Krakow and a sombre note

The past couple of days have been spent in Krakow. My first impression from hanging around the main square the evening we arrived was that its citizens had the most flair of any I have seen in other European cities! I was really quite impressed, and then I thought, 'I want a piece of this... Take me to the shops!'

Unfortunately we didn't find the cool shops, though we did spend a nice afternoon in the Jewish quarter, where it seemed some of the cool kids hang out. We found that we had to have a relaxing afternoon after our harrowing trip to Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau that morning.

We took a tour out there and on the bus they showed a doco about the liberation of Auschwitz. I think that it actually made me feel physically ill, so after the distress of the film, walking around the actual camps didn't seem as bad. Even walking through the barracks (like the one below that housed up to 1000 prisoners!), and seeing the gas chamber made it difficult to picture the scale of what was happening and the atrocious things that were going on there. We were glad that we went, but it certainly wasn't an enjoyable experience, that's for sure.

But, onto more positive things, tonight we are in Warsaw (and seeing posters of Hugh Jackman advertising iced tea everywhere!), because tomorrow morning we fly to St Petersburg! My next post shall come from the land of the bare-chested-tiger-hunting President.

Tom in the limelight in Zakopane

So I mentioned I would post some pics from Zakopane. I didn't leave the hostel too much - at least not enough to get any interesting snaps. But Tom certainly did some pretty scenic things. First day he went hiking, and second day he went skiing. Here are some self-portraits, beard and all. He will happily take any comments on how red the beard is looking.

On our last day in Zakopane, we went for a walk around, and came across a little second hand clothing store where we bought a couple of things. I tried to bargain with the lady on prize, but she would have none of it, and stood her ground. I had to dash off to find an ATM for cash, but Tom stayed with her, while I was off, and they had a good old chat. Apparently Tom tried to explain where we were from, but I don't think she understood, because when we left she said aufwiedersehen, so maybe she thought we were from Austria?

3 countries, 1 day, and what a tale to tell

I have a cold so have taken to my bed in the hostel for most of today. Good opportunity to update the ole blog. See posts below for Budapest snaps and an account of Eger. This post will tell the tale of yesterday...

Our next big destination is Krakow, and we decided that instead of going back through Budapest we would try and head north straight from Eger. It took us a while to determine a train and bus route, given the small challenges of large mountains and crossing two borders, but we had it all worked out. We decided we would have two nights in Zakopane, Poland, to break up the trip. Tom still held onto the small hope that there might be snow.

The plan was to catch the local Eger train to the nearby town of Fuzesabony, from where we would get onto a train that would take us straight to Kosice in Slovakia. We would then catch a train to Poprad (Slovakia), then catch the bus over the Tatras and into Poland and Zakopane.

So yesterday morning we set out from our nice comfy guesthouse in Eger to make the 7:34 train to Fuzesabony. When we arrived in Fuzesabony, we asked someone where the train to Kosice was, to be told (we think) that we had missed it. Unfortunately for our plan to work, we were relying on the promptness of our first train, and the tardiness of our second. Bother.

So we headed to Miskolc, in the hope that might expand our options. Turned out the next train to Kosice wasn't until 8:30 PM! Having none of that, and looking on a map in the train station, we decided to catch a train to a town close to the border with Slovakia. Happy days, there was one at the station that very minute.

We hopped on, having no real idea where it was taking us, given it didn't make an appearance in our 2 guidebooks that covered Hungary, or what we would do next. Turned out, it took us to Hidasnemeti.

From speaking as much as possible to the official in the rail station he said that only the 8:30 PM train would go through Hidasnemeti onto Kosice, but that we might be able to get a bus if we walked for about 2-3 kms.

So we set off down the road, and after a while, reached a bus stop. Only problem was, the bus was still apparently4 hours away, and we didn't know where it would take us, even when it came. So we continued walking into the next small town - not too far. We asked in the bar there, and they said that the border to Slovakia was about 8kms away, and Kosice about 26kms. Our spirits sank slightly. But a decision was made to continue walking. Low and behold, about 800m out of town, the Slovakian border appeared! Hurrah. Never try to calculate distances when you've had a few beers at 11:00 in the morning! Here we are, with Hungary behind us and all the transport options of Slovakia ahead of us:

Then, we saw on the horizon a petrol station. No we were not hallucinating from the hot sun and lack of water, it was a real petrol station!

Unfortunately we didn't have any money that would be of use to a (still fictional) bus driver in Slovakia, and the petrol station attendant wouldn't let us take cash out. But he did mention a town, 2-3 kms up the road, where there was an ATM, and, a bus stop! That would take us to Kosice. And the bus was at 12:30, half an hour, and just enough time to make it.

So we picked up the pace, found the ATM, and were thus able to pay for the bus, which eventually came to the stop that we found. Phew!

Just as we thought we were cooking with gas, the bus stopped, and over half the people on it disembarked and hopped on another bus that was waiting. 'What was going on?' we thought. Fortunately the nice man next to us said 'Bus to Kosice', and we scrambled off with our bags and onto this next bus, which did indeed take us to Kosice.

From there, we were able to relatively easily make our way to Poprad by train,in time to take the 4:30 PM rattly and slow bus, with the bus driver sneaking puffs on his cigarette out the window, over the mountains to Zakopane. Mission accomplished. It took us 12 hours to get about 200 kms.

Zakopane adventures might have to wait for tomorrow. I clearly don't have any, unless you include gazing at the ceiling. But Tom went on the hunt for snow and found it! No skiing from him today, but I'm told its on for tomorrow, and we have accordingly extended our stay here another night. Tom took my camera out today with him, and there are some fine snaps of him in his element as mountain man, red beard and all (pity about the sopping wet jeans and Vans though!)!

Getting cultural in Eger

So we made it to the green hills of Eger, after only a small hiccup at the bus depot in whichver the net the previous day, and we had to buy new ones. The guesthouse where we were staying in Eger was brilliant - a little room with furnishings and fittings that must have been there since the 70s (all browns and oranges), smells of Hungarian cooking wafting up the stairwell and Eva, our friendly host.

Setting out that afternoon we were eager to find out what Eger was all about. Fortunately, we came across a display in the main square of what we can only assume is traditional Hungarian-Eger culture. Here is a video:

After this excitement, and over the next day or two, we wandered around the town and did all the main tourist sites - the Basilica, Castle, etc. It is a beautiful place! We also went to the Marzipan Museum, where everything was made of sugar, and we're talking about paintings, cushions, hairbrushes, shoes ... everything in the below photo is made of sugar!

We also visited the attractively named 'Valley of the Beautiful Women', which was largely full of unattractive drunkards. Hungarian 'Bulls' Blood' wine is made around Eger, and a short walk out of town is this tourist trap - a road with caves built into the hillside where you can 'test' the wines.

We liked Eger so much that we decided to stay an extra day and take a day trip to Szilvasvarad, which is in the Bukki National Park. We were looking forward to a good day of walking, but in the end, we couldn't find the track to the top of the hill. We did manage to find a massive cave though. We also found a lot of drunk youths, who preferred to take short cuts off the paths while they drank their beers. Disgraceful!

A few snaps from Budapest

The view of the Danube from the Citadella:

The fantastically fierce sculptures in Heroes' Square:

Freaky mannequin, as seen in Budapest department store: