail we saw or what was there but I nevertheless want to write a bit more about Auschwitz since it is such a huge thing in the memory of many people and I want to try and write down some of my feelings about this place as I promised in the previous post.

Auschwitz/Birkenau: Well, as I already mentioned before there were very many tourists there as well. On the one hand that was a bit unfortunate because it took away the atmosphere of the place a bit but on the other hand…the place lives off the visitors…and if we are allowed to go and see the museum so are others ! There were exhibitions about many topics though many of them were related to each other. We didn’t go into all of them since we didn’t have sooo much time (we wanted to visit Birkenau as well and we wanted to see a Chopin concert in the evening) but the ones we saw gave us really enough of an overview about the terrible things that happened there. In one of the rooms they even showed the hair of dead women which the Nazis still used afterwards - simply horrible. I think there were two moments when I was really shocked and very close to tears. One of them was when we stood in front of the wall where the Nazis shot all those innocent people and the other one was when we had a look at pictures of the people who were in the concentration camp, with their dates of birth and death. Many of them were still quite young, almost children. I was really so glad that Felix was with me, so we could talk a lot about it and apparently he understood how I felt.

There was a shuttle-bus service between the two camps, Auschwitz and Birkenau, and after a few hours in Auschwitz we went with the bus to Birkenau. Auschwitz is built more like a museum with exhibitions and all that whereas Birkenau is a huge area with barracks and ruins on it to give the visitors an impression of how it had looked like in the Third Reich. Though Birkenau was certainly very impressive as well…for me it was not at all as moving as Auschwitz - I can’t really tell the reason for that. At Birkenau I told Felix about some of my thoughts: Are we Germans still more guilty than other people? Do I, as a German, have to be more guilty? We talked about this for quite a while and I know that it is neither my fault nor that of any other living German/human being but you really have to see it and feel it and maybe you’ll understand what I felt.
Please feel free to have a look at the pictures of Auschwitz/Birkenau. I’m certain that they won’t be able to give you the feelings I had either but maybe they’ll tell some bits and pieces of the story of the concentration camp Auschwitz/Birkenau. It was really a very impressive and moving trip and I would always recommend it to anybody!

In the evening Felix took me (or rather convinced me) with him to a Chopin concert…Well, everybody who knows me does know that usually those are two things that don’t go together - me and concerts of classical music ! Though I’m sure that nobody could name a reason for this and afterwards I wouldn’t have been able to name one either. It was simply great, I enjoyed it a lot. I had my good things with me in the rucksack since we were on tour all day but I just didn’t want to go to a concert in my oldest things…! We bought our tickets and I vanished into the bathroom…and out came a beautiful young lady - well, not quite like this (probably not even near to it but)…! I don’t really know what to write about the concert because I don’t have a clue about these things. So the only thing that is left is to say that I absolutely enjoyed and liked it! And just one more thing to make you jealous and let you know about the Polish prices…After the concert we went for a meal. The restaurant is on the market square, so it is probably not one of the cheapest. Both of us had a big beer, a starter, a huge meal (neither of us finished it) and…did we have anything else??? Well, anyway, we paid about 15€ for both of us ! And for all the smokers…cigarettes are about 1,50-2€ !

We did plan yet another day trip for the next day (Wednesday) but since we couldn’t decide on a destination and the sky was very grey for quite a while we didn’t go anywhere ! That was really a bit of a shame…there’s sooo much to see around Cracow but you simply need more time. So, there was yet another day in the Old Town ahead of us . Though it was a pity to spend our last day like this it wasn’t the worst choice…it gave us the opportunity to say ‘goodbye’ to Cracow! Maybe you are smiling at the expression but we really already felt a bit at home there and we promised ourselves that we will come back sometime.
So we bought our tickets to the airport for the following morning…this connection is just great…compared to Dublin or many other airports. We had to take a train at 8.35am since Felix’s plane set off at 11.15am. Unfortunately, the train didn’t arrive at Cracow station …anyway, we simply took the next one (9am) and were still in time. Hm, until the early morning I was really strong, I always told myself: “Don’t worry, you’ll see him again very soon!”. Jaja, those who know me will know what comes now…I couldn’t suppress the tears and by the time we arrived the airport…ach well, why should I write about it…many of you will know what happened ! And I hope you’ll forgive me when I shorten this airport day a lot because it was such a horrible day for me. My eyes burnt and I had a headache because of all these tears and I still had to spend 11 long hours there since my flight only set off at 9.30pm. Felix was so good and left me most of his Polish money, so I had 10 Zlotys to spend in 11 hours and the coffee I needed so urgently costed already 7 Zlotys ! Anyway, I’m sure you can imagine how happy I was in the end (despite having been alone again) to arrive at home in time!

In the end there’s not much to add except that Poland was so beautiful and the people we met were so kind and wonderful - we had such a great time there and I really hope that we can go there again very soon?! I hope that the pictures I took will show many of you how great Poland and Cracow itself were and I can give only one advice: Go there and see it yourself ! I know that the two holiday posts are very long but I really do hope that most of you weren’t afraid of reading it. I guess those who did work themselves through ‘our holiday’ are not disappointed…?!

Okay, my dears, I will try to write again very soon though I will be without internet for quite a while now. I will move back to Freiburg tomorrow night and stay there for one week before I visit Dublin and all the friends over there again. Unfortunately, I will get internet and telephon only afterwards. So for everybody who doesn’t know my address yet and is keen to write me a letter…I will give it to you very soon !
Until then take care everybody and be hugged,

your Steffi

PS: There’s one more thing I’d like to add: Even though Felix and I had some occasional ‘difficulties’ or Felix had them with me or did I have them with him? Anyway, all that doesn’t matter at all to me. So, Fips, I’d like to say Thank you for the wonderful time.