All Aboard.....

I'm off to Prague tomorrow morning by train after a buffet breakfast at the cheap hotel I'm staying at in Wroclaw. I tried to find a hostel for a hours wandering the streets only to find all three were full. On the bright side, the traffic is right outside my window which will be helpful in waking me up. Tonight is my last night in Poland and I have been surprised to have found the country to be more pleasant than I anticipated.

Unfortunately, gone are the days of East Europe been uncharted and hence, cheap travel option. Poland was more expensive than I thought it would be (approx $50 a day) and from what my fellow travellers are telling me, Luthania. Estonia, Ukraine, Belaruis, Russia (especially Moscow) is more expensive with their acceptance in the EU and flood of travelers. Oh well, I think I'm planning to head south to Bosnia and Slovania and maybe take boat to Italy. I'll see how that goes.

I really like Krakow and Warsaw. Karkow was a nice little city with the compact old town, city square and castle all sitting in a hill. I visited Schnindler's factory and Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps and I found it quite moving. I never realized how big the Birkenau camp was and when the guide explained the whole process of transporting and gasing the victims, it was such an awful way to die. Looking at the pictures of the victims, empty suitcases, glasses, cut hair (to be used for textiles) was really sad. I ended talking with a Auschwitz survivor at the factory as he showed me his tatooed arm and spoke a little about how his experience affected his life. Apparrently, one of his friends was on Schindler's List.

Warsaw is their capital city but despite it's wide streets and skyscrappers, I found it likeable city and easy to find your way. Plus, the Pope was in town and I got a chance to attend mass with about 100 000 people. The feel of anticipation along the streets was infectious as people were lined along the closed streets and groups of people were singing. Apparently, when the Pope visits a Polish city, no alcohol is served or sold in that city. The English and Australians I was with at a bar were in utter shock when they stopped selling acohol at 1 a.m. for the next two days.

People are friendly and polite in Poland when you approach them but they rarely come to you, all their vegatables and fruits are organic (onions don't look this small at home) and they have rough toilet paper here,.

All the best whereever you are