Luckily the turnaround time for the connecting flight was only half an hour, and we only felt the bitter Baltic wind momentarily as we disembarked the plane onto a shuttle bus which carted us to the terminal. I've never been this far north before, and flying towards Riga, we could see that Latvia is still in the thawing out process from the harsh winter – snow and slush everywhere on the flat landscape.
The flight to Warsaw was effortless, again impressed with AirBaltic. Upon arrival at Frederick Chopin airport, we collected our bags and tried to get our bearings in the first country on our journey I thought we would struggle not speaking the native tongue. I could smell a strong aroma of alcohol, not an uncommon phenomenon when I'm involved – but this smell was all too familiar. Fearing the worse, I unpacked my main back and found that my precious, aged 10yr Talisker single malt whisky in my hip flask had leaked its contents all over my clothes and personal effects. (Any whiskey donations are greatly appreciated.) Passing the usual taxi touts, we managed to find the bus stop outside the front of the terminal for bus 175 to Warsaw Central train station. Luckily the bus was empty when we barged onto it with our bags on our fronts and our backs. What followed was a relatively relaxing journey to the train station with few bemused (but always stern), looks at two obvious tourists.
When the bus arrived at the train station, as to be expected we were utterly clueless as to where to go. We knew what time our train to Krakow was so we had a focus – all we needed to do what find the platform and secure two tickets. After much blundering and with the help of an English speaking youngster. we handed over 86 Zloty (PLN) to the grumpy ticket man and we were on our way.
No food had passed my lips for at least 2 hours and I was beginning to feel a bit peckish, as well and dreading the prospect of facing the full wrath of a grumpy Eloise if no food was consumed, we wandered around the underground network of stalls and little shops. We pointed at a bag of crisps to a woman behind her stall, 6PLN she typed on her calculator and presented it to me.. 'SIX ZLOTY!' I said, 'No way!' and walked off leaving the grumpy old woman, grumpier. We eventually coughed up for some salad and bread for our 3 ½ hour journey – We felt a bit better. Already I've noticed the distinct lack of English, both written and spoken. I know is a typically arrogant English thing to mention, but it's a new experience for us. I've never really been anywhere that doesn’t understand the core English basics; 'Menu' and 'Beer'.
The platform was rammed when we finally found it, each platform had two tracks, then each track had different sections, adding to the confusion. Suddenly after some garbled chatter on the tannoy, the crowd all hurriedly pushed and shoved to the other end of the track some 100 metres down. Playing it cool and taking our time, we loaded ourselves up again with our bags and slowly wandered down, thinking we could just hop onto the back of the train: leaving the masses fighting for seats. What a mistake.
The train rolled in and went well past us, and partly past the massive crowd. People were running all over the place, pushing and shoving to climb on board. Not even 100% sure that this was the right train to Krakow, we scrambled on and squeezed ourselves into a space right by the door. I was scanning around trying to find some sign that we were on the right train, looking for anything with a 'K' and finishing with a 'W'. Eventually I gave in and hoped that we were going the right way as nothing came up on the screens that I could read and I managed to relax a bit, thinking that it's highly probable that the other passengers were all heading back to Poland’s second biggest city. Soon we stopped, more people crammed on leaving us with no space whatsoever. An hour passed and our legs were killing. A group of students with bags produced 2 or 3 cans of beer I didn’t recognise and passed them round each other, all taking a sip and passing it on.
We were now suffering and like true English, started moaning at how sore our legs were and how much we needed to sit down. Looking around, the Pole's were just getting on with it, stern as per usual but not visibly uncomfortable as the two whining tourists, clearly not used to long distance intercity train rides. 3 hours past and finally a stop, some people disembarked and I managed to push a student out of the way and sit my tired behind down onto the dirty train floor.
We rolled into Krakow station, loaded up again and left the train. Eloise's Polish friend Ela and boyfriend Przemek had kindly said that we could stay with them during our stay in Krakow, we were looking forward to the comfort of a sofa and a hot cup of tea! Eloise and Ela met while working for Edwina Ibbotson, and then later at Misa Harada, both two of the worlds most respected milliners. They whisked us back to their apartment on the outskirts of Krakow. Ela said her cat had recently had an operation and was a bit delicate (she had been neutered). Their place was lovely and the warm hospitality really appreciated. Ela made us a massive bowl of pasta and fed us beers – perfect! All of a sudden, my eyes were drawn to the cat, sat there watching me wearing what looked like a funny green straight jacket; hiding one of it's front legs. Then it moved and was clearly apparent that it only had 3 legs! I couldn’t believe it, it keep cracking me up watching her hobbling around, totally unhindered by her disability- hilarious!
The next day after a solid 8 hour sleep, Przemek showed us where he worked; The highest point in Krakow overlooking the city. He works for RMF national radio and is a popular prime time DJ. It was interesting to see where he worked and listen to his funny stories about the famous people he's interviewed, particularly what a gentlemen 50 Cent is!
He dropped Eloise, Ela and myself off in town and Ela showed us the sights of this historical city.
I've never been anywhere that has so many churches and pictures of Pope Jean Paul the 2nd! We sat in the main square, had a beer and went to a nice restaurant for lunch. I then managed to get my head around the Zloty / Pound conversion, roughly 5/1, and realised how rude I’d been to the poor woman when trying to buy my crisps!
It was really sunny on the Monday and we all got a bit sunburnt sat in the square, much to my surprise. Not for long though as it started to rain buckets a bit later on, a repeating trend for Polish weather I'd later understand. On every street corner there are ladies selling fresh bagels and pretzels – sesame, salt, poppyseed, chilli and linseed coated, all for about 25 pence – dangerously cheap when Stuart's around! The buses in Krakow are either the standard bendy buses one would see in London; or privately run mini-buses that take people to destination outside the city.
The next day we went by mini bus to Oświęcim where the Auschwitz / Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camps are situated. Being only an hour or so away we thought we should go and see it as we were in the neighbourhood. It was to be expected: Grim and depressing.
A lot of the parts our guide showed us were untouched and left in an original state. We then drove a few kilometres away to the Birkenau camp. I couldn’t believe how massive the place was. Some of the barracks (once stables intended for 52 German horses – then used to house 800+ Jewish prisoners) had been refurbished slightly to show the conditions the forced labours had to live in. The Nazis had blown up the 2 main gas chambers when they retreated but the rubble remains as it was. Nasty stuff!
The next day was a much more jovial affair when Eloise and I headed for Zakopane, the 'Alps' of Poland. The coach journey took 2 ½ hours to get there, working our way up to the mountains were saw mountain houses were built in a certain, quaint style under the shadows of the snowy peaks. The bus dropped us off and as expected, we were totally clueless as to where to go. We found a information centre and picked up the ever handy tourist map. These maps are fast becoming the single most helpful item I've had some far on our journey – without them we would have been ruined several times! After paying 2 PLN some drunk old boy to go to the toilet (a fee you must pay in most places I went), we headed into town and toward the mountains.
As Przemek had foretold, Zackopane was a bit of a tourist trap and prices were higher than that in Krakow – good job we have become proficient in the art of sandwich making! After having our home made snacks, we choose an entry path to the mountain and began working our way up to it. Standard procedure for me is to wind Eloise up somewhat, so I started telling her things to go if one spots a bear in the forest; scream and shout and run towards it – you know, the usual stuff. Then in the distance I see a massive Bear warning sign written n Polish! Great.
What followed was a good few hour walk up into the mountains, some lovely views and clean fresh air. Unfortunately we didn’t run into any mountain people Przemek said we would see!
We had to head back down the mountain to get our coach as it was getting late. We had some time to kill so decided to head into Costa Coffee (an English chain coffee shop). The place was empty, and with English price tags we knew why, but it was nice to sit somewhere quiet and familiar while we waited for our couch back to Warsaw.
I'm starting to get used to the distances involved now in foreign countries. With England being so small, and everything only ever being a few hours away; In a place like Poland all you can do is relax and look out the window and watch the world go by.
On our last full day in Krakow we relaxed in the morning in a café and did some much needed internet things like booking our Moscow and Ulan Bator hostels, also using Skype for the first time with Eloise's mum and dad – great program! We chilled there for several hours taking full advantage of the 1PLN Espressos before 12pm (less than 20p!), then wandered around the city, stopping off for a beer or two looking for some gifts to buy our kind hosts. Prior to coming to Poland, it never dawned on me to buy a phrase book. It was my thinking that we would chaperoned around Poland by Ela and Przemek and it never really entered my mind that we would need to speak any Polish. Stupid really. You can only get so far when all you can say is 'Yes' and 'Thank you'.
That evening we went to Ela and Przemek favourite pizza restaurant in Krakow, Ela recommend I tried the Diavola, the spiciest one! Being the red blooded man I am, I could not refuse such an offer. You'll be happy to know I was sweating buckets and bright red within minutes... Full of Pizza and beer we drove to the Jewish quarter of town. There are whole apartments that have been left as they were during the war when Jewish Poles were taken from their homes. Because of legal ownership issues they remain largely untouched.
Eloise and I felt well and truly out of the tourist areas now and doubted if we'd have ever found the bars we were taken too. The 1st place was only lit by candles, but was a excellent bar populated with kool Krakow kids. The rooms within were either decorated to imitate; or left untouched since war times, and one can drink beer and down vodkas in somebodies back room in a small house. The next place I was truly unsure about, I cant remember the name now, but it was a 3 level bar/club with blacked out windows and pounding music heard from outside.
Fearing a pummelling from Polish meat heads, we ascended into the darkness, past a mean looking bouncer and into a time warp. Old relics and trinkets lined the walls, old Polish communist party memorabilia behind glass – a blast from the past. We didn’t stay long, but any English stag groups who venture from the main town to this place are in for a treat – I've never seen so many girls dancing in one place! At the final bar, I had a glass of hot mead which made me want my bed more than anything.
The next morning was our last in Krakow and we spent some time packing our bags and finalising everything before our journey to St Petersburg (Russia). Heading back on the train to Warsaw was not something I was looking forward too. We knew we had a whole day of travelling ahead, so we said our final goodbyes to Ela, Przemek and Tosia the 3 legged cat and set off on the train once more. Securing a seat this time around was pivotal, and we only just managed to achieve this. It was a total miracle that Ela had taught me how to say 'Hello, two tickets to Warsaw please' quite literally minutes before we got on the train. This helped out loads when the toothless ticket inspector barked something at me!
Onto Riga once more for a connection to St Petersburg, the only excitement being that Eloise clocked Trinny and Susanna (English style guru TV presenters) at Fredrick Chopin airport. We would arrive in Riga at 22:30 local time, and catch our connection to St Petersburg at 06:30am – which meant sleeping at the airport. I was strangely excited about the prospect of this, but little did I know that it would be a nightmare...
Ella Gajewska is the only Milliner in Poland that creates couture, bespoke Millinery. Check her site out here:
Ella Gajewska Millinary
